An earthen wall about six feet high and about three feet wide at the base completely surrounded Julu City at a distance of about four miles from the city. The periphery of the earthen wall is a trench formed by building an earthen wall to extract soil, which is eight feet wide and about three feet deep.

With such a long trench, the giant deer is basically isolated from the outside world.

On the other hand, the manufacture of various large-scale siege equipment has also achieved preliminary results. ladders, planned to build 200 sets, now built 140 sets; Five-tip stone throwing machine, planned to build 60 units, now built 56 units; Seven stone throwing machine (1), 22 are planned to be built, and 17 are now built; Crash cars, 80 were planned to be built, and 38 have been built now; Nest car, 16 are planned to be built, and 11 are now built; Wells, 40 of which are planned to be built, have all been completed; It was planned to build 600 cars, all of which have been completed......

In other words, with Yuan's current preparations, it is already possible to launch an early offensive. The rest of the siege equipment can be built while fighting. As long as you can make up for the battle damage in the front and maintain the demand for siege, it is not a big question whether the siege equipment will be built a day earlier or a day later.

It is said that the reason why the Yuan army was able to easily manufacture so many siege equipment was because the Yuan army attacked quickly, and the state army could not even complete the work of clearing the field, so that the Yuan army got enough materials. Second, because the local heroes in Jizhou were disgusted with the arrogant rule, they actively contributed to Yuan Shao's active service. Thirdly, it was also the Yuan army that captured a lot of war equipment and timber prepared in the city of Liren in order to attack Yuan Shao in order to go south to attack Yuan Shao.

Use the assets of the state army. To attack the city of the state army, this is the so-called "food for the enemy" in the art of war. Yuan Shao expressed great satisfaction with this achievement.

On the ninth day of October, after full military preparations, the large-scale siege activities of Yuan's army finally officially kicked off.

The first to be dispatched were hundreds of wagons. The rudimentary four-wheeled, roof-mounted man-powered cart was tasked with transporting earth into the trenches beneath the city to fill in the siege obstacles.

Sandwiched in the middle of the cart. There are some huge wooden carts that reach a height of more than five zhang. These are called "wells" on top of wooden carts. There is an improvised firing platform. On the platform, about ten elite crossbowmen boarded, using their precise arrows to threaten the defenders on the city wall, covering the Yuan army and civilians who were tasked with filling the trenches.

Others are still nesting at the height of the well. It is farther away from the city wall. The soldiers on board. They are all clever people with magical eyes. They stayed in the sky huts, which were seven or eight feet high. Carefully observe the distribution and movement of the defenders in the city, as well as the various changes on the front line of the battlefield. At the slightest movement, the soldiers must be ready to report to the generals below.

As for high-end goods such as stone throwers. On the first day of siege, I was not in a hurry to use it. When the ditches outside the city are filled, it is time for the stone-throwing carts to wield their might. After smashing the walls almost to the ground, the ladder will then appear. At that time, the defenders of the city will be on the top of the city in large numbers, and it will allow the stone thrower to have a powerful explosion.

Don't look at the whole siege process that seems to be orderly, in fact, Yuan Shao's heart is quite anxious.

Although the Bingzhou Army was temporarily caught off guard by Yuan Jun with the help of rumors and local powers, its overall strength was not damaged much. According to Xu You, who was recently appointed by Yuan Shao to be in charge of the intelligence of the Bingzhou army, if necessary, Zhang Qi can mobilize at least another 30,000 troops with a certain amount of training in the United Prefecture in the short term.

There are also Xianbei people in the north, who are also closely related to the forces of the Bingzhou army. If Zhang arrogantly opened his mouth to borrow troops from the Xianbei people, as long as it took a month or two, Yuan Shao would have to face the threat of tens of thousands of nomadic cavalry from the grassland desert!

The news of Zhang Qiang's siege must have now reached the northern frontier of Bingzhou. Cheng Yu, the number one minister under Zhang Mad is loyal to Zhang Mad and will definitely go all out to come to the rescue. If Yuan Shao fails to capture Julu within a month, he is afraid that he will be attacked by the Bingzhou army inside and outside.

Therefore, the time that Yuan Shao can use to siege the city is no more than twenty days at most. Twenty days later, if Julu was still not captured, Yuan Shao would have to decisively consider withdrawing his troops.

It's just that the more critical the moment, the more Yuan Shao can calm down. In the matter of siege, it is useless to be anxious, and it will only increase casualties. The most effective way to do things is to launch a continuous offensive in a step-by-step manner.

As the sun set in the west, the first day of siege ended. The nights of October are already quite cool. The siege of the city overnight was not conducive to the physical and mental recovery of the soldiers. Even if he was in a hurry, even if Yuan Jun had plenty of troops, Yuan Shao gave up this plan after thinking about it.

After a day's work, the trench south of Julu City has basically been filled. The price paid by Yuan's army for this was the death and wounding of more than 300 auxiliary soldiers. And the strong crossbowmen of the Yuan army, who used Jing Yu to counterattack, also caused the shooters of the city to pay at least eighty casualties.

Such a number of casualties does not sound too big. But don't forget that that's just the beginning. And the two sides were only separated by more than ten zhang and shot at each other.

When the ditches were filled, the walls were destroyed, and the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand battles at the head of the city, which was badly damaged, sometimes the number of dead and wounded exceeded 1,000 in a single day. In that kind of battle, basically the result will be in a few days. If the defenders win, the besieging side will not have the strength and morale to continue the assault, and there will be only one way left for a long-term siege. If the besieger wins, the city is conquered, and the defenders are usually killed......

In Yuan Shao's plan, such a day would come soon.

Although Yuan Shao was born in the top family of the Han Dynasty, as the commander of the first army, he must also compensate the soldiers in time to boost morale. It's just a matter of peacetime, but now is the time for Yuan Shao to employ people, and of course he must try his best to inspire his subordinates' will to fight.

Therefore, after the first day of battle, Yuan Shao soon appeared in the auxiliary team participating in the siege of the city with his own soldiers, kindly inspecting the officers and soldiers participating in the battle, and often stopped to say a few words to his subordinates.

In the cheers of the soldiers. Yuan Shao inspected the past one by one, and from time to time made some encouraging words to the soldiers. In order to show that he shared weal and woe with the soldiers and avoided the soldiers from complaining, Yuan Shao also specially selected a random tun and sat around the fire with the soldiers in the tun to enjoy the same meal.

The late famous general Huangfu Song's style of sharing weal and woe with the soldiers, even if Yuan Shao had not seen it in person, he had heard of it. At this time, Yuan Shao took it out and used it, and the effect was not bad.

There were some coarse dough cakes, although they made Yuan Shao feel grinding his teeth. But that didn't stop him from eating salty, salty vegetables and bland soup. Eat it in big gulps. After eating, Yuan Shao also specially encouraged the two soldiers who had been captured by the Bingzhou army to fight bravely to kill the enemy. Don't have any mental baggage.

What the. I want to ask Yuan Shao, the son of the nobles of the family. How can you eat such coarse food?

Don't forget, Yuan Shao is a strongman who once perfectly achieved the results of six years of filial piety in front of his parents' graves! Six years of hard life. He can bear it, what's the big deal about eating a rough meal?

From this point of view alone, Yuan Shao, the "maidservant", can be regarded as a qualified commander compared to Yuan Shu, who has always been extravagant and never tired of eating. Yuan Shu, the eldest young master, let alone sharing weal and woe with the low-level soldiers, even if he didn't add some honey to the water he drank on weekdays, he would complain loudly, and then severely punish the responsible servants.

After pacifying the soldiers, Yuan Shao returned to the main general's tent, and it was almost time. By this time, most of the soldiers had already slept. But Yuan Shao can't rest yet. In the past hour or two, several more military documents were stacked on Yuan Shao's desk. Fortunately, there is no bad news in this military intelligence document. After Yuan Shao finished reading it, he smiled and said to Chen Lin, who was following him:

"Kong Zhang, Mengde's reinforcements, you can arrive later."

Chen Lin was the chief bookkeeper of the great general He Jin. When He Jin died, he took refuge and fled to Jizhou. When Yuan Shao raised an army against Dong, Chen Lin was also invited by Yuan Shao to join Yuan Shao's shogunate and became a "secretary engaged", drafting orders specifically for Yuan Shao. Although this position is not of high grade, it is equivalent to the "leading secretary" of later generations, and it cannot be done by non-intimate people.

Hearing Yuan Shao's words, Chen Lin's originally wooden face also showed a hint of a smile.

"Meng De has not forgotten his roots. He choked the road of the western thief to the east in Neihuang, the pressure was not small, and he was able to send a general to support, which can really be called the country's loyalty! ”

Yuan Shao's surprise attack on the state army was not an isolated action. In the state of Anping, he ordered the koji obligation to be firmly held in the forbidden army; In Wei County, he urged Cao Cao, the assassin of Yanzhou, to launch an all-out campaign, threatening Zang Ba in Yecheng on the one hand, and preventing Xie Xun's army in Hanoi from advancing eastward on the other. In the State of Zhao, he sent Cui Yan and two capable generals to infiltrate with a small army to contain the movements of the Zhou Cang army.

Cao Cao's Yanzhou assassination history was strongly supported by Yuan Shao before he took office. At the beginning of Cao Cao's tenure, Yuan Shao asked him for soldiers and grain, and supported Cao Cao for a full 100,000 grains and grass, as well as 4,000 elite soldiers under the command of a general, Zhu Ling.

If it weren't for Yuan Shao's strong support behind him, when Cao Cao took over the history of Yanzhou's assassination, in the face of an extremely broken mess left by his predecessor Liu Dai, how could he turn the tide and break hundreds of thousands of yellow turban thieves in one fell swoop?

The so-called "reciprocating the peach for the peach", Cao Cao received such strong support from Yuan Shao, so that he was able to divide the state and county to stand on his own. When Yuan Shao encountered unprecedented trouble, it was not surprising that Cao Cao contributed people to serve Yuan Shao.

Cao Cao went north to support Yuan Shao this time, mobilizing a total of 30,000 troops. Among them, 20,000 people were personally led by Cao Cao and stationed in the Neihuang area to fight against Zang Ba and Xie Xun. Another 10,000 elite soldiers, Cao Cao handed over to his brother Xiahoudun to lead, and went north to support Yuan Shao and conquer Julu. (To be continued......)

PS: PS: (1) The ancient Chinese stone throwing machine, which first appeared in the Warring States Period, is a man-powered stone-throwing machine that uses pure manpower, and is a tip (cannon tip) attached to the crossbar at a place far away from the catapult. The cannon tip is erected on the wooden frame, one end is tied to the holster that holds the stone bullet with a rope, and the other end is tied with many ropes for people to pull and throw the stone bullet, the gun tip is divided into single tip and multiple shoots, and the maximum number of gun tips is mounted on a gun carriage, which requires 250 people to cast. This thing is completely different from the principle of the counterweight stone throwing machine in the West (the kind in Age of Empires 2), and it is one of the few technologies that is backward in China compared to the West in ancient times.

In addition, there is a foreshadowing in this section that relates to a divine twist later in the text.