Cao Ren looked into the distance, the smoke and dust dissipated, and he saw dozens of huge machines seven or eight zhang high being pulled by more than a thousand Shu troops, slowly approaching the city wall, and stopped when they were about two hundred paces away.

The instrument was very strange, on the heavy base, a thick log more than ten meters long as a rod, erected high, and there was a spoon-like thing at the end of the log. Cao Ren has been on the battlefield for decades, attacking and defending countless times, and he has never seen a siege machine of this shape. What the hell is this?

Man Zhong also looked at it, trying his best to distinguish it, and suddenly he said in confusion: "I look at this thing, it looks like a thunderbolt car presented by Liu Ziyang in the battle of Guandu in the past." But why is it so big? ”

After saying this, Cao Ren also remembered.

In the battle of Guandu that year, Yuan Shao built a mountain of earth, hid a crossbowman on it, and the arrows rained down to suppress Cao's army.

Liu Yejin said: "It can be used as a stone cart to break it." Cao Cao ordered Liu Yejin to dedicate the drawings of the stone carts, and hundreds of stone carts were built overnight, which were distributed within the camp wall, facing the earth mountain. While waiting for the archers of the Yuan army to shoot arrows, the camp dragged the stone carts together, and the cannon stones flew into the air and beat them upward.

The Yuan army had no place to hide, and the archers were killed. Yuan Junjun called his car "Thunderbolt".

Liu Ye's thunderbolt was less than a foot in size, less than one-tenth of the machinery of the Shu army, but it was roughly similar in shape. According to this inference, this kind of stone truck is estimated to be able to launch dozens of catties of heavy stones, which is really amazing. Cao Ren and Man Zhong understood this, and hurriedly ordered the city head to erect a huge shield, and the crossbowmen drilled into the city tower to take refuge, so as to reduce the damage.

Cao Ren and Man Chong's response was quite fast, but they were very wrong in estimating the power of the catapult. This kind of catapult is not the kind of ordinary catapult, it is Zhao Guang's direct copy of the Mongolian army's capture of Xiangfan's big killer - return cannon.

Ordinary catapults can only fire dozens of pounds of stones, and the firing range is also short, which is obviously not the same level as the return gun. This is a kind of boulder cannon, the bullet stone used weighs 300 catties, and it is fired by the machine, and the firing range is very long, and the firing range can reach 300 steps. The power is extremely terrifying, and it can be called a nuclear weapon in the era of cold weapons.

Zhao Guang had already begun to prepare, and these return guns on the battlefield were not built on the spot, but the main parts were built in advance, and it took a day to assemble them on the battlefield. After Zhao Yun saw the demonstration, he was shocked and said: "As soon as this thing comes out, there will be no strong city in the world!" ”

Cao Ren and Man Chong looked into the distance at the head of the city, watching the Shu army manipulating those strange machines. There are 50 of these things in total, densely packed and lined up throughout the central battlefield. Cao Ren had the intention of sending troops to raid and destroy these machines, but this thing was two hundred steps away from the city wall, and the opponent's army was already in full array, and attacking was tantamount to looking for death, so he gave up.

How did Cao Ren know that only if he made a desperate bet and raided with heavy troops, this was the only solution. Stay in the city, only wait for death!

Everyone on the battlefield was staring at these return guns. A huge stone was tied to one end of the wooden pole, and on the long arm was a huge spoon, and the three-hundred-pound stone was placed in it by the Shu army, and the end of the huge stone load was lifted high. Suddenly, an order was given, the Shu soldiers immediately opened the machine, the boulder fell quickly, and using the principle of leverage, he brought up a long arm to throw the three-hundred-pound stone high and flew to the city wall of Fancheng.

Cao Ren and Man Chong, who were standing on the city wall, only felt that the mountains shook for a while, and countless stone bullets came whizzing and smashed heavily on the position of the city wall.

A huge stone bullet hit the city, and the Wei soldiers who were defending with a huge shield disappeared without a trace like catkins blown by the wind. hit the city tower, and suddenly collapsed, the city tower was crumbling, and the soldiers screamed and wailed!

A terrible scream sounded, and Cao Ren almost roared and ordered.

"Quickly withdraw, everyone immediately withdraw from the city, and those in the city tower immediately withdraw, quickly, quickly!."

However, it was too late. There was a loud bang, and the entire ground trembled and could not stand. The smoke and dust that rushed into the sky covered the entire city. When the wind blew away the smoke and dust, Cao Ren's heart was also cold. The towering tower on the city gate collapsed completely, the city wall also collapsed, the Wei army fled in all directions, and the Shu army under the city wall danced happily.

However, the Shu army's return artillery did not stop, and huge stone bullets continued to fall from the sky and smash down, roaring, and constantly smashing on the position. Dense stone bullets smashed and rolled on the ground, and sergeants were constantly knocked to the ground. Even if the sergeant in iron armor was wiped off, he immediately fell to the ground, spitting blood from his mouth and falling unconscious.

The position was in shambles, some places were smashed out of deep pits, and in others a long ravine was dragged out by stone bullets.

The boulder weighing 300 pounds was repeatedly thrown into the city, and everything in its path was reduced to dust, and for the defenders of the city, the sky fell, and the hope of defending the city no longer existed.

Cao Ren knew that it was only a matter of time before Fancheng fell. He stood on the shattered and trembling wall, disheartened, and did not bother to dodge even when a boulder was thrown at him. What's the point of running away? With this artifact, all the impregnable fortifications are just a joke! The unification of Shu is unstoppable, and Wei is finished!

Man Pet watched the boulder smash into Cao Ren, and shouted desperately, but he didn't dodge or dodge. With a bang, this commanding Wei army was smashed away by the boulder, and it turned into unrecognizable flesh and blood, which was really miserable!

Full of flattery, frustrated, knowing that he was powerless to return to the sky, he immediately led his guards and ordered the city gate to be opened. Taking advantage of the chaos of the army scattered and fled, he rode a horse, slipped out of the city, and the Tsing Yi Jian followed, raised the whip on the horse, and went straight to Xuchang.

After firing five rounds of artillery fire, Zhao Yun stopped it, and the enemy army had completely collapsed, and there was no point in continuing to shoot. As soon as Zhao Yun gave an order, the Shu army, which had been suppressed for a long time, suddenly shouted and swarmed up. Crossing the collapsed city wall, he pursued the Wei army, who had lost their armor and fled in disarray.

There was almost no actual battle in this siege battle, and there was only a desperate pursuit of the Shu army, catching up and capturing the prisoners. The Wei army fled in all directions, and when they could not escape, they abandoned their troops and surrendered. No matter how many Wei troops there were in Fancheng, the catapults actually only killed a few hundred people. These 40,000 Wei troops scattered and fled, covering the mountains and fields, and they were not so easy to catch.

In the end, after a day's pursuit, a total of 25,000 Wei prisoners were accommodated, and the remaining 15,000 were gone. With the addition of the prisoners of Xiangyang, a total of 45,000 people were captured in the Battle of Xiangfan.

There were 45,000 more mouths all of a sudden, and the logistical pressure suddenly increased. Fortunately, Xiangyang and Fancheng were basically intact, and the food, property, and ordnance inside were well preserved, enough to supply the army for half a year. Don't worry about this just yet.

Zhao Guangyang whipped his horse, went up the hillside, looked at the scene of corpses all over the field and gunsmoke after the war, and couldn't help but sigh, among these thousands of troops and horses, personal force is really insignificant, and the crystallization of war wisdom in later generations can turn things around! This kind of killing between Han people for more than 100 years should really end as soon as possible! Don't scruple about anything, go all out, and wait until the world is unified and peaceful, and you can just quit directly. No matter how many doubts others have, it has nothing to do with them!

The battle of Xiangfan initiated by Zhao Yun shocked the whole of China, and even Zhuge Liang, who approved the plan, was taken aback, he didn't expect that Zhao Yun only took five days to conquer Xiangyang and Fancheng, the two impregnable fortified cities, and killed Xu Huang and Cao Ren, two fierce generals of the Wei army, so that the 70,000 Wei army was almost wiped out! It's a miracle!

Zhuge Liang is like this, not to mention the top and bottom of the Wei State!

Cao Rui received an urgent report from Wancheng, and immediately it was like a thunderbolt in a sunny day, shocking him that he had no master! A court meeting was immediately convened to discuss the matter.

When the ministers heard this, they were also terrified, the Xiangfan defense line was impregnable, how could it suddenly all fall? The defenders were annihilated, and no one escaped? It's incredible. If you don't even know the situation, you can't even figure out what to do. Everyone talked about it, and they all said that they should find out the situation first and immediately increase the troops in Wancheng.

Cao Rui obeyed his words, ordered people to set off immediately, found out the details, and ordered Huwei general Wang Shuang to immediately bring 15,000 soldiers to reinforce Wancheng.

Full of pets and fast horses, day and night, eating and drinking without getting off the horse, and finally took three days to arrive in Luoyang.

When Cao Rui saw Manzhong, he almost didn't recognize it. This white old man, who is described as withered, crumbling, and full of vicissitudes, is actually the full favor who was in good spirits and full of vigor half a year ago. Full of favors fell to his knees and wept silently.

Cao Rui felt pity in his heart, didn't care about the blame, and ordered the attendant to help Man Chong up, give him water and food, and let him calm down first. At the same time, the important ministers were summoned and a meeting was immediately convened.

After the ministers arrived, Man Pet also recovered a little and began to tell the details of the Battle of Xiangfan in detail.

The details of the Battle of Xiangyang were also narrated by Cao Ren, and the details were not very clear when they were relayed this time.

After hearing this, Taifu Zhongxuan sighed: "Zhao Zilong, this son Zhao Guang can be regarded as brave and fierce, and it is really amazing that he can kill General Xu Huang!" I just don't understand what the invulnerable armor on the Shu army is? ”

Taiwei Huaxin smiled slightly, and said: "Taifu doesn't know, this thing is a rattan armor, which is woven from the hard and flexible vines unique to Nanban, soaked in oil and dried, repeated seven times, light and strong, invulnerable. ”

Cao Rui was shocked and sighed: "There is such a thing in the world, if the Shu army is equipped on a large scale, what can it do?" ”。

Taiwei Huaxin showed a disdainful smile and said, "Your Majesty, don't worry, everything is mutually reinforcing." There are advantages and there are defects. The rattan armor is originally wooden, and it is soaked in oil, which is very flammable. Zhuge Kongming used fire tricks to easily wipe out the Southern Barbarian Rattan Armor army. If our army encounters it for the first time, it will inevitably suffer losses if it does not understand the real situation, and the next time it directly fires indiscriminately with rockets, it will definitely bring about its own destruction! ”

When Taiwei Huaxin said this, everyone was relieved. There is no longer any fear of rattan armor.