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The Jiangdong Army had retreated to Caohekou. The sneak attack in the middle of the night and the fierce battle in the early morning caused heavy losses to the Jiangdong Army, with nearly a thousand casualties, and six Bo Chang and two village chiefs were killed. Even the chief general Xu Sheng was injured by arrows, which could be said to have lost troops and lost their morale.

Inside a large ship, Xu Sheng exposed his upper body, penetrated the wooden ring with his left arm, biting the leather in his mouth, and a military doctor beside him was carefully pulling out the arrow on his left arm.

A severe pain came, Xu Sheng was sweating profusely in pain, closed his eyes, and with a clang, the arrow fell into the copper plate.

"Okay," the military doctor also breathed a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, the arrow was not poisonous and did not hurt the muscles and bones. The general will recover after a month or two."

Xu Sheng took the palm and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and he also breathed slowly. At this time, a personal soldier next to him said, "General, Bei Zhi has found out who shot this arrow."

"Who is it?" Xu Sheng asked with a frown.

Generally speaking, it is normal to get cold arrows on the battlefield, and you won’t specifically ask who fired the arrow, which doesn’t matter.

But Xu Sheng was deeply impressed by the young general and could not forget who he was.

"A brother who participated in the war said that the enemy army called the young general Jing Gong at that time, and this person might be Liu Jing, the nephew of Liu Biao."

It turned out to be him

Xu Sheng remembered the confession of the prisoner of war again. Zhou Ling was killed. A bitter smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He led his army to attack Chaisang. Wouldn't this Liu Jing be in vain?

At this time, Pan Zhang quickly walked into the room. Although Xu Sheng failed to attack the city, his attack on the Shuimen also failed, which made him feel depressed and could not show his posture in front of Xu Sheng.

"Yang's injuries can be serious," Pan Zhang asked with concern.

Xu Sheng shook his head, "It's not a big problem."

"Then what should we do next?"

Xu Sheng pondered for a moment and said, "Now we only have two thousand troops left. It is obviously unrealistic to try to capture the city. We can only wait for the governor to send reinforcements."

Pan Zhang didn't say anything for a long time, and finally sighed, "We shouldn't have led only a thousand troops, it's a little wrong."

"Thousand Army troops are just for sneak attacks, and there are no mistakes in themselves. My mistake is the way to seize Chaisang."

Speaking of this, Xu Sheng also showed a look of regret on his face. If he had known that the guard general was so greedy and bribed last night, they should have bribed him before. With the support of the guard general, it would be easy for them to seize Chaisang.

Now, it is a mistake, and Liu Jing will guard Chaisang. I am afraid they will have to pay a heavy price.

.........

It was a different scene in Chaisang City. Almost all the adult trees in the city were cut down, and wood was dragged to the largest schoolyard in Chaisang, which was the schoolyard where Liu Jing practiced martial arts and buried Huang Yong. The wood and iron tools were piled up like mountains.

A tent has been set up in the schoolyard, and more than 2,000 craftsmen, carpenters, blacksmiths, leather craftsmen and stonemasons from Chaisang City are gathering. They are building stone cannons and trenchers according to the drawings.

Not only the craftsmen, but almost the entire Chaisang City were mobilized, and every household donated privately collected weapons, armor, leather, and even polished house-pressing stones.

The big families including the Tao family and the Zhu family even donated money and materials. The Tao family alone took out 100 million yuan and 10,000 stones to store grain, which was all the money and grain stored in the Tao family’s fort.

On the other side of the school ground, Wang Tai led more than a Tao family soldier to train thousands of civilians and teach them the minimum weapon skills.

Qianqing and strong civilians have all equipped with weapons and armor, and are no longer ordinary civilians. Apart from weak combat skills and clumsy use of weapons, the difference between them and regular soldiers is no longer visible from the outside.

Xu Shu was temporarily appointed as the head of the military affairs of Chaisang, in charge of the military affairs of Chaisang. Since Liu Jing himself had no position in Chaisang, Xu Shu's head of the military affairs of Chaisang was also a false position, and was just Liu Jing's aide.

Despite this, this was Xu Shu's first position in Jingzhou after all, and he had great power and responsibilities. All the money, grain, materials and craftsmen were under his charge. He also worked diligently and did not dare to slacken at all.

Liu Jing knew that he was too busy alone, so he borrowed five smart and capable managers from the Tao Mansion to help him and allocated him a soldier.

Xu Shu was fully commissioned by Liu Jing and soon showed his outstanding talents. In less than half a day, he sorted everything in order and built a trencher and began to run smoothly.

In fact, whether it is Xu Shu or Zhuge Liang, their real talent is not military strategy, but in handling government affairs, just as a general's ability lies in commanding the army, not fighting on the battlefield.

From collecting craftsmen, cutting down trees, managing supplies, to drawing drawings, arranging wages, food and accommodation, organizing craftsmen to divide the work and work, etc., there are many things, and the affairs are very complicated, and almost everything is not easy to do well.

But Xu Shu only took half a day to handle everything properly and handle it in an orderly manner, which made everyone amazed that this scholar actually had such outstanding talents.

At this time, Xu Shuzheng accompanied Liu Jing to inspect the manufacturing of weapons to defend the city. As the highest commander of Chaisang City, Liu Jing did not need to do it himself. He had to focus on overall defense.

Liu Jing also received ordinary support from the military and civilians of Chaisang, on the one hand, because he was Liu Biao's nephew and had a noble status.

On the other hand, the Tao family's full support for Liu Jing led to the recognition of Liu Jing by the Chaisang clan, while the Zhou family of another great clan remained silent and did not object to Chaisang's support for Liu Jing.

With the leadership of the great families, ordinary people naturally followed the horse and actively supported Liu Jing's fight against the Jiangdong Army.

It is precisely for this reason that Chaisang City can mobilize the whole city, contribute money and efforts, and support Liu Jing in defense against Jiangdong.

Liu Jing saw that groups of craftsmen were busy and the materials were transported in an orderly manner. He was also very surprised and asked Xu Shu with a smile: "It took only half a day, these craftsmen to get on track. How did Yuan Zhi do it?"

Xu Shu smiled slightly, "It's actually very simple. The craftsmen in every city have craftsmen. I just need to find these craftsmen, give them ten times the profit, specify when to complete it, and promise how much rewards each stone cannon or trencher are given. Then I don't have to worry about everything, and they will naturally urge the craftsmen to urge them."

Liu Jing suddenly realized that Xu Shu had found a bunch of project managers again. No wonder he was able to make such a great progress. This is a good understanding of management.

"When will the first one be the fastest time?" Liu Jing asked curiously again.

Xu Shu smiled mysteriously, "Please come with me."

Liu Jing walked into a big tent with him and was stunned. He saw a huge stone cannon placed in the big tent, and several craftsmen were busy inspecting it.

The stone cannon was also called the stone car. During the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao used it in large quantities to attack Yuan Shao's army, and the effect was huge.

Its appearance is actually an enlarged crossbow, which can shoot giant arrows or stones, with a range of fifty steps to one step, and has a defensive effect on defending the city.

For example, rolling wooden stones is a powerful tool for dealing with siege troops, but generally speaking, people need to stand by the city wall and throw stones downwards, so that they can easily be shot by crossbows of siege troops below.

However, with stone cannons, you can shoot from the air, avoiding casualties of defenders, and at the same time, it has a longer range and a larger range of killing. It is also an effective defense weapon against ships and various siege weapons.

Liu Jing stepped forward and gently stroked the first stone cart. It was made of newly cut trees, and even the bark was not peeled, which was slightly rough, but it could be seen that it was tied very strongly.

Xu Shu called an old craftsman in his sixties and introduced to Liu Jing: "This old craftsman is named Qin Wu. He used to build military weapons in the Cao army camp. At the end of last year, he led his family to Chaisang. This time, the drawings of the stone cannon and the stone thrower were drawn by him, and this stone cannon was also made by him, and he led his apprentice to build it."

The old craftsman kneeled down to salute, "The little people paid homage to Gong Jing"

Liu Jing quickly helped the old craftsman up, "Old Man Qin doesn't have to be too polite."

He glanced at the stone cannon and smiled, "It is a great achievement to build stone cannons and trenchers, and I will definitely reward you with great rewards."

Qin Wu showed a look of shame on his face, and he sighed: "In fact, this stone cannon can only be used for ten days at most, and can only be used temporarily."

Liu Jing was stunned, "How to say this?"

"Report to you, a qualified stone cannon is particularly particular about wood. It is best to use solid jujube or oak, and it must be air-dried for more than a year. This stone cannon is camphor wood, which is OK, but it has not been air-dried and will deform and crack in more than ten days and cannot be used anymore."

Liu Jing nodded, the wood was dry, he could understand this, but it just needs to be dried in the New Year. Did Cao Cao start preparing before the New Year?

Qin Wu seemed to know Liu Jing’s thoughts and said with a wry smile: “In the northern region, there are many air-dried wood, and there are empty houses that are uninhabited everywhere. If you demolish the house, the beam will be the ones.”

So that's it. Liu Jing then realized that he smiled and said, "I may be able to get these beams in the future, but no matter what, with these stone cannons and catapults, I can hold Chaisang. I am still very grateful to you."

Just then, a cheer came from outside the tent, and a craftsman rushed in and said excitedly: "Mr. Qin Wu, the catapult is made."

Everyone walked out of the tent quickly and saw a catapult standing not far away, about two meters high. The long casting rod was like a fishing rod thrown by an angler. A group of craftsmen surrounded it and cheered around it.

Liu Jing felt a little excited and was about to step forward. At this time, a soldier ran over quickly and whispered in Liu Jing's ear.

Liu Jing was immediately overjoyed and didn't care about the catapult. He said hello to Xu Shu, and then turned over and headed towards the south city.

Chaisang has two city gates, north and south. At present, the South City has been sealed, leaving only the North City to enter and exit. Due to the war, people are no longer allowed to enter and exit at will.

But at this time, a group of soldiers and horses appeared outside the Nancheng, about fifty or sixty people, with messy clothes and different weapons. They were holding a big sword in their hands and riding on a horse.
Chapter completed!