Chapter 993: Digging Army

Outside Dingtao City, the brothers Dugu Ba and Dugu Tian were carefully observing the situation around Dingtao City under the protection of their personal soldiers. The three Dugu brothers were the first group of people to join Huangfu Chaobo. Although they were loyal, they were indeed limited in ability. In addition, Huangfu Chaobo was willing to hide his trump card because of their special arms, so the three had few opportunities to lead troops to fight.

Since joining Huangfu Chaobo, the three brothers have only taken action twice, but each time brought great surprises to Huangfu Chaobo. The first time was the escape tunnel in the Battle of Changsha, which allowed Huangfu Chaobo to resolve the crisis of Changsha City and gain a lot of military merits. In the end, he was appreciated by Zhu Jun and was accepted as a student. The second time was the Second Puyang Battle a few years ago. Because of the help of the tunnel, Zhao Yun quickly broke into the city and defeated Cao Cao's army.

However, many warriors who joined the army later than the three brothers have made great achievements in the past few years, but among the three of them, only the eldest brother Dugu Xiong became a general, and the second and third brothers were only lieutenants. This made the three brothers very unwilling. This time, the three of them finally had the opportunity to lead the army to fight. The three brothers had discussed before going out that they must seize the opportunity and make some great contributions this time.

After receiving the order from Huangfu Chaobo, the two brothers first walked around the entire city under the protection of their personal soldiers, roughly inspected the surrounding situation, and made a careful observation of the surrounding terrain and waterways. Along the way, the two of them took out a compass-like thing from their arms from time to time to compare everywhere, and from time to time took a shovel from the personal soldiers to dig small pits on the ground, carefully observing the soil in the pits.

After nearly two hours of tossing and turning, the two brothers finally made a rough observation of the entire city. They looked at each other and saw a hint of joy in each other's eyes. After careful deduction, the conditions around Dingtao City fully met the conditions for tunnel attack, and they also found several defensive flaws in the city wall.

"Second brother, the northeast corner and northwest corner of the city wall are both more suitable for digging tunnels. Where do you think we should start?" Dugu Tian looked at his brother and said;

"No hurry, I can see that these two places are more suitable. Let's take a closer look first. The tunnel needs to be dug from a few miles away. In this way, let's go a little further and see..." Dugu Ba said after thinking for a moment;

As he said, the two brothers got on their horses again and ran a few miles northwest of the city wall. The group did not stop until they were six miles away. Along the way, there were freshly planted grains everywhere. Dugu Ba stopped his horse on a small hill, looked back in the direction of Dingtao City, and had already made a conclusion in his mind. Just now they passed by a forest, which was only four miles away from Dingtao City. There was only this relatively large forest around, and the location was slightly higher. The soil there was also more suitable for digging tunnels. If there was no better location in the east, this should be the most suitable place.

"Let's go to the northeast of the city to have a look!" Dugu Ba took the lead and rode towards the northeast of Dingtao City.

At dark, the two finally rushed back to the Zhengdong Army camp west of Dingtao under the escort of their personal soldiers. As soon as they returned to the camp, they didn't care about resting and rushed directly to Huangfu Chaobo's central army tent.

At this time, Huangfu Chaobo and Pang Tong were having dinner. When they saw the Dugu brothers coming in, they smiled and said, "Have you eaten?"

The two shook their heads repeatedly and were about to report the results of their observations today, but Huangfu Chaobo said, "Don't worry, let's talk after dinner."

As he said that, he asked someone to add two more sets of bowls and chopsticks. The two were moved and hurriedly thanked them, then sat down to eat with peace of mind.

Because they had something on their minds, the Dugu brothers hurriedly finished their dinner, then put their bowls and chopsticks aside and quietly waited for their master to finish his meal.

Seeing the two of them, Huangfu Chaobo also smiled and said, "Are you sure you have finished your meal?"

"Already finished!" The two answered in unison;

"Okay!" Huangfu Chaobo scooped three or two taels of food from the bowl into his mouth,

saying, "Tell me what you have gained. I guess you should have good news to tell me."

Dugu Ba stood up and said, "Congratulations, lord. Dingtao can indeed be attacked with tunnels. I have carefully inspected the entire city. Except for the south facing Jishui, it is not easy to dig tunnels. The other three walls can be dug tunnels. However, the two of my suggestions are that the direction of tunnel digging can be placed in the northwest corner of the city wall."

"Reason!"

"I have carefully inspected it. The soil in the northwest corner of Dingtao is the most suitable place for digging tunnels. The soil layer here is moderately soft and hard, which is convenient for digging but not easy to collapse. There is no river passing through this area. The underground water is also very deep, about five or six feet deep. If we dig from here, it should be the easiest. "

"Another point is that the north gate of Dingtao is slightly to the west, and there is a passage to the city in the northwest corner. If we break into the city through the gate, we can quickly attack the city wall through this passage in just a few hundred steps."

Huangfu Chaobo nodded and said, "How are you going to arrange it, and how do you need me to cooperate?"

Because it was not the first time he saw them digging tunnels, Huangfu Chaobo also knew that they needed other support besides their own soldiers, so he asked this question.

"I am going to dig three passages at the same time, with one thousand soldiers in each passage divided into four waves, and two thousand civilians are needed to help transport soil and wood. "

"How long will it take?"

"Ten days. In ten days, our lord can dig these three tunnels."

"Ten days is too long. I'll give you five thousand civilians for each tunnel. Can you dig it out in five days?"

"Lord, this can't be done by adding more civilians." Duguba said with a troubled face; "The role of civilians is only to transport soil. The tunnel cannot be too big, so the civilians will not be able to walk fast in it."

Huangfu Chaobo also saw them digging tunnels. The digger soldiers were digging in front, and they were also responsible for supporting the tunnel with logs to prevent the tunnel from collapsing halfway. The function of the civilian husband is only to transport the soil they dug out. The tunnel is not wide, but they just happen to walk side by side, and they need to bend their bodies slightly, so the speed cannot be too fast.

Huangfu Chaobo still remembers that time when he was in Puyang, he stood at the entrance of the tunnel and watched the people coming in and out of there, just like seeing groups of ants moving in and out of the cave to transport things.