Hundreds of huge stone projectiles flew in the sky, whistling and drawing a violent parabola, with enough to make people crush their bones, smashed into the Guandu Cao military camp fortifications that were already full of holes, the bluestone weighing more than two hundred catties fell from the sky The power was terrifying, where the stone bullets landed, the wooden buildings such as the fence, sentry tower, arrow tower and antler horse rejection of the Cao military camp were all shattered, the wall, the shooting platform, the sheep and horse wall, the trap and the trench earth and stone fortifications all collapsed, and occasionally a few stone bullets smashed into the Cao army soldiers. Suddenly, countless blood flowers and flesh were splashed, and countless screams and terrible screams were also heard.

Although Yuan Shaojun, who had suffered repeated losses, had learned well, and no longer used the Xiangyang cannon in the unobstructed field, the stone-throwing position was stretched to a very long time, and the distance between each Xiangyang cannon was very open, but after a round of stone rain fell, there were still three or four Yuan Shaojun's Xiangyang cannons that were smashed to pieces, and more than 20 Yuan Shaojun soldiers who could not dodge were smashed to pieces, and the wounded were doubled.

This is an extremely rare throwing weapon against the offensive battle, both sides of the attack and defense have used a large number of counterweight lever catapults, towards the opponent's position bombardment, Yuan Shaojun's stone throwing purpose is mainly to destroy the fortifications built by the Cao army before, Cao Jun's stone throwing purpose is completely to destroy the opponent's stone throwing weapons, in the ten-day stone throwing battle, the two armies have used thousands of super era stone throwing weapons, dead and wounded artillery soldiers are also more than 5,000 people, The two armies lost more than 700 expensive catapult weapons, and they were both defeated and exhausted.

At the same time, in order to destroy Yuan Shaojun's slinging weapons as soon as possible and protect the fortifications of the camp as much as possible, in addition to risking their lives to continuously repair and strengthen the fortifications, Cao's army also sent death squads to raid Yuan Shaojun's slinging position six times, and launched round after round of bloody battles with Yuan Shaojun's team protecting the slinging position.

The elite Cao army team is obviously better in combat effectiveness, coupled with the fact that it has long attached importance to the training of Xiangyang artillery, and it is more accurate and faster than Yuan Shaojun, so the Cao army is more than one to two in terms of casualties and losses of Xiangyang artillery, and Yuan Shaojun's loss ratio has reached more than one to two, but Yuan Sangong still has a thick foundation in the end, in addition to being quite dissatisfied with the greed for life and fear of death and clumsiness of the soldiers of the self-army, Da Yuan Sangong is generally quite satisfied with the tactics of this Xiangyang artillery bombardment.

There are two reasons why the grumpy Yuan Sangong is satisfied with this Xiangyang artillery bombardment tactic, one is that it can destroy those troublesome things in front of Cao's military camp, and the other is that it can force Cao Jun to leave the fortifications to protect and take the initiative to attack, and fight against Yuan Shaojun, who has strong troops, so don't say that it is a two-to-one loss ratio, it is a three-to-one loss ratio, and Da Yuan Sangong will not hesitate to continue this tactic, and then even if it is frustrated and suggested, just confront, you don't have to spend so many lives, money and food to fight against Cao's army, Xu You also suggested dividing troops to attack Xuchang to copy Boss Cao's back road, but the three dukes of Da Yuan didn't listen to them, and they just built Xiangyang cannons to fight against Cao Boss, and they were stubborn as if they didn't break Cao Boss head-on, which was not in line with their identity as the third duke of the fourth world.

In this way, it is natural to suffer the Cao Boss who has a small profit, and the conservative passive beating will sooner or later break the camp and die, and he can't resist Yuan Sangong with his arms thicker than his thighs, so Cao Boss can't find a solution at all except for desperately building Xiangyang Cannon and Da Yuan Sangong to fight against him, so he can only fight against Da Yuan Sangong hard, do his best to delay his defeat time, and struggle to wait for a turnaround - to be precise, a possible turnaround.

The sky finally got dark, after losing more than 80 weakened versions of the Xiangyang cannon, the Great Yuan Sangong finally ordered to end the tenth day of the Xiangyang artillery bombardment war, like a victorious rooster with his head held high and led the team back to the camp triumphantly, the Cao soldiers who had been fighting for a day collapsed on the devastated battlefield, gasping for breath and resting, and the old and weak soldiers and people who served as auxiliary work during the war provoked the aftermath work, or rescued the wounded, or carried corpses and stone bullets, and collected all the ordnance materials that could be used. More people are rushing to repair the fortifications, filling the fences that have been smashed by stone bullets, ramming up the collapsed walls, digging up the collapsed trench traps, repairing the crumbling fortifications, and I don't know how long the fortifications will last.

The groans of the wounded echoed in the camp, and the atmosphere of despair also shrouded the hearts of every Cao army soldier. Or how long can the self-army hold out in such a situation? Seeing the dejected appearance of the soldiers, although Boss Cao was still encouraging the soldiers to serve and defend to the death, his heart was already shedding tears and blood.

"Draw the ground and guard, choke its throat and make it impossible to enter, the situation is exhausted, and there will be changes. When this is a strange time, you must not miss it! Repeating the words on Xun Yu's letter, Boss Cao, who has always been optimistic, couldn't help but sigh, "Mr. Wenruo said it easily and reasonably, but it's too difficult to do." ”

After sighing, Boss Cao shook his head, took another deep breath, tried to drive the pessimism out of his mind, and then turned to Xun You, who was accompanying him, and asked, "Gongda, is there any news for the messenger we sent to contact the pottery thief?" ”

"Back to Prime Minister, no." Xun You shook his head helplessly.

"It's been thirteen days, and it's time to come back, right? Could it be that something happened on the road? Boss Cao was a little worried, and quickly smiled: "It must not have been intercepted, otherwise, Yuan Shaopifu would not have fought with us every day, and he must have already divided his troops to cut off our grain routes and urge our army to run out of food." ”

"Prime Minister, please be silent." Xun You looked nervously left and right, and said in a low voice: "Please don't mention the word food shortage, our army is in difficulty in supply, and there have long been rumors of food shortages in the army. ”

"What Gongda said is very true, I have been taught."

Boss Cao nodded, humbly accepted Xun You's mistakes, and at this time, finally a herald rushed to report, saying that the messenger sent to contact Deputy Director Tao had returned to the Guandu camp. After the messenger saluted Boss Cao, he immediately took out two letter bags, put his hands above his head, and said respectfully: "Prime Minister, this is Xuzhou Tao Envoy Jun ordered the villain to bring back to the Prime Minister, Tao Envoy Jun also said that as long as the Prime Minister reads the letter, he will understand everything." ”

Boss Cao didn't speak, and personally sat down to pick up two letter bags, first opened a letter bag, only looked at the letter at a glance, Cao Boss froze, and said suspiciously: "The gun powder formula and manufacturing method of the flying musket?" What's the use of the pottery thief giving me this? Yuan Shaojun has seen the flying musket for a long time, and it is impossible to achieve a surprising victory on the battlefield? ”

Saying strangely, Boss Cao quickly opened another envelope sealed with fire paint in his hand, took out the white silk in the bag and watched, but after only one glance, Boss Cao suddenly froze again, and opened his mouth to fit two eggs, Xun You, Guo Jia and Cheng Yu and others on the side saw that the situation was not right, and they hurriedly came over to look at the letter with Boss Cao, but saw that on the snow-white silk with the ruler length, only two big characters were written crookedly - Wuchao!

"What does the pottery thief mean by writing this place name?"

Xun You said in surprise, Guo Jia and Cheng Yu next to him also looked at each other, and they couldn't understand what medicine was sold in the gourd of Deputy Director Tao, but Boss Cao quickly woke up, and immediately rushed to the map hanging in the big tent, and began to look for the location of the black nest on the map, and soon found that the black nest was located forty miles behind Yuan Shaojun's camp, and it was also located in the north of Wuchaoze in Suozao County, Yuan Shaojun arranged a military camp in that location, but what is this military camp for, but because of the rumors from Guandu, The road was blocked by four Yuan Shaojun partial division camps, and the Cao army scouts had not yet explored, so the markings were still blank.

"How come there are four Yuan Shaojun villages guarding the road? Is it a coincidence? Or does Yuan Shao attach special importance to this Wuchao village? Several of the deceitful strategists under the command of Boss Cao also discovered that the situation was wrong, and after a little thought, the three bad species of Guo Jia, Xun You and Cheng Yu woke up at the same time, "The pottery thief sent our army the technique of flying muskets, and pointed out the name of the place of Wuchao?" Could it be that Wuchao is Yuan Shao's place to store grain? ! ”

"Send scout details to investigate immediately!" Boss Cao gritted his teeth and ordered: "At all costs, you must find out for me, what is the purpose of Wuchao, the camp of Yuan Shaojun?!" Besides, immediately follow the recipe provided by the pottery thief and rush to make a flying musket overnight, the more the better! ”

"No." Xun You and the others agreed, and then Cheng Yu reminded worriedly: "Prime Minister, even if Wuchao is really Yuan Shao's grain storage land, I'm afraid it won't be so easy to attack, right?" Especially on the way for our army to attack Wuchao, there are four Yuan Shaojun villages to intercept, whether it is to get through the customs in a fool's way, or to break through forcefully, it is definitely not so easy. ”

Boss Cao's brows furrowed again, but he quickly stretched out again and said, "It's okay, get ready first, opportunities are only for those who are prepared." If you don't prepare, it's too late to prepare when the opportunity comes. ”

Cheng Yu nodded, no longer dissuading Boss Cao from doing useless work, and at the same time, Cheng Yu was also a little puzzled, and said: "Strange, even our army close at hand doesn't know the situation of the Black Nest, and the pottery thieves are hundreds of miles away from the Black Nest, how do you know?" ”

"There must be internal annihilation." Boss Cao waved his hand arbitrarily and said: "Although the pottery thief has turned his face with Yuan Shao, his flesh and blood relationship with Yuan Shang, Liu and others is still there, and when he was friendly with Yuan Shao before, he must have taken the opportunity to arrange a large number of internal annihilation in Yuan Shao's team, and it is not very difficult to find out this major military situation." In short, I have to thank the pottery thief this time, if Wuchao is really Yuan Shaopifu's grain storage place, then what the pottery thief gave me will be the best chance for our army to turn defeat into victory, the only chance! ”

…………………… Boss Cao really should be grateful to the noble Deputy Director Tao, because at the same time in the Yuan Shao military camp, another letter from the valuable Deputy Director Tao also happened to be sent to the Great Yuan Sangong - originally this letter should have been sent to the Great Yuan Sangong in the morning, but unfortunately the Great Yuan Sangong was busy supervising the soldiers to attack the Cao camp with a weakened version of the Xiangyang cannon, and the news was sent to Mr. Guo Tu, the current chief staff officer of Yuan Shaojun, and Mr. Guo Tu, who had a deep grudge with Deputy Director Tao, naturally would not let the Tao military messenger easily get his wish, On the spot, he ordered the messenger of the Tao army to be taken down, and it was not until the third prince of the great Yuan collected his troops and returned to the camp, and was still scolding several generals for not being able to cover the artillery position of Xiangyang and was in a bad mood, that he presented the letter of deputy director Tao to the third prince of the great yuan.

Mr. Guo Tu obviously made a mistake this time, opened the envelope and saw the reinforced Xiangyang cannon drawings sent by Deputy Director Tao, and saw Deputy Director Tao's letter with a respectful and humble tone, and Yuan Sangong, who was only in a slightly bad mood, immediately turned his anger into joy, and said with a smile: "Okay!" I can't imagine that the thunderbolt can be improved to this point, the farthest throw is 400 steps and the heaviest can throw 300 pounds of stone bullets, this time there is no need to be afraid of Cao thief's thunderbolt bombardment! ”

Overjoyed, in addition to handing over the drawings to Chen Lin, Da Yuan Sangong ordered Chen Lin to send them to the construction site as soon as possible, and happily asked Guo Tu: "Tao Ying came to apologize for his mistake, saying that I only need to send a messenger to Changyi with the blood edict of the Son of Heaven, so that he can distinguish the true from the false, and then he will immediately raise troops to the west, and come to Guandu to help me attack Cao Thief, what does Mr. Gong Ze think?" ”

"Lord, do you think the pottery thief is sincerely apologizing?" Mr. Guo Tu smiled, sneered and said: "The pottery thief sent a book to present, obviously the pottery thief has found that the Cao thief will be defeated, and our army will win, in order to avoid our army from winning and turning the spearhead to Xuzhou, this is the only time to hurry up to the lord to flatter, his intentions are sinister and despicable, far better than the Cao thief a hundred times!" ”

Da Yuan Sangong's face elongated again, and he snorted: "Shameless thief, it is indeed hateful!" ”

"yes." Mr. Guo Tu took the opportunity to say: "The only plan for now is that the lord should behead the messenger of the pottery thief again to show that he will break off the relationship, and then wait until the Cao thief is defeated, and the lord can justifiably move eastward and seize the land of Xuzhou's abundant money and grain." ”

Da Yuan Sangong is still a little conscientious, considering that his son-in-law has begged for mercy and relented, and gave himself a much-needed gift, it is a bit too much for him to kill his messenger, and it is too late for Da Yuan Sangong to be exhausted, so Da Yuan Sangong still shook his head and said: "The envoy can't be killed first, but can only be detained for the time being, and I will make a decision after I think about it carefully." Guo Tu repeatedly persuaded the Great Yuan Sangong to still not listen, in order to avoid angering the moody Yuan Sangong, Mr. Guo Tu had to obediently shut his mouth.

Because the generals and soldiers were very tired after ten days of fighting, the next day the same exhausted Yuan Sangong did not continue to launch the Xiangyang artillery bombardment battle, but let the team rest for a day, and also focused on the construction of the improved version of the thunderbolt car, and because of the sufficiency of materials, in the afternoon of the next day, the first improved version of the Xiangyang gun was completed, and the third prince of Yuan was overjoyed when he heard the news, and quickly led his subordinate civil and military personnel to the construction site to inspect the real thing, and ordered the gunner to test the gun.

After the two shots, something happened that made Yuan Shaojun ecstatic, and the newly improved thunderbolt could indeed throw a 300-kilogram stone projectile 400 paces away, and the throwing distance was more than 100 steps farther than the original thunderbolt, and the stone bullet thrown was also heavier than 100 kilograms, and the power naturally increased greatly. Seeing this scene, of course, the Great Yuan Sangong laughed, and ordered to build three hundred planes on the spot, and Yuan Shaojun's civil and military ministers also congratulated the Great Yuan Sangong, and then naturally some people were curious and asked: "Lord, where did this new thunderbolt come from, why have we never heard of it before?" ”

"It's a long story, and I just want to ask your opinions." Da Yuan Sangong, who was in a good mood, waved his hand and shouted: "Let's go, let's go to the big tent to drink and feast, the origin of this thunderbolt, I and you and others are drinking and talking, today it is rare to have nothing to do, you must not get drunk with me!" ”

Guo Tu, Xin Ping, Xu You, He Mao, Han Xun and other sycophants applauded loudly, and the general of the supervising army had a worried face, and reminded him: "Lord, the enemy is at present, please also ask the lord to drink in moderation, do not drink indiscriminately, and make arrangements for night camping." ”

Da Yuan Sangong's smile froze for a moment, and he soon snorted heavily: "Then tonight's camp defense will be left to Mr. Fu Zhu You can arrange, if Mr. Fu Zhu is not willing to celebrate with me that the Cao thief will be broken, you can go back to the camp to rest after the arrangement, and you don't have to come to the big tent to see me." ”

Guo Tu, Xu You and others gloated and looked at Fu Zhu, but Fu Zhu was not to be outdone, and said: "Zhu is indeed not good at drinking, and he won't go to the big tent to bother the lord for a while, but he dares to ask the lord, what is the pass order of our army tonight?" It is also good to send people to spread the word to the battalions. ”

"Tonight's password?" Da Yuan Sangong only thought for a moment, and immediately waved his hand and said: "The thunderbolt car has broken the shell of the Cao thief tortoise!" I have a new thunderbolt, and it is easy to break through Guandu, so I will use this sentence tonight 'Thunderbolt car breaks the turtle shell of the thief and thief' as the password! ”

(To be continued)