Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 476 The war is on
In April of the first year of Han Jianxing, Zhuge Liang published the "List of Teachers", and officially decided to make a northern expedition to Cao Wei.

Nanyang has sufficient troops, with a total strength of 15.

The main force was led by Prime Minister Zhuge Liang himself, and there were dozens of other generals including Chariot General Zhang Fei, Wei General Ma Chao, Later General Gan Ning, General Lu Chang who conquered the North, and General Wenpin who conquered the East.

Before, Gan Ning was the head of the generals of Si'an and Siping in the four campaigns and four towns. After Huang Zhong died of illness, he became the rear general with military merits.

Therefore, the current position of generals in the Southern Great Han court is naturally the Grand Marshal and General Guan Yu, followed by General Hussar Shen Chen, General Zhang Fei and General Ma Chao.

After that came Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, Pang De, Gan Ning, the four generals, and then Lu Chang, Wen Pin, Wu Yi, Wu Ban, Gao Xiang, Dong Jue, Feng Xi, Zhang Nan, Zhang Ren and other four expeditions and four towns.

It turned out that there were Huang She and Zhang Xiu, but they both died of illness.Therefore, in recent years, middle-level generals such as Kou Feng, Huang Quan, and Liao Hua have been replaced, and now they all go out with the army.

In addition to the luxurious lineup of generals, Zhuge Liang also has a staff group, the left servant of the Shangshu shoots Ma Liang, the right servant of the sect shoots Zhou Buyi, the right servant of the Zhongshu Cai Du, and Ke Wen Ke Wu. Although they lead troops to fight, they can also serve as staff officers. Pingbei General Huang Quan.

Don't think that Ma Liangzhou doesn't doubt that Cai Du's official positions are very low. In fact, the officials of the three provinces are already deputy prime ministers. From the fourth rank, it can be said that this lineup is very strong.

If it wasn't for Xu Shu and Pang Tong who needed to sit in the center, and Fazheng's illness was in critical condition, it was very likely that they wouldn't survive this year.Not to mention that there is Shen Chen on the western front and Guan Yu on the eastern front. It can be said that they are desperate to eliminate Cao Wei.

By mid-April, Zhuge Liang's army had all assembled, weapons, equipment, supplies, food and grass were all ready, and everything was ready. After the vanguard, General Gan Ning led 1 people and marched northward to Yecheng, ready to start attacking Henan. place.

And just when Zhuge Liang in the south led the army to the Northern Expedition, the battle in Hedong has also reached a fierce stage.

Shen Chen was afraid that Sun Li's [-] cavalry were missing, so he didn't rashly launch a three-sided encirclement at the beginning. He was afraid that Sun Li's sudden appearance at the critical moment would disrupt his attacking rhythm, so he kept checking Sun Li's movements.

Cao Zhen was worried about where Pound went after he defeated Zhu Ling. If Pang De did not go to Puban, but came to Leishou Mountain to help Shen Chen, then Shen Chen's troops would be greatly increased. This is obviously not conducive to Cao Zhen's surprise attack. , so they are also investigating Pound's news.

The two sides sent a large number of scouts, scouts, and spies to each other to find out where the extra troops from the other side went. It was not until mid-April that Cao Zhen found out that Pang De was actually in Jie County.

"Xie County."

Inside the Cao Jun camp on Leishou Mountain, seeing the information obtained by the scouts at the risk of death, Cao Zhen cast his eyes on the location of Jie County, and then sneered: "Shen Chen seems to think that Xu Gongming can be sure, so he sent Pang De Cut off his retreat."

General Liu Zhu said: "Governor, General Xu's city doesn't have much food and grass. It has been besieged for more than two months now. I'm afraid it won't last long. We need to make plans early."

"Well"

Cao Zhen pondered for a moment, he knew that Xu Huang was really in danger now.

After the granary in the headquarters of Jiucheng was burned, the food and grass in Puban City lasted for less than half a year at most, and now more than two months have passed, which means that Xu Huang will basically run out of food in at most three months.

Needless to say, what was the result of running out of food, Yuan Shao's food and grass in Wuchao were burned, and his main force of [-] troops only lasted for more than a month before they collapsed and surrendered.

Shen Chen probably understood that Xu Huang would not last long, so he put Pang De in Jie County to block Xu Huang's retreat.

In this way, as long as Xu Huang is eliminated and Zhu Ling is added, the whole Bingzhou will be unimpeded.

Because if Cao Zhen wants to go to Bingzhou for defense, since Shen Chen has already occupied Hedong, he can't go to Hedong County, so he can only go to Shangdang from Zhiguanxing in Hanoi County.

Not to mention the long distance, when they arrived, Shen Chen's army would almost reach Luoyang.

Therefore, if you want to defend Luoyang, you have to defend Hedong, and if you want to defend Hedong, you have to defend Xu Huang.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhen no longer hesitated, looked at the generals and said, "Yes, it seems that we have to act according to plan, where are Sun Li and Zhou Sheng?"

"The end is here."

The two stood up and saluted.

Cao Zhen said: "You immediately detour around Zhongtiao Mountain and raid Shen Chen's rear. According to the schedule, you first rest in Dayang County for three days, raise your horses, and then bring dry food for ten days. On April [-]th, you must To reach Thunder Shou Mountain!"

"only!"

The two hand over each other should be.

Cao Zhen looked around and said: "Everyone, we have stayed here for more than a month and have also built some siege equipment. In the next few days, we will storm Shen Chen's camp and restrain his troops. To create an opportunity, all the soldiers must use their lives to break through Shen Chen and defeat the Han army, starting tomorrow."

"only!"

The soldiers responded with a bang.

Cao Zhen was blocked by Shen Chen himself in Leishou Mountain, and the opponent's camp was arranged extremely cleverly, criss-crossing, with all kinds of fortifications complete, making it difficult to attack by force.

So at the beginning, Cao Zhen didn't have the idea of ​​attacking the past at all, but this did not prevent him from starting to temporarily build equipment.

Tens of thousands of troops built dozens of cloud towers in more than a month, and hundreds of various wooden curtains, rush carts, nest carts, trench bridges, and ladders.

Although for a battle of tens of thousands of scale, these equipment are relatively few.Because in the course of continuous fighting, such equipment is easily consumed.

Once the enemy's camp is not broken, it is difficult to take back so many equipment against the enemy's arrow rain when retreating. Therefore, the siege equipment is often getting better and better, and the Yunlou needs at least hundreds of equipment to support it.

But if it's just a few days of battle, it's probably enough.

Soon the next morning.

Cao Jun, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly woke up from the dead silence. The sound of drums rang through the entire camp. The gates of each camp opened one after another, and soldiers in black armor came out slowly.

Some of them lined up, some pushed all kinds of siege equipment, and some rode on horseback and dispersed to the outer direction, gathering their formation one after another.

The Han army blew the horn and the bone whistle almost at the moment when they made a change. Shen Chen got up early and was processing some official documents left over from yesterday in the tent. When he heard the sound of the horn and the bone whistle, he immediately walked out of the tent.

It just so happened that the messenger outside hurried back to report the message. When he saw Shen Chen coming out of the tent, he knelt down on one knee and said, "Report, Chief Governor, Cao Jun is attacking."

"Go and tell the generals to be strict."

"only!"

The messenger immediately went to convey the military order.

Their number is relatively small, only 5000, so the camp layout is also relatively small, only seven or eight.

Shen Chen's main battalion only had 4000 people. Deng Ai and Jiang Wei were both leading the army in their own battalion at this time, so Shen Chen only had some personal guards around him at this time.

Surrounded by a group of personal guards, Shen Chen came to the outer camp gate to watch the situation.

After boarding the high oar, I saw an unknown number of people gathered outside Cao Jun's barracks in the distance, and it was almost impossible to see the end at a glance.

The densely packed Cao Jun formation is like a vast and boundless black forest, stretching from east to west, from Leishou Mountain to the shore of the Yellow River, probably seven or eight miles long.

The most frightening thing is that there are rows of rushing vehicles in front of the team. The vehicles did not reach high-level floors, but were supported by simple four-wheeled vehicles, which belonged to the simple version of rushing vehicles.

The full version of the car is used to deal with city walls. It is obviously impossible to build so many in just over a month, so we can only make this simple version, which is still effective against ordinary fences.

In fact, there is a huge log in the middle of these rushing cars, the front end is sharpened, and then the fence of the camp is smashed through the collision.

The actual power is actually relatively average. After all, Shen Chenjun is not going downhill by thrust alone. Without acceleration, it is not easy to destroy the special fence by only relying on thrust inertia.

However, if you hit it multiple times in a row, you can break the camp, so it can be said that the rushing car is more restrained than the Han army camp.

However, Shen Chen was well prepared and dug a large number of trenches in the front camp, and it was extremely difficult to get over by rushing the car.

At this time, Deng Ai and Jiang Wei had rushed over, and seeing Shen Chen watching Cao Jun's formation on the high oar tower, Deng Ai stepped forward and said, "Governor, why did Cao Jun suddenly attack today?"

"Could it be that they thought that they could break through our camp by making some equipment?"

Jiang Wei was also puzzled.

There are indeed a lot of siege equipment on the opposite side, but their defensive equipment is much more than that of the other side, such as rolling stones, wood, lime and kerosene, as well as horses, caltrops, trenches, crossbows, bed crossbows, etc. are all available.

Cao Zhen once made a tentative attack, but before he even came over the outer trenches, he was shot by arrows covering the sky and the sun, and he didn't dare to attack again.

Shen Chen said in a deep voice: "Look again, and see what kind of tricks Cao Zhen is playing. The soldiers come to block the water and cover them with soil. You go back to your respective camps to defend first."

"only!"

Deng Ai and Jiang Wei left first.

Soon the bustling Cao Jun in the distance officially started to start, and the army moved forward slowly. The front row was a row of wooden curtains used to resist arrows, followed by Chongche and Yunlou.

After about two quarters of an hour, their distance was getting closer and closer, and soon it was less than one mile, and they had already reached the range of the bed crossbow.

"The bed crossbow is ready."

"Hurry up, come up."

"Pull the string, pull the string, don't just stick around there."

"The enemy has advanced three hundred steps!"

All kinds of voices filled the camp.

Teams of soldiers emerged from behind the crenels of the rammed-earth wall, with their bows and knives out of their sheaths.

There are clattering and crashing sounds of armored leaves, anxious and angry urging sounds, neat shouts, short and hasty orders and sharp police whistles.

Under the command of officers at all levels, the soldiers of the Han army pulled the winch of the bed crossbow, some stood on the cloud platform wearing the full bow crossbow, and some climbed the high oar to look down on it.

But after everyone took their positions, the originally quite noisy Han army barracks in the south direction passed in a row, but became quiet again.

The arrows on the bed crossbow were aimed at Cao Jun in the distance, and the sharp arrows reflected a suffocating white light in the early summer sun.

When Cao Jun was about one mile away from the Han camp, Cao Zhen ordered the whole army to stop.

Riding on horseback, he first looked at the situation of the Han army's camp for a while, his eyes wandering around, as if he was looking for a weak point to make a breakthrough.

But he watched for a long time, only to see countless heads on the wall above the Han army camp staring at them, and the other party had arranged a large number of high oar towers inside the camp, and the bed crossbows on them were aimed at their direction. Seems like it's going to launch any minute now.

"Boom!"

Suddenly there was a loud noise, and an iron-headed crossbow arrow with a thick, slender and short trunk tore through the sky, drew a gorgeous arc in the sky, and then fell down suddenly, landing on the open space about fifty steps away from Cao Zhen. .

Cao Zhen was calm and composed, turned his head and smiled at his general Gao Jian: "The Han army is quite impatient. The distance is so far. Could it be that they still want to shoot me? Hahahahaha."

"The general's demeanor before the battle is enough to make the Han soldiers feel ashamed."

Gao Jian flattered him a bit.

Cao Zhen laughed and said: "Go to someone, tell Shen Chen, see if he has the courage to go out to fight with me!"

"only!"

Gao Jian sent a knight.

At this time, the Han army was quite confused, because with the first arrow shot, many people instinctively wanted to let go of the bed crossbow trigger.

But there is no military order above, so everyone is looking around, not knowing what happened.

Over there, General Yan Zhi of Shen Chen's Department was cursing. Just now, a sergeant's hand shook and he couldn't hold the trigger, so he was sent away, causing the crossbow arrow to fly out directly.

This kind of situation is quite common on the battlefield where the spirits of both sides are extremely tense. It is not only the bed crossbowmen, but the crossbowmen encounter this kind of situation more often, so Shen Chen did not send anyone to blame.

At this moment, the cavaliers of Cao Jun quickly approached there, leaped beautifully across the ditch, and were about to move forward, when an arrow suddenly landed in front of him, the wings fluttering in the wind, the cavalier glanced at the arrow, turned his head just go.

There are some unwritten rules on the battlefield. Knights who come to deliver letters will not be killed, but they include persuasion, letters of war and other requests. If they refuse, just shoot an arrow directly in front of the knight to show their attitude.

So the knight knew that the opponent would not come out for a decisive battle, so he left wisely.

Cao Zhen naturally also saw this scene, waved his hand, and said lightly: "Command, attack!"

"attack!"

Gao Jian roared angrily.

The orderly immediately blew the horn.

The sound of the horn resounded through the sky.

The soldiers of Cao Jun's former army began to push the wooden curtains, approached the edge of the trench, and began to build wooden boards to help the soldiers and vehicles pass.

They completely entered the range of the bed crossbows of the Han army. Shen Chen also gave an order, and suddenly hundreds of huge bed crossbows made a loud bang when they were fired. With a whistling sound, he shot towards the enemy.

The war has begun.

(End of this chapter)