Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3596: The Siege of the City

"Within three days..."

The time was shortened in an instant.

This feeling made Zhang Liao feel very uncomfortable.

Most people still prefer order to chaos.

Although this sudden change was inevitable in a state of war, Zhang Liao smelled more danger in this change than Wang Yun.

This came from the lessons learned from others in the Military Academy and also from Zhang Liao's caution.

With a short time, it is naturally impossible to prepare enough mud trucks, and it is naturally difficult to block and fill the moat like Luoyang City. As a result, the water in the culvert may not be drained, which will bring more difficulties to the attack.

This sudden change beyond control is like the boss suddenly calling for a meeting after get off work in the future. A meeting after get off work may not be as urgent as a matter of life and death, or the company will go bankrupt tomorrow, but it can show the exploitation and control of subordinates, which is precisely the key to calling a meeting after get off work at short notice.

Therefore, the essence of this kind of change on the battlefield is the tug-of-war between the generals of both sides and the struggle for control of the rhythm.

"Come here!" Zhang Liao ordered solemnly, "Tomorrow bombard the west gate of Luoyang City!"

The gunpowder and shells for artillery are not unlimited, but Zhang Liao feels that now is the critical time.

Even if the city walls cannot be directly breached by artillery, they can be used to disrupt the rhythm of the defenders.

The next morning, the battle outside Luoyang City was bustling with activity.

The craftsmen were busy at the front line, and they worked with the military schools on the front line to determine the firing range, the attack range, and the scale. These things had to be agreed upon in advance to prevent someone from confusingly blocking the firing range of their artillery. If they encountered an attack by the defenders and could not effectively cross cover, the meaning of the artillery cooperation would be lost.

The defenders on the top of the city soon discovered the artillery positions arranged by Zhang Liao and began to run around the top of the city. Some defenders also tried to use crossbows and catapults to disrupt the construction of the artillery positions, but the crossbows could not penetrate the earthen walls of the artillery positions, and the accuracy of the catapults was really bad. It was basically impossible to accurately hit the artillery without a certain number of them.

Moreover, there were two attack arrays on the left and right of the artillery, each with some battering rams and ladders prepared. The front row had large shields, and the back was followed by archers, who could approach the city and attack at any time.

After a few days of running-in, the cavalry is now more skilled in siege warfare, especially when facing a relatively solid city like Luoyang. It is obviously unrealistic to win by just breaking through the gate of the outer city or a few people climbing up to the top of the city. Similarly, it is also difficult to capture Luoyang City with artillery alone.

Zhang Liao knew that the reason why Cao's army defended Luoyang City to the death was to consume the gunpowder and artillery of the Cavalry Army. Once the artillery shells were used up, they would basically be scrap iron and copper, and would no longer have any deterrent power.

However, even if it is for saving, it should be used when needed.

After the artillery position was set up, the military academy blew the whistle and ordered the soldiers to return to their units and avoid the artillery's firing range.

The craftsmen were busy checking the gunpowder, shells, and tools used to clean the inner chamber.

The infantry array protected the two wings of the artillery, while the cavalry was divided into four small formations, both near and far, to prevent surprise attacks from the enemy.

With a short copper whistle as a warning, the flag was waved, a roar resounded through the sky, a thick gray-white smoke rose from the artillery position, and a shell drew an arc and rushed towards the top of Luoyang City!

The shell hit the city wall and did not hit the gate tower directly, but when the shell hit the city wall, it still brought up a large amount of smoke, dust and bricks.

Broken bricks fell down with a crackling sound, and the Cao army soldiers on the top of the city wall shouted in panic in the shock, and the flags and swords and spears were tilted.

The Cao army's military academy roared loudly and finally restored the formation. The second cannon shot rang out, and then the panic just now was repeated.

The shells bombarded the city walls, shaking the rammed earth.

Although most of the kinetic energy will be absorbed by the rammed earth walls, violent shaking is still unavoidable.

The bombardment brought panic to Cao's army, but made the soldiers of the Cavalry Army very excited, especially the Qiang soldiers. Almost every roar was accompanied by their cheers.

The sound of cannons and cheers seemed to form a raging wave, making the defenders in Luoyang City unstable and their hearts flutter...

……

……

Zhang Liao suddenly launched a thunderous attack, catching Man Chong off guard.

The Cao army garrison stationed at the west gate, whether on the city wall or guarding the city gate, are naturally the most loyal. At least on the surface, they are the soldiers that Man Chong and others can trust more than other people. However, loyalty does not represent everything. Facing a terrifying weapon like artillery, loyalty cannot be an effective shield that exempts them from all damage.

During the bombardment, not many Cao soldiers died directly, but the indirect damage was considerable.

Especially the soldiers who survived the previous Battle of Tongguan, huddled under the battlements and trembled like frightened birds. The situation was barely under control until the judge of the Bingli Army killed several people on the spot.

The collapsed corner of the city gate tower became a shadow lingering in the hearts of Cao's soldiers. Even after Zhang Liao stopped the attack, it continued to affect all of Cao's soldiers.

All this made Man Chong very worried, diluting his original joy of taking advantage of the opportunity to deal with Zhang Liao, and also brought him more problems.

The West Gate was under tremendous pressure, and now not only could the garrison at the West Gate not be transferred away, but new garrisons had to be recruited from other city gates to strengthen the defense of the West Gate.

Now whether to transfer Wang Yun or not has become a difficult problem.

After much deliberation, Man Chong decided to transfer some soldiers from the North Gate and South Gate to the West Gate to strengthen the defense, while leaving the soldiers at the East Gate unchanged.

Because Man Chong didn't know how many people were preparing to rebel like Wang Yun at the East Gate...

At the same time, Man Chong vaguely felt that this might be an agreement between Zhang Liao and Wang Yun.

"Send Xu Xianli here!"

Man Chong felt that he had to take a risk and could not continue to passively take the beating. Otherwise, Zhang Liao would launch a round of artillery fire at the west gate today, and at the north gate or any other gate tomorrow. Sooner or later, the morale of Cao's soldiers defending the city would collapse!

He must think of something!

Xu Xianli came quickly, like a dog, with a smile on his face, lowered his head, and asked, "What do you want, sir?"

"You keep a close eye on Wang Junhou of the East Gate..." Man Chong said in a low voice, his voice full of ferocity, "Go now! Don't worry about anything else, just keep a close eye on him!"

"I understand!" Xu Xili replied, "If you find anything..."

"Don't alarm him..." Man Chong warned, "Be careful, report to me immediately if anything happens... Don't act rashly! Do you understand?"

"I understand! Xiaode understands!"

……

……

No matter how loud the noise is, it will eventually become silent.

Darkness is the back of light.

After Zhang Liao bombarded the west gate of Luoyang City, on the surface it seemed that the Cao army defenders were forced to take a beating and a corner of the city gate tower collapsed, which was really miserable. But in fact, Zhang Liao also encountered problems during the bombardment.

The most direct result is that the shelling effect is not ideal.

Zhang Liao's original plan was to directly destroy the west gate tower, but unfortunately, he only destroyed a corner of it.

The cannon seemed to be no different from the one used in Tongguan, but according to the craftsmen, there were actually some problems with the inner barrel of the cannon due to the repeated burning and cooling of the gunpowder. These problems had caused the accuracy of the cannon to decline. Even experienced craftsmen were unable to accurately shoot at a certain position, resulting in a large deviation in the effect of this round of bombardment.

According to the craftsmen's subsequent summary, the accuracy of these cannons after the Battle of Tongguan would decrease again with the number of times they were used until they were completely scrapped, and they had no good way to reverse this process.

Whether it is artillery or shells, the cost is not cheap...

After listening to the craftsmen's report, Zhang Liao felt helpless.

After all, the situation where a gun can maintain full attack power and accuracy with only a tiny bit of blood left is only possible in games, and the current metallurgical technology is obviously not enough to support the long-term and multiple use of artillery.

In the early days of manufacturing, artillery can be relatively accurate, but as the number of uses increases, the uncertainty gradually increases. In the later stages, it is not certain that the craftsman can judge which direction the cannonball will fly.

This phenomenon is the important reason for the emergence of rifling later, but if you want to have rifling, you need more advanced metallurgy and processing technology as a prerequisite...

Fei Qian can help craftsmen avoid detours, but he cannot replace the craftsmen in walking.

Zhang Liao asked the craftsmen about the lifespan of these cannons, but the craftsmen could not guarantee it. They only said that if the muzzles became uneven, they would definitely be unusable, but they could not say for sure how many times they could be used.

When the General of Cavalry returns to Chang'an, he will also dispatch some artillery, but the quantity will not be large. So to a certain extent, artillery cannot be abused and can only be used at critical times to deal with some key fortifications or enemy formations.

Of course, the craftsman said that if the artillery could be advanced to medium and short distances, the accuracy would increase a lot.

But at the same time, medium and short distances also mean that the artillery positions are in greater danger.

However, the artillery issue was still a subsequent worry, and after Zhang Liao launched the attack on the west gate, Wang Yun also became anxious...

……

……

Wang Yun was also frightened by Zhang Liao's artillery bombardment.

Not only Wang Yun, but other veterans of Cao's army who had experienced the Battle of Tongguan did not want to face the roar of artillery again.

Especially after learning that Man Chong had transferred soldiers from the South Gate and the North Gate to support the West Gate and replenish and replace those soldiers defending the city who were injured or killed under the bombardment, Wang Yun felt that he could not wait any longer.

Wang Yun used his fingernails to pick at the old scabbed wound on his palm.

The aftershocks of the artillery bombardment during the Battle of Tongguan seemed to still be flowing up and down in his bones. He leaned against the parapet of the East Gate and took a breath.

The smoke from the day had dissipated, but Wang Yun felt that it had seeped into the cracks in the bricks of the east gate's parapet, irritating his nerves and making him tremble.

During the Battle of Tongguan, he saw with his own eyes that his fellow townsman was cut in half by a stone slab lifted up by a cannonball, and died wailing as he crawled with his intestines dragging along his upper body...

He would rather be killed by swords and guns than be torn to pieces by artillery bombing.

"Wang Junhou, are we going to be transferred to Ximen?"

Suddenly, a soldier's question frightened Wang Yun so much that he almost knocked over his quiver.

He looked down at his quiver, reached out to support it, and coughed twice, "It depends on what Envoy Man arranges..."

"Can we not go to Ximen?"

"Whether to go to that gate is not up to Wang Junhou..."

"Besides, who knows which gate the Hussars will attack tomorrow? What if they come..."

"Bah! Bah! Shut up your fucking mouth!"

"These days, every day you can live is a day..."

"..."

The soldiers chattered among themselves, seemingly using this method to relieve their stress.

But because of the pressure on Wang Yun, he didn't dare to say a word.

He lowered his head, holding the quiver, his fingers subconsciously groping for the wolf-tooth arrows inside the quiver.

Suddenly his heart skipped a beat!

His face suddenly turned pale, and then he quickly pulled the arrows with his fingers, causing them to scatter and intertwine.

If you want to tie the letter to it and still be able to shoot it far without it falling into the moat halfway, you need a good bow and arrow.

The bow was his own, but the wolf-tooth arrows were provided...

broken!

Wang Yun quickly glanced around and it seemed that the soldiers around him were discussing the attack on the west gate during the day, and no one paid attention to his quiver.

Wang Yun stood up, covered the quiver with his left hand, walked out of the temporary resting place, turned around twice, and arrived at the place where the spare weapons were stored.

There are no wolf-tooth arrows used in military academies here, but there are some ordinary flat-head arrows.

Wang Yun pulled out a few flat-headed arrows and inserted them into his quiver. He then discovered that the flat-headed arrows and wolf-toothed arrows were not only different in length, but even their tail feathers were different. The difference was even more obvious when they were inserted into his quiver...

“Damn it…”

Wang Yun had no choice but to take out those flat-head arrows again.

"What are you doing?"

A voice sounded in the pile of food, frightening Wang Yun so much that he shivered and his quiver fell to the ground.

"It's me, it's me..." the cook said hurriedly.

Wang Yun let out a breath, "Damn it, are you trying to scare me to death?!"

The cook came over and said, "I might be transferred tomorrow...what should I do?"

Wang Yun stood there, half of his body in the shadows, and was silent for a while. "I... I just found an opportunity to take a look at the culvert... The iron fence in the culvert... was sawed in half..."

"What?!" The cook snorted, then beamed with joy, "You mean..."

Wang Yun was silent for a while, "I tied a rope over the iron fence and left something behind..."

"Things?" the cook asked.

Wang Yun nodded, "Yes...that thing..."

The cook looked around and whispered, "Has it been decided?"

Wang Yun sighed, "I can't wait... tonight..."

The head cook let out a sigh, "Okay, I'll go get it ready..."

Wang Yun grabbed the cook and said, "No, don't prepare anything!"

The cook was stunned for a moment, then understood, "Okay, I understand... Then... when?"

Wang Yun looked up at the sky. "Three o'clock."

……

……

Amid the sound of the second watch gong, Wang Yun hid in the shadow of the watchtower, holding his sword, as if this could give him a little sense of security.

The cold corner is like a grave.

This reminded Wang Yun of when he first joined the army, he was forced by the nobles to bury the Yellow Turban bandits alive...

Those hands reaching out from the floating soil, the exposed faces, the cries and howls, seemed to linger around him at this moment, as if to drag him into the underworld.

The surrendered Yellow Turban soldiers complained that the noble general had promised to give them a chance to live but had not kept his word...

The deputy general smiled and said, "I am the good people, not you evil people. The sage said: To eliminate all evil is the greatest good!"

Wang Yun sighed.

He found that he sighed more frequently in the past few days.

"Deserters will be punished together..."

Even if he could escape, I'm afraid that most of the soldiers in the entire East Gate who are unaware of the situation will be implicated by him.

"Wang Junhou is in a good mood." Xu Xianli's voice slithered into my ears like a poisonous snake, "It took me a while to find it..."

Wang Yun's back straightened instantly, but when he turned around, he put on a flattering smile: "Official, please understand. I am checking..."

Before he finished speaking, he saw Man Chong behind Xu Xinli.

And the soldiers behind Man Chong...

The Xiezhi crown on Man Chong's head shone like slime in the moonlight: "Last night there was a rat in the city, which gnawed half of a certain document... Military Lord, do you know where the rat's hole led?"

Wang Yunqiang smiled and said, "Little one, little one...how can I know..."

Man Chong pointed to the entrance of the underground canal not far from the watchtower, "It leads here."

Almost at the moment when Man Chong pointed at the dark channel, Wang Yun's body froze, and then it was as if someone was pinching his heart. He could hardly breathe, and even couldn't finish his words, "Little, little..."

"Take it down for me!"

Man Chong snorted coldly and pointed his finger.

Wang Yun subconsciously wanted to draw his sword, but when he saw the fully armed guards around Man Chong, he sighed deeply, "My little one... My little one is wronged..."

The guards rushed up like wolves and tigers and pressed Wang Yun to the ground.

"Unjust?" Xu Xianli sneered, "Then why did you go to the culvert during the day? The envoy has repeatedly ordered that no one is allowed to leave their post without permission! Don't you think that the culvert is also your duty area on the top of the city? ! "

Wang Yun was stunned, then forced a smile, "I'm just curious... curious... just take a look..."

Xu Xili laughed, then raised his hands behind his back and said, "Look, what is this?"

That was the letter Wang Yun left in the secret canal, indicating that he was going to launch an uprising tonight.

Wang Yun looked up and his face turned pale.

Man Chong lowered his head and stared at Wang Yun. "What do you think? Wang Junhou... do you want to die or live? Tell me, who are your accomplices?"

Wang Yun slowly lowered his head, "No... I have no accomplices... I am the only one..."

(End of this chapter)