Strategy can influence and even determine the course of the war, but the eternal theme of war is still courage and iron will.

On the eighteenth day of the first month of the third year of Kaiyuan, after eliminating the interference caused by heavy snow, Wang Yu personally supervised the division, moved his troops westward, and launched a fierce attack on the Tiger Pass. Coincidentally, the main force of Cao's ** army, which had been lingering in the Zhongmu area, also suddenly exerted its strength and rapidly advanced towards the ancient city southeast of Hugao Pass.

At no time after the start of the war were the main forces of the two armies so close, and many saw it as a prelude to Armageddon.

"Before!" With Tai Shi Ci's command, thousands of heavily armored warriors rushed forward, stopped at a distance of about two hundred steps from the river bank, and erected a wooden wall with giant shields. Behind the wooden wall, thousands of auxiliaries dressed in light or no armor pushed more than 40 crossbow carts, pulled bowstrings with oxen and horses, and set crossbow arrows of nearly a foot in length on the crossbow beds.

Although the distance between Chuilong City and Tiger Prison Pass is only thirty miles, there is a water barrier in the middle. Even if the factor of kinship is abandoned, Xiahou Dun is also the general of the Cao army, so naturally he will not make good use of this convenience.

The overall defense line is based on the Tiger Prison Pass, Xingshui as the barrier, the front of the camp, the edge of the river is less than 50 steps. Although the Xingshui was not very turbulent, it still caused great obstacles to the soldiers and horses of Qingzhou, and the interference of these battalions could not be ruled out, and the army could not gain a foothold on the shore after crossing the river.

At present, the spring flood is urgent, the wind on the river is very strong, and at a distance of about two hundred steps, ordinary bows and crossbows cannot cause trouble for the other party at all, and the Qingzhou army naturally sacrificed its own weapons to attack the fortifications.

"Wind!" The sound of gushing water was quickly drowned out by the whistling sound of crossbow arrows breaking through the air, and even the sky above him dimmed for a moment.

The attack was not immense, but the results were modest. The fences of the barracks were specially reinforced, made of wooden stakes with thick bowls, and the part driven into the ground was more than two feet long, and even in the face of powerful crossbows with a range of up to 1,000 steps, the defense was still very reliable.

"Take! Snatch! Snatch! Cao Jun knew the power of the strong crossbow, and when he saw the strong crossbow wielding, he was not strong, and shrank behind the fence one by one, and for a while he only heard the sound of sharp arrows entering the wood, but he didn't hear a few screams.

"Before!" Tai Shi Ci was not discouraged, and repeated the previous order loudly.

Thousands of shieldmen pulled up their huge shields, and together with the ballistas, they rumbled forward, condensed like a mountain, and the giants slowly approached, and although the defenders in the camp had a strong camp wall to rely on, they still felt their chests tight, their hearts and mouths beating wildly, and they could hardly breathe.

Even so, hundreds of men poked their heads out from behind the camp walls and looked across the river, all holding their wound crossbows tightly in their hands.

Xingshui is not a big river, the widest part of the water surface, there are only more than 30 steps, with the manpower of the Qingzhou army, it is very easy to build a pontoon bridge. However, although the location of the Tiger Prison Pass is important, there is no terrain nearby to rely on, no matter how dangerous Xingshui is, it is also a line of defense, and it is not possible to use it.

Xiahou Dun didn't plan to fight with the Qingzhou army for a long time, he just wanted to use the Xingshui defense line to support it for a long time.

"Crossbow ......"

"Wind!"

Tai Shici did not rush to erect a pontoon bridge to cross the river, but at a distance of one hundred and fifty steps, one hundred steps, eighty steps, and finally fifty steps, he commanded the crossbow convoy to fire four volleys. At fifty paces, a gap finally appeared in the camp wall of Cao Jun, and even if it was reinforced, it was far from being indestructible in the face of a super killing weapon like a ballista.

Huge arrows of stainless steel and wrought iron slashed through the stakes, cut through the stone or iron armor behind the shield wall like tofu, and nailed the shields and armor to the ground along with their owners, harvesting nearly a hundred lives in one go

Hearing the terrible screams on the other side, Tai Shici breathed a sigh of relief slightly, and then frowned again.

Although the crossbow is still effective, its effectiveness has been weakened a lot, and it is unlikely that it will be destroyed and captured by the Tiger Prison Pass, just like when the mound was sealed. Although today's attack is still mainly based on the tentative surname, if there is a better result, how can Tai Shici be willing to just throw stones and ask for directions?

"No wonder the lord has been unwilling to go all out to attack the Tiger Prison, Cao ** is really not easy to deal with, there is no movement on Xingyang's side in the autumn, and I don't know why he has made so many tricks quietly......" Looking at the strict defense facilities opposite, Tai Shi Ci grinded his teeth.

Cao's combat power was inferior to that of the Qingzhou army, but compared to the enemies it had faced before, it was extremely strong, especially the Ren surname.

When an ordinary army faces a bed crossbow, as long as they have seen the power of the bed crossbow, their morale will definitely plummet. Similar to the current Cao army, even the camp wall that was based on the dry city was broken more than a dozen gaps, but the soldiers in the camp did not collapse, and there was not even a trace of chaos, and the shield hands behind rushed up directly, layer upon layer, and the gap was blocked in a blink of an eye.

With such an enemy and such full preparation, it is simply impossible to achieve a quick victory!

"Build a pontoon bridge, and go to meet Cao Yingying in person!" Tai Shi Ci did not drag his feet and ordered directly.

He doesn't have a long surname, but his ability is very comprehensive, and he has no fixed position until now. In such a big battle, it would be too much of a waste of resources to let such a fierce general idle, Wang Yu thought about it again and again, and simply regarded him as his stand-in, specializing in those things that he was no longer convenient to come forward with, such as going to the front line or something.

Tai Shici was very satisfied with this, for fear that one would accidentally mess up. Now that he saw that the strong crossbow was more than suppressed and the destruction was insufficient, of course he wouldn't just do it.

Thousands of auxiliaries drank the liquor in their bowls, then threw down their bowls and jumped into the icy river before the army, carrying planks, bamboo poles, and ropes.

Although it was spring, the weather was far from warm, the icy river water was enough to kill an adult strong man in half an hour, and in less than half an hour, the auxiliaries were frozen to the point that their lips were purple, and their hands and feet gradually lost their strength, but no one gave up, everyone gritted their teeth and insisted, and the pontoon stretched to the opposite bank inch by foot, and in a blink of an eye it crossed the center of the river!

In the face of the bed crossbow shooting, Cao Jun behaved calmly, but this time they couldn't sit still. The archers, who had been probing their brains, began to exert their might, and after taking a look, after estimating the distance, they threw the arrows in their hands and landed in the middle of the river.

A man fell into the river, was gently swept by the waves, and disappeared after a circle of red ripples. Then came the second, and then the third, and the craftsmen and auxiliaries, who had no weapons other than wood in their hands, had nowhere to dodge and watched as the arrows flew down one after another, knocking down those around them like hail.

The "Great Han Hussar ......" is in the icy water, with feathered arrows falling on his head, what could be more desperate? If it had been replaced by an ordinary people, it would have been a mess a long time ago, but what came out of the red-dyed river was a high-spirited shout!

"Ask the thief to settle the world!" One person started to make the crowd harmonious, and the rolling sound overwhelmed the sound of arrows breaking through the air, and the progress of the pontoon bridge not only did not slow down, but was a little faster.

The concept that Wang Yu wants to implement has a subtle impact on everyone in the operation of the New Deal. Qingzhou's auxiliaries were not those civilians who were reluctantly put on their necks and pulled out of their homes, but people who recognized a certain idea in the New Deal, or unconditionally supported their own monarch and spontaneously signed up to join the army.

Driven by strong convictions, this danger was nothing at all, and besides, they were not fighting alone.

The shouts continued, and on the bed crossbow position on the east bank of Xingshui, the buzzing crossbow strings sounded again, and the crossbow arrows frantically pounced on the camp more than 100 steps away with the breath of revenge!

Tai Shi Ci didn't wait to see the results of the battle, but just let the crossbowmen re-twist the bed crossbow strings, waved his hand and pointed forward, and thousands of archers poured out from behind the ballista array, clinging to the river bank to set up a formation, and launched a huge volley!

The arrows in the sky covered the moon, and the shouts of tens of thousands of people at the same time shook the ground!

Cao Jun did not show weakness, and at the place where the banner was moved, hundreds of crossbowmen appeared one after another, and they were not afraid to launch a confrontation with the Qingzhou army on the opposite bank.

The battle suddenly became fierce, and the sky was full of arrows flying around, and in the densest places, there would even be arrows flying in opposite directions colliding with each other, both landing on the beach or in the river. The heroics are no different from the masters who threw them into the air, and they all have an indomitable momentum, and they are all determined to die with the enemy.

The long arrow is in the air, the wind is bleak, the blood blooms like a lotus, and life withers like a remnant lotus.

"You can't let the auxiliaries sacrifice all the time, sons, come with so-and-so, and kill them together!" Tai Shi Ci led the crowd to charge, adding another fire to the fierce and heroic duel of the archers, and the whole battle situation was so sudden, but it naturally entered the most fierce link.

When Tai Shi Ci launched, the pontoon bridge was still a dozen steps away from the opposite bank. The number of archers of the Cao army was small, and the target of the attack was not mainly the archers on the opposite bank, but the auxiliary soldiers who built the bridge were focused on killing and wounding.

Although the Qingzhou auxiliaries were full of courage, they could not overcome the difficulties caused by the decrease in numbers and the decline in physical strength due to the cold, so after the start of the shooting, the progress of the pontoon bridge slowed down.

The army led by Tai Shi Ci has not yet fully adapted to his style, but the guards around him are very clear, knowing that his general intends to jump over directly, and everyone naturally cannot lag behind. Of course, not everyone has the skills of General Taishi, but this water is not very deep, and the auxiliaries can build a bridge in the river.

Under the pressure of the feather arrows in the sky, one figure after another rose into the air, burning the flames of war to the west bank of Xingshui!