Wang Jian set up his command post on a small hill about a thousand steps away from Xingkou City, yesterday Wang Jian was at this time to observe the defensive position of Xingkou, although it is a little far away, but because of the higher terrain, you can basically look at most of the battlefield, so Wang Jian also decided to take this small hill as the core, set up a temporary camp, as a garrison for attacking Xingkou.

Although Wang Jian also knows now that it is not easy to capture Xingkou, but no matter how strong the defensive position of Xingkou is, it is still not as thick as the wall of the girder after all, and the dilemma is the lightest, so it is better to attack Xingkou than to attack the girder; Second, although Wang Jian is cautious in using troops, when it is time to attack the fortifications, he still has to fight, the Qin army is not the Chu army, and it can only fight against the wind, not against the wind. In the process of the rise of the Qin State, there were many dangerous battles and vicious battles, such as the Battle of Changping, the situation of the Qin army was actually not much better than that of the Zhao army, although the battle eliminated 400,000 Zhao troops, but the Qin army itself also suffered nearly 300,000 casualties. Later, they attacked Handan three times, all of which were fierce battles until they were defeated by the Wei army led by Xinlingjun.

Wang Jian still has considerable confidence in the Qin army's ability to attack fortifications, of course, the battle will suffer considerable losses, which is inevitable, but Qin's national strength is strong, and it can afford to lose completely, and once Xingkou is captured, the Liang will be just around the corner, and the Wei State will be destroyed, and the three Jin Dynasty will all belong to the Qin State, so the general trend of the unification of the world is irreversible, so no matter how much loss is suffered, as long as it can capture Xingkou, it is also worth it.

This time to attack Xingkou, Wang Jian brought a total of 80,000 Qin troops, and the generals who accompanied the army were Wang Ben, Li Xin, Qiang Qi, Xin Sheng, Zhang Han and others, and also brought 200 bed crossbows, 150 trebuchets, 100 city rams, 100 ladder vehicles, and 800 siege ladders.

However, Wang Jian did not relax on the Zhongmu camp, not only left 50,000 Qin troops and garrisoned them under the command of Han Teng, but also during this time, the Qin army also established a solid defensive position in Zhongmu, so even if the coalition army attacked Zhongmu, the remaining soldiers were enough to resist.

Wang Jian even hoped that the coalition army would send troops to attack Zhongmu's camp, because in this way, the coalition army could be completely lured out of the fortified city, and when the coalition army attacked Zhongmu, he would return to the army to rescue, so that the front and rear could be flanked and the coalition army could be broken in one fell swoop. Of course, with Gao Yuan's ability to use troops, he should understand the risk of attacking Zhongmu, so the possibility of being fooled is not great.

At this time, all the generals of the Qin army gathered on the top of the hill and watched the position of Xingkou City in the distance. Some of them had already seen it when they came with Wang Jian to inspect the defense of Xingkou yesterday, and some of them had seen it for the first time, so there was a lot of discussion for a while, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the Xingkou position.

Wang Jian coughed lightly, attracting everyone's attention, and then said: "Generals, now that everyone has seen the position of Xingkou City, how should we attack Xingkou, and I also ask all the generals to express their opinions and not have any scruples." ”

Xin Sheng first spoke: "General, according to the opinion of the last general, should directly attack Xingkou, although the coalition army has a camp position outside Xingkou City, but the camp is located in the southeast of Xingkou, the north of Xingkou faces the river, but there is a west can be directly attacked, and the camp outside the city is attached to Xingkou City, if we can capture Xingkou City, then the camp outside the city will not be attacked, so the last general thinks that it is better to attack Xingkou City directly, of course, you can send a force to feint to attack the camp outside the city, in order to contain the army outside the city. ”

Li Xin shook his head and said: "Otherwise, although Xingkou City is small, it also has a city wall to defend, plus the fortress defense and the city wall built outside the city are fighting each other, mixed together, it is not easy to capture Xingkou City, and the loss of our army will not be small, and the last general thinks that it is better to fight the camp outside the city first." Because there were almost no fortifications built on the side of Xingkou Castle near the camp, as long as we captured the camp outside the city, then Xingkou Castle would be just around the corner. Moreover, although the camp also has fortifications, it is not as good as the defense of Xingkou City after all, and it is easier to fight. ”

Wang Ben said: "We now have an army of 80,000, more than twice the number of the Xingkou coalition army, why don't we divide the troops into two routes, attack Xingkou and the camp outside the city at the same time, just look at which place is better to attack, and then attack one place with all our might." ”

Wang Jian glared at him and said, "In this way, isn't it a taboo to divide troops?" ”

Wang Ben was stunned for a moment, and then said: "If we can't attack the two places together, then we might as well take turns to attack the two places, and try to attack the inside and outside of the city, which one is easier to fight." ”

Wang Jian nodded and said, "There is some truth to this. Then you see that the attack should start from there. ”

Wang Ben turned his head to look at the position in the distance again, and said, "Let's fight outside the city first." ”

In fact, Wang Jian also thought that it was better to fight the position outside the city first, after all, the position outside the city had no city wall to defend, so it was better to fight, so he said: "Li Xin." ”

Li Xin hurriedly came out of the queue and said, "The end will be." ”

Wang Jian said: "Just now you built yì to attack the camp outside the city, and I will give you 20,000 horses to attack the camp outside the city." ”

Li Xin hurriedly said: "The last general will respect the order." ”

Wang Jian said again: "Xin Sheng, you take 10,000 horses, feint to attack Xingkou, and stop the enemy army in Xingkou." ”

Xin Sheng also said: "The last general respects the order." ”

Later, Wang Jian ordered the construction of a camp near the small hill, preparing to prepare for a short period of time.

―――――――― dividing line――――――――― dividing line―――――――― although the city wall of Xingkou City is not high, the Dai army has added a high platform on each city tower, and the height has reached more than six zhang high, although it is not as condescending as the small hill occupied by the Qin army, looking at the overall situation, but it can still be seen very clearly in the area near the city wall.

The movement of the Qin army on the small hillside in the distance, and the plateau was also very clear, obviously proving that his judgment was not wrong, and the Qin army was indeed attacking Xingkou with all its might. However, at this time, the Qin army divided its troops into two routes, and launched an attack on Xingkou and the camp outside the city respectively, which seemed to be huge. Therefore, Gao Yuan could not judge the direction of the Qin army's main attack for a while, so he could only wait and see what happened.

Fortunately, although Gao Yuan is stationed in the city, Yuan Xuan is in the camp outside the city, and he can exchange news at any time, so he can also reassure Gao Yuan that he can put all his energy on guarding Xingkou City.

In addition to 10,000 soldiers, the Qin army also used 50 trebuchets and 70 bed crossbows.

The Qin army's ranks stopped about four hundred paces from Xingkou Xicheng, and then Xin Sheng ordered to push the trebuchet and bed crossbow to the front, first launching a long-range attack on Xingkou City.

Xicheng is also the focus of the defense of Xingkou City, a total of eleven small fortresses were built outside the city, which are arranged in two layers, pushing the entire defense line forward more than 50 steps, but now only three fortresses have been built on the second layer, if according to the design of the position, it should be arranged according to the staggered arrangement of the first seven and the last eight, and take the fortress as the core, dig trenches, and communicate with each other, so that the trenches in the whole position are staggered and longitudinal, dense like a spider web.

In peacetime, each fort was garrisoned with a hundred soldiers, thirty inside the fort, and seventy in the trenches outside the fort. And when fighting, the defenders doubled. The number of soldiers stationed at the fort increased to fifty, and the number of soldiers stationed outside the fort was one hundred and fifty. The city will send troops and reinforcements at any time.

However, if the Qin army wanted to attack the city walls of Xingkou, it must first break through the fortifications outside the city, so the Qin army's trebuchets and bed crossbows first targeted the fortresses outside the city and launched a strike.

And as these heavy weapons were activated, crossbow guns and stones also flew into the sky, whistling and smashing down on the defenders' positions.

The effective range of the bed crossbow is generally about 300 to 350 steps, that is, four or five hundred meters, and the range of the trebuchet is slightly closer than the bed crossbow, and the range is related to the weight of the stone projected, the stone thrown by the trebuchet is generally about fifty or sixty catties, and the range reaches between two hundred and three hundred steps, if the projection is a large stone weighing more than 100 catties, the range is within 200 steps, and the projection of twenty or thirty catties of small stones, the range can be close to the bed crossbow, but twenty or thirty catties of small stones can only cause blows and injuries to the soldiers, and to the city wall, The destructive power of the wooden fence is not great.

Although the Qin's long-range strikes were quite impressive, the defenders were hiding in trenches and fortresses, so the damage was not great. And the Qin army also focused its attacks on the outermost three fortresses.

However, the target of the fortress is not large, and whether it is a bed crossbow or a trebuchet, there is basically no accuracy, and it can only be aimed in a general direction, as for whether it can be hit or not, it can only be left to the fate. Therefore, the hit rate of the Qin army is not high, even if it hits, the damage is not large, the crossbow gun naturally does not have to, it can only be inserted on the sand bag, and because of the projection distance, the Qin army projects fifty or sixty pounds of stones, even if it hits the fortress, it will not cause much damage, at most it will smash a few sand bags.

At the same time as the Qin army launched a strike, Gao Yuan also ordered the bed crossbows and trebuchets in the city to launch a counterattack on the Qin army.

There were a total of 100 bed crossbows and 75 trebuchets in Xingkou City, but because they had to be stationed on other city walls, there were only 70 bed crossbows and 50 trebuchets arranged in Xicheng, which was exactly the same number as the Qin army.

Although these bed crossbows and trebuchets were arranged in the rear, and the firing range was farther than that of the Qin army, because they were erected on the city wall, the firing point was higher than that of the Qin army, so it also offset the Qin army's advantage in range, and the two sides were roughly the same, evenly matched.

For a while, stones and crossbow guns flew back and forth in the air, whistling and falling, and fierce long-range strikes were launched against each other.