Three Kingdoms

"Sir, your strategies are actually good. At least I never thought of these when I was your age..." Cao Ren sat down, commanding the soldiers to set up camp, and said to Cao Pi who was following him, "But Sikong wants to Young Master, you not only want to see the present, but also the future?"

"In the future?" Cao Pi repeated, thinking a little.

"Take what happened under Ye City as an example," Cao Ren said. "It was not wrong for us to use the strategy of luring the enemy at first, and then the response in the city was not wrong either, but the people in the city did not think further. For example, why do we use tactics to lure the enemy..."

"Aren't you looking for an opportunity to seize the city gate?" Cao Pi said subconsciously, and then quickly said, "I beg my uncle for advice..."

Cao Ren smiled. This time, Cao Cao specially arranged for Cao Pi to follow him. In fact, he may not have wanted to let Cao Ren teach him. Although Cao Ren is not like those great scholars who are full of splendid articles, Cao Ren was also born in a family of officials. His father was Taizhong doctor, Sima, Changshi, Shizhong, and Changshui captain Cao Chi. He was still the prefect of Yingchuan, so even though Cao Ren liked hunting with bows and horses when he was young, it does not mean that Cao Ren is a stupid fool. He even has a deeper understanding of military strategy.

"The strategy to lure the enemy is only close..." Cao Ren waved his hand and asked the guards to spread out to the side, and then whispered, "Master, just imagine, if we storm Yecheng all at once, or even capture it in one fell swoop, what will happen?" What’s the benefit? What’s the downside?”

"Win it in one fell swoop?" Cao Pi was not stupid either. After thinking about it for a while, he suddenly figured it out, "So we don't want to attack Yecheng at all?"

"It's not that we don't want to fight, but we don't want to fight now..." Cao Ren added, "We have to pretend that we really want to fight, so that we can contain both Yuan and Yuan in Yecheng, and now..."

Cao Pi suddenly clapped his palms, trembling slightly with excitement, "Take the land of Jizhou instead!"

Cao Ren laughed loudly, nodded, and then said meaningfully: "Er Yuan just saw what was in front of him, so he ended up in this situation..."

"I'd like to learn from you! My nephew will definitely strive to have a long-term vision!" Cao Pi cupped his hands and said respectfully, giving a flattery at the same time, "My uncle has foresight and foresight, and my nephew deeply admires it!"

"I can't talk about any foresight. These are all the strategies of the eldest brother..." Cao Ren waved his hand and said: "Only those with a long-term vision can take advantage of the general trend... In this regard..." Cao Ren said halfway, suddenly I'm a little stuck, I seem to be distracted, I don't know what I'm thinking of.

"Uncle?" Cao Pi asked.

"Oh...it's okay, it's okay..." Cao Ren smiled, but the smile seemed to have lost its charm, "Maocheng is just around the corner, sir, would you like to watch the battle?"

Cao Pi straightened his back and said, "This is natural!"

"The battle of Maocheng will definitely be tragic, sir, you must be prepared..." Cao Ren nodded and said, "If you have free time today, you might as well think about it, if Maocheng falls, what will be the next step? Why else should we do it?" Let's go to Maocheng first... In addition, since the two Yuans were about to run out of luck and saw the arrival of a certain army, why did the defenders of Maocheng refuse to surrender... Well, this is actually what Sikong explained..."

……(￣.￣)+……

The sun had just risen, hanging lazily on the horizon, and the war drums were already half as dull as thunder, rolling across the earth with a rumble. Cao's army under Maocheng roared, and the sound of killing filled the world, like surging waves, rushing towards Maocheng.

There was not too much nonsense, not even a pre-battle announcement or slogan, but the action started directly, which made Yin Kai, the defender of Maocheng, feel a twinge of pain.

The general attack began.

Cao Pi stood in the formation, looking at the mountains around Maocheng, thinking about the previous problem.

Maocheng is a small city in the east of the Taihang Mountains. It is located at the exit of the Taihang Mountain Trail. This place can be regarded as the junction point between Jizhou and Shangdang.

Of course, the purpose of attacking Maocheng is not to attack the party along the Eighth Taihang Trail to the west of Maocheng. After all, Cao Cao is not ready to provoke the hussar generals before the problem in Jizhou is resolved at this stage. In this case, there is only one purpose for attacking Maocheng first, which is to control this key point first and prevent the hussar from the west from coming out of the Taihang Mountain Scripture...

After thinking about this problem, Cao Pi suddenly figured out the second problem. He understood why Yin Kai, the guard in Maocheng Shangzhong, knew that Cao Jun was coming, but still had no intention of surrender. He also understood why Cao Ren even tried to persuade him to surrender. He didn't even bother to say anything else, he simply marched his troops to attack the city.

The defenders of Maocheng were still firing arrows, but there were much fewer arrows than before. On the one hand, the archers' physical strength would always decrease after firing their bows quickly and continuously. On the other hand, there was a stone wall not far ahead. Cannon.

Accompanied by the creaking sound of the winch and the chants of the soldiers, the stone cannon lifted huge stones high into the air. Some of these stones flew over the city wall directly into the city, while others accurately hit the city gate tower. On top of the battlements, broken human bodies and fragments of the city wall cracked into mud and stone were flying all over the sky, which also caused the archers originally deployed in Mao City to suffer a heavy blow.

There were not as many direct casualties as expected, but the suppression and blow to morale was heavy and there was no way to recover instantly. Even though it was just splashed by gravel, there was no direct injury. These bows and arrows on Maocheng The hands were still howling and making a mess, completely forgetting their original responsibilities.

There were not many stone cannons for attacking the city, only eight, but they were very powerful.

The person in charge of commanding the stone cannon was a guy named Song Hang and Song Zijing. Cao Pi also knew Song Hang. After all, they had met several times before and knew that Song Hang had good calligraphy and was even praised by Cao Cao. However, Cao Pi did not expect that Song Hang also had such accomplishments in instruments. A humble team of about 800 people could actually play such an important role at the moment. This may be why Cao Ren had the confidence to directly attack Maocheng.

Under such a powerful stone attack, in less than a moment, the turrets and gate towers on the east side of Maocheng had all collapsed. The city was filled with dust and a mess, and screams of pain could be heard endlessly.

The original purpose of building Maocheng was to defend against the Taihang Mountains in the west, so the east side was relatively weak. Now under the destruction of stone cannons, it appeared to be full of loopholes. Amidst the scattered stone bricks and debris, Cao Pi saw that A group of soldiers arrived at the city gate with a huge battering ram and slammed it heavily into the city gate. Every impact caused a vibration that seemed to knock down the city wall.

Three cloud trucks and dozens of ladders were pushed under the Maocheng city wall almost simultaneously. The iron hooks on the ladder were deeply grasped on the battlements of the city wall, and dozens of roads were built leading to the city in an instant. Countless soldiers immediately followed the roads set up by the ladder and the cloud cart and headed towards the city. There was a mad rush above the city.

The first wave of attacking troops let out deafening shouts while fighting fiercely forward, trying to expand the territory above the city wall and gain a foothold.

Basically, more than half of the soldiers Cao Cao brought this time were veterans. Although these Qingzhou soldiers had some problems with loose military discipline and unruliness, they were not afraid of death on the battlefield. Those who could survive the long months of battles were always the best. It is because they have better skills, experience and battlefield intuition than ordinary soldiers. These experiences and intuitions prevented these Qingzhou soldiers from suffering too much damage from the suppressed archers above Maocheng. It can be said that they were almost unscathed. The wounded began to attack the city.

Taking advantage of the difficulty for the soldiers on the city to emerge and shoot arrows vertically, some of them held their shields high and quickly and orderly began to climb along the numerous ladders erected, while others pushed crudely made of large wooden stakes. The rushing car also arrived at the city gate under the protection of several layers of thick cowhide. The huge impact sound was stronger than the other, even the sound of war drums was suppressed.

On the other hand, the defenders at the top of Maocheng City seemed unable to adapt to such a fierce and sharp attack all at once. They seemed to be in a hurry and were at a loss to deal with it. Some people even didn't know where to put their hands and feet, and fell to the ground while running.

Cao Pi saw that although some soldiers from the city guards rushed out from the smoke and fought with his own soldiers, these soldiers were in scattered formations, and some did not even have armor. They were hacked to death, or were killed. Shouting, he was knocked down from the top of the city.

"The city is about to be destroyed..."

Cao Pi murmured amid the cheers around him.

Although he did not actually go into battle to kill the enemy personally, Cao Pi had experienced some battles and still had some basic judgment. Seeing the scene in front of him, Cao Pi could almost conclude that the defenders of Maocheng did not make sufficient defense preparations at all, and even rolling stones and knocking trees were not enough. This also resulted in not many methods being used during defense...

Normally, the best way to deal with ladders and cloud carts is with fork poles and spearmen. Facing the spear array that is as dense as a forest, no matter how brave the soldiers are, they will not be able to climb up so smoothly, let alone The stone was lowered down along the ladder and cart...

There is also a battering ram to deal with the city gate. The best thing is to smash two or three kerosene down, then throw a torch, and all the chariots and people will be wiped out immediately. Otherwise, how can you shoot it with just a bunch of bows and arrows? Thick cowhide, and the wooden board behind the cowhide?

Knew it!

General Mao Cheng never thought of defending in the first place! Strictly speaking, I never thought about dying from this!

Cao Pi couldn't help but sneer at the corner of his mouth, "Do you want to use this as a way to join the Hussar? What a pity, what you are waiting for is not the Hussar, but me, the son of the Cao family!"

There should be no suspense anymore...

The city wall is an important fortification of the city and a psychological barrier that the defenders rely on to defend themselves against the enemy. Now that they had just suffered one blow and were suddenly broken through, this was a huge blow to the fighting spirit of the defenders, and troops with lower quality would most likely collapse directly.

Cao Pi breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the Cao soldiers who were already standing on the city wall, and couldn't help but smile happily.

"Ah! Not good!"

The surrounding soldiers suddenly screamed, startling Cao Pi, and he quickly raised his head to look at the city.

I only saw two Cao Jun soldiers splashing blood and screaming from the top of the city at one point on the Maocheng city wall. Then came the third and fourth. After a short time, the Cao Jun soldiers on this wall were The soldiers were either killed or driven down, and even the ladder they had originally climbed onto was pushed down and fell down.

At this time, a Cao soldier happened to jump onto the top of the city. Before he could stand still, a human head flew into the air amid a burst of blood. The headless body was kicked backwards, and the ladder leader followed behind. Several soldiers were taken down. The guard who saw him shouted from the side: "This is the enemy general!"

"Who is it?" Cao Pi asked

"I can't see clearly, I just saw... it's the Gao family! I saw the battle flag! It's the Gao family!" the guard shouted, pointing to the top of the city.

Cao Pi looked intently and saw a flag raised on the top of the city. The surname of the general was written on it, and it was the word "Gao"!

"Gao family?" Cao Pi murmured, "Who is it..."

It's Gao Lan.

Gao Lan had a good relationship with Qu Yi before, so Yuan Shao was left out for a period of time during his lifetime. Later, after he was reactivated, he was born again at the wrong time. First, he encountered Taishi Ci who attacked Yecheng, and was defeated and punished. Later, he was defeated and punished. Together with Zhang He, they were ambushed by Cao Cao's plan. They were defeated again and punished again. They fell from general to captain. After Zhang He surrendered to Cao Cao, Yuan Shao even doubted whether Gao Lan, who had a good relationship with Zhang He, would leave. Zhang He did not dare to let Gao Lan stay on the front line of the battle with Cao Cao, and sent him to Maocheng.

Maocheng Guards Yin Kai naturally knew the problem, so when Gao Lan arrived here, he almost assumed the function of a subordinate Cao, catching thieves and bastards, etc. He had no military power at all. If the current situation was not urgent, Guard General Yin Kai would not hand over military power to Gao Lan...

Seeing Gao Lan suppressing Cao's troops who climbed onto the city wall bit by bit, Cao Pi couldn't help but feel a little anxious. But at this moment, the situation on the battlefield suddenly changed!

Gao Lan killed two more people one after another, and was about to move forward to suppress and defeat the last batch of Cao's troops. Suddenly he felt a violent vibration under his feet. He couldn't stand upright and almost fell to the ground. Just as he was about to regain his footing, a flash from the corner of his eye In the darkness, in the peripheral vision, a huge stone the size of a wheel roared from mid-air!

Gao Lan hurriedly jumped to the side, and saw the huge boulder pass over him with a buzzing sound, hitting several soldiers who were following him next to him, and ran over them who were still in high spirits just now, and then the boulder dragged With a red tail, he jumped into the city...

Just when Gao Lan was congratulating himself on escaping death, he suddenly heard the loud cheers of Cao Jun's soldiers. Gao Lan suddenly realized something. His heart was filled with sadness. He seemed to have lost all his strength. He could not even do such a simple thing as getting up. It seems that none of the actions are possible now.

The huge shock just now was that the east gate of Maocheng was finally breached by the battering ram...

As soon as the city gate was broken, Cao Jun swarmed in. The soldiers guarding the city in Mao City were like Gao Lan, like a punctured balloon, paralyzed, without much resistance.

"Okay! Okay, okay! The city is broken! The city is broken!"

Cao Pi laughed loudly, and like the surrounding soldiers and guards, they all cheered for the victory over Maocheng, but while shouting, Cao Pi's eyes turned to Song Hang and the soldiers commanded by Song Hang.

The attack on Maocheng was so smooth and fast this time. Among the credit, this group of 800 siege equipment troops led by Song Hang accounted for not only eight points, but at least four or five points. If there were not these sharp stones With the aid of cannons, carts and other equipment, it would take a lot of effort to break the city!

However, Cao Pi immediately thought of another problem.

It is said that Song Hang secretly learned these skills from the Han Hussar, so wouldn’t the siege equipment under the Han Hussar be...

Father, is this another issue you want me to see for myself?