In the first battle, Sima Yi's camp was broken, and the greatest credit was naturally Wu Anguo, who was killed before the battle, and Jia Xu, who made a plan, and the rest of the generals also had their own merits, all of which were recorded by Ma Jian one by one.

This battle broke Sima Yi, but it made Zhang Xiu think a lot. He has always sent all the strong men out to fight the enemy, and it is understandable to do so. However, now he has shown weakness to the enemy twice in a row, but he has received a lot of miraculous results. Lu Xun's big break of Xiahou Yuan and Wu Anguo's beheading of Sun Guan are all the same this time, it is appropriate to show the enemy weakness, once Cao's army is hit, then the situation will be completely reversed. On the contrary, if veterans such as Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong are often used, because of their great prestige, all the generals of the Cao army are cautious and difficult to show their flaws.

However, this trick is that Zhang Xiu can use, and with the memory in his brain, he has a rough estimate of the ability of the characters in the late Han Dynasty. If he didn't know that Lu Xun was the governor of Eastern Wu in history, he was strong in resourcefulness and commanding troops, otherwise, who would dare to let him be a scholar in command.

After Ma Jian wrote down all the credits here, Zhang Xiu asked: "Everyone, now Sima Yi's army is all cowering in Zhongmu City. According to the spies, Cao Cao of Linzi in Qingzhou was already preparing to come to the aid of Sima Yi in the whole army, and Xiahoudun of Youzhou had also led a large group of cavalry to the south. There are too many cavalry in Youzhou, and Han Sheng and they have to guard all parts of Jizhou, which may not be enough to block the Youzhou Iron Cavalry from going south. We must defeat Sima Yi's department in a short time! ”

After hearing this, Ma Tan said: "Your Majesty, in fact, at this time, as long as General Ma of Yanmen quickly marches into Youzhou, breaks Lu Longsai, and puts General Zhao's army in, let our army's iron cavalry go south to pursue Cao's cavalry." And there is our navy at the Yellow River, so that Cao Cao's cavalry will definitely not be able to cross the Yellow River, and when the time comes, General Zhao and General Huang will work together to encircle and suppress Cao's cavalry. ”

Cheng Gongying heard it and said with a smile: "What you say is not unreasonable. However, it still depends on the weather, and now that we have stepped into autumn, if this winter arrives early and freezes the Yellow River, Cao Jun can easily set up a pontoon bridge on the ice and cross the Yellow River. ”

Jia Xu smiled lightly: "In fact, if our army can break Cao Cao's headquarters and kill Cao Cao before the Youzhou Iron Cavalry returns to the division, the rest will not be worried." ”

Zhang Xiu heard this, let out a light "oh", and said, "What is Wenhe's clever plan?" ”

Jia Xu said with a smile: "Now that Cao Cao is leading the army to conquer in person, Qingzhou must be empty." Xiaozhi's side has been waiting for Qingzhou's empty opportunity to march from the sea to seize Qingzhou, and now the opportunity has come. As long as the Cao army moves, Xiaozhi's side will also act, Qingzhou loses, Cao Cao is completely lost, and the morale of the Cao army is frustrated, which is a good opportunity for His Majesty to break the enemy. However, before that, His Majesty must defeat Sima Yi's troops as soon as possible. ”

Zhang Xiu nodded and said, "What Wen He said is reasonable, but now that Sima Yi is sticking to Zhongmu City, I am afraid that it will take a long time to break the city." ”

At this time, Ma Jian smiled and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, you have a strategy to break the enemy!" ”

Zhang Xiu heard it and said in surprise: "I am always young, and try to say it." ”

Ma Jian said: "Since the last time Cao's army broke the embankment, the Central Plains has been flooded, which has caused problems in the foundations of most of the cities in Yanzhou. Although in the past two years, Cao Cao has not been able to send people to strengthen these cities, especially large cities such as Chenliu and Zhongmu. However, the fact that the city foundation is broken does not mean that it can be repaired. Therefore, it is not difficult to break Zhongmu City. It is thought that His Majesty should send soldiers to dig tunnels under the city, and there is no need to dig into the city, just hollow out the place under the city. Due to the damage to the foundations of Zhongmu City, it should not take too long to hollow out these places. At that time, His Majesty will attack the city with catapults, bombarding the soil layer of Mucheng from the surface, and the city will be hollowed out and attacked again, and the Zhongmu city wall will inevitably collapse! ”

Zhang Xiu heard it, but he looked at Jia Xu with his eyes, and when he saw the latter nodding, Zhang Xiu ordered: "Benshan, you are responsible for digging the tunnel." Righteousness, thou shalt send men to the nearby hills, and find some boulders to come back, and it is much more effective to bombard them with boulders than with ordinary stone projectiles. Cao He and Zhang Ren listened and promised at the same time.

After that, Jia Xu said to Zhang Xiu: "Your Majesty, during the period when our army is digging tunnels, General Wu'an can be allowed to go to the city every day to fight, and if necessary, you can launch some small-scale attacks. As for the young man, he commanded some soldiers to go to the nearby mountains and forests to cut wood, making a scene of building a well, which could confuse Sima Yi. Zhang Xiu listened, and naturally ordered according to Jia Xu's intentions.

Jia Xu's arrangement does have an effect, first of all, Wu Anguo, who provokes under the city every day with women's clothes. provoked the Cao army in the city to open the city gate several times, but was forced down by Sima Yi. And Sima Yi and the generals in the city saw that Zhang Xiu's soldiers couldn't stop cutting down trees in the woods, and they also went up the mountain to carry boulders, thinking that Zhang Xiu wanted to build siege equipment.

Five days later, Zhongmu County Ya, Zang Ba said to Sima Yi: "Marshal, now the enemy army is building wells and catapults on a large scale, if the enemy army is built, our army will suffer a loss in the siege battle." ”

Sima Yi heard it and said calmly: "It doesn't matter, although the enemy army is building siege equipment on a large scale, it takes a long time to complete it. In addition, Zhongmu City is small, with tens of thousands of troops stationed here, even if Zhang Xiu is assisted by siege equipment, it is not easy to capture it. The purpose of our army is only to delay time, and Zhang Xiu took a long time to do this, which is exactly what our army wants. ”

Zang Ba listened, thought about it for a while, nodded and said, "What the marshal said......"

However, before the word "very" behind Zang Ba was spoken, Sima Yi suddenly threw down the military book in his hand, and the whole person jumped up, and said in a lost voice: "It's not good, it's a plan!" ”

Zang Ba heard it and wondered: "Dashuai, what's wrong?" ”

Sima Yi hurriedly said: "The enemy army is not trying to build these siege equipment, but to dig tunnels and hollow out the city foundation!" After finishing speaking, Sima Yi hurriedly said to Zang Baba: "Xuangao, quickly send someone to dig up from under the city to see that a large amount of soil can be dug up under the city wall." ”

Zang Ba knew that the matter was urgent, so he didn't dare to slack off, and immediately turned away. When he arrived at the city wall, Zang Ba immediately asked the soldiers to bring all the tools to excavate. In only half an hour or so, Cao's soldiers had already dug a big hole, and they were digging faster and faster. Zang Ba saw it, he didn't know what was going on, and his face became extremely blue.

After Sima Yi arrived, Zang Ba immediately reported the situation. After hearing this, Sima Yi's body shook unconsciously, and then he sighed and said, "In this way, most of the soil under Zhongmu's city wall has been emptied, and now it can barely maintain the city wall from collapsing. As long as the enemy attacked with catapults, the walls would inevitably collapse. ”

Zang Ba heard this, and hurriedly asked, "Dashuai, what should I do now?" ”

Sima Yi waved his hand helplessly and said, "Withdraw!" Zhongmu City was no longer defendable, and immediately retreated to Chenliu. ”

Zang Ba heard it and said helplessly: "This ......"

Sima Yi snorted coldly: "Don't hesitate any longer, if the Zhongmu city wall collapses, our army's morale will be lost, and we won't be able to withstand Zhang Xiujun's attack at all." Thou shalt immediately go and prepare, and we retreat overnight. Immediately after nightfall, thou shalt send out and lay an ambush in the woods and on a hill outside the city, in case the enemy may pursue him when the time comes, so as to cover the retreat of our army. Zang Ba heard this, and immediately nodded yes.

In the afternoon, Cao Xing had already handed over an order to Zhang Xiu, and the soil under the entire west wall of Zhongmu City had been greatly emptied, and as long as it was bombarded with boulders, the city wall would inevitably collapse. Zhang Xiu did not hesitate at all, and immediately asked Zhang Ren to prepare the boulder and launch an attack on Zhongmu City overnight.

Just after nightfall, Zhang Xiu asked Zhang Ren to push the catapult outside the camp. These catapults were not improvised and shoddy, but were built by a group of skilled craftsmen led by Ma Jun, and accumulated for several years and stored in Luoyang City, for the purpose of Cao Cao's eastward expedition.

These catapults are all super-large catapults, which have been improved again by Ma Jun, and they can fire not only ordinary small stone bullets, but can fire hundred-pound boulders. What's more, such a huge rock can be blasted up to half a mile away. As Zhang Xiu's generals said, Sima Yi's simple wet cowhide alone would definitely not be able to prevent the attack of these super-large catapults.

However, Zhang Xiu didn't want to expose the super-large catapult under the small city of Zhongmu, so he chose to attack at night, and after the city wall collapsed, the enemy army panicked and no longer paid attention to his catapult. Even the boulders launched from the catapult are hidden by the collapsed walls, so that the oversized catapult can be concealed as much as possible.

Zhang Xiu came to the side of the catapult array and said to Hu Che'er and Zhou Cang: "Lao Hu, Lao Zhou, you two lead the Pangulis to control the launch rod. The two of them listened, and at the same time agreed.

Pangulis is not only a great killer in front of the battle, but everyone is a strong man, allowing them to control the catapult can minimize the launch interval of the catapult. When he saw that Pangulux was ready, Zhang Xiu snorted coldly: "Launch!" ”

I saw Hu Che'er and Zhou Cang controlling a catapult alone, and when they heard Zhang Xiu's order, the two of them pulled the rope with all their might, and suddenly pulled down!

"Whirring ......"

As the boulder of the catapult where Hu Che'er and Zhou Cang were located flew out first, the prelude to the attack was sounded. There was a whistling sound from the boulder piercing the air, but after a few moments, the crisp whistling sound was replaced by a deafening roar!

"Boom!! Rumble ......"

Although the roar was strong, it was not yet satisfactory to Zhang Xiu. I only heard him shout in a cold voice: "Go on!" ”

"Huhuhu......"

More than ten boulders flew out, slammed into the walls of Zhongmu City, and then smashed directly to the ground!

"Puff puff ......"

Zhang Xiu didn't know that when the boulder of the catapult fell to the ground of the city wall of Zhongmu City, a lot of dirt was falling wildly in many hollowed-out places underground. And the wood that Cao Xing had previously led the soldiers to erect and strengthen the city foundation in the hollowed-out place was also loosened due to the non-stop falling of the soil.

The wood that Cao Xing originally erected was only temporary, so naturally it would not be very strong, but on the contrary, it would be fragile. After five rounds of boulders in a row, I heard a sudden silence in the distance, and the next moment there was an unprecedented strong roar!

"Boom !!"

There was a loud noise that shook the sky, and it was clearly audible for hundreds of miles. And where Zhang Xiu was, he felt that the ground was trembling strongly, as if it was an earthquake. Now Zhongmu City is a hundred miles away, and both the two soldiers and the common people clearly understand what it means to collapse the sky.

This intense roar lasted for a full tea hour, during which time no human speech could be heard. After a long time, the roar finally stopped, and Zhang Xiu glanced at the soldiers who fell to the ground, and shouted, "Hurry up." Pass the order down and attack now! ”

Zhang Xiujun's soldiers had already been explained that something similar would happen, so in addition to being surprised, they also flashed extremely excited looks. At this moment, the morale became extremely high, and under the leadership of Zhang Ren and other generals, they directly killed Zhongmu City.

When I arrived at the bottom of the city, I saw that the city wall on the west side of Zhongmu City had completely collapsed, and only a pile of ruins was left in front of it. Zhang Ren saw the shocked looks of the soldiers, and shouted: "Don't be stunned, let the general kill it!" When the soldiers heard this, they immediately reacted, stepping on the ruins with torches in one hand and blades in the other and rushing directly into Zhongmu City.

At this time, the people in Zhongmu City were already frightened by Fang Cai's scene, and they all hid in the house and did not dare to come out. When Zhang Ren led his soldiers over the ruins and rushed into Zhongmu City, he saw that the city was empty. Zhang Ren was a little surprised, but he quickly led his troops to continue to advance, and in just a quarter of an hour, Zhang Xiu's army completely occupied Zhongmu City. During this period, only a small part of the Cao army was encountered, and the main force of the Cao army was not seen at all. Zhang Ren and the others knew that the situation was somewhat unusual, so they immediately sent someone to report to Zhang Xiu.

After Zhang Xiu heard this, he swept his eyes to Jia Xu, Jia Xu smiled and said, "Your Majesty, it seems that this Sima Yi is indeed not simple. It should have been later that he saw through the strategy of our army, and when our army launched an attack, he withdrew his troops. ”

Zhang Xiu heard this, touched his chin, and muttered to himself: "Sima Yi, you are really not simple. After finishing speaking, he asked Jia Xu: "Wenhe, can our army pursue?" ”

Jia Xu shook his head and said, "Sima Yi is cautious, he should set up an ambush." In addition, the sky is dark, and if you are ambushed, it will only increase the unnecessary losses. Now there is only one big city in Chenliu nearby, Sima Yi will inevitably retreat there, and His Majesty will directly march into the army early tomorrow morning. ”

Zhang Xiu thought about it and felt reasonable. Besides, now that he has a complete advantage, he doesn't need to take too much risk, he just needs to fight steadily and step by step, and he can naturally defeat the enemy army. So he nodded and said, "Okay, pass on justice, let him keep some people in Zhongmu, and the rest will withdraw to the camp." ”

On the other hand, Zang Ba waited until the sky was slightly bright and did not see Zhang Xiujun pursuing, so he followed Sima Yi's order and led the army to retreat to Chenliu in a hurry.

[Dedication]