"Someone has proposed a plan to build an embankment to drain the water, but this is pure nonsense. "Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info" Xu Shu shook his head self-deprecatingly and said, "Luoyang is built on the back of the mountain, and the terrain is higher. The Luoshui River is very wide, and the embankment project is huge. There are many waterways and ditches inside and outside Luoyang City, which are easy to dredge. Taking a step back, even if this strategy is successful, it will become an ocean within dozens of miles of Luoyang, and the army will not be able to gain a foothold, and finally drown itself and laugh generously. ”

"Now we have only one way to attack Luoyang, and that is to use all kinds of siege equipment to launch a forcible attack."

Xu Shu raised his voice slightly and said: "As early as last year, after the end of the Central Plains War, the lord drew up a detailed list of siege equipment, so that the imperial court could speed up the system. In the second half of last year, some heavy siege equipment was successively transported to various departments, and they had already played a role in attacking the periphery of Luoyang. ”

"Up to today, all kinds of ordnance that the lord had drawn up at the beginning have been quickly transported to Luoyang City on time and in full through land and water, and the preparations for the big war have basically been completed."

Xu Shu then explained the number of various types of ordnance and the specific figures assigned to each ministry. Among them, all kinds of heavy siege equipment such as ladders, trench bridges, temporary vehicles, rushing vehicles, indignations, repair oars, crossbow cars, bed crossbows, catapults, etc., as well as some individual combat ordnance with hook ropes and hand crossbows and other equipment that first appeared in the assault department, because the number is limited, it is necessary to make unified arrangements for the line in order to play the greatest role.

"At present, there are 230,000 troops under Luoyang City, which is the entire strength of the siege."

Xu Shu pointed to the map, drew twice in the east and south directions of Luoyang City on the map, and said to the generals: "The Yingchuan battlefield is about General Yu's army, during our siege, he will lead the army to block the rebels in Jing and Henan Prefectures, and protect the security of the southern passes of Luoyang. The containment battlefield of the two states of Qingyan has the army of Chang Yuchun, who will lead the army to deter Xuzhou and Yuzhou and protect the security of the eastern pass of Luoyang. ”

"All the grain and grass baggage in Hebei will be transported by water to Maojindu in Guanxi and Mengjindu in the north of Luoyang, and then from these two ferries to Luoyang City. Therefore, the safety of the grain road will be undertaken by Tan Daoji and Zhang Shijie's sailors. ”

Xu Shu's eyes looked at Zhang Fei, Sima Yi and the others, and continued: "Sima Yi and Tai Shici led an army of 20,000 to deploy in the north of Luoyang City. Zhang Fei and Yu Ban led an army of 20,000 to deploy in the south of Luoyang City. The defenses of the southern and northern cities of Luoyang are very strong, and although your troops are too small, the attack must also be very sharp. Hit the threshing gate in the direction of the north city, open the yang gate in the direction of the south city, concentrate the forces to storm a little, and be sure to hold off the enemy. ”

Yue Fei, Xu Da, Xie Xuan, Li Guangbi and Zhang Yan led an army of 130,000 to deploy in the west of Luoyang City. Li Jing and Gao Shun led an army of 60,000 to deploy in the east of Luoyang City. ”

Xu Shu smiled at the puzzled eyes of the generals and said, "In the two main attack battlefields, our attack strategies are different. On the Eastern Front, Wu Ba and Guan Hai feinted to attack the East Gate and the Consume Gate, while Li Jing and Gao Shun concentrated their main forces on attacking the Middle East Gate. On the Western Front, the 130,000-strong army will launch an all-out attack on the ten-mile-long city wall, leaving the rebels unable to parry. ”

In terms of specific methods, Xu Shu made some explanations.

"In the early days of the war, the main thing was to use siege equipment to attack, so that the rebels could expose their defensive tactics as much as possible, so as to find countermeasures to destroy and suppress them. In the middle of the war, siege equipment was still used to kill and injure the rebel troops as much as possible, destroy the rebels' defense facilities, and consume the rebels' supplies. At the end of the war, all the siege equipment was concentrated to storm a little, completely suppress the rebel counterattack, and cover the assault force Qu Dengcheng to fight. ”

After Xu Shu finished speaking, the generals of the various ministries and commanders said that the problem was mainly focused on the siege equipment, thinking that the battlefield attack surface was too large, the rebel defense facilities were too strong, and their own troops and siege equipment were obviously insufficient.

"Fight first, and after a few days, we will adjust the attack according to the specific situation on the battlefield." Li Yi stood up and waved his hand, "You must remember that our troops are limited, and we must do everything possible to reduce our losses, and don't let the soldiers fall under the city without restraint and senselessness." ”

The generals agreed with a bang.

………………

At the beginning of May of the fifth year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Northern Xinjiang Army launched a full-scale attack on Luoyang City.

On the battlefield of Xicheng, the Northern Xinjiang Army deployed 1,000 heavy, medium, and light catapults, 5,000 crossbow cars, bed ballista cars, and 30,000 strong bows, with amazing long-range firepower.

On the battlefield more than ten miles long in the west of Luoyang City, there were crowds of people, bustling, flags fluttering, hundreds of thousands of troops, hundreds of thousands of people were busy, and the tense atmosphere before the big war shrouded the sky over the city.

Surrounded by a group of generals such as Yue Fei, Xu Da, Xie Xuan, and Li Guangbi, Li Yi walked through the noisy battlefield and slowly approached in the direction of Yongmen.

The main attack on Yongmen was the armies of the three corps of the Eighth Army led by Gao Ran and the two armies of the Fifth Army led by Zhang Yan. The two generals saw Li Yi coming to inspect and hurriedly beat their horses to meet him.

Suddenly, there was a sudden sound of war drums on the noisy battlefield, and then a loud "......boom" was heard, which shook the earth and the entire battlefield shook instantly.

The 300 stone cannons and 500 ballistae of various types on the forward position made a coordinated salvo, and the momentum was amazing.

In the deafening sound of war drums, in the shouts of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and people, dense arrows and stones rushed into the sky, and for a time the battlefield was like a tsunami, earth-shattering and magnificent.

The Northern Xinjiang Army continued to bombard, and the arrows and rocks were like a raging storm and extremely violent.

The war drums beat wildly, and the low and fierce drums resounded through the ten-mile battlefield, shaking the boundless sky.

The battle flags danced wildly, and the colorful flags set off layers of terrifying waves, and the waves were magnificent. Everyone deeply felt the invincible power of the Great Han at this moment.

The rebels in the city were silent and silent.

Seeing such a situation, Li Yi couldn't help frowning.

The expressions of Yue Fei, Xu Da, Xie Xuan, Li Guangbi and others were also very solemn.

Li Yi and the generals of Northern Xinjiang had long expected that Luoyang would be difficult to fight, so they made careful preparations for this. But at the moment, the situation is not optimistic, and Luoyang City's defense is far stronger than they thought.

The long-range weapons on Luoyang City are within the reach of the edge of the city defense, and there are catapults in the city, and this edge is at least between two hundred and three hundred paces. But the rebels in the city were confident and began to dig moats two hundred paces from the city walls. The range of 200 paces is the range within which catapults and ballistas in the city can effectively shoot.

The moat is about 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep, and the moat is covered with bamboo thorns and wooden thorns of different lengths. There are five moats of this kind, and the Northern Frontier Army needs to pay a great price if it wants to successfully attack the moat under the fierce fire of the rebels.

After the five moats, there is the moat. The moat was about 15 zhang wide, which was an insurmountable obstacle for the Northern Xinjiang Army.

The moat was four hundred and fifty feet from the base of the wall. Behind the moat, there was a wider moat. There is a turnaround bridge over this moat.

This type of bridge has only one beam, and the two ends of the beam are extended and erected on the crossbar along the edge of the trench, and when the enemy walks on the bridge, pull the mechanism to retract the crossbeam, and the bridge deck will be flipped over, causing the enemy to fall into the trench.

This moat was followed by the Urn City and Feng Yuan. The urn city is a small city outside the main city gate, and the wall is seventy feet high. The gate of the urn city is set up, and when the gate is attacked by the enemy, the defenders on the tower can also shoot the enemy who is besieging the city. Once the enemy army breaks through the urn city, it will also be caught in the condescending flanking attack of the defenders. Feng Yuan was a low wall made of earth, about fifteen feet high, and the defenders crouched behind the low wall and shot the enemy who climbed over the moat.

After Feng Yuan, it is to reject the horse belt. The width of this rejection horse was 10 to 20 feet, and it was mainly used to prevent the enemy from erecting ladders. In the places where the defenders entered and exited, the horses and deer were buried relatively shallow, so as to facilitate the movement of the defenders, and put prominent signs, so that the defenders on the city wall could focus on prevention.

After the rejection of the horse belt is the root of the city wall. The high and steep walls were not easy for the enemy to climb, but they were also a dead spot for the defenders of the city. However, the rebels used more than a year of preparation time to compensate for this shortcoming by building a large number of "horse faces" and towers on the city walls.

The face of the horse protrudes from the outer side of the city wall, merging with the wall, and the defenders can shoot from a high position to destroy the enemy troops in the dead corners of the city. On the face of the horse, there was a war shed for the soldiers to rest, and the war shed was surrounded by wooden stakes. In the past, this kind of defense facility was only available in border fortresses and border counties, but Yuan Shao actually applied it to the protection of Luoyang City, which surprised the generals of Northern Xinjiang.

The construction of the horse face was apparently a little larger, and the rebels built a large number of temporary apostles on the wall in accordance with the normal defensive methods.

The role of the balcony is many. Although the top of the city wall of Luoyang City is very wide, generally 50 to 70 feet, which is enough for the defenders to move and fight flexibly and freely, and the female walls on both sides of the extension wall are high and thick, especially the outer female wall, which has dense shooting holes with outer width and narrow inside, and the corner of the city is also built with a solid corner tower. However, these defensive facilities were simply not sufficient in wartime, and temporary buildings had to be added.

On the extended wall, the rebels built observation towers every two hundred and fifty feet protruding five feet from the outer wall. Every 800 feet, a protruding outer wall of 15 feet was built to eliminate the dead corners of the city and the wooden towers that flanked the enemy troops under the city.

At the same time, a horizontal wall of high-pointed wooden piles was erected every 800 feet, the height of the wooden piles was about 15 feet, and small doors were opened for passage in normal times, and once the enemy troops climbed the city wall, the horizontal wall was closed as a barricade to continue to block the enemy troops.

In addition, every 1,500 feet, the rebels also built a wooden tower with a protrusion of 20 feet from the "inner female wall" to attack the enemy troops who broke into the city.

This is the protective facility that the Northern Frontier Army can see at present, and in the city, perhaps the rebels have built more blocking facilities.

The difficulty of attacking Luoyang City made the Northern Xinjiang Army feel a sense of powerlessness and frustration up and down.