Shu Han Confucian General of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 262 Hulao Pass
"Change the kerosene and throw it away!"

Following Pang Tong's cold voice, the second batch of jars were also thrown over the city gate.Unlike the first batch, this time the jars contained kerosene instead of gunpowder.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, vegetable oil was generally rapeseed oil in addition to soybean oil.That can be used to support combustion, but also can be used for food.Since Jiaozhou and Nanzhong were relatively peaceful, the tung oil produced there has gradually become familiar to the people in the south.Although it is not edible, it is good for lighting lamps and making oil paper and oilcloth.When it came time to attack or defend the city on the battlefield, this tung oil replaced all kinds of edible vegetable oils before and became the cheapest choice, saving a little vegetable oil for the soldiers to cook.

Hulala, dozens of tung oil jars were thrown on the city wall of Hulaoguan again. This time, there was no explosion. Cao Ren just breathed a sigh of relief, but saw that all the jars that hit the top of the wall were shattered, and a liquid with a unique smell suddenly flowed out. out.

"What is this?" Cao Ren was from the north and had never seen tung oil before, so he didn't know why when he smelled this strange smell.If it had been replaced with vegetable oil or soybean oil, or if the enemy army under the city had prepared rockets, Cao Ren would have already reacted and prepared corresponding countermeasures.Now, it was time for a slight reaction, and this slight reaction immediately cost him a heavy price.

"Light it up, keep throwing!" Pang Tongtong ordered, and the third batch of jar mines were thrown into the Hulao Pass.This time, the explosion of the jar thunder immediately ignited the tung oil that had been splashed everywhere before, and the entire Hulaoguan city was engulfed in a sea of ​​flames!
"Be careful, general!" Although the fire broke out in an instant, the guards around Cao Ren did their duty immediately, and hurriedly protected him and retreated to a place where there was no fire. "I'm fine, hurry up, put out the fire, hurry up!" Cao Ren commanded loudly regardless of the threatening fire.In fact, at this time, the fire is still within the controllable range, if it is allowed to continue to burn, it will be bad.Cao Fu on the side heard this, and quickly organized people to prepare sand and water to put out the fire.

It's a pity that Pang Tong didn't give him this chance. After this time, another tung oil jar was thrown over the city.This tung oil is extremely flammable, Cao Fu organized people to put out the fire, how could there be time?Seeing this, Cao Ren immediately understood that it was unrealistic to put out the fire now.Immediately, he hurriedly stopped drinking, and asked Cao Fu to lead his people to avoid it for the time being, and wait for the fire to stop.After all, under such a fire, it is unrealistic for the enemy to attack the city.If I was in a hurry to put out the fire, it would be tantamount to making the soldiers take their lives for a joke.He just ordered people to fight with sand and soil from a distance, and at the same time climb up to check the enemy's movements.

"Give it to me!" Pang Tong ordered to continue throwing kerosene, and at the same time ordered more than 2000 elite soldiers who had already carried ladders, rams and other siege equipment to advance rapidly while the enemy was unable to show their presence.Then they didn't run for long, and they were surprised to find that many of their colleagues were holding jars in their hands and went up with them.

"Crash!" Regardless of surprise on the battlefield, they still chose to do their duty faithfully, pushing the scooters towards the established pass city.Rush carts are generally used to hit and destroy city walls. They are all made of sharp rough wood with wheels installed underneath and covered with iron roofs to reduce soldiers from being hurt by arrows, rolling logs and stones on the top of the city.

"General, the enemy army is coming up!" The soldier in charge of observing the enemy's situation from above shouted hastily.Cao Ren saw that the fire on the top of the city was still raging, and it was unrealistic to attack the enemy from above, so he simply waited for the fire to die down a bit.Even if Liu Bei is extremely rich, it is impossible for him to burn like this forever.As for taking the opportunity to destroy the city wall, Cao Ren was confident that it was impossible to do too much damage to the Hulaoguan city wall that he had reinforced in such a short period of time.Considering this, Cao Ren held back his temper and waited for the fire to subside.

"Boom! Boom!" Several sounds rang out again and again, and the eight rushing vehicles smashed eight holes in the wall of Hulao Pass.It is one foot square and about the same depth.Compared with the entire solid city wall, this little damage is negligible.But this time it was weird, only hit the car once or twice, and was about to hit again.The colleagues who came forward with them had already stopped them, and then piled the jars in their hands into the small hole just created.

"Quick retreat!" Pang Tong, who had been paying close attention to the situation here, saw this scene and hurriedly ordered all the attacking people to retreat.Only a few people took out fire folders, lit the fuse on the jar, and then fled back quickly.

"Shi Yuan, do you want to rely on the power of gunpowder to blow up the city wall of Hulao Pass?" Seeing this, Liu Bei somewhat understood.Pang Tong nodded, looking at the rapidly burning fuse beside the city wall, Pang Tong couldn't help but clenched his hands tighter.

Pang Tong was deeply shocked by the power of gunpowder after seeing it for the first time.He often sighed, if he knew the formula of this thing, he would have already blown up the Hulao Pass.How did he know that Zhao Feng suffers from the limited amount of fire nitrate, and he has only produced so many over the years.As a last resort, Pang Tong had to save some money.First, the defenders on the top of the city were blown up to deter them, and then they set fire to prevent them from moving further. Then they sent people to use rams to drive out the small dens on the city wall, so that they could place explosives to blow up the city wall, and try to blow up the city wall in one fell swoop.

"I hope it will succeed in one fell swoop!" Pang Tong murmured. More than 200 jar mines fired together in the cave dug under the city wall. This power should be enough!If he could blow up the city wall in one fell swoop, without expecting it to collapse, then he would have succeeded more than half.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

There was a series of loud bangs, and this time the power was stronger than the previous one, not at 01:30.Under the serial bombardment of more than 200 jar mines, the solid Hulaoguan city wall seemed to begin to tremble.Zhang Liao, Zhang Fei and others in the distance covered their ears to bear the huge noise.When the Hulao was closed, the defenders headed by Cao Ren heard loud noises in their ears and swayed under their feet, as if they were in hell.

Finally, when all the gunpowder was blown up and the smoke cleared, Liu Bei was delighted to find that a crack about two feet wide had been blasted on the solid city wall.Through the gunpowder smoke that has not dissipated, Liu Bei has vaguely seen behind the closed wall.

"Third Brother, hurry up!" Sensitively capturing the opportunity of the battle, Liu Bei hastily ordered.But someone was faster than him. Before Zhang Fei, Zhang Liao had already taken the lead and led his people to rush up.After Zhang Fei received Liu Bei's order, he quickly led his people to rush up.Before Cao Ren ordered the repair of the city wall, he entered the pass through the narrow crack, and then tried to open the city gate, so that the enlarged army could enter the pass.

"Come on!" Zhang Liao and his 800 soldiers rushed to the front.These [-] people are all Zhang Liao's personal guards. They have followed him from Bingzhou to this point. They are as brave and skilled as Guan Yu's five hundred swordsmen. With a strong resistance, several people rushed in from the gap in a row.

"Uncle, the enemy is coming in!" Cao Ren and the others, who were shaking dizzily on the top of the wall, just stabilized their steps when they saw a big crack under their feet.After the gunpowder smoke cleared, nearly a thousand people rushed into Hulao Pass along the crack, fighting with the defenders who hadn't had time to fully react.Especially the team of Zhang Liao and Zhang Fei, who were almost at the gate of the city.Seeing this situation, Cao Fu, who was inexperienced, suddenly screamed and stamped his feet.

"Hurry up, organize your troops and drive them out, hurry up!" Seeing this, Cao Ren broke out in a cold sweat.If you can't drive the opponent out of the pass, just start a melee like this, your own strength is not enough for others to bite their teeth.

"Wen Yuan, hurry up and open the city gate and let the big brother's army come in!" With a spear, he stabbed one of Cao Jun's uncles to death, and then turned around and cut the other man in two. Zhang Liao who came in shouted loudly.

"I know!" Zhang Liao yelled and stabbed the two of them to death. Right now, he and Zhang Fei just led a thousand people into the pass, and the defenders who reacted had already led people to intercept Liu Bei who was coming after him near the crack. At the same time, the army wanted to wipe out more than a thousand people like himself.No matter how confident Zhang Fei was, he didn't expect someone like himself to win Hulao Pass.

So at this time, Zhang Liao and Zhang Fei led their men to charge and kill at the door.Now it depends on who can hold on, if Zhang Liao and Zhang Fei can't hold on and the city gate is opened, then Cao Ren will lose today; if Zhang Fei and Zhang Liao can't open the city gate, then they will be forced trapped in the city.

"Quick, move the stone away!" When they reached the gate of the city, the two found that the gate had already been blocked with stones by Cao Ren.At that moment, Zhang Liao and Zhang Fei personally led the team to fight against the swarming Cao army, and dozens of others cleared away the stones piled up at the door with the fastest speed.At this time, Liu Bei, who was so anxious, saw that the door could not be opened for a long time, so he hurriedly led the army to charge, and ordered people to rush to the door.

"Kill!" Led by Zhang Fei and Zhang Liao, these thousands of people rushed desperately to buy time for the colleagues who opened the city gate.The gate of the city was already narrow, and Cao Jun couldn't rush through it for a while.Cao Ren had personally come down to command, but his speed was still extremely slow.

"Archers, shoot them all to death!" Seeing that the stones were getting less and less, Cao Ren ordered hastily.A group of archers hurried forward and fired random arrows at Cao Jun and Liu Jun who were fighting in the melee.During the hasty battle, there were not many people on both sides carrying shields, so amidst the screams, the hundreds of people in front of them were already dead on the spot, including those from both sides.

"Uncle, there are people of our own!" Cao Fu was dumbfounded when he saw this, and Cao Ren kept his mouth shut, but he was clear in his heart that if he didn't control the situation now, it would be a disaster.

"Wen Yuan, hurry up!" Seeing that Cao Ren was already preparing to shoot the second round of arrows, Zhang Fei was almost so anxious that he shouted on the spot.Zhang Liao pursed his lips and remained silent, but still ordered his men to quickly remove the stones.

"嗖" shot an arrow, and hit the back of a soldier who was carrying stones.The busy figure froze for a moment, but still threw aside a stone in his hand, and then fell down dead.

"Hit me!" Liu Bei, who was outside the door, heard the shouts of killing from inside through the city gate, as if every moment was as long as a year.Beside him, there were already soldiers pushing the chariot, hitting the city gate.

"Creak! Creak!" As fewer and fewer stones blocked the gate, every time the city gate hit, the sound would become louder and louder.Finally, after dozens of bumps, with a bang, the half city gate on the left fell backwards.

"Hurry up!" Liu Bei jumped up excitedly when he saw the city gate fall.Don't call him any more, the rest of the soldiers, under the leadership of Chen Dao, Gao Lan and others, rushed into the city to kill.Seeing this, Zhang Fei and Zhang Liao behind the city gate were overjoyed.If it weren't for the fierce battle, he would almost cry with joy.Although there were only five or six hundred of the thousand or so people who rushed in with him, even though Zhang Fei himself was hit by two arrows, Zhang Liao was even stabbed in the left shoulder by Cao Ren.But now that the large forces have rushed in, this sacrifice is obviously worth the money.

"No, quickly retreat into the inner city and continue defending!" Cao Ren's heart sank when he saw this.Although he was not reconciled, his rationality told him that it was really unrealistic for Cao Jun to drive the opponent out of the city, so he could only retreat into the inner city to defend.But what Cao Ren didn't expect was that his plan could not be realized.

"Cao Renxiu go!" It was Zhang Fei who took the lead and killed him like cutting through the waves.Cao Ren was shocked, and quickly ordered his subordinates to intercept it, while he was preparing to go to the inner city and organize an effective defense.At this moment, Cao Ren suddenly felt a great danger, attacking him.

Almost relying on instinct, Cao Ren hurriedly dodged to the right, but it was a step too late.A spiked arrow pierced through his armor in an instant and pierced his right shoulder.

"Ah!" Cao Ren screamed and looked towards the direction of the arrow, but saw an old general just put down the longbow in his hand.Seeing the surrounding Cao soldiers being killed one by one and knocked down to the ground, feeling the severe pain in his shoulder, a tragic thought suddenly rose in Cao Ren's heart.

"It looks like I'm going to die here today, and it's too late to go back to the inner city. The Hulao Pass is a natural danger. I lost it on the first day. How can I go to see the lord again? But Mengde, don't worry, I It's your brother, and I will never surrender." Having figured this out, Cao Ren gritted his teeth and grabbed the arrow branch on his shoulder, and pulled it out desperately.

"Follow me!" Cao Ren roared angrily after a hasty bandage, and then led his people to leave the battlefield quickly.On the other side, Liu Bei was also overjoyed to see Huang Zhong and Wen Pin rushing towards him.

"Han Sheng, Zhong Ye, luckily you arrived in time, otherwise, it would be difficult to take down Hulao Pass so easily today!" Liu Bei, who was in a good mood, also said with a smile.Of course, there is an element of politeness in these words. Although Huang Zhong and the others led the rear army to kill them in time, the wishful thinking of letting Cao Ren retreat into the inner city under the flanking attack failed, but even without them, Liu Bei's front army was enough to control the situation. , at most it's just a lot of trouble.Liu Bei wanted to praise him so much, but the two quickly said they didn't dare.

At this time, more and more Liu Jun rushed into the city, and Cao Jun had gradually lost the wind.Zhang Fei took the lead and led his men to kill in the inner city.Just when they were in full swing, a group of elite troops, led by Cao Ren who had just bandaged his wounds, suddenly rushed out from the inner city, almost without hesitating their own lives, and fought desperately with Zhang Fei's men, killing them all in no time. Unprepared, Liu Jun retreated steadily.Zhang Fei was furious, but he could only shout and fight fiercely, and stabilize his steps before making the next step.

　Brother is angry, why is the subscription less than half of the usual one today?In order to complete the expected task, I had no choice but to make a bad move, and the third watch was delivered!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)