Three Kingdoms: I, Yuan Shu, Loyal Officials of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 348 Prime Minister Cao is often ill; you should strive to improve!
After a heated debate, Cao Cao and Yuan Shu each held firm to their principles and refused to concede an inch, ceasing all further verbal exchanges.

Yuan Shu glanced coldly at Cao Cao on the city wall and gave a cold order.

"Liu Ye, where is the catapult?"

"It is all ready, Your Majesty, please wait a moment."

At Yuan Shu's command, Liu Ye hurriedly pushed out the hundreds of catapults that had been prepared.

"All troops, heed my command!"
Attack the city immediately!

Yuan Shu brandished his sword and gave the order!

"put!"

As soon as the word "release" was uttered, Liu Ye waved his command flag, and countless strongmen moved stones or pushed carts. When the taut strings were cut, countless boulders rained down.

Even Cao Cao's expression changed upon seeing the rain of stones falling from the sky, and he hurriedly ordered his soldiers to find cover.

Fortunately, the catapults were not very accurate, although the force of the boulders hitting the city was tremendous.

However, apart from a few unlucky individuals who were hit by the stone and turned into a pile of minced meat, many others were injured by the flying debris.

The actual damage caused by the stone-throwing carts was not significant, but their deterrent effect was extremely strong.

How could human power possibly withstand the might of heaven and earth?

The group of Cao soldiers were so frightened that they hid in the city wall shelters, trembling with fear. They dared not show their faces.

A deafening roar could be heard outside, as countless boulders rained down, and the entire Huanyuan Pass trembled slightly.

Occasionally, cries of alarm and screams could be heard, perhaps because the bunkers where people were hiding had been destroyed by these devastating rocks. As the bunkers collapsed, Cao Cao's army suffered heavy casualties and wailing.

The only thing that gave Cao Cao some comfort was that the dense rain of falling rocks was unbearable, and the catapults were never very accurate.

Therefore, although Cao Cao's army was so frightened that they hid in their bunkers and were unable to defend the city, Yuan Shao's army was not so insane as to launch an attack on the city under such indiscriminate sweeping attacks.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

It is unknown how many stones Yuan Jun brought, but the continuous attack by hundreds of catapults lasted for more than half an hour before it stopped.

Once he confirmed that Yuan's army had stopped throwing stones, Cao Cao emerged from his bunker and looked at the city wall again.

Not long ago, it was a majestic pass, but in just half an hour, it has become pitted and uneven, with many sections of the wall damaged. The pass is littered with scattered rocks, and flowing blood is mixed with mutilated limbs.

Cao Cao never imagined that before the battle had even officially begun, his own pass would already be in ruins.

Just as he was gritting his teeth, Xun You reminded him, "Prime Minister, Yuan's army has attacked the city. We must take immediate action."

Cao Cao looked over upon hearing this, and sure enough, it was true.

After all, the order to launch the catapults was in the hands of the enemy. As the Yuan army had taken the initiative to stop launching catapults, they naturally set off ahead of time and attacked Huanyuan Pass.

After Cao's army confirmed that there were no falling rocks, they came out from their bunkers. By then, Yuan's army was already close to the city wall and was almost about to climb it.

"Yuan Gonglu, you've gone too far!"

Cao Cao was furious. Just moments before, during their verbal sparring, they had openly declared their intention to fight each other head-on, but Yuan Shu showed no martial virtue.

They immediately launched a barrage of attacks, completely disrupting their prepared defenses.

Cao Cao hastily ordered his men to fire arrows, and seeing that the surrounding area was cluttered with scattered stones, he decided to go all out and ordered his generals:

"The three armies shall obey my command and take down the fallen rocks on the spot to throw at them, using their own rocks against them."

It can be said that Cao Cao's move was quite quick-witted. Since Yuan Shu had swept the ground, smashing all the logs, oil, and molten metal that Cao Cao had prepared, Cao Cao had taken advantage of the situation.

But it didn't matter. Everyone worked together to smash the falling rocks down, which could be used as boulders and also clean up the mess on the city wall.

Unfortunately, just as Cao Cao's army was beginning to make progress in its defenses under his command, a commotion broke out in Yuan Shao's camp outside the city, and then a series of enormous figures were brought out.

There were a total of twenty-five Lü Gong chariots, especially five of them upgraded models, which were quite different from the others at first glance.

Ordinary Lü Gong chariots are no more than four or five zhang tall, with a wooden frame as the skeleton and animal hides as the cover. Although they are difficult to deal with, they can be destroyed after one or two fierce battles.

However, Yuan's camp had five special Lu Gong chariots, each ten zhang tall, which stood out among the other enormous Lu Gong chariots.

Most terrifyingly, these five Lü Gong chariots were made of iron, with iron plates as their outer covering. They were impervious to water and fire, and unaffected by arrows, rain, or swords. Even if thrown at them with heavy stones, they would remain unharmed by metal.

Its imposing presence was like five impregnable fortresses, suffocating Cao Cao's army.

Currently, thanks to the new policies of the King of Han that reward inventions and the national policy that allows craftsmen to accumulate merits and be granted titles, the Han Kingdom has gathered almost all of the most outstanding blacksmiths, carpenters, leather craftsmen and other talents in the Nine Provinces.

These people studied the "Taiping Kaiwu" in the Han Kingdom every day and actively made inventions.

These five improved versions of the Lü Gong Chariots represent the pinnacle of scientific research since the Han Dynasty's blast furnace iron smelting era, and were also Yuan Shu's secret weapons prepared specifically to break through Huanyuan Pass.

At Huanyuan Pass, seeing twenty chariots of Lü Gong and five steel fortresses being pushed over, Cao Cao felt a chill run down his spine and his whole body went numb.

First, a hundred catapults swept the ground, and then these giant steel structures appeared.

Cao Cao glanced back at the arrows his soldiers had fired, arrows that couldn't even pierce iron and were less effective than a mosquito bite.

And the ridiculous scene of the swords and knives slashing at it, as if they were giving this enormous monster a foot massage.

Even when throwing stones, it's as if a child hastily throws a stone under the threat of a monster.

It's ten zhang high and twenty zhang wide. Anyone who didn't know better would think that you, Yuan Gonglu, were pushing five steel fortresses to crush me.

Megalofia!

Facing the might of a great power, from this day forward, Cao Cao began to feel a vague, inexplicable fear of certain enormous things.

"withstand!
"Everyone, hold the line! We absolutely cannot let Yuan's army hold the city walls!"

Cao Cao shouted hoarsely, trying his best to command his soldiers to hold off Yuan's army's attack.

Fortunately, although the five steel Lu Gong chariots were also equipped with various mechanical weapons such as swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, arrows, and hidden weapons, their main function was to maintain a safe passage for Yuan's army to enter the city.

Fortunately, Cao Cao currently has ample troops, and his more than 80,000 soldiers are motivated by the reward of military merit, so their morale is high.

After Cao Cao mobilized a large number of troops to block the gate, Yuan Shao's army, which had been on the city walls with iron chariots, engaged in a bloody close-quarters battle with Cao Cao's army, which was blocking the gate.

As for the remaining twenty ordinary Lü Gong chariots, although they were also extremely troublesome, they were not as terrifying as these iron-clad Lü Gong chariots. Under the command of Xun You and others, they managed to stabilize the battle situation.

The battle quickly became intense. Although Yuan's army numbered as many as 200,000, the only safe route to the city walls was the 25 Lu Gong carts, which were insufficient to deploy all of their troops in a short time.

As for the task of scaling the city walls with siege ladders, it was entirely entrusted to Li Jun, the vanguard general, to distract Cao Cao's army and relieve pressure on Lü Gongche. While Cao Cao's troops on the city walls managed to hold off Yuan Shao's offensive in this tense battle, Cao Cao's expression was extremely grim.

Because the troops were being depleted too quickly.

If it were a normal siege using ladders, after enduring various forms of depletion such as arrow rain, boiling water, rolling logs and boulders, almost one in ten of Yuan's troops would actually be able to climb the city walls.

Not to mention that if the siege ladder were overturned or pushed over, a large number of Yuan's soldiers would die.

Therefore, the strategy of warfare is to surround an enemy if you have ten times their strength, attack if you have five times their strength, and divide your forces if you have twice their strength.

This is why, when defending a city, one need not be afraid even when facing forces several times larger than one's own.

In this situation, Cao Cao relied on his 80,000 troops to defend the city. Not to mention Yuan Shu's troops in front of him, even if the 830,000 troops were real, he was confident that he could hold out and show Yuan Shu what he was capable of!
This time was different from the past. Cao Cao was personally overseeing the situation here, and he was certain that he would never agree to surrender the city to Yuan Shu, nor would he fall into Yuan Shu's trap and be harmed by Yuan Shu's schemes like Liu Biao.

As long as you remain focused on holding your ground and don't fall for Yuan Shu's schemes, with your 80,000 troops and the formidable pass, you can outlast even an army of 830,000.

This was precisely the confidence that led Cao Cao to personally lead his troops to confront Yuan Shu's main force.

However, this confidence is now showing signs of cracking in the face of these powerful national weapons built by the Han Kingdom.

Cao Cao frowned, knowing full well that things couldn't continue like this.

Although Yuan's army came up through the passages inside these Lu Gong's carriages, they were still at a disadvantage due to the large number of Cao's troops blocking the gate.

However, this disadvantage in terms of resource consumption is completely disproportionate to the original calculations of Yuan's army's swarming attack and scaling of the city walls with ladders.

Moreover, Yuan Shu brought out a full twenty-five wagons, which meant twenty-five unimpeded routes to the city. To completely block them, Cao Cao's army would face immense pressure.

Cao Cao gradually sensed something was wrong. Was this thing still meant to wear down Yuan Shu's attacking forces, even though he was the one defending the city?
I have a feeling that Yuan Gonglu is using his wealth and numbers to undermine me.
If I keep fighting him at a loss in terms of troop strength, how can I possibly outlast his hundreds of thousands of troops?
With the twenty-five Yuan armies being consumed simultaneously, even if I manage to hold the city, I won't be able to delay for more than a month. I'm afraid that the morale and strength of my own troops defending the city will be completely depleted by Yuan Shu.

Huainan was the richest place in the world, and the south had little war and a large population. The pseudo-Han family had a large business and could afford to spend it. How could the Central Plains, which had been war-torn and riddled with problems, compete with the wealth and resources of four generations of high-ranking officials?
We absolutely cannot let Yuan Shu have his way and drag on with a protracted war. Knowing that time is of the essence, Cao Cao immediately issued an order:

"At all costs, we must destroy the enemy's Lü Gongche!"

Although those steel rolling carts are difficult to destroy in a short time, we can dismantle as many of the remaining ordinary rolling carts as possible.

Each lost Lu Gong chariot is like cutting off a branch of the river, which can greatly slow down the speed at which Yuan's army ascends the city and reduce the loss of soldiers in close combat between the two sides.

Thus, with twenty-five Lü Gong chariots as the core, the two sides engaged in a bloody battle, fighting fiercely for a whole day.

At the entrance to the city from Lügongche, countless fallen corpses piled up like mountains, causing a traffic jam. The flowing blood flowed down the city walls, staining Lügongche red.

"Zheng! Zheng! Zheng!"

Finally, as the sun set, the sound of retreat echoed through Yuan's camp, and Yuan's army, pushing five steel Lügong carts and seventeen ordinary Lügong carts, retreated like a receding tide.

As for the remaining three Lu Gong chariots, they were destroyed by Cao Cao's army in this great battle.

Huanyuan Pass was the gateway to Luoyang, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Although Yuan Shu mobilized 200,000 troops to attack, the number of troops he could deploy to the city walls in a short period of time was limited.

Cao Cao held firm with over 80,000 troops, defending the city with utmost vigilance. Despite suffering considerable casualties, he managed to hold off the day's offensive.

Despite this, Cao Cao could not be happy at all, because nearly three thousand people had been killed or wounded in this battle to defend the city.

This number of casualties was terrifying for him, who was stationed at Xiongcheng Pass.

This means that if Yuan Jun continues his offensive as it is today, his 80,000-plus men will not even last a month.

Moreover, the situation will only become more difficult as the number of defenders dwindles.

Cao Cao knew he had no reinforcements!
Even if Yuan Shu's forces are depleted, he still has the puppet Han regime behind him. There are millions of men from Huainan, who wouldn't want to fight for the country?

But there are really no soldiers left in Luoyang, which is behind their own territory!
With Liu Bei transferring the last of the Western Garden Army to Yanzhou to resist Lü Bu, Luoyang was practically ready to deploy the 10,000 imperial guards who protected the emperor in the palace to fight.

They really emptied their underwear.

Under such circumstances, Yuan Shu's attitude of throwing money and manpower at Cao Cao on his very first day of arrival, relying on his wealth and power to wear him down, truly made Cao Cao feel hopeless.

Three or five days is manageable, but how will we get through a month or two?
They poured all the resources of the Han Dynasty into this effort, yet they couldn't even hold out against Yuan Shu in a war of attrition lasting a month or two. What kind of mess is this?
However, contrary to Cao Cao's expectations, Yuan Shu in the Han camp was also not very satisfied with the results of today's battle.

After all, it was a siege battle. Even with the steel Lu Gong chariots, which greatly reduced the losses of the Han army in climbing the city walls, once they got to the city, they still had to fight a bloody battle against Cao Cao's army who were blocking the gates.

Even if the Han army was elite, its attrition rate was still higher than that of the Cao army.

In today's battle, he lost nearly five thousand Han soldiers.

"Since I began my campaigns in the south and north, I have been invincible since leaving Shouchun. Every enemy general I have encountered has surrendered to Yuan Shikai, and every fortified city I have met has welcomed my royal army with joy."

He, the King of Han, had never fought such a tough battle before.

Consumption?
This is consuming the very foundation of my Han Kingdom!
If we were to drag this out for a month with Cao Cao, what would become of us? Even if we managed to capture Huanyuan Pass, we would suffer heavy losses.

This can't go on!

We still need to think of a way to get Cao Cao to communicate with Yuan Xiancheng.

With this in mind, Yuan Shu pondered for a moment and then summoned Cao Anmin to an audience.

"Your humble servant Anmin greets Your Majesty."

"Stop talking nonsense. The Emperor is in Luoyang. I am the Prince of Han, a relative of the Yuan Han clan, and a loyal subject of the Han Dynasty. How dare I overstep my bounds?"

Yuan Shu casually mentioned Cao Anmin and then gave his instructions.

"Anmin, since you are the liaison between the Cao and Yuan families, I have a letter here persuading you to surrender. You are to act as an envoy and deliver it to Cao Cao."

"This will teach him to recognize the will of Heaven early on, and to return to the rule of the king, lest he be like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, and be reduced to dust when the army breaches the city."

Cao Anmin: "???"

No, Your Majesty!
I persuaded Cao Cao to surrender?
Are you serious?
The moment he pulls out the letter urging me to surrender, wouldn't he want to fry me in oil?

"Your Majesty, it is not that I am afraid of death, but I am afraid that I will fail in my duties and fail to live up to your expectations, thus tarnishing Your Majesty's wisdom."

"How could I not know of your abilities?"

Yuan Shu scrutinized him carefully and smiled meaningfully.

"Please, my people, I have heard that Prime Minister Cao has been suffering from headaches for a long time and I fear he will not live much longer."

You should strive to do well!

(End of this chapter)