The Ru water slowly flowed southward, and countless tree trunks that had just been cut down were floating on the river. While the boat was shuttled, the boatman used the bamboo poles on the boat to bring the wood stranded on the shore back into the river, guiding the wood downstream like a shepherd.

A young boatman was puzzled when he looked at the wood almost filled with the river. While shouting to pay attention to the boat, he explained to his nephew who followed him out to make a living: "This is all the wood needed by the government army, and he is preparing to build camps and combat equipment."

"Is there no trees on the Xuanhu? Why do you need to cut wood from the upstream and send it over?"

"You don't understand this, right?" The boss of the boat laughed and looked downstream. "The one-legged bronze man cut down all the trees around the Xuanhu."

"The one-legged bronze man is so cruel?"

"When you fight, if you don't get ruthless, you will be unlucky."

Hearing this, the young man was a little nervous: "Uncle, will we be in trouble?"

"It's hard to say that if the government army is dragged to be a coolie, it will be troublesome."

The young man became more nervous when he heard this. The boss of the boat smiled and said, "You have never seen the world before. You lower your head when you see anyone you see, and it looks easy to bully, so when you arrive at the military camp later, if the official army asks you to go ashore to help, don't respond."

"Don't respond? What if you annoy the official army?"

"Just pretend you didn't hear it. After a while, there will be a shortage of staff on the dock. The government army shouted when they saw idlers, "Don't sit down, pretend to be busy with things, and don't be so conspicuous."

"Then...if you go ashore to help, won't you come back after you finish your work?"

"Okay, it depends on your luck. If you are asked to carry the wood to the camp and just want to leave, but someone is called to do something else, do it or not? Our ship cannot stop at the dock for so long. When you come back, the ship will have already left!"

The young man nodded, and when the other boatmen saw that the two were very excited, they muttered: "If they were really kept by the government army and could not leave, then don't panic. Do things honestly. You always have a bite of food and a place to sleep. You just need to be smarter and don't be pulled to fill the trenches."

"Finhao? What is Finhao?"

"It is to fill trenches. When fighting, those who guard the city will definitely dig trenches outside the city and divert water into moats. Those who attack the city must first fill the moat or trenches, so that those combat equipment such as ladders can approach the city wall."

A boatman with scars on his face came to tell him that in the past few years, there were constant wars between all and many in Henan Province. The Sui army, which was entrenched in Xuanhu, and the Zhou army who came to attack the city launched a bloody offensive and defensive battle around Xuanhu City.

He was conscripted by the Zhou army as a young man, and he was unlucky to go to the battlefield to fill the trenches with earth. There were wandering arrows everywhere on the battlefield. Many people fell to the ground by arrows and never woke up again.

"I tell you, it's okay to be shot to death on the spot. If you are half dead, that's a crime. The arrow injury is not a joke. The body is shot, the internal organs are injured, and the fever and nonsense for several consecutive days are simply a life-threatening suffering, and you will die in the end."

The boatman talked about his experience in the military camp in a vivid way, but he didn't know whether it was true or false. He would say whatever he was miserable. The young man's face turned pale and his hands holding the oar were a little trembling.

He has never seen the world. The village he has lived in for generations is next to the Ru River. The water system in Yuzhou is crisscrossing, so the shipping is very busy. The villagers rely on water to get water and get ships to transport goods to make hard money. His uncle is one of them.

Because the family is crowded and the land is small, young people want to go on a boat like many people, but the water business is not very safe because there are water bandits.

Where did the siege come from? In fact, they are fishermen or villagers along the river. Many times, they can’t figure out whether a boater on the river is a good citizen or a siege.

To make a living is to support the family, but not to live up to life, so someone must take it in this industry. The young man’s uncle has been sailing for many years and happened to bring his relatives into the industry. As a result, the government army wanted to attack the "one-legged bronze man" who occupied Xuanhu. The young man, who had just entered the industry, followed his uncle and was recruited by the government army to transport supplies.

The bronze man is still one-legged, how can he walk freely like a living person?

Like others, the young man heard that it was the "one-legged bronze man" who occupied Xuanhu and wanted to cause trouble and harm the people. At first, everyone didn't understand how the bronze man did bad things, but later they realized that this was a nickname.

The one-legged bronze man or something has nothing to do with everyone. Whether it is a farmer who was recruited to serve in the military or a boatman who was recruited to transport wood as an official army, everyone just wanted to go home alive, so they all hoped that the official army would quickly recover Xuanhu and end the war.

While chatting, the river ahead gradually became crowded, and many ships of all sizes were queuing up to berth on the docks on both sides of the Rushui River. There were many young and strong people on the river banks on both sides, using tools to pull the floating wood ashore.

The number of people is so large that it is far beyond the lively grass market on weekdays. Young people keep in mind their uncle's instructions and work hard to find things to do. Even if they have nothing to do, they should find things to do, so as not to be called by the government army to help and finally go to the battlefield to fill the trenches.

After a while, the boat was docked, the young man and his companions gathered the wood floating on the water, then carried the grain bags in the cabin to the dock, and carried it back and forth several times before emptying the grain on the boat.

The ship boss went to the military officer to obtain bamboo chips as a certificate to complete the tasks of transporting grain and wood. The young man took advantage of the break and looked around.

The piers on both sides of the Rushui River are very busy, with all kinds of supplies piled up like mountains, and people coming and going on the shore are very lively. There are ordinary people wearing civilian clothes, as well as soldiers wearing military uniforms and armor.

Horses, donkeys, mules, and various livestock were carrying supplies from the dock elsewhere. He looked into the distance and saw the tents rising and falling, unable to see at first sight, and many flags fluttering in the wind, which looked very spectacular.

Looking south along the river, I vaguely saw a city several miles downstream. I thought it was Xuanhu City. There seemed to be many bare tree trunks outside the city.

Seeing this, the young man was a little confused: "Huh? Why are there trees outside the city? Didn't it mean that the one-legged bronze man cut down all the trees outside the city?"

"Hehe, there is something strange about it." The scarred boatman smiled, "Guess."

"I have no idea."

"Follower, that's not a tree, it's a trencher!"

"A chicken that can throw stones?"

......

The central army's tent, Prime Minister and Shu King Yuchi Dun were summoning the generals to discuss matters. The official army has now surrounded Xuanhu, and next we will attack the city to recover Xuanhu as soon as possible and stabilize the situation in Yuzhou.

Since the second year of the elephant, Xuanhu has been in full swing. The Zhou army and the Sui army have fought many bloody battles around this important place in Henan. Last year, the Sui Kingdom was destroyed and Xuanhu was able to rest for a year. Now, war is about to fight again.

The defense situation in Xuanhu City is not unfamiliar with the Zhou army led by Yuchi Dun. Over the years, the Zhou army generals have racked their brains to find solutions. Therefore, this time, the attack on Xuanhu again is just to learn from previous wars.

Everyone wants to do a quick attack, but the Anzhou army dares to defend Xuanhu and wants to prepare well, so it is impossible to be impatient. So in order to minimize casualties on our side, you must make careful preparations and weaken the city defense as much as possible.

The first thing to do is to build a large village in four directions: southeast, southwest and northwest of Xuanhu, dig several trenches to connect with each other, and lock Xuanhu in a cage to avoid a small group of elite enemy troops or cavalry breaking through.

The three big villages in the east, south and west also shoulder the important task of blocking enemy reinforcements. Not only were soldiers stationed, but also cavalry patrolling the periphery. When their side had their full strength to attack the city, they were wary of enemy reinforcements.

The Nanzhai is located downstream of the Xuanhuru River. In addition to preventing the enemy from breaking through the ground, it also has to set up a water gate to prevent the enemy from swimming and sneak attacks or escapes in the city. Similarly, the Beizhai, located upstream of the Xuanhuru River, must also defend against the opponent's swimming and sneak attacks.

Beizhai is the location of the Central Army, and it is also a transfer terminal for food, grass and various materials. It unloads a large amount of baggage transported from the north by water and transports it to other camps to support the army's combat operations.

The Anzhou Army, which was entrenched in Xuanhu, had cut down all the trees outside the city, so the official army set up a village and built a war equipment and needed to transport the wood from Ru River. This is not a problem. The problem is that in addition to shooting thunder, the catapult also had to shoot stones.

There are no big stones in the outskirts of Xuanhu City, so the stones used for trenchers have to be transported from the upper prefectures and counties.

The official army had a strong force and joined the Bozhou army advancing westward, with a force of less than 120,000, so it was not afraid of being broken through by the Xuanhu enemy army in a single point. Then the next thing to consider is the siege strategy.

One of the strategies is to use water to attack.

When the Ru River flows through Xuanhu, build a dam downstream of Xuanhu, and return to the water to irrigate the city, it takes several days to build a dam. At the same time, before the dam is closed, you can first use a trencher to destroy the Xuanhu city wall.

The catapult is equipped with wheels, and the water level rises and can retreat. After the dam is successfully built near the Nanzhai of the Guanjun, the chassis will soak the chassis for more than ten days or even a month, making the foundation of the rammed earth wall unstable. Then, the catapult will attack day and night, which can easily break through the Xuanhu wall.

Strategy 2: Siege the city by tunnels, dig the tunnels into the wall of Xuanhu City, bury the sky thunder, and make a fortune by "raising the coffin".

This strategy requires drainage, which is to cut off one of the left and right Rushui surrounding Xuanhu, drain the river water, and then use various combat tools to attack the city on the ground. At the same time, people are sent to dig tunnels to approach Xuanhu City.

The opponent must be prepared for the attack and defense of the tunnel, so the attack and defense around the tunnel will definitely cause a lot of casualties. If the attack and attack in the tunnel cannot work, then attack directly. As long as the Xuanhu can be taken down, it doesn't matter if the casualties are greater.

These two strategies conflict with each other, so they need to choose one. Yuchi Dun planned to approach Xuanhu City and investigate the city defense situation on site before making a decision. Now, after walking around Xuanhu, he found that the situation was different from what he imagined.

The hanging gourd at this time is no longer the hanging gourd of the past.

The Sui Kingdom was destroyed. Xuanhu City, which had been war-torn for many years, was renovated last year, with the focus on repairing the city walls. At that time, the officials who were in charge of the renovation project later went to Beijing to serve. This time, Yuchi Dun brought him to advise on the strategy of siege, and found that the current Xuanhu City had changed a lot.

When the government repaired the Xuanhu City Wall last year, the dilapidated urn city of the three main gates in the east, south and west had been demolished and had not had time to rebuild it. Because it was not necessary for the time being, Xuanhu City was generally the same as many state cities, with a rectangular shape, but now it has changed.

There is an additional earthen trunk in front of each city gate, which is about the same height as the city wall. It blocks the city gate behind the trunk, which is similar to the role of a urn city to prevent the enemy from directly attacking the city gate.

There are also such earthen trunks in front of the relatively straight city wall. Each city wall in the southeast, west and north has several earthen trunks shielded in front. The first day of the New Year looks like a horse face, but when you look closely, it is different.

The horse face is a convex section of the city wall outside the city wall. It is square and straight, and the enemy is connected on three sides. The defenders can shoot arrows to the left and right sides on the horse face, and shoot enemies who climb the straight section of the city wall with ladders.

Nowadays, the earthen trench outside the Xuanhu City wall seems to have a similar function as a horse's face, but it is a pointed trench, and the tip of the trench on the outward side is a trench. I don't know what the purpose is.

Yuchi Dun felt that it was because the Anzhou army would complete the building of the base in a short period of time, so in order to speed up the work, the earthwork was reduced, and the square tower was built into a top tower, and then used the tower to protect the city, increasing the difficulty and casualties of the official army when siege the city.

In addition to the earthen trench built at the attack, the facilities at the Xuanhu City Head were also a bit strange. Yuchi Dun and the generals observed with a thousand-mile mirror and found that the war sheds on the city head were very wide. I don’t know where the other party had confidence and means to ensure that these war sheds survived the attack of the stone-capping machine.

The war shed, that is, a wooden house built on the wall, can prevent the defenders from being injured by arrows, but this thing is already very fragile in front of the stones thrown by the catapult, the sky-burning thunder and fireballs.

The war shed at the head of Xuanhu City is different from the common war sheds before. It is not like a house, but more like a low wooden shed. It feels like if the government and army do their best to use the catapult to fire, these war sheds will not last for a few days.

If it was an army elsewhere, Yuchi Dun only thought that the other party did not know the power of the stone catapult, so he did such a ridiculous move. However, the Anzhou army guarded the city, which was the first army to use the stone catapult and thunder. The other party actually built such a war shed, and he felt that something must be strange.

There was no obvious crossbow platform found in the mutated Xuanhu City Wall, which seemed to be hidden in the battle shed at the top of the city. The style of the arrow tower (enemy tower) was a bit strange, as if it was only taller than the top of the city.

Of course, the scene inside the city was not visible. Yuchi Dun noticed that there were trenches dug behind the Rushui tributaries outside the city. This was nothing strange, but there was a low wall under the city wall, which seemed to be used as a female wall for the archers who came out of the city.

The inexplicable low wall and the inexplicable city defense, Yuchi Dun felt that it was useless, because all of this was created in just over a month after Yu Wen Wen succeeded in attacking Xuan Hu, so it was certain that the foundation was not solid.

"The enemy hastily built a fortification and strengthened the city walls, and its foundation is not solid, so our army must first attack with water!"

"Tomorrow, Nanzhai will organize people to build a dam to intercept Ru water and return water to simmer the hanging gourd!"

"The water level has risen, and the catapult has been built to retreat. All military camps should pay attention to avoiding water!"

Yuchi Dun said firmly, and all the generals present agreed. The main body of the wall of Xuanhu City was rammed earth. The Anzhou army hastily built a tamped earth outside the city, and the main body must be rammed earth. In such a short time, the rammed earth will definitely not be strong. As long as you soak it in water for more than ten days, the foundation of the wall will naturally become soft.

Do whatever you should do next, and try to take down Xuanhu as soon as possible.

"Chenghu is just a treasure from my bag for me. However, if the government troops attack the city without discrimination, they will only cause the center of Xuanhu City to be innocently victimized by the military and civilians of the court."
Chapter completed!