The war drums beat rhythmically, and the Sui army auxiliary soldiers Xiang Yong, who came forward with the firewood and straw group, kept stepping forward, throwing the firewood and grass to the city gate of Menghai City, and the thieves on the city wall were like rain, and there were constantly Sui soldiers who were hit by arrows, but the Sui army auxiliary army continued to step forward one after another, because there was a bad species surnamed Chen who threatened them, if anyone dared to retreat from the battle, let whoever go to the ant annex to attack the city! In order not to climb the towering city wall as a death squad, these Sui army auxiliaries can only rush forward with a rain of arrows, constantly carrying firewood and grass forward, only those who are injured by arrows can withdraw to the formation to bandage and rest, and those who fall directly are resting on the spot, and there is no need to be pushed forward as cannon fodder by Chen Badzhong.

In order to suppress the speed of the Sui army's team, the trebuchets in the thief city also began to throw stones, although because of the material, there are only eight trebuchets in Menghai City so far, but these eight trebuchets are very accurate, every time they take the stone bullets to the Sui army auxiliary team, the stone bullets directly smashed down and then bounced and injured people, it was very stoning and smashing some Sui army auxiliaries, and twice the diagonal line hit the Sui army's long shield array, and the Sui army archers behind the long shield smashed the flesh and blood, screaming and dying, and also let the thief soldiers on the city wall twice let out thunderous cheers.

Chen Yingliang wanted this effect, and with a mouth to the side, the lackey Qian Xiangmin immediately rushed forward, risked running to the trebuchet position predetermined by the Sui army, stretched out his arm and gave a thumbs up, measured the distance through the guò geometric formula, and then planted a small flag in the appropriate position as a guide, and planted a total of sixteen small flags before running back to Chen Yingliang to give orders. Seeing this scene, Zhang Xutuo, Yang Wang and others next to them were all very curious, and hurriedly asked Chen Yingliang what this meant? Chen Yingliang did not hide it, and replied: "Calculate the distance, arrange a suitable trebuchet gun position, and arrange sixteen trebuchets to step forward and throw stones at a 45-degree angle, and you can quickly kill the trebuchet behind the enemy's city wall two to one." ”

"Just stretch out your arms and raise your fingers, you can calculate the distance?" Zhang Xutuo was taken aback.

"It can be calculated, and it is basically relatively accurate." Chen Yingliang nodded, "Yuan Tiangang and I will know this method, and later we taught this Qian Xiangmin, so that he can play some role on the battlefield." If the old general is interested, I can also explain it to you in detail when I have time. ”

"Your team in the county has a lot of fighting tricks." Zhang Xutuo shook his head and muttered, while Mulan next to him pursed her lips with disdain, not believing Chen Yingliang's nonsense at all.

At this time, the firewood and grass under the city gate had been piled up to a zhang high, Chen Yingliang also took the opportunity to build a trebuchet Zhang Xutuo dispatched a trebuchet, let sixteen trebuchets go forward to bombard the thief army trebuchet behind the city wall, and asked the trebuchet to be arranged in the position where Qian Xiangmin had marked, and then cast the stone after Qian Xiangmin calculated the angle of shot, Zhang Xutuo accepted Chen Yingliang's request suspiciously, and arranged for Tang Wanche to lead the trebuchet forward, according to the guidance of Chen Yingliang's staff.

Sixteen trebuchets that had been equipped with precision round rulers stepped forward according to the order, and came to the marked position as required, and quickly fixed the body at the risk of being hit by the enemy's stone bullets at any time, and the time to test Chen Yingliang's reputation and prestige came, Qian Xiangmin, who was forced to learn many geometric formulas, measured the angle of stone throwing with a round ruler, and then ordered sixteen trebuchets to throw stones together, during which the Sui gunners, who had killed and injured four companions, struggled to pull the rope, and sixteen stone projectiles weighing one hundred and twenty pounds rose into the air, Flying out along the pre-calculated parabola and flying towards the head of Menghai City, the hearts of Zhang Xutuo and Yang Wang and other Sui army commanders also suddenly rose to their throats.

Most of the missiles went directly over the city wall and fell into the city, two stone bullets smashed on the city wall, and five stone bullets smashed on the city wall, making a series of loud noises, but the distance was too far to see the true effect of the stone bullets. Seeing this scene, Mulan couldn't help but pout even more, and said, "It's blowing hard, and it doesn't have any effect." ”

"Shut up!" Zhang Xutuo, who was in a nervous mood, shouted: "The trebuchet of the thief army is hiding behind the city wall, can we see it?" Pay attention to the number of stones thrown by the enemy to know if it has any effect. ”

The Sui army didn't know the effect of throwing stones, but Meng Haigong and his wife were shocked on the city wall, because the first volley of the Sui army had actually smashed a thief trebuchet directly, and the remaining stone bullets injured more than a dozen thief gunners, and the stone bullets that smashed on the top of the city wall directly smashed several thief soldiers into meat sauce, and then the remaining momentum did not disappear, and then catapulted into the city and smashed through the roof of a house! Shocked, Meng Haigong and his wife hurriedly ran to Li Mi, who was measuring the trajectory of the trebuchet, and asked in unison: "Master, why did the official army's trebuchet suddenly hit so accurately?" And even the trebuchet behind our walls hit it? ”

"There are arithmetic masters in the enemy ranks." Li Mi said quietly: "They calculated the distance and the angle of shot, so they can hit so accurately." ”

"What then?" Ma Saifei hurriedly asked.

"It's fine." Li Mi replied: "Let's shoot a few cannons with them first, if it doesn't work, change the position of the trebuchet, our trebuchet is protected by a city wall, and the enemy's trebuchet is in the wilderness, and we will not suffer a loss in the opposite shot." ”

At the same time, the counterattack of the thieves' trebuchets began, and according to Li Mi's calculated angle of fire, they bombarded the Sui army's trebuchet position with all their might, and as a result, Zhang Xutuo immediately saw that the thieves' trebuchets were already missing, and he immediately rejoiced: "The thieves only have seven stone bullets, and we should have hit one." ”

"Look again, it's not certain." Chen Yingliang shook his head, just patiently observing the confrontation between the trebuchets of the two armies.

The result of the bombardment is the mutual attrition, and the result is also the Sui army with sufficient material resources is the least afraid, several rounds of bombardment, although there is also a Sui army's trebuchet was smashed and damaged, and more than 20 gunners have been killed and wounded, but the number of stones in Menghai Gongcheng quickly shrank to five at a time. Seeing this scene, of course, there was cheer in the Sui army, and Chen Yingliang finally smiled at Mulan and said, "I disappointed General Mulan, I don't seem to be bragging." ”

Mulan raised her head and ignored Chen Yingliang's ridicule, until Chen Yingliang turned his ugly face to Meng Haicheng, Mulan glared at Chen Yingliang viciously and scolded secretly: "Stingy! ”

At the same time, Li Mi finally couldn't bear it, in order not to even have the strength to fight back in the long-range bombardment, Li Mi could only hurry up and let the trebuchet transfer the position, although Meng Haigong immediately accepted the construction yì, but still couldn't help but say, "Master, it seems that the enemy's arithmetic master is higher than you." ”

"It's because I don't have enough trebuchets, right?" Li Mi was secretly angry but didn't dare to attack, so he could only sigh in his heart, "It's really never good to meet Chen Yingliang, a thief." ”

Seeing that the enemy no longer dropped bombs, Chen Yingliang immediately understood that the opponent was shifting positions, so he immediately set up Zhang Xutuo to act according to the established plan, Zhang Xutuo waved his big hand, and the remaining twenty or so trebuchets immediately stepped forward, and at the same time sent some special bombs to the fifteen trebuchets in front of them, and let them throw them at the city gate of the thief army, and the Sui army artillery team, which had been greatly demoralized, followed the order and immediately smashed these special shells to the city gate, as a result, after these shells smashed on the firewood and grass piled up by the Sui army, they quickly ignited the fire and emitted thick smoke, There were also some cannonballs that smashed into the city wall and exploded directly, flying out countless red pieces of fire.

"How can the stone bullets of the officers and soldiers be on fire?" Meng Haigong and his wife naturally screamed again.

"It's not a stone bomb, it's a fire bomb." Li Mi said calmly: "Hollow out the trunk, pour it full of red-hot charcoal, seal it and throw it with a trebuchet, hit it there and start a fire, it's not strange that there is something on "Mozi Beicheng". But be careful, the next target of the officers and soldiers will definitely be our castle tower. ”

Li Mi finally miscalculated this time, the Sui army team just threw a round of primitive incendiary bombs, ignited the firewood and grass at the city gate, and then immediately threw ordinary stone bombs again, bombarding the thief defenders on the city wall, the city gate has been piled up more than a zhang high firewood and grass quickly ignited a sky-high fire, the flames rose five or six zhang high, roasted the skin of the thief soldiers on the city wall, forced to retreat or dodge left and right, at the same time, the iron wrapped city gate was also burned red, the gap smoked, the thief army guards desperately poured water on the door to cool down, Try your best to protect the city gate - the cost of the city gate is not comparable to that of ordinary doors, and the process is also very complicated, and it is extremely difficult to manufacture, so of course you have to do your best to keep it.

At this point in the battle, although the siege tactics of the Sui army were all expected by Li Mi, and the defenders of Menghai City did not show any flaws to give the Sui army a chance to break the city, Li Mi knew that this was only the beginning, and the Sui army that only sent troops to attack the city at noon would definitely not really exert its strength until the evening, and the real test was still ahead. So when the city gate official came to report that the fire was too big and the city gate was difficult to protect, Li Mi immediately built a sandbag and earth and stone to completely block the city gate, Meng Haigong hesitated for a long time, and repeatedly asked whether the city gate could be saved, so he gritted his teeth and ordered: "Block the city gate!" ”

The city gate officer took the order to go, but as soon as he walked on the front foot, a herald ran from the north gate, saying that the Sui army outside the north gate was strange, not only did not launch an attack on the city, but also began to erect fences and dig trenches, Jiang Shanhe, the guard of the north gate, felt that the situation was wrong, but he couldn't guess the Sui army's intentions, so he had to report to Meng Haigong for instructions. When Li Mi heard the surprise, he hurriedly asked to go to the north gate to check the situation, but Meng Haigong refused to agree, and shouted: "You stay here, you don't have to worry about the north gate, it's best if the officials and soldiers don't attack the city, they want to dig a trench as they want, and send some people to fill it in one night." ”

Drinking Li Mi, the right-hand man in tactics, Meng Haigong ordered Jiang Shanhe to ignore the actions of the officials and soldiers, Li Mi had no choice but to continue to stay in the main battlefield of the South Gate, but he was very puzzled in his heart, and said secretly: "No, the soldiers' siege is right to encircle the three queyi, Meng Haigong, this idiot only opened two main gates for safety, since Chen Yingliang's thieves stormed the south gate, he should deliberately relax at the north gate, why did he let the officers and soldiers dig up the trench tree fence?" Want to trap us completely and kill us all after breaking through the south gate? This thief has so much self-confidence? ”

The sun is gradually setting in the west, the fire under the city wall is still burning, and the Sui army auxiliaries are still desperately transporting firewood and grass to increase the fire at the city gate, but fortunately, the city gate road has been completely blocked, and Li Mi and Meng Haigong don't need to worry about the official army directly entering the city from the city gate. As soon as the second quarter of the unitary hour arrived, the Sui army's trebuchets, which had been throwing stones, suddenly stopped dropping bombs, and while taking turns dragging the rope gunners, they pushed the trebuchets forward and rearranged them near the city wall. Seeing this scene, Li Mi immediately shouted: "Chen Yingliang's thief is about to exert his strength, record, please order the whole army to be on strict alert!" Rotate the archers, just in case. ”

Meng Haigong hurriedly nodded in agreement, and hurriedly ordered the whole army to be on alert, and rotated the archers to replace the bow team that had already fallen, Li Mi continued to nervously observe the movements of the Sui army, and sure enough, when the Sui army's trebuchet team approached the edge of the range of the bow and arrow of the city wall, even the cannon body was not fixed, and the new cannonballs were immediately sent with a wheelbarrow, Li Mi hurriedly stared wide-eyed, but only vaguely saw that those new cannonballs still seemed to be some tree trunks, Li Mi's heart couldn't help but secretly said: "Could it be that Chen Xiaothief's weapon that can make a loud noise is also like a fire bomb, packed in a hollowed-out tree trunk? ”

New shells were loaded into the horse's cheeks (spoons) at the top of the throwing arms, and many trebuchets did not even need to adjust the angle of fire, and directly pulled the rope to throw the cannonballs, and only a few trebuchets closer to the city gate adjusted slightly and smashed the cannonballs into the towers. Seeing this situation, Li Mi's heart also rose to his throat, and he said in his heart: "Chen Xiaothief's new weapon is finally here." Come on, if I'm afraid of you, I won't call Master Li! ”

There was a bang and bang, and new cannonballs smashed into the city one after another, smashing into the city tower, but the thunderous noise that Li Mi was most worried about did not appear unexpectedly, on the contrary, the sound of the cannonballs falling to the ground was not as good as ordinary stone bullets - just countless red charcoal flying out! Li Mi's eyes almost popped out of his sockets all of a sudden, and he exclaimed, "It's still a fire bomb!" What the hell is Chen Yingliang's thief, why is it still a fire bomb?! ”

"Fuck you!" Meng Haigong also scolded like a pig, yelling: "Extinguish the fire!" Put out the fire! Don't let the fire burn! ”

In order to rescue valuable housing, military houses and tents, the thieves hurriedly carried buckets of water to put out fires everywhere, but the city tower that had been roasted very dry under the city soon ignited a skyrocketing fire, Meng Haigong, who was distressed that the city tower was difficult to build, yelled and ordered the soldiers to carry water to extinguish the fire, Li Mi was closely staring at the Sui army outside the city, constantly calculating and analyzing Chen Yingliang's true intentions, and there was no time to be distracted.

Sure enough, when the Sui army trebuchet desperately threw incendiary bombs, a team of Sui troops really pushed the ladder cart out of the battle, Li Mi snorted coldly in his heart, knowing that Chen Yingliang wanted to take advantage of the chaos to attack the city, and at the same time, there were also some fires at the north gate, it was reported that the Sui army suddenly shot rockets into the city, Li Mi was not worried, but let Meng Haigong order to extinguish the fire with all his might, and definitely not let a private house be burned down.

The Sui army team seems to be addicted to arson, setting fire to the north and south gates of Menghai City, and also sent a large number of archers to attack the east and west positions without the city gates, throwing a large number of rockets into the city, coupled with the strong wind in the evening, the result really ignited some houses and barracks, forcing the thief army and their families to put out fires everywhere, and there was a lot of chaos. In this regard, Meng Haigong and his wife, who had spent countless efforts and money in this city, of course scolded him, while Li Mi quietly continued to observe the enemy's situation, knowing that the tricks of his old opponent Chen Yingliang were definitely not finished, and there were more hardships and hardships waiting for him.

Li Mi miscalculated again this time, and more than half an hour passed quickly, and when the sky gradually darkened, the Sui army still did not have any new moves, and still kept throwing fire bombs - occasionally they simply threw in a few barrels of flammable tung oil, constantly creating fires in the city, and there were no other new moves, and the Sui army teams pushing ladder carts and carrying flying ladders out of the battle were also always on standby, as if they were still waiting for the fighters to appear.

The city tower with obvious targets had already turned into a huge fire ball at this moment, and Meng Haigong and his wife, who were like knives, had been forced to give up the useless splashing of water to put out the fire, but at this time, a herald rushed up the city wall and said to Meng Haigong: "I don't know why, our well suddenly ran out of water. ”

"Out of water? How can it be? Meng Haigong shook his head and said casually: "The culvert is blocked? Cannot......? ”

"What did you say?!"

Before Meng Haigong's words were finished, Li Mi, who had come back to his senses, was already like a mad dog, and suddenly pounced in front of the herald, grabbed his collar with both hands and lifted him up directly, and shouted with red eyes and asked, "The well is out of water?" Is one well out of water, or is all the wells out of water? Say it! Say! ”

"If all the wells are out of water, I don't know." The herald was taken aback by Li Mi's madness, and hurriedly pointed to a location in the city and said, "It's that place, five or six wells in a row have run out of water!" ”

Li Miru was struck by lightning and immediately stood on the spot, and at the same time, some thieves rushed up the city wall quickly, and nervously shouted to Meng Haigong: "Oh no! Oh no! Meng Lushi, it's a big deal! The gourd river is dry! The Hulu River is suddenly out of water! There is no water at all! ”

"The Hulu River is out of water? How can it be?! ”

Meng Haigong screamed like a wounded beast, and hurriedly rushed into the city to check the situation next to the Hulu River. Li Mi sat on the ground, hammered the ground and cried, "I've been tricked!" I totally hit the nail on the head this time! Chen Xiaothief's siege is fake, and the so-called new siege weapons are also fake, his real purpose is to cover his action to cut off the water source! Treacherous thief, you are so ruthless, you even deliberately set fire to make us waste a lot of water stored in the city! Your heart is really blacker than ink, more poisonous than a snake and scorpion! ”

Crying hysterically, Li Mi frantically hammered the rough ground, annoyed by his carelessness to the extreme, and regretted that he was misled by Chen Yingliang to the extreme, his fist hammered and bleed on the rough ground, but Li Mi, whose heart was like a knife, did not feel the slightest pain. At this time, a hand was placed on Li Mi's shoulder, and Yang Jishan's familiar voice also came, saying, "Master, don't be sad, the matter has come to this point, and it is useless to regret it." Let's think about countermeasures, is it a breakthrough, or a decisive battle? ”

…………

Almost at the same time, Yuan Tiangang, who was covered in mud, also galloped back to the Sui army's banner array, reporting to Zhang Xutuo and Chen Yingliang that the tactic of diverting water and diverting the route had been successful, and at the same time, the scouts also galloped back to report that the Hulu River had been completely cut off. Hearing these good news, Zhang Xutuo not only did not rejoice, but on the contrary, he was extremely quiet, sitting next to the handsome case for a long time without saying a word, Yuan Tiangang was a little anxious, and hurriedly urged: "Dashuai, please order the mouth of the Hulu River to be blocked immediately." The dam of the Makeng River will not last long, if the dam suddenly collapses and the river water backs up into the Hulu River, the Menghai Gong thief army will have several days of water to drink. ”

Zhang Xutuo nodded, opened his mouth and nodded He Yanyu's name, he wanted to act according to the plan slowly, but when the words came to his mouth, he still couldn't help but yell, "Do according to the plan!" Completely block the estuary for the old man, and never let a drop of water pour into the gourd river! ”

"Order!"

He Yanyu agreed, and immediately rushed down to lead the troops to the mouth of the river to block the river. Zhang Xutuo slowly stood up and said to Yuan Tiangang: "Mr. Yuan, it's hard work, the old man will thank you on behalf of the soldiers who sacrificed before, this time, the old man finally has the opportunity to avenge them." ”

"The big handsome man has said it, the students are eating the money of the county, and they should be effective, and they dare not say thank you." Yuan Tiangang calmly bowed his hands modestly.

Zhang Xutuo arched his hand again, looked up at the sky, sighed first, and then said softly: "Chen Tongshou, thank you." ”

"The old general is polite, serving the imperial court, and the younger generation is duty-bound." Chen Yingliang is pretended to be modest.

Seeing that Zhang Xutuo finally thanked Chen Yingliang, knowing that the estrangement between the two had been removed, Yang Wang, who invited Chen Yingliang to come here to help in the battle with his personal reputation, of course laughed, patted Chen Yingliang's shoulder and just complimented, and then suddenly remembered a big event, and hurriedly said: "By the way, we only thought about how to cut off the water before, and didn't consider the weather, what if it rains heavily these days?" Aren't we going to waste all our work? ”

"Yang Tongshou, can you say something auspicious?" Zhang Xutuo said with some dissatisfaction: "Look at this starry sky, how can it rain?" ”

"Uncle, please rest assured, regarding the weather, in fact, the little nephew has already considered it." Chen Yingliang smiled and said: "Although the little nephew doesn't understand Zhou Yi Tianxiang, there happens to be a master in this area by the little nephew's side, and he is still the number one master in the world!" ”

"By the way, how did I forget Mr. Yuan?" Yang Wang patted his head and hurriedly asked Yuan Tiangang, "Mr. Yuan, judging from the celestial phenomena, will it rain heavily here during this time?" ”

Yuan Tiangang smiled and didn't rush to say the answer, but just took out the three bright copper coins that never left his body, threw them on the handsome table, and said with a smile: "The answer is this, the word is yang and yin, volcano brigade!" ”

Yang Wang was surprised to pay attention to the hexagram, and saw that Yuan Tiangang threw copper coins six times in a row, and it turned out to be really the Yang Yin Yang Yin Yin Volcano Brigade, Yang Wang was even more shocked, and said with wide eyes: "Volcano Brigade? How is it really a volcano travel hexagram? ”

"What is the Volcano Traveler? What about the good and the bad? Zhang Xutuo, who didn't understand Zhou Yi, asked curiously.

"Good luck!" Yang Wang, the former president of Dasui National University, replied: "The fire is burning in the mountains, burning and not stopping, the fire is constantly spreading forward, we have cut off the water source of the thief army, and hope that the scorching sun will continue to be continuous, according to the hexagram interpretation is the great luck of the upper and upper - however, how can Mr. Yuan say that it is a volcano brigade, it is really a volcano brigade?" ”

Yuan Tiangang smiled but didn't answer, and Ma Sanbao on the other side came up and said with a surprised expression: "Mr. Yuan, no wonder you used your left hand to cover your right hand in divination before, but today I finally saw it, it turns out that you are also a master of the same way!" ”

As he spoke, Ma Sanbao took out three dice from his arms that never left his body, and suddenly threw them with a light turn of his fingers, shouting: "One, two, three!" ”

The dice turned, gradually stopped, and the result was really three points, one, two, three. Yuan Tiangang smiled, picked up the dice and turned his fingers lightly, and suddenly threw it, saying, "Four, five, six!" ”

The dice quickly turned and gradually stopped, and the result was really four, five or six, the three points, everyone was in an uproar, and a white hand reached out and picked up the three dice, everyone looked up in surprise, but found that the person who picked up the dice was Chen Yingliang, and then Chen Yingliang only didn't speak, quietly flicked the dice with his fingers, and then suddenly thrown, then smiled, "Three six!" ”

The dice settled, and everyone in the Sui army present also screamed again, and Ma Sanbao once again widened his eyes and exclaimed: "Tongshou, why are you also a master in this area?" ”

"I was forced to learn some of them for some special reasons." Chen Yingliang smiled and said: "Although I have never been interested in gambling, I seem to be very talented in this area. ”

Stunned to see the performance of Chen Yingliang and others, Yang Wang opened his mouth for a long time, and suddenly shouted to the generals of Liang County next to him: "Pass on the old man's general's order, if there is a gamble with the friendly army of Qian County, all of them will be engaged in military law, and they will not be spared!" Sue the people below, the old man is for their good! ”

"No!" The generals of Liang County agreed neatly, and their attitude was as resolute as if they were about to dare to charge to the death. The generals of Qi County next to him were sweating like rain, completely dispelling the idea of taking revenge on the gambling table, and vowed never to gamble with the friendly army of Qian County again, Mulan also muttered in a low voice, "A group of liars!" ”