The Nameless of the Common Clans

The eyes of Jiangdong Army and Jingzhou Army were focused on the Ming Army camp outside Fancheng. Zhuge Liang's inference was similar to Zhou Yu's. Chen Mo must have a conspiracy to deliberately expose such a big flaw, so when Guan Yu and Zhang Fei wanted to take advantage of the enemy's When the rear was empty, he went to attack the Ming army's rear and burned the grain and grass. Zhuge Liang refused. Chen Mo could not make such an obvious mistake.

Outside Deng County City, where Chen Mo, Zhang Liao and others were watching the enemy formation that day, Chen Mo, who was supposed to be at the Fancheng camp, did not actually go to Fancheng with the army, but appeared here.

In the night wind, the creaking sound of the wooden wheels turning was particularly harsh. Standing on the watchtower, Chen Mo looked calmly at the lights that could be seen diagonally across the bank.

"Your Majesty, the fleet is ready." Zhang He quickly came to Chen Mo and bowed.

"Whether we can cross the river will happen tonight!" Chen Mo nodded and said, "We don't know what the situation is on the other side yet. After Junyi crosses the river, he only needs to be careful and lay a foothold for our army to cross the river. That’s enough, don’t rush in before the army crosses the river!”

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, even if the general dies in battle, he will not lose any ground!" Zhang He said solemnly.

"Go ahead. When you see the fire on the other side lit up later, you will lead your troops to force the crossing!" Chen Mo looked at Zhang He and said.

"Here! I'm going to leave!" Zhang He agreed, turned around and left.

Under the night, in order to avoid being noticed by the other side, there were only a few scattered torches here for lighting. Huge catapults slowly moved closer to the shore, while strong men carried baskets of jars on their backs to transport them here.

"Ma Jun!" Chen Mo frowned as he looked at the river in the distance.

"I'm here!" Ma Jun trotted to Chen Mo and bowed.

"This place is two hundred steps away from the Wubao on the other side. Can this catapult really project so far?" Chen Mo turned to look at Ma Jun and asked uncertainly.

The catapults of the Ming army, after several improvements by Ma Jun and Liu Yi, can project stone projectiles a hundred and twenty paces. At present, this is far beyond the catapults of ordinary princes, but the distance of two hundred paces was previously Chen Mo didn't even dare to think about it.

"Back to the king, if you use stone bullets to fill the projectile, it will naturally not work, but if you use a fire altar instead, the weight will be reduced a lot, and the distance you can project will be further. In the previous test, the longest distance could reach 260 steps. , we will definitely be able to cover the enemy's forts and forts," Ma Jun affirmed.

It's not that Chen Mo doesn't believe it, it's just that the distance is too far. Zhuge Liang has made strict arrangements in this area, but in this area, the opponent's ballistae placed on the shore can't cross the Han River. Chen Mo's ballistae has a longer range, but at most it can Landing on the fort on the other side, the distance required to encircle the fort built by the opponent is farther.

This time, in order to deceive others, Chen Mo asked the army to move south and press towards Fancheng, in order to attract the attention of the Sun and Liu families and take this opportunity to land here secretly. The success of this strategy depends entirely on whether the catapult can really To achieve the expected results, Chen Mo couldn't help but be careless.

Zhuge Liang knows how to attack the east and attack the west. Naturally, Chen Mo is also very familiar with it. The army is pressing down and the door is wide open at the rear. Chen Mo has his own arrangements. But with his own reputation, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu may not be fooled, but will focus their attention. On the main force, Chen Mo then took the opportunity to cross the river, but the premise of all this was that the catapult could indeed destroy the opponent's fortress, otherwise it would be meaningless.

Chen Mo nodded when he heard this. Although he felt that two hundred and sixty steps was a bit exaggerated, even if it couldn't be done, he wouldn't lose much on his side, so he stopped talking at the moment.

There are ten catapults. Being able to make the crosses in such a short time is the highest efficiency that three hundred craftsmen can achieve. After all, this kind of giant catapult is more difficult to make than ordinary catapults.

Ten catapults were erected in a row on the shore. Chen Mo saw that there were wooden nails on both sides of the catapult wheels, and there were several barbs at the back. After determining the position of the catapult, they were deeply inserted into the ground, and he operated the catapult. The ones in charge are not military lieutenants, but craftsmen. Some are in front to check the angle of the catapult, and some are directing the strongmen to pull the winch of the catapult and adjust the direction of the catapult.

This catapult was very different from what Chen Mo had seen before. Not only was it huge in size, it was also twice as tall as an ordinary catapult. It looked like a giant beast in the dark.

"Your Majesty, we are ready to project at any time!" After a long time, Ma Jun came to Chen Mo and bowed.

"Take turns shooting!" Chen Mo nodded.

"Here!" Ma Jun agreed, then shouted: "Let go!"

Next to the catapult that had been prepared, a craftsman placed the jar filled with kerosene and used a torch to ignite the kerosene on the outside of the jar. Then, with an order, the craftsman operating in front quickly opened the machine.

"Buzz~"

Under the night sky, the burning jar fell towards the other side like a meteor. Chen Mo stood at a height and watched this scene. When the oil bomb broke through the air, Chen Mo felt relieved. Based on his experience, The impact point of this oil bomb was Wubao on the other side.

Immediately afterwards, the second and third bombs were launched in sequence. Although there was a slight gap in distance, the enemy's dock was basically covered.

After ten catapults were launched in this way, the first catapult was ready again and launched again, and so on.

From Chen Mo's position, he could see that after the oil bombs landed, some did not react, but some directly ignited a fire.

Under the night, the Jingzhou Army guarding the Wubao on the other side fell into the sea of ​​fire without even knowing what was happening. Oil bombs fell from the sky one after another and spread continuously, swallowing up the entire Wubao area in a sea of ​​fire in an instant. middle.

The sky-high firelight illuminated this area clearly in the dark night.

Downstream, Zhang He, who was ready to go, watched this scene and immediately ordered the soldiers of the three armies to quickly paddle the boats upstream, toward the fort on the opposite bank. It was difficult to distinguish the direction in the dark, but at this moment, the fire on the opposite bank was soaring into the sky, so there was no need to distinguish at all, just rush to the opposite bank.

Because the fort on the opposite bank was suddenly attacked, the soldiers stationed in Jingzhou all rushed here and did not notice the approach of a large number of ships on the river. By the time someone found out and wanted to stop Zhang He from going ashore, it was too late.

Zhang He held a gun in one hand and a shield in the other, and led the way, jumping ashore first. A team of Jingzhou soldiers came to stop them, and Zhang He's eyes turned cold. He smashed the shield in his hand forward fiercely, and the huge force directly knocked two Jingzhou soldiers flying out. Zhang He took the opportunity to step forward, shouted loudly, and stabbed one person, turned around and smashed the shield, smashing the head of a Jingzhou soldier, and then shouted again, stabbing another person.

Seeing that their commander was fighting desperately, the soldiers in the rear dared not let Zhang He kill alone. Without waiting for the boat to dock, they roared and rushed ashore. Although they were all new troops, the Ming army's new troops had a lot of actual combat in their training, so they were not afraid of such a scene. On the contrary, the Jingzhou army was already in a panic, and Zhang He's brave performance made them all stunned, and their morale was suppressed. They were rushed by the Ming army and collapsed instantly.

Zhang He was not interested in fighting, so he quickly ordered people to guard the fort, and he led his men to start clearing out the surrounding soldiers.

Across the river, Chen Mo signaled to stop shooting. Looking at the two armies fighting on the opposite bank, Chen Mo ordered people to blow the horn, and the soldiers on the boat on the opposite bank rowed the boat back and replenished the troops from this side.

In order to tear open the defense line set by Zhuge Liang, Chen Mo prepared 5,000 soldiers tonight in addition to Zhang He's 3,000 soldiers, in order to guard the gap on the opposite bank and tear it as much as possible. His next offensive focus was not Fancheng as Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu had guessed. Even if he could not capture Xiangyang City, he would take down these places on the north bank of Xiangyang, so that the copper pillars in the middle of the river prepared by the Jingzhou Army would be completely useless.

Since the iron chain across the river could not be broken, he would find a way to control both sides of the river and further reduce the range of activities of the Xiangyang defenders.

Fighting outside the city, since Cao Cao's defeat, the Ming army has no rivals. Although the Jingzhou army has vigorously trained soldiers in the past two years, it is not enough to make up for the gap between the two sides.

Moreover, even in terms of numbers, the other side is not superior, and it was a sudden attack. The fighting between the two sides did not even last for a moment, and the Jingzhou soldiers on the river bank began to collapse across the board.

Zhang He followed Chen Mo's instructions. After repelling the enemy, he did not chase, but quickly commanded the soldiers to put out the fire, and arranged soldiers to patrol around to prevent the Jingzhou army from counterattacking.

On the other side, Chen Mo heard the fighting on the other side gradually stop, and immediately ordered the craftsmen waiting here to cross the river by boat and build a camp belonging to the Ming army on the other side, at least to guard this gap and prevent the Jingzhou army from having the possibility of retaking it.

After crossing the river, the three hundred craftsmen, under the command of Ma Jun, quickly led the soldiers to set up camps around the enemy. Using the enemy's original camp, boats continuously delivered logs and soil to start building the wall of the camp and reinforce the wall with soil. No matter what else, the wall of the camp had to be built first. After being busy for most of the night, by dawn, the wall of the camp had been initially built under the rush of thousands of people. Chen Mo mobilized another group of people to cross the river, transport soil, and tamp the wall of the camp. At the same time, the reinforcements of the Jingzhou army also arrived, but by this time, the wall of the camp had been erected, and Zhang He commanded the soldiers to be ready.

The generals of Jingzhou led the troops to launch several attacks, trying to take advantage of Zhang He's unstable foothold and drive him away, but Zhang He commanded the soldiers to calmly block them. The two sides fought fiercely for half a day, and both suffered losses, but the camp became more and more stable.

The generals of Jingzhou also knew that the situation was not good, and had already ordered people to rush back to Xiangyang to inform Zhuge Liang. On this side, after Chen Mo saw that Zhang He had a solid foothold, he sent another troop and 300 craftsmen to stay on the other side. There was only a gap, but Chen Mo left tens of thousands of troops here, which shows how much Chen Mo valued this battle. By the time Zhuge Liang got the news, the camp here had been continuously reinforced, and it would be even more difficult to retake this place.