Early the next morning.

Because the camp was so damaged that it was not in shape, most of the garrisons outside the city entered the city, leaving only part of the vigilance troops to prevent the Qingzhou army from going and returning, sneaking under the city wall and blasting the city wall.

In fact, after yesterday's battle, the Cao army was full of confidence, feeling that it was unlikely that the Qingzhou army would come back to send them to death, and when the grain and grass supplies in the rear were delivered, they might have to counterattack the past.

On the way from Rencheng to Gaotang, although there are many city walls, but with a thunderbolt, what is the city wall? The speed of the counterattack may not be much slower than the speed of the Qingzhou army.

When the time comes, there will be police in Gaotang, and the Qingzhou Army will be difficult to take care of, won't it be clear who will die in this big war?

The truth is true, but things in the world often don't necessarily follow the truth. As soon as the sky was bright, a rapid horn sound came from outside the city, waking up all the generals of the Cao army who were drowning in sleep.

"What's going on?" Xiahou Yuan rubbed his eyes and asked dissatisfied.

He was dreaming, in the dream, he captured Zhang Liao, beheaded Huang Zhong, and led the army to sweep all the counties and counties in Qingzhou, all the way to Gaotang. Before he could dream of what to do with Wang Yu's family after he caught him, he was woken up by the sound of horns outside the city, and of course he was very unhappy.

"General, warning outside the city, the Qingzhou army has come back again, and it has reached five miles north of the city, and it is attacking at the same time."

"Again? How can it be? Xiahou Yuan patted his cheek, thinking if he hadn't woken up, and listened, the enemy army was defeated so badly yesterday, and it came back so quickly?

The soldier who reported the news said cautiously: "General, it's true." General Lu has already led people out of the city to set up the defensive line, and he will send someone to ask you when he leaves. Is it better to push the Thunderbolt out as soon as possible? ”

"Well, Zike's concerns are reasonable. Maybe Zhang Liao and Huang Zhong fought this idea, wanting to block the thunderbolt in the city. Xiahou Yuan sobered up a lot, rubbed his face, and ordered: "Pass my general order, order Mancheng to command the slinging troops, and line up fifty steps outside the city, Zi Ke will lead the crossbowmen to cover, there must be no mistake, and a certain will come later." ”

"Whoa." The guards took the order and left.

Xiahou Yuan sat on the couch. After thinking about it carefully, he felt that his arrangement should be fine, even if the other party also had a big killer like a thunderbolt, he could advance and retreat freely. Thinking about this festival, I washed and dressed myself and led the army to battle.

When Xiahou Yuan led his troops out of the city, he found that the two armies outside the city were facing each other, but there was no sign of fighting. Seeing Lu Qian coming from afar, Xiahou Yuan asked in a deep voice, "Zike." What's going on right now? ”

Lu Qian clenched his fists and replied: "The Qingzhou army is coming quickly, and when the last general leaves the city, they will be in their current position." The last general was still worried about whether they would rush up in one go. In an attempt to block the thunderbolt in the city, they did not take any further action, and their movements were very suspicious. ”

"There may not be anything suspicious."

Xiahou Yuan looked at the strict formation under Lu Qian and Li Dian. I put down most of my mind first, and shook my head disappreciatively. Said: "The Qingzhou army withdrew twenty miles yesterday, and even the camp outside the city was abandoned. It's so early today, how much time do you have to rest? If you attack non-stop, even if you break through the defense line you have laid out, isn't it the end of the crossbow? ”

He sneered: "The art of war is cloudy, one drum, then decline, three and exhaustion, and now although the Qingzhou army has not reached the time of exhaustion, but I see that its military spirit and morale have been lost, there is no need to worry, when a drum is broken, pass on my general order ......" was waiting to give the order for the whole army to attack, Xiahou Yuan was suddenly stunned, and asked in surprise: "Hey, what is that?" ”

Lu Qian glanced at it and replied hesitantly: "The general also saw those wooden frames?" The last general was also wondering, and he didn't know what it was, so he discussed it with Mancheng and felt that it was similar to the Thunderbolt......"

The wooden frame made of thick timber seems to be in the shape of a square cone, and the craftsmen are still passing the direction of the logs, and neither Lu Qian nor Li Dian are sure what it is, but they are not building a camp or a watchtower.

Looking at the wood and iron parts, it seems that they are all custom-made, as long as they are tenoned and then tied and reinforced, they are the finished product. The shelves were built quickly, and the height was already more than seven feet, and there were people who hung two cylindrical wooden cages on both sides of the wooden frames.

Aside from the lack of wheels, the shape of this wooden frame is indeed very similar to the superstructure of a Thunderbolt. Lu Qian had the heart to propose to invite Ma Jun to take a look, but yesterday he also saw Xiahou Yuan's dissatisfaction with Ma Jun, and he didn't dare to propose rashly at this time, for fear of annoying the other party.

“…… Come on, go and invite Dr. Ma to come! Xiahou Yuan was silent for a moment, his face changed, and finally sent someone to invite Ma Jun.

Seeing the tall wooden frames on the opposite side, he also felt a burst of shock, and had an ominous premonition, and he didn't dare to wave his army directly to rush forward. At this moment when he led his army out of the city to line up, the thing seemed to be finished, no one was passing materials to it, and the craftsmen on the wooden frame were only doing the final adjustments.

Ma Jun came quickly, seeing that his eyes were dark and his eyes were red, he was busy for most of the night, and put his experience on the research and imitation of the ballista.

Seeing this, Xiahou Yuan couldn't help but regret slightly, if he got along with this person more harmoniously, and ordered him to recuperate and go out of the city with Lu Qian, maybe he could make a judgment earlier, and then take corresponding countermeasures.

"Dr. Ma, what do you think of this?"

"This ...... Also, catapults. Ma Jun quickly gave the answer.

"Also?" Xiahou Yuan was stunned, and then asked, "Then which thing is stronger than our army's thunderbolt?" ”

"Thunderbolt is not as good as it."

"......" Ma Jun replied so happily that Xiahou Yuan was a little distracted for a while, and it took a long time to come back to his senses, and he asked urgently: "How about it?" How much worse is that? What's the difference? ”

"The principle of the catapult is to rely on the lever transmission, the longer the throwing rod, the greater the force, the thunderbolt is built on the vehicle, since it is not as good as directly on the ground. How much is the difference, you have to measure it specifically to know ......"

"Rotten Confucianism is bad for me!" How could Xiahou Yuan have the patience to listen to Ma Jun popularize the knowledge of Gewu? He pushed Ma Jun away and shouted: "Order, march!" ”

There are more thunderbolts on his side, but the range is not as good as the position of the Qingzhou army, and if the large catapult in Qingzhou is stronger, it may really be able to hit more than 800 steps and directly smash the stone projectiles into the military formation. At this time, of course, you can't hesitate, rushing forward to launch a hand-to-hand combat is the king.

His decision was not unpleasant, but after all, it was a little late, and the counterweight ends of the trebuchets that had been completed first on the opposite side rose to the top and fell suddenly, and the stone projectiles at the end of the lever were thrown out at high speed, turning into a black shadow, and flying high into the air, attracting countless soldiers to look at the prime minister.

A flash of fire suddenly lit up in the sky, and people couldn't help but wonder if there was a hallucination, and the sun was still under the cover of the mountains and rivers in the east.

First, followed by those black shadows, there was a flash of fire, from a little spark to the whole burning, it was just a blink of an eye. A few black shadows turned into several large fireballs, and the orange-red flames danced, emitting thick black smoke, pulling a bright and weird arc in the air, and smashing down on Cao Jun's military formation!

The landing point is the junction of the Thunderbolt array and the army!

"Boom!" The first fireball landed on a catapult with unmistakable accuracy, and the whole fire exploded violently, like a cloud of mist, instantly filling the space of several zhang square, enveloping the entire thunderbolt and the surrounding people and slingers.

It's a long story, but it's actually a matter of lightning and flint, and no one has time to react, until the whole thunderbolt is blazing, and the soldiers who have become burning men let out a heart-rending howl, and the people around them realize what is happening.

"Help, help!"

"Quick, put out the fire!"

"It's on fire, it's on fire! Is this God's anger? ”

"Run, run for your life!"

Cao Jun was also a well-trained elite division, but under this unimaginable blow, it was still in chaos. The officers had the heart to suppress, but the fireballs falling from the sky fell one after another, and within the range of the blow, everyone was in danger, and there were screams and cries everywhere, as if the end had come, and there were still people there who could care about obeying orders?

What's more, the people who push the catapults are all people, and the catapults are all craftsmen and cameos, how can these people compare to the real elite? Under the blow of this terror, there is no way to maintain order.

Although there were not as many as two hundred catapults in the Qingzhou army, there were nearly a hundred in total, and as more and more catapults were completed and began to join the attack, the entire heaven and earth changed color.

The sky was full of flying and whistling fireballs, and the blazing fire had already outperformed the rising sun!

Dozens of fireballs fell at the same time, whether they hit the target or not, they could stir up a large cloud of fire, and the clusters were connected together, almost turning a radius of hundreds of steps into a sea of fire!

You don't need to be in it, you can feel the heat coming from more than ten steps away from this sea of fire, which makes people feel chilled. The people who were in it, even if they were not affected by the fire, as long as they saw that the top and bottom were red, and they were cornered, and they were not burned to death, they were scared half to death.

The 200 thunderbolts that had been made yesterday were all caught in flames, and because they were all wooden structures, they soon began to burn, which further fueled the fire.

Li Dian reacted fairly quickly, and pulled Ma Jun out of this death area in time. Lu Qian was dumbfounded, not knowing if he was in a dream or reality.

Xiahou Yuan, who has experienced a hundred battles, behaved the most calmly, as soon as he saw the fire, he knew that it was not good, and when the fire spread, he also made a decision immediately, shouting: "This thing can be far away, sons, kill it, break through the bow and crossbow formation, and you can win!" ”

After that, he took the lead in killing, and the guards on the left and right followed each other. Behind is the sea of fire, the main general is the first soldier again, the Cao army aroused the momentum of fighting against the water, and the 20,000 army rolled forward and swarmed up! (To be continued......)