Fenghou

"Where is Zhe Yanzhi?" Li Gang turned to Zhe Yanzhi.

Orihiko pondered for a while and said: "There are not many battles in the history of using boats to attack the city. This is also because few cities have a moat as wide as Xiangyang. Before Chen Qing successfully attacked the city with boats in Changde Mansion. There is a precedent, but there is no comparison between Xiangyang and Changde County. Once Xiangyang is fully prepared, it will not be easy to attack the city with warships."

"Will the defenders of Xiangyang guess that we will use warships to attack the city?" Li Gang asked puzzled.

Orihiko nodded, "Before Kong Yanzhou attacked Jiangling, he followed suit and used warships to attack the city. Although he failed, it at least shows that the puppet Qi army knew that Chen Qinghui would use warships to attack the city. Xiangyang's moat is similar to Jiangling. Dong How can we not guard against it first?"

Li Gang's confidence was a bit lacking, he stood there for a while and said: "Anyway, let Chen Qing try it first!"

……

On the head of Beicheng, Dong Xian took all the generals to observe the situation behind the baffle. Song Jun had already shown his clues. Four thick pillars appeared above the baffle. Dong Xian said to the generals: "As expected, the opponent Either building a large gazebo, or assembling a very large trebuchet."

"If it's a super-large trebuchet, wouldn't it be better to put it outside the South City?" A general asked puzzled.

"That's why you don't understand. How do you think Chen Qing will attack the city? He will definitely use ships to attack the city like he attacked Changde City."

Speaking of this, Dong Xian pointed to a row of large ships on the western river and said: "There are dozens of three thousand stone large ships over there. If I guess correctly, they are Chen Qing's siege weapons."

The faces of several generals became serious, and they all commanded Wang Feng and said: "Marshal, if the opponent uses a warship to attack the city, the power is no less than that of a nest cart, and the opponent's soldiers can easily kill the top of the city, and Xiangyang City will be in danger of falling. There must be countermeasures.”

Dong Xian nodded, "I've thought about this problem a long time ago. I didn't move out the bed crossbow before, just to keep it for dealing with Chen Qing. Not only the bed crossbow, but also I want him to taste the fire oil ball."

……

At night, Chen Qing came to the construction site outside the North City, and the tall baffle blocked his figure. It has been really busy here for the past few days, with a thousand soldiers digging three tunnels day and night.

There are dozens of thick giant logs and even four tall wooden pillars stacked behind the baffle. It looks like a few super trebuchets are being installed. In fact, this is just a deceptive tactic. For Chen Qing's real purpose, his real purpose is to dig a hundred-foot-long river, but digging the river clearly will let Dong Xian see his intention at a glance.

Therefore, Chen Qing dug three tunnels first, and completed more than half of the excavation of the river channel. In the last night, he changed the three tunnels into a river channel, which could be completed overnight. Even if the enemy discovered his intention, it would be too late.

Commander Wang Tai stepped forward to pay respects, "See Du Tong for humble posts!"

"How is the excavation going?"

"Reporting to Dutong, most of the work has been completed, and the excavation of the three tunnels will be completed tomorrow afternoon!"

"Is the direction correct?" Chen Qing asked again.

"Absolutely no problem, aim at the Cao River entering the city!"

Chen Qing nodded and said with a smile: "Tomorrow put a few throwing poles on the baffle, don't let the city leaders always guess what we are doing? Give them a reassurance!"

"Humble job understands!"

Chen Qing looked at the river in the distance again, and thought to himself: "I'm afraid no one would have thought that straightening the river is the key to breaking the city!" '

……

Three days passed in a blink of an eye, and the soldiers in Beicheng had already seen the prototypes of several large trebuchets. They were familiar with them, but the soldiers didn't notice that the baffle was raised by at least one foot without knowing it. , beyond the baffle, only the river in the distance can be seen.

In the main tent of the West Day Camp, more than a dozen generals gathered together, and the main general Chen Qing was making the final deployment.

The carpenter used wood to make a simple model of Xiangyang City, and Hu Yanlei was telling everyone about the layout of the city.

Some time ago, when the puppet Qi army aggressively attacked Hanyang, Xiangyang had no external threats, and once relaxed for a while, Hu Yanlei and his men were recruited as civilian husbands to quarry and log outside the city, and escaped.

"The military camp is in the southeast corner, occupying 3% of the area of ​​Xiangyang City together with Cangcheng. There is an upper city corridor in the military camp. Once the alarm bell rings at the top of the city, the alarm bells in the military camp will also ring at the same time, and the soldiers will go directly from the military camp. There are about [-] troops in the city. I have seen them train this army. Frankly speaking, it is much stronger than the Forbidden Army in Bianliang, Tokyo. The morale is relatively high, and the training is also very serious. It is not like the Forbidden Army in Tokyo. Lazy."

Hu Yanlei is from Bianliang, Tokyo. He was a gangster on the streets of Bianliang when he was young, and later he entered Huyan Mansion to become a servant, so he knows the forbidden army in Tokyo very well.

"Talk about Caohe and Water Gate!" Chen Qing reminded again.

Hu Yanlei pointed to the water gate with a wooden pole and said: "The water gate is two feet high and one foot and five feet wide. There are two water gates at the front and back, both of which are controlled by the city head. The water gate is relatively wide. If it is not a building ship, the mast can also be lowered." Basically, ships with two thousand shi can sail in. From the Shuicheng Gate, there are two Caohe Rivers, one directly leading to Cangcheng in the southeast corner. This Caohe River can only be used by the military, and the other Caohe River runs westward. There is basically no garrison at the city gate, and there are no ships in the city, basically in an abandoned state."

Chen Qing nodded, and said to the generals: "We will launch an attack at the fourth watch tonight, divided into two lines, light and dark. We will build plank roads in the open and cross Chencang secretly. We must take Xiangyang City before dawn."

Chapter 333 Secretly crossing

At night, a hundred-foot-long sandbag wall appeared on the side. The one-foot-high sandbag wall also blocked the sight of the defenders at the top of the city, so that the soldiers at the top of the city could not see what the Song army was doing from the east.

Thousands of Song troops dug the river under the cover of night. Since three deep and wide tunnels had been dug in advance, [-]% of the engineering volume of the river had actually been completed. Now it is only necessary to lift the ground and merge the three tunnels into one , The river channel as long as hundreds of feet was dug.

This new channel is actually to straighten the original channel, so that the new channel is facing the water gate, which is very important for attacking the water gate. The ship must run at high speed for hundreds of feet, and then collide with the water gate with strong inertia. Therefore, there must be a river facing the Shuicheng Gate in order to hit the gate at high speed.

If there is no such straight-line channel, after entering the moat, the collision boat must make a [-]-degree turn to enter the water gate. When turning, it must slow down to zero, and then rely on the penny to puncture the boat. Without any power, what strength should it use to collide with the water gate? Iron fence?

At four o'clock, the river channel has been completely excavated. It is only necessary to remove the baffles at both ends, and the river water will flow into the channel.

At this time, the soldiers on the top of the city had already discovered the clues. A river appeared on the side of the baffle near the city wall, and the port was filled with sandbags. As long as the sandbags were lifted, the moat would burst.

The soldiers were all at a loss. No one knew when this river channel appeared, as if it appeared suddenly.

Just when the soldiers were hesitating whether to report to the marshal, someone suddenly shouted, "Ring the alarm, the enemy warship is coming!"

'when!when!when! 'The alarm bell rang on the top of the city, and then the alarm bell sounded in the barracks. The soldiers woke up from their dreams and rushed to the top of the city one after another.

Dong Xian was also woken up. He put on his coat and rushed towards the city. Twenty three thousand stone warships sailed towards the moat. Needless to say, he could guess that it was Chen Qing who started attacking the city with warships. .

It's just that he couldn't figure it out, why did Chen Qing attack the city at four o'clock?

The northern city was heavily guarded. Even at night, three thousand soldiers were deployed at the head of the northern city.

Without waiting for the command of the general, more than [-] small trebuchets deployed on the head of Beicheng began to fire oil balls at the fleet, and when they failed, they shot arrows at the ship.

The bright red fire oil balls soared into the sky, pierced the dark night sky, crossed the moat and flew towards the fleet driving close to the river. Fire oil balls continued to hit the big ship, and the soldiers on board were already prepared , Each boat prepared hundreds of bedding soaked in water.

"Boom!" A kerosene ball hit the deck, and the clay pot shattered into a pool. The fire burned rapidly. Three soldiers rushed up, two of them held up large shields to cover, and the other soldier carried a wet bag. Quilt.

The quilt was directly thrown on a pool of burning fire, which cut off the oxygen, and the fire was extinguished. The soldier wiped the kerosene with the quilt and threw it into the moat together with the quilt. The three quickly retreated to the cabin, and then three more rushed out.

The fleet sailed along the moat towards the west city, and the outer walls of more than a dozen large ships were hit one after another, igniting a raging fire, which was particularly shocking in the dark night.

Dong Xian rushed to the top of the city. After observing for a while, he realized that the opponent was going to attack from the west city, and Chen Qing's camp was stationed in the west city.

He immediately shouted: "The god arm crossbow army rushed to the west city immediately, and the bed crossbows and trebuchets were all transferred to the west city!"

The center of gravity of the war quickly shifted to the west city, and all the war resources in Xiangyang city also quickly shifted to the west city. The north city quickly quieted down. At this time, the new river channel dug by the Song army was opened silently.

Li Guojian, the commander guarding the northern city, got the news and hurried over to check. The baffles on the other side had been removed, revealing five heavy trebuchets and a newly dug river channel, opening up the moat.

A command envoy whispered to Li Guojian: "I feel that the other side dug this river to transport trebuchet parts!"

"It doesn't make sense! It's also very close to transport them from the Caohe River. There is no need to dig this river, and we didn't even find out when the other party dug it through."

"Commander, do you want to report to the marshal?"

Li Guojian thought for a while and said, "Let's talk about it! Maybe the marshal knows why the other side dug this river."

"Humble job, report now!"

The commander hurried to the west city...

The siege of the west city had already broken out. Huge wooden rafts were set up on the big ships and the city wall. The defenders directly poured oil barrels on them, causing a raging fire. But the fire could not stop the soldiers of the Song army. Thousands of soldiers Wrapped in wet quilts, they rushed onto the wooden raft and ran towards the city, but it was the bed crossbow that was really lethal. The bed crossbow was fired from both sides to the wooden raft, and soldiers of the Song army were constantly shot by iron arrows, screaming Down to the city.

Not only the bed crossbow, the puppet Qi army also deployed a thousand god-arm crossbowmen. On average, every fifty god-arm crossbowmen dealt with a large ship. The puppet Qi army is also experienced. They will never launch with the bed crossbow. The moment the crossbow stops is their shooting time.

Dong Xian did not lie, his heart was like a mirror, what they really had to deal with was Chen Qing's siege, especially when Chen Qing used warships to attack the city, that was the biggest threat to Xiangyang City.

He deployed four layers of defense for this, burning the ship with oil balls from a long distance, then using bed crossbows and god arm crossbows to deal with the one-foot-long overpass, and finally using wolf pack tactics.

Although it was only a short distance of ten feet, it was not easy to rush to the top of the city. Soldiers of the Song Army were constantly shot down by arrows and fell into the city. They managed to avoid the arrows and rushed to the end of the raft, but encountered the enemy's wolf pack tactics.

Hundreds of spear soldiers stood in front of each wooden row. Hundreds of spears formed a spear wall, completely blocking the road to the city. Even if they jumped on it, they would be assassinated by spears in the air.

At the end of almost every raft, there are more than a dozen soldiers of the Song Army fighting the enemy.

Chen Qing's attack on the city with warships was not a false attack. He was attacking the city with two prongs. No matter which method he used to capture Xiangyang, he was his goal.

Casualties on both sides continued to increase, and they were in a state of stalemate.

At this moment, the commander reported to Dong Xian that a river had appeared outside Beicheng.

Dong Xian was stunned, it was unbelievable for him, there was no news beforehand, and he was suddenly told that there was a hundred-foot-long river. Could it be that Chen Qing's real purpose was not to install a large trebuchet, but to dig a river?The large trebuchet was just a cover?

He is well aware of Chen Qing's style of doing things. The more important the decision is, the less he will show his face. If even the super trebuchet is just a cover, then the importance of this river can be imagined.

Dong Xian thought for a while, but couldn't figure it out. He suddenly had a flash of inspiration and asked anxiously, "Where is our city wall on the opposite side of the river?"

"It seems...it seems to be facing the Water City Gate!"

"Water City Gate?"

Dong Xian felt something was wrong. Could it be that Chen Qing was going to attack the Shuicheng Gate?

At this time, he suddenly remembered something Jiang Yanxian told him like a flash in his mind. The iron fence of the water city gate had not been replaced for 50 years, and many iron bars were like rotten wood.

"not good!"

Dong Xian suddenly understood Chen Qing's intentions. Chen Qing must have wanted to break open the gate of the water city and dig a river to speed up the collision.

"Pass my order, the reserve fifth army immediately rushed to the Water City Gate to defend!"

Dong Xian couldn't care about the battle at Xichengtou for the time being, he handed over the command and envoy to his subordinates, and ran directly to the corridor...

In the newly dug channel, a [-]-stone collision ship is speeding up. The sails on the top of the ship are bulging, and the strong north blows the collision ship. However, in order to speed up, dozens of soldiers on both sides are struggling to pull vessel.

The speed of the boat became faster and faster, rushed into the moat, and rushed straight to the water city gate twenty feet away.

Chapter 334 Watergate

The front end of the collision ship is a triangular piece of pig iron as the collision head. It is so powerful that it can break a five hundred stone cargo ship in half. The faster the speed, the greater the power it accumulates.

Thirty feet away from the water city gate, more than a dozen soldiers of the Song army on the ship put down the mast and sail together, and the soldiers fell down one after another, "Dang!" There was a loud noise, and the iron fence as thick as an arm was even rooted. crashed and fell into the water.

Two thousand stones crashed into the gate of the water city and broke most of the iron gate inside. Unfortunately, they couldn't break all of them, and soldiers had to break it manually.

Dutou Lugui stood up and rushed towards the bow of the ship with a forty-jin hammer in his hand. Dozens of soldiers also got off the ship one after another, and rushed towards the iron gate of the inner city with sharp axes in their hands.

"Boom!" There was a loud noise, and the rotten iron rod couldn't support Lu Gui's hammer, and immediately broke two fences. The soldiers hacked with sharp axes, and the effect was even better. A few iron fences.

Lu Gui was a little jealous, he threw away the hammer, took a thirty-jin sharp ax from the soldier's hand, and slashed vigorously again, 'Crack! With a sound, five fences were cut off with an axe.

He yelled repeatedly, and with more than a dozen axes in a row, all the iron gates inside were finally cut off, and the gate crashed into the water. The soldiers struggled to prop up the bamboo poles, and the two thousand stone collision boat actually sailed into the city.

Chen Qing had been prepared for a long time. Nearly a hundred small boats full of elite soldiers followed behind the collision ship. Chen Qing himself was in the first small boat. When the boat entered the city, he jumped ashore and shouted: "Follow me!" Come!"

He led dozens of soldiers to the side corridor, but saw thousands of soldiers from the puppet Qi army rushing towards Shuicheng along the base of the city wall...

Chen Qing rushed to the top of the city, roared, and killed more than a dozen soldiers who were running towards him, beheading seven of them in an instant. Shouting, "Human monsters are coming to the city! Human demons are going to the city!"

Hundreds of soldiers of the Puppet Qi Army who were rushing to hear that the demon Chen Qing was in front were all terrified and ran away in fright.

Chen Qing led more than [-] elite soldiers to capture the top of the city above the water city gate without any effort.

At this time, a series of explosions sounded under the city wall. This is the soldiers of the Firearms Battalion entering the city. They threw thirty double-layer gunpowder barrels, which exploded in front of the enemy. The soldier fell down screaming, and the puppet Qi soldiers behind were so frightened that they lay down on the ground.

Before the gunpowder smoke dissipated, another [-] double-layer gunpowder barrels were thrown in the second round, suppressing the puppet Qi army again. The two rounds of suppression gave the soldiers of the Song Army valuable time to enter the city. The Thousand Shields and Short Spear Army had already completed their formation, forming a dense square formation.

At this time, Chen Qing led [-] soldiers with heavy shields and short spears at the top of the city, and also deployed a defensive formation, firmly controlling the top of the city above the water city gate.

More than a dozen [-]-stone ships full of soldiers from the Song Army are coming here. They will form a long passage, and [-] soldiers, including cavalry, will go to the city from here.

The first three-thousand stone warship arrived in front of the water city gate. The huge ship ladder hooked the bow of the ship, and the three hundred soldiers on the ship ran to the top of the city in a row. The main ship rushed to the city directly, and the cavalry also appeared behind.

Chen Qing saw that the general situation was basically settled, so he ordered the soldiers: "Shoot gunpowder arrows!"

Three gunpowder arrows shot into the sky, like three shooting stars, very bright in the sky.

The fierce battle in the west city was still in a state of stalemate. The Song army attacked the city twice and was killed twice. The dense bed crossbows and god arm crossbow arrows kept shooting the soldiers of the Song army. More than [-] soldiers had been killed. Including the commander Zhao Hong, unfortunately, was shot and fell into the city, but it was still difficult for the Song army to attack the city.

But it was precisely because the attack on Xicheng successfully attracted a large amount of combat resources from the puppet Qi army, including all bed crossbows, god arm crossbows, heavy armored soldiers, kerosene, and the most elite [-] soldiers in the city, etc., that made the Song army The attack at the Water City Gate met with no tragic resistance.

This is a very classic example of Mingxiu plank road and secretly crossing Chencang. From the beginning to the end, Chen Qing played up an illusion of using ships to attack the city, and even parked twenty attacking ships on the river where the opponent could see at a glance , even all Song generals including Li Gang thought that Chen Qing would use warships to attack the city.

But in fact, he adopted Jiang Yanxian's suggestion and used the weakness of Shuicheng to enter the city.

Zheng Ping also saw three gunpowder arrows flying into the sky, and he shouted: "The whole army retreats! Retreat!"

'when!when!when! '

On the big ship, the bell for retreat rang, and the soldiers of the Song army who were fighting the enemy retreated back to the big ship one after another, but the soldiers retreated without being attacked by the bed crossbow and the god arm crossbow, and the other side also retreated.

All the fighting soldiers retreated to the big ship, and the fleet also began to retreat to the other side of the moat, and soon left the warship.

At the same time, in the coach's camp in the south, Li Gang stayed up all night, pacing back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back. He hoped to hear good news, but he was worried that the news of Chen Qing's defeat would come. A few days ago, he got the news that the defenders at the top of the city were well prepared, it was difficult for Chen Qing's army to attack the top of the city, and the casualties were heavy, which made his heart hang.

Could it be that Chen Qing failed due to lack of preparation as Zhe Yanzhi and Xie Qian said?

At this moment, hurried footsteps came from outside, and Orihiko rushed into the big tent and said anxiously: "Xuanfu envoy, Chen Qing's army has already entered the city!"

Li Gang's expression was mixed with joy and sadness. He looked at the top of the tent and slowly closed his eyes, his heart finally fell.

After a while, he finally showed joy on his face, and asked, "His nest ship tactic has finally succeeded!"