Under the city of Caohan, the three main forces of Zhao State are attacking the city with all their might, and Pei Heng, the general of Liangguo who is responsible for defending Caohan, is also defending it with all his might.

The armies of both sides fought an extremely tragic battle around the city, and the corpses of the fallen soldiers were everywhere inside and outside the city walls, and the lit siege and defense equipment continued to smoke and smoke.

The battle on the battlefield was extremely tragic, and outside the battlefield, the scouts and smart soldiers sent by Hua'an were conducting strict reconnaissance in the vicinity to grasp the dynamics of the armies of Liang and Zhao, so as to report to Hua'an.

In order to capture the city as much as possible, Ma Qiu, the main general of the Zhao army, surrounded the city, making it difficult for the army in the city to get support from the rear, and at the same time adopted a variety of siege methods, such as cloud ladder attack, large-scale projectile of thunderbolt vehicles, and digging tunnels outside the city, all the siege methods that could be taken, the Zhao army adopted.

However, the army of Liangguo defending the city resisted very resolutely, and no matter what kind of siege method the Zhao army adopted, they were cracked one by one, and the Zhao army was dealt a heavy blow.

After a whole month of attacking and defending the city, under the resolute resistance of the Liangguo army, the Zhao army suffered heavy losses, but it was never able to break through the city, which made its main general Ma Qiu anxious.

Before setting out on the expedition, Ma Qiu swore in front of Shi Hu that he would capture Caohan within half a month, and now it has been more than a month, and Caohan City is still firmly under the control of the Liangguo army, which makes him feel a little disgraced, besides, under the city of Caohan, the three soldiers and horses have been killed nearly 10,000 times, and countless injuries have been made.

So many people were lost. But he couldn't break through the city, the more Ma Qiu thought about it, the more he felt that the fire was on fire, if it took a few more months, the army's food and grass would be insufficient, and the situation would be even more passive.

In fact, Ma Qiu didn't know that using elite soldiers to hold on to Caohan City, delaying the offensive edge of the Zhao army, and consuming the strength of the Zhao army step by step, this was exactly the response strategy adopted by Zhang Chonghua, the king of Liang, in the face of the invasion of the Zhao army. Judging by the current situation. This strategy was implemented very successfully, using 30,000 elite soldiers to hold on to the city of Caohan, which really delayed the offensive edge of the Zhao army, and. gave Zhao Jun a fierce blow.

But. Ma Qiu is not an ordinary mediocre general. He soon discovered Ryokoku's conspiracy, and immediately began to gather his generals to study countermeasures.

In the big tent of the Chinese army. Wang Zheng, Sun Fudu and other generals came, and Ma Qiu saw that the generals had arrived, so he began to discuss countermeasures.

Ma Qiu looked at the generals, and said: "Generals, our army has been invincible since the march, but under the city of Caohan, it is a heavy loss, now, a month has passed, our army not only can not break through Caohan, the losses are getting bigger and bigger, yesterday, the light cavalry of the Liang army suddenly killed from the city, burned hundreds of thunderbolts of our army, and burned thousands of pounds of grain and grass for our army, if it were not for the soldiers to use their lives, I am afraid that the loss will be greater, this situation continues, it will be extremely unfavorable to our army, for this reason, I want to listen to the opinions of the generals. "Say I'm looking at the generals.

"General, the morale of the soldiers is declining, it is better to withdraw to Guanzhong for the time being, and after regrouping, kill the horse pistol." A subordinate general is building a yì road.

"Yes! General, the morale of our army has fallen, and there is no certainty of victory if we continue to fight, so it is better to return early. Another general clenched his fists and persuaded.

Seeing that two generals in a row asked to retire, Ma Qiu frowned, the reason why the generals said this is obviously because they know enough about the soldiers under their command to say this, which also reflects the most real situation of the army, but he led the troops to fight but returned with a feather, which will greatly reduce his prestige, so Ma Qiu is extremely reluctant to withdraw like this, and he already has a new plan in his heart.

"General Wang, what do you think?" Ma Qiu looked at Wang Zhen and asked softly.

Wang Zhen frowned and thought for a while, then hugged his fists and said: "General, in the opinion of the last general, we must not just withdraw from the army, if we withdraw hastily, it will greatly damage the morale of our army, and the king will be very unhappy." ”

"That's right, as long as our army retreats, Zhang Chonghua's kid will think that we are easy to bully, and the king's plan to take Liangzhou will be a complete failure." Sun Fudu continued to persuade.

Seeing that the two main generals supported the continuation of the battle, Ma Qiu felt a lot more relieved, paused, and said: "Generals, there will be a plan, that is, to divide troops to raid Guzang and go straight to Zhang Chonghua's lair. ”

"Divide the troops and raid Guzang." The generals were shocked when they heard this.

You must know that Guzang is the capital of the Liang Kingdom, hundreds of miles away from Caohan City, and there are many cities along the way.

Ma Qiu nodded, and said: "That's right, the general's plan is to divide a part of the army to continue to besiege Caohan, and the main army will rush to Guzang, as long as it can advance to Guzang City, the Liang Kingdom will shock the whole country, and Caohan City will also be self-defeating." ”

"The general is so courageous, and the last general is willing to follow the general to attack Guzang." Sun Fudu hurriedly clenched his fists, saying that he would obey Ma Qiu's dispatch.

"General, the last general is willing to follow." Most of the generals said that they would follow Ma Qiu and attack Guzang City.

Seeing that there were so many subordinates following him, Ma Qiu was very happy, according to Ma Qiu's idea, as long as he bypassed the extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack Caohan City, the city along the way to Guzang was a small city that was easy to conquer, and it only took a few days of hard work to reach Guzang City.

"General, Qiu Chi has been annexed by the Jin army, if the Jin army suddenly attacks from behind, how should our army resist?" A general, in addition to a difficult problem for Ma Qiu.

Ma Qiu was stunned for a moment when he heard this, he was excited to rush to attack Guzang, but he didn't seriously think about how to prevent a possible sneak attack by the Jin army, in Ma Qiu's opinion, the Jin army should not raid his rear.

"The Jin army has just taken Qiuchi, it should be resting, there are tens of thousands of left-behind troops in Luoyang and Nan'an in the rear of our army, which is enough to deal with the surprise attack of the Jin army, you don't have to worry, besides, this attack on Guzang will only bring 50,000 soldiers and horses." Ma Qiu hesitated for a moment, and said with a straight face.

"General, how to attack Guzang, please give an order." Sun Fudu said urgently.

Ma Qiu looked at the generals, and Zhengse said: "This general and General Sun Fudu will lead 50,000 main forces, leave early tomorrow morning, and kill Guzang City, General Wang Zheng will lead the remaining 40,000 men and horses, stationed on the high ground on the east side of Caohan City, confront the Liang army in Caohan City, and pay attention to guarding against the Jin army in the direction of Wudu County." ”

"The last will obey." The generals immediately clenched their fists and took their orders.

After preparing for a day, Ma Qiu and Sun Fudu led the main army of 50,000 to the Guzang Jin army along the line of Jincheng and Guangwu, while Wang Zheng led the remaining army to continue to stay around the city to monitor the elite of the Liangzhou army in the city and take into account the Jin army in the direction of Wudu City.

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A few days later, in the Assassin's Mansion in Nanzheng City, Hua An fell into deep contemplation, and the news from the northwest showed that Ma Qiu, the general of the Zhao army, had exhausted all kinds of methods, but he was never able to break through the city of Caohan, and the army of Liang still firmly controlled the city.

The success of the Liang army in defending the city of Caohan was a good thing for Hua An, but through the details reported by the scouts and Congshi, Hua An learned that the various siege methods used by the Zhao army could be said to have exhausted all the methods that could be used to attack the city, but it still could not break the city.

This reminded Hua An that in the future when the Northern Expedition to Guanzhong, if he encountered a strong city garrisoned by the elite of the Zhao army, he could not attack it for several months, but how could it be good, after all, in Guanzhong, a city like Caohan City that is easy to defend and difficult to attack must exist, and there is more than one place.

Using stratagems to break the city is Hua'an's forte, but it is all against Li Shi's court, and the soldiers have already been separated, and it may not be effective to deal with the Zhao army.

Since Hua'an joined the army, he has never captured a strong city in the hands of Zhao Jun, and Hua'an has not yet understood the strength of the Zhao army in guarding the fortified city, but with his feelings, the army of tigers and wolves of Zhao State must not be weak in defending the city.

For this reason, Hua'an fell into deep anxiety, and in order to find a way to break the city more easily, Hua'an racked his brains.

"General, Gong Ge sent someone to send a box of immortal medicine, saying that it was for the general to replenish his body." At this moment, a personal soldier walked in with a box of pills.

Hua An waved his hand and motioned for the soldiers to put down the box, and after the soldiers put down the box, they turned around and left.

Hua An looked at the pill box in front of him and frowned, he was not interested in these pills at all, after all, from the later generations, Hua An understood that Jiankang's body was obtained by exercise, not by taking supplements.

"This Ge Hong will use the alchemy furnace to refine these things all day long." Hua An said and crushed a pill.

"Alchemy Furnace." At the moment when he crushed the pill, Hua An suddenly thought of something.

That's right, he thought that black powder was inadvertently created by alchemists using the alchemy furnace, that is, using the alchemy furnace to test black powder that can explode.

The power of black powder is used to blast the city walls and gates, the effect must be very good, and the previous thunderbolt carts used stones and fireballs that can be detonated, if they are replaced with black powder, the power of the thunderbolt will be greatly enhanced, so that it can be easier to break through the city.

In Hua'an's impression, black powder is made from three raw materials: nitrate, sulfur and charcoal, but Hua'an does not remember the specific ratio of the three materials very clearly, but as long as he tries a few more times, he can master it lightly.

Thinking of such an important city-breaking weapon, Hua Antou was extremely excited and decided to start the experiment immediately.

In Liangzhou and Yizhou, there are many mines of sulfur and nitrate, and charcoal is inexhaustible, so raw materials are not a problem.

Ge Hong is an expert in the application of the alchemy furnace, and for this reason, Hua'an decided to hand over the task of testing black powder to Ge Hong to complete. (To be continued......)