Chapter 285: The Battle of Yizhou
In the harbor of Zhenhai City, huge ultimate transport ships docked in the harbor, and soldiers and porters carried the supplies on the dock to the dock, and then carried them to the arsenal of Zhenhai City in different ways according to the type of materials.
Wang He and Xu Sheng were watching the people in the harbor at this time, loading the supplies into ox carts and transporting them, or tying ropes and pulling them away by people or oxen. This batch of supplies was related to the victory or defeat of the attack on a major city in a few days, and even the two high-ranking generals took the time to come and inspect the work.
This batch of materials includes complete sets of weapons and equipment, although it is only ordinary fourth- and fifth-level standard equipment, which can be equipped by every seventh-order and eighth-order soldier in Feitian City, but in the eyes of other players, they can only salivate at these tens of thousands of fourth- and fifth-level equipment.
For the player forces in the thirteen states of the Eastern Han Dynasty, for those tribes in Yizhou who are not yet very civilized, this batch of equipment is like a divine weapon, which can arm every soldier to the teeth.
In addition to the equipment required by a regular army, there are also crossbows and arrows that consume the fastest in every war. Unlike other forces, the archers in the army of Flying Sky City are all sixth-order soldiers at the very least, and in the main legion, even seventh-order soldiers will act as archers, using fourth-level divine arm bows, and the first- and second-level armor cannot block the arrows fired by bows that are two levels higher than it.
Considering that the aborigines here in Yizhou do not have such an advanced manufacturing industry, they cannot create a large number of armor of level 3 and above, and only a very small number of people can be equipped with high-level armor, so most of the bows transported are third-level iron tire bows and a small number of fourth-level divine arm bows. The Iron Tire Bow is sufficient for leather and chain mail, while the Divine Arm Bow is designed to deal with some elites wearing armor level 3 and above.
Along with the bows and crossbows were brought into the arsenal, along with the huge catapults and ballistas. There are several emperor-level carpenters in Feitian City, who can manufacture intermediate and high-level catapults and ballistas, but since they have only been promoted to emperor-level carpenters for a few months, they have just stepped into the threshold of manufacturing intermediate and high-level catapults and ballistas, and they have not yet had experience in manufacturing high-level catapults and ballistas. Therefore, when Lu Shuang was in the north to conquer the Yellow Turban Army, they decided to build some intermediate catapults and ballistas first, and then consider manufacturing at a higher level after accumulating manufacturing experience.
After several months of research and development, this group of emperor-class carpenters has mastered the technical conditions and thresholds for making high-grade catapults and ballistas. Lu Shuang didn't waste these mid-level catapults and ballistas that had already been built, anyway, there was no war on the side of Feitian City in the near future, so he transported them to the front line that needed them the most, that is, Yizhou.
As early as after Zhenhai Town was upgraded to Zhenhai City, Zhou Bai told Lu Shuang that in the northwest of Yizhou, there was a heavy city called Zhucheng, which blocked the way for Zhenhai City to expand south. At that time, there were no large siege weapons, and there was no attack. During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, communication was cut off, and Zhou Bai chose to consolidate the base area in Yibei first, open up the wasteland into fertile land, set up checkpoints in dangerous passes, and set up sentry posts on the plains to prevent the people of the Zhucheng forces from attacking and plundering them in the north.
In fact, during Zhou Bai's governance of Zhenhai City, he also had conflicts with many local aboriginal tribes, and most of them broke out in order to seize Zhenhai City. Zhenhai City only has 400,000 defenders, of which about 300,000 fifth-order soldiers are no problem to defend the city. However, Lu Shuang's power in Yizhou is not only Zhenhai City, but also many small villages and tribes, as well as cultivated fertile fields and fruit forests. Zhou Bai had to scatter these 400,000 defenders in various places, and in addition to defense, he couldn't spare any extra manpower to attack Zhucheng, so he could only drag it out until now.
Fortunately, Lu Shuang did not forget the matter of Yizhou, nor did he forget his identity as a pastor of Yizhou, otherwise Zhou Bai would really have had enough here. This time, in order to remove the obstacles to Yizhou's southward movement, Lu Shuang transferred Zhou Bai back to the navy he was best at, and transferred Wang He and his Spirit Fox Legion, as well as Xu Sheng to lead an army of 50,000 people, a total of three troops.
Zhou Bai originally belonged to the Tiefan City Navy and was the commander of the First Fleet, but because Lu Shuang sent him to Yizhou, he temporarily left the fleet for a while, and the deputy commander usually replaced his work. Just after Lu Shuang returned from Luoyang, he sent Zhou Bai's first fleet to Yangzhou Huiji County to carry out the task of clearing pirates, starting from the Zhoushan Islands. However, due to the needs of the Yizhou war, some warships of the First Fleet were sent to Tianya City in Dongye County, Huiji County, and after the supply was completed, they went directly to the direction of Zhucheng in Yizhou.
Tianya City is a territory established by Lu Shuang in Dongye County, Huiji County, in order to send people to Yizhou. At that time, due to the problem of air routes, it was impossible to reach Yizhou directly from the Yangtze River Delta, so I had to establish a territory in Dongye County, which is closest to Yizhou, to transport materials and people to this territory, and then use it as a springboard to Yizhou.
Although Lu Shuang rarely asked about the affairs of Tianya City, after Tianya City met the conditions for upgrading a small city, Lu Shuang still chose to upgrade it to a small city. There is no other reason, if the navy of Tiefan City wants to clear the pirates of Huiji County and even Jiaozhou, it must establish a supply station in the middle, Tiefan City and Fuhai City in the Yangtze River Delta are too far away, and the location of Tianya City is relatively close to Jiaozhou, and it is also close to Yizhou to the east, which is very convenient for both supply and support.
With Zhou Bai's First Fleet, he was able to pose a threat to the forces behind Zhucheng from the sea and river, and even after controlling the nearby seas, he could land in the rear of Zhucheng and attack from front to back.
Wang He's Spirit Fox Legion has been slightly expanded, and is currently composed of 50,000 seventh-order soldiers and 10,000 eighteenth-order soldiers. After experiencing the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Lu Shuang abandoned the previous unrealistic idea that a legion is mainly based on one troop, except for some of the characteristic troops of the legion, the rest are mainly mixed troops, and how to maximize the strength of the legion. Of course, these were limited to infantry regiments, and cavalry regiments were still dominated by cavalry.
And the 50,000 soldiers led by Xu Sheng are actually not a legion strictly speaking. Before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Lu Shuang had drawn 100,000 from the 200,000 A-qualified NPCs in Yizhou, and these 100,000 A-qualified NPCs were all pulled by Lu Shuang to become soldiers, and after more than half a year of baptism of war, they have become qualified soldiers. Before the Chinese New Year, Lu Shuang transferred half of the 100,000 people back to Yizhou, which can be regarded as allowing them to return to their hometown, not to mention that they also need these soldiers to attack Zhucheng and maintain law and order in Zhenhai City.
At the same time, this is also to cultivate Xu Sheng. Xu Sheng in history is quite a famous general, and these abilities are not innate, but accumulated and improved in continuous battles. During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Xu Sheng served as a lieutenant in the Holy Knight Legion and made great achievements. But there is a big difference between a general who can lead troops and a military general who can only fight, so before Lu Shuang established a legion for Xu Sheng, he gave Xu Sheng these 50,000 soldiers, 40,000 seventh-order soldiers and 10,000 eighth-order soldiers, so that he could play well in Yizhou.
Xu Sheng also lived up to Lu Shuang's expectations, and after planning with Wang He, he decided to lure the snake out of the hole first, and use food, weapons and other materials to attract the forces behind Zhucheng to send a large team of people to snatch it. Since the city lord of Zhucheng had also fought with the people of Zhenhai City, he knew that only a small number of soldiers and horses would not be able to defeat Zhenhai City, or he would not be able to grab things, so he decided to make a big vote and sent nearly half of the soldiers in the city to rob it. After the deed is completed, Zhucheng will not only be able to obtain a large amount of food and tools, but also be able to take possession of the equipment of the dead defenders of Zhenhai City and increase their own strength.
However, the reality was cruel, the Zhucheng side was met with stubborn resistance from Wang He's Spirit Fox Legion, and then Xu Sheng led his men to raid the Zhucheng side from the flank, and Zhou Bai's first fleet also landed in the rear, intercepting the retreat of the Zhucheng side and taking it all. The city lord of Zhucheng personally led the army to rob it, but he died under Xu Sheng's hands, and Zhucheng would face a heavy siege of hundreds of thousands of troops in an instant.
However, Zhucheng is a heavy city after all, and the city wall of up to five battles is not so easy to take, Zhou Bai, Wang He and Xu Sheng can only besiege but not attack, and they finally wait for the arrival of catapults and ballistas.