The south bank of the Zhanghe River.

Sigh!

When Li Li led 80,000 soldiers to ride to the bank of the river and was about to cross the river, the war horses walking in front suddenly roared and neighed, and instead of advancing, they retreated, so that more than 300 Jin Qiwei suddenly became confused and chaotic.

"Roar!"

At this moment, the Golden Lion Beast King under Li Li's seat suddenly roared. I saw that its front claws, which were sharper than the sword, swept out as fast as lightning, and then a black snake that was more than a foot long was struck by the sharp claws, and fell heavily on the stone wall not far away, and the flesh and blood were splashed everywhere, and it was broken into several pieces, and the dead could not die again.

After seeing this scene, Li Li, Guo Jia, Gongsun Zhan, Huan Fei and others noticed that many toads, poisonous scorpions and colorful snakes appeared in the grass on the bank of the river at some point, and the cavalry who walked in front with torches to open the way was startled by these sudden poisons, which caused chaos.

"Huh! It、、、's only been April now, and now it's only April, how can there be so many poisons, even the snakes hiding in the ground have come out? What a weird thing! Gongsun Chan said in surprise.

Indeed, Jizhou is not as cold as the water town in the south of the Yangtze River, April is the most comfortable season of the year, the spring flowers are blooming, the sun is warm, neither cold nor hot, very pleasant. This season, there are many frogs and toads in the river, which is their breeding season, but snakes are rare. It is only in late April or even around the Dragon Boat Festival that snakes crawl out of their burrows and prey on small frogs or toads that have hatched.

Because of this, Gongsun Zhan, who lives in Youzhou all the year round, will be amazed and amazed.

If you occasionally see a small snake or scorpion crawling onto the shore. Not surprising, but it is extremely rare to see such a ubiquity as this moment. Especially at this moment, when the sky is bright, it is quite cold. Moreover, the morning dew is very heavy, and it is indeed strange that such a poisonous substance has climbed onto the shore at this time.

However, Gongsun Zhan's exclamation did not attract the attention of Li Li, Guo Jia and others. Because their minds were still thinking about the military situation that had just been reported by the scout, and their minds were so confused that they had no time to pay attention to these eyesore-eyed toads, poisonous scorpions, and small snakes. After all, these small poisons are no threat to the army, and a few torches will scare them away.

After a hiccup, the army quickly crossed the river. The river channel is wide. The river is not deep, and the horses can wade through it. So the generals took the bridge over the river, and the soldiers rode their horses directly across the river. Go straight to the south gate of Yecheng.

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Bang bang bang!

"Whoosh--ahh

"Kill---"

Yecheng South Gate. At the head of the city, rocks fell one after another, and rolling logs flew over. But seeing that the huge rocks of the dustpan were thrown off the city by the defenders one by one, and the rolling logs more than a foot long were moved to the city head one after another. and push it down hard. These defenders are busy. The piles of rocks, stacks of rolling logs, are rapidly decreasing, but the city is full of stones, scattered with rolling logs, causing great damage to the soldiers who are attacking the city below, and Yan zhòng hinders the speed of the siege soldiers.

Not only that, but the dense battlements on the head of the city were covered with strong bows and crossbows. Thousands of archers were putting their bows on their strings, not looking at what was going on in the city. Then he shot the arrow in his hand straight down. As a result, within one hundred and fifty steps of the city, all the archers were within the shooting range, and the arrows like dark clouds formed an impenetrable rain of arrows in this area, shooting the siege soldiers under the city with impunity.

However, in the face of such a dense rain of arrows and arrows and the threat of rolling stones, tens of thousands of Cao soldiers were undaunted, holding shields and carrying ladders to rush forward, and also covering two rushing vehicles to approach the city gate.

In the midst of the falling stones and rolling woods, under the rain of arrows and arrows, the brave soldiers of the Cao army set up ladders on the city wall, holding shields in their left hands and weapons in their right hands, and climbed the ladders one after another, bravely going forward and attacking the city.

At the same time, under the cover of thousands of giant shield soldiers, the two storming vehicles slammed into the city gate again and again, almost for a moment without stopping. The previous car was pulled aside when it was unable to do so, and the latter car crashed into the city gate, causing the gate to "roar" and debris to the city walls on both sides.

However, the result of such a fierce siege of the city is inevitably that the soldiers of the besieging side will suffer heavy casualties. The ladders set up at the head of the city were overturned and smashed one by one, and the dense arrows shrouded the soldiers of the Cao army under the city like a big net, harvesting fresh lives. As a result, the besieging soldiers fell one by one, or were stabbed to death, or were shot wounded, or hit by rocks and rolling logs, either dead or wounded. The terrible screams and screams of pain, the neighing of the war horses, and the endless shouts of killing made people's hearts beat and shudder.

This siege battle for the south gate was truly an extremely rare battle. So much so that two miles away, Zhou Yu, who led the army to watch the battle, and his soldiers were filled with righteous indignation, and they all showed a look of hatred for the enemy, because the tragic situation under the city wall was indeed miserable.

It's so tragic!

At this time, the sky was dark, and it was the time when Li Li's army went out of the camp to cross the river. However, the soldiers of the Cao army had already stormed Yecheng in the middle of the night, and began to attack the city in the early hours of the morning, and it has lasted until now, for three full hours before and after. In addition, the Cao army that attacked Yecheng this time no longer attacked the south gate alone, but attacked the west gate and the east gate at the same time, besieging three and one, leaving only the north gate.

After officially learning the news, Zhou Yu knew that Cao Cao's 80,000 reinforcements had arrived, plus Cao Cao's headquarters still had 5,000 infantry troops and more than 5,000 tiger and leopard cavalry, a total of more than 90,000 soldiers, close to 100,000 troops. Even so, the 100,000 army faced the city gates on three sides at the same time, and its strength was still insufficient, after all, there were many defenders in Yecheng.

According to the detailed investigation, the defenders in the city were no less than 100,000 people, and this was limited to the number of soldiers and horses that the detailed workers had seen with their own eyes. Therefore, 100,000 defenders is only a conservative estimate, and in fact, the Yuan army in the city should be more than 100,000 cavalry, roughly between 120,000 and 150,000.

Therefore, it is undoubtedly extremely difficult for Cao Cao's less than 100,000 soldiers and horses to attack a fortified city defended by an army of more than 100,000 troops, and it is almost impossible to capture Yecheng. However, Cao Cao insisted on going his own way, insisting on attacking the city overnight, and repeatedly declared that tonight was the best opportunity to capture Yecheng. It was because Zhou Yu didn't plan to send troops to reinforce Cao Cao at first, but seeing the soldiers of Cao's army fall one after another, and the battle was extremely fierce, Zhou Yu was really uneasy and couldn't bear to witness.

But what made Zhou Yu feel helpless was that until this moment, he still had not received a military order from the lord Li Li to allow him to send troops for reinforcements. Without Li Li's order, even though Zhou Yu had the heart to help Cao's army attack the city, he couldn't help it. It was because he could only lead the Youzhou Battalion, the Qinglong Battalion and more than 1,000 personal soldiers to watch the formation, saying that it was for Cao Cao's army, but in fact, he was standing on the wall from a distance to watch the excitement.

In fact, Zhou Yu knew very well why the lord Li Li had not given the order to send troops for a long time. There is only one reason, because Cao Cao and his soldiers and horses are called allies with the Xiliang army, but in fact, the feud is very deep, and the two sides have long been incompatible. Therefore, no matter what danger the Cao army encountered, no matter how heavy the casualties were, Li Li would not send troops to help, and would rather sit back and watch the Cao army lose troops than help them. Who made Cao Cao willing to accept the heavy responsibility of the vanguard of the former army? Since you dare to take on this burden, you must be mentally prepared to pay the price.

But seeing Cao Cao's army bravely attacking the city one after another, Zhou Yu couldn't help but think of the battle of Huainan not long ago, presumably Sun Ce and Lu Bu were as different as Cao Cao's army in front of him. Nashouchun City is also a fortified city, but it was broken by Li Li's allied forces within half a month, and the tragedy of its siege is probably not inferior to the scene in front of him, and even more miserable than the scene in front of him. However, after the capture of Shouchun City, Xuzhou Lu Bu still got a lot of money, grain, baggage and war horses, but Jiangdong Sun Ce got nothing, and finally not only lost Lujiang County, which had already been grabbed, but also took his younger brother Sun Quan.

Thinking of these, Zhou Yu had mixed feelings in his heart and felt a lot of emotion. In fact, he agreed with Li Li's approach, using the soldiers and horses of other princes as pawns, so that he could achieve his strategic intentions without spending a single soldier, which was undoubtedly a wise move. However, since Li Li had no intention of capturing Jiangdong in one fell swoop, why did he make things difficult for Sun Ce in every possible way? Even if it was to weaken the strength of the Jiangdong Army under Sun Ce's account, and the goal had been achieved after capturing the Lujiang River, why did Sun Ce's younger brother Sun Quan be imprisoned?

People are not grass and trees, who can be ruthless. Now although Zhou Yu and Sun Ce are their own masters, the two have a deep friendship after all, and they have more than ten years of brotherhood. It was Zhou Yu who did have some views on Li Li's army's southern expedition. Yu Gong, he agreed with all the decisions made by Li Li in the previous Southern Expedition, and deeply admired the brilliant achievements of the Southern Expedition, which was the result of his rational thinking. In private, he strongly disagreed with Li Li's unwarranted imprisonment of Sun Quan, believing that this move was unfair and unfair, and it was not a gentleman's doing.

At the same time, Zhou Yu knew that he was a little arrogant and selfish in this matter, and he should not doubt the correct decision of his father-in-law Li Li. But he just couldn't get over this hurdle in his heart, and always thought that Li Li should not imprison Sun Quan, and there was no need to harm the innocent.

"Boom!" Just as Zhou Yu lowered his head and pondered, he only heard a loud bang at the city gate in front of him, and the south gate was suddenly opened, and a team of Cao soldiers rushed into the city gate frantically and killed the generals.

Coincidentally. It was precisely at the moment when the south gate was breached, Li Li led 80,000 cavalry to the mountain beam four miles away from the city gate, and saw from a distance that the south gate of Yecheng was breached, and tens of thousands of troops poured into the city.

After seeing this scene, Li Li was shocked, and immediately raised his voice and ordered: "The city gate has been breached, and the whole army is speeding up and going straight to the south gate!" Before the words fell, Li Li rode the golden beast and galloped, and the 80,000 iron horsemen who followed him were also unreined and as fast as the wind.

―――――― To be Continued ―――――――――――― (To be Continued......