With the help of Pei Ju, Yuwen Valve survived in Guanzhong, delaying Li Valve's pace. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In Rongze County, Cao Xu stood in the lobby, unaccompanied by attendants, staring alone at a model made of clay placed on the round table in the center of the hall.

There was a sound of footsteps, and Li Zitong, Xu Shiji, Shan Xiongxin, and Cheng Zhijie rushed in, and after standing still, they bowed their hands and said in unison: "See the king." ”

Cao Xu nodded, pointed to the model on the table, and said, "All of you will come and take a look." ”

The generals stepped forward to take a look, it turned out that the table was a model of Xingyang City, the situation of the nearby mountains and rivers, roads and towns are clearly listed, and it is by no means comparable to the general military map, exquisitely floating and convex, making people clear at a glance, saving a lot of work to explain.

Cao Xu said slowly: "Xingyang is connected to Jianghuai in the south, Xiangluo in the west, and Youyan in the north. ”

The generals carefully inspected the layout of Xingyang City in the model, the wall is wide and thick, and there are deep ditches dug around the city, and the river water is introduced, which can be described as impregnable, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Cao Xu pointed to a warehouse not far from Xingyang City and said: "This is Luokoucang, after Li Mi occupied this place, he added Xingluocheng, and the surrounding forty miles expanded Luokoucang several times, and it is now garrisoned by Bing Yuanzhen." This city and Xingyang have become horns, echoing each other from afar. ”

"As far as I know, Shen Luoyan, the beautiful military advisor under Li Mi, offered a plan, and the two cities were in contact with beacon fire every day, if our army attacked Xingyang, Bing Yuanzhen would send troops to harass the back of our army, and vice versa, flanking on both sides, so that our army would be attacked by the enemy in front and rear. Do you have a clever plan to break the enemy?"

When the words fell, Cao Xu's gaze swept over the generals in the tent, and stayed on Xu Shiji's body for a while.

After a long while, Li Zitong shook his head first.

Under Cao Xu's gaze, Xu Shiji stood up and said, "Your Majesty, why don't you plan for our generals?"

"Will the plan be released?" Cao Xu asked.

Xu Shiji said: "Our army can deceive the soldiers in Luokoucang, lead Li Mi to attack, and then turn around and eat him." ”

Cao Xu's eyes narrowed and said, "How sure is General Xu?"

Xu Shiji said confidently: "Your Majesty, although Li Mi is proficient in the art of war, he is cautious. However, Luokoucang is its foundation, and there is no room for error. In addition, Li Mi committed the usurpation of the throne, his foundation was unstable, and he failed to take advantage of Wang Shichong's hands when he went west to Luoyang, and he was now in urgent need of a victory to stabilize the army's morale, and he would not miss this opportunity under the desire to win. ”

"A good one will plan and lead the snake out of the hole. Li Zitong praised.

The plan was decided, Cao Xu immediately began to give orders, in addition to the army responsible for garrisoning Rongze County, the army was divided into three armies, the front, the middle and the rear, and drove to Luokoucang in turn.

In July of the 14th year of the Great Cause, the Wu army bypassed Xingyang City to besiege Luokoucang, and Li Mi attacked the Wu army camp at night, but was ambushed by the Wu army, lost his troops and lost his generals, and fled back to Xingyang City in a hurry.

The Wu army followed and laid siege to Xingyang.

Sun Tzu's Art of War has a cloud: "The first army is to attack and plan, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and then the next is to attack the city." ”

All the strategically important cities, are thick and high, ditches and rivers to protect the city, easy to defend and difficult to attack, can win more with less, so with Sun Tzu's use of troops like a god, still to attack the city as a last resort.

If there is a choice, Cao Xu will only besiege and not attack, but the problem is that Li Mi in Xingyang City is well prepared, and the grain storage in the city is enough to last for a year and a half, and secondly, if the enemy has reinforcements to rescue, under the internal and external attacks, he will be reduced from active to passive.

Fortunately, although there are more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians in Xingyang City, there are less than 30,000 soldiers who have really received strict training and combat experience. In the first battle of Luokoucang, the Wu army annihilated the enemy army of 10,000 people, greatly weakening the strength of the regular army defending the city, and the remaining number was only 20,000.

Cao Xu's attack on Xingyang this time was determined to win, and reinforcements continued to drive from Jiangdu along the canal, and the total strength of the army had exceeded 130,000 at this moment, constantly increasing the pressure on the defenders of Xingyang.

All the baggage supplies were well prepared, because it was absolutely impossible to break through the enemy's deep ditches and high fortifications with only infantry cavalry and ordinary swords and bows. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare siege equipment, materials and organization.

For example, the "Nest Car" can peek into the city from a high place, and the "Arrow Tower" can even assist with arrows.

The first step in siege warfare is to "cross the trench", and only by successfully crossing the moat of Xingyang City can the siege equipment and death squads have the opportunity to approach the city wall and start a siege battle.

As early as a few days ago, the Wu army cut off the water source of the moat of Xingyang City, adopted the method of "plugging its water source and shallow its gate", and after the water was shallow, it then packed soil and stones, and pushed directly into the trench with a cart full of soil and stones, and filled the deep trench.

After the "trench filling" was the "city receiving" battle, and the Wu army used a new type of siege vehicle. This siege vehicle is a four-wheeled cart, the top is a giant tree like a sharp and oblique image roof, not afraid of bows and arrows, not afraid of stone strikes, and covered with medicinal cowhide, not easy to burn, under which can hide nearly a hundred warriors, in the cover siege has a miraculous effect.

Cao Xu sat in the Chinese army, Xu Shiji, Shan Xiongxin, Cheng Zhijie and others commanded on the front line, and Li Zitong commanded the overall offensive retreat with torches, horns, and war drums on the command platform temporarily set up far from the city.

However, no matter how well prepared the Wu army was, resources were always limited, so Cao Xu concentrated the main force of the siege on the east gate, and the scale of the attack on the other three gates was much smaller, mainly to contain the defenders in the city.

In the siege team of the Wu army, there were hundreds of elite soldiers holding horizontal swords, and two soft leather bags hung from their waists, and the leather bags were bulging, and they didn't know what they contained.

The war drums rumbled, the crossbow arrows and the stone throwing cart appeared first, the rain of arrows and boulders in the sky opened the prelude to the battle, and then the low horn sounded, and in the earth-shattering shouts of killing, the soldiers of the Wu army rushed towards the city wall with the ladder.

A series of ladders were set up between the arrows of the city wall, and the fierce soldiers of the Wu army bit the blades in their mouths, climbed up with red eyes, and the soldiers defending the city knocked down the ladders with hook and sickle spears, and at the same time threw lime, chaff, boiling oil, stones and other things under the city.

In the crowd of Wu soldiers who climbed the ladder, someone suddenly reached out and took out a small clay pot from the skin bag on his waist, and someone immediately handed a torch below and lit the lead of the clay pot.

The soldier yelled and threw the clay pot in his hand at the city.

The small clay pot exploded above the heads of the defending soldiers.

Rumble!

The sound of an explosion shaking the ground and shaking the mountains was heard, and the soldiers defending the city in the distance only felt that the city walls under their feet were shaking slightly, and a wave of heat rushed to their faces.

Then, when they looked around, they saw that all the comrades within a radius of two zhang fell to the ground and covered their heads with their hands, screaming miserably. In addition to the blood on the ground, there are also white flowers' brains, and the scene is very bloody and tragic. (To be continued.) )