My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 745: The Northern Front is Just Playing with Cao Ze

Zhang He's attempt to intimidate Zhou Yu failed, so he had to launch a full-scale siege on the city. The two sides soon engaged in a fierce and bloody battle.

Under the command of Zhang He, Cao's army sent out tens of thousands of archers, holding rattan shields and relying on the cover of wooden battlements, to approach the moat of Nanpi and shoot at the city walls across the river.

Cao's catapults also approached to a dangerous close distance, hoping to cover the top of the city with a rain of rubble.

The attackers, who received long-range fire support from their own side, pushed the complete Ge Gong carts, tall ladders and battering rams, and slowly approached the wall in batches.

The archers of Liu Bei's army on the city wall also fired arrows in unison, giving Cao's army a resolute counterattack. Especially those crossbowmen equipped with heavy waist-drawn crossbows and the bed crossbows on the top of the city wall, all aimed at the catapults of Cao's army approaching, trying to counterattack and kill them.

Cao's army's level of using catapults is one of the best in the world. As early as the Battle of Guandu, Cao's army's thunder chariots showed their power - of course, most of the time they were only second to none. Anyway, there were only the Cao and Liu families left in the world now, and the others were just a bunch of barbarians and not worth mentioning.

Over the years, Cao's army's catapults mostly threw single-shot bullets and rarely used gravel rain.

On the one hand, the tonnage of Cao's army's catapults is relatively low. If gravel is used, the firepower density is relatively low and the single-shot lethality cannot be guaranteed.

On the other hand, because the rain of gravel could not be thrown far, it had to be shot at close range. The Cao army's catapults lacked protection. Once the range was reduced to that of a single soldier's crossbow, the danger would be very great and the gunners could easily be killed by the enemy's rain of arrows.

However, one should look at others with new eyes after three days of absence, let alone three years. Cao's army will also continue to keep pace with the times and learn.

Three years ago, Liu Bei's army was used to using catapults as shields to protect against arrows. The structural design was not difficult and could be imitated by looking at the real thing on the battlefield or capturing some broken pieces of enemy soldiers. Cao's army naturally learned it now, so Zhang He also used the stone rain catapult to shoot at close range today.

If they had not learned some new tactics in the past few years, Xiahou Dun and Zhang He might not have the confidence to attack Nanpi by force today.

But they didn't know that while they were learning from others, the Zhuge brothers were also constantly improving technology and tinkering with new things. In the time it took them to copy others' ideas two or three times, the original creators might have come up with ten or eight new things.

……

"My Lord! Cao's catapults are also fully equipped with anti-arrow shields. The waist-drawn crossbows simply cannot penetrate such thick hardwood. The bed crossbows can only penetrate the wooden boards at most, but it is difficult to kill the gunners behind the shields."

Soon after the battle, the frontline officers of the defending army discovered this problem. Then the two military commanders in charge of commanding the crossbowmen immediately reported the latest situation to Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu also noticed this quickly, but he did not panic at all. He calmly ordered the crossbow troops to adjust their targets and the defenders on the city walls to adjust their positions.

"All archers do not need to suppress the enemy's approaching catapults. Let them throw! Gather the crossbowmen on the side of the horse, ready to shoot at the approaching ladders from the left and right.

The Eight Ox Crossbows continued to suppress the catapults until the enemy's Ge Gongche approached the city, and then they shot arrows from the side with iron rods and cables. A huge stone weighing thousands of pounds was tied to the end of the cable. Once it pierced the enemy's Ge Gongche, the stone would be thrown over the city wall.

However, Cao's army may have improved the Ge Gongche. The Ge Gongche they used today has a lower center of gravity than previous years, so it may not be able to be pulled down. Let the horse-cutting sword team and the iron halberd team retreat to the opposite side of the city wall for cover, and wait until the enemy is about to reach the city before coming up!"

Zhou Yu passed down a series of orders. The generals looked at his calm and composed manner in giving orders. They were inexplicably comforted by his emotions and quickly and efficiently carried out the orders.

The archers no longer wasted firepower on the enemy's trebuchets, but just waited for their own catapult troops to slowly deal with Cao's trebuchets with single-headed bullets.

The archers of Liu Bei's army hid on both sides of the protruding horse-faces on the city wall, focusing on dealing with the approaching enemies with cross-flank fire.

The mamian is the part of the city wall that protrudes forward. The battlements and shooting holes on both sides of the mamian make it convenient for archers to launch side shots at enemies climbing the wall.

The horse-faced mask was not a new thing in the Han Dynasty. It had always existed. However, most of the previous horse-faced masks were solid earth platforms, lacking arrow shooting windows on the upper and lower levels and lacking any cover on the top.

Zhou Yu had been managing Nanpi for several years, and he knew that this place would sooner or later be attacked by Cao's army. If Cao's army wanted to cut off the connection between Youzhou under Zhao Yun's rule and other states in Liu Bei's camp, conquering Bohai County was the quickest and most efficient way.

Moreover, if Cao's army wanted to attack Youzhou, they had to cross the Yishui River in the north. If they wanted to attack Qingzhou in the south, they had to cross the Yellow River. But to attack Bohai, which also belonged to Jizhou, they did not need to cross any big river. They just had to go downstream along the Zhangshui River and fight a battle directly in the Hebei Plain.

Therefore, as long as Cao's army attacks Hebei, they will inevitably attack Nanpi first. Any smart person can guess this.

During the two or three years of truce between the two armies, Zhou Yu had already used a considerable portion of the surplus money, food and manpower from his rule over Bohai to strengthen Nanpi City and repair various new city defense facilities.

Especially after his brother-in-law Zhuge Liang came up with the rent-and-labor system and the system of money for labor service, Zhou Yu made full use of these systems to make the people who were unwilling to serve pay more money to serve. When war was likely to break out, he would spend money in advance to hire more laborers, concentrate on construction, and urgently reinforce the positions that the enemy might focus on attacking.

In a nutshell, with the support of various policies and efficient deployment, the defensive power of Nanpi City after Zhou Yu's restoration and renovation was far beyond what Zhang He had imagined.

Moreover, many small innovations in city defense design and construction are difficult for outsiders to understand at first glance, even if they are sent as spies. They have to experience them personally and suffer losses before they can learn from them.

For example, the wall of Nanpi City was built by Zhou Yu with a solid roof on top, and thick hard boards supported by huge wood, which was enough to withstand the impact of rain of gravel.

The traditional horse mask has no roof and is exposed on top, making it easy to be killed by rain of arrows and stones.

In addition to the ceiling, Zhou Yu also raised the hollow space in the middle of the horse face to store soldiers and shoot arrows, and opened more shooting holes on the side walls so that archers could stand in three layers up and down to shoot arrows.

There are many engineering design details, which are difficult to describe one by one. In short, Zhou Yu was able to use a defensive building that seemed to be of similar area to accommodate several times the number of archers and crossbowmen to concentrate their fire, and the firepower density was far beyond the imagination of laymen.

In addition to the crossbowmen being able to get a safer output environment and focus more on side shooting, the city guards, the horse-slashing sword soldiers and halberd soldiers, can also get more cover and more convenient access to the wall.

Make sure that there are not too many people standing on the wall at normal times, so that when the enemy really approaches the city and wants to engage in hand-to-hand combat, the melee soldiers of the defenders can rush up as quickly as possible to block the entrance.

This feeling is like when defending some solid positions with tunnels in later generations, when encountering enemy fire preparation, the defenders would hide in the tunnels first. When the enemy's artillery bombardment stopped and they were about to charge, the defenders would come out of the tunnels to block the enemy in close combat.

The specific operations are of course different in ancient and modern times, but the principles are similar. In this era, the most threatening firepower preparation for the attackers is nothing more than a rain of gravel or indiscriminate high-throw blind shooting with bows and crossbows. As long as the defenders hide in a cave with a solid roof or hide in the projection area of the reverse slope of the city wall, they can basically ensure their safety.

As a result, Zhang He saw a seemingly encouraging scene. Under his reckless firepower preparation, the defenders' rain of arrows from bows and crossbows became increasingly sparse.

Only the trebuchets deployed by the defenders on the high platform behind the city wall were constantly calibrating their shots and countering Cao's trebuchets. Cao's trebuchets simply could not cross the visual barrier of the city wall to calibrate and destroy Liu Bei's trebuchets.

But it didn't matter for now, because the rate of loss of Cao's trebuchets was completely tolerable. As long as they helped the friendly forces to reach the city, it didn't matter if a few more trebuchets were destroyed in the process.

The ladders and the Ge Gong carts were soon pushed forward, and the defensive firepower of the defenders suddenly increased. Countless rolling logs, stones, ash bottles and gold juice were thrown and splashed down crazily.

The huge trees and sheep-head stones hit the side walls of the ladder truck and Gegong bus, making loud clanging sounds, but they were unable to break or collapse them directly.

Lime powder, boiling water and gold juice seeped into the cracks and holes of siege weapons, and when they splashed into people's eyes and bodies, they still caused severe pain and screams.

"Hold on! Keep pushing! Arrows and rubble can't penetrate Ge Gongche! The enemy has no other ability!" The grassroots officers of Cao's army yelled at the top of their lungs, urging their soldiers to continue pushing the siege equipment and preparing to climb.

Zhang He planned this assault very carefully. Each Gegong car had a Quchang responsible for supervising and commanding, and each heavy ladder was assigned a Tunchang. Before the siege weapons were destroyed, the Quchang and Tunchang had to personally supervise the battle and were not allowed to retreat, let alone the soldiers under them.

Even if they are just in the front row holding up shields, shooting at the wall and attracting enemy fire, they cannot retreat easily, otherwise severe military law will be waiting for them.

However, as if to break the instructions of these front-line siege officers, at the last moment of the sprint, two new tricks emerged from the already fierce firepower of the defenders.

Cao's soldiers suddenly saw dozens of bamboo slides hastily set up on the top of the city wall. They didn't seem to be too long, about three or four feet long, only slightly longer than the width of the top of the city wall. The slides had a certain natural slope, and then groups of defending soldiers worked together to lift the thousand-pound boulders onto the slides, relying on gravity to accelerate them and roll forward. After flying out of the city wall, they could still fly ten steps away by inertia.

This boulder is obviously much larger than a stone that can be thrown by human power, and at least dozens of times heavier. When an ordinary sheep's head stone hits the Ge Gongche, it may not be able to break the side walls and pillars. But this thousand-pound stone, relying on the acceleration of gravity to aim and hit, has a different effect.

If the ladder was hit, half of it would collapse directly. If the Ge bus was hit against the wall, there would be a big hole. If it hit the pillar directly, the pillar would inevitably have a crack.

It seems that these slide rails can be temporarily disassembled and relocated, and the height and angle of the installation can be adjusted. Obviously, the defenders saw where the attackers' Ge Gong buses and ladders were going to be attached to the wall, and then temporarily moved them over for targeted blocking.

Therefore, Cao's army failed to destroy these huge stone slides during the pre-fire preparation stage. Because these things had not been set up at that time, it was only after the Cao army's gravel rain stopped and Cao's own soldiers rushed to the nearby area that Zhou Yu ordered them to temporarily assemble and fire.

Several Ge buses were smashed with large holes, and the internal stairs were broken and damaged. Several ladder trucks even collapsed directly.

At the same time, the defenders did not forget to use the trick they had used many years ago, which was to shoot arrows with thick hemp ropes at the end with the eight-ox crossbow. After these arrows pierced the heavy equipment of the attackers, the defenders pushed the huge stones at the end of the hemp ropes down the city wall, hoping to pull down the vehicles with the gravity of the stones transmitted by the ropes.

When this move was first used, it was Zhou Yu himself who suffered the most, but he was the one who was beaten and suffered the loss.

That was twelve years ago, before Sun Ce was defeated, Zhou Yu secretly learned the earliest primitive version of Ge Gongche, and then wanted to use it to deal with Guangling City, which was defended by Chen Deng. As a result, Chen Deng used the method Zhuge Jin taught him in advance to break Zhou Yu's beggar version of Ge Gongche, and directly overturned many unstable Ge Gongche by dragging them sideways with huge rocks tied with hemp ropes.

Later, Zhou Yu suffered a loss and passed on the relevant experience to the "friendly forces" at that time. At that time, they were each serving their own masters.

Now Zhou Yu used the same trick again, although he also upgraded some of his means, but Zhang He on the opposite side seemed to be well prepared. The Ge Gongche built by Cao's army nowadays is mostly a trapezoidal platform structure, with a very stable lower part, a large bottom and a small top, and a very low center of gravity.

No matter how hard Zhou Yu used the powerful Eight Ox Crossbow and thick ropes and huge rocks, he could not pull it down.

In the end, only four ladders were pulled down, and none of Ge Gongche was pulled down. Zhou Yu's city defense tactics were fully utilized.

However, although Ge Gongche did not fall down, the places on the side walls that were hit by the giant crossbow were also cracked by the gravity of the huge rocks. Several solid wooden boards were torn off, exposing the internal spiral climbing stairs.

Many of the hemp ropes that were as thick as human legs could not withstand the huge force and broke directly. The ropes that flew out and hit people immediately caused blood and flesh to fly everywhere, and they died instantly.

The force of this kind of rope is hard to imagine. You can search on Douyin for the cables that fix ships at berths. If they break and hit a person, what will happen? To say that blood and flesh will fly everywhere and a person will be cut in half is an understatement.

When the broken hemp rope rebounds, it will sometimes hit the attacking Cao soldiers in the car, and there is a very small chance that it will hit the soldiers of Liu Bei's army operating the crossbows. No matter how heavy their armor is, this kind of pure power-based physical attack cannot be defended against.

Dozens of people on both sides were killed or injured in this attack, which shows the cruelty of war.

The Cao army was hit by two rounds of huge stones and crossbows, and was stunned for a while, but then became more ferocious and rushed up desperately.

"Shoot! Shoot quickly! Shoot at the sides of the ladder trucks! Also shoot at the Ge bus with a hole in its side!"

Inside the city wall, the defending officers were roaring at the top of their lungs, directing the archers to adjust their firepower.

A dense rain of arrows was aimed at the left and right sides of Cao's army climbing the wall, and shot downwards at an angle.

The Cao army also expected that there would be cross-fire at this time, but they were still confused when they were suddenly covered by the rain of arrows, especially the Quchang and Tunchang on the front line.

They had never expected that the battlements that didn't seem to protrude from the main city wall very deeply could hide so many archers and such a high density of firepower.

This cannot be blamed on them. After Zhou Yu's modification, the horse-faced armor could accommodate several times more archers per unit cross-sectional area. The structural design was also more reasonable, making it easier to output emergency firepower in turns. The rain of arrows was almost non-stop.

Most of the Cao army's front row soldiers were sword and shield soldiers, because only short weapons were convenient for climbing. Two-handed weapons such as spears and halberds were not easy to climb ladders, let alone hold shields.

Soldiers equipped with shields often hold the weapon in their right hand and the shield in their left hand, so the left side has higher defense. When climbing, they will subconsciously hold the shield to the upper left to protect the heart, head, face and neck.

The defenders' archers were obviously well-organized and well-prepared, and they tried to aim to the right when shooting arrows.

The attacking soldiers' shields had to protect themselves from the rolling logs and rocks above, and their defense against arrows from the flanks was greatly reduced. Even soldiers wearing cast iron armor would not be spared if they were shot at by crossbows.

Of course, Cao Jun's Ge Gongche was originally able to protect against arrows, but the ladder truck could not provide shelter when climbing the upper half of the ladder at the back.

But now, several of Ge's buses had big holes in their sides, and the defenders stared at these holes and shot arrows into them frantically. Rows of dead and wounded immediately blocked the stairs inside the bus, and lay all over the floor.

Finally, several Cao army officers were able to think of a quick solution and blocked the hole with the bodies of their dead comrades, including their helmets and armor, so that the soldiers behind them could hold the bodies to prevent them from sliding down, thus allowing the bodies to block subsequent arrows.

Some Cao army officers who were quick-witted even picked up a few swords of their fallen comrades and stabbed them directly into the hands and feet of the corpses. They nailed the corpses' arms to the board wall above the hole and their feet to the floor below the hole, so that the corpses could be stuck in the hole like a patch.

After all kinds of arduous efforts, and despite the enemy's endless defensive firepower and huge casualties, Cao's army finally climbed to the top of the ladder in batches.

The planks of Ge Gongche fell heavily, and the iron spikes in front of the planks, as long as sharp knives, pierced fiercely into the rammed earth and bricks of the battlements on the top of the city. Cao's sword and shield soldiers swarmed over the planks and rushed towards the city wall.

Even in this last section of the congested road, the defending army's archers still did not give up. The moment they saw the planks being lowered, they fired blindly at the sideways planks. Many Cao soldiers were shot and fell while rushing past the planks.

Cao's soldiers were also protected by armor, so the arrow wounds might not be fatal. But if they could not control their body and fell after feeling the pain, they would at least be seriously injured and disabled.

As soon as Cao Bing rushed over the plank, he saw the long halberds stabbing in front of him. Before the sword and shield soldiers in the front row could do anything, they were stabbed into a bloody candied haws and fell to death with a muffled groan.

By continuously piling up lives and charging forward, the Cao army's sword and shield soldiers finally squeezed out a few gaps in the crowd with their brutal charge before death, and also hacked and stabbed randomly to cause some superficial damage to the defenders, but it could not change the situation of the battle.

The Cao soldiers standing on the wall were soon attacked from three sides by the defenders in an orderly manner.

A large number of long spears that were arranged in an orderly manner for stabbing and pecking, and a small number of horse-cutting swords mixed in to fill in the gaps, together formed a war machine that advanced and retreated in an orderly manner and killed decisively, devouring batches of Cao's soldiers who were blocking the gaps.

The archers on both sides of the horse still did not stop firing, and they kept shooting at the Ge Gongche planks that kept rushing up. As long as Cao's soldiers tried to rush up the wall through the planks to support the friendly forces, they would inevitably be hit by a rain of arrows.

If Cao's soldiers sent ten soldiers to climb the wall, two or three might be killed or injured under the side fire of the section through the planks. It was simply a bottomless pit of blood and flesh.

However, the situation of direct hand-to-hand combat gave Cao's generals a glimmer of hope to gain a foothold. They were reluctant to give up, so they had to continue to throw lives into this meat grinder endlessly.

"It seems that Zhang He is very determined this time. He will send a few more halberd reserve troops up from the reverse slope of the city wall and the hiding caves on the wall.

Pay attention to the rhythm, don't let our army appear too strong, and make Cao's army feel that they can survive if they just grit their teeth a little more."

Zhou Yu looked at this efficient killing field with a grim expression. He did not show any reluctance, but controlled the pace of the reserve team's deployment based on considerations of interests.

But don't act too strong, it would be best if you can just barely hold on.

That way, when the enemy retreats in the future, they won't have to worry about Liu Bei's army counterattacking or pursuing them. This balance is not easy to grasp.

(End of this chapter)