Knowing that the soldiers of Qi County did not wait to see the people of Qian County, Yuan Tiangang did not plan to appear in front of Zhang Xutuo and others, and was ready to draw a map and make a sand table and immediately return to Qian County to report to Chen Yingliang, but the plan did not change quickly, because of a very important accident, Yuan Tiangang was still forced to appear in front of Zhang Xutuo.

The accident occurred on the first day when the Sui army began to attack the city, and after angrily razing the abandoned camp of the thief army to the ground, Zhang Xutuo immediately ordered to start arranging the siege, and chose the south gate of Menghai City with open terrain as the main battlefield, and organized a large number of villagers to attack the moat of Menghai City, preparing to fill the moat outside the south gate of Menghai City, and open the way for large siege weapons to reach the city.

When Li Zixiong commanded the rebel team to attack Luoyang, Zhang Xutuo, who had participated in many siege battles, also chose the most orthodox siege tactics, monitoring the city gate with an elite team, and the long shield soldiers stepped forward first, forming temporary fortifications next to the moat, and the archers stepped forward again, hiding behind the shield and releasing arrows to suppress the defenders of the city, and then the shrimp and toad cart full of earth and stones stepped forward to carry the earth and stones to fill the trench. At the same time, in view of the fact that the siege weapons had been fully prepared, Zhang Xutuo dispatched the siege weapon trebuchet in the first battle, intending to use the trebuchet to give the group of local buns of the Meng Haigong thief army a dismount, and deal a blow to the arrogance of the thief army that had gradually risen.

Knowing that Zhang Xutuo's army was pressing, Li Mi of course followed Meng Haigong and his wife up to the city wall, gave Meng Haigong advice and commanded the defense of the city, and constantly explained Zhang Xutuo's tactical arrangements to Meng Haigong, a native bun, and pointed out countermeasures. ”

As Li Mi expected, the tall and bulky Sui army trebuchet took a lot of effort and time to deploy in place, and when the sweaty Sui army trebuchet gunner was still fixing the body, Li Mi had already calculated the throwing angle himself, and when the flag on the city wall waved, the two rope-type trebuchets made by the thieves in the city rushed to throw the stone projectiles first, and the two stone bullets weighing one hundred and twenty catties flew out with a roar, drawing two huge parabolas in the sky, and smashed into the Sui army trebuchet team with a terrifying whistling sound. One of them hit several Sui gunners, killing and injuring three people on the spot, and the other accurately hit a Sui army trebuchet, which instantly smashed the trebuchet into sawdust and cracked its arm, and scrapped it on the spot.

Seeing this scene, of course, the thief army on the city wall was thunderous with joy and morale, but everyone on the Sui army's side was shocked, saying that they didn't expect that the thief army team also had trebuchets and could hide behind the city wall and smash it so accurately. Frightened, the gunners of the Sui army hurriedly fixed the body, organized people to drag the throwing arm, and fired stones to bombard.

This is a very asymmetrical number of trebuchets against the bombardment, the Sui army has a total of 30 trebuchets, the thief army only has two trebuchets, in terms of numbers, the Sui army is an absolute advantage. However, after the real start of the bombardment, the soldiers of the Sui army were shocked to find that the trebuchet of the official army was not only far from being as accurate as the trebuchet of the thief army, but also had no trebuchet of the thief army to hit far, and could only barely hit the head of the thief fort sixty zhang away, and many stone bullets could only hit the city wall or directly under the city, and the threat to the defenders of the thief army was not as big as imagined, and the two trebuchets of the thief army could hide behind the city wall, and easily hit the heavy stone bullets on the Sui army's trebuchet position, and they were particularly accurate. Basically, every two stone bullets could be hit, killing and wounding many Sui gunners.

After that, the Sui soldiers were even more dumbfounded, with the repeated throwing of stone bombs, their trebuchets actually appeared one after another throwing arm broken and scrapped, among which the worst one trebuchet only dropped the bomb eleven times, the throwing arm slammed in the center and broke, and the Sui soldiers who dragged the rope suddenly fell to the ground, and the wolf bèi reached the extreme.

Seeing such a picture, of course, the thieves and soldiers on the city wall were even more cheerful, their morale was even more uplifted, and they worked even harder between drawing their bows and arrows, while the Sui army was in an uproar, and their morale was greatly reduced, and they all said what they said, and even Meng Haigong asked the master to use a spell in the construction of the city. And Yuan Tiangang, who had been hiding in the Liangjun team to watch the battle, couldn't sit still, so he quickly took the rope ruler used to explore the terrain, led two followers to step forward quickly, risked his life and rushed to the Sui army's trebuchet position, measuring the size of the Sui army's scrapped trebuchet.

It's okay if it's not measured, but Yuan Tiangang jumped like thunder under a measure, and scolded very ungracefully: "Who the hell supervised these trebuchets?" This puppet should be a marching man! To build such a trebuchet is to make a joke on the lives of soldiers! ”

"What the fuck are you talking about? Who told you to come up? An angry roar sounded next to him, and Tang Wanche, the general of Qi County, who was directing the soldiers to throw stones, was furious, rushed up and grabbed Yuan Tiangang, but he suddenly stopped when he was about to hit him, and said in surprise: "Aren't you the Yuan ...... of Qian County, the Yuan liar?" How did you get here? ”

"How did I get here, I'll tell you later." Yuan Tiangang said angrily: "You can't drop bombs anymore, stop immediately, stop them all, otherwise all of you trebuchets will have to be scrapped on the spot!" ”

Of course, Tang Wanche would not listen to Yuan Tiangang's orders, and asked Yuan Tiangang what qualifications he had to order him? Yuan Tiangang had no choice but to break free from Tang Wanche's pull, and quickly ran towards Zhang Xutuo's flag array, and Zhang Xutuo, Yang Wang and others in the flag array had already noticed Yuan Tiangang, and after meeting, Zhang Xutuo immediately asked: "Aren't you the Yuan Tiangang from Qian County?" How did you come to this Menghai City? ”

"Greeting, I was ordered to send an official document to Yang Tongshou, so I came." Yuan Tiangang first made up a reason, and then quickly said: "You can't throw catapults anymore, your trebuchet is made by mistake, and the throwing arm is too long, so it can't be thrown a few times before it breaks and is scrapped. ”

"Our trebuchet made a mistake?" Zhang Xutuo couldn't believe that the self-army team would put such an oolong, but he saw with his own eyes that the self-army's trebuchet was quickly scrapped, so after just a little hesitation, Zhang Xutuo ordered: "Order, let the trebuchet stop dropping bombs, and then call Tang Wanche to me." ”

The herald rushed out to give the order, and the generals of Qi County next to him were discussing, and they didn't believe that the army would make such a big mistake, and Luo Shixin was extremely angry and asked Yuan Tiangang, a charlatan, what kind of ordnance manufacturing does this charlatan know? Yuan Tiangang sneered and was silent, but after Tang Wanche rushed back to the flag array, as soon as he heard Yuan Tiangang come to accuse him of making a mistake in supervising the trebuchet, Tang Wanche, who was at a disadvantage for the catapult battle, suddenly jumped like thunder, grabbed Yuan Tiangang's collar again and yelled: "Let go of your mother's stinky fart!" These trebuchets, Lao Tzu is built according to the dimensional drawings of "Mozi Beicheng", there is no mistake, where is the mistake?! ”

"Yuan liar, have you watched "Mozi Beicheng"?" Mulan also said contemptuously: "Your methods of pretending to be gods and ghosts will work with Chen Yingliang, but not with us." ”

Yuan Tiangang remained silent and calmly recited: "The fifty-second of "Mozi Beicheng", the length of the wrestling arm is thirty to thirty-five feet, and the length of the wrestling arm is less than twenty-four feet-General Tang, if I guess correctly, in order to increase the power of the throwing stone, you let the throwing arm use the longest thirty-five feet, right?" ”

"Huh? How do you know? Tang Wanche was startled at first, and then remembered that Yuan Tiangang had already measured the throwing arm just now, so he said angrily: "Of course you know if you have measured it!" How? Didn't the trebuchet I built measure correctly? ”

"Yes, it's really thirty-five feet, almost exactly the same." Yuan Tiangang nodded, and then raised his voice in the sneering gaze of the Qi County soldiers, and roared angrily: "But you, you are using the Great Sui construction ruler!" Do you know what ruler is used in Mozi? It's a circumference! One foot of circumference is only seven inches and eight minutes of the Great Sui ruler! You use a Sui ruler to create a 35-foot-long throwing arm, which is converted into a circumferential ruler that is more than 44 feet 8 inches! The throwing arm has grown almost a third, can it continue? ”

The ridicule of the generals of Qi County stopped abruptly, and Tang Wanche's anger also froze on his face, and he was stunned, muttering: "Zhou ruler, and our Great Sui ruler, is so different? ”

"Originally, you weren't too wrong, using a big Sui ruler to measure the length, and also using a large Sui ruler to measure the thickness of the throwing arm, which is equivalent to magnifying the trebuchet by one." Yuan Tiangang said helplessly: "It stands to reason that our soldiers are only working harder at most, but you enlarged the size of the trebuchet, but did not add iron hoops (iron hoops), and still use the four iron usurpers of the small trebuchet, and the lack of iron usurpers to protect the throwing arm from breaking, the throwing arm has increased a lot of its own weight, can it not be easy to break?" ”

Tang Wanche was completely speechless, he could only obediently kneel down to Zhang Xutuo to ask for guilt, Zhang Xutuo was gloomy, and said after a while: "I can't blame you all, the old man is also responsible, the old man only used the trebuchet before but didn't know the size, and he didn't notice your mistake in time, you are the first time to build a trebuchet, and you can be forgiven for making mistakes, this time I won't pursue it, go and withdraw the trebuchet." ”

Tang Wanche saluted and thanked him, and went back to withdraw the trebuchet in frustration, while Zhang Xutuo reluctantly squeezed out some smiles, nodded to Yuan Tiangang and said, "Thank you Mr. Yuan for reminding me in time, our army has not continued to make mistakes." But the old man has one thing that is very strange, Mr. Yuan, aren't you proficient in Zhou Yi arithmetic, how can you be so proficient in weapon manufacturing? ”

"Marshal, students have really never been interested in weapons and military affairs." Yuan Tiangang replied truthfully: "But since entering the Chen Tongshou shogunate, Chen Tongshou has always asked students to try to produce various military equipment, even if they are not needed for the time being, they must first make samples out as technical reserves. As a result, the students were forced to learn a lot about weapon making, and it happened that the students had some talent for arithmetic, and they didn't know how to measure them, so they happened to find out that your army's trebuchet was the wrong size. ”

"Mr. Yuan is modest, Mr. is talented, and the old man admires him." Zhang Xutuo said very reluctantly: "Chen Tongshou can have a talent like Mr. You under his command, it is really his blessing." ”

"Dashuai has won the award, in fact, our Chen Tongshou is far above the students in the knowledge of arithmetic machinery, but he doesn't like to show off like students." Yuan Tiangang continued to be modest, and pointed to Meng Haicheng in the distance and said, "Great Shuai, there is also a genius who is proficient in arithmetic and machinery in this thief castle!" The students have already noticed that the two trebuchets of the thief army are both diagonal stone throws, not straight line throws, so the students are sure that the trebuchets of the thief army must be equipped with quite precise round rulers, and there are people on the city wall who are proficient in arithmetic to calculate the angle of shooting and guide the stone throwing, so the two trebuchets of the thief army can hit so accurately. ”

Zhang Xutuo was silent, and only said after a while: "Mr. has come from afar to work hard, go down and rest." Yuan Tiangang also knew that Zhang Xutuo's current mood must be extremely depressed, so he hurriedly resigned and retired, and then Yuan Tiangang didn't bother to continue watching the battle, and led his entourage to survey the terrain without mentioning it.

Without the planned trebuchet to help the battle, the siege momentum of the Sui army was not only immediately much smaller, but also inevitably greatly affected the morale, and the speed of transporting soil and filling the trench was also slowed down a little, while the morale of the thief army was wildly boosted, and the confidence was greatly increased. Meng Haigong, who had gradually gained confidence, also began to stop being so afraid of Zhang Xutuo, and decisively ordered.

The next battle became a bow and arrow battle, the thief army crossbowmen hid behind the sheep and horse wall and kept firing arrows, the Sui soldiers who transported the soil and filled the trenches kept falling, and the Sui army archers after the temporary fortifications also desperately released arrows to suppress and shoot against the thieves archers, although the well-trained and many Sui archers did not suffer in the shooting battle, but the Sui army's trench filling operation was still greatly delayed, and it was impossible to complete the task of completely filling the south gate trench of Menghai City on the same day. The generals of Qi County were furious, and Luo Shixin and He Yanyu both built yì and attacked the city directly without filling in the trenches, but fortunately, Zhang Xutuo knew the danger of insufficient preparation for the battle, so he did not adopt it, but just asked the team to fill the trenches as much as they could.

In the next two days, after paying a considerable price, the Sui army finally basically filled in the south gate ditch of Menghai City, opening the way for large siege weapons to reach the city. It was also on the evening of the third day that Zhang Xutuo, who was determined to launch an attack on the city the next day, remembered Yuan Tiangang again, so he sent someone to summon Yuan Tiangang to meet, but Yuan Tiangang did not come, but Zhang Xutuo's actual deputy in this battle, Yang Wang, came to the Chinese army tent and reported to Zhang Xutuo: "Ambassador, Mr. Yuan has already left, and he left this afternoon, saying that he was going back to hand over the order, and said that he said goodbye to me." ”

Zhang Xutuo's face was a little gloomy, and said: "Forget it, I don't have a big deal to find him, it's just that the city will be attacked tomorrow, I want him to see if our other siege weapons are bad, since he is gone, then forget it." ”

"Ambassador Zhang, there's something I have to let you know." Yang Wang said: "When Mr. Yuan Tiangang left, he took away a sand table of Menghai City that he made with his own hands, and I looked at the sand table, which was much finer than the sand table in our army. ”

"What is he doing as a sand table in Menghai City?" Zhang Xutuo was stunned at first, and then immediately came to his senses, and hummed: "I don't want to help, I still care about the terrain and battle situation here, and imagine that Meng Rang was like that last time, and when I beat Meng Haigong to the end, then I came to pick up a ready-made bargain?" ”

"Ambassador Zhang, Ying Liangxian's nephew is not that kind of person." Yang Wang shook his head and said: "When Yang Xuangan rebelled, the old man saw it with his own eyes, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Yang Xuangan's rebellion was put down by him, but this kid never knew what it meant to compete for merit, and he would try his best to let out if he had merit. I know that he alone took the credit for capturing Meng Rang, and the soldiers under your command were very dissatisfied, and you were also very unhappy that he refused to send troops to help you attack this Meng Hai City, but the lower officials can be sure that his refusal must have his troubles, and you are much older than him. , why bother with a junior? ”

"Who said that the old man had a lot of trouble with him?" Zhang Xutuo was a little angry, and asked angrily: "He didn't send troops to help, didn't I force him?" Did the old man impeach him because of this? ”

"If the ambassador really doesn't care, then the lower official will say it directly." Yang Wang said: "The lower official wanted to come forward by himself, and wrote a letter to ask Chen Yingliang to send troops north and come to Menghai City to help with this." The lower officials did not hide it from the ambassador, I and his uncle Pei Hongce are friends of life and death, Pei Hongce has a great favor for him, I open this mouth, he will not and dare not refuse. ”

Zhang Xutuo's face was gloomy again, and then he said, "Can you use it?" We've filled in the moat of the southern city of the thief's castle, and now we just need to break the city hard, and we need to call him to help again? ”

"Ambassador, don't be pushy." Yang Wang sighed and said: "Even a person like Xiaguan who is not very proficient in military affairs can see that our spirit has been frustrated by successive failures, and our morale has also been greatly affected. The situation of the officials in other counties is not very clear, but here in Liang County, I know that once the main force of Liang County is contained on this battlefield for a long time, Zhai Rang in the northwest of Liang County will inevitably take the opportunity to make waves, and Wang Bodang and Zhou Wenju, the thieves who have just started the incident, will also take the opportunity to sit big, and the consequences will be unimaginable! ”

As the commander-in-chief of the twelve counties to suppress bandits, Zhang Xutuo is of course more aware than Yang Wang of the unforeseen consequences of once the main force of his army is contained under Menghai City for a long time, but Zhang Xutuo is still very unconvinced, and snorted: "When he comes, he is sure to quickly take this thief city?" ”

"I don't know if he's sure or not, I just know it's promising." Yang Wang replied solemnly: "Because the lower official has seen his ability to use troops with his own eyes, and knows that if he doesn't make a move, he will definitely not fight an uncertain battle, so the lower official thinks that as long as he comes to the Menghai City battlefield to help, we will have hope to break the city quickly, and we will not suffer huge casualties among the soldiers because of the strong attack on the city." ”

Zhang Xutuo was silent for a moment, but still refused: "No need, the old man will fight by himself!" The old man didn't believe it, without him Chen Butcher, the old man could only eat hairy pigs! ”

Seeing that Zhang Xutuo's attitude was extremely resolute, obviously he was angry, Yang Wang didn't want to say anything, he was just thinking in his heart, whether to bypass Zhang Xutuo and invite Chen Yingliang to send troops north in the name of the official army of Liang County? The excuse is very sufficient, because Meng Haigong spent a lot of money to build this Menghai City, and if he wants to die, it happens to be stuck at the junction of Liang County and Jiyin County, with the Hulu River, the boundary river of the two counties in between, the north city is in Jiyin County, and the south city is on the land of Liang County.

…………

Let's take a look at the situation on Chen Yingliang's side, two days later, Yuan Tiangang and his entourage returned to Yongcheng smoothly, and brought back Yang Wang's letter of thanks to Chen Yingliang, and also brought the map sand table requested by Chen Yingliang. And after Chen Yingliang carefully looked at the Menghai City sand table carefully made by Yuan Tiangang, he quickly exclaimed, "This thief city, you don't need to attack it head-on, there is hope that you can take it directly?" ”

"You don't need to attack the city, you can take it directly?" Yuan Tiangang, Eldest Sun Wuji and others were all taken aback.

"I'm not very sure, but I'm hopeful." Chen Yingliang replied, and hurriedly asked Yuan Tiangang: "Mr. Yuan, if I am not mistaken, Meng Haigong's thief's nest Meng Haicheng, the fortifications on the periphery should not be a moat, but a trench without water, right?" ”

"Chen Tongshou, how can you even guess this?" Yuan Tiangang was shocked.

"It's very simple, Meng Haicheng is short of water!" Chen Yingliang replied categorically: "Your sand table clearly shows that there are only two rivers around Meng Hai City, one is the Hulu River sandwiched between the two cities, and the other is the Makeng River that flows into the lower reaches of the Hulu River. ”

"Lack of water?" The eldest grandson Wuji immediately came to his senses and said in surprise: "Brother, you mean, as long as we cut off the gourd river and make it impossible for the thief army to get water, we will win?" ”

"Unlikely, right?" Yuan Tiangang didn't react for a while, and said: "The water volume of the Hulu River is not small, it is difficult to completely cut it off, and the river surface of the Makeng River is basically the same as the river surface of the Hulu River, and it will be poured into the ......." ”

"I'm on the tip of the bull!"

Before he finished speaking, Yuan Tiangang had already patted his head and regretted it, and said with annoyance: "I still claim to be proficient in geography and feng shui, how can I be so confused?" The Hulu River is difficult to cut off, then dig a river channel to introduce water into the low-lying places, the river water of the Makeng River will be backfilled, take some sacks of soil to block the estuary, without the inflow of the Hulu River, the river level of the Makeng River will also fall, and it is more difficult to backfill! ”

"But brother, Meng Haigong can still dig a well!" The eldest grandson Wuji hurriedly said: "We cut off his water source, so he dug more wells in the city, which can still replenish drinking water." ”

"Meng Haigong's thief army has more than 20,000 people, even if there is some damage during this time, plus the family is still more than 20,000 people, do you calculate how many wells Meng Haigong has to dig to use it?" Chen Yingliang asked with a smile, and said: "Besides, Meng Haigong built his city into two cities in the north and south, standing between the river, which clearly shows that the groundwater is scarce, and the river water must be introduced to drink!" ”

"Tongshou, you are really like a god." Yuan Tiangang said excitedly: "When I surveyed the topography of Menghai City, I once considered the tactics of tunneling and attacking the city, and it turned out that Menghai City is located on a rock formation, and there are many rocks underground, so it is almost impossible to dig into the city, but there is definitely not much groundwater!" ”

"Meng Haigong chose the wrong place to build the city from the beginning!" Chen Yingliang laughed and said: "If he built the city next to the Makeng River, then we would have to make some effort to break the city, but he chose a small river to build the city, and stationed such an army in his thief's den, which is simply a great credit to me!" ”

After laughing, Chen Yingliang hurriedly asked again: "Mr. Yuan, you should have measured the width and flow of the Hulu River and the Makeng River, right?" ”

Seeing Yuan Tiangang nodding vigorously, Chen Yingliang smiled even more happily, and immediately ordered: "Calculate immediately, see how much earthwork is needed to cut off the Hulu River and prevent the Makeng River from backfilling, and then calculate how many straw bags are needed to hold the soil, and hand over the number to Wuji immediately." Wuji, you are responsible for preparing straw bags, prepare more, prepare the military affairs casually, and go north to help Zhang Xutuo. ”

Yuan Tiangang agreed, and immediately sat aside to calculate the earthwork, and the eldest grandson Wuji also agreed, and then said: "Brother, you don't need us to send troops, right?" Wouldn't it be okay to sue Zhang Xutuo or Yang Wang directly? ”

"Silly boy, Meng Haigong kills, sets fire, robs and rapes everywhere, and the stolen money, food, and treasures must all be hoarded in his Meng Hai City." Chen Yingliang finally showed some fangs, and said with a cruel smile: "If we don't get some of those money, grains and treasures back, are we worthy of the people of Liang County and Jiyin County who were harmed by him?" ”

The eldest grandson Wuji suddenly realized, and immediately laughed out loud, and Yuan Tiangang turned his head again, and said: "Tongshou, in fact, we can temporarily block the Makeng River, let all the water in the Hulu River flow into the dry channel of the Makeng River, and then block the estuary to prevent backfilling, so that although we have to spend a little more hands and feet, we can let the thief army completely cut off the water within a day!" ”

"Good idea." Chen Yingliang smiled and said: "How to make Meng Haigong run out of water faster, Mr. Yuan, you can do it, you are a big expert in this area, I listen to you." ”