Chapter 1034: Battle of Changyi (Part 1)

"Everyone, from now on, don't take off your armor and keep your weapons on your body. Whether Changyi can be defended depends on this one move." On the city wall, Cao Cao looked at the generals on the city wall with a gloomy face and said;

"I am willing to die for my lord!" Everyone agreed.

The voices of the generals on the city wall aroused the response of the soldiers. For a time, the whole Changyi city wall was filled with shouts, and the voices were loud and soaring into the sky. Seeing this, Cao Cao couldn't help but smile, but nodded secretly in his heart. At least now the morale of the soldiers in the city is high. Every extra day he defends Changyi will gain one more day of training time for the soldiers in other cities.

The shouts on the top of Changyi City also alarmed everyone in the Zhengdong Army camp a few miles away. Huangfu Chaobo turned his head and looked in the direction of Changyi City, and said in his heart: Cao Aman, I will wait and see your performance!

After the reinforcements arrived, Huangfu Chaobo did not attack the city immediately, but ordered the army to rest for another day before starting the siege.

After ten days of preparation, the two brothers Duguba led the digging army to dig a total of twelve tunnels, which have now reached the bottom of the moat, only a few dozen steps away from the city wall, three on each side of the east and west, and six on the south wall. As long as the army starts to attack the city with all its strength, it can quickly open up and enter the city.

For these twelve tunnels, Huangfu Chaobo did not prepare to invest his most elite guards as he did in Dingtao City before, but prepared to arrange 500 combat soldiers and guards for each passage, a total of 12,000 people. Because there are Cao Cao's most elite 40,000 troops, 30,000 Qingzhou soldiers and 10,000 tiger and leopard cavalry in the city, Huangfu Chaobo did not dare to gamble with Cao Cao with his most elite soldiers.

For these 12,000 people, Huangfu Chaobo did not expect them to open the city gate, but only hoped that they could attract the attention of the defenders to the maximum extent. Even if only half of them could successfully enter the city, it would be a fatal blow to Changyi's defense.

On May 13, it was sunny and breezy. It was midsummer and the weather was getting hotter. The best time for people to move was only in the morning and evening. If it was noon, the scorching sun in the sky could almost burn people. At this time, let alone fighting, people would not be able to stand under the sun for less than a quarter of an hour.

Therefore, when it was light, the camp of the Eastern Expedition Army began to get busy. Half an hour later, teams of soldiers began to leave the camp and line up, and then slowly approached the direction of Changyi City. The war was about to begin.

Fifty thousand reinforcements were arranged by Huangfu Chaobo in three directions. The South Gate was the focus of the attack, with 30,000 people arranged, and the East and West Gates were arranged with 15,000 people each. In addition to the troops arranged before, the number of soldiers participating in the attack on each gate was no less than 30,000.

And the 35,000 cavalry, except for the 5,000 cavalry arranged in the north of the Jishui River, the remaining 30,000 people, 20,000 cavalry were arranged in the southeast direction of Changyi City, and 10,000 cavalry were arranged in the southwest corner. The southeast direction is the key direction for Cao Cao's army to break out, so most of the cavalry is deployed here. This time, Huangfu Chaobo wants to keep as many of Cao Cao's most elite soldiers as possible to prepare for future battles.

As the rumbling war drums sounded, the desolate horns also broke through the mist of the morning light and rushed straight into the sky. In the rumbling sound of the war drums, thousands of soldiers of the Zhengdong Army stepped on the drum beats and attacked towards the city wall. In today's battle, Huangfu Chaobo did not use the new reinforcements, but dispatched the original soldiers who had participated in the battle for many days. The purpose was to let the new soldiers adapt to the battlefield environment.

At the position of the central army, Huangfu Chaobo quietly watched the soldiers attacking the city. Teams attacked the city wall, and then they were driven off the city wall by Cao Cao's soldiers before they could hold on for a quarter of an hour. Siege equipment was constantly destroyed by Cao Cao's army, and soon new equipment approached the city wall. The soldiers who arrived at the bottom of the city climbed up the city wall again to participate in the battle.

Time flies. As the sun rises, Huangfu Chaobo knows that the battle this morning should be over. He waves his hand and orders, "Sound the gong, withdraw the troops!" After that, he leaves the watchtower without looking back and heads towards the camp.

"Ding Ding..."

As the gong sounded, the soldiers of the Zhengdong Army who were attacking the city retreated like a tide. Of course, when they retreated, they would take away the intact equipment and most of the injured Zepao. After a while, the battlefield that was just noisy had become very quiet, leaving only the screams and groans of some injured soldiers who had not had time to evacuate, and the curling green smoke rising everywhere inside and outside the city wall.

Huangfu Chaobo, who returned to the camp, immediately sent someone to summon the Duguba brothers to inquire about the excavation of the tunnel. After receiving the reply that the tunnel would be excavated into the city within two days, Huangfu Chaobo waved his hand and let them retreat.

The reason why the daytime battle was so powerful was that, in addition to increasing the intensity of the attack, the huge noise on the battlefield was used to cover up the sound of the dozens of tunnels dug underground.

The afternoon battle did not start until the afternoon and lasted until dark. Starting from the next day, 60,000 reinforcements began to be deployed in the battle. With the addition of these fresh forces, the battle became more intense.

After two days of fighting, the 60,000 reinforcements have completely adapted to the pace of the war. At this time, the vanguard of Yuan Shao's army has begun to approach Weijun. Because it is not certain whether Yuan Shao is bluffing or really wants to attack Weijun, in order to avoid more trouble, Huangfu Chaobo decided to start the siege tomorrow, that is, the 16th. At the same time, the ambush troops in the twelve tunnels will also attack the city at the same time, and conquer Changyi, a strong city, in one fell swoop.

As for the arrangement of troops for the siege tomorrow, Huangfu Chaobo decided that the war camp would make the first attack. After the troops in the tunnels entered the city, Cao Cao's army would definitely be in a short period of chaos. At this time, the strongest troops in the Eastern Expedition Army would quickly move out and attack the city in one fell swoop.

Tomorrow's battle will be led by Huangfu Chaobo and Huang Wudie in charge of West City, Zhang He in charge of South City, and Huangfu Li in charge of East City. In order to strengthen Zhang He's combat power, Huangfu Chaobo specially transferred 2,000 Yuanrong Crossbowmen to Zhang He, and 1,000 Yuanrong Crossbowmen and 1,000 Tiebiying to Huangfu Li, while the second wave of attack on West City was handed over to Gao Shun's Xianzhen Camp and Chen Jing's Tieying Ruishi.

Just as Huangfu Chaobo began to arrange the battle for the next day, Cao Cao had already received Ren Jun's report. The soldiers who were responsible for listening to the surveillance found five abnormalities in the city, including one in West City, two in East City and South City. Cao Cao was keenly aware that Huangfu Chaobo was likely to launch a general attack on Changyi tomorrow.