Wen Ping's actions at the east end and the west end made the princes of the world scratch their heads, but Zhuang Shaoyou was very clear and worried. Because Wen Ping is luring the enemy and attracting the enemy's attention, in order to reduce the pressure on Puyang and maximize the time!

For Zhuang Shaoyou, delaying time is the best policy! In mid-March, the Yellow River will thaw, and the battle will move in a more powerful direction against Zhuang Shaoyou. With the support of the sailors, Puyang will greatly increase its garrison capacity.

On 14 February, Liu Biao's 20,000 elites arrived in Puyang.

The siege of the city by the army is the most taboo, so after some negotiation and bargaining, the coalition decided to launch a tentative attack!

190,000 to 60,000, you can fight!

On 15 February, after eight days of siege, the coalition forces finally began to attack.

Zhuang Shaoyou stood at the head of Puyang City, looking at the moat below, and couldn't help but be a little funny, it was still too naïve! Underestimate the determination of the heroes of the world!

The moat around Puyang is only five zhang wide, three feet deep, even people can't be submerged, and the river is uneven, the effect is not too good, but it is better than nothing, if the coalition army wants to attack the city, you must find a way to fill in the moat, at least part of it.

Moreover, it is still the middle of winter, the weather is cold, and the newly dug moat has formed a thin layer of ice, which can bear the weight of the child, but it will definitely not be able to withstand the trampling of the army, which is relatively favorable news for this season.

Among the coalition forces, Yuan Shao had the most profound impact on the strength of Zhuang Shao's army, and these impressions have been deeply rooted in Yuan Shao's bone marrow, and there is a painful price behind no experience. However, this time, Yuan Shao did not share the characteristics of Zhuang Shaoyou's army with all the coalition forces.

On the west route of the coalition army, Yuan Shao, Lü Bu and Cao Cao gathered 40,000 infantry to attack the city, and Yuan Shu and Liu Biao gathered 50,000 infantry to participate in the siege on the south road.

As soon as it was dawn, the coalition forces began to move.

Knowing the sharpness of Zhuang Shaoyou's ballista, the coalition forces have made full preparations for the ballista - shield car!

This kind of shield car was specially built by Yuan Shao's people, and it was designed to deal with Zhuang Shaoyou. The shield cart was two feet five feet wide and nine feet high, and was hung with an iron plate with a thickness of one inch on the outside, under which was pliable wood, and at the top there was a curved protective plate, and each car could accommodate dozens of people at the same time.

The advantage is that Zhuang Shaoyou's ballista cannot be shot through, and there are many disadvantages, such as slow speed, bulky, inconvenient to carry, high cost, narrow application area, and can only be used for siege.

From this shield car, it can be seen how deeply Yuan Shao has a grudge against Zhuang Shaoyou.

The two hundred shield carts were divided into hundreds, and they slowly advanced towards Puyang City, each shield cart could shelter fifty soldiers, and Yuan Shao was also ingenious, letting the shield man hold the shield above his head and shelter the crossbowman to follow the shield cart. In order to maximize the utilization efficiency of the shield car, the most threatening thing for the ballista is to shoot head-on, and it is impossible to eject, so it is not a big problem to do so.

In this way, each shield chariot formed a small phalanx of 100 people, and as long as it advanced to the range of the crossbowmen, it could effectively contain the defenders at the head of the city and buy time for the infantry to ascend the city.

Zhuang Shaoyou looked at the coalition forces below with a solemn expression, and secretly scolded Yuan Shao, an old turtle, for making this kind of turtle shell with extremely poor cost performance.

"Fire Ballista Camp Ready! Aim at the back of the shield car and shoot, triple shot! ”

The two hundred rocket ballistae on the head of Puyang Xicheng began to fire a salvo, two to one salvo, and three rounds of firing, the effect was very average, the lethality was not large, and the offensive of the shield car was basically not affected.

Huang Zhong's expression was solemn, and he stepped forward and said, "General, use the explosive bomb!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou shook his head resolutely and said, "No! It's not time yet! You can't use your hole cards so early! Pass my order, the fire crossbow battalion stops shooting! Let them come and attack the city! If you don't give them some confidence, how dare those clowns jump out of the beam! ”

Yuan Shao stood on the command car, although his expression was calm, but his heart was both nervous and excited, both looking forward to and apprehensive, sharpening a sword in three years! It's finally working!

As soon as the ballista was restrained, Zhuang Shaoyou had no moves!

Facing the iron turtle slowly approaching below, Puyang really seems to have no good way but to wait for the coalition forces to slowly approach and then attack the city!

The morale of the defenders at the head of the city was a little low, and Huang Zhong and Sun Guan desperately cheered up and encouraged the soldiers, telling them that the general had a good plan for freedom, and the army's morale was a little calmer.

Soon, the turtle shell of the coalition army finally approached the city, and the shield hand behind the turtle shell immediately stepped forward to change the formation.

After Huang Zhong at the head of the city killed a centurion three times in a row, he shouted: "Crossbowmen shoot freely!" ”

Why free fire? Because after three years of tempering, the infantry under Zhuang Shaoyou has become more professional, with crossbowmen specializing in precision shooting, sword and shield fighters specializing in defense and hand-to-hand combat, pikemen specializing in lining up to restrain cavalry, and crossbow soldiers detached from the original establishment and integrated.

Now the configuration of the five infantry corps under Zhuang Shaoyou is unified, and the corps has two divisions, but each division has only three brigades, one spear brigade, one sword and shield brigade, and one bow and crossbow brigade, with a total of 7,500 people; The remaining 5,000 people are the troops directly under the legion, including the corps commander's 500 personal guard battalion, all of which are cavalry! There was also a baggage battalion, full of five hundred soldiers and a thousand fruits dismounted; The remaining 4,000 men were tactical strike forces, four ballista battalions, two fire crossbow battalions, two catapult battalions.

Guoxiama was a small, four-foot-tall horse, slightly smaller than a donkey in the Central Plains, and was introduced from Goguryeo. This kind of horse is a bit very much, small size, low consumption, endurance, high load, strong adaptability, walking on the mountain as if walking on flat ground, a fruit horse can pull thousands of pounds of items, can be called a model worker!

The introduction of Guoxia horse greatly improved the mobility and sustained combat ability of the infantry of Zhuang Shao's guerrilla army, with this kind of horse, the infantry can also keep up with the heavy battalion when marching in a hurry, so Guoxia horse belongs to the strategic arms, and the second legion of the Wen Zhi dared to take 10,000 horses in the Central Plains as if into a no-man's land, and the strength of Guoxia is not unrelated!

To get back to the point, Huang Zhong ordered the crossbowmen to shoot freely, because after three years of training, the shooting accuracy of the crossbowmen has been very high.

Sure enough, as soon as Huang Zhong's order was issued, there was a sound of a machine at the head of the city, and there was a burst of "clanging bells" under the city! And the incessant screams.

After more than three years of preparation, the forge and the Institute of Science and Technology continued to try, the individual crossbow machine was improved again, the original improved four-shot crossbow machine was redesigned, and the structure was readjusted, so that the trajectory of the crossbow bolt after shooting is more stable and the speed of continuous fire is faster!

This kind of four-shot crossbow machine has been completely popularized to all infantry in the whole army, and the eliminated two-shot old crossbow machine is uniformly recycled and refurbished and sold to other princes, high price, low quantity, under strict control, not only recovered the cost, but also made a lot of money!

Zhuang Shaoyou couldn't help but sigh: The arms business is really the most profitable business in the world!

The ill-prepared coalition soldiers were killed and wounded in the face of a sudden, unwarning burst of crossbow arrows. However, under the constraints of the striker general, they quickly regrouped and prepared for protection, and the crossbowmen had no chance to take advantage of it. It can be seen that these soldiers of the coalition army are not just young children!

The shield cart advanced to the edge of the moat, the shield bearers lined up in defensive formation, and the crossbowmen behind them also hurriedly stepped forward to line up and return fire, and began to attack towards the head of the city, and at this time, the fifty soldiers covering under the shield cart rushed to the moat with a sandbag and threw it into the river!

Seeing this, Zhuang Shaoyou's pupils contracted, and he actually used this method to fill the moat!

Without waiting for Zhuang Shaoyou's order, the crossbowmen immediately played with the coalition forces under the city.

Zhuang Shaoyou pondered whether to let Tai Shici take the cavalry out to surprise them, but when he saw the two rows of shield carts on the other side at the city gate, a total of twelve shields, he immediately dispelled this idea.

sneered: Yuan Shao is really well prepared! It seems that he was very impressed at the beginning! But it's not the deepest enough! If it was deep enough, he wouldn't dare come again!

Yuan Benchu, since you are here this time, then don't think about leaving again!