The Nameless of the Common Clans

"Creaky~"

As Chen Mo withdrew his army, a series of creaking sounds began to be heard from the rear. It was a catapult that was sent over when Chen Mo was talking to Zhuge Liang. It was not the catapult used to break Fancheng. It was even smaller than an ordinary catapult. It was a bracket plus a long bar. It was simple to make and had a range of less than 60 steps. Chen Mo called it a stone thrower. The biggest advantage was that it was easy to transport and could be put into the battlefield as soon as possible.

However, it was not a siege now, so these were enough.

"Your Majesty, you want to use this to break the formation?" Xun You looked at the stone throwers in astonishment.

"We have already reached this point. I don't want to continue the war. Attack for me. Use kerosene and cannonballs. Hit me hard!" Chen Mo nodded. Since Zhuge Liang was still unwilling to give up, he would break the last bit of his wish in his heart.

"Yes!" The generals took orders after hearing this and began to command the soldiers to push the stone throwers forward.

Zhuge Liang, who had just returned to the top of the city, looked at this scene and his face changed. No matter how exquisite the eight-door golden lock formation was, it was still made up of people. Not to mention Chen Mo's attack with fire bombs, even a catapult could smash his shield formation hidden in the army.

"Yuanrong Crossbow Cart!" Zhuge Liang waved the flag quickly. Fortunately, he wanted to trick Chen Mo just now. Before meeting Chen Mo, he had someone quietly push the five Yuanrong Crossbows out of the city and hide them in the army. Now that he saw that the other party was preparing to attack with catapults, he didn't care much and immediately ordered the five Yuanrong Crossbow Carts to attack.

Chen Mo sat on the horseback, watching this scene, and snorted coldly. This Zhuge Liang has learned bad things and is not an honest man!

"Keep moving forward!" Seeing that the army began to slow down, Chen Mo shouted sternly. It was just five crossbows, and Chen Mo could afford the loss.

When the catapults continued to move forward, although the crossbow cart was powerful, it took a long time to load the arrowheads. In this case, after a round of shooting, the position of the catapult was basically enough to put all these people within the range.

Chen Mo ignored this, turned his head and looked at Ma Jun beside him and said: "Deheng!"

"I am here!" Ma Jun hurriedly stepped forward and bowed.

"Immediately calculate the distance and prepare to attack Xiangyang!" Chen Mo looked at Ma Jun and said in a deep voice.

The so-called attack is naturally like the previous attack on Fancheng, setting up artillery platforms and attacking the city with fire. Although Xiangyang is much stronger than Fancheng, it is actually no different under the attack of this kind of fire bombs.

"I obey your orders!" Ma Jun understood and immediately stepped back, organizing the craftsmen to prepare materials, dismantle the catapults on the other side and then transport them over. Without Fancheng, the defensive fortifications outside the city of Xiangyang were also destroyed by Chen Mo. Even if Chen Mo could not dismantle the bronze pillar in the middle of the river, the Jingzhou army was no longer able to compete with Chen Mo for control of the river surface. The Ming army ships could travel freely, which really saved a lot of trouble.

On the other side, Zhuge Liang saw Chen Mo moving forward regardless of everything and knew that the Eight-Gate Golden Lock Formation could no longer stop Chen Mo. In order to reduce casualties, he began to order a withdrawal. The army responsible for arranging the Eight-Gate Golden Lock Formation quickly retreated back to the city, but seeing that Chen Mo had already started to build the artillery platform, Zhuge Liang felt a sense of powerlessness for the first time in his life. He knew what Chen Mo was going to do, but he was powerless to stop it. Although these artillery platforms and catapults would take at least more than a month to build, once they were built, it meant that the city walls they relied on to defend would no longer be useful.

"I'll take people out to destroy those artillery positions!" Zhang Fei also saw what the Ming army wanted to do, and gritted his teeth.

"No need!" Zhuge Liang shook his head. Even if it was really destroyed, Chen Mo could rebuild it, but for the Jingzhou army, it would be a huge loss of manpower, not worth it.

"What should we do? Seeing Xiangyang City fall!" Zhang Fei said angrily.

"Xiangyang City can no longer be defended." Zhuge Liang looked at the enemy formation, hesitated for a moment, and shook his head. He couldn't think of a way to break Chen Mo's fire bombs. Not only Xiangyang, but any city, it is impossible to rely on the advantage of a strong city to defend the city in front of Chen Mo, unless you can make a device with a longer range than Chen Mo's giant catapult, but at the moment, Zhuge Liang can't do it.

"If Xiangyang is lost, how can our army resist!?" Zhang Fei said angrily.

There is Chen Mo in front and Zhang Liao blocking the way behind. Even if you want to leave at this time, it is not an easy thing.

"Relying on Jiangling and backed by the Yangtze River, if it doesn't work, retreat to Wuling!" Zhuge Liang looked at the Ming army outside the city that began to approach the city wall, and commanded the soldiers to resist the enemy while thinking.

Xiangyang can only be defended for a month at most. After Chen Mo builds the artillery platform, the fall of the city is inevitable. Although the loss of Xiangfan is a fatal blow to Jingzhou, it means that half of Nanjun or even the entire Nanjun will fall into Chen Mo's hands. But at this time, Zhuge Liang can only consider withdrawing troops and continue to deal with Chen Mo.

Although he knew that he could not fight, if he let go of Jingzhou, Chen Mo would seize Jingzhou and move westward to Shu, and Liu Bei would lose his last foothold.

"Alas~" Zhang Fei also sighed heavily and began to command the defense.

There were more crossbow carts on the city walls of Xiangyang. Chen Mo's side naturally could not gain any advantage in a conventional siege. Those catapults also became the main targets of attack by the defenders on the city walls. After nearly half of them were destroyed, Chen Mo issued an order to withdraw and prepared to besiege the city.

That night, Zhuge Liang sent Chengzhou to Jiangling to inform Guan Yu to come to support, preparing to attack from both sides and break through Zhang Liao's defense line. Guan Yu was sent by Zhuge Liang to recruit new soldiers some time ago. Now two months have passed, and he should have recruited a batch of new soldiers. However, after this battle, the grain and grass in Jingzhou are no longer enough to support the army after the loss of Xiangyang. Therefore, in addition to supporting Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu also had to transport the grain and grass in Xiangyang through the navy.

Although the Jingzhou navy has always been inferior to the Jiangdong navy, its ability to fight on the water is also good. At least if the factors of equipment are excluded, the generals of the Ming army cannot compare with the generals of the Jingzhou navy in terms of water combat.

A few days later, Guan Yu personally led the navy to Xiangyang. Although Zhang Liao found out, he had no way to stop him. He could only exchange fire with the other side along the river, and finally watched the Jingzhou navy leave.

After Zhang Liao told Chen Mo about this, Chen Mo immediately realized that Zhuge Liang was preparing to withdraw his troops.

"If our army wants to pursue on the water, let alone the navy of Jingzhou, I'm afraid the navy of Jiangdong will come to join in." Xun You frowned. He didn't understand naval warfare, and he didn't know whether the navy of the Ming army could resist the navy of Jiangdong and Jingzhou now?

Chen Mo nodded. The fall of Xiangyang City was a foregone conclusion. It was understandable that Zhuge Liang chose this time to prepare for the retreat, but Liu Bei's elite troops left in Jingzhou should be here. If these troops cannot be left, it will be a problem to attack Jiangling next.

"Pass on my military order, the three armies are ready for battle, and Xiangyang will be attacked tonight!" Chen Mo stood up and said.

"Your Majesty, night battles are also quite disadvantageous to our army, and I'm afraid the losses will be heavy!" Xun You hurriedly said after hearing this. Many people can't see the night battle.

"Take those catapults, attack with fire first, and then charge the city gate!" Chen Mo nodded. In a normal night attack, even if the Jingzhou army was not well prepared, it would be difficult to achieve much results. But if we change our thinking, the Jingzhou army was not well prepared at this time, so couldn't we push the catapults very close to the city wall? There was no need for a large catapult to throw fire bombs on the city wall?

Chen Mo was best at guessing the enemy's mind when fighting. The Jingzhou army probably thought that Chen Mo would wait until the turrets were built before attacking the city. At this time, it would be unexpected. What's more important is that Chen Mo used catapults instead of catapults, which was probably something no one expected. In this case, why not use it?

Xun You's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he nodded immediately, saying, "I'll go and prepare now."

At that moment, the Ming army camp began to get busy. Until late at night, the soldiers pushed stone throwers out of the camp one after another. In order to avoid making too much noise and alerting the enemy, these stone throwers were lifted up by the soldiers after leaving the camp. Under the command of one or two soldiers who could see clearly at night, hundreds of stone throwers were lifted to a distance of less than fifty steps outside the city of Xiangyang, forming a stone thrower position, and the fire was also replaced with fire bombs.

"Ignite!" At this point, there was no need to worry about being discovered by the defenders on the city. Wei Yan, who was in charge of the command, gave an order with an excited look, and torches were lit, and jars of kerosene were also loaded on the net bags of the stone throwers.

The defenders on the top of Xiangyang City also noticed something strange. The torches gathered together like a fire dragon in the night. Someone immediately ran to report the news. At the same time, the soldiers responsible for operating the crossbow carts were awakened and quickly adjusted the crossbows to prepare to shoot these stone weapons.

"Fire!" Xu Huang waved the flag in his hand fiercely.

"Buzz~"

With a muffled sound, hundreds of fire bombs soared into the air, like a meteor shower, falling towards the top of Xiangyang City and the city.

"Pah pah pah~"

The sound of the oil tank breaking was accompanied by the flames that instantly covered the entire top of Xiangyang City. At this moment, at least hundreds of defenders were engulfed by the sea of ​​fire. The entire top of Xiangyang City was like a purgatory on earth, and a large number of Jingzhou soldiers began to flee.

Xu Huang ordered his soldiers to continue shooting expressionlessly. When the second round of fire bombs fell on the top of the city again, the entire top of Xiangyang was illuminated by the flames as bright as day. At the same time, many places in Xiangyang City were also on fire. The soldiers and civilians in the city were awakened by this sudden attack, and countless people ran around in Xiangyang City like headless flies.

"Attack!"

Wei Yan took a look at the top of the city that was almost completely covered by the sea of ​​fire. With an order, dozens of soldiers pushed a siege vehicle and rushed towards the gate of Xiangyang City. At the same time, hundreds of swordsmen crossed the moat in the dark, climbed up the suspension bridge, and cut the ropes and chains connecting the suspension bridge.

When Zhuge Liang was awakened, he was faced with such a scene. Looking at the city wall that had been engulfed in flames, Zhuge Liang closed his eyes in pain...