Chapter 1012: Conquering Dingtao (Part 1)

After hearing Sima Yi's question, Cao Cao also shook his head: "There is no news yet, but according to the news sent back by Zi Yang two days ago, it should be a matter of the next few days."

The slow transmission of news made Cao Cao and his men anxious. Now the fact that the expeditionary army has flying slaves to transmit intelligence has been discovered by Cao Cao's spies, but this flying slave is too rare. Cao Cao has already asked people to find talents in this area, but several months have passed and there is still no result.

In fact, not only Cao Cao has known about it, but many people among the princes of the world have already known about it. Yuan Shao has also found craftsmen who can be trained, but at present, the scale is not large, and it is limited to several important counties under his rule. Other places have not had time to arrange, but Yuan Shao has already seen this benefit, but he has also kept it secret and did not let others know.

After a moment of silence, Cao Cao said to Sima Yi: "Let's start the army tomorrow. Since the Eastern Expedition Army has already started to attack Dingtao, let's put a little more pressure on them."

Sima Yi did not object this time. After all, it would take one or two days to get from Changyi to Dingtao, so it would be okay to start the army tomorrow.

Changyi had recruited nearly 20,000 county soldiers at this time, so Cao Cao planned to leave 10,000 Qingzhou soldiers and 20% of county soldiers to Xun Yu to defend Changyi, and he and Sima Yi would lead 20,000 Qingzhou soldiers, 10,000 Tiger and Leopard Cavalry and 20,000 county soldiers to Dingtao for support. In a few days, Xiahou Dun will lead 10,000 troops and 10,000 county soldiers to join the guerrilla camp. By then, Cao Cao will have 70,000 reinforcements, plus the 30,000 troops in Dingtao City, a total of 100,000 people.

According to the intelligence analysis from Dingtao in the past few days, the total strength of the two armies of the Eastern Expedition Army should be between 130,000 and 150,000. In this way, after a few days of siege, the army must have lost 30,000 to 50,000, so Cao Cao's chances of winning are very high.

Cao Cao's guess was not wrong at all. After a few days of fighting, the Eastern Expedition Army had lost nearly 10,000. If there were three or five days of full-scale siege, it would be normal to lose 20,000 to 30,000 troops.

The attack on the second day was indeed as Ren Jun expected, more intense than the previous day. In just one morning, the Eastern Expedition Army launched two rounds of attacks on the city head, forcing Ren Jun to transfer the Zhongjian Battalion to the city head to participate in the defense at the beginning of the afternoon battle. The participation of the Zhongjian Battalion made the battle on the city head more intense. In the last round of attack in the afternoon, Huangfu Chaobo's Tiebi Battalion and Zhang He's Dajishi also participated in the attack, but they were still driven off the city head by Cao Cao's army.

By the time the troops were withdrawn at night, Huangfu Chaobo had basically determined that there were only about 30,000 soldiers and horses in the city. Even the core camp around Cao Cao had joined the battle. From this, it can be seen that even if there were soldiers and horses in the city that had not yet been dispatched, there should be only a few thousand people.

At this time, the Dugu brothers also rushed to the central army to report to Huangfu Chaobo that the tunnel had finally been dug into the city, and the exit was about dozens of steps away from the northwest corner of the city wall, but now the tunnel entrance had not been fully opened. However, they were already arranging people to carry out the final reinforcement and explore the situation around the exit.

This is how tunnel sieges work. Although they are professionals, they still rely on guessing the location of the exit. This is why several or even more than a dozen tunnels are needed for tunnel sieges. If you are unlucky, it is possible that the tunnel exit is on the main road or even in the military camp next to the city wall.

At the second watch, the final result finally came out. Fortunately, two of the three tunnels could be used. The westernmost one happened to exit at the northwest corner of the city wall, in a small courtyard less than fifty steps away from the city wall. Because of the war, the people around the city wall have been evacuated. In addition, during the war for several days, several stones hit the yard and collapsed a house inside. The exit was in this collapsed house.

Going out of this yard, it is right in front of the corner tower in the northwest corner. There is a passage leading directly to the top of the city.

Another exit,

is about 500 steps east of this exit. It is only seven or eight steps away from the north gate. It is a market near the north gate. Now there is no one in it.

And the tunnel in the middle is just at the foot of the wall next to a road. If it is dug directly from here, it is very likely that the entire bluestone wall will collapse and the entire tunnel will be sealed.

Although everyone was unwilling, they were secretly glad that two of the three tunnels could be used, which was already very good. Huangfu Chaobo summoned all the generals to discuss the time of the attack. After making the final arrangements, he let everyone disperse.

The night harassment was still carried out as usual, but these things were handed over to the guards and civilians. The battle camp and the guards went into their tents early to rest. The time for the siege was set at the beginning of the fifth watch, which was the most sleepy time.

At two o'clock in the morning, the battle camp and the guards in the North Camp had quietly got up. The cooks began to prepare at the beginning of the third watch and prepared breakfast for tens of thousands of people. After the soldiers had breakfast, they entered the tunnel under the command of the generals.

The attacking forces were the Iron Wall Camp led by Dian Wei and the Xianzhen Camp led by Gao Shun. The two of them would each take a tunnel to enter the city. Behind them, there were also one thousand Yuanrong crossbowmen to provide them with follow-up support. The five thousand Iron Eagle Sharp Soldiers and the ten thousand soldiers of the battle camp were composed of a part of the soldiers drawn from the east and west. They would enter the city through the city gate after the city gate was opened.

Of course, after the battle at the north gate begins, attacks will also be launched from the east and west directions to the top of the city to contain Cao's army on the two walls.

Time passed slowly. It had been almost half an hour since the two troops entered the tunnel, but the city was still silent. Huangfu Chaobo stood two miles outside the north gate, with 15,000 elite soldiers of the Eastern Expedition Army behind him. It was the darkest moment before dawn, and the army was quietly approaching with the light of the torches on the top of the city.

Huangfu Chaobo turned his head to look at Pang Tong and the others around him, and said, "Shiyuan, why hasn't it started yet? Has it been discovered by the defenders in the city?"

"Don't worry, my lord, it should be soon. The two generals should be gathering their troops. If they were discovered by the defenders, Qi would be so quiet." Guo Jia smiled;

Suddenly, a rocket shot up into the sky, and then another rocket took off a few hundred steps away from this rocket, and then the sound of shouting and the collision of weapons sounded on the top of the city.