On the morning of April 24 of the lunar calendar of the seventh year of the calendar, the camp of the Han army gradually began to be lively. According to the strategy agreed by the army the day before, today the Han army, which had camped north of Dabaoshu and rushed from the bottle-shaped fortress, would carry out a tentative attack on this military fortress. Therefore, after having breakfast early, Yang Lai and his generals led a large group of personal soldiers from the camp in the south of the big fort to the north camp.

The chief general of the battalion in the north, Bao Hui, the deputy general of the bottle-shaped bar, welcomed Yang Ye and others into his tent. After entering the account, everyone greeted each other as usual, and Yang Ye asked about the preparations for the attack here. Bao Hui immediately said that the troops and horses of the headquarters were ready, and the siege equipment had been properly built, and he only waited for the commander to give an order, and then he would kill the big fort, and he would definitely destroy all the enemies in the fort.

Although I know that what Vice General Bao said is just some rhetoric, it may not be what it will look like when it comes to a real fight. However, Yang Ye only didn't know, but instead said a lot of words of encouragement and praise, which made Vice General Bao very happy - if he knew that this tentative attack was only the result of a compromise between his commander Yang Ye and the enemy's senior leaders, I don't know if he would scold Yang Ye for using his own people as cannon fodder.

After the polite words are over, the official tone is finished, and then it is time to show the real skills and show the real guys. As the commander of the first army, Yang Ye was not as kind as he was just now at this time, he walked to the table and sat down, and gave Bao Hui the order to start attacking with a serious expression.

Bao Hui was not ambiguous, and immediately accepted the order, and then turned around and strode out of the big tent. Not long after Bao Hui came out of the tent, the camp became noisy, and the soldiers from the bottle began to assemble. Yang Ye and the others couldn't sit still in the big tent at this time, and everyone went out of the big tent together and came to the left side of the camp gate. I saw that Bao Hui and his 3,000 soldiers had already assembled outside the gate of their own camp, ready to obey the orders of their commanders at any time, and rushed to the big fort that had not moved since last night.

Yang Ye was still very satisfied with the military appearance and morale of the bottle-shaped soldiers, he nodded slightly, and led the generals to the watchtower in the camp, and gave the order to start the attack. With Yang Ye's order issued, a flag-bearer on the watchtower waved a flaming red flag. With the shaking of the red flag, the soldiers of the Han army lined up outside the camp began to move under the leadership of Bao Hui, heading towards the direction of the fortress wall.

Because they had not fought with the enemy troops in the fort before, and the soldiers who escaped from the fort to report the news were also a little nervous because they were bombarded, and they could not answer the questions neatly at all, so until now, including Yang Ye, all the generals knew nothing about the combat effectiveness of the 2,000 enemy troops in the fort, and they all hoped that they could get first-hand information through this trial attack. And Yang Ye also hoped to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about the advantages of the army built by his righteous brother and his brothers, so that the righteous brother took the risk of being discovered and caught by the sentinels at night, and came to his dormitory to tell himself the benefits and disadvantages, and persuaded him to withdraw from the army. Therefore, from the time when the Han army outside the camp began to move, the eyes of all the generals on the watchtower were focused on this team of nearly three thousand people.

Due to the large number of siege equipment such as building carts and ladders in the team, the speed of the siege troops was not fast. The distance from the gate of the camp to the north gate of the big fort was 700 paces, and it took them nearly a pillar of incense to walk halfway. Although the marching speed was slow due to the large number of siege engines they carried, the besieging Han army did not worry about being attacked by the other side. Because according to the previous investigation, the enemy army in the fort only had two or three hundred cavalry, and behind him, the number of horseback soldiers brought here by the commander and other generals alone far exceeded this number. In the eyes of all the Han soldiers who participated in the siege, the most dangerous area was between a hundred and two hundred and fifty paces from the fort wall, which was the range of crossbows and bows. And now the team was still more than 350 steps away from the fort wall, and except for a few heavy crossbows, no weapon could shoot so far - such an idea came not only from ordinary soldiers, but even Bao Hui and even Yang Ye, who had seen primitive firearms, also thought the same way. Therefore, although the big war was imminent, the mood of the soldiers of the Han army who participated in the attack was relatively relaxed.

At this moment, Yang Ye, who had been paying attention to the movement on the fortress wall, suddenly found that three bright red light points rose from the inside of the big fort and flew straight into the air. Behind the three red points of light was a white tail, which rose a certain height in the air before staggering slightly, and then began to slowly descend again. If you listen closely, you can still hear a slight whistling. ,

Such a strange thing made Yang Ye and his generals puzzled, and they couldn't understand what the enemy troops in the fort were doing. One of Yang Ye's generals was trying to ask his young but well-informed commander for advice. At this time, a few bright lights suddenly flashed on the fortress wall facing the direction of the besieging Han army, and then six thick clouds of smoke burst out in the array of the besieging Han army. A moment later, several dull explosions reached everyone's ears. The sudden change caused the general to swallow back the words that came to his lips, and he regained his concentration to observe the movement ahead. It turned out that the situation on the battlefield had changed dramatically. Around those clouds of rising smoke, many Han soldiers were lying down. Although it is not very real to see from a distance, judging from the appearance of them falling to the ground and the reactions of the soldiers around them, these people may have become corpses.

Such a change not only shocked the general who was about to ask questions, but also stunned all the other generals who saw this scene. The only person who can make a relatively reasonable judgment on this kind of change is Yang Ye, who has seen the use of firearms and has a relatively comprehensive understanding of the use of firearms by the "Shenji Army" of the Zhou State in Huainan.

Yang Ye knew very well that it was with this magical and brand-new weapon that the Zhou army was able to conquer the Jiancheng Shouzhou, which had not been conquered for several months, within a few hours. It was precisely with this weapon that the Zhou army was able to go so smoothly in the second expedition to Huainan, and many cities were almost captured without blood.

However, based on Yang Ye's understanding of gunpowder packs, in order to use this weapon, a large number of long-range weapons such as stone throwers and bed crossbows are required. From his observation of the fort yesterday, the enemy troops in the fort were not equipped with these weapons - although the watchtower was far away from the fort, a large creature like a stone thrower that could not be hidden at all could still be detected.

Thinking of this, another weapon popped up in Yang Ye's mind - artillery. This is also a new weapon of the "Shenji Army" of the Zhou State, which was also used in the battle of the Zhou army to capture Huainan. However, judging from the description of the spies, this cannon can only fire solid iron bullets or lead bullets, and will not burst like a gunpowder bag, and it is not the same as the weapon used by the "Wyvern Army" in the fort just now, but I am afraid that this is another novel and powerful weapon.

"It seems that this is another new weapon created by the eldest brother," Yang Ye thought to himself, and said it to himself. As soon as the words came out, he realized that something was wrong, because if they were heard by others, they might cause unnecessary trouble. However, Yang Ye soon found that his worries were unnecessary, as the other generals had not even noticed what their boss had just said, and their attention had been completely attracted by the new changes on the battlefield.

Just when Yang Ye was thinking about what kind of novel weapon the "Flying Dragon Army" on the opposite side was using, the Han army array, which was a little chaotic because of the sudden attack, was reorganized under the command of generals at all levels, and continued to move towards Dabao after a short pause.

However, the reorganized Han army had only walked less than ten steps, and bad luck struck again. With a slight "hiss, hiss" sound coming from the air, a huge roar similar to that just now resounded in the Han army array. However, unlike the last six explosions, this time the sound of explosions has decreased slightly, but the number of explosions has far exceeded that of more than 20 times. Moreover, unlike the last time when the Han army still had enough time to form after the last six explosions, this explosion only stopped slightly after the first twenty or so explosions, and then appeared almost continuously—during which our slightly larger explosions would also be added from time to time, causing more serious casualties.

In an instant, the entire Han army array was almost shrouded in thick smoke, except for the muffled sound and the screams of the soldiers who could be faintly heard, and the pungent smell of gunpowder smoke that gradually became obvious, the Han army generals on the watchtower basically could not see the specific situation in the military formation.

Although the soldiers of the artillery battalion fought very happily, Qian Yuanshan only gave them five minutes to shoot for the sake of protecting their equipment. Therefore, after about five minutes of continuous shelling, the artillerymen, who were still in their possession, had to stop firing. Leave the rest of the battle to the infantry brethren on the fort wall - if there are any Han soldiers who survive the shelling and continue to storm the fort wall.

It should be said that the vitality of human beings is still very tenacious at times. When the smoke on the battlefield cleared, the soldiers of the "Flying Dragon Army" in the fort were surprised to find that the dense phalanx of 3,000 people, after suffering five minutes of intensive shelling, there were really some Han soldiers who were lucky enough to survive and stand up.

The remnants of the Han army numbered about three or four hundred men, and although they all appeared to be wounded, at least most of them still had weapons in their hands. Although he also admired the tenacity of the other party's vitality, his own responsibilities made Qian Yuanshan have no time to sigh. He was also standing on the tall watchtower, and waved the small red flag in his hand twice downward. With his movements, the Ranger squad, which had long been ready to go, under the leadership of Muttle, rushed out of the north gate of the Great Fort at a gallop, killing the remnants of the Han army who had not yet recovered from the shock of the shelling.

Yang Ye was worthy of being a battle-hardened general, although he was also shocked by the overwhelming artillery bombardment just now, but when he saw the opponent's cavalry rushing out of the fort gate, he still reacted in the shortest possible time, and immediately ordered those personal guards cavalry on his side to go to support his infantry.

The Han cavalry who went out of the camp to support were all personal soldiers of Yang Ye or other senior generals, and both their combat experience and psychological quality far exceeded that of ordinary Han soldiers. Therefore, although they were also shocked by the shelling just now, after the order to attack was given, they still returned to their normal combat state as quickly as possible and rushed out of the Han camp.

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