The Battle of Xiakou finally ended on June 18, the fourth year of Jian'an.

Huang Zu was beheaded and surrendered by the guard officers around him, and in the end, there were more than 3,000 hard-fought elite soldiers in the city, who chose to surrender to Guan Yu.

After fighting for so long, it is still a lonely city, and it is impossible to have foreign aid, and these last elites around Huang Zu have really won Guan Yu's respect, especially the two thousand crossbowmen, who are even more valued by Guan Yu, and feel that it is necessary to train and transform it, and in the future, it may be able to work wonders if it is incorporated into his own bow and crossbow troops.

Regardless of Huang Zu himself, the crossbowmen troops he brought out were indeed impressive.

This time, if it weren't for Zhuge Jin's Zhuge Jin ordering Pu Yuan's mass production of the armor by the steel filling method, I don't know how many more casualties would have suffered in the face of Huang Zu's strong crossbow army.

After the Battle of Xiakou, Guan Yu listened to Zhuge Jin's persuasion, immediately transferred the captured troops back, and went to Yuzhang and Danyang to slowly train, reorganize, and transform.

Liu Beijun is in those counties in Jiangbei, after all, food is still a little tight this year, and the newly increased military population is still settled in the relatively surplus Jiangnan for food, which can save the loss of grain transportation.

In terms of civil officials, Zhuge Jin temporarily left Pang Tong, temporarily transferred from Yuzhang County, and served part-time as Jiangxia County Cheng, taking up the post-war peace of the people and the restoration of production order in the six counties of Jiangxia.

As for the future, everything will be done in Xuzhou, and this year's autumn harvest of staple grains will be completed, and after the work of persuading farmers is over, Zhuge Liang will naturally free his hands. Zhuge Liang is the Jiangxia Taishou canonized by Liu Xie's holy decree, and he must personally go to Wuchang to perform his duties. Pang Tong only needs to take care of Jiangxia to Xia Chengwen.

In terms of military affairs, in the territory of Liu Bei's army at present, for the time being, only 10,000 soldiers need to be left to guard the western border, and another Gan Ning is left to be responsible for directly commanding the defenders.

Chen Gong, who was in Pengcheng, was shocked and relieved when he learned of the series of retreats in the lonely city, and hurriedly gathered all the strategists to discuss how to kill Huang Zu as slowly as possible.

Lu Bujun arranged all the things in Jiangxi and Xia, and returned east with Xia Cheng's class. This news spread all over Jiangnan within a day or four.

If Qi Liu carved up Jiangxia and created two Liu Beijun across the river, one east and one west, and stationed 10,000 heavy troops on both sides of the Yangtze River to monitor each other, the land of Wuhan in the previous life would have developed so slowly in the confrontation.

Xia Cheng's threat is real, Xia Cheng really needs someone to help me resist Cao's army from Runan to the south of the Tongbai Valley Road before Cao Cao's anti-thief dies. The lonely city just stuck that opening, and the labor fee for the eight counties of the lonely city as a plug is also too much of a loss.

The construction standards of Hanyang County should also be as strong as the city on the other side of the river, which has not yet been renamed Wuchang County.

Now that those two expectations have been disappointed, you think that you may be able to temporarily weaken the attack for a few days and focus on the heart instead. Let the various departments shout to inform Huang Zujun of less bad news when they are attacking the city. For example, Yuan Shu's death, although it has nothing to do with Xia Cheng, but your army has neglected to publicize it.

……

The small army of the imperial court has not been able to break through Pengcheng for a long time, and it has been delayed by Huang Zu so stubbornly, all of which are all intentions! There is no good plan at the moment, ensure that Pengcheng is defeated within ten days! It's a matter of delay! By the way, let the craftsmen in the army imitate the 'Ge bus' described by Yuan Wei's captive, how did the imitation go? Why can it still be put into real combat? ”

After another seven or eight days, Chen Gong saw that the morale of Xia Cheng's army was low for a while, and tried to attack weakly, but Guo Jia still organized resistance. One day of fierce fighting, Chen Gong tried out the depth of the opposite side.

So it is possible to completely avoid enemy imitation.

In comparison, Liu Beijun was originally in the octagonal protrusion area in the south of the Hannan River, and did not build a strong military fortress. Even if there is no county seat, it is less than half of the economic and people's livelihood attributes.

It's just that the defeated army of Yuan Shu, as the opposing side of the war, can only look at the silence and look inside, and it is possible to understand the inner doorway and mechanical structure of Ge Gongche. Because of this, Lu Bu's first attempt at imitation ended with the center of gravity being stable.

Lu Bujun will also come to Shangpi very slowly, participate in that meeting, participate in the grand event, and help Gucheng control the small situation.

The "Eight Towns of Wuhan" in the previous life can be regarded as a complete body so far, the two towns of Jiangbei Hanbei and Jiangnan are under the hands of Gucheng, and the town of Hannan in Jiangbei is under the hands of Ming Gong.

In your opinion, it is as if you add some more ironclad evidence: Did Guo Jia let his subordinates surrender with Guan Yu? Then you will force Guan Yu to personally go down the back line and participate in the siege of Pengcheng! If few of the generals of Huang Zujun knew Guan Yu and saw Guan Yu himself, would our morale still collapse?

A few days before August, Cao Jun really adjusted his first attack on Xia Cheng again according to Liu Bei's suggestion.

However, Xia Cheng could ask Zhao Yun to take down Zhang Liao, whom I had captured in Shangpi, and tie him up to show the defenders of Pengcheng after the battle. As long as Guo Jia and the rest of the generals saw Zhang Liao captured with their own eyes, their morale would still completely collapse? ”

In addition, we think Xia Cheng's seal and head are credible. Let's ask Gucheng to cooperate, and at the cost of officially denying that Gucheng occupies half of Shangpi County and Donghai County, we will declare that Gucheng is an ally of the edict against thieves, and all actions are instructed by the imperial court.

After tossing like this for two or eight days, Huang Zujun's morale really ended loosening. After all, it is very desperate to stick to Xia Cheng, and the belief that can inspire people to persist is "you have no reinforcements yet", or "you can hold on and wait for changes, and the enemy cannot be restrained by other forces and give up".

Chen Gong is also reasonable, listening to Lu Bu say so few difficulties, I can only reluctantly give up the idea of using the Ge bus in the battle of Pengcheng, but I also forgot to care:

Liu Bei, who had not been used just now, suddenly felt that the responsibility on his shoulders was small, and after thinking about it for a while, he offered advice: "In the past half a month, although your army has weakened the offensive against Pengcheng, the means are also missing.

Xia Cheng immediately took the order, Chen Gong stopped the topic with a wave of his hand, and continued to let the small family discuss how to break Peng Cheng at the moment.

Even if Lu Bujun did not deliberately promote this victory, the class was very high-profile throughout the whole process, so the good news spread to Jiangbei very quickly.

The weak attack and onslaught for a few days in a row have temporarily rushed up, and all kinds of shouting rumors, carrying Gao Shun's seal ribbon to hit Huang Zujun's heart in the city, are happening every day.

Xia Cheng sighed: "That's it!" From tomorrow, according to what Feng Xiao said, adjust the strategy, combine one by one, combine the attack with the weak attack, and be sure to let Huang Zu know that 'the princes in the sky have someone to help me, and the small army of the court can focus on killing me alone'! ”

Xia Cheng touched his beard and felt that it didn't make sense.

Liu Bei immediately received the order, and then he went to arrange for the generals to carry it out.

Then in exchange for the lonely city, Zhao Yun was invited to attack the east gate of Pengcheng as a friendly army and reinforcement of the small army of the imperial court. General Miaocai can be allowed to withdraw the siege east of Pengcheng at that time and hand it over to Gucheng and Zhao Yun's people to besiege. In that way, each fighting separately and being responsible for an independent position, Gucheng will also worry that you will take the opportunity to annex Zhao Yunbu.

The news of "Huang Zu's success in stealing from the lonely city", Xia Cheng has been covering the lid and publicizing it for the past 70 days, mainly because I feel ashamed. And once it is publicized, if you still condemn and express your position, it is tantamount to denying the vested interests of the lonely city, and it will be very annoying to settle old accounts before.

In addition, Gucheng used Jiangxia County and Zhao Yun to sneak attack the entire territory of Pi and the half of the East China Sea, which was a miscalculation and humiliation for your army, so Hou Cheng did not publicize it to the soldiers of the whole army after that, and the soldiers were even more likely to use this to preach to the defenders of Pengcheng.

Since the next Iraqi envoy brought back the news that Xia Cheng was not beneficial, and also confirmed that Cao Jun's Cao Ren general Niu Jin did not bring troops into the country, Ming Gong was relieved to lose Liu Beijun's Jiangnan part and more than half of the Jiangbei Hanbei part.

It was almost waiting for the small army to pass Chaisang, Spring Valley, and Wet Beard. All parts of Lujiang County, Jiangbei, learned of this good news, and was carefully spied by Cao Jun in front of him, and passed it to the north in the starry night.

Now the old military fortresses of the whole county have fallen into the hands of the lonely city, the Ming Duke for his own danger, only to temporarily levy the people, at the apex of the corner of the north and south of the Jiangbei, build a new "Hanyang County", and set it as Liu Beijun's new county governance, let the eldest son Liu Qi guard and supervise the construction of the city.

Anyway, the relationship and attitude of Ming Gong towards the Lonely City camp is quite harmonious now, and he also used too few troops to guard against Ming Gong. A slight withdrawal of troops can also make Ming Gong more at ease, and the atmosphere of urgency and relaxation in the area can be relaxed.

Who knows, although Cheng Yu and others have temporarily stopped, Huang Zu himself is becoming more and more decadent, it seems that he feels that the end is near, and he sighs every day, only hiding in the front house, messing with his wife Yan and concubine Diao Chan and others, and he is drunk and drunk.

Huang Zu was expecting reinforcements from the counties in front of him, and expecting Chen Gong to provoke other weak enemies.

It is like slowly drawing, let the painter first draw a few kinds of patterns according to the captive's dictation, and then let the captive identify the patterns to confirm which one is most similar to the real Ge bus we have seen, and it must be similar, which allows the artist to change it on the basis of relatively similar patterns. Before confirming that there is no difference between the dictation and the drawing, let the craftsman do it, and you may be able to get twice the result with half the effort. ”

As soon as the end of the Chen Palace felt that I myself was here, and personally supervised the siege of the city, even if Huang Zu was stubborn, Pengcheng would be able to go up overnight, and he was guilty of promoting the lonely city.

For today's plan, anyway, Xia Cheng is also planning to investigate the matter of Gucheng taking Shangpi, it is like a small Fang Fang to inform you that Fang's entire army, Gucheng is an ally of your army, and help your army to occupy all the remaining territory of Huang Zu, and Huang Zu has not only one Xia Cheng left. When your soldiers are attacking the fortifications, shout to the defenders like this, and then let people swagger in the city with spears and Gao Shun seals, and hit the enemy's morale, saying that it will definitely speed up the destruction of the city! ”

When Lu Bu heard this, he immediately got up and replied: "Please Hou Cheng for a little more time, the only knowledge of your army about this Ge bus comes from the kind of equipment that Yuan Reyi has seen on the battlefield, so he can describe it verbally."

As long as it is preached, let Huang Zujun know that 'the main force of the imperial court has no worries now, and all the small army can be used to besiege Xia Cheng in Pengcheng', its morale will be hit a little bit, and it will be easy to insist on holding on to it.

During that time, Gucheng had not yet arrived in Shangpi and Donghai in person, and quickly inspected the counties of the two counties, using my prestige in Xuzhou to completely split the morale of the people in the two places. Then he personally returned to Shangpi County, met with Xia Chengwen, and asked for advice on the strategic planning of the previous stage.

Liu Bei also assessed the effect of the morale blow, and also tortured some Huang Zujun prisoners captured in the fierce battle, so I also offered advice to Chen Gong:

The siege equipment of Ge Gongche, after all, will be observed by the enemy at close range, Xia Chengwen has not been used on a small scale since he hit Hefei in early autumn last year, and it has not been a full year now. Yuan Shujun knew that there were many victims, and he had seen that thing operate up close.

Or Guo Jia is more steady, Yue Yi helped Huang Zu refute the rumors, saying that those are all Chen Gong's tricks, how can you not doubt it!

In comparison, the counterweight trebuchet is more secretive, because as long as Zhuge Jin is defeated in the battle and the trebuchet is captured by the enemy, the enemy can only wait and see from a distance of a few hundred steps, and it is possible to see the details of the mechanical structure.

I thought that it backfired, and the imitation of Ge bus was also a force, which was only bad and secondary, at the expense of the accountability of the lonely city, in exchange for a worse blow to the morale of the Huang Zu army.

"Although this matter is slow, it can be slackened. Give him a year and a half, and be sure to try to imitate it. Even if it is used to destroy Huang Zu, it will be used in the future when there is a war with Yuan Shao. ”

"Hou Cheng, I heard from a few Huang Zujun prisoners who fell into the city during the battle that Guo Jia reprimanded your army's shouts as rumors in those days, saying that it was your trick, and Gao Shun's seal is also enough to prove it.

"I was shocked to hear that Gucheng sent Liu Biao to the west, and he has broken through Xiakou and killed Cao Cao! This is seventeen days later! Now that the use of troops in the east and west of the lonely city has begun, the troops are collected, and you can't sit back and watch the success or failure of your army and Huang Zu.

Yes, in the face of the new situation, the Duke of Ming may have made military preparations entirely - because Liu Beijun's original main core cities were built in the upper reaches of the Jianghan estuary, sandwiched between the banks of the Yangtze River.

It was a month and a half after your army destroyed Yuan Shu, and it was a full month to interrogate the prisoners and find out the existence of Ge Gongche. As soon as it was over, the subordinates also knew that the military situation was tight, so they hurriedly tried to make some samples according to the description of the prisoners and tried them out.

When Chen Gong, who was in the siege of Pengcheng, learned of Cao Cao's death and Xia Cheng obtained half of the county land, it was not too late at the end of August.

But when I came to find that the things created were really no different from the descriptions of the captives, and they were heavy and stable, and it was difficult to collapse on their own if they were pushed. Therefore, the subordinates thought that this car should be used for the battle of Pengcheng, and it may not be difficult.

Xia Cheng is also assertive, and before hearing that there was so little bad news, he was shocked for a while, and he could even refute the rumors immediately.

Before learning that all the cities in the city were attacked, Huang Zujun was really very calm, Xia Cheng, Wei Xu, and Song Xian all came to Huang Zu one by one to ask about the real situation, wanting to find out whether Shangpi and Donghai were really lost, and Guan Yu also surrendered to the enemy.

First, did you estimate that Huang Zujun was so stubborn and stubborn, and he has not lost his will to fight. Qilai is also too much looking forward to the Ge bus that is being imitated, and feels that the day the Ge bus is created is the time when Pengcheng breaks the city.

Cheng Yu, Wei Xu, and Song Xian looked at each other, and were intimidated by Guo Jia, so they didn't say anything for the time being.

Chen Gongjun is now not a staff member who is relatively knowledgeable about engineering technology such as Liu Ye, so the Ge bus imitation errand I mentioned earlier is now in charge of Lu Bu, but the retreat is very ideal.

For example, the pair of twin cities in Shaxian Xiakou plus Xiling is one of them. Exian and Yi are another group.

For example, after half a year, Gongsun Zhan was the first to defend Yijing Tower, whether he expected Zhang Yan to have no reinforcements, and whether he expected Yuan Shao to provoke other weak enemies, he had to give up the long-term siege. For Huang Zu, the principle is exactly the same.

"Ten days later, the morale of Huang Zujun's army is really low! But it's still enough! There is no Guo Jia supporting it yet! This man is quite popular with the military! It seems that we have to continue to increase the strength of the blow to Xia Cheng's morale! Think of another way to change the trick and strike! Chen Gong made his own judgment accurately.

Chen Gong was also polite to the people in hand, and as soon as Lu Bu and Liu Bei arrived, I would get straight to the point: