Digging tunnels, is this reliable?

It doesn't get much more reliable than that!

At least going out of the tunnel will not expose the figure of the brigade to the Yan army's crossbowmen's field of vision, for Cao Ren, unless the Yan army's catapult is burned as soon as possible, this battle will not be fought at all!

Long-range weapons, since humans learned to hunt, have meant the highest technology of an era. In Cao Ren's time, bows and crossbows and stone cannons were the most exquisite objects in the world. In this context, Yan's strong crossbow and stone cannon are the best in the world.

Most bows are similar, nothing more than the material determines the range and power, but under the same conditions, being able to arm and recruit more skilled archers means achieving greater advantages on the battlefield; Needless to say, the Yan clan's strong crossbow is extremely strong, and the catapult, this heavy, slow, and troublesome large weapon, the Yan clan, which has been crafted since a few years ago, is the strongest in the world.

All this put a lot of pressure on Cao Ren and crushed the morale of his subordinates.

It doesn't seem terrible that a heavy catapult might throw a stone all the time in the middle of the day to smash an enemy to death in a dead mouse. But if only one enemy was killed by the cannon, then ninety-nine soldiers would flee because they saw the terrible situation in the robes.

The blow to morale caused by the falling of hundreds of pounds of flying stones from the sky is a real catastrophe.

This kind of siege ordnance changes the mode of urban warfare to a certain extent, and the advantages and disadvantages change with the qualitative change caused by the number of siege ordnance. It is worth mentioning that in the past few decades, the catapult has not received so much attention as a weapon, because there is no place for expensive and cumbersome stone cannons in the counterinsurgency wars when the world is stable, and most of the princes are willing to spend a lot of money to make stone cannons when the world is in chaos.

It takes enough timber and craftsmanship to build a stone cannon to arm five hundred ordinary foot soldiers, and a stone cannon requires twenty to fifty men to handle it. Just as the large stone cannons used in Yanbei today require fifty strong men to operate, and a hundred stone cannons require an army of 5,000 people to serve this matter, no one will use stone cannons to defeat the enemy in the field.

This is a high-investment, low-return thing, so stone artillery has not been of much use on the battlefield. But when an army of tens of thousands of people has 100 stone cannons, the situation is different. The defenders of the city, especially a small city like Chengwu, have no power to fight back under the stone cannons!

Maybe it was Cao Ren's good luck, Chengwu's city wall was still quite strong, and the stone cannon bombardment still failed to collapse the city for more than half an hour, but the north city head was smashed into a mess, and then at noon, the Yan army trapped Chen's team to enter the city, and the city broke the door with a wooden crash, but they were all beaten back by Cao Ren's soldiers.

Both Cao Ren and Yan Bei knew very well in their hearts that what they were afraid of defending the city was not a strong attack, what they were afraid of was only stone artillery.

In the afternoon, the northern city was still bombarded by stone cannons, and the northern part of Yan led 3,000 soldiers from the west to try to enter the city, but Cao Ren was well guarded, and the two sides had each other's casualties in the city, and immediately retreated. Yanbei sent people to push up a three-zhang high lookout platform and a dozen two-zhang high shooting platforms outside the city.

Cao Ren was even more nervous in the city, which was by no means good news for him, there was a lookout higher than the city wall to see the movement of troops and horses in the city, and there was an archery platform that could make the rain of arrows pour down on the city and even in the city, and the advantage of the defenders would be more eroded.

But Cao Ren had no other way, and tried to interfere with the people working under the city with a rain of arrows, but was frightened back by the more violent stone cannon bombardment of the generals, which was like a battle of trapped beasts, and he was trapped in this city, and he had no plan.

At night, every hour or two outside the city was played with drums and music, and the soldiers fought bravely to attack the city, and the defenders of the city had to sleep at the base of the city walls, but they still could not stand the occasional boulder thrown into the city from outside the city.

On the second day, the Yan army attacked more fiercely, and the stone artillery in the north of the city, Guanhai in the west of the city, and Zhang Liao in the south of the city brought more pressure to Cao Ren under the attack of the three forces. However, Cao Ren also made up his mind, because the tactics adopted by Yanbei had already made him see that they did not have much risk in a short period of time, as long as the city was not carried out, Yanbei was unwilling to storm the city.

"Drag him and wait for them to relax."

No one can stay awake all the time, and no one can always be vigilant, an attack that can be guarded against for a long time will make people lose their vigilance, and Yanbei is waiting for this opportunity.

For his part, Cao Ren only hoped that this time would continue for a long time, until the sovereign Cao Cao's request for him to defend the city for three months was met, and as for victory...... He never thought that if there were no natural and man-made disasters, it would be like a fool's dream, and it would not happen.

Chengwu City was under a long-term siege, but the situation of the Yan Clan's Western Route Army was not as ingenious as the main army.

After Jiang Jin and Zhang Xiu withdrew from Chenliu to attack Jingzhou, Gao Lan, Zhang Jaw of the Yan army and Cao Chun of the Cao army set their sights on this place at the same time, attacking Chenliu County from the north to the south, and the two sides found traces of each other at the junction of Chenliu County and Chen Guojie without any suspense.

Zhang Jaw followed the scout all the way to the foot of the mountain, looked into a distant place where the enemy army was camped, cautiously drooled, turned to his lieutenant Fang Yue and asked, "That's our enemy, why don't you retreat." ”

The enemy army encamped in the countryside was called the tiger and leopard cavalry in the Cao army.

The reason why Zhang Jaw was jealous was that what he saw was not a cavalry, but an army of men and horses covered with armor. It's not unheard of such an army opening its jaws, and this is the case with the Yan Zhao warriors under the northern part of Yan, so he knows better what kind of outcome he will face when he fights against such an army that can decide the outcome of the war.

At least as far as he could see, the Yan Zhao warriors made great contributions with Yan Bei, and the casualties on the way to the southern and northern wars were not counted, but whenever they were used in the war, the Yan clan had never been defeated.

Now there is a whole song of tigers and leopards in front of Zhang Jaw, if such an army is only attacking, there should be a large number of ordinary soldiers camped not far from them, but Zhang Jaw did not see it. What does this mean? It means that such a cavalry is the main force of Cao's Western Route Army this time. Although Zhangjaw's subordinates are not miscellaneous soldiers, they are just ordinary soldiers, and they are afraid that they will not get the slightest benefit from fighting against such an elite of the Cao army.

Fang Yue didn't dare to speak presumptuously, and said to Zhang Jaw: "Why doesn't the general report to General Gao at this time and discuss it again?" ”

Zhang Jaw nodded, even if he really wanted to fight, this enemy army was not something he could swallow alone, and he had to unite with Gao Ran's ten thousand troops to have a chance to win, so he immediately decided to report to Gao Ran.

His choice was extremely wise, because the entire tiger and leopard cavalry battalion of the Cao army had entered Chenliu County, and they were facing a full 5,000 tiger and leopard cavalry, and their mission was to harass the Yan army's western route and create fighters for the east.

A battle that kicked off with the prudence of the open jaw.