In fact, both sides made miscalculations in this battle.

Li Qi believed that Cao Cao had neglected the defense of Brazil County in suppressing the rebellion in Youzhou, but he did not expect that Cao Ren would seize this opportunity;

Cao Ren originally wanted to lure Zhao Yun back to Brazil by encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao. In this way, Zhang Lu was able to move south smoothly. His army pressed west, attacking from both sides, and Xichuan could be defeated.

But what Cao Ren didn't expect was that Ren Dong's side "surrendered" inexplicably, so that Li Qi's army was able to move north quickly, and even changed its route to rescue Langzhong on the way north.

Now that Zhang Lu had lost Zhang Wei's 50,000 elite troops and was licking his wounds at home, he was naturally unable to go south.

Although Cao Ren had the support of Danquyi kings Puhu and Du Yi, what he had to face next was the consequences of going deep into the hinterland of Brazil alone.

Full of favors, Li Dian all thought that it would be good if Langzhong could be captured as soon as possible, but if not, it would be better to retreat.

But this would put a lot of pressure on Cao Ren.

He did not inform Cao Cao this time and led his troops southward privately. If he could capture Xichuan and achieve unparalleled achievements, he would naturally be able to straighten his back and speak in front of Cao Cao. But if he lost his troops and returned without success, then his sin would be great.

Yeah.

In desperation, Cao Ren had no choice but to attack Langzhong.

Cao Ren led 50,000 troops from Xicheng into Sichuan. He did not suffer much losses along the way, and surrendered Pu Hu, Du Yi and other Taoist troops of about 10,000, totaling 60,000 troops.

He didn't believe that 60,000 soldiers and horses could not attack Langzhong, which had only 10,000 defenders.

Man Chong suggested: "General Cao Ren can lead 20,000 people to attack the east gate, General Li Dian can lead 20,000 people to attack the north gate, and Chong can lead 20,000 people to attack the south gate, leaving the west gate alone to allow the enemy to escape."

After all, the four city gates are sealed, and the enemy has no way to escape and must fight to the death.

So Man Chong specially left Ximen for Deng Zhi to escape.

Cao Ren followed this and encouraged his morale before the battle: "Except for taking Langzhong, we have no retreat. I swear here that whoever is the first to climb the tower will be rewarded with thousands of gold and be made a marquis of ten thousand households. Kill him!"

It's the same war, and people will die in the same way.

But this time, there was the hope of "rewarding a thousand gold coins and creating a title of marquis of ten thousand households", and morale was suddenly boosted.

All the soldiers lifted up ladders or hit wood and rushed toward the bottom of Langzhong City.

Deng Zhi had already prepared ten small stone-making machines on the tower.

These stone-throwing machines were left over from Huang Yueying's time. Because they were throwing stones from the top of the tower to the bottom of the tower, they did not require much initial strength. Through precise calculations, she preset several long-distance and medium-distance settings.

, as long as the difference in weight of the stones is not too big, the distance thrown will not be too different.

What's more, when enemies all over the mountains and plains attack, you don't need any precision, you just need to know the approximate attack distance.

After several previous sieges, the walls of the city tower were already full of sharp-edged stones. In order to defend Langzhong tightly, Deng Zhi did not dare to send people out of the city to pick up the stones. Therefore, Cao Ren and his team moved forward with siege equipment.

difficult.

However, the number of stones in Langzhong was limited. Even if Deng Zhi mobilized the people to help carry the huge stones, he would soon be in a state of running out of stones to throw. After all, this era is not a cement road. Just knock two pieces of pavement and they can be used as stones.

Seeing that no more stones were thrown from the city tower, Cao Jun accelerated his attack on the city. Deng Zhi also changed his defensive weapons from stones to bows and arrows.

In the city, a young man walked towards the school with a hammer in his hand.

Someone called: "Wang Jun, there is a war outside the city. Do you still want to go to school?"

Others laughed and said: "If he doesn't go to school, what will he eat?"

In order to make more people willing to come to school, Li Qi added a new policy to schools in counties and counties, which is to provide a free lunch.

Wang Jun, also known as An Ran, was originally from Yongzhou, and came to Shu to avoid the war. His father died in the rebellion, and when he arrived in Chengdu, all his relatives also died of illness. He was all alone, so he planned to enter a school to have a meal.

At first, the school teacher heard that Wang Jun was not a local, so he did not want to admit him to school. But later he found that even if he did not have a free lunch, he was still huddled in the corner outside the school and listened to lectures. The teacher asked him questions based on Confucian classics, and Wang Jun answered questions well.

, then he was admitted to the school as an exception.

However, in the eyes of some people, they still think that Wang Jun is just here to make a living.

Wang Jun was only fourteen years old at this time. He had no time to pay attention to the two people talking to him. He walked outside the school room, swung the hammer in his hand and smashed against the wall.

Others scolded: "The school is a public property, how can you destroy it?"

Wang Jundao: "When all the stones on the city tower are thrown and the arrows are released, we can only let the enemy attack and engage in hand-to-hand combat. The enemy has several times the strength of our army. Do you think our army still has a chance of winning at that time? Cao Jun entered the city.

Afterwards, are these so-called public belongings still considered public property?”

It turned out that Wang Jun demolished the house to help the Shu army carry stones.

These houses are generally made of bricks, wood and tiles as the main materials. Even if a house is demolished, there will not be too many bricks and stones that can be used to attack.

Therefore, some people laughed at Wang Jun for being unable to save his salary.

Wang Jun believes that this is the only thing he can do now.

During these years of studying in Langzhong, he deeply felt the kindness of Li Qi.

He never thought that a refugee like himself could not only have a meal but also study.

In Wang Jun's mind, he has long regarded himself as a member of the Shu people. Now that Cao's army is attacking the city, if he can help the Shu army kill one more, he will not lose, and if he kills two more, he will gain.

Under Wang Jun's mobilization and influence, some civilians also joined in demolishing houses and transporting stones.

But someone on the city tower reported to Deng Zhi: "Now Langzhong is surrounded on three sides, and only the west gate can escape. Lord Deng, please go through the west gate."

Deng Zhi said: "The west gate is a bait thrown by the enemy. Once we go out of the west gate, we will be captured alive by the enemy."

Another person said: "General Gan Ning is fighting with Man Chong's troops at the south gate. Why don't we open the south gate and go out to attack Man Chong with General Gan Ning?"

Deng Zhi said: "If I abandon the east gate, Langzhong will be lost. Even if Manchong can be annihilated by then, what good will it do to the overall situation?"

No matter how others tried to persuade him, Deng Zhi remained firm.

He was very clear about his strategic purpose of sticking to Langzhong. Unless he died and asked Cao Jun to throw his body out of the city, he would never leave Langzhong.

At this time, there were no offensive stones on the tower, and even the bows and arrows were almost ready.

Cao's troops rushed to the city with their wooden sticks, banging against the city gates with a "bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," and some Cao's soldiers had already climbed up the tower from the ladders and started a close fight with the Langzhong defenders.

At this time, some people began to continuously transport huge stones to the city tower.

Each of these stones is as big as a watermelon. Throwing it from a 16-meter-high tower is enough to smash a person's head from a "mouth" shape into a "concave" shape.

Deng Zhi asked: "Where do these stones come from?"

Some people said: "We demolished the house!"

Deng Zhi was deeply moved and bowed: "If Langzhong can be defended, Zhi will definitely tell Li Yizhou and ask him to build a new house for you!"

The people said: "No, we are demolishing public houses."
Chapter completed!