Forbidden Water East, Cao Zhen strangled his war horse, looked at Tongguan City in the distance, his hands were clenched into fists, blocking his mouth, coughing softly, and his eyes were anxious. The partial general Xiahou Ba and the military advisor Du attacked behind him, and the expressions on their faces were also not very relaxed. Only the rear general Cao Hong looked indifferently at the mountain on the south side, looking in a trance, I don't know if he remembered the former Jin Ge Iron Horse.

As the only remaining veteran of the Cao Cao era, he has been living in Luoyang for several years, if it were not for the Wu Shu joint army this time, it was menacing, and Cao Xiu was defeated in the southeast, with heavy losses, Cao Rui could only send the 20,000 forbidden troops left in Luoyang to rush to help Guanzhong, he didn't know if he was going to wait for death at home.

He was very emotional, feeling the grace of the emperor, rich and impermanent, but he didn't care much about the upcoming war.

Cao Zhen and the others were not so detached, they were shocked by the scene in front of them.

Tongguan is located at the west end of Hangu, and Hangu Pass (Xinguan) guards the east and west ends of Hangu in Wulili, is the confluence of Hedong, Fengyi, Hongnong three counties, the Yellow River comes from the north, and turns to the east here. Tongguan is built on a piece of high land called Tongyuan between the Yellow River and the Guishan Mountain, with the wall of the Caishan Mountain in the south, and the Yellow River rolling east for a few miles in the north. There is Tongshui in the west of Tongguan, there is forbidden water in the east, Tongguan is located between the two waters, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is not under the Han Valley.

These natural geographical advantages are enough to make Tongguan a natural danger, but the Tongguan in front of you is not only that.

Tongguan is still Tongguan, but it is not the Tongguan he is familiar with. The original dilapidated city wall has now been restored, and it is one foot higher than the original Guancheng. Behind the castle, you can faintly see a higher Seki Castle, which seems to be newly renovated, forming a Japanese shape with the original Seki Castle. On the city wall, you can see the crossbow pavilion guarding the city and the tall wooden tips of the thunderbolt cart. On both sides of Seki Castle. More than a dozen nest cars have also been erected on the mountain, which can be seen from the shadowy figures and the bright light reflected by the sun. These nest carts all have soldier handles, and if he estimates correctly, he should be a more skilled archer.

It is not surprising that there are snipers in the army. Cao Zhen, who has been fighting for many years, is very familiar with this. However, he could see something strange from the location of the nest carts, which were too far away to be effective at the range of their usual bows. And the size of the nest car is not enough to display a large crossbow, so what are these nest cars for, is it just a lookout?

"Zhongquan, what do you think of those nest cars?" Cao Zhen beckoned backwards and called the partial general Xiahou Ba to him.

Xiahou Ba looked at the nest car hanging like a beehive in the distance, and frowned thickly: "It's really weird." These nest carts are too far away for a normal bow to shoot. Could it be that this is a new weapon against Shu? ”

Cao Zhen nodded secretly, he was also worried. After Wei Ba surrendered, information about him was sent to Luoyang, and he was able to be named Fengyi Zhonglang General because he had something to use. For example, he is good at machinery. It was Wei Ba's father, Wei Yan, who guarded Tongguan, and it was not surprising that he had a bowbow and crossbow that Wei Ba had improved.

Perhaps, the rapid restoration of Tongguan City was also due to Wei Ba's handiwork.

In this way, Tongguan, which was not easy to attack, was even more difficult to overcome. If you can't successfully conquer Tongguan, how can you enter Guanzhong? Forced crossing of Kasakazu? Cao Zhen didn't think about this, but since the opposite side was Wei Yan, the general who had been guarding Hanzhong for many years, Cao Zhen believed that it would definitely not be much more convenient to force Pubanjin than to storm Tongguan. Now is the time when the Yellow River is surging, not to mention that there are enemy troops on the opposite side, it is not easy to let him cross the river by himself.

If he has enough troops, he can use Mount Tai to overwhelm the top, go hand in hand, and let Wei Yan stand left and right. Or leave 20,000 people to confront Wei Yan, and the others quickly break into the pass and rush to the aid of Chang'an. But now he has only 20,000 soldiers, and he can't do that. Even if he was willing to risk the grain route being cut off, he might not be able to break through Wei Yan's defense line with only 20,000 people.

"What kind of method did this Wei Ba use to renovate Tongguan City so solidly in a month?" Cao Zhen said with some annoyance.

Du Xun looked at Guancheng in the distance and was silent for a moment: "General, I think, this should be a shelf made of wood." Otherwise, even if he had the ability to reach the sky, it would be impossible for him to cultivate so quickly. ”

Cao Zhen nodded, he thought so too. Prior to this, Wei Ba had suggested Xiahou Mao's six words "build a high wall and accumulate grain", originally thought that this was a good plan, but now that it looks like it is simply a poisonous plan that is too insidious to be insidious. The extensive accumulation of grain has proved that all of this grain is for the Shu army, and the high wall can now be proved that the most important thing is probably the wall of Tongguan City.

In other words, Xiahou Mao adopted Wei Ba's suggestion, tuned the fields, and repaired the city, but now all of them have become the spoils of the Shu army and the Xiongguan in front of him.

One general is incompetent and tired of the three armies, talking about people like Xiahou Mao. Cao Zhen gritted his teeth with hatred now, and he couldn't wait to drag Xiahou Mao over and whip him three hundred lashes.

"Zhongquan, you lead the team to try the attack." Cao Zhen pointed at Tongguan City opposite with a horsewhip, "Try the quality of Wei Yan's father and son." ”

"Whoa." Xiahou Ba responded without saying a word, and pulled out more than 2,000 of his subordinates. He first arranged for the people who carried grain with the army to set up a temporary wooden bridge on the forbidden water, and then led his subordinates to cross the forbidden water and lined up 200 steps before Tongguan to cover the people to transport all kinds of siege weapons across the forbidden water. Behind him, Cao Zhen also crossed the forbidden water with an army of 10,000, ready to support at any time.

After being busy for a long time, Cao Zhen, who boarded the command car, gave an order, the war drums sounded, and Xiahou stood in front of the formation with his armor on his armor. Watch as the archers cautiously advance under the cover of their shields.

There was silence in the city, and it was so silent that it was hard to understand. Xiahou Bayun had enough eyesight, and only saw Wei Yan's general flag on the main city tower shaking, and the figure of a general appeared at the head of the city surrounded by several personal guards. Other than that, there wasn't much reaction in the city.

"Thunderbolt forward!" Xiahou Ba raised his hand and waved it vigorously.

"Ho-hey! Ho-hey! The people shouted neatly and pushed the thunderbolt cart towards Tongguan City. The thunderbolt car is as high as two or three zhang, extremely heavy, it is a weapon used to defend the city, thinking that Tongguan City is strong, and it will be a loss if there is no such sharp weapon, Cao Zhen ordered the baggage battalion to build more than a dozen. The build is built, but if you want to move these thunderbolts in front of the formation. It's not an easy task. It took all the strength of the people to move the thunderbolt.

"Ho-hey! Ho-hey! The sound of trumpets and the sound of war drums set off the tense atmosphere of the battle.

But the city did not do anything about it. There was only the unhurried sound of war drums, and compared with the fierce fighting spirit of the Wei army, the city seemed a little careless.

The people struggled to push the thunderbolt while paying nervous attention to the city. The range of the Thunderbolt is about 100 paces. If you want to attack above the city wall, you must push within 80 paces before the stone bullet can hit the city wall. And within eighty steps. It is already the range of a strong bow, that is, they may now be shot by the crossbow of the Shu Han army at any time.

Fortunately, however, they did not shoot a single arrow from the city until they had pushed the thunderbolt to eighty paces, as if the people of the city had not seen them at all. The people shouted luckily. Quickly begin to adjust the cables, load the stone projectiles, and prepare to start attacking.

Xiahou Ba looked at the somewhat weird front of the formation, and couldn't help but be a little nervous. If something goes wrong, there must be a demon, and Xiahou Ba will not believe that Wei Yan will surrender without a fight. There is only one reason why they did not start blocking in the first place, and they did not pay attention to these attacks.

It worried him more than a swift and fierce counterattack.

"Ready to launch!" The strong crossbow captain in front of the formation roared loudly and gave the order to prepare for the attack. As soon as he raised the pennant in his hand, the war drums at the head of the city suddenly exploded, and in the sound of war drums, Xiahou Ba saw countless black dots flying out from the three city walls. These black dots crossed a graceful lone line in the air, and then quickly grew larger, with a sharp roar that broke through the air, and smashed into the dozen or so thunderbolts that had just been placed in front of the formation.

"Not good!" As soon as Xiahou Mao saw the flight trajectory of those black dots, he had a sense of foreboding. These black dots shot out from different positions, but the targets were quite concentrated, that is, the thunderbolts in front of the formation, as if they had been drilled countless times, accurately, quickly, and hit with one hit.

"Boom!" A stone projectile struck a thunderbolt directly opposite the city gate, smashing into the thick triangular support. The scaffold shuddered and let out a palpitating moan, and a thigh-thick piece of wood snapped, and the tall, heavy wooden tops creaked and crooked.

"Boom!" There was another loud bang, and two stone projectiles flew almost simultaneously, and one of them missed and hit a nearby citizen. The man died before he could scream. He still stood there, his eyes wide open, stunned as he stared at the still shaking wooden tops, but his right shoulder and entire arm were missing. Five feet behind him, a round stone projectile the size of a human head slammed into the ground, smashing a two-foot-deep crater and stirring up choking dust. The stone bounced up and rolled forward a few more steps before finally stopping.

"Boom, boom!" The roar was endless, and most of them fell within a radius of one zhang centered on the thunderbolt car, which was hit by three stone bullets one after another, and finally could not support it and collapsed violently, while the people next to it had already been beaten to the point of crying wolf, and suffered heavy casualties.

Heavy stone projectiles smashed up puffs of smoke and dust, enveloping more than a dozen thunderbolts. Xiahouba couldn't see the thunderbolt car, nor could he see the people next to the thunderbolt, but he could hear the sound of stone bullets breaking through the air, the loud noise when the thunderbolt was smashed, and the screams of the people.

His heart sank for a while, and he knew that these thunderbolts that Cao Zhen had spent a lot of effort building were destroyed. There was no movement in the city before, just trying to destroy these powerful thunderbolts in one fell swoop. Judging from the number of stone bullets thrown from the city in this short period of time, Tongguan City is equipped with at least fifty such thunderbolts, and even ...... A hundred.

When the smoke and dust cleared, Xiahouba saw a scene that made his heart ache, but it was not unexpected. It took a lot of effort for the people to push the dozen thunderbolts in front of the formation, all of which were destroyed and burning. Next to the wreckage of each thunderbolt, there were several mutilated corpses.

The city was calm again, and no more stone projectiles flew out, but there were earth-shattering cheers. In contrast, it was the silent Wei army's position. Even Xiahou Ba himself was shocked by the Shu army's fierce counterattack.

More than a dozen thunderbolts were destroyed by the Shu army in one fell swoop before they could shoot a stone bullet. Without any words, the difference in strength between the two sides in terms of combat equipment has been clearly laid out in front of everyone.

Xiahou Ba hesitated for a moment, looked back at the Chinese army, he didn't even know what he wanted to see, was it an order to stop the attack, or to continue the attack?

Above the city, Wei Yan stood with his hands in his hands, squinted his eyes, looked at the roaring thunderbolt under the city, and nodded with satisfaction: "Xingrui, this thunderbolt has been transformed by you, it is much better, and it makes people happy as soon as it is shot." This time to defend Tongguan, you have merit. ”

Chen Xiang smiled humbly: "General, I am just following orders to do something specific, the transformation plan can all be thought up by the young master, and the credit is also the credit of the young master." ”

Wei Yan looked up to the sky proudly: "All have merit, all merit, your young master has merit, how can you people who follow him not benefit?" Boy, follow him and do a good job, and give you Lao Tzu a mouth. ”

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Well, Lao Zhuang admitted that Tang Sanzang's classmates were mighty, and a single chapter rose by 36 votes, leaving Lao Zhuang behind and not even being able to eat ashes. Lao Zhuang can't get him, but he has to be more, and he has to ask for it, as Lao Zhuang said at the beginning, asking for a monthly ticket is an attitude. The results can be unsatisfactory, but the attitude must be the best.

In fact, Lao Zhuang also knows that Lao Zhuang is a niche book, and it is not easy for people who read Lao Zhuang's book to save a monthly pass. Thank you! Regardless of whether you can get 20 votes today, it will be delivered on time after two hours. (To be continued.) )