He Xian cried bitterly, snatched a long knife, slashed the battlements one by one, and slashed them wildly.

"Yuan Shu, Sun Ce, I swear to you and I are incompatible. Even if I become a ghost, I will not let you go."

Cao Cao came back to his senses for a while, shook his head, and signaled his personal guard to take He Xian down from the city. He knew that both sides were afraid of being timid, but he did not expect that Sun Ce would come up and kill dozens of people from the He family without saying a word. This is ruthless. If he dared to kill the family of Yuan Shu's general, Sun Ce would continue to kill people. Yuan Shu attacked dozens of manors, and captured no thousand or eight hundred prisoners, which was more hostages than he had. However, there were no Sun family among these hostages, and Sun Ce killed them unscrupulously. In this way, if he was ruthless with Sun Ce, the powerful Nanyang would have to fight against him.

Unfortunately, Yuan Yao was sent to Yecheng, otherwise he could have some intimidation for Sun Ce. Yuan Shu's daughter and son-in-law were in his hands, but his daughter was a daughter after all, so Yuan Shu might not care, and Sun Ce would not care even more.

Cao Cao turned around and waved his hand, signaling to take Yang Hong and others back. Sun Ce dared to kill He Xian's family, but he did not dare to kill Yang Hong. The Hongnong Yang family is not easy to mess with. Even Yuan Shao had to consider it, let alone Cao Cao. Xi Zhicai looked at Cao Cao in confusion. Cao Cao rubbed his hands and smiled bitterly, "Forget it, don't bother with this madman. Sun Ce was impulsive and killed Kuai Yue's family in Xiangyang, and later killed the Xi family. I can't compete with him."

Xi Zhicai didn't say anything, and he knew why Cao Cao thought so. In contrast, Cao Cao was afraid of the powerful Nanyang around him, but Sun Ce didn't have to worry about Yuan Shu's generals being unfavorable to him. The situation of the two was different. If they really wanted to kill him, the powerful Nanyang would definitely turn against him.

After ordering, there was a cry under the city, not fear, but the joy of surviving the disaster.

Cao Cao was very frustrated. Before he could start fighting, he suffered a loss, as if Sun Ce had punched him in his heart, and he was depressed no matter how he thought about it.

At this time, the sound of war drums sounded in the north of the city. Cao Cao turned around and called Xiahou Dun. "Yuan Rang, you are here to guard, I'll go and have a look."

Xiahou Dun took the general flag. He was not worried that even if Sun Ce attacked the city, he would not directly attack the small city, but would only attack the west gate of the big city. The small city is stronger than the big city, with a higher wall, and without a city gate, it could not be Sun Ce's target. He just needs to watch here.

Cao Cao hurried away with Xi Zhicai and a dozen cavalry and rushed to the north gate. The north gate had already handed over. Thirty stone throwers were squatting towards the city gate. The long poles were rising and falling, and stones weighing hundreds of pounds roared up, jumping over the moat and smashing towards the city tower. Some stones crossed the city wall and hit the city, causing the ground to tremble and dust to tremble. The soldiers in the array squatted on the ground, holding their heads, and did not dare to move.

"Counterattack, fight back!" On the city tower, Cao Hongzheng shouted loudly, ordering the stone throwing machine placed on the city to fight back. After Sun Ce broke through the He family manor, Cao Cao learned about the power of the stone throwing machine and began to imitate it. However, the scouts he sent could only see the appearance of the stone throwing machine, but could not see the specific size. The imitation stone throwing machine was far less powerful. Despite this, Cao Cao still built many of them on the city wall.

Under Cao Hong's command, the stone throwers under the city wall began to counterattack. The ranges of these stone throwers were uneven and not all of them were stones. Instead, they removed the column foundations, stairs and other materials collected from private houses. The scales were different. Some shot very far, but more of them landed just after crossing the moat.

Seeing that there was a catapult on the city, Chen Yu, who was in charge of the main attack, immediately ordered. "Tell the craftsmen of the baggage battalion to focus on clearing the catapults on the city." The messenger was about to leave, and he raised his hand and signaled him to wait. He thought for a while and said, "In addition to the remuneration of General Sun, I will give them another 10,000 yuan each, and ask them to break through the city gate before sunset."

Siege is a technical job, and it is definitely not as simple as carrying a ladder up with a war drum.

Just like the war in later generations would be covered with artillery fire, cold weapons would also have similar steps, only they would not be changed to weapons such as crossbows or stone throwers. In particular, crossbows account for a very high proportion. Before the battle, both sides fired at the same time, blocked reinforcements during battle, and were responsible for covering when retreating. They were inseparable from any time. When siege, soldiers who covered the baggage battalion went forward to fill the moat and cleared obstacles under the city, all required the cooperation of crossbowmen.

Now that there is a sharp siege such as a stone thrower, of course we cannot let go. We will set it up and knock it on him for a while before talking about it.

The launch frequency of the stone thrower cannot be compared with the cannons of later generations, or even with crossbows. Each shot is separated by a long time, but its power is not comparable to that of a crossbow. Heavy stones roar over the head, fly up to the city wall, hit the city wall, and tremble. The soldiers on the city will almost die. Even if they hit the materials used to defend the city, the sound made was very amazing.

Both sides have stone throwers, so naturally they will stumble first and they will be eliminated quickly.

Cao Cao climbed up to the city wall, dodged, rushed to the battlements and squatted down, then slowly raised his head and looked outside the city. Seeing that there were no stones flying in the formation, he accelerated his pace and rushed to Cao Hong.

"Zi Lian, how is the situation?"

Cao Hong took off his helmet, wiped the oily sweat from his face, and smiled bitterly: "No, these county soldiers are too weak. Look, they panic as soon as they started fighting. When the drums sounded across the street, they ran faster than anyone else. So, I killed more deserters than those who killed stones."

Cao Cao turned his head to look at the soldiers of Jingzhou County with a panic expression, and was helpless. These people were really not good. No wonder Sun Jian didn't want them to attack Xiangyang, and Yuan Shu didn't take them to support him when he left the city. It was okay to recharge his store. He was just a soft-legged crab when he was in the formation and would not be useful at all. If they had not had the strong suppression of the law enforcement team, they would have been deserters long ago.

"Still hold on as long as you can. When you are almost done, you will go back to the small town. Let these people be left to Yuan Highway."

"Well, General, be careful, the opposite side is about to start firing." Cao Hong squatted down while greeting, poked his head out between the two battlements and peered out. After a wave of attack, the city gate tower had collapsed, and no one knew when he could last. It would be better to be safe on the city wall.

Cao Cao did not dare to be negligent and squatted down. As soon as he squatted, a dazzling roar sounded in his ears. The roar was getting closer and closer. Then there was a loud noise, and the city wall trembled, and his whole person shook. Cao Cao was secretly shocked. With this power alone, the stone throwing machine outside the city was much stronger than the stone throwing machine they imitated. No wonder Sun Ce was able to break through the He family manor with a meal. The generals under Yuan Shu fought against each manor as if they were playing, and they spent most of their time on the road.

Fortunately, Wancheng is the county seat and the city walls are thick. If it is an ordinary county town, it is hard to say whether it can hold on to such a heavy blow several times.
Chapter completed!