Knowing that the officers and men of Qijun didn't want to see the people of Qiaojun, Yuan Tiangang didn't plan to appear in front of Zhang Xutuo and others. He was ready to draw a map and make a sand table and return to Qiaojun immediately to meet Chen Yingliang, but the plan didn't change quickly. Because of a very important accident, Yuan Tiangang was forced to appear in front of Zhang Xutuo.
The accident happened on the first day when the Sui army began to attack the city. After angrily razing the abandoned camp of the bandits to the ground, Zhang Xutuo immediately ordered to set up the siege. Organized a large number of township brave men, first launched an attack on the moat of Menghai City, preparing to fill up the moat outside the south gate of Menghai City, and open the way for large siege weapons to reach directly under the city.
When Li Zixiong and Li Zixiong commanded the rebel army to attack Luoyang, Zhang Xutuo, who had participated in many siege battles, also chose the most orthodox siege tactics. He used an elite team to monitor the city gate, and the long shield soldiers stepped forward first. After forming temporary fortifications, the archers stepped forward again, hiding behind the shields and firing arrows to suppress the defenders on the city, and then the toad carts loaded with earth and rocks came forward to fill the trenches with earth and rocks. At the same time, in view of the sufficient siege weapons, Zhang Xutuo dispatched the siege weapon trebuchet in the first battle, intending to use the trebuchet to give Meng Haigong's bandit army a disarm, and to blow the arrogance of the bandit army that has gradually risen.
Knowing that Zhang Xutuo's army was under pressure, Li Mi of course followed Meng Haigong and his wife to the city wall to advise Meng Haigong and command the defense of the city. Suddenly seeing the Sui Army's trebuchet appearing, and carefully observing the slowly approaching bulky trebuchet, Li Mi laughed and said, "God help me, I never thought that Zhang Xutuo would make such a mistake!"
As Li Mi expected, it took a lot of effort and time to deploy the tall and heavy Sui catapults. When the sweaty Sui catapult gunners were still fixing the body, Li Mi had already calculated the throwing angle himself. While waving the flag above, two catapults rushed by the bandits in the city threw stone bombs first, and the two stone bombs weighing 120 jin flew out roaringly, drawing two arrows in the sky. A huge parabola hit the Sui army's trebuchet team with a terrifying whistling sound. One of them hit several Sui army gunners, killing and wounding three people on the spot, and the other accurately hit a Sui army. The military catapult immediately smashed the catapult so that sawdust flew across it, the arm was broken, and it was scrapped on the spot.
Seeing this scene, the bandits on the city wall were of course bursting with joy and their morale was boosted, but everyone on the side of the Sui army was shocked. No matter what they said, they never thought that the bandits on the city wall would have trebuchets, and they could hide behind the city wall and smash them. So accurate. Shocked, the gunners of the Sui army hurriedly fixed the vehicle body, organized their hands to drag the throwing arm, and fired stones at each other.
This was an extremely asymmetric trebuchet battle. The Sui army had 30 trebuchets in total, while the bandit army had only two trebuchets. In terms of numbers, the Sui army had an absolute advantage. However, after the confrontation started, the soldiers of the Sui army were surprised to find that the trebuchets of the official army were not only far less accurate than the catapults of the thieves, but also not as far as the catapults of the thieves. When they hit the top of the thief castle, many stone bullets could only hit the city wall or directly below the city. The threat to the thief guards was not as great as imagined. The two trebuchets of the thief army could hide behind the city wall , easily hit the heavy stone bullets on the Sui army's trebuchet position, and hit it very accurately, basically every two stone bullets could hit one, which killed and injured many Sui army gunners.
Afterwards, the soldiers of the Sui army were even more dumbfounded. With repeated throwing of stone bombs, their trebuchets broke and scrapped one after another. The worst trebuchet only dropped eleven times. The throwing arm broke in the middle with a bang, and the soldiers of the Sui army who were pulling the rope suddenly fell all over the ground, in extreme embarrassment.
Seeing such a picture, the bandit soldiers on the city wall were of course cheering like thunder, their morale was even more cheered up, and they worked harder when they drew their bows and released their arrows. The Sui army was in a commotion, their morale was greatly reduced, and they whispered what to say. There are all of them, and even Meng Haigong said such nonsense that he asked an expert to use spells when he was building the city. And Yuan Tiangang, who had been hiding in the Liangjun team to watch the battle, couldn't sit still anymore. He quickly took the rope for exploring the terrain, led two followers and rushed forward, risking his life to rush to the Sui army's trebuchet. In front of the position, measure the size of the throwing arm of the discarded catapult of the Sui army.
It's okay if you don't measure it, but after measuring it, Yuan Tiangang became furious, and cursed very unmanneredly: "Who the hell supervised the construction of these trebuchets? This man should be marching! To make such a trebuchet is simply a waste of money!" The lives of the soldiers are a joke!"
"What the hell are you talking about? Who told you to come up?" A roar sounded from the side, and Tang Wanche, the general of Qi County who was directing the soldiers to throw stones, was furious. He rushed up and grabbed Yuan Tiangang. , Surprised: "Aren't you that Yuan... from Qiao County, that liar Yuan? Why did you come here?"
"I'll tell you how I got here." Yuan Tiangang said angrily, "I can't throw any more bombs, stop immediately, stop all of them, otherwise all your trebuchets will have to be scrapped on the spot!"
Of course, Tang Wanche would not listen to Yuan Tiangang's orders, and asked Yuan Tiangang what qualifications he had to order him? Yuan Tiangang had no choice but to break free from Tang Wanche's pulling, and ran quickly to Zhang Xutuo's flag formation, and Zhang Xutuo, Yang Wang and others in the flag formation had already noticed Yuan Tiangang, and Zhang Xutuo immediately asked : "Aren't you Yuan Tiangang from Qiao County? Why did you come to Meng Hai City?"
"Marshal, I was ordered to send an official document to Yang Tongshou, so I came here." Yuan Tiangang first made up a reason, and then said quickly: "You can't throw stones anymore, your catapult is made wrong, throw your arm It was too long, so it was broken and scrapped after only a few throws, and the remaining catapults still have a chance to make amends, so stop quickly, or they will be completely useless."
"Our catapult was made wrong?" Zhang Xutuo couldn't believe that the army's catapult would make such an oolong, but he saw with his own eyes that the catapult was quickly scrapped, so after hesitating for a while, Zhang Xutuo said He ordered: "Send an order to stop the trebuchet from dropping bombs, and then call Tang Wanche over."
The messenger rushed out to deliver the order, and the generals in Qi County were talking about it, they didn't really believe that their own army would make such a big mistake, Luo Shixin was very angry and asked Yuan Tiangang, a charlatan, what kind of ordnance manufacturing did he know? Yuan Tiangang sneered and said nothing, but after Tang Wanche flew back to the flag formation, when Yuan Tiangang came to accuse him of making mistakes in supervising the construction of the catapult, Tang Wanche, who was at a disadvantage in the catapult battle, suddenly became furious and grabbed Yuan Tiangang again. Tiangang's collar yelled: "Fuck your mother! I made these trebuchets according to the size drawings of "Mozi Beicheng", and they are not bad at all. What's wrong?!"
"Liar Yuan, have you read "Mozi Beicheng"?" Mulan also said contemptuously: "Your methods of pretending to be ghosts will work with Chen Yingliang, but not with us."
Yuan Tiangang calmly recited: "Mozi Beicheng" fifty-second, the length of the arm thrower is 30 to 35 feet, and the length of the arm is less than 24 feet. General Tang, if I don't If you guessed wrong, in order to increase the power of the throwing stone, you made the throwing arm use the longest thirty-five feet, right?"
"Huh? How do you know?" Tang Wanche was shocked at first, then remembered that Yuan Tiangang had measured the throwing arm just now, and said angrily: "Of course you know after measuring it! What? Could it be that the size of the trebuchet I supervised was not measured correctly? "
"Correct, it is indeed thirty-five feet, almost exactly." Yuan Tiangang nodded, then raised his voice under the sneering eyes of Qi Jun soldiers, and roared: "But you used the construction ruler of the Sui Dynasty! Do you know what kind of ruler is used in "Mozi"? It is the Zhou ruler! The Zhou ruler is only seven inches and eight cents of the Sui Zaozhi ruler! You use the Sui ruler to make a thirty-five-foot-long throwing arm, converted into Zhou Chi is more than forty-four feet and eight inches! The throwing arm has grown by almost one-third, can it continue?"
The ridicule of the Qi County generals stopped abruptly, Tang Wanche's anger also froze on his face, he was dumbfounded, and muttered: "Zhou Chi, is there such a big difference from our Da Sui Chi?"
"Originally, you weren't too wrong. You used the Dasui ruler to measure the length and the thickness of the throwing arm, which is equivalent to enlarging the trebuchet by one size." Yuan Tiangang said helplessly: " Logically speaking, our soldiers are at most just working harder, but you enlarged the size of the trebuchet, but did not add iron hoops (iron hoops), and still use the four iron hoops of the small trebuchet, lacking iron trebuchet protection The throwing arm is prevented from breaking, and the throwing arm has already increased a lot in weight, can it not be easily broken?"
Tang Wanche was completely speechless, and could only knelt down obediently to Zhang Xutuo, who had a gloomy expression, and said after a long while: "I can't blame you all, the old man is also responsible, the old man just used it before. The trebuchet doesn’t know the size, so I didn’t notice your mistake in time, it’s your first time making a trebuchet, you can forgive the mistake, this time you won’t be held accountable, go and withdraw all the trebuchets.”
Tang Wanche saluted and thanked him, and went back dejectedly to withdraw the trebuchet. Zhang Xutuo forced a smile, nodded to Yuan Tiangang and said, "Thank you, Mr. Yuan, for reminding us in time. Our army did not continue to make mistakes. But the old man has one thing. The thing is very strange, Mr. Yuan, you are not proficient in Zhouyi arithmetic, how can you be so proficient in weapon making?"
"Commander, the students have never been interested in weapons and military affairs." Yuan Tiangang replied truthfully: "But since entering the Chen Tongshou shogunate, Chen Tongshou has always asked the students to try out various military equipment, even if they are temporarily unusable. We also need to make samples first, as a technical reserve. The students were forced to learn a lot of weapon manufacturing. It happened that the students had some talent in arithmetic, and they couldn't look past the size and measurement, so they happened to find out about your army's throwing stones. Machine size is wrong."
"Mr. Yuan is humble, Mr. is a great talent, I admire you." Zhang Xutuo said reluctantly: "It is really a blessing for Chen Tongshou to have such a great talent as you, Mr.."
"Master, thank you. In fact, our Chen Tongshou's knowledge of arithmetic and machinery is far superior to that of the students. It's just that he doesn't like to show off like the students." Yuan Tiangang continued to be modest, pointing to Meng Haicheng in the distance and said: " Marshal, there is also a genius who is proficient in arithmetic and mechanics in this thief castle! The students have noticed that the two trebuchets of the thief army throw stones diagonally, not in a straight line, so the students are sure that the trebuchets of the thief army throw stones , must be equipped with a fairly precise round ruler, and there are people on the city wall who are proficient in arithmetic to calculate the shooting angle and guide the throwing stones, so the two trebuchets of the bandit army can shoot so accurately."
Zhang Xutuo didn't say a word, and said after a long while: "Sir, you have worked hard from afar, go down and rest." Yuan Tiangang also knew that Zhang Xutuo must be in a very depressed mood right now, so he hurriedly left and left. The entourage went to survey the terrain again without mentioning it.
Without the planned catapults to assist in the battle, the Sui army's siege momentum was not only much smaller immediately, but also its morale was inevitably greatly affected. Seeing that the army's morale was available, Li Mi simply suggested that Meng Haigong send long shieldmen and archers out of the city, use long shields to build a temporary sheep and horse wall inside the trench, and let the archers hide behind the sheep and horse wall. Shoot the trench filling soldiers of the Sui army with a bow and arrow. Meng Haigong, who had gradually gained confidence, was no longer so afraid of Zhang Xutuo, and decisively followed the plan to give orders.
The ensuing battle turned into a battle of bows and arrows. The crossbowmen of the bandits hid behind the wall of sheep and horses and kept firing arrows. , and launched a confrontation with the bandit archers. Although the well-trained Sui army archers with many feathers and arrows did not suffer in the battle, the Sui army's trench filling operation was still greatly delayed, and it was impossible to complete the day. Fill the South Gate Trench in Menghai City. The generals of Qi County were furious. Luo Shixin and He Yanyu both suggested to attack the city directly without filling the trenches. Fortunately, Zhang Xutuo knew the danger of insufficient preparation for the assault, so he did not adopt it. He just asked the team to fill in the trenches as much as possible.
In the next two days, after paying a considerable price, the Sui army finally basically filled the trench at the south gate of Menghai City and opened the way for large siege weapons to reach the city. It was also on the night of the third day that Zhang Xutuo, who was determined to attack the city the next day, thought of Yuan Tiangang again, so he sent someone to summon Yuan Tiangang to see him, but Yuan Tiangang did not come, but Zhang Xutuo actually did not come. Yang Wang, the commander's deputy, came to the tent of the Chinese army and reported to Zhang Xutuo: "Ambassador, Mr. Yuan has already left. He left this afternoon. He said he was going back to give orders, so he bid me farewell."
Zhang Xutuo's face was a little gloomy, and he said: "It's fine if you leave. It's no big deal for me to find him. It's just that we will attack the city tomorrow. I want him to see if there is anything wrong with our other siege weapons. Since we leave Alright, forget it."
"Ambassador Zhang, there is something I have to let you know." Yang Wang said: "When Mr. Yuan Tiangang left, he took away a sand table of Menghai city that he made by himself. Much more refined."
"What is he doing on the sand table in Menghai City?" Zhang Xutuo was startled for a moment, then immediately came to his senses, and hummed: "I don't want to help, but I am still concerned about the terrain and battle situation here, and imagine Meng Rang last time, waiting for me to beat Meng Haigong to death It's almost there, come here to pick up ready-made cheap ones?"
"Ambassador Zhang, Nephew Ying Liang is not that kind of person." Yang Wang shook his head and said, "When Yang Xuangan rebelled, the old man saw it with his own eyes. It is no exaggeration to say that Yang Xuangan's rebellion was put down by him alone, but this kid has never I don’t know what it means to fight for merit. If he has credit, he will give it to his allies as much as possible. I know that he alone took the credit for capturing Meng Rang alive. The soldiers under your command are very dissatisfied. He refused to send troops to help you attack this Meng Hai city. , you are also very upset, but the official can be sure that he must have his reasons for refusing, you are much older than him, why bother with a junior?"
"Who said that the old man is haggling with him?" Zhang Xutuo was a little annoyed, and asked angrily: "He didn't send troops to help, so I didn't force him? Did the old man impeach him because of this?"
"If the ambassador really doesn't care about it, then the officer will just say it." Yang Wang said: "The officer wants to come forward and write a letter to ask Chen Yingliang to send troops to the north and come to Menghai City to help. The officer will not lie to the ambassador, and he and I His uncle Pei Hongce is a life-and-death friend, and Pei Hongce has shown him a great kindness of support and care, and he will not and dare not refuse if I ask this."
Zhang Xutuo's face was gloomy again, and then he said: "Is it necessary? We have already filled up the moat in the southern city of the thief's castle, and then we just need to break the city with all our strength. Do we need to ask him to help? "
"Ambassador, don't try to be brave." Yang Wang sighed and said, "Even a junior officer who is not very proficient in military affairs can see that our vigor has been dampened by successive setbacks, and our morale has also been damaged. Huge impact, the next siege battle is actually very small. Once the war is delayed for a long time, there will be dangerous consequences. Ambassador, don’t you understand? The officials in other counties are not very clear, but I know it here in Liang County. Once the main force of Liang County is restrained on this battlefield for a long time, Zhai Rang in the northwestern part of Liang County will definitely take the opportunity to make trouble, and small thieves like Wang Bodang and Zhou Wenju who have just started the incident will also take advantage of the opportunity, and the consequences will be disastrous!"
As the commander-in-chief of the twelve counties to suppress bandits, Zhang Xutuo certainly knew better than Yang Wang the unforeseen consequences of the main force of his own army being restrained under Menghai City for a long time, but Zhang Xutuo was still very unconvinced and hummed: "He's here!" , are you sure to take down this city of thieves quickly?"
"I don't know if he is sure, I only know that he is very hopeful." Yang Wang replied solemnly: "Because I have seen his ability to use troops and plan with my own eyes, I know that if he doesn't make a move, it's fine, and if he makes a move, he will definitely not." It is an uncertain battle, so the subordinate officials believe that as long as he is allowed to help in the battlefield of Menghai City, we can hope to break through the city quickly, and we will not cause huge casualties due to the strong attack on the city."
Zhang Xutuo was silent for a moment, but still refused: "No need, I beat it myself! I don't believe it anymore, without him, Butcher Chen, I can only eat hairy pigs!"
Seeing that Zhang Xutuo's attitude was extremely resolute, obviously out of anger, Yang Wang didn't want to say anything else, he was just thinking, whether to bypass Zhang Xutuo and invite Chen Yingliang to send troops northward with the honor of the Liangjun officer? The excuse is very good, because Meng Haigong spent a lot of money to build this Menghai City. If you want to die, it happens to be stuck at the junction of Liang County and Jiyin County, with the Hulu River between the two counties in between. On the land of Liang County, Yang Wang, as the general guard of Liang County, invited Chen Yingliang to send troops to help attack the south city of Meng Hai City, which was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
…
Let's take a look at the situation on Chen Yingliang's side. Two days later, Yuan Tiangang and his party returned to Yongcheng smoothly, and brought back to Chen Yingliang Yang Wang's letter of thanks, as well as the map sand table requested by Chen Yingliang. And after Chen Yingliang carefully looked at the sand table of Meng Hai City carefully crafted by Yuan Tiangang, he quickly exclaimed, "This city of thieves, there is hope that we can take it directly without attacking it head-on?"
"You don't need to attack the city, can you take it directly?" Yuan Tiangang, Changsun Wuji and others were all taken aback.
"I'm not very sure, but I'm very hopeful." Chen Yingliang replied, and then quickly asked Yuan Tiangang: "Mr. Yuan, if I'm not wrong, the fortifications around Meng Haicheng, Meng Haigong's thief lair, should not be a moat, but a moat." Is it a trench without water?"
"Chen Tongshou, how could you even guess this?" Yuan Tiangang was shocked.
"It's very simple, Menghai City lacks water!" Chen Yingliang replied decisively: "Your sand table clearly shows that there are only two rivers around Menghai City, one is the Hulu River between the two cities, and the other is the horses flowing into the lower reaches of the Hulu River. The pit river, the rivers are scarce, and the water source is insufficient, so Meng Haigong did not build a moat, but only dug a trench!"
"Lack of water?" Changsun Wuji immediately came to his senses, and said pleasantly, "Brother, what do you mean, as long as we cut off the Gourd River and prevent the bandit army from getting water, we will win?"
"Improbable?" Yuan Tiangang didn't react for a while, and said: "The water volume of the Hulu River is not small, it is difficult to cut it off completely, and the surface of the Makeng River is basically the same as that of the Hulu River, and it will pour into it... . "
"I'm on the edge of a dead end!"
Before he finished speaking, Yuan Tiangang slapped his forehead and regretted it, annoyed: "I still claim to be proficient in geography and geomantic omen, how can I be so confused? The Hulu River is difficult to cut off, so dig a channel to bring the water into the low-lying area The water of the Makeng River will backfill, just use some sacks of soil to block the mouth of the river, without the influx of the Hulu River, the level of the Makeng River will drop, making backflow even more difficult!"
"But brother, Meng Haigong can still dig wells!" Changsun Wuji hurriedly said: "We cut off his water source, so he will dig more wells in the city, so he can still replenish drinking water."
"Meng Haigong's bandit army has more than 20,000 people. Even if there is some loss during this period, there are still more than 20,000 people including his family members. How many wells do you think Meng Haigong needs to dig to use?" Chen Yingliang asked with a smile, and then said: "Besides, Meng Haigong built his city into two cities, the north and the south, standing between the river. This shows that the groundwater is scarce, and the river must be brought in for drinking!"
"Tong Shou, you are really good at predicting things." Yuan Tiangang said excitedly: "When I surveyed the terrain of Meng Hai City, I once considered the tactics of tunnel siege, and found that Meng Hai City is located on a rock formation, and there are many rocks underground. It's almost impossible to dig into the city, but there's certainly not much groundwater!"
"Meng Haigong chose the wrong place to build the city from the very beginning!" Chen Yingliang laughed and said, "If he built the city next to the Makeng River, we would have to work hard to break the city, but he chose a small river. Building a city, and still stationing such an army in his den of thieves, it is a great credit to me!"
After laughing loudly, Chen Yingliang hurriedly asked again: "Mr. Yuan, you should have measured the width and flow of the Hulu River and Makeng River, right?"
Seeing Yuan Tiangang nodding vigorously, Chen Yingliang smiled even more happily, and immediately ordered: "Calculate immediately to see how much earthwork is needed to cut off the Hulu River and prevent the Makeng River from being flooded, and then calculate how many straw bags are needed to hold soil, and the calculation will be done immediately." Hand over the numbers to Wuji. Wuji, you are in charge of preparing the straw bags, prepare more, and prepare for dispatching troops casually, and go north to help Zhang Xutuo."
Yuan Tiangang agreed, and immediately sat aside to calculate the earthwork. Changsun Wuji also agreed, and then said: "Brother, there is no need for us to send troops? Just tell Zhang Xutuo or Yang Wang the method?"
"Silly boy, Meng Haigong kills people, sets fire, robs and rapes everywhere. All the money, food and treasures he robbed must be hoarded in his Meng Hai City." Chen Yingliang finally showed some fangs, and said with a smirk: "We are sorry if we don't get some of those money, food and treasures back." The people of Liang County and Jiyin County who were harmed by him?"
Changsun Wuji suddenly realized, and immediately burst out laughing, while Yuan Tiangang turned his head again and suggested, "Tong Shou, in fact, we can temporarily block the Makeng River so that all the water in the Hulu River flows into the Makeng River to dry up. Then block the mouth of the river to prevent backflow, in this way, although we have to spend some extra effort, we can completely cut off the water for the bandit army within a day!"
"Good idea." Chen Yingliang said with a smile: "How to make Meng Haigong short of water faster, Mr. Yuan, you can figure it out. You are a big expert in this field, and I will listen to you."