The war drums are like thunder, the flag is like the sea, the attacking team of the Xuzhou army resisted countless simple flying ladders, pushed three large ladder vehicles for key protection, shouted and marched quickly, like waves and tides, surging towards the towering wall of Hangu Pass.

Under the Hangu Pass, a large number of Xuzhou army commanders had already built dozens of improvised fortifications with shields, covering their own archers to throw feather arrows on the wall, suppressing the Cao army defenders on the wall, and covering the infantry team to charge and attack.

Against the rain of arrows shot by the Cao army team frantically, paid a lot of price and rushed to the Hangu Pass, the most cruel ant attached to the attack in the era of cold weapons began, the Xuzhou army put hundreds of light ladders on the wall, the flying ladder of more than three zhang long is uneven and magnificent, stepping on the flying ladder to charge upward, the Cao army guards threw down countless ash bottles to beat the wooden sheep's head stone, poured down the hot gold juice, carried the big wood to hit the flying ladder of the Xuzhou soldiers, the fierce shouting and killing echoed in the Hanguan Valley Road, earth-shattering, from time to time there are soldiers falling from the top of the towering wall, The terrible screams echoed above the ant-attached battlefield again, touching people's souls.

Again, the Hangu Pass, which has never been breached by the enemy from the front since the construction of the pass, is too strong, and the terrain is too favorable, the ten-mile-long valley road is narrow and difficult to walk, and the only open land under the pass is also strange rocks, ravines and ravines, and it is difficult to move with large siege weapons, even if you forcibly put into the large-scale siege weapons with the best attack effect, it can only attack the position of the most tightly defended pass tower of the defending side, and cannot threaten the relatively weak pass wall built on the hillside. In the face of such unfavorable terrain, the most effective siege weapon of the attacking side. All that is left is a light ladder with no protection ability, which cannot effectively and quickly ascend the city, and must pay a heavy price in the siege of the ant.

Even the strength of the Xuzhou army is no exception, although the Xuzhou army has taken out superhuman courage into the battle, in the case of a single siege weapon still has no hesitation to charge the ant, but the result of this is still almost meaningless, it can even be said that the moth to the fire, the Hangu Pass defenders with the same sufficient troops and materials fired thousands of arrows, arrows like rain, the Xuzhou army almost every step forward has to pay a heavy price. Relying on courage and experience, I finally rushed to the wall. When stepping on the flying ladder to climb and charge, they will be hit head-on by the stone and wood gold juice, and countless Xuzhou soldiers were seriously injured, and countless people were buried in the pass. No matter how hard you try to rush to the wall. They will also be besieged and slashed by enemies ten times their size. The death was even more tragic, and the ant-attached battle lasted for more than half an hour, and there were less than 20 Xuzhou soldiers who could rush to the wall. Not yet a single soldier has been able to hold out until his companions rush to the wall to rescue him. The three ladder trucks that were counted on for the biggest attack were also burned by the rockets and dovetail torches of Cao's army on the way, and they failed to rely on the wall to help the Xuzhou soldiers.

The Xuzhou army attacked hard, and the Cao army team was not easy to defend, although the Cao army team was previously in the Guanzhong area, in order to resist the harassment and invasion of Ma Teng, Han Sui rebels and the Qiang tribe, there was no less wall battle, and the city defense experience was rich, but to the Xuzhou army such a fierce attack team, the Cao army team was really the first time to encounter, the first time to see that there was almost no hope of breaking through, the enemy would not look back and charge, in the case that the ladder car has ignited a skyrocketing fire, the enemy is still desperately pushing the ladder car forward, Even if the clothes and hair were already on fire, they continued to move forward, and the Xuzhou soldiers who were already full of arrows and blood rushed to the wall, and under the siege of the enemy ten times their size, they still fought and wielded their knives, and at least two or three Cao soldiers were killed before being cut to pieces, and there was even a Xuzhou soldier who still hugged a Cao soldier and rolled down the wall with his intestines flowing out. Seeing such a brave and tenacious enemy, even if the Cao army occupied a favorable location, they were still frightened and trembled, and their legs trembled.

The three ladder trucks dispatched by the Xuzhou army for the second time were finally burned by the Cao army's rocket dovetail torch, and the last one was still less than twenty steps away from the wall, and was completely burned by the dovetail torch thrown by the Cao army, allowing the Cao army to escape a catastrophe. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking through, Deputy Director Tao finally issued an order to Mingjin, so that the ant attached team with heavy casualties withdrew to the rear to rest, and after seeing the retreat of the Xuzhou army in the tide, there was also a huge cheer on the Hangu Pass, and countless Cao soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the army finally withstood the onslaught of the Xuzhou army, and also caused a lot of losses to the Xuzhou army.

Boss Cao, who came to the gate tower to direct the battle despite being seriously ill, also breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly arranged for the rescue of the wounded soldiers, the inventory of casualties, and the replenishment of the garrison of the wall and the materials for defending the city. ”

"What the lord said is extremely true, Hangu Pass has not been breached head-on since ancient times, as long as our army does not show flaws in other places and does not give the pottery thief a chance to break through the pass by skill, we will definitely be able to hold Hangu Pass." Cheng Yu nodded in agreement, and then said cautiously: "But my lord, the pottery thief's attack this time is obviously just a temptation, and he wants to find the weakness of our wall defense, and then there is a test of the strength of our army's guarding force, and the real battle is still to come." ”

"That's fine, I expected that." Boss Cao smiled happily: "So I didn't use too many main soldiers this time, only let the main force of three percent with seventy percent of the auxiliary soldiers to guard the pass, giving the pottery thief team the opportunity to attack the wall in the first wave of siege, that is, let him Tao thief mistakenly rebel against the strength of our army's guarding, hoping to break through the pass head-on, and continue to attack the wall in the future." ”

Cheng Yu nodded and smiled, still admiring Boss Cao's courage, courage and scheming, and daring not to deliberately dispatch too many main elites during the battle to guard the pass. At this time, Guo Jia, who had been observing the enemy's movements, suddenly coughed and said: "Lord, please look, there is a new move on the pottery thief's side, and there seem to be many carts in the valley road." ”

Boss Cao hurriedly raised his head, and when he looked at Gu Dao with the original telescope captured on the battlefield before, he saw that the Xuzhou army really pushed many wheelbarrows from Gu Dao and unloaded the goods on the cars in front of the Xuzhou army array. The cart was packed with handfuls of firewood and grass, and nothing else. Boss Cao couldn't help but be surprised when he saw it, and wondered: "What are the pottery thieves doing with so much firewood and grass?" Do you want to set fire to it? Are pottery thieves so stupid? ”

Cheng Yu, Guo Jia and others also looked at each other, and they couldn't understand what Deputy Director Tao was planning to do, so they had to continue to observe the enemy situation with Cao Boss to judge the next move of the Xuzhou army, but the Xuzhou army had no other actions except for constantly using wheelbarrows to transport firewood and grass to the front of the pass, Cao Boss and others just saw that the firewood and grass of the Xuzhou army were piled up into a hill outside Hangu Pass, and the height of Firewood and Grass Mountain quickly crossed the height of the wall of Hangu Pass. Boss Cao was even more puzzled. Analyzed: "Could it be that the pottery thief wants to accumulate grass into a mountain and use the grass mountain to attack the city?" But no, not only is it difficult to bear the weight of the grass mountain, our army only needs to pour some fire oil and throw some torches down. Can you turn the grass mountain into a volcano? ”

"That's not right!" Guo Jia came to his senses. Exclaimed, "The pottery thief is trying to create a lot of smoke. Hangu Pass is located in the canyon, and it is difficult for the smoke to be blown away by the wind quickly, as long as the smoke covers the valley. It's going to be hard for us to keep the gates! ”

"What?!" Boss Cao was taken aback, and after a little calculation, he also agreed with Guo Jia's analysis, and scolded: "Damn traitor, he is very good at taking advantage of narrow terrain!" ”

Sure enough, when the firewood and grass piled up to a certain extent, and the wind direction also turned to blow to the west, the Xuzhou army soldiers immediately took action, a large number of infantry carried firewood and grass to the front of the Hangu Pass, and rushed directly to the side of the gate before throwing the firewood and grass under the gate, although the Cao army desperately released arrows to stop, but the Xuzhou army did not hesitate to use firewood and grass to block the key points and continue to rush forward, and soon transferred a large number of firewood and grass to Hangu Pass, and when the grass mountain was piled up more than a zhang high, the Xuzhou army released its own rockets, ignited the firewood pile and grass pile that was piled up under the gate, and at the same time continued to transport firewood and grass to Hangu Guanxia, desperately increasing the fire. (This tactic is not fiction, and An Lushan was used to defeat Ge Shuhan in the Battle of Taolinsai during the Tang Dynasty.) ）

The fire was soon ignited, more than a zhang high firewood grass mountain gradually rose several zhang high fire, the flame floated up the wall of Hangu Pass, burned the wall of the gate building red, the soldiers of the Cao army could not stand on it at all, and also forced Cao Boss to leave the gate to avoid the fire, and at the same time had to quickly send troops to strengthen the gate, so as not to be burned by the fire. However, compared to the flames, the biggest impact on the Cao army's team was the billowing smoke brought by the firewood and grass piles, the blue and white smoke was blown by the mountain wind, and soon filled the entire Hangu Guandong Gate, making it difficult for the Cao soldiers to reach out and see their five fingers, and also choking the Cao soldiers to tears and snot flowing together, making it difficult to breathe.

Under the cover of thick smoke, another round of attack of the Xuzhou infantry began, after wrapping the mouth and nose with a cloth soaked in water, the Xuzhou infantry strode into the smoke with the flying ladder, and climbed up the flying ladder on the wall, and the Cao soldiers were brainless to put bows and crossbows in the smoke, wasting countless precious feather arrows in vain and almost useless, and they were also covered by the smoke, and they could not see the enemy clearly, many Cao soldiers did not even find that the Xuzhou soldiers rushed to the front, and a large number of Xuzhou soldiers took the opportunity to kill the wall, Wielding knives and spears and fighting with Cao's army in close combat, fighting for the position of the wall.

The most dangerous moment of the Cao army came, forced to be helpless, Cao Boss had to order Zhang He to dispatch elite reserves, rushed to the wall and the Xuzhou army to start a fierce battle, the wall was completely shrouded in smoke and soon was shrouded in a sound of fighting, the soldiers on both sides sacrificed their lives in the smoke, the knife saw red, the gun saw the blood, fought with life, with flesh and blood to charge and defend, the melee was inextricable. And when Boss Cao was in an absolutely weak position, he could only desperately send more troops to the wall with tears in his eyes, and start a war with the endless stream of Xuzhou soldiers and soldiers.

The melee lasted for more than an hour, until the smoke was slowly blown away by the mountain wind, and Cao Boss was forced to let Dian Wei lead the absolute elite tiger battalion to the battlefield with injuries, which was extremely difficult to repel this round of attack of the Xuzhou army, fortunately, the Xuzhou army obviously did not expect that the effect of covering the attack in the valley would be so good, and did not prepare too much follow-up firewood and grass, and had to give up the third attack in the case of insufficient firewood and grass, and Mingjin withdrew his troops from the Hanguguan battlefield. However, when he was leaving, Deputy Director Tao arranged for the soldiers to shout slogans in unison, "Cao Mengde, next time we will bring ten times as much firewood and grass to prepare the coffin!" ”

The Xuzhou army finally withdrew, and the firewood and grass piles under the pass were gradually extinguished, but Boss Cao's face was still black, because Boss Cao also knew very well that the son-in-law was obviously underprepared this time, and he didn't expect that the effect of smoke and cover in the valley would be so good in advance, so he didn't seize the opportunity to attack Hangu Pass. But next time. The next time the Xuzhou soldiers who kill the wall, they will definitely be the most elite in the Xuzhou army, and whether they can withstand the next attack on the son-in-law will be a two-word number.

Cheng Yu, who sat alone on the wall until the evening, with smoke marks on his face, returned to Boss Cao, and said to Boss Cao in a hoarse voice: "Lord, the casualties have been counted, and in this battle, our army has more than 1,600 casualties. Seriously injured and incapacitated. There were 318 people, and more than 1,000 were slightly wounded. ”

Boss Cao did not ask about the casualty figures of the Xuzhou army, because Boss Cao knew very well that the casualties of the Xuzhou army were even more than three times that of the Cao army. Deputy Director Tao can also afford to lose and lose. And after the tactics of making smoke cover proved to work. The casualty ratio between the Xuzhou army and the self-army will definitely drop significantly, so Cao Boss never said a word. Just looked down at the east, staring in the direction of the damn son-in-law.

Seeing that Boss Cao was in a bad mood, Cheng Yu had to find an excuse to comfort him: "Lord, when our army was cleaning the battlefield, we found that most of the soldiers of the pottery thieves were covered with wet cloths to cover their mouths and noses. ”

Boss Cao nodded slowly, and only after a while did he say weakly: "The pottery thief will do the same next time, how can our army resist?" ”

Cheng Yu was speechless, and Guo Jia next to him coughed and said: "Lord, Hangu Pass is located in the valley, and our army is passively defending, after all, it is not a long-term plan, the best way is to divide troops to camp at Gukou to provide a buffer for Hangu Pass." ”

Boss Cao was silent and calculated, before Boss Cao resolutely refused to go out of the customs and camp, because Boss Cao knew very well that with the current situation of the army, when he set up camp in the valley mouth area without the protection of the wall, he would definitely be annihilated and severely damaged by the Xuzhou army, so Boss Cao could only hope that Hangu Pass, which had never been breached head-on, and wanted to drag his son-in-law into a hard battle and then find an opportunity to break the enemy, but Boss Cao did not expect that he could use the dangerous terrain of Hangu Pass, but his son-in-law could make better use of the terrain of the canyon. Unexpectedly, he invented the tactics of tackling key problems in the valley, dragging the geographical advantage into equilibrium, and if it goes on like this, Hangu Pass will sooner or later be broken by the Xuzhou army, and when it is unstoppable, Boss Cao also has to reconsider Taniguchi's encampment, and fight to the death with his son-in-law in the wild.

The night wind is getting colder, but Boss Cao's heart is colder than the night wind, weak and old as if he is about to die, and his expression is both depressed and helpless. However, at this time, in the valley road of Hangu Pass, the routine sound of war drums and horns of the Xuzhou army sounded, and Boss Cao couldn't help but move the corners of his mouth slightly, showing a little wry smile, and said secretly: "Filial son-in-law, I really wish I died early." ”

"Son of a bitch! Not again! Dian Wei's scolding came from his ears, and then, Dian Wei, who was injured on the soles of his feet, walked to Cao Boss with a limp, and said: "Lord, our door is not good, just now when the pottery thief set fire to the door, although we have been splashing the door with water, but the iron sheet outside the door is still burned by the fire, and the thick wooden board inside is also burned to the ground, and it cannot be repaired in a hurry. ”

Boss Cao nodded silently, and suddenly asked Dian Wei again: "Junming, do you have the courage to follow me out of the customs, go to the valley to set up camp, and fight to the death with Tao Ying's traitors?" ”

"The Admiral has long wanted to do this!" Dian Wei happily agreed, and hurriedly said: "But my lord, just let the last general go, you stay in the city to rest, your body can't get out of the pass." ”

"I'm fine, I won't be able to die for a while, without me, you are not an opponent of the pottery thief." Boss Cao shook his head, and then instructed Dian Wei: "Junming, I don't have the strength to speak loudly, help me to the wall, gather the soldiers of the whole army, I want to lecture the soldiers of the whole army, I will say a word, you repeat it for me." ”

Dian Wei agreed, and helped Cao Boss to the wall, and Cao Boss ordered the guards to blow the assembly horn and summon the soldiers of the army to assemble under the city, and after a while, the soldiers of the Cao army came to the wall, looking at the Cao Boss on the wall and waiting for orders. Boss Cao didn't wait for the army to be fully assembled, and directly asked Dian Wei to repeat his words: "Soldiers, listen up! ”

"Soldiers, Hangu Pass is in danger, the pottery thief seized the weakness of Hangu Pass in the valley, and used the smoke to cover his attack, although we were lucky to block the attack of Tao Ying's traitor today, but next time, the pottery thief will definitely do the same, bring more firewood and grass to set fire to smoke, and cover his attack. If this continues, sooner or later Hangu Pass will be broken by pottery thieves! ”

"Soldiers, we have only one way, that is, to get out of the customs, go to the valley mouth to set up camp, and go to the valley to fight Tao Ying traitors to the death!"

"The soldiers and horses of the pottery thief are more than seven times that of us, and we are nine deaths in the decisive battle! But if we continue to stick to Hangu Pass, we will be dead! For the sake of our last hope of victory, for the sake of our loved ones, for our homeland, we can only fight to the death! ”

"Soldiers, tell me, who is the despicable subordinate who sowed discord and provoked us to fight with Yuan Shaojun?"

"Soldiers, tell me, who shamelessly preserved his strength, hid outside the battlefield and watched the fire from the other side, and waited until we were seriously injured before sending troops to attack us?"

"Soldiers, tell me, who viciously and cruelly took away our Xuchang? Who robbed us of the fertile land of the Central Plains? Who drove us to the famine of Runan, and who drove us to the point of ruin and withering? Killed countless battle-hardened soldiers of our army? ”

"Tao Ying traitor! It's Tao Ying's traitor! ”

Dian Wei asked a question for Boss Cao, and the soldiers of the Cao army under the wall answered neatly, and after asking these words, Boss Cao waved his thin hand and shouted in his loudest voice: "Yes, it is Tao Ying's traitor!" I have also decided that tomorrow I will raise troops out of the customs, go to the valley mouth to set up camp, and fight to the death with Tao Ying's traitors! Avenge all the hardships we have suffered for our soldiers, our Xuchang, and all our suffering! Revenge——! ”

"Revenge ————!" Dian Wei roared wildly.

"Revenge! Avenge! Avenge! Tens of thousands of Cao soldiers roared loudly, rhythmically and neatly, and the sound was so loud that the noise deliberately created by the Xuzhou Army Drum and Bugle Corps was also covered up cleanly.

"Revenge! Avenge! Avenge! Revenge——! ”

In the heartfelt roar of tens of thousands of Cao soldiers, Boss Cao slowly raised his thin face, looked at the bright moon in the night sky, and muttered in his mouth, "Yuan Rang, Miaocai, Yu Ban, Li Dian, Le Jin, Li Tong, Gongda, Zihe, and countless soldiers of our army, your spirit in the sky, please open your eyes, I will go to avenge you." This time, if I cannot be sent to you by the traitors, I will come to you, reunite with you, ...... you, and make amends to ....... ”

Before he could say anything, two lines of muddy tears had slowly slid down Boss Cao's wrinkled old face, and tears wet his clothes. (To be continued......)