Tai Shi Ci suddenly led his team to turn north, but he was able to avoid the bow and crossbow throws of the coalition army. The forward general who commanded was stunned for a moment, and after a closer look, he found that Tai Shici's men turned around again in the north, staring at the coalition forces from a distance. It seems that as soon as the allied army's bow and crossbow array moves, it will immediately charge.

At the head of the city, eight bed crossbows slowly withdrew, while four ballista battalions and two fire crossbow battalions ascended to the top of the city, densely lined up on the shooting table, and lined up in full swing to correct the position.

In the distance, on the command car, Yuan Shao's face was solemn, his brows were furrowed, and after thinking for a while, he immediately came to his senses and shouted: "Stupid! Pass my order, and the forward phalanx hurry up and attack the city! Ignore the cavalry! Ugly, you take 10,000 iron horsemen to keep an eye on them! ”

A big man with a black beard and a heavy beard behind Yuan Shao, eight and a half feet tall, was born five big and three thick, heard Yuan Shao's order, immediately stepped forward and saluted: "The last general will obey the order!" Five thousand iron horsemen are enough! ”

Yuan Shao immediately shook his head: "It must be 10,000, and it is forbidden for you to join forces with Zhuang Shao's rangers, as long as you drag them down, it will be a great achievement!" Violators of orders will be engaged in military law! ”

When he heard this, he was a little unwilling, but he still mobilized his troops and horses.

After receiving Yuan Shao's military order, the forward general did not dare to slack off, and immediately waved his army to speed up. And Tai Shici's men and horses also moved, divided into two teams, and took turns to fly forward and harass them, delaying the advance of the coalition forces, but each time they retreated at the touch of a button, and they were not entangled with the coalition forces at all.

A quarter of an hour later, the coalition forces under the city had advanced to a distance of less than four hundred paces from the city, and the ballista at the head of the city was finally ready and began to roar angrily.

The phalanx of the coalition army was chaotic, with heavy casualties, and only the men and horses relying on the shield cart in front of the formation were spared.

The range of the ballista can reach 700 steps, plus the help of the height of the city wall, there is no suspense about 750 steps, and now the coalition army phalanx is between 350 and 500 steps away from the city wall, which is the most powerful section of the ballista. Therefore, each crossbow arrow can kill the coalition army, and some can also string the coalition army into a string of human flesh gourds.

The Ballista Battalion reloads immediately after a salvo, while the Firebolt Battalion, although small in number, has a very fast rate of fire, especially after the rocket kills, and if you are lucky, it will set the vicinity on fire. Therefore, although the deterrent power is not as domineering as that of the ballista, the number of kills is to catch up with the ballista.

In the south of the city, Qin Ling, the deputy commander of the First Cavalry Corps, led 5,000 men and horses out of the city, harassing the advance of the coalition army, ignoring the heavy infantry that was close at hand, and shooting directly at the Jingzhou crossbowmen behind the phalanx, the effect was very good, and it also smoothly delayed the advance speed of the coalition army's phalanx.

There were only four giant bed crossbows on the firing table in the south of the city, and the rest of the positions were still reserved for the ballista battalion and the fire ballista battalion, so the cost of the coalition advance was far greater than that in the west of the city.

To the east of the city, after the coalition catapults were suppressed by bed crossbows, the siege phalanx abandoned the heavy shield carts to disperse the formation and rushed towards the city head in four directions. Gongsun Zhan's plan is very simple, after the number of shield cars has decreased, it can no longer support the defense of the entire forward phalanx, so it is very chicken, so he simply abandoned it, and let the whole army advance at the fastest speed, maybe the effect will be better!

After the East Road coalition army abandoned the car formation, it was covered by Youzhou's elite iron cavalry, and after paying a certain amount of casualties, it really successfully approached the city wall and was the first to start the siege!

Gongsun Chan was happy and pained by this, and the happiness was naturally due to the smooth arrival of the siege, and the pain was that the iron cavalry of the headquarters paid more than 3,000 injuries for this.

Of the three legions defending the city, only Bao Xin was fully established, and the remaining two legions lost 3,000 men and horses. But on the contrary, the combat effectiveness of Bao Xin's army is the weakest, because there are only 8,000 elite men and horses in Bao Xin's headquarters, and the rest of the soldiers are Liu Dai's Yanzhou soldiers and horses who took over, and their combat effectiveness is very average.

Moreover, Bao Xin's corps has not gone through any major battles after surrendering, and the soldiers under his command are not proficient enough in the operation of new armaments, and more importantly, they are not tacit enough to cooperate with each other.

For example, the catapult fires oil bombs and the fire crossbow battalion ignites, such a combination punch is difficult for the Fifth Legion to successfully complete.

The regular coordination between the Ballista Battalion and the Fire Ballista Battalion was also very ineffective, while the Ballista Battalion of the First Legion and the Fire Ballista Battalion in the west of the city cooperated very tacitly, and in the same amount of time, it was twice as strong as the Fifth Legion in terms of killing and injuring the enemy and delaying the advance of the coalition forces! This is also one of the reasons why Gongsun Zhan's plan to abandon the shield was successfully implemented.

Bao Xin's expression was solemn, and he continued to discuss countermeasures with Yu Ban and Chen Gong beside him, although the city will not be lost in this way, the losses will be greater than the south and west of the city, and the East Route Army led by Gongsun Zan on the opposite side is the weakest way in the coalition army, and it is still so unbearable in the face of the weakest opponent, which can only show that the Fifth Army is at the bottom under the general!

And this is what Bao Xin, who wants to be strong, doesn't want to see it anyway!

Yu Ban persuaded: "General, why don't we also send cavalry out to delay?" ”

Bao Xin shook his head and said: "The general gave us five thousand cavalry, but we didn't let us use it like this, the cavalry in the east and west of the city went to war, it was because the other party's cavalry did not fight, but Gongsun Chan is different, his iron cavalry has been watching there, and our cavalry will definitely be intercepted when they go out." ”

Bao Xin pondered for a long time, and resolutely ordered: "Pass my military order!" The Fire Ballista Battalion continues to attack, and the Ballista Battalion retreats! Order all the crossbowmen of the reserve to go to the city, and let the cavalry bring bows and arrows to the city and line up at the firing table! ”

Hearing Bao Xin's order, the captains of the four ballista battalions suddenly looked extremely ugly, but they had nothing to say, because the ballista battalion was indeed not performing well, far worse than those skilled soldiers! Now because of the ballista's ineffectiveness, the legion commander is angry and drives the ballista away, which is also reasonable.

It would also be a good idea to send crossbowmen to the city, as the coalition forces under the city had already approached the city walls, and the two armies had begun the fiercest battle for the city.

At this time, the ballista was indeed not very useful, but the lethality of the crossbowmen was amazing, so Bao Xin's decision was very correct.

After a while, a brigade of ballistae and three thousand horsemen of the reserve ascended the city wall and began to line up at the firing table.

Bao Xin said loudly: "Yu Ban! I'll take command of the crossbowmen! ”

After a while, thousands of crossbowmen on the shooting table were arrayed, and Bao Xin also adopted the three-stage arrow array configuration invented and promoted by Zhuang Shaoyou, dividing the crossbowmen into several rows and taking turns to shoot and load, and the effect was very significant.

The dense coalition forces under the city were overwhelmed by the crossbows at the head of the city, and their morale plummeted, and there was chaos. The forward general led the guards to restrain them to the death, and finally stabilized their positions after killing dozens of retreating soldiers, and the soldiers who had no way to retreat also climbed the city wall like crazy.

Soon after the short battle in the east of the city, the west and south of the city also entered the offensive and defensive battles one after another.

Outside the city, after seeing the cavalry led by Chou, Tai Shici did not like to fight, and did not hesitate to turn his horse's head and detour towards the north gate. The ugly chased after him for a long time, and after eating several taels of dust, he was finally shot back by the ballista at the head of the city.

Ugly spitted while scolding: "Damn, run faster than a rabbit!" ”

Half an hour after the start of the battle, the two armies entered a close encounter, and the battle gradually became fierce. The coalition warlords continued to kill and defend themselves, forcing the coalition soldiers to desperately attack the city, and the defenders of the city could not retreat and resisted vigorously.

The crossbowmen of the two armies played with each other up and down the city walls, and there were casualties on each other. But the defenders of the city were sharp in their crossbows, and the proportion of crossbowmen was very large, and the arrows were sufficient. So after the initial stalemate, the crossbowmen of the defenders of the city became more and more dominant. After the allied crossbowmen ran out of arrows, they were completely suppressed.

The coalition forces attacked fiercely, but Puyang was still as steady as a rock.

Zhuang Shaoyou's expression became solemn, and the two armies had been fighting since early in the morning, and it was past noon. In just over an hour before dusk, the well-trained crossbowmen were already out of strength and could not pull the bowstrings for a long time, and the coalition forces were still fighting to the death. The rear of the coalition army continued to increase its troops, and each time the city repelled a wave of attacks, it was immediately another round of onslaught in less than half an hour.

"They want to use the number of people to kill the old!"

That's right, the coalition forces are fully aware of Zhuang Shaoyou's threat, both in terms of position and strength, which makes people frightened. All the princes, including Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, no one dared to say that they could fight with Zhuang Shaoyou alone. Although Yuan Shu also has an army of 100,000 under him, which is only 20,000 less than Zhuang Shaoyou, Yuan Shu knows in his heart that the 100,000 horses at hand can pass one-third of Zhuang Shaoyou's ability, even if he burns high incense.

And the other princes are even more unbearable! Therefore, all the heroes in the world regard Zhuang Shaoyou as the biggest enemy! If you can't take Puyang this time, then Zhuang Shaoyou will definitely break through the princes of the world with a thunderous momentum, and the only thing that can't be determined is time!

Is it ten years? Twenty years? Or thirty years?

The princes of all walks of life are now at the peak of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the average age is nearly forty. In another twenty years, most of the people present will wither, and the quality of the next generation will be significantly inferior to that of this one. Twenty years later, Zhuang Shaoyou is forty-five years old, and he is in the year of fighting, and he must be more vigorous than now. If that time comes, who else in the world can compete with it?

Therefore, now is the only chance to eliminate Zhuang Shaoyou, at all costs!

At yesterday's coalition military meeting, at Yuan Shao's initiative, all the princes reached an agreement on this, and even Yuan Shu did not sing against Yuan Shao, because everyone knew in their hearts that if they didn't do their best now, they would regret it too late in the future!

Therefore, today's burst, 420,000 coalition troops outside the city, the first round of 170,000 soldiers and horses, and then every hour will increase 30,000 or 40,000 reinforcements, from the early morning to now, four hours have passed, the coalition army has dispatched at least 300,000 horses, not to mention all their strength, it's almost the same!

And Zhuang Shaoyou also did his best, all the reserves took turns to go to the city to help, the twelve lifting towers were also working non-stop, and all kinds of military supplies and resources were continuously transported to the city wall, and the consumption was extremely huge.

Post-war statistics show that in this battle alone, the defenders of Puyang City, the ballista troops shot more than 40,000 large crossbow arrows, and the crossbowmen used up nearly 200,000 arrows!

A quarter of the reserves of the Puyang arsenal are exhausted!