Cao Cao also stayed up all night, and the sudden appearance of the archers disrupted Cao Cao's steps at once, making Cao Cao very worried about whether Liu Ze's reinforcements had arrived, but the news of the sentry horse coming back made Cao Cao feel more at ease, the cavalry that came by surprise this time was just Liu Ze's vanguard, although Liu Ze's reinforcements had already set off from Jingzhou, but when they arrived in Xuzhou, they would have to have at least ten more days to break Xiapi City, would it take ten days?

Cao Cao's face was filled with a confident smile, this time he did play a trick on Liu Ze's full-line attack, a three-way army, 300,000 horses, in parallel, and launched an attack on Xiangyang, Runan, and Xuzhou at the same time, Liu Ze really wanted to find out his real main target It was not an easy task. Cao Cao had a thorough understanding of Liu Ze's defense system in Xuzhou, and he keenly discovered the defects of Xuzhou's pinzig-shaped defensive position at a glance, that is, the Huafei trail directly attacked Pengcheng, and the so-called pinzi-shaped defense was self-defeating. So Cao Cao mobilized troops in Yanzhou with great fanfare, and sent Xu Chu to lead 30,000 elite soldiers to infiltrate Taishan County, after Cao Cao arrived in Qian County, he mysteriously played missing, secretly arrived in Taishan County, in Xiahou Le Jin frontal attack Xiaopei, Xu Huang led the Qingzhou Army to besiege Kaiyang, Cao Cao and Xu Chu were already brave the drizzle on the Huafei Trail to Pengcheng.

Cao Cao's plan went very smoothly, and Mi Fang's surrender without a fight made Cao Cao's plan perfect, Cao Cao calculated that Gao Shun would definitely not be willing to lose Pengcheng, and would definitely lead Xiaopei's army to counterattack Pengcheng, so he would set up an ambush in Chihongkou. In one fell swoop, he killed Liu Ze's Xuzhou general, Gao Shun, and took the four northern counties of Xuzhou by chance, and the first stage of the Battle of Xuzhou was victorious.

Immediately afterwards, Cao Cao waved his army south, surrounded by troops, and the army of nearly 200,000 faced less than 50,000 defenders, which was completely a contest of disparity in strength. And the strong walls of Xiapi City? Cao Cao smiled lightly, since Liu Ye invented the new trebuchet in Guandu, any strong and indestructible city wall was a floating cloud in Cao Cao's eyes, and the big stones were whistling. No amount of strong walls could withstand its attacks. Will Xiapi City be an exception?

Ten days? Maybe it won't take ten days at all, Cao Cao's army can set foot on the city of Picheng, and even drink horses on the banks of the Yangtze River, what is the use of Liu Ze rushing to Xuzhou. It's just a sigh of hope.

The sky has revealed the whiteness of the fish's belly. Another sleepless night. However, Cao Cao was not sleepy, and he was ready to wait for the decisive battle of Tianming.

The morning fog gradually lifted. Cao Cao's army pressed down on Picheng in the dark, and at the forefront of the troops, thirty-two strong men in a group, barearmed, shouting trumpets, carried a behemoth of wooden shelves and struggled forward. These wooden shelves are trebuchets, which are different from the wheeled catapults used by the Jing army, there are no wheels under it, and dozens of strong men have to rely on dozens of strong men to carry it, but compared to the catapults of the Jing army, the trebuchets of the Cao army are more massive, more than ten zhang high, and the stones that can be thrown are larger and the range is longer. The city wall of Jizhou can be called one of the strongest in the world, but under the repeated bombardment of trebuchets, it collapsed without holding on for two days, with such a siege weapon, Cao Cao really didn't know what city walls in the world could block his advance.

Zhang He stood on the top of the city, and saw that Cao Jun had sacrificed the magic weapon of attacking the city, and he had not seen the catapult, nor was he surprised at all, but what he had in his hand was something that Cao Cao had never seen, and its power was ten times stronger than that of the catapult.

Seeing that Cao Bing carried the trebuchet to a place a thousand steps away from the city wall and placed the trebuchet on the flat ground, the trebuchet drivers nervously adjusted it again and made the final deployment of the trebuchet. A thousand steps is a distance beyond the reach of any bow and arrow, bed crossbow, including the catapult of the Jing army, Cao Bing believes that this is a safe range, so on the left and right of the trebuchet, there is no protective measure at all, Cao Cao and other generals of the Cao army are standing farther away, waiting for the moment when the trebuchet will wield its might.

Zhang He smiled coldly and ordered the soldiers to remove the red cloth from the city wall. When the red cloth was lifted, a cylindrical cast iron creature revealed its true face, thick at the back and thin at the front, with a black hole at the forefront.

These are the artillery pieces that Ma Jun painstakingly built, because they are usually covered with red cloth, and the gunners gave them a nice name, called the Red Cannon. On the four walls of Xiapi City, twenty of these red-coated cannons were placed on each side, and the gun bodies were placed on shelves, and the gunners could operate the wheels of the lifting racks to adjust the height of the muzzles.

Cao Bing also seemed to notice the black holes, but even if they racked their brains, they couldn't think of the use of Jing Jun to launch these things, the trebuchets were still busy nervously, making the final preparations, and the faster trebuchets had already completed the commissioning work, and were laboriously loading the stones the size of grinding discs onto the trebuchet.

This boulder was thrown up, drawing a beautiful arc in the air, roaring and smashing into the city wall of Xia Picheng, with a shocking sound, the boulder smashed the city wall, and it was obvious that the city wall was shaking violently.

The soldiers of Cao's army immediately let out a thunderous shout, overwhelming the mountains and seas, all cheering and excited, as if the walls of Xiapi City had collapsed with a bang.

But none of them noticed that the iron guys on the city wall seemed to be emitting wisps of green smoke, and after a few breaths, there was a "boom", and the black hole spewed out flames several feet long, and a black ball the size of a large porcelain bowl flew at the speed of electric light and flint towards the trebuchet that had just thrown the stone. Before they could understand what it was, there was a loud "boom", the fire burst out, black smoke billowed out, and there was no trace of the abbot. After a while, the smoke of gunpowder dissipated, and the officers and soldiers of Cao were surprised to find that the trebuchet that was still majestic had been scattered into a pile of rotten wood at this time, and it was scattered all over the place, and what was even worse was that those trebuchet hands and soldiers died several on the spot, and the other few who did not die were also broken hands and feet, wailing and crying there, and their limbs were scattered all over the place, and their condition was unbearable.

When the officers and soldiers of Cao were stunned, the cannons on the city wall once again became powerful, the cannonballs whistled over their heads, and the "boom" explosions came and went, whether they fell in the crowd or on the trebuchet, the screams and shouts were endless, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and shrapnel flew sideways.

History will always remember this day, the first time that mankind has moved from the age of cold weapons to the age of hot weapons, and this day will forever be recorded in history. (To be continued......)