Early the next morning, outside the city of Chang'an.

As soon as the morning light sprinkled onto the earth, the Cao army's camp sounded the earth-shattering war drums.

Duan Xuan led the five thousand elite soldiers under his command, pushing several catapults and rushing carts, opened a posture under Chang'an City, slowly pushed forward, and made a posture of attacking the city.

The soldiers of the Xiliang Army, who were in charge of the lookout, went to Li Wei's mansion in a panic to report: "General, it's not good, Duan Xuan is leading the soldiers and horses to prepare to attack the city!" ”

Li Dao and the others had already heard the sound of war drums outside the city gate, and when they heard the report of the soldiers, they immediately glared at them: "This Duan Xuan, I really don't know whether to live or die, and only 5,000 soldiers dare to attack the city?!" ”

Li Dao still had full confidence in the defensive strength of Chang'an City, so he decided to face the battle in person and teach Duan Xuan a good lesson.

"Two virtuous brothers, come with me, we must let him know that we are powerful!" Li Dao beckoned Li Ying and Li Huan to prepare for the battle.

Li Dao took Li Huan, Li Ying, and Li Shi, who had not recovered from his injuries, and climbed the tower at the east gate of Chang'an together, preparing to command the defensive operation.

In the open space under Chang'an City, Duan Xuan personally commanded the troops to begin to slowly move forward, and the attack was about to begin.

Li Wei looked at the soldiers and various equipment that had been prepared for defense at the head of the city, and his heart was more steady, he took out his sword from his waist and shouted: "Give me all my strength to defend the city, and I must repel the enemy's attack!" ”

When the soldiers of the Xiliang Army heard Li Dao's order, they raised their arms together and shouted: "Kill!" Kill! Kill! ”

Duan Xuan, who was directing the advance under the city, heard the shouts of the Xiliang army at the head of the city, and showed a sneer of contempt, and then raised his arms and said: "Pass on my general order, the first to climb the city to break the city, reward 100 acres of fertile land, and give a thousand gold!" ”

Hearing Duan Xuan offer such a heavy reward, the soldiers under his command also began to have their eyes shining, brandishing their weapons together, and shouting loudly: "Break!" Break! Break! ”

The big war is about to begin, and the momentum of both sides has reached its peak.

In the camp of the Cao army, a high platform was erected, and Cao Zhang led the generals under his command to accompany Zhong Xuan to climb the heights and watch the battle, waiting for the start of Duan Xuan's siege!

Seeing that the time was ripe, Duan Xuan waved the order flag in his hand, pointed in the direction of Chang'an City, and shouted: "Kill!" ”

With Duan Xuan's order, the siege operation began!

A thousand soldiers pushed the catapult and the rushing cart towards Chang'an City, the catapult was prepared to launch a long-range attack after approaching the range, and the rushing cart was used to directly impact the gate and the city wall.

In front of them were a thousand soldiers armed with giant shields, who were responsible for guarding and protecting these soldiers who pushed long-range weapons to prevent the Xiliang army from attacking with long-range weapons.

This was followed by a thousand archers armed with hard bows, whose role was to hide behind the shield soldiers and launch a long-range attack on the Xiliang army defending the city.

Another thousand soldiers with long trunks and thick door panels on their backs were at the back of this rank, and their role was to pave the way with trunks and door panels at once when they encountered a trench, so that the siege equipment could continue to advance.

Finally, there were a thousand soldiers carrying long ladders and spears and blades, and they were the main force of the siege.

Duan Xuan's 5,000 soldiers had undergone strict training, the distribution of troops was extremely reasonable, and the cooperation was also very tacit, and they soon broke into a position where long-range weapons could attack.

Duan Xuan personally commanded the troops to come to the front of the formation, and he waved the command flag and ordered: "Load, prepare to attack!" ”

The soldiers pushing the catapult immediately stopped advancing, quickly adjusted the angle of the catapult, and began to reload the stone projectiles, preparing for the attack.

Seeing this scene from afar, Li Dao and the others did not dare to slack off at all, and immediately ordered in a loud voice: "Prepare for the strong ballista!" ”

Several strong crossbow carts had already lined up at the head of the city, and after receiving Li Dao's order, the soldiers of the Xiliang Army quickly loaded the strong crossbow arrows about two zhang long and arm thick on the ballista carts, and aimed the tips of the arrows at Duan Xuan's troops who were preparing to attack under the city.

Cao Zhang, along with the three brothers Xu Shu, Zhong Xuan and Xiahou, watched from afar, and realized that the war was imminent.

Duan Xuan pointed to the Chang'an City Tower in front of him and let out an angry roar: "Kill!" ”

Dozens of catapults attacked, and the huge stone projectiles were bounced up by the machine tools and flew towards the head of Chang'an City.

Li Dao also gave an order almost at the same time: "Release the arrow!" ”

The rows of strong crossbow arrows at the head of Chang'an City also roared and swooped towards the troops under the city.

Duan Xuan had already seen the strong crossbow arrows shining with cold light on the city, and immediately shouted: "Stand shield!" ”

The soldiers carrying the giant shield had already been guarding the front of the team, and when they heard Duan Xuan's order, they quickly plunged the spikes under the giant shield into the ground, and then held the shield with both hands, protecting the shield above their heads, blocking the other soldiers around them.

These giant shieldmen have been rigorously selected, and their bodies are extremely tall and strong, enough to withstand the tremendous impact of powerful crossbow arrows.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The crossbow arrows rained down on the protective array formed by the giant shield, sending out a series of loud noises.

Most of the crossbow arrows were blocked by the giant shield, but some of them still either directly penetrated the giant shield or passed through the gaps, causing a certain amount of damage to Duan Xuan's soldiers!

Almost at the same time, the stone projectiles fired by Duan Xuanjun's catapult had also flown to the top of Chang'an and smashed down.

After the huge stone projectile takes off, its weight and the inertia of the fall produce an extremely strong impact force.

Several soldiers of the Xiliang Army who had no time to dodge in the city were directly smashed by stone bullets, and their flesh and blood were blurred.

The stone bullets falling on the floor of the city head caused a strong concussion, causing the defenders of the city to panic for a short time!

Duan Xuan saw that the giant shield soldiers withstood the first round of strong crossbow arrows at the head of the city, and quickly ordered: "Archer, release the arrows!" Siege troops, charge! ”

With Duan Xuan's command, the archer hiding behind the giant shield soldier quickly got up, raised the strong bow that had been set up with arrows in his hand, pointed the tip of the arrow in the direction of the head of Chang'an City, and shot quickly.

And the other troops also took advantage of this time, like wild horses on the loose, and rushed towards Chang'an City frantically, wanting to take advantage of the opponent's short defensive gap to rush to the city and launch a strong attack.

Cao Zhangyuan saw the cooperation of Duan Xuan's troops from afar, and praised in his heart, worthy of being the younger brother of Duan Cheng, a famous general in the late Han Dynasty, his command and dispatch and the quality of the soldiers, and the degree of cooperation, are really superior, no wonder he is so confident and insists on attacking Chang'an!

However, Li Dao was also a famous general, and the Xiliang Army under his command was also an elite army that was dominant at the end of the Han Dynasty.

Although the first round of stone bullets and the subsequent arrows fired by Duan Xuan's troops caused a brief panic in the Xiliang army at the head of the city, they quickly regained their composure and threw themselves into the defense.

The archers of the Xiliang Army quickly stepped forward and raised their bows and arrows to shoot at the soldiers of the Duan Xuan Army under the city.

The soldiers of Duan Xuan's army, who had lost the protection of the giant shield, also paid a certain price for casualties under the attack of this round of arrow rain.

But Duan Xuan had no intention of retreating, still shouting and commanding the troops to charge, and the troops braved the rain of arrows to rush under the city wall of Chang'an with difficulty, erected a cloud ladder and began to try to climb the city wall.

At the head of the city, Li Dao commanded the soldiers, smashed the Lu Bu army below with rolling logs, and watered the ladder with hot oil.

Under the city wall, a large number of corpses of Lu Bu's soldiers were soon piled up.

Duan Xuan commanded the soldiers to raise their bows and arrows and desperately fight back at the city wall, and the Xiliang army under Li Dao also had people fall from the city head from time to time with arrows.

Soldiers from both sides launched a fierce confrontation between the city and the city, and the blood flowed like rivers and corpses were strewn all over the field.

The battle was far more brutal than any previous one.

Xu Shu watched from a distance, and couldn't help but step forward and remind Cao Zhang: "Childe, the defense of Chang'an City is strong, and the forcible attack is really extremely heavy!" ”

Cao Zhang looked at the battlefield in the distance, and frowned slightly, the tragedy of this battle was far beyond his imagination.

The fierce battle lasted from early morning to the sunset.

After several rounds of strong attacks, the troops led by Duan Xuan also caused huge losses to the Xiliang defenders at the head of Chang'an City, but they were never able to break through the final line of defense and reach the top of the city.

"Childe, you can't fight anymore, withdraw the army!" Xu Shu suggested to Cao Zhang.

Cao Zhang also knew that the night battle would be more unfavorable to his side, so he immediately nodded: "Mingjin, collect the troops!" ”

With the sound of the gong on behalf of the troops, Duan Xuan heard the order to collect the troops, although he was very unwilling, he also understood that Cao Zhang's this was for his good, and it was pointless to continue to attack, just to increase the damage.

After all, he is the younger brother of a famous general, and his ability to judge the situation is still very strong, and he has no blind impulse, so he immediately ordered: "Withdraw!" ”

The besieging troops immediately began to retreat in an orderly manner and returned to Cao Zhang's camp.

This siege battle under Chang'an City ended with both sides suffering casualties and the lives of thousands of soldiers.