The Nameless of the Common Clans

Putting the catapult aside for now, although he couldn't get enough weapons to suppress Lian Nu for a while, he couldn't just give up the attack. Chen Mo tried to attack the city in other ways for two days in a row.

He ordered the craftsmen to make a shield cart with a huge wooden shield in front, and asked the soldiers to push it to attack the city. Although the crossbow had extremely strong penetrating power, it was difficult to penetrate the three-inch thick wooden shield, and it was once oppressive. Under the city, when the ladder was put up on the city wall, the defenders used rolling logs and stones to smash many of them. Fancheng's soldiers and horses were defeated. Fortunately, Zhuge Liang transferred Xiangyang's soldiers and horses in time, drove the Ming army down again, and set fire to the well. He and Yun Ladder forced the Ming army to retreat.

"Damn it, if it weren't for that pontoon bridge, Fancheng would have been captured!" Wei Yan, who was in charge of attacking the city, said angrily after returning to camp with a look of reluctance and punching the ground hard.

The rest of the generals also looked ugly. These wells, ladders, and the shield chariot took a lot of materials to make, but now most of them have been burned down. Even if we attack the city again tomorrow, without these things it will be difficult to be like today. This almost destroyed the city.

"As a general, be careful not to be impetuous." Chen Mo knocked on the table and motioned for Wei Yan to sit down and stop getting emotional. War is a process of coming and going. You have a plan, and I have a wall. Ladder, who is strong and who is weak, each depends on his own ability, how can there be a battle that can only be won but not lost?

"Here!" Wei Yan bowed and sat back in his seat.

Chen Mo looked at the crowd and said, "Since the pontoon bridge is in the way, we will remove it."

"Your Majesty, I have seen the copper pillars in the middle of the river. Not to mention the copper pillars, the surrounding hidden piles are buried deep in the bottom of the river, and most of them are hidden under the water. I ordered the soldiers to go and demolish them, but the hammer was under the water. It's difficult to exert force. If these hidden piles are not removed, it will be difficult for our ships to come over." Xu Huang bowed.

Chen Mo nodded, thought for a while and said: "I have seen the pontoon bridge. In fact, it only takes a few fire ships to destroy the pontoon bridge. I will try it tonight."

There was no need for Ma Jun to come in person to build several small boats. He found a dozen craftsmen in the army and quickly built sixteen fire ships. Chen Mo had all eight ships filled with hay, kerosene and other commodities. There were two boats in groups, each equipped with a soldier, and they were tied to each other with ropes. When it was late at night, Chen Mo asked these people to row the boats close to the pontoon, and when they were about to arrive, they would fill the boats with fire starters. Set alight, then cut the ropes and let the eight fire ships float down the river.

On the bank of the river, watching the fireships approaching the pontoon, joy flashed across the faces of Chen Mo and the generals. The soldiers guarding the two cities of Xiangfan were obviously aware of this. Above the two cities, the sound of drums and trumpets was loudly heard. , Zhuge Liang brought Zhang Fei and others to the top of the city. Looking at the fire ship approaching the pontoon bridge, Zhuge Liang squinted slightly, looked in the direction of the Ming army camp in the distance, and said to Zhang Fei: "Pass my military order, don't do it for the time being." Repair the pontoon until it gets dark tomorrow, and just send a team of people to put out the fire."

"Why is this?" Zhang Fei frowned.

"It makes sense! Just do it!" Zhuge Liang said with a smile.

"Here!" Zhang Fei agreed, and immediately sent a team of troops out of the city to put out the fire. At the same time, he ordered the craftsmen on the other side who were responsible for repairing the bridge not to leave the city. The repairs to the pontoon bridge were done here.

As the eight fire ships docked, the pontoon quickly burned. Chen Mo looked at the Jingzhou Army soldiers who hurried out of the city to put out the fire. He always felt that something was wrong. This seemed to be too smooth. Isn't this Zhuge Liang's only trick?

"Your Majesty, the bridge is ruined, why does it look like this?" Dian Wei looked at Chen Mo and asked doubtfully.

"It went too smoothly." Chen Mo shook his head, looked at Zhang Liao beside him and said, "Wenyuan, you have the spies here to monitor and see if the Jingzhou Army makes any moves tonight."

"Here!" Zhang Liao agreed.

Everyone saw that the Jingzhou Army began to put out the fire, but the pontoon had obviously been soaked in oil to prevent moisture. Even though the Jingzhou Army tried its best to save it, most of it was still missing. It seemed that the connection between Xiangfan and Xiangfan was broken, but Chen Mo always felt that it was not that simple.

"Go back to camp." After observing for a while, seeing that the Jingzhou Army made no next move, Chen Mo took the generals back to camp and waited for another battle tomorrow.

Early the next morning, as soon as Chen Mo got up, he saw Zhang Liao hurriedly came outside his handsome tent to ask for an audience.

Chen Mo put on his clothes and signaled Zhang Liao to come in.

"As expected by the king, as the sky was getting brighter today, a Jingzhou army came out of the city and quickly repaired the pontoon bridge. In less than a quarter of an hour, the general went to see it in person and found that the wooden piles under the pontoon bridge were not burned. There are iron cables connecting them, and the Jingzhou troops quickly laid wooden planks along the iron cables after leaving the city." Zhang Liao frowned.

"Then why didn't you practice last night? Isn't this just like lifting your robe and farting?" Dian Wei, who followed in next to him, said in shock.

"The pontoon bridge was burned down last night, and it will be re-paved today. It will definitely be shocking in the eyes of those who don't know about it, and it will damage the morale of our army." Chen Mo sneered, shook his head and said, "Since the pontoon bridge is difficult to destroy, we will try to find another way. , But we won’t fight today, it’s just a waste of troops, there’s no need to let the soldiers die!”

"Your Majesty, look at the wooden pillars under the pontoon bridge. They are quite similar to the wooden pillars around the copper pillars in the center of the river. It is extremely difficult to destroy them." Zhang Liao frowned and said: "Now if we want to capture Xiangfan, it seems that we can only If we don't attack by force, won't it give the Jingzhou army a chance to breathe?"

Since separation from Xiangfan is ineffective, the only thing that can be done now is to attack by force and use human lives to increase the supply. But even with this method, it will be more difficult to wait until Jingzhou's troops are well-prepared. Now that Liu Bei has entered Sichuan and has not come back, it is the last time. When we are weak, as long as Xiangfan can be captured, Jingzhou will be difficult to hold. Although the cost is higher, if we win this battle, we will establish a unified trend. Jiangdong and Shuzhong are separated and can be defeated individually.

"Don't be in a hurry. Don't we still have Ma Jun?" Chen Mo smiled and shook his head. He didn't advocate a strong attack. Zhuge Liang was able to defend Fancheng. In addition to his good ability, he also had a great advantage in equipment. But if he could suppress him in this aspect, even if the troops in Xiangfan could communicate with each other, he couldn't stop him.

Zhang Liao saw Chen Mo say this and knew what Chen Mo meant. He didn't plan to use this conventional method to exhaust Xiangfan. He had to bow and leave.

"Your Majesty, I think Wenyuan is right." Dian Wei waited for Zhang Liao to leave, and only two people were left in the tent. Then he looked at Chen Mo and said, how can there be no deaths in war? I have never seen Chen Mo so kind on the battlefield before.

"This is one way, but I always feel that there is a better way." Chen Mo smiled. In fact, he also had a thought, to completely subdue Zhuge Liang, defeat him in the field he is good at, let Zhuge Liang know that the general situation is difficult to reverse, whether he surrenders or retires, in short, Zhuge Liang is a talent that makes Chen Mo love talents.

Dian Wei didn't quite understand why Chen Mo was so persistent, so he nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

In the next few days, Chen Mo didn't mobilize his troops, but stayed with Ma Jun all day. Three days later, Ma Jun made a bigger catapult. This catapult was bigger than the previous ones. The base alone was nearly three feet long, and it was more complicated. The projectile distance was also farther. Nearly 100 kilograms of stone bullets could be projected ninety steps.

"Try to change it to an oil tank." Chen Mo looked at the catapult and smiled.

"Yes!" Ma Jun nodded and asked someone to change it to the prepared oil tank. Under the control of eight strong men, the oil tank was thrown out, and someone went to measure the distance.

"One hundred and fifty steps!" Ma Jun turned his head and looked at Chen Mo with a look of surprise. Chen Mo played an indispensable role in the making of this catapult. He used mathematics to calculate a way to infinitely superimpose the force. Theoretically, as long as the materials are sufficient, it can be superimposed infinitely. If it is done in this way, the catapult can penetrate infinitely far, but this is only a theory. In fact, the wood cannot bear the weight when it is superimposed for the second time, and the whole catapult falls apart directly. Then this catapult with a volume more than twice as large was made, which can project the oil tank 150 steps. This distance has exceeded the range of most crossbows.

"Pass on my military order, build a gun platform at a position of 140 steps outside the city, with a length and width of 5 meters each!" Chen Mo was also a little surprised. Finally, he did not waste these few days in vain. Of course, the most important thing is that he specially entered the dream training camp and systematically studied the structure and principle of the catapult and the range calculation, and what ratio is the best. It is precisely because of this that the latest catapult can be made so quickly.

As for why he didn't learn more, in fact, after Chen Mo learned the strategy of naval warfare, he found that every time he came out of the dream training camp, he would have a swollen head and even confused memory. According to the system immortal, this was because his brain had reached its limit. Although Chen Mo was only in his forties, the time he had experienced in dreams from childhood to adulthood added up to hundreds of years. This is why Chen Mo is now almost a jack of all trades, but there is a limit to what people can bear, and Chen Mo is now approaching this limit.

Therefore, after publishing the book of naval warfare strategy, Chen Mo rarely touched the dream training camp again. Although the system immortal did not give what would happen after breaking through the limit, Chen Mo was a little worried that he would have problems, so he did not study other things.

This time, during the southern expedition, he found that this mechanism was connected with mathematics, so he ventured in once, and he only learned some principles, not like the previous skills, which made him a skilled craftsman overnight.

"Yes!" Dian Wei on the side also knew that this was a preparation for a war, and immediately agreed excitedly and ran to pass the order.

Although the generals in the army didn't know why, they still perfectly executed Chen Mo's order.

Chen Mo ordered Ma Jun to quickly prepare enough materials according to the standard of this catapult. This time, he was ready to break through Fancheng in one go, so he prepared to build forty artillery platforms and burn Fancheng.

Ma Jun personally led the craftsmen to the front line, measured the distance, selected the best location, and helped design the artillery platform. A large number of soldiers were sent out to help pile up soil and build platforms. The outside of Fancheng suddenly seemed to have become a construction site...