Chapter 59 Zhao Yun defends the city

It is said that Liu Hou led the troops to flee back to Jingzhou, and easily bombarded the chasing tiger and leopard cavalry, so that the tiger and leopard cavalry were completely annihilated.

Liu Hou, who got on the boat, could finally sleep peacefully. The toils accumulated over the past few days were finally released at this moment. He slept until the next afternoon, waking up hungry and feeling sore.

While eating a simple meal, he inquired about the movements of the Wei army, and learned that the Wei army had arrived at the city of Jingzhou and was now encamping, and had not yet begun to attack the city. And what frightened him the most was that the spies had already heard that the master of the Wei army would be Sima Yi!

This is a character who has a fight with Zhuge Liang. Although "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" greatly beautifies Zhuge Liang and scandalizes Sima Yi, it cannot hide the fact that Zhuge Liang has never been able to completely defeat Sima Yi and destroy the Wei State.

In later generations, people with good deeds once counted the results of the battle between Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, and found that Sima Yi won more times than Zhuge Liang. However, every time Zhuge Liang failed, Luo Guanzhong relied on various objective reasons, or beautified it to be glorious despite defeat.

The most typical example is the story of the empty city plan, which Luo Guanzhong pressed on Zhuge Liang's head, in fact, he did not do it. An empty city plan makes the reader look like Zhuge Liang has been defeated, but he has been defeated very chic, even very beautiful. In short, what he wants to express is that Zhuge Liang will not be defeated, and even if he fails, it is caused by other people or factors, and it has nothing to do with his wisdom.

For such a character, Liu Hou did not dare to be careless at all, and ordered to send more scouts, strengthen the intensity of spying on the Wei army's military situation, and do his best to find out the Wei army's grain storage land. In other words, it is very refreshing to do this kind of thing by burning grain and grass.

Sima Yi was obviously a cautious man, and on the first day of his army arriving at the city of Jingzhou, he was not in a hurry to attack, but set up camp first, rested for a day, and waited for the soldiers to recover from the fatigue caused by the days of hurrying before starting to attack the city.

Zhao Yun in the city had too few troops, and Sima Yi was well prepared, so he could not go out of the city to launch a sneak attack on the Wei army. The two sides spent a peaceful day under such circumstances.

Sima Yi adopted a typical method of encircling three and missing one, that is, Chen soldiers were at the north gate, east gate, and west gate, leaving the south gate alone without arranging soldiers and horses. This is to leave a way for the defenders of the city to survive, so that they can have hope of escaping and not fight desperately because they are in a desperate situation.

Of course, whether he ambushed the troops far from the city gate and intercepted the troops who broke through the city is only God knows.

The next day, it was not until noon that Sima Yi launched a tentative attack at the West Gate. Even though it was a tentative attack, there were 2,000 people involved. The Wei army suppressed the Shu army on the city wall with 1,000 crossbowmen, with 500 soldiers as the front team and 500 soldiers as the rear team, and rushed towards Jingzhou City.

The Wei army was holding a shield in one hand, a long ladder in the other, and a big sword in his mouth, and rushed towards the city wall with his head down. Jingzhou City has been digging moats and fortresses under the auspices of Pan Jun some time ago. A wide and deep chasm had now been dug outside the walls to the north, south, and west, and although the river had not yet been brought in, it was inevitable that there would be heavy casualties if it had been crossed to attack.

However, the project was carried out in too short a time, leaving the moat outside the city wall in the west to be dug yet, and now it has naturally become the key position of the Wei army's attack. Sima Yi chose to attack here, and Zhao Yun naturally put heavy troops here to defend it.

When the Wei army ran about 100 steps away from the city wall, the Shu army's crossbowmen stretched out the well-wound crossbow arrows from the shooting hole on the women's wall, and aimed at the Wei army. Zhao Yun did not dispatch the musketeers, they had just run back yesterday, they were too tired, they needed to rest and recover, Zhao Yun told them to stay in the barracks to rest, and provide them with rich food and drink to replenish their physical strength.

Anyway, there is plenty of food in the city, so they don't have to worry about running out of food, so they can let go of their stomachs and eat a lot. However, some of the other troops in Jingzhou City are newly recruited personnel, and some are transferred from other troops, and the composition is very complicated, and the time for training and running-in is not enough.

Zhao Yun knows very well that actual combat is the most tempering person, as long as these people are pulled to the battlefield to fight twice, they can be called qualified soldiers, if they have killed people with their own hands, then they can be classified as veterans.

The Wei army fell to the ground one after another under the blow of the Shu army's bow and crossbow. Although they are holding shields, but they are not a one-person high tower shield, how can they protect the whole body, many people were shot in the hands and feet injured, although not fatal, but also lost combat effectiveness, and many people were directly shot in the head and neck, died on the spot.

The injured Cao soldiers were not as lucky as the Shu army, and they could be treated well if they were injured. Those who could still walk were still driven forward by the overseers behind them, those who could not walk fell to the ground and no one paid attention to them, the lucky ones could survive until the battle was over, someone came to save them, and the unlucky ones were nailed to the ground by the arrows that followed, or trampled into meat sauce by the robes that charged behind.

There were still soldiers who rushed to the city walls, and they set up ladders on the top of the city and climbed up like ants. The Shu army was not in a hurry, and when 3 or 5 Cao soldiers climbed to the ladder, they used a long pole with an iron fork at the front end to fork the top of the ladder and push it out. Because the weight of several Cao soldiers pressed on the ladder, it usually took 3 or 5 people to push the ladder.

However, as soon as the ladder is pushed through the vertical position, it loses its center of gravity and falls on its own. It's okay in a low place, but if you fall down from a high place, you won't die. The day's battle lasted nearly two hours, and not long after the Shu army dispatched to roll the stones, the Wei army had to ring the gong to collect the troops and return to the camp.

The crossbowmen of the Shu army naturally shot at the retreating Cao soldiers' buttocks, and in the end, there were only one or two hundred Cao soldiers who could escape back.

Sima Yi didn't care about the loss of 7 or 800 people today, and today was just a tentative attack, the purpose was to see the reaction of the Shu army, so as to assess the combat strength of the defenders in the city. Now it seems that the Shu army is not more than Erer, the command of the generals is decent, the fighting skills of the soldiers are average, and the morale is not high.

On the third day, the Wei army began an all-out attack, and every three or five of them rushed to the city wall with a wooden work in the shape of an inverted half-cut ship, or simply a large plank. The rain of arrows came at them, most of which were blocked by the planks or half-boats on the heads of these Cao soldiers. Only a handful of unlucky ghosts were shot in the foot and fell to the ground, and of course, once they fell to the ground, out of the protective range of the plank, then they had to fall to the ground forever.

Most of the Cao soldiers successfully rushed to the edge of the city wall, and at this time, the Shu army's wooden rolling stones came down. Cao Bing, who had half a boat, was lucky, the wooden products on their heads were spired, and the stones rolled down the slope, and this structure could obviously unload most of the force of the stones, so that the half of the ships would not be smashed in the first place.

Of course, it is only temporary, these things are always wooden products, and if you hit it with a few more stones, you will still be smashed to pieces. Even so, these things managed to buy valuable time for the Wei army.

These rudimentary wooden products greatly reduced the casualty rate of Cao soldiers before rushing to the city wall, so that more Cao soldiers had the opportunity to survive the moment of climbing the ladder. Countless Wei troops attached themselves to the ladder and went up, gradually, there were not enough people to push the ladder, some of the ladders did not have time to knock down, and gradually the Wei army emerged from the top of the ladder, just when they were only one step away from stepping on the city, they were stabbed by the Shu soldiers waiting at the battlement, and then fell off the city with a scream of "ah".

Zhao Yun saw that the city was going to be unable to hold it, and if it continued like this, Cao soldiers would soon climb the city wall, and then the Shu army that had lost the protection of the city wall would have a large area of casualties, and he couldn't care about anything else, so he ordered the bombardier to go out and throw the ignited thunderbolt down the city.

The sound of "boom" sounded, and half of the boats, large wooden planks, and ladders under the city were blown apart. The Wei army is like a cone under the summer sun, a pile that was high just now, but now it is dwarfing at a speed visible to the naked eye, constantly melting, and finally turning into a puddle of water at the bottom. The difference is that they are not turned into snow water, but blood water.

Today, Zhao Yun still did not send musketeers, and still offered them in the barracks like bodhisattvas. However, there are quite a few thunderbolts dispatched today, which is not a good sign. After all, the number of firearms is limited, and now is the second day of defending the city, and one of his trump cards will be released. Zhao Yun couldn't help but worry about the prospects, and at the same time was surprised by Cao Jun's combat effectiveness.

On this day, the Wei army lost 3,000 men, and after the Shu army dispatched thunderbolts, they had to withdraw their troops. Sima Yi looked up to the sky and sighed: "God doesn't bless Cao Wei!" The Shu army has this artifact, who in the world can match it? Why is it that such an artifact is not owned by Cao Weiwei, but the big ears of this straw sandal? ”

On the fourth day, the Wei army did not send people to attack the city, but only fired at the head of the city with bows and crossbows. Zhao Yun also returned fire with a bow and crossbow, and the two sides exchanged fire for three hours before withdrawing their troops. The Shu army was condescending, and under the same conditions, the arrows shot were more powerful and had a longer range. What's more, the Shu army hid behind the female wall and shot arrows through the guò shooting hole. When Liu Hou led people to rebuild the city wall in Pan Jun, Liu Hou deliberately designed the shooting hole.

Now the advantage was shown, and the Shu army hid behind the city walls, shooting arrows through small shooting holes. Basically, except for the eyes, the whole body of the archers of the Shu army will be protected by the city wall, unless it is the kind of legendary perverted archer, otherwise the average crossbowman will not want to be able to shoot the Shu soldier.

Of course, there are a few unlucky people who are really killed by a stray arrow that happens to fly in through the shooting hole or the observation hole.

More casualties came from the projectile of arrows. Some of the Wei arrows shot higher and only entered the parabolic descent after crossing the city wall, and these arrows often inflicted some damage on the Shu soldiers walking on the city wall. On the contrary, it is the people who cling to the city wall that are not easily harmed, which is the shadow protection effect of the city wall.

The Wei army did not rush to the city like crazy like yesterday, Zhao Yun breathed a sigh of relief, he wished that he would be like this every day. This kind of counter-fire is obviously very beneficial to the Shu army, and the exchange ratio of casualties between the two sides is very considerable. However, it didn't take long for him to frown again, this is not normal, the Wei army adopted such a gentle siege method, obviously not wanting to kill and injure the defenders of the city, they should be delaying time and waiting for something.

What the hell are they waiting for? Zhao Yun fell into deep thought.

On the fifth day of the siege, the mystery was revealed. Sima Yi was really waiting for siege equipment. Due to the need to defend the city, the trees within a radius of 30 miles of Jingzhou City have long been cut down, just to prevent the enemy from using local materials to build siege equipment.

Therefore, Cao's army could only run farther to cut down trees and make siege equipment. In the past few days, there were only a few Cao troops attacking the city under Jingzhou City, and a large number of people were sent by Sima Yi to cut down trees and build siege equipment. No, after five days of fighting day and night, Cao Jun finally built 50 stone throwers and 20 crashed cars, and now they are forming a neat phalanx outside the west gate of Jingzhou City, waiting for the order to attack Jingzhou City.