Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1229 Defending the City
On the way, Cao Cao met Xiahou Dun, who reported that Cao Ren had arranged for the generals to defend the three gates. He also mentioned that no one was attacking the west gate. Xiahou Dun said, "The enemy is using the strategy of surrounding three gates and leaving one behind, and the purpose is to make our army lose morale."

He lowered his voice and said, "But the city is not safe either. Do you want to..."

Cao Cao said calmly: "How do you know that the fierce tiger is not lying in ambush in the west?"

Xiahou Dun was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously said: "Then I will send someone to clear the way first?"

Cao Cao snorted coldly, "Isn't this telling others that the city can no longer be defended?"

"The soldiers are already exhausted and the people are unstable. Aren't they all going to rebel now?"

Xiahou Dun was ashamed, "My Lord, you know everything?"

He approached Cao Cao and spoke in the lowest voice possible: "The soldiers have been at their limit after these days of fighting with the Jin army."

"If most of the soldiers' families hadn't been in Xudu to cultivate the land, I'm afraid there would have been countless rebellions by now."

"But this is not a solution. Sooner or later, someone will abandon their family for fear of death. If chaos breaks out in one place in the city, it will spread to a large area. Moreover, the spies of the Jin army who have infiltrated are watching closely and are ready to add fuel to the fire at any time."

Cao Cao frowned, "Hasn't the whereabouts of the four friends been found yet?"

"Yecheng has been under lockdown, can they still grow wings and fly away?"

Xiahou Dun said with embarrassment: "No, I'm afraid the place where they are hiding is too secret, so."

Cao Cao was silent for a while before he said, "Yuan Rang, a few years ago I defeated the Yuan family and entered Ye City. I once thought that the world was in my hands. All that was left was to defeat the remaining fierce tiger of the Yuan family, and I could unify the world."

"But things don't always go as planned. Xionghu has been keeping an eye on me for years. I have tried to deal with him several times and even sent assassins to Jicheng."

"But for some reason, he was able to prevent all these methods one by one, as if he knew about them in advance."

"Is this a coincidence, or does he really know how to observe the stars and predict the future?"

Xiahou Dun's heart skipped a beat. "Mingsir, this is all a rumor. If it is really destined, we can just sit in the house. Why do we have to risk our lives and go to the battlefield in person?"

"I heard that Xionghu would also fight in every battle. If he could predict the future, why would he risk his life so much?"

Cao Cao shook his head, "I can't see through him."

"It stands to reason that his methods and strategies are not impeccable, but I always fail at the last moment."

"I really miscalculated this son, Yuan Benchu. If I had a son like him, why would I worry about the unrest in the world?"

Cao Cao's voice suddenly became angry, "But he is Yuan Benchu's son!"

Xiahou Dun didn't dare to speak for a moment, but Cao Pi behind him said, "Father, when my sister escaped the other day, she used the explosive bamboo tube of the army. I'm afraid she has surrendered to the fierce tiger."

"If we can send someone to find her whereabouts, maybe..."

Cao Cao turned his head and stared at Cao Pi, which made Cao Pi feel uneasy and wondered if he had said something wrong.
My sister has obviously surrendered to the enemy. Could it be that my father still has feelings for her?
My father is a heartless person, why does he have to pretend to be so hypocritical?
Cao Cao turned around and said coldly: "On the battlefield, if we can't win the battle, it's useless to say anything."

"Come with me to the top of the city wall."

Xiahou Dun followed Cao Cao and saw that he was heading towards the east gate. He couldn't help but wonder if it was difficult to find a retreat in this direction. What if the north and south gates were broken?
He went up to advise Cao Cao a few times, but Cao Cao ignored him and went straight to the west gate and then to the city wall.

At that time, the attack outside the city was very fierce. Among the stones and arrows, there were occasionally kerosene cans and exploding bamboo tubes. The screams of Cao's soldiers on the top of the city continued to be heard. Some stones even bounced back and flew into the inner city, embedding themselves in the ground about ten steps away from Cao Cao and his party.

When Xiahou Dun saw this, he hurried to stop him, but Cao Cao pushed Xiahou Dun's arm away and strode towards the top of the city. Xiahou Dun secretly groaned and had to send out a dozen shield soldiers to guard Cao Cao in front and behind.

Cao Pi followed for a few steps, but a Wei soldier fell from the top of the city wall and fell beside Cao Pi.

Cao Pi looked carefully and saw that his head had been smashed. Red and white things were constantly flowing out of the hole. At the same time, an inexplicable fishy smell rushed into Cao Pi's nostrils.

Cao Pi almost vomited. His face was pale and he stumbled behind, covering his mouth. He barely raised his head and saw arrows falling from the sky, hitting the shields above the heads of the Wei soldiers in front of him, making a thud.

Cao Cao climbed up to the top of the city wall and saw the dead bodies of Wei soldiers everywhere. In the distance, there seemed to be a general hiding in the city gate. Seeing that it was Cao Cao coming, he quickly pulled out a shield and rushed over, saying, "My lord, this place is dangerous. The enemy's attack is too fierce!"

When Cao Cao looked, it turned out to be his own general Zhu Ling, a surrendered general from Jizhou who had joined Cao Cao after Yuan Shao's death. Although he had a bad background, he was indeed competent in fighting. So although he was ostracized by Cao's generals, he was still indispensable in the war.

Cao Cao asked, "Why are there so many casualties? Has the enemy reached the top of the city?"

Zhu Ling said, "That's not the case, but there are too many siege weapons here, and the attack is fierce, killing most of our crossbow archers on the top of the city, so we are so passive." "In order to reduce losses, I had to order the soldiers to hide and only come out to fight back when the other side built a bridge."

Cao Cao looked at the rocks falling in front of him, so he grabbed the shield of the soldier beside him and crouched down to move towards the city wall. When Xiahou Dun, Zhu Ling and others saw this, they had to follow him in half-crouching positions.

Cao Cao was short in stature, so when he squatted down, he looked no different from an ordinary soldier lying on the ground. But it was difficult for tall people like Xiahou Dun and Zhu Ling. They got on all fours to avoid stray arrows, and by the time they arrived, Cao Cao had already gotten a general idea of ​​the situation outside the city.

He pointed at the flag in the distance and asked Zhu Ling, "Who is that?"

Zhu Ling quickly said, "It should be the Jin Wang Yuan Xi."

"Since he won consecutive victories in Jingzhou and Yuzhou," Zhu Ling said, "he has been heading north. He has been camping at the East Gate for a few days and is in charge personally. This is all accurate information."

"The morale of the Jin army is very high now, which should be related to his personal supervision of the battle."

Cao Cao squinted his eyes and looked at Zhu Ling for a while, then said, "I'll give you 5,000 soldiers. Can you bring the head of the fierce tiger to see me?"

Zhu Ling was stunned, and then bit his tongue and said, "Since Ming Gong has given the order, Ling should go forward to die, but there is a great general Zhao Yun on the opposite side, Ling is indeed not very confident."

Cao Cao murmured, "Zhao Yun, Zhao Yun, hey, he's here too."

"No wonder. At this time, I'm afraid everyone over there is thinking about taking my head!"

Xiahou Dun quickly said, "I am willing to go with you to kill the fierce tiger and eliminate this great threat for you!"

Cao Cao shook his head and said, "Forget it. Yuan Chang's ability does not lie in charging into battle."

"The enemy is preparing to attack. Order the soldiers to prepare to meet the enemy!"

Far below the city, Yuan Xi asked Lu Xun, "How many stone arrows are left?"

Lu Xun said hurriedly: "I have used about 50% of it."

"There are still more than a thousand stones and three thousand crossbow arrows left. The rest of the baggage may not arrive until the day after tomorrow."

Yuan Xi said, "It's almost time. Let the soldiers prepare to build a bridge across the river and try to attack the city."

After receiving the order, the Jin army soldiers began to push the huge cart forward. The cart was extremely long, two or three feet long and more than ten feet wide, like a huge flatbed cart. The wheels were as tall as a person, and the top was a flat plate made of round logs.

More than a dozen carts were lined up in two rows and slowly advanced towards the moat. When the Wei archers on the city wall saw this, they hid behind the arrow slits and shot arrows continuously, but all of their arrows were blocked by the front end of the carts, and the soldiers pushing the carts from the back were hardly affected.

The battle line was pushed all the way to the edge of the moat, but the container truck in the front did not stop and rushed directly into the moat.

It fell into the water and sank at first, then suddenly rose up under the buoyancy of the river water, and actually floated up.

The container truck behind it rushed over, crushed the previous container truck, and also rushed into the water, then also floated up and connected with the previous container truck.

The soldiers of the Jin army rushed forward with shields raised and arrows flying under them. They connected the two carts with iron chains, and then the third and the fourth. In just two cups of tea, a floating bridge was built.

The soldiers on both sides inserted thick wooden stakes into the holes of the pontoon bridges on both sides, and then hammered them into the ground to fix the two ends. The whole process was very skillful by the Jin army soldiers, and it was obvious that they had practiced it countless times.

The Mengchelou carriage at the back began to push onto the pontoon bridge and slowly moved towards the city wall. Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun and others looked solemn when they saw this. It was not necessarily that the Cao army could not think of these methods, but it was easy to go wrong in the actual operation. Because it could be made to float so well and also bear the weight of the subsequent equipment, the craftsmen needed a lot of precise calculations. Otherwise, the pontoon bridge would easily tilt and collapse. There were not many people in Wei who were good at this, and after similar attempts failed many times, they gave up.

But now the Jin army used it lightly, which shows how profound their foundation is. In terms of siege equipment alone, they are far superior to the Wei army!
Zhu Ling stood up and led the archers to fire rockets at the Jin army's equipment, but the other side used unknown materials. The rockets did not seem to ignite the equipment and the flames went out after a while.

The tower cart hit the city wall with a bang, and the soldiers inside began to climb up to the top of the city wall along the wooden ladder. Seeing this, the Cao army soldiers began to throw boulders and wooden planks, smashing the Jin army soldiers and forcing them to hide everywhere. However, as several other tower carts approached, they soon exceeded the limit of the defenders on the top of the city.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Xiahou Dun said to Cao Cao, "Mingsir, why don't you go down first?"

Cao Cao did not move. "With such equipment, why did they go to so much trouble to dig a tunnel at the north gate?"

After Cao Cao asked this question, Xiahou Dun realized that something was wrong and asked in a lost voice: "Aren't they digging tunnels to send people into the city?"

He quickly asked, "Should I send someone to alert the North Gate now?"

However, at this moment there was a loud bang, and everyone couldn't help but look over there. That was the direction of the north gate!

I saw a column of smoke rising, which was more than ten feet high. When Cao Cao saw it, he knew that something had happened at the north gate!

(End of this chapter)