Three Kingdoms Eschatology

After the Wandu incident, Cao Cao was so angry that he wanted to behead Cao Ren.The officials of Wei State, especially members of the Cao family, took turns persuading Cao Cao.The latter thought of Cao Ren's kindness to him in saving his life in the past, so Fang stepped down the donkey and let Cao Ren live.

But the death penalty can be avoided, but the living crime cannot be escaped.Cao Ren was still degraded from a high-ranking military general of the Wei State to a school lieutenant of a tiger and leopard cavalry battalion.Recently, he was transferred to the bitterly cold place in Liaodong.

Not long ago, the Wei army fought a decisive battle with the Liang Beifu army on the seashore of Jinghai. Although they were defeated, it also seriously injured the Beifu army.Lu Bu asked the army to retreat to the North Sea for the time being, and wait for the next year to fight again.A small group of Wei troops from Liaodong symbolically occupied several Fuyu camps that had been empty for a long time, so that Xia Houyuan could report the victory to Cao Cao.

The war in Liaodong should have come to an end here, but Cao Ren was eager to make contributions and insisted on taking his tiger and leopard cavalry to sweep away the tribes in the snowfield who were attached to Liang Chaobei's army.

Although Cao Ren is only a captain of the cavalry battalion, no one can treat him only as a captain.Xia Houyuan, who is in charge of Liaodong's military affairs, also wants to give him three points of courtesy.

Xia Houyuan couldn't hold back Cao Ren, so he had to give him [-] Fuyu men, together with [-] tigers and leopards from Cao Ren's headquarters, a total of [-] soldiers and horses, to search and sweep the forest, sea and snow fields in the northwest.

This forest sea snowfield is actually the easternmost point of the Eurasian steppe belt.Seven months of the year are covered with snow.

When the snow began to fall that day, several Buyeo tribe leaders repeatedly persuaded him to withdraw his troops.But Cao Ren had never seen the harsh climate here, so he insisted on going his own way, insisting on beheading the enemy's head by a thousand levels before withdrawing his troops.After his team marched for another three days, they still didn't even see a shadow of the enemy camp, and heavy snow began to fall from the sky.

At present, the snow on the ground was more than one foot deep, Cao Ren's more than 2000 war cavalry had difficulty in supplying supplies, and they were struggling.Several people gathered around again and persuaded Cao Ren to withdraw his troops. This time, not only the tribal leaders of the Fuyu people, but also the leaders of several tiger and leopard cavalry battalions were among them.

Cao Ren sighed, and just when he was about to order the whole army to turn around and return east, there was a rider galloping from the depths of the forest, it was the tiger and leopard rider.He reported to Cao Ren that a camp of the Wuhuan tribe had been found in the forest, and this camp was planted with the purple unicorn flag of the Northern Army of the Liang Dynasty. The population of the entire camp was estimated to be nearly a thousand.

Cao Ren was overjoyed and said to the surrounding soldiers: "The scale of nearly a thousand people should be a big camp. You guys wiped out this camp, and we didn't come out in vain."

After finishing speaking, he clamped his horse's belly, rode out, and marched towards the forest under the guidance of the horse scouts.The rest followed suit.

Cao Ren thought that the further he went, the denser the forest would become. Unexpectedly, it was the opposite, the pine forest became more and more sparse.Pieces of snowfield clearings appeared in front of their eyes.Finally, a cluster of camp shacks appeared on the horizon in the distance, and a purple banner was faintly visible.

Cao Ren raised his saber high in the air and shouted: "Array, prepare to attack!".

As soon as he finished speaking, with the sound of arrows piercing through the air, a leader of the Fuyu people beside him fell heavily from his horse on the snowy ground.There was a huge arrow sticking out of the Fuyu man's neck.

Cao Ren thought the arrows came from that camp, so he clamped his horse's belly between his legs and rode his horse towards the camp.But if he thought about it carefully, he should know that no matter the Xianbei, Wuhuan, Sushen, or Fuyu tribes in the forest and snowfields, it is impossible to have such thick arrows.

The five hundred tiger and leopard cavalry behind them have formed an offensive formation and followed closely behind.The two thousand Fuyu warriors also guarded the side of the tiger and leopard cavalry in groups, and rushed forward.

More than 2000 war horses galloped on the snow-covered snow, creating bursts of snow and fog.At this moment, the sound of whining horns came from all around.Cao Ren has been in the army for many years, and he has heard all kinds of horns made of animal horns, but he has never heard the sound of the current horn.A leader of the Fuyu people next to him changed his face and said: "Aiwenk people, it's Aiwenk people who are here!"

Cao Ren asked, "Who are the Avenk people? Where are they located?"

"The Avenk live in the farther north, where it is almost always covered with ice and snow. There is only two or three months of summer without snow cover. They usually make a living by hunting and domesticating reindeer, and they are very good at being in the snowfield... ah."

Before the leader of Fuyu finished speaking, he let out a scream, and a heavy arrow flew in, piercing through his shoulder from behind.It was only then that Cao Ren discovered that the arrows did not come from the camp in front, but from the sparse pine forest all around. The range of these arrows was very far, far exceeding the range of ordinary arrows.

Immediately afterwards, Cao Ren discovered that there were some things around him that he had never seen before.I saw many huge deer with huge horns, dragging some "chariots" without wheels and galloping across the snow.Presumably these deer are the reindeer mentioned by the leader of Buyeo just now.The heavy arrows were shot by the archers on the wheelless "chariots" with a six-foot long bow.

Cao Ren suddenly remembered that the archers of Liang Jun's standing army used a super-large bow, which could shoot heavy arrows [-] paces away and penetrate heavy armor within [-] paces.Thinking of this, Cao Ren's underwear was drenched with cold sweat.In this wilderness and wild forest, there are longbowmen that Liang Jun's regular army can only have. Could it be that Liang Jun set up an ambush for him! ?

Just as Cao Ren was thinking, long bows and heavy arrows shot from all directions without interruption.All around were sleighs drawn by reindeer, some of which had come from the tribal camp.

They took their time and began to circle slowly around the advancing Wei Jun cavalry.The shooting frequency of the archers didn't seem to slow down at all.

After Cao Ren knew that he was in ambush, he shouted loudly: "Withdraw! The whole army retreat! The archers shoot back and cover!"

In fact, without Cao Ren's order, there were already Fuyu riders, and some tiger and leopard riders who served as cavalry archers took out their bows and crossbows and began to fight back.But in the cold weather and the bitter north wind, these riders who lacked winter clothes had already suffered from frozen fingers and limbs, and their bowstrings could not be stretched.What's more, the range of their bows and crossbows is much lower than that of the opponent, so this kind of bow and arrow counterattack is almost ineffective.

The endless howls of pain and the neighing of horses on the battlefield were almost all from Cao Ren's side.Wei Jun fled desperately, but their mounts were far slower than the opponent's sled in the snow that was more than a foot thick.Riders on horseback were almost a living target.

With a bang, a heavy arrow sank into Cao Ren's back. Cao Ren's eyes went dark, and his whole body fell on the horse's back...

Chapter 483 The Battle of Nanyang

As early as the decisive battle between the Wei army in Liaodong and the Liang Chaobei army on the shore of Jinghai, the Linjiang army in Nanyang also started.Liu Bei sent his troops to launch a full-scale attack on Xiangyang, where Liang Jun was stationed, and from Zhuyang to Danjiangkou.

Although Liu Bei launched this Western Expedition in the name of exterminating traitors, he never expected to eat the fat man Liang Guo in one bite.What's more, if he attacked Feng Yu with all his strength at any cost, wouldn't Wei Guo and Wu Guo gain the benefits of fisherman?Liu Bei would not do such a stupid thing.His real purpose is only one - to seize Xiangyang.

At present, Xiangyang City is Liu Bei's confidant, and as long as the Liang army in Xiangyang crosses the Mian River and captures the easy-to-attack and difficult-to-defend Fancheng, it will be able to completely cut off Liu Bei's Nanyang from the mainland of Jingzhou.If the Liang army used Xiangyang as their base camp and dispatched the Inland River Navy along the Mian River, and cooperated with land cavalry to advance both water and land, they would be able to attack the hinterland of Jingzhou as easily as a broken bamboo.

On the contrary, if Liu Bei can occupy the key point of Xiangyang, it will be extremely beneficial to the Linjiang Army.First of all, Liu Bei garrisoned Xiangyang with a small number of troops, so that Feng Yu's army could be restrained from going south along the Mian River.Secondly, Nanyang and Jingzhou can be connected more closely through the Mianshui waterway.In the end, no matter whether Liu Bei is to attack Hanzhong Liangzhou or Yizhou in the future.This Xiangyang is a strategic location that can be used as a springboard.

Therefore, Liu Bei is determined to win Xiangyang this time, and almost all of his elite soldiers and generals have entered Nanyang.In addition to the three brothers Liu Guan and Zhang, Wei Yan and Huang Zhong also led troops from Southern Jingzhou and stationed in Fancheng.

In order to mobilize Liang Jun's defense and attract Liang Jun's troops away from Xiangyang.Liu Bei launched an attack on Xiangyang, Zhuyang and Danjiangkou at the same time.In order to create a false impression for the Liang army, under the personal command of Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, Liu Bei's offensive in Zhuyang and Danjiangkou was extremely fierce.It doesn't look like a feint at all.

On the contrary, Liu Beijun only used a small group of rangers to patrol and monitor in Xiangyang, making some small harassment from time to time, but did not launch a decent general offensive.

Zhuyang battlefield.A "small Great Wall" stretches out along the Mianshui River. On the top of the wall stands a veteran with a white beard and hair. It is Yan Yan, a famous Shu general in Daliang.The soldiers of the Liang army around Yan Yan were busy carrying various materials for defending the city, such as rolling wood and stones, arrows and pellets.

At the gate tower, a group of more than a dozen Liang Bing was pedaling a kind of wheel quickly with their feet. They were driving the water wheel to pump the river water from Zhushui to the water tower built on the earth barrier behind.In wartime, the water stored in these water towers can be used to drive hydraulic repeating ballistas.

At the base of the city wall, where the river bends in the Mian River and where the water flows slowly, you can see the corpses of Liu Bei's soldiers.Most of them were killed by arrows and stone bullets from ballistas.

On the other side of the Mian River, there was another thundering drum sound, followed by the sound of horns and horns.The lieutenant next to Yan Yan sneered and said: "Old General, you see that Liu Bei's army is about to attack again. Haven't they suffered enough? Or something wrong with their heads? Just keep giving us heads like this Sending military merits, the subordinates have fought for half their lives, and have never seen such a stupid person. Do they have other intentions?"

Yan Yan didn't underestimate the enemy like him, his face was still dignified, and he said in a deep voice: "We don't need to care about Liu Beijun's intentions. That is the commander of the Liangzhou theater, the Ministry of War and the matter of the Holy Majesty. We just need to guard the city. , to complete the tasks assigned to us by the theater and the Ministry of War.”

As soon as Yan Yan finished speaking, hundreds of sampan boats appeared on the Mianshui River, and each boat carried dozens of soldiers.

"Calista ready!" Following Yan Yan's order, the ballista players of the medium-sized ballistas lined up on the city wall began to twist the winch, pull the torsion spring of the ballista, and install stone bullets in the bullet pocket. guns etc.

Every hundred steps on the city wall, there is a heavy-duty water-driven ballista fixedly installed. The soldiers of the Liang army who operate the gun have opened the water gate. Under the hydraulic drive of the diversion channel, the transmission gear chain slowly rotates, slowly opening the heavy ballista. torsion spring.

When these small boats approached the bank of the river on the side of Zhuyang.Yan Yan shouted: "Fire!" Several soldiers around him waved down the colorful flags.

After a few breaths, there was a loud bang bang sound from the ballista machine arm hitting the baffle on the city wall, and dozens of stone bullets of various sizes were ejected into the sky, drawing parabolas in the sky, flying towards the small boats and boats. Smash it.

Waves several feet high splashed on the surface of the Mian Shui, and the soldiers of the Linjiang Army on the small boats seemed very panic-stricken, some abandoned their oars and prostrated themselves on the bottom deck of the boats.

In fact, these soldiers were not regular soldiers of Linjiang Kingdom.After Liu Bei took over Nanyang, he incorporated the original Yulin Army into his regular standing army, the Baier Army.And those local soldiers serving in the military in various places in Nanyang still have to continue to serve in the military according to the original rules.Now they put on the uniforms of the Linjiang Army, pretending to be regular soldiers of the Linjiang Kingdom, and stormed Zhuyang under the influence of a small number of Linjiang Army soldiers.

With a loud bang, the bow of a sampan on the river was crushed by a huge stone bullet, and the people on the whole boat fell into the river immediately.

On the other sampan, a Linjiang soldier put a knife on the neck of a trembling Nanyang native soldier, and cursed in his mouth: "Grandma's, they are all a bunch of useless people, let me get up and continue paddling the oars!" .Otherwise, I will kill you now!"

Not long after his words fell, there was a muffled sound from the canopy, and half of the man's chest was suddenly shattered, and blood splattered all over the deck of the ship, and the part above the neck suddenly folded down and hung in front of the body , and then his whole body collapsed on the bottom deck, and the stone bullet that shot through his spine and chest fell into the water, stirring up a two-foot-high water column.

Those Nanyang native soldiers who were just about to get up, saw this tragic scene, and buried their heads in despair.In addition to the ballista projectiles, the longbowmen on the city wall were like shooting targets on the shooting range, killing these Linjiang soldiers one by one.

In the end, when some ships approached the southwest bank of Mianshui, there were very few of these riverside soldiers left.The soldiers on these docked ships came ashore tremblingly, carrying ladders and protecting themselves with shields to the city wall.When they were about to erect the ladder.The wall of the city poured down rolling wood and beating stones, smashing them into meat paste immediately.Some of the remaining people ran back to the boat, and some held their heads and yelled.There are also very few regular soldiers of the Linjiang Army, threatening others with their weapons, but they were all sniped and killed by longbowmen under the city within a short time...

The battle situation in Danjiangkou is similar to that in Zhuyang.The only difference is that in order to protect the Danshui Dam, there is also a city stronghold built by Liang Jun on the northeast bank of Mianshui.

Because there is no Mian Shui natural barrier, the fighting here is more intense.Because of the infinite water power resources here, the city walls are all water-driven ballista machines, and they can fire continuously, which makes the Linjiang army even more deadly and injured.

However, these victories were within Liu Bei's expectations.

Chapter 484 Come Prepared

Fancheng on the other side of Xiangyang City has also strengthened its city wall over the years.However, compared with Xiangyang, which was built by mountains and rivers, Fancheng, located on the plain on the northeast coast of Mianshui, was still an extremely easy city to capture.

The rare sunny weather in late autumn, the bright sunshine spreads on the tall Shuimen tower in Fancheng.Several generals in armor sat upright in the ponytail, lazily basking in the sun.The white-faced, big-eared, and long-bearded man sitting in the middle is sitting on a bearded chair. This man is Liu Bei, the lord of Linjiang Kingdom.

From time to time, Liu Bei turned his attention to the big city opposite Mianshui—Xiangyang.This city is crucial to his future.But he was actually anxiously waiting for Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's reply.Only when they attract the Liang army in Zhuyang and Danjiangkou can they launch a general attack on Xiangyang.

A commanding soldier trotted up to Liu Bei, knelt down on one knee, and presented two letterheads.Liu Bei opened them one by one, and it turned out that the two letters were battle reports sent by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei respectively, according to the situation described in the battle reports.Liang Jun seems to have believed that Zhuyang and Danjiangkou are facing heavy forces from the Linjiang Army.

Liu Bei slowly stood up from the Hu chair, and the other generals immediately stood up in unison, with their heads bowed and hands down, standing on both sides of Liu Bei.Liu Bei said calmly without any expression on his face: "Everyone, the Feng bandits in Zhuyang and Dankou seem to have been attracted by my Zhang Fei and Guan Yu's troops. So the time is ripe for us to launch a general attack on Xiangyang. Everyone, follow the solitary plan in advance. Plan and act. Everyone must remember the principle of this battle --- if we don't attack, we will do it. Once the general attack starts, we must devote ourselves to conquering Xiangyang in the shortest time. Otherwise, once the battle becomes protracted, Zhuyang and Dankou The bandit army will soon be able to go south to support Xiangyang."

All the generals, including Wei Yan and Huang Zhong, replied loudly: "We will follow your majesty's order."

Then Wei Yan asked Liu Bei with hesitation: "My lord, there is a Wubao outside Xiangyang City. It was built by Feng Thief in his early years, and it is a horn with Xiangyang City. Should we conquer this Wubao first, and then proceed?" Attack Xiangyang City. Lest the bandits in Wubao attack my attacking army from behind."

Liu Bei pondered for a moment, then waved his hands and said, "No, if we attack Wubao first, it would be a waste of time and go against the original intention of a single-speed battle. Besides, how many troops can be stationed in Wubao? We only need to use some rangers Just guard it. The rest of the soldiers and horses attack Xiangyang with all their strength!".The generals gave another loud "No".

……

On the other side of the Mian River, outside Xiangyang City, the sound of drums and trumpets suddenly sounded.Liu Bei's army originally set up a barracks there, which was used to station the rangers who were monitoring the siege of Xiangyang City.On weekdays, they are divided into three shifts, patrolling outside Xiangyang city day and night.

Now with the sound of drums and trumpets, they came out in full force, some of them wandered outside the city gate of Xiangyang, and some of them galloped on horses along the bank of Mianshui, patrolling and guarding.These are to provide cover for the Linjiang Army who built a pontoon bridge in Mianshui.

Hundreds of small sampans, some of which came out of the water gate of Fancheng, and some of them entered Mianshui downstream from the Baihe River, a tributary on the northeast bank of Mianshui, and rushed towards the center of the river together.

They obviously had targeted training a long time ago. Hundreds of small boats were arranged in three rows in an orderly manner, and the boats were linked with ropes and chains.Then the soldiers of the Linjiang Army on the northeast bank ran towards the three rows of boats with wooden boards on their backs, one after another the wooden boards were spread upwards.

None of the three pontoon bridges is upstream of Xiangyang, and all of them are located downstream in the direction of Yicheng in Jingzhou.Liu Bei's intention was to only attack the south gate of Xiangyang, which is located in the lower reaches of the Mianshui River, so that the defenders in Xiangyang would not fight a trapped beast, and let them withdraw from the north gate and water gate by themselves, so that Liu Bei's army could quickly take Xiangyang.

Guarding Xiangyang is the Dianqing Army.Dian Qing at the top of the city had already seen the intention of the Linjiang Army clearly, knowing that they wanted to build a pontoon bridge to allow the brigade to cross the river.Dian Qing immediately ordered the [-] inland river warships in Xiangyang City to attack, trying to crush Liu Bei's attack on the Mianshui River.

The Xiangyang water gate suddenly opened wide, and twenty warships came out in a file, rushing down the river swiftly and fiercely.Liu Bei, who was standing at the head of Fancheng City, saw this scene, with a sneer on his face, he said to the soldiers beside him: "According to the plan!".Obviously, he had anticipated and responded to Liang Jun's reaction in Xiangyang.

The order soldiers on the watchtower in Fancheng immediately waved the red order flags.On the other side of Xiangyang, dark figures suddenly stood up in the bushes on the bank of the Mianshui River, and then the large trebuchets and bed crossbows that were originally hidden in the grass were also pushed out.

Boulders and crossbow spears pelted Liang Jun's fleet like hail.Innumerable water columns and waves were stirred up on the surface of the Mianshui River.The catapults and bed crossbows of the Linjiang Army are naturally not as accurate as the Liang Army's ballistas.But it couldn't hold back the large number of them, and the stones and crossbow guns they fired were so dense that seven or eight of the twenty Liang Army scouts were still hit by bullets and guns.

Amidst the loud noise, the sides of some Liang Jun warships were pierced by stones, and sawdust splashed everywhere.There were two boats and even the sides of the ship below the waterline were pierced by boulders and crossbow guns. The river water poured into the cabin in large quantities, and the hull began to gradually tilt.There are also some soldiers on the deck, even though they are covered by shields, some of them were pierced by crossbow guns and died.

Liang Jun's warship was forced to lean towards the southwest bank, trying to sail out of the range of the Linjiang Army.But then something unexpected happened.On the flagship of Liang Jun's warship, the general of the fleet was nervously directing the ship to avoid enemy fire, while trying to let the fleet continue to rush downstream to stop and destroy the pontoon bridge the enemy was building.

Suddenly there was a loud bang, and the general officer felt the hull under his feet shake violently, and then he lost his center of gravity and fell to one side of the ship.Before he had time to stand up, he heard the shouts of his own soldiers: "It's not good, the ship hit the rocks, the ship hit the rocks and entered the water."

At the head of Fancheng, Liu Bei had a smug smile on his lips.He had long expected that Liang Jun would send out the navy in Xiangyang City to prevent his army from crossing the river, so he had people cover it in the dark in advance, and secretly threw a lot of iron-wood horses, antlers, and boulders on the side of the Mian River as a artificial reef.When Liang Jun's warships came out of Xiangyang, they used catapults and bed crossbows to force them to approach the waters covered with these "artificial reefs" on the southwest coast.

Liu Bei's plan really worked. With the continuous bangs, Liang Jun's warships were constantly hit and destroyed by these "artificial reefs".Liang Jun soldiers on board abandoned the boat and jumped into the river one after another.

On the southwest bank, those patrolling Linjiang army cavalry have come on horseback.They opened their bows and shot arrows at the Liang soldiers who fell into the water...

Chapter 485 Long-range confrontation

Accompanied by the sound of piercing through the air, arrows roared across the river.From time to time, there were screams in the river.The wreckage of Liang Jun's warship and the corpses of Liang Jun's soldiers can be seen everywhere on the river, floating downstream.

The few surviving ships in the rear stopped moving forward, but anchored in the river under the rain of arrows, and began to rescue those soldiers of the Liang army who fell into the water.Fortunately, these inland navy warships are equipped with professional sailors and sailors.They are proficient in water, and most of them can swim back to Xiangyang not far away by swimming alone.

Seeing such a scene, Dian Qing at the head of Xiangyang had no choice but to give up his plan to attack the Linjiang army on the Mianshui waterway.In less than half an hour, the three pontoon bridges were built on the river.The Linjiang Army, which had been ready to go for a long time, rushed to the city of Xiangyang on the other side of the river like three torrents.

Dian Qing silently estimated the enemy's strength, but it took more than an hour for the Linjiang army to cross the Mian River.This made Dian Qing gasp. From this point of view, there should be more than [-] soldiers of the Linjiang Army who came to attack Xiangyang.Nearly four times the strength of the defenders in Xiangyang City.What Dian Qing didn't know was that Liu Bei not only brought a large number of troops.Moreover, they are all the most elite soldiers of Linjiang Kingdom-the five thousand white-eared veterans of Liu Bei's housekeeper are all involved.

But Dian Qing was surprised for a moment, and quickly regained his composure.After all, back then, with only seventy or so scouts, he withstood the onslaught of two or three thousand soldiers and horses in Jingzhou in Wubao in Xiangyang, and held on to Wubao for more than a month.

Now Dianqing has a reorganized regular army with a full range of arms, and the defensive equipment on the Xiangyang city tower is also readily available.There are also tens of thousands of civilians in the city who can help defend the city.He has no reason to be afraid of an enemy army whose strength is three or four times his own.

After the Linjiang army that had crossed the river had completed its formation, Liu Bei had arrived at the city of Xiangyang with the army.Wei Yan came to Liu Bei at a trot, bowed his body and said, "Your Majesty, our cavalry, crossbowmen, and siege equipment have all crossed the Mian River, and the formation is complete. We only need to wait for your Majesty's order, and we will go all out." Siege."

Liu Bei raised his arm high into the air, then swung it down fiercely, and said loudly and decisively: "Attack!"

In the Linjiang army formation, the sound of drums and trumpets was loud again.The Linjiang army formation let out rhythmic shouts.Hundreds of catapults and crossbows lined up in several rows began to move forward slowly under the push and pull of Linjiang soldiers, and when Xiangyang City entered their shooting range, they violently shot stones at the top of the city.Behind them was the black army of Linjiang soldiers.A large number of crossbowmen were mixed in it.

Almost at the same time, Dian Qing also ordered at the top of the city: "First use the ballista to shoot at the enemy's siege equipment!"

After a while, hundreds of stone bombs and explosive bombs shot out from the top of the city. They crossed curves in the air and smashed into the formation of the Linjiang Army.Some of the huge stone bullets shattered the human body and sprinkled a rain of blood.Some bombarded siege equipment or scull shields, and the sawdust was scattered everywhere.From time to time, the flames from the detonation of the hot bomb rose into the sky in the Linjiang army formation.

In addition to these ballistas, hundreds of longbowmen also began to shoot at the enemy from the top of the city.However, the Linjiang Army equipped the soldiers in the front row with oar shields and large shields.The archers can only pick out those enemy soldiers who are on the move and who are not well-prepared and show their flaws to snipe.

Although Liang Jun's ballistas were mighty, hundreds of ballistas were like a drop in the bucket in the face of the tide-like formation of ten thousand people, and their effect could only make the enemy's formation slightly confused.The Linjiang Army quickly moved their catapults and bed crossbows to the city of Xiangyang and placed them there.During this period, more than [-] trebuchets and more than [-] bed crossbows were destroyed.

The stones and crossbow spears of the Linjiang Army began to hurl towards Xiangyang city like hail.Then the crossbowmen of the Linjiang Army behind the army formation also began to shoot arrows towards the city of Xiangyang like a storm.

"Careful! Conceal!" At the head of the city of Xiangyang, officers at all levels shouted one after another, and the soldiers of the Liang army who were standing on the head of the city immediately either fell behind the walls, or set up their shields, and crouched in front of them. After the shield.In their ears, they could only hear the dull impact of the boulder hitting the city wall, the crisp sound of crossbow guns shooting into the city wall, the whirring sound of ordinary arrows piercing through the air, and the puffing sound of drilling into shields.

There was a loud bang, and a boulder happened to hit a ballista on the top of the city.The latter was blown apart in an instant.Dian Qing, who was lying behind a pile of walls, shouted: "Quickly withdraw the ballista behind the city wall!"

Before he could finish his words, some soldiers of the Liang army withdrew the ballista against the rain of arrows.

It turned out that these ballistas had arranged a "rear route" in advance.Behind each ballista, there is a wooden lifting platform.This wooden platform can be raised and lowered by means of pulley ropes.

As long as the ballista is retreated to this platform, and the soldiers under the city wall turn the winch, the ballista can be hidden behind the city wall, and the height can be adjusted.In this way, these ballistas can also hide in the enemy's projectile blind spot like soldiers.At the same time, it can also use curved projection to kill enemy soldiers approaching the city wall.

Dian Qing suddenly took a shield from the soldiers around him, put it on his head, squatted halfway down the city, and started to run when he reached the stairway.Of course, he didn't flee in fear of the battle, but took another action.Like him, some of the longbowmen who were shooting outwards from the top of the city just now moved to the bottom of the city one after another.

In the Linjiang army formation, a group of [-] soldiers was pulling the rope of the catapult, trying to throw a stone the size of a small pumpkin.Before the leader gave the command, one of them dragged the rope and went limp.Immediately after the screams, another five or six people fell to the ground in different postures. The same thing was that they all had a thick arrow stuck in their chests or heads.Six or seven people were shot and killed at once. It is impossible for this stone to be thrown to the top of the city.

The rest of the people looked towards the top of the city in fear, but their faces turned pale.

There was nothing on the top of the city to scare them like this, but there were more than a dozen huge monsters floating in the air.It was Liang Jun's unique hot air balloon airship.The gondola under the airship carried the archer Liang Jun, and of course Dian Qing and his commanding soldiers.

The heavy arrows were fired again by the longbowmen, aiming at the operators of the catapults and bed crossbows.Those Linjiang soldiers could not use oar shields to cover tightly when operating the catapults and bed crossbows.The archer Liang Junchang was like shooting a target in a shooting range, condescending, and shot one arrow at a time on the spot.

When these Linjiang soldiers operating catapults and bed crossbows were shot and killed nearly half, their morale completely collapsed.Regardless of the general's scolding, the remaining people discarded the siege equipment one after another and fled to the rear.

Liu Bei, who supervised the battle at the back, had a gloomy face, and stood up with a cold snort.

Chapter 486

"Where is Wei Yan?" Liu Bei asked in a deep voice.

"Chen is here!"

"Mr. Wen, you bring your personal guards to supervise the battle. Anyone who dares to retreat in fear of the battle will be killed! Even the white-eared army is the same. As long as there is someone who retreats before the battle, the law will be executed on the spot!"

Wei Yan's complexion changed, and he quickly responded: "I obey the order!"

Wei Yan got up and rushed forward with his personal guards. Wei Yan held two knives and rode his horse galloping.A few defeated Linjiang soldiers ran towards him with their heads bowed.Two saber lights flashed one after another, and the heads of two rout soldiers flew into the air.At the same time, Wei Yangao shouted: "Your Majesty has an order, anyone who dares to retreat in front of the battle will be killed!"

The soldiers behind him also shouted one after another: "Anyone who dares to retreat in front of the battle will be shot to death." Their hands were not idle, and many Linjiang rout soldiers were beheaded and killed on the spot while the swords were flying.Wei Yan's strong supervision of the battle immediately suppressed the collapse of the Linjiang Army on the front line.The soldiers near the river tremblingly ran back to their respective battle positions, regrouped, pulled the rope, moved the stone, and put the bowstring on the bed.Boulders, crossbow spears, and arrows hit the city again and again.Some soldiers of the Linjiang Army even took the courage to push the bed crossbow closer to the city wall, trying to shoot the giants in the air with their crossbow guns.