Soon, the next day.

Shen Chen has been in Chang'an City for more than ten days, and the camp has basically been improved.

The large equipment and tools have been prepared, and the camps that stretch for more than ten miles will be opened at the end of the morning meal, and the generals of each battalion will slowly leave the camp with their own men and horses.

The soldiers had breakfast at the beginning of the meal, then rested a little, and began to line up in the camp at three minutes after the meal.

It was only when the melodious trumpet sounded that the generals of the various divisions who had received the order led the soldiers out of the barracks.

In this Northern Expedition, Shen Chen's troops did not have an advantage. But he governed the army strictly, coupled with the help of Yu Ban, he trained a hundred elite soldiers, and the morale of the soldiers was very high, and the fighting spirit was also very strong.

Chang'an's side is obviously playing the card of holding up the free battle, which is the decision to retreat in the city and not come out. Shen Chen planned to fight a wave of strong attacks when the morale was high and the morale was high.

He asked Huang Zhong to attack Lantian County with more than 10,000 horses, it seems that the number of soldiers and horses is not much, and it is far from Cao Zhenzhen, but Shen Chen still has tens of thousands of cavalry.

Once Cao Zhen felt that Huang Zhong had few people to bully, and dared to bring the main force out of Lantian Valley to try to attack Huang Zhong's more than 10,000 people, then Shen Chen would let Cao Zhen feel the horror of ten thousand horses galloping and iron horses crushing.

At the end of the eclipse time, the army has been assembled, about 30,000 people and horses lined up in several phalanxes, and there are a large number of auxiliary soldiers in the rear, pushing countless catapults, ladders, cloud towers, rushing cars, wooden curtains, nest cars, chariots, crashes, and other equipment all the way to the north.

The clanging drum noise resounded throughout the city wall of the south gate of Chang'an City, and a large number of Cao troops raised their heads on the city wall, looking into the south.

I saw a dense Han army coming slowly, 30,000 troops plus more than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, about 50,000 horses, there seemed to be a black tide surging forward on the vast plain, the waves crashing on the shore, to hit the huge Chang'an city fiercely.

The length of the southern wall of Chang'an in the Han Dynasty is about 6.25 kilometers, and it is almost impossible to see the end at a glance. But the Han army outside the city also lined up in a long formation, and there was no end, and the sea of people was surging, as if they wanted to cover all sides of the entire southern city wall.

At this moment, on the city wall of Chang'an, with the sound of table tennis war drums and moo horns, a group of soldiers emerged from behind the women's wall, bows and knives out of the sheath, and everywhere there were the hula collision of iron armor leaves, anxious and angry urgings, neat shouts, as well as short and urgent orders and sharp whistles, all of which made the wall chaotic.

Xiahou Mao, Zhong Xuan and others hurriedly came to the city wall to watch, they saw that the Han army in the distance was not in a hurry to attack, but temporarily stopped about four or five miles outside the city, and a knight galloped out of the enemy formation and ran quickly in the direction of the south city gate.

Because there was only one cavalryman, Xiahou Mao did not give the order to release arrows. The supplies in the city are indeed abundant, but it is really not worth shooting tens of thousands of arrows for one person, and Xiahou Mao is not stupid enough to be so wealthy.

The knight approached the moat quickly, unhindered by his crossbow, and then, with a beautiful flick of his tail, the horse's hooves leaped high, and the soldier stood up on horseback, and then quickly bent his bow and arrow, and loosened his bowstring at the top of the wall less than eighty paces from him.

Almost as soon as the arrow leaped down the wall, the horse's hooves had fallen, and then the knight turned his horse's head and stepped back dozens of paces, out of range of his crossbow, waiting for a reply.

The arrow struck the pillars of the tower in a beautiful arc through the air.

After a while, the soldier took it, and there was a letter hanging on the arrow, and after Xiahou Mao read it, he frowned and said: "This is Shen Chen's battle book, ask me to wait for a decisive battle out of the city." ”

Zhong Xuan said with a smile: "The general doesn't need to pay attention, the south is not as small as the north, and we still occupy Chang'an City, which has high walls and thick walls, and it is natural for him to ask us to go out of the city to decide the victory in one fell swoop." If we've decided to focus on defense, why bother with it? ”

"Well, it's nature."

Xiahou Mao nodded, and then said, "Reply to that person!" ”

Immediately beside him, an archer aimed in the direction of the knight and shot an arrow.

The arrow also made an arc in the air, but because the knight's position was already very far behind, beyond the crossbow and arrow, it did not threaten him, and finally landed five or six steps in front of the knight.

The knight glanced down, but there was no reply from the arrow, which only showed one thing—the enemy did not respond to the decisive battle out of the city, and apparently intended to continue to retreat into the city.

"Woo woo woo! ~~~~~”

After the knight came back and reported the news to Shen Chen, Shen Chen did not have any surprises, and with a wave of his hand, he prepared to attack the city.

The Central Infantry Corps then moved to the left and right flanks, revealing a passage.

The siege equipment in the rear was slowly pushed to the front, with a wooden curtain in the front, a four-wheeled vehicle below, and a huge wooden plank hanging from it, which was pushed to the front of the formation.

Immediately afterwards, all kinds of siege equipment began to move forward, and catapults, cloud towers, and moats approached the city gate under the cover of wooden curtains.

Chang'an City has a moat, and the source is not Weishui, but the tributary of Weishui.

The water is not a large river, so the moat in Chang'an is far less exaggerated than that of Xiangyang to the point of being tens of meters wide, so the siege equipment does not need to be close to the moat at all, and it can be activated a hundred steps away.

The wooden mantle was at the front of the line, slowly approaching the range of Chang'an City, but the city was extremely silent, and nothing happened.

After a while, nearly eighty paces away, an iron-tipped crossbow bolt as thick as a tree trunk, with a howling sound like a ghost crying wolf, shot down from the top of the city, and pierced the planks of a wooden curtain.

The arrow was like a signal.

All the vehicles stopped, and the wooden curtains lined up to cover the catapult and the people behind it, but the cloud tower could not cover it, it was too high.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry."

The crossbowmen below the cloud tower climbed the ladder one after another.

The winch hand of the catapult pulls the winch, some people carry out counterweights, some people put stones, and some people help pull the load-bearing rod, and more than a dozen people operate the catapult together.

And after the crossbow arrows of the first bed crossbow on Chang'an City were shot down, followed by the second, third, and fourth crossbows...... Thousands of bed crossbows were activated, aiming at the wooden curtains, catapults, and cloud towers below.

"Bang!"

A crossbow arrow pierced the void and shot straight at a cloud tower, and a huge thud was heard, sawdust flew sideways, and Huo Yang, who was climbing the cloud tower, was suddenly hit by the ejected sawdust, and almost fell off the wooden tower.

"General."

The guards next to him hurried to help.

Huo Yang's face was scratched, and blood flowed down, he pushed away the guards and shouted, "Don't worry about me, go up and set up a bed crossbow." ”

"Yes."

The guards immediately went up the ladder.

Yunlou can't go up to stand in the middle of the march, one is that the stand is unstable, and the other is that there are too many people above, which will increase the burden of the people pushing the cloud tower below.

So it's often the case that after arriving at the place, the position is fixed, and then the person climbs up to find the firing position.

Now the enemy strikes first, and the crossbow arrows are constantly shooting, and the damage that a thousand bed crossbows on a battlefield like this that is seven or eight miles long can not cause much damage.

But the commander on the city wall was very smart, he did not aim at the Han army's men, but specifically aimed at the baffles and trebuchets and wooden curtains on the cloud tower, wanting to inflict damage on the Han army's equipment.

The wooden mantle can defend against arrows, the power of the bed crossbow is particularly great, and the huge impact may break the wooden curtain, once the wooden mantle and the baffle on the cloud tower are missing, then the normal bow and crossbow can exert its power.

It's just that the Wei army on the city wall probably wouldn't have thought that over the years, Liu Bei Group has attached importance to craftsmen and inventions, and Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang have often studied it, improving equipment including hand crossbows, bed crossbows, catapults, infantry bows and so on.

The weapons and equipment of the Han army were already superior to the Cao army in terms of power, range, and use. Especially something like a catapult.

According to historical records, if a catapult before the Song Dynasty threw 100 kg of stones, the range was often between 40-70 meters. If you throw 30 kg of stones, the range is only more than 100 meters, and you can't throw too far.

"Fan Li's Art of War" records that when the catapult threw twelve catties in the Spring and Autumn Period, it could fly out 200 steps, almost 300 meters, but the power was much smaller.

Therefore, the catapults before the Tang and Song dynasties lacked a lot in terms of range and power.

However, after being improved by Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang, today's catapults use winches and counterweights to increase their functions, which have a longer range and greater power than the original direct human projectile.

At this moment, the wooden curtain in the front is about eighty paces away from the city, a hundred meters, and the catapult behind is about a hundred paces, one hundred and forty meters. At this distance, the archers could be killed by standing on the walls, but because of the wooden curtains, it was difficult to shoot the catapult riders.

"Shoot the arrows!"

Huo Yang's side had already climbed to the cloud tower, the cloud tower was like a large tower, on which dozens of archers could stand, and now in addition to the archers, there was also a bed crossbow.

At this time, the three men manipulated the crossbow, using gears and winches to step on the strings.

With Huo Yang's order, the crossbowman who was stepping on the winch hub suddenly let go, and he heard a "buzz", and the crossbow arrow was ejected at an extremely fast speed, so fast that even afterimages appeared, and disappeared into the sky in the blink of an eye.

The battle formation of the Han army was sorted before and after the wooden mantle, the catapult and the cloud tower, and the position of the cloud tower was slightly back, and the bows and arrows of both the enemy and us could not shoot.

But I saw that the crossbow arrow pierced the sky with a "whoosh", and then shot at the female wall, the brick wall and earth and stone collapsed, and the metal sparks burst out, which frightened the two Wei soldiers who were gathered at the entrance of the female wall and looked outside.

"Shoot crooked!"

When Huo Yang saw this scene, he immediately shouted: "Adjust the angle, quickly!" ”

Soon new bolts were loaded.

Cao Wei's bed crossbow was much worse technically than the Han army's bed crossbow, and its accuracy was not enough.

The Han army's bed crossbow was even equipped with a machine sight, and the improved crossbow platform was fixed on the cloud tower, and the speed of placing crossbow arrows was much faster than Cao Jun's bed crossbow.

Therefore, even if there are more bed crossbows on Chang'an City, the Han army is not to be outdone, relying on strong firing speed and accuracy to adjust the gap in number and fight back forcefully.

The bed crossbow arrows of the two sides were constantly firing back and forth in mid-air, but in a war of this scale, it was obviously impossible to rely on this bed crossbow to cause huge damage.

The two sides shot at each other for half a day, and the casualties caused by the full fight did not exceed 500, of which the injuries were mainly injured, and most of them were splashed by sawdust and clods of soil.

But then the heavyweights that came up upset the balance.

The catapult exerted its strength.

The first thing to be projected was a hundred-kilogram boulder, which cut a brilliant arc in the sky, crossed the moat, and flew towards the city.

It's a pity that the head was a little off the mark, and it smashed on the female wall, smashing a big hole out of the battlement.

Chang'an City and Luoyang City are one of the few cities with brick walls and rammed earth structures in the Han Dynasty, and the defense power is very exaggerated.

But the city wall is just a big hole, and the defense line is as stable as Mount Tai.

However, then on the second piece, the third piece...... Hundreds of stone bullets smashed into the city wall like meteorites landing.

I heard the sound of "bang bang bang" endlessly, although the momentum was certainly far inferior to the exaggeration of the Jin army's 5,000 forts that almost filled up the Bianliang, but it also gave the Wei army a great impact.

Many Wei soldiers had hardly fought against catapults, and when they saw the terrifying boulders falling from the sky, even if they knew that the probability of hitting them was extremely small, they were instinctively frightened and their legs and feet weakened, and some even ran away with their legs, wanting to escape from the city wall.

"Don't retreat!"

At this moment, on the city wall, Zhong Xuan looked down.

The first round of the catapult's offensive gave the Wei army a great shock, so much so that the attack of the bed crossbow was stalled.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, many soldiers suddenly ran out of the Han army, carrying the trench bridge and running towards the bottom of the city wall under the cover of catapults and bed crossbows.

Once the trench bridge was erected, the next step was for the Han army to come over and start attacking the city, so Zhong Xuan ordered the soldiers to hold on.

Under the pressure of the sharp steel knives in the hands of the war supervisors, the soldiers had to return to their posts, and then Zhong Xuan ordered the arrows to be released, and the Han army outside the city did not expect them to organize a counterattack so quickly.

However, Cao Jun also paid a terrible price.

In order to defend against the large-scale attack of the Han army, the city wall that was more than ten miles long was full of Wei soldiers. Although the number of catapults in the Han army is small, and it is not easy to hit people, there are always some unlucky people who are unlucky.

The potholed city wall was full of stones and splashing stones, dusty everywhere, some were hit by the front and turned directly into a ball of sauce, some were smashed by the splashed stones, and the blood flowed continuously, and some were simply stunned, and the boulder fell down and made a huge concussive sound.

The city wall was full of wailing and lying Wei soldiers, but Zhong Miao couldn't care much about it, he looked at a high oar in the back, and suddenly frowned and said, "No. ”

Fei Yao, the general next to him, asked, "Captain, what's wrong?" ”

"Although the enemy's offensive is fierce, but this offensive can't even cross the moat, what does Shen Chen want to do? If he wants to attack on a large scale, he will inevitably wait patiently for a few more months and build more siege equipment, how can he attack so quickly? ”

Zhong Xuan was very puzzled.

When Lu Zhi pacified the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he once besieged Zhang Jiao in Guangzong County.

There are many Yellow Turban troops in Guangzong City, and the city is also very tall.

In order to defeat Zhang Jiao, Lu Zhi decided to camp in place, build siege equipment, and then launch a fierce attack on Guangzong.

As a result, in this stage of encirclement and confrontation, before the equipment was ready, Emperor Ling of Han became impatient and replaced Lu Zhi with Dong Zhuo, and let Dong Zhuo attack.

Dong Zhuo forced the siege of the city, and was beaten to the point that his head was bleeding, which showed that the siege was difficult.

Chang'an City is much thicker than the original Guangzong City, and Shen Chen is also a veteran and famous all over the world, how could he make such a low-level mistake and storm Chang'an without being fully prepared?

There are only a few hundred catapults, so let's build another thousand and attack them.

So Zhong Xuan felt that something was wrong.

After a while, his face suddenly became solemn, and he said to Fei Yao: "Quick, the city wall is running, immediately order all the scouts to run along the city wall to patrol." ”

"Yes."

Although Fei Yao was puzzled, he saw Zhong Yao's resolute attitude, so he immediately went to do it.

On the other side, Yang Ke, the cavalry general, wondered and asked, "Captain, why do you want the scouts to run and patrol along the city wall?" ”

"Chang'an is difficult to defend, because it is too big, 50,000 people in our city, all standing on one side of the city wall, are not satisfied, let alone the four city walls."

Zhong Xuan's face was serious and said: "Now Shen Chen is attacking in the south, and there are Zhao Yun and Pang De in the north, our soldiers are all defending on the north and south sides, not to mention the defense of the east and west city walls, and even the reconnaissance forces are seriously insufficient." If Shen Chen attacks from the north and south, in fact, he sends a small force to attack from the east and west, I am afraid that several gates of the east and west city walls will be in danger of being captured. ”

"I see."

Yang Ke nodded as if he didn't understand.

After about two quarters of an hour, Fei Yao hurried back, and before he could climb the high oar, he shouted to Zhong Yao below: "Captain, it's not good, the enemy has attacked from Xicheng." ”

"Sure enough."

Zhong Xuan shouted: "Quick, let the rear reserves gallop to the aid of Xicheng." ”

"Yui."

Fei Yao hurriedly went to make arrangements.

At this time, Yang Ke was already very impressed, and gave a thumbs up and said: "Taiwei is clever, and he really guessed what the enemy wanted to do. ”

But Zhong Xuan was not happy, looked at the southern Han army with deep eyes, and said softly: "Shen Xiaoqing is scheming, even if he is recognized, the weakness of our city is too big after all..... Let's hope he doesn't have any other plans. ”