Chapter 196: Huguan Attack and Defense
After clarifying the general strategic direction, Yuan and Cao discussed the next tactics and prepared to launch an attack on Huguan.
Although Huguan seems to be impregnable, we still have to fight it so that we can have a clear idea and make decisions based on the situation.
Yuan and Cao are allies, but they are only allies after all, and there are rifts between them, so it is impossible for them to integrate their forces under unified command.
In order to avoid disputes and affect the effectiveness of the siege, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao chose Shen Pei to coordinate and take turns launching sieges.
As the initiator of the alliance and the person who was most wary of Tian Ze, Yuan Shao naturally took the lead.
Cao Cao's military force was smaller than Yuan Shao's. He spent nearly half of his wealth this time, not to consume it in the siege, but only to serve as an assist.
But fortunately, this time Cao Cao brought a powerful weapon, the catapult, which could be used to assist in siege.
The next morning, when Cao Cao arrived at Huguan in person, he was stunned when he saw the terrifyingly tall Huguan city wall.
"Brother Benchu, I should be seeing correctly. The outer wall and the city wall of Huguan must be at least 50 feet high!" Cao Cao widened his eyes in disbelief and asked in a low voice.
Yuan Shao nodded expressionlessly.
He had known it for a long time.
To deal with Tian Ze, you must be prepared for this.
There are many such checkpoints under Tian Ze's command. Because cement technology has been perfected, Tian Ze will naturally not waste such a sharp weapon, and can build various city defenses.
What Hulao Pass is the most powerful pass in the world? After learning about the situation under Tian Ze's rule, Yuan Shao said that it was all nonsense. There are at least three passes under Tian Ze's rule that can surpass it, and the one in front of him is one of them.
"Not only that, the inner walls and the corner towers and watchtowers of the checkpoints are nearly 20 to 30 feet high, and are quite thick and solid. There are also a large number of catapults and crossbows." Ju Su said in a low voice without any expression.
Otherwise, how could they have given up hope of taking Huguan? This kind of pass, as long as there are more than 3,000 defenders, is almost impossible to be breached from the outside.
Tian Ze’s stability is truly stable.
"The supplies in Huguan..." Cao Cao said halfway and suddenly fell silent.
The opponent is Tian Ze, who doesn't mind eating half of the food and throwing away the other half.
Yuan Shao looked at the silent Cao Cao and shook his head slightly in his heart.
Meng De, you are still too young!
Do you know how I have been through these two years?
If I had not been almost desperate, I would not have handed over Bingzhou to Lu Bu and instead planned to march south to the Central Plains.
Even if the princes of the Central Plains banded together, Yuan Shao felt that they were easier to deal with than Tian Ze.
"Zhengnan, let's attack the city." Yuan Shao said lightly.
Shen Pei agreed, waved his command flag, and huge shouts of killing resounded through the sky. Two thousand siege soldiers barely maintained a relatively dispersed formation in the relatively narrow valley, carrying siege equipment and attacking towards Huguan.
Countless boulders, pulled by catapults, roared towards the Huguan city wall. However, because of the distance and the height of Huguan City, most of them just hit the wall, leaving a few traces, without even a slightly visible pit or crack.
Cao Cao watched this scene from afar, frowned slightly, and was about to order the catapult to continue moving forward when he was stopped by Shen Pei.
"Lord Cao, the catapults cannot move forward any further for the time being," Shen Pei said.
Xi Zhicai added: "My lord, don't forget, there are also catapults on the city wall!"
On the city wall, Zang Ba watched the flying boulders hit the wall without any ripples.
He knew best how strong the walls of Huguan City were. Although Tian Ze would not allow the use of the Nine Clans Elimination Game if there were any quality problems, there were also correspondingly severe punishments, and there were also people from the Mohist School who specially designed and inspected it to ensure that it was foolproof.
Looking at the large number of catapults behind the siege troops and seeing that they were stagnant, Zang Ba frowned slightly.
"It seems that Yuan Shao is quite cautious and knows our situation very well!" Xun You said.
"Since the other side has taken precautions, that's it. Let's get started!" With Zang Ba's order, the command flag was waving, and the catapults and crossbows that were almost full on the city wall fired at the same time, smashing down on the charging Yuan Shao army in an orderly manner.
Although Shen Pei had been prepared and had his soldiers keep a certain distance from each other, the narrow valley, coupled with the catapults and crossbows that Zang Ba had already debugged countless times, formed a fire blockade zone, and a small area was cleared in an instant.
When Xun You saw this scene, he nodded slightly.
None of the various schools of thought should be underestimated, especially the Mohist school and the Military Strategist school.
With the help of Mohism, the level of military equipment of Tian Ze's army was once again raised to a higher level. Even the catapults and crossbows were constantly subdivided and improved into many types.
In narrow terrain like Huguan, most of the aircraft used are smaller in size, shorter in range, but with higher attack range and accuracy. In addition, with the standard boulders and large crossbow arrows stored in the warehouse, a single salvo can block an entire valley dozens of steps wide.
Of course, there were also trebuchets on the city wall that were relatively far away, but there were not many of them. Since the trebuchets on the opposite side had not come forward, there was no need to open fire immediately, and they could just serve as a supplement.
Groups of soldiers rushed into the blockade formed by catapults and crossbows. After most of them were killed, they continued to rush forward carrying most of the broken siege equipment.
Shen Pei saw this scene from afar and looked very unhappy.
The other side was too well prepared. When the attacking troops passed through the fire blockade zone of the defending army, most of the soldiers were killed or wounded again. The large siege equipment such as the well was seriously damaged. The attack, which was already difficult to carry out, became even more difficult to carry out.
With the idea of testing, Shen Pei did not rush to continue to send out troops, but continued to send out guerrillas at a leisurely pace.
Waiting for movement on the other side of Huguan.
Lu Bu's army arrived earlier than Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and had already set up camp on the west side of Huguan.
Although Hao Meng and Cao Xing have average abilities, they still have some self-awareness.
With only 20,000 troops under his command, he could not win a good battle even if he fought a field battle with the defenders inside the pass, and could only play a diversionary role. Therefore, after arriving at Huguan, he started digging trenches directly, with the intention of defending to the death.
But when they heard the shouts and sounds of fierce fighting coming from inside the pass, they realized that Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were probably coming.
Without hesitation, he followed Li Ru's deployment before departure, rolled out the siege equipment that had already been prepared, and prepared to attack the city.
Compared with Shen Pei, the two of them were just there to watch. Their shouts and screams were deafening, but their attacks were quite scattered. However, they also attracted some attention from Zang Ba.
Hearing the shouts and cries of killing begin to rise from the other side, Shen Pei ordered the army to press forward. At the same time, he ordered Cao Cao's catapults, which had stopped because the siege troops were approaching the city wall, to slowly move forward and begin bombarding the defenders on the city wall.
Zang Ba built the Huguan too high, so the thickness had to be increased accordingly.
Although this made the defense even more amazing, and completely eliminated the idea of using catapults to blow it down, it also enabled Cao Cao's catapults to advance deeply and ensure that all the flying stones hit the inside of the pass without worrying about his own siege troops suffering too much damage.
The huge rocks hit the inner wall, but had little effect, but the flying debris forced the defenders to dodge with distraction.
As a result, the offensive and defensive battle, which had been making no progress, finally saw a glimmer of hope, and some of Yuan Shao's soldiers were finally able to successfully set up ladders on the city wall.
But at the same time, these rubbles also affected them, and because Cao Cao's catapults were not accurate enough, from time to time some huge rocks would accidentally fly too low and hit the siege troops.
Cao Cao didn't care about it at all, because it wasn't his own people that were being hit.
Yuan Shao looked extremely ugly at this time, but he gritted his teeth and admitted it.
Doing this can still achieve some results. If the catapults are not used, the charging soldiers will die in vain.
"Yuan Benchu is a ruthless man!"
Zang Ba couldn't help but sigh as he watched Yuan Shao's soldiers continue to advance under attack from both enemies and friends.
(End of this chapter)
