Three Kingdoms Eschatology

Cai Mao nodded embarrassingly.Then Zhuge Xuan went on to say:

"In the Wubao, although the soldiers are good, they are few in number. They can hold on to the Wubao entirely by relying on the height and strength of the Wubao. Therefore, General Cai asked hundreds of craftsmen to come here to patiently build siege equipment. And transfer the water division forward Come to block the Mianshui, and at the same time cooperate with the land attack, and use the tall modified building ships to attack at the same time, and it will be broken in one fell swoop."

Cai Mao said with a look of embarrassment: "I know that sharpening a knife is not a mistake in chopping firewood, but now the situation in the south is getting tighter. I hope that the lord can pull out the nail in the north as soon as possible and build a barrier in the north of Jingzhou. "

Zhuge Xuan lowered his head, thought for a dozen breaths, then raised his head suddenly and said: "Then we can try first with fire attack."

Cai Mao shook his head and said hesitantly: "This fort is all made of hard stones and bricks, and it seems to be glued with rice paste. The gate is also made of steel plates sandwiching hardwood gates. They are not flammable. This Fire attack..."

Zhuge Xuan smiled and said: "Otherwise, it is true that Wubao was built with non-combustible materials. But it is too small. In such a hot summer, the fire is burning all around. How can soldiers live in such a small space? As long as it is not sunny There should be no accidents when there is heavy rain. But just in case the weather is not beautiful, General Cai still dispatched craftsmen and sailors as soon as possible."

Cai Mao's eyes lit up, and he said with approval: "Mr. Zhuge's plan is very clever! I'm going to take a two-pronged approach now, ordering the soldiers to collect firewood. At the same time, I will send craftsmen from Yicheng to rush to make siege equipment, and send the navy back to the water. And up."

At this time, a tent has been set up on the courtyard of Wubao to block the strong sunlight.There are transom windows and air holes on the four walls, through which convective air passes through from time to time, bringing a short-lived comfort to the soldiers in the scorching heat.

These scouts in Wubao are drinking sour plum soup made from hawthorn and sour apricot to relieve their heat, and eating a pastry made from corn flour and soybean flour mixed with honey to replenish their energy.Including Dian Qing, no one knew that a test of blood and fire would come again.

……

At dawn on the second day, the sound of drums and horns came from outside Wubao again.The scouts of the Zhuyang Army in the fort became noisy, cheering each other up, chatting in a hurry:

"The bastards in Jingzhou have been quiet for two days, and today they are going to kill them again."..."The last time I killed them was not 300, but there were [-] of them. This time, I will kill another [-] of them."..." That is, I haven't earned enough merit points, and now I have another chance!"

It was only when Dian Qing stood in front of them that they all stopped talking and waited quietly for Dian Qing to issue orders...

The blazing sunlight shone on the black iron armor of Dianqing, giving off a metallic luster.He squinted into the distance.Jingzhou soldiers came from three sides again, but this time they didn't carry ladders in their hands, and they didn't even hold knives or guns.Except for some soldiers with bows and crossbows, all of them were holding bundles of firewood.

Dian Qing understood what they were going to do in an instant, but he did not show the slightest panic, he drew out his arrow as usual, set up his long bow and shot towards the opposite side.At the same time, he ordered: "Pass down our military order, and the whole army will shoot freely in concealment."

The scouts in the fort immediately crouched behind the battlements, only showing the parts above the shoulders, firing cold arrows from time to time.The crossbowmen below the city also threw arrows at the city head like a shower, but because the opponent was hidden behind the walls, the hit rate was greatly reduced.

In the air outside Wubao, the sound of arrows piercing through the sky kept whistling.From time to time, Jingzhou soldiers piled up firewood and fell to the ground with arrows, but the firewood pile outside Wubao was still piled up little by little.

Dian Qing remained unmoved, one after another strong arrows were shot out from the powerful longbow in his hand.The arrows were shot in vain, and more than a dozen Jingzhou soldiers were killed.

At the last moment, the crossbowmen of the Jingzhou Army threw rockets at the pyre, and the pyre piled under the three walls were ignited one by one.Even the tent set up on the courtyard of Wubao was reached by a rocket, burning a hole two feet in diameter before it was extinguished.The fire is getting bigger and bigger, and smoke is rising...

Chapter 039 Returning to the Heart Like an Arrow

At the same moment when the fire was rising under Xiangyang Wubao, Feng Yu built a hundred-mile plank road on the cliffs between Shangyong and Wu County.

Although there is Wuxi waterway communication between the two places.But this waterway is one-way. Along this waterway, it is easy to travel from Shangyong to Wuxian.From Wu County to Shangyong, sailing against the current in the dangerous stream is not only extremely difficult, but also extremely risky.

Therefore, from Wu County to Shangyong, it is generally a mountain road, but although this mountain road is relatively easy to travel by water, the risk is small.But walking is still extremely difficult.

Now the Baili plank road has opened up the most difficult part of the land road between Shangyong and Wu County, making it much more convenient than before.The plank road, a facility that does not require special manpower for daily maintenance and operation, can be built far away from the system city.

Although Feng Yu is full of confidence in Dianqing, he is still anxious.Six hundred Zhuyang Army soldiers followed him on the plank road like the wind.Liao Hua and [-] other Zhuyang Army soldiers were temporarily left in Wu County, including a team of mountain scouts, two teams of spear and shield soldiers, and two teams of archers.In addition to them, there are more than a thousand local soldiers guarding Wu County.

There is no agricultural population in Wu County, and the vast majority of males are either soldiers or salt craftsmen.Therefore, only Wu County with a population of 5000 can support more than [-] soldiers.

As for the small number of Jingzhou soldiers mainly composed of Kuai Jiajia Ding, they cannot be stationed in Wu County for a long time with peace of mind.Feng Yu expelled them and asked Kuai Tong to bring them back to Jingzhou.

At this time, Feng Yu's system package was already full of system props and items.There are still a large number of people in the three counties waiting for him to organize the migration, incorporate them into the system population and assign them jobs.But Feng Yu's mind is not on these.He is now only focused on rushing back to Zhuyang to relieve the siege of Wubao in Xiangyang.

The task reminder on the system panel flashed before his eyes again:

[Mission: Break the siege, mission content: Lift the siege of Liu Biao forces in Jingzhou on Xiangyang Wubao.Task completion rewards thousands of people containment card x10, spear-throwing gun and shield soldier training unlock]

……

"Release the water!" Dian Qing on the Wubao shouted loudly.Following a few promises, the six scouts quickly picked up six bamboo poles. Looking carefully, there was still a hose made of leather behind the bamboo poles.After a while, a water dragon sprayed out in front of the bamboo pole.

Six water dragons rushed towards the burning pyre piled up on three sides of the Wubao.On the side of Wubao near the Mian River, a water tank with a depth of more than one meter and an area of ​​[-] square meters was built on the top. It was usually used as a daily water facility for Wubao soldiers, but now it is used as a fire-fighting facility.

Seeing the water falling, the Jingzhou army stepped up the frequency and density of arrow shooting.But the Zhuyang scouts had been prepared for a long time. Every soldier who used the water dragon to put out the fire was surrounded by another soldier holding a large shield to cover him.The arrows that came in disorder could not hurt them at all.

In the distance, Cai Mao and Zhuge Xuan had been watching the battle.The slightly excited expressions on their faces became disappointed at this moment.

Zhuge Xuan sighed and said: "I expected that they would carry water to put out the fire. So General Cai arranged for a lot of crossbowmen to shoot and kill the enemy soldiers carrying buckets to water the fire. But I didn't expect that they would carry buckets by hand to fight the fire. , but have already made preparations and built this fire-fighting facility. This plan will fail!"

"Mr. Zhuge, don't be melancholy. The artisans of Yicheng have arrived here and are stepping up to build various siege equipment. We will be able to break through the Wubao here in the future." Although Cai Mao felt lost in his heart, he quickly dispelled this emotion. Instead, he comforted Zhuge Xuan.

Under the Wubao, under the "attack" of six water dragons, the fire was quickly extinguished, leaving only wisps of green smoke from the pyre.The crossbowmen of Jingzhou naturally retreated amid the sound of the horn, and some Jingzhou soldiers carried white flags to collect the bodies of those who had been killed by arrows.

The scouts on the Wubao didn't attack them with bows and crossbows. After all, they didn't want to see the corpses left on the battlefield.This time Jingzhou suffered another nearly 200 casualties, but the scouts had zero deaths and three minor injuries.

For the next two days, the Jingzhou army did not move at all.But on the third day, a fleet of nearly ten ships came from the lower reaches of the Mian River, and one of them was a huge building boat. When the huge hull reached the narrow part of the Mian River, it even occupied the entire river a quarter of the width.

Cai Mao has ordered people to install a flying ladder on top of its ship tower. After reaching the Wubao, the flying ladder is directly placed on the top of the Wubao wall, and the soldiers on board can directly enter the fort as if they were walking on flat ground.

But an accident happened before they approached the river near Wubao.In a narrow part of the river near Hutou Mountain, with a loud bang, the building boat actually "struck on the rocks".Moments later it began capsizing, and the men on board had to abandon ship.

It turns out that here, a large number of "artificial reefs" made of giant trees and boulders have long been laid underwater.Small and medium ships can pass, but large ships cannot.Not to mention such a big boat.

Hearing this news, Zhuge Xuan and Cai Mao were startled again, thinking in unison in their hearts [this designer can be calculated everywhere. 】

However, the rest of the ships arrived at the waterway near Wubao smoothly and started cruising as planned.It can be regarded as completely cutting off the connection between Wubao and the outside world.This somewhat gave Cai Mao and Zhuge Xuan some comfort.

With hundreds of professional craftsmen rushing to work day and night, it was the fifth day in Huoshaowubao.Three kinds of siege equipment were completed on schedule.These three kinds of siege equipment were jointly agreed upon by Zhuge Xuan and Cai Mao.

The first is the trebuchet, which can launch a [-]-jin boulder. The disadvantage is that one such trebuchet requires dozens of people to operate.However, only six were built in total.

The second type is the siege vehicle, which is several floors high, with stairways inside and flying ladders outside, and the top floor is used as an arrow tower.After approaching, put down the flying ladder, and the soldiers on the building car can run directly along the flying ladder and enter the city.The entire building car is also wrapped with bamboo strips to prevent the defenders from shooting their own soldiers walking in the stairs of the building car.In order to prevent the opponent from using rockets to ignite the bamboo sticks, you can wet them with water when attacking the city.

The last type is the siege ramp.The whole apparatus is a ramp with wheels.After leaning against the city wall, even cavalry could rush up the ramp along the ramp.

It was another summer dawn, and the Jingzhou army was fully prepared.And just before sunrise there was another thunderstorm.Zhuge Xuan said with a smile to Cai Mao: "This is a good omen, the heavens have helped us, and directly wet the building car, saving the soldiers' effort."

Cai Hao also nodded confidently.With the sound of drums and trumpets, all kinds of siege equipment entered the predetermined position.

At this time, Wubao had three sides, and one side was an open field.The abandoned urban areas of Xiangyang on the other two sides have also been cleaned up by the Zhuyang Army and the Jingzhou Army.It has become a fairly large open area.Perfect for placing and moving siege engines.

When Cai Mao gave an order, the catapult launched the attack first.Soldiers of the Jingzhou Army, in groups of 30 people, shouted chant, pulled the cable of the catapult, and threw large stones towards Wubao...

Chapter 040

Dian Qing stood upright, looking up at the six boulders flying towards Wubao in the air.He does not hide.Calmly, he drew an arrow from the quiver at his waist, raised the longbow in his left hand...

A large stone fell across the dock and fell into the mists, stirring up huge waves.Before the two pieces flew to Wubao, they landed on the ground, raising two puffs of dust and smoke.

The other three hit the wall of Wubao, making a loud impact sound.But for a fortress wall surrounded by solid stones more than a foot thick, with thick rammed earth in the middle, even if it can't be described as a tree shaking, it can be said that the effect is mediocre.

At the same time, a Jingzhou soldier who was loading the next round of stones for the trebuchet suddenly had an arrow feather growing out of his head, and then fell silently to the ground, the stone in his hand fell far away.

Another soldier took over from him, picked up the boulder, and was about to put it in the bomb pocket of the catapult, when another arrow struck.With a scream, he fell to the ground in all directions, and the boulder fell under his feet.

Only then did the soldiers around know that the arrows were not stray arrows on the battlefield, and the deaths of these two men were by no means accidental.For a moment, no one dared to take over the work of the two deceased.Dian Qing on the Wubao in the distance saw this situation, so he turned the arrow he set up and changed the target...

Cai Hao, who was behind the Jingzhou army, also saw this clearly, and his young face also showed a rare astonishment---the opponent has such a sharp shooter!

In order to avoid the attack of the Wubao enemy, these trebuchets have been placed as far away from the Wubao as possible. This distance is just beyond the range of ordinary bows and arrows.If it is farther away, both the hit rate and the power of the trebuchet will drop to close to zero, which means it will have no effect on Wubao!

Cai Mao gritted his teeth, his cheek muscles bulged hard:

"Pass our military order, the catapults will continue to throw, those who are afraid of the enemy and those who are lazy will be killed without mercy! In addition, the shields will be mobilized to provide cover for the catapults!"

The shieldmen of the Jingzhou army could not cover the heavy arrows thrown by Dianqing for every slinger at all times.The latter's archery skills are superb, and if he is not careful, his arrows can find a gap and get in.

But the supervisory team of the Jingzhou Army played a decisive role.Facing death threats from two sides, the soldiers operating the trebuchet continued to throw boulders to Wubao without delay.

The scouts in Wubao were not afraid of these unaccurate and flying stones from time to time.But under Dian Qing's order, they still crouched behind the dead corner of the wall and waited quietly.

Cai Mao and Zhuge Xuan were also waiting patiently.The Jingzhou army's catapult throwing seems to have no effect, and they did not expect these dozens of kilograms of stones to knock open the hard city wall of Wubao, but had another purpose.

Of course they hope to have a more powerful trebuchet that can directly destroy Wubao, but they don't have the conditions in terms of technology, human resources or time.

"Boom! Kacha", after nearly an hour of throwing by the Jingzhou army, a large rock finally hit a beam on the top of Wubao, and there was a clear sound of wood cracking.The pillar is not broken, but there are already cracks inside.More than two hours later, during this period, several boulders hit these pillars one after another.

Several wooden pillars broke one after another, and the upper half, together with the rolling logs they supported, fell towards the dock.Some rollers are still holding a rope at one end, dangling in the air.Dian Qing simply ordered the soldiers to cut the rope so as not to get in the way.

Cai Mao was overjoyed when he saw that the opponent's log had been destroyed and his goal had been achieved.Then a murderous aura rose from the young man, he drew out his sword and pointed at Wubao:

"Pass my military order, attack the city!"

The sound of Jingzhou military drums, which had been silent for a long time, once again rang out over Xiangyang.

A large number of Jingzhou Army soldiers, armed with shields and guns, lined up in two square formations.Amid the majestic and majestic battle roar, they surrounded the two behemoths and moved slowly towards the dock.

Seeing all this, Dian Qing's face was serious, he knew that the time to really compete with the enemy had come.He made corresponding arrangements to the surrounding scouts with short words.

Two behemoths, a building car and a slope car.Together with the soldiers of the Jingzhou Army who guarded them, one by one, one by one, they moved forward steadily amidst the howling of arrows piercing the air from both sides.

When the building car approached Wubao, the Jingzhou crossbowmen on the arrow tower on the top began to shoot arrows at Wubao condescendingly.

One of the crossbowmen had just pulled the crossbow hanging knife in his hand when he heard a scream through the air, and then saw an arrow tail with a white feather in front of his chin.He clutched his bleeding throat and went limp.

It was Dian Qing's arrow.Under his leadership, the scouts who were shooting bows at the head of the city concentrated on attacking the Louche arrow tower.In the arrow tower, more than ten crossbowmen fell under the sudden dense arrows.

The survivors squatted behind the "low wall" made of bamboo strips, not daring to raise their heads.The scout's heavy arrows cannot pierce the bamboo strip from head to tail, but arrow clusters can pass through it.Some people leaned too close to the bamboo strip wall, and the arrow clusters that penetrated the bamboo strips still penetrated into their bodies.

With a bang, the building car that was the first to lean against the city wall of Wubao put down the ladder.The Jingzhou soldiers in the building car raised their swords, guns and shields, rushed out, shouted in unison, and rushed along the flying ladder to the head of Wubao City.

Twenty scouts were already prepared, and they lined up their shields in two rows, blocking the "bridge exit" of the flying ladder.The first platoon scouts, with the first knife still hanging on their waists, but holding ordinary spears in their hands.

One end of the ladder is placed on the pile wall, which means that the scouts are equivalent to standing in the trench to fight the enemy, without having to pay attention to the defensive base, and occupying a geographical advantage.Random guns stabbed at the foot of the rushing Jingzhou army.

The seven or eight Jingzhou soldiers who rushed to the front were splashed with blood on the spot and fell on the ladder.The Jingzhou soldiers in the back didn't stop at all because of this, they stepped on their corpses and continued to face the opponent's stabbing spears, pressing forward layer by layer.Finally rushed to the scout's shield wall.

The first platoon of scouts still maintained the tightness of the shield wall, but they all discarded their spears and drew their first knives to start a melee fight with the opponent across the shield wall.From the gap between the shield and the shield, he frantically stabbed the Jingzhou soldiers who were pressing forward with the first steel knife.The opponent also slashed and killed with all kinds of weapons, stabbed and stabbed randomly, and kept hitting the shield wall.

At this time, it is no longer possible for the scouts to maintain zero casualties.As soon as a scout cut open the throat of a Jingzhou soldier, a spear blade that shot out obliquely pierced his black iron armor and penetrated into his abdominal cavity.He endured the severe pain, and when he fell down, he stabbed the steel knife in his hand into an ankle wearing straw sandals.

It didn't take long for five scouts to fall under the opponent's swords and guns, but they were replaced by the second row of scouts in an instant.Some brave Jingzhou soldiers took the opportunity to try to break through.One of the small principals saw the gap, jumped up, and jumped over the shield wall.But before he could get a firm foothold, a scout in the second row stabbed him in the neck with a knife.

The defense line of the Zhuyang scouts can no longer stop the "torrent" of the Jingzhou army for a long time. This torrent is continuously pouring out from the building car, and the stairway in the building car is also full of soldiers waiting to go to the city...

Chapter 041

Dian Qing's long bow trembled violently, and he once again shot dead a Jingzhou soldier who poked out his head from the tower of the building car.

Although Dian Qing's arrows kept shooting, he kept observing the surrounding battle situation from the corner of his eyes and two ears.

"Get angry!" Dian Qing shouted suddenly.The pitch of this voice is enough to be heard by people inside and outside Wubao, people on and off the building.Of course, the Jingzhou soldiers who were besieging Wubao didn't know what these two words meant.

But the scouts in Wubao understood what this meant.Three thick bamboo tubes protruded from the ventilation holes in the city wall, just aiming at the building car outside the fort wall, and there was a torch hanging in front of the bamboo tubes.

The scouts who were densely lined up on the stairway suddenly felt a burst of stench rushing up from the building car.When they were terrified that the people in the Wubao were releasing some unknown poisonous gas, several fire dragons nearly two battles long had sprayed out from the air holes of the Wubao, directly hitting the wall of the building car.

This fire dragon can directly penetrate the bamboo strips used as the armor of the building car, and go straight into the stairway in the building car.The flames instantly ignited the clothes of more than a dozen Jingzhou soldiers who were on fire.Hissing and lung-piercing screams sounded in the building car.

The disaster was not limited to the dozen or so Jingzhou soldiers. They wailed and squeezed desperately up and down the stairway, and the flames burning on their bodies also ignited others.All the Jingzhou soldiers crowded in the stairway were in a mess.

The fire dragon lasted for two or three breaths, then stopped, but immediately erupted again.Another soldier in the building car was engulfed by the fire dragon.This time, the situation in the stairway was completely out of control, and people rushed up and down.The crowding and stampede began to appear, and it was out of control.

Inside the dock, a few big men with their upper body shirtless, tried their best to agitate a bellows amidst the sound of passwords.Moreover, it was carried out in an orderly manner under the password, and it was not a random action.

They are using this device to extract the biogas from the septic tank under Wubao, and then push it outside Wubao.This step must be done in strict accordance with the order of operations, otherwise it is easy to cause backfire and cause an explosion, blowing the entire dock to the sky.

On the flying ladder of the building car, the Jingzhou soldiers who lost their follow-up were not the opponents of Zhuyang's elite scouts. They were dealt with one by one, and their bodies were thrown down from the high flying ladder.Two scouts with clay pots rushed out from behind and threw the pots in their hands into the building car.

With two bangs, the clay pot had already burst, exuding a strong smell of alcohol.This is a rare shochu in this era, that is, high-grade liquor, or alcohol, that has been distilled with bronze utensils.This thing is brewed by the winery in Zhuyang City, and there is no such craft in other places.

The alcohol was ignited immediately. Although the inside and outside of the building car was drenched by heavy rain in the morning, it was still very damp, but the alcohol burning ignored this.The fire quickly spread in the building car.

On the side of Wubao, several fire dragons continued to erupt.The bamboo strips that wrapped the building carts had been drying for several hours, and although they were still very damp, they were no longer wet.Ordinary rockets cannot ignite them.But under the licking of the fire dragon formed by the burning of methane, it was quickly dried and burned...

In the distance, Zhuge Xuan and Cai Mao were stunned when they saw this scene, and then Cai Mao shouted:

"I didn't expect there to be such a vicious mechanism in Wubao. I don't know what they used, and they can pass the tongue of fire directly through the bamboo armor. Jingzhou's special oil can't do this. Like this, we lost again..." Said Stop gearing up, looking very eager.

Zhuge Xuan comforted him and said: "Don't worry, General Cai, our slope cart has already leaned on it, they can burn the building cart, but they can't burn the slope cart made of big wood."

Zhuge Xuan’s words are true. The structure of the slope cart and the building cart are different. The “fire dragon” of Wubao can only burn objects close to the wall of Wubao, but the slope cart only has a few supporting beams and pillars close to the wall of Wubao. , this big beam and big pillar may not be able to burn even if it is grilled with a fire dragon for half an hour.

At this time, Dian Qing had already run to the other side of Wubao, and on this side, the ramp car of the Jingzhou Army had already leaned up.There are also 20 scouts waiting on this side of the city wall. All [-] people held spears, and the first knives continued to hang on their waists.

Strangely, the infantry of the Jingzhou Army did not swarm up the ramp as expected.But only arrayed behind the slope car.Dian Qing wondered: 【What are they waiting for? ] Soon, Dian Qing knew the answer.

More than ten Jingzhou armored warriors rode their horses and galloped towards the slope cart.Liu Biao's forces are located in Jingxiang, where there are dense rivers and water networks, and there is no special cavalry unit, let alone heavy cavalry.

These war cavalry are all selected from the army and have their own war horses.They were already equipped with the iron armor that Jingzhou generals had.

At this moment, more than a dozen iron cavalry were full of murderous intent, rushing up from under the Wubao along the ramp.Hundreds of Jingzhou Army infantry screamed and followed behind to cover up the kill.

The crossbowmen pre-emptively fired a round of arrows.Although they also knew that the opponent was under the cover of the wall stack and the large shield, this round of shooting would not have much effect, but at least they could suppress the opponent in terms of momentum.

Dian Qing raised his hand and shot another arrow, and the long bow pierced through the breastplate of the leading general in an instant.The man fell off his horse and rolled down the ramp.At the same time, the scouts had already raised their spears, and twenty spears were densely arranged at the end of the ramp.

When the cavalry of the Jingzhou army rushed to the end of the ramp, their speed suddenly slowed down because they had lost momentum up the ramp.The forest of guns arrived as expected.Amidst the howling and neighing of the horses, more than ten riders either died or were injured.After some war horses were frightened, they simply jumped off the slope car that was as high as four or five battles.

Seeing this scene, Cai Mao in the distance stomped his feet again: "This is my fault, I shouldn't have sent the cavalry to charge first."