In the early morning of the second day, Tao Leopard led an army of nearly 30,000 to kill the eastern city, and Zhang Ju's 10,000 army stayed behind in Yinling.

Yinling City and Dongcheng are more than 100 miles apart, and the main army of Peach Leopard traveled day and night, and it only took one day and one night to march to 20 miles outside the north gate of Dongcheng.

The follow-up baggage and equipment were still on the way, and Peach Leopard decided to set up camp and send scouts to reconnoiter the situation in Dongcheng, and then attack early the next morning.

As soon as the main army of Taobao was encamped twenty miles north of Dongcheng, the scouts of the Northern Expeditionary Army, who were scouting outside the city, immediately reported the situation to Han Qian.

The enemy army came so quickly, Han Qian naturally did not dare to slack off, and immediately ordered his soldiers to continue to strengthen the city wall and prepare for the attack of the peach leopard.

Since there was the Chishui River outside the south gate of the east city, it was impossible for the enemy to attack from the south gate, so Han Qian focused his defense on the other three city gates, the east, west, and north city gates, which were repaired and defended by 5,000 soldiers respectively, and the remaining nearly 5,000 soldiers were on standby in the city, ready to provide support at any time.

In the three possible directions of the enemy's attack, the terrain of the north gate was the most unfavorable for defense, so the pro-soldier battalion where Hua An was located was transferred to the north gate.

The width of the narrowest part of the north gate wall was only four feet, which was very unfavorable for the defenders to hoard the city materials, at this time, the enemy army did not attack, and Hua'an and the soldiers were widening the city wall.

They used stones and loess to widen the city from the inside, because the city wall is not very high, only about one zhang, so the amount of work to widen the city wall is not very large.

Basically, it is to pile stones on the periphery, and then fill the inside with reconciled yellow mud, so that it is good to pile up layer by layer.

After more than 5,000 soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army and thousands of people strengthened for a day, the width of the North Gate city wall was eight feet wide at the narrowest point, and the widest position was three zhang.

In the evening, when the enemy still showed no signs of attacking, Hua An and his men returned to the camp to rest after dinner.

In the tent, Hua An chatted with Thunderstorm.

"Big brother, the enemy army arrived twenty miles outside the north gate early this morning, why has there been no movement to attack the city so far." Wang San frowned and asked.

Hua An nodded and said: "This is indeed not like the style of the peach leopard, this old man is much more cautious now." ”

"Since the enemy army has already chased after us, if you don't attack the city today, you will definitely attack the city tomorrow." Zhao Wu said and touched the spear in his hand.

"That's right, the enemy army will probably attack the city tomorrow." Hua An affirmed softly.

"Hey, every time the enemy attacks the city, there are several rounds of thunderbolts, and tomorrow is coming again, I really want the enemy to taste the taste of thunderbolts." Thunderstorm said and shook his head.

Indeed, it is really uncomfortable to be overwhelmed by the thunderbolts that will explode by the enemy, and the thunderstorm is obviously fed up.

"Big brother, why doesn't our army use thunderbolts to hit the enemy, I obviously saw that thing in the camp, but I haven't used it once, and it's all become an ornament." Iron Bull shouted with some dissatisfaction.

As soon as Tie Niu shouted like this, Hua'an remembered that the camp of the Northern Expeditionary Army did have thunderbolts, but these thunderbolts were very large and were mainly used to siege the city, but since the Northern Expeditionary Army met the enemy, it has always adopted the strategy of defending the city, so these siege equipment cannot be used for a while, but it has become an ornament.

"These thunderbolts are used for siege cities, they are very large and heavy, they can't be moved on the city walls at all, how can they be used to fight the enemy." Hua An frowned and said.

When Tie Niu heard this, he suddenly said excitedly: "Big brother, we can dismantle the thunderbolt cart, transport it to the city wall and reload it, don't we." ”

"That's right! Big brother, dismantle it and transport it to the city, and then put it back on. Wang San and Thunderstorm also echoed.

Hua An raised his eyebrows, looked at Tie Niu and praised: "Tie Niu, I really don't see it, you are quite smart, I also think it is feasible." ”

"Hey, hey, hey." Tie Niu was rarely praised, and actually smiled shyly.

"We've widened the walls and should be able to accommodate these thunderbolts." Hua An frowned and analyzed, and said loudly: "Let's go, go to the baggage camp and have a look." ”

Hua An took Lei Storm, Zhao Wu, Wang San, and Tie Niu to the baggage camp, and since they had never been used, these equipment had been transported and kept by the baggage camp.

After entering the baggage battalion, Hua'an explained his intentions, and the captain of the baggage battalion happily agreed to Hua'an's request, because he was afraid that Hua'an and others would not be able to install the thunderbolts, the captain of the baggage battalion specially found the equipment soldiers who were responsible for the installation and use of these thunderbolts.

Hua'an communicated with these soldiers for a while, and they also thought that Hua'an's idea was feasible, so everyone immediately transported more than a dozen thunderbolt carts stored in the baggage battalion to the three city walls of Yinling City, among them, the north gate city wall was the most likely to be attacked, so the north gate city wall was divided into six, and the east and west city walls each had three or four.

Although these siege engines were large and heavy, it was much easier to take them apart and transport them to the city head in sections, and after they were transported to the city wall, they were evenly placed in the widest position of the north gate wall.

After installing it on the city wall, Hua'an asked the equipment soldiers to test the effect, and saw several equipment soldiers skillfully operate.

"Hoo ......"

The thunderbolt threw a large boulder violently, and after a few moments, there was a 'bang' in the distance, and it was clear that the large boulder had landed in the distance.

"It worked, it worked." The crowd burst into cheers.

"Haha! Now you don't have to be afraid of the enemy's thunderbolts. ”

"Let the enemy also taste the power of our army's thunderbolts."

Thunderstorm and Iron Bull shouted.

Hua An patted the shoulders of several soldiers and encouraged: "If the enemy army attacks the city tomorrow, you must let the enemy army taste the power of the thunderbolt." ”

"Yes, we must teach the enemy a good lesson." Several soldiers clenched their fists and replied loudly.

Several Thunderbolts have been inspected in a row, and there are no major problems, and they can be used completely, but there are only a few Thunderbolts at a city gate, which is indeed a little few.

After Hua An inspected the Thunderbolt Cars, he went to Han Qian's Chinese Army Tent and told Han Qian the news that the Thunderbolt Cars had been moved to the city, and requested that another batch of Thunderbolt Cars be built to increase the strength of the city defense, and also to prepare for the future attack on the enemy's city.

Han Qian was very happy to hear this, and ordered the craftsmen to build a thunderbolt car overnight, and asked to build a thunderbolt car suitable for defending the city according to the special requirements of defending the city.

After a night of hard work by hundreds of craftsmen, dozens of smaller thunderbolts were loaded onto the eastern part of the city, and moderately sized stones and thunderbolts were placed near each of them for easy access.

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In the early morning of the second day, Peach Leopard led the main army to slowly press towards Dongcheng, because the scouts had already reconnoitred the situation outside Dongcheng, Peach Leopard also made corresponding adjustments to the siege strategy.

Due to the existence of the moat, which had a considerable impact on the siege, the peach leopard prepared a large number of pockets and tools, preparing to fill in a few sections of the moat outside the eastern city before the siege, so that the siege troops could get close to the city wall.

At noon, the Peach Leopard army arrived not far from the north gate of the East City, because the terrain outside the north gate was the most unfavorable for defense, therefore, the peach leopard set the direction of the attack at the north gate.

In order to confuse the Northern Expeditionary Army in the city, Taobao sent two partial divisions to camp outside the east gate and the west gate respectively, and sent a small group of cavalry to create smoke behind the two large camps, so as to create the illusion that the army on three sides surrounded the east city, so as to contain the Northern Expeditionary Army to defend on three sides and reduce the pressure of frontal attack.

"General, there is a moat in the eastern city, which is extremely unfavorable to our army's attack, if we can lure the Jin army out of the city, we will definitely be able to annihilate the Jin army in one fell swoop." A ministry will build a yì road.

The corner of the peach leopard's mouth smiled disdainfully, and said in a dark voice: "It's a good plan, but it's not easy to lure the main force of the Jin army out of the city." ”

"General, the last general led 3,000 soldiers and horses to feint the north gate, the general led the main force to ambush in the rear, and the last general attacked for a while and retreated, as long as the fraud is true, it can lead the Jin army out of the city to pursue."

Although Peach Leopard felt that it would not be easy to lure the Jin army out of the city, it was okay to give it a try.

"Well, Ben will ambush here, and you will immediately lead an army of 3,000 to attack the north gate."

"Yes, General."

The general shouted loudly and led an army of 3,000 to kill the north gate of the East City.

"Big brother, the enemy is coming. The king at the head of the city shouted with a loud voice.

Hua An looked up and saw that there was indeed a large group of enemy troops in front of him, who were killing, but after a closer look, the number of enemy troops was only more than 3,000, and it was not the main army of Peach Leopard.

"It's strange, why did the peach leopard only send 3,000 troops to attack the city, with these 3,000 men and horses, it is impossible to capture the eastern city, this peach leopard should know very well, there will be a conspiracy." Hua An wondered.

"Hey, it doesn't matter if he has a conspiracy or not, we'll fight when the enemy army comes! Let the enemy also taste our thunderbolts. Iron Bull said loudly.

"No, these thunderbolts are the most powerful killer weapon of our army, the enemy army only came with 3,000 people, and there is no need to use thunderbolts at all, and it is not too late to use them when the main force of the peach leopard attacks the city on all fronts." Huaan said.

"Big brother is right, you can't expose our army's killer features in advance, it's better to keep it later." Wang San agrees with Hua'an's point of view.

In order to prevent the soldiers from making meritorious contributions and impatiently firing thunderbolts, Hua'an discussed with Chen Xiong, the deputy general of the Northern Expeditionary Army guarding the north gate, and then sent his subordinates to pass orders everywhere, without an order, they were not allowed to fire thunderbolts without authorization, and those who violated the order were dealt with by military law.

After Hua'an finished delivering the order, the enemy's 3,000 men and horses had already been killed under the city.

"Soldiers, siege the city." The enemy commander shouted, and his 3,000 men and horses immediately launched an attack on the north gate of the East City.

Six of the twelve ladders were directly erected on the moat, and the sword and shield soldiers held their shields and braved the rapid rain of arrows on the city wall to cross the moat along the ladders, and the six ladders that followed were erected on the wall of the east city.

Sword and shield men climbed up the ladder with their shields in their shields, while enemy crossbowmen outside the moat rained arrows at the walls under the cover of a row of shield men.

At this time, there were 2,000 troops defending on the wall of the north gate, which was more than enough to deal with the 3,000 enemy troops in front of him, so Chen Xiong did not let the soldiers under the city reinforce them, but let them stand by under the city.

Sure enough, the enemy's attack lasted less than half an hour before it was defeated.

"Retreat, retreat." Under the hoarse orders of the enemy commander, the enemy army dropped more than 200 corpses and retreated in a hurry.