Anyone who fights with the right combination and the strange victory is a sentence that everyone who has learned the art of war will say, but not many people who truly understand it.

People have the mentality of taking tricks and want to win, so they often value strange things, but ignore the foundation. After learning that Dong Zhao had severely injured Sun Guan, Changxi's troops quickly retreated to the city. Not only did Man Chong and others regret it, but Zhu Huan and Lu Yi also regretted it. They underestimated Dong Zhao and thought too perfectly, and they were determined to let Ji Ling be a cicada, Dong Zhao be a mantis, and followed him as an oriole. Unexpectedly, Dong Zhao took the initiative to retreat, causing their plans to be lost and missed an opportunity in vain.

Ji Ling suffered a lot of losses, and it is unlikely that he would fight quickly. They could only calm down and deal with Dong Zhao. The giant stone thrower is a powerful tool, so he must be used as much as possible. The disadvantages of inconvenience in mobility are too limited. It will be solved as soon as possible so that the giant stone thrower can move freely, which is of extraordinary significance to the next battle. Not to mention the half-year salary, it is worth a year.

But Zhu Huan also knew that Zhang Fen and the others must have considered this issue, but there was no good method, otherwise it would have been solved long ago. He could not place all his hopes on Zhang Fen, but he had to make more other preparations. The giant stone thrower was too large and had high production requirements, so he could not be made temporarily. He could only be built and transported from Runan, but ordinary stone thrower could only be made on the spot. In the next half month, the craftsmen and soldiers of the baggage battalion were busy for a while. Zhu Huan took out two months of salary and invited them to drink, which was also to boost morale, increase enthusiasm, and speed up the progress of work.

In the past, Zhu Huan would not do this. Even if Zhang Fen helped Lu Fan quickly conquer Jiyang, he did not take Zhang Fen seriously. Isn’t it just a larger stone thrower? Which wooden school can’t do it? Now, in order to lure Dong Zhao into a trap, they repeatedly discussed and listened to Zhang Fen explaining the exquisiteness of the giant stone thrower. Only then did he realize that there were not many people who really mastered the technology of the giant stone thrower. Even Huang Yueying, who initially proposed this idea, was not necessarily familiar with the situation than Zhang Fen, and his attitude naturally changed.

The Mu Academy can't afford to even provoke wine. Huang Yueying built sea boats and Zhang Fen built giant stone throwers, are all important figures, and offending them means they can't get along with their own future.

Making stone throwing machines requires a lot of wood. Zhang Fen and the craftsmen in Changyi City all came up with one another, and they all focused on the houses of the Yanzhou family. The beams and pillars were used to build stone throwing machines, adobes, bricks for projectiles, doors and windows, furniture, etc., and all were dismantled. Those who could use were sent to the military camp, and those who could not be used were chopped into firewood. People from the aristocratic families were either locked up or were not an official slave, and they were powerless to do anything about it. Some people even had to tear their own ancestral homes with their own hands. Seeing the manor that they once were proud of was demolished into ruins, many people were in pain and cried, but were powerless.

In contrast, the Yanzhou families who surrendered early were much more balanced in their hearts while being grateful. Although they had to spend a lot of money and grain to supply the army and hand over the land, the house was finally saved. Man Chong promised them that Yanzhou would be regained in the future and trade with Yuzhou again, and would give them corresponding discounts, and they would never regret today's decision.

Can Man Chong's words be fulfilled? Let's talk about them later. Compared with the families in front of them, they are already very lucky.

When Zhang Fen was rushing to build a stone throwing machine, Zhu Huan ordered the counties in Yuzhou to recruit elite troops to make up for the losses. Because Ji Ling suffered the greatest losses, Zhu Huan ordered the two countries of Liang Pei to recruit 10,000 young and strong men to Rencheng. In order to allow these young and strong men to fight with peace of mind, Zhu Huan asked to give priority to the recruitment of Yanzhou, especially the people in the area of ​​Shanyang and Rencheng. As long as they meet the relevant requirements, they become a regular soldier, they will immediately grant land and give 100 acres of high-quality land. If they make contributions in the future, they will also be rewarded. If they die in battle, these fields can be left to their families.

As soon as the order was issued, the people of Yanzhou who had moved to Yuzhou in recent years were very enthusiastic and signed up for the army. Pei Xiang Zaozhi and Liang Xiang Ding Chong quickly recruited 10,000 young and strong men who were well-versed in martial arts and handed them to Ji Ling himself. Ji Ling was overjoyed and wrote a letter in his hand again, expressing his gratitude to Zhu Huan, and then started training. He divided the ten thousand young and strong men into two parts. Some people with good physical fitness and high training level directly joined the battalions, and were slightly inferior to those responsible for defending the city, serving as reserves, and continuing training.

Sun Guan and Changxi were demoted because they did not abide by the general orders, resulting in significant losses. Sun Guan was demoted to the commander of 500 people, and Changxi was directly demoted to an ordinary soldier. Seeing that he was pitiful, Zang Ba summoned him to his side as a general. After this, Ji Ling directly controlled more than 60% of the troops, his voice was significantly improved, and the implementation of various orders was much smoother, and no one dared to disobey orders at will.

Ten thousand new soldiers were highly motivated to train and prepare to fight again.

After receiving the news, Dong Zhao was anxious.

The heavy blow to Ji Ling gave him a sigh of relief and he had a rare opportunity to breathe, but with a large number of Yanzhou people enlisted in the army, Ji Ling's troops quickly recovered and increased, which put a lot of pressure on him.

The aristocratic family had a large amount of wealth and land, and had many dependent household registrations, but compared to ordinary people, the number of people was not superior. Sun Ce used the seized land to obtain allegiance from the people of Yanzhou, making the people of Yanzhou willingly become the main force. This trick was too clever. If Zhang Jiao had such a method, the sky would have turned yellow long ago, and the country would have long since disappeared.

The war is about to begin again, but the manufacturing of the giant stone thrower is very troublesome. After almost dismantling the houses of the big clans in Changyi City, the base of the giant stone thrower was quickly prepared, but the tip rod was unable to meet the requirements for a long time, and the improvement of range and accuracy was very limited. After repeated trials and combined with the information provided by Wu Zhi, the craftsman felt that the problem was the projectile. If a regular-shaped iron bullet was used, the accurate head would be better.

But Dong Zhao was unwilling to try again. An iron bullet weighed about 100 kilograms. He did not have so much iron, nor did he have the technology to cast iron bullets. In order to build a few iron bullets, he squeezed out other weapons to build, which was not worth the effort. He would rather wait for the iron catapult outside the city to shoot in and then test the performance of the giant stone thrower.

At this time, Wu Zhi heard from news that he had arrived at Wuyan and met Zhu Ling. Zhu Ling agreed to send troops to respond to Dong Zhao, but he did not recommend attacking Kang's father. Kang's father was easy to defend but difficult to attack, and Ji Ling attached great importance to it. Even when Sun Guan and others were trapped by Dong Zhao, they did not relax their defense against Kang's father, and it was even more impossible to give them a chance now. Zhu Ling hoped that Dong Zhao would march through Juye along the east coast of Juyeze and enter Dongping Kingdom. The terrain here is complex and covered with swamps. Without local people as guides, no one dared to enter easily. Li Dian is Juye, and he could be a guide.

Dong Zhao repeatedly thought about it and denied Zhu Ling's plan. He asked Zhu Ling to prepare for the response, but refused to leave without fighting. Sun Ce's ability to mobilize the people was too strong. He gave up Changyi, and the south of Juyeze became Sun Ce's territory. The land here would become the capital for Sun Ce to tempt the people of Yanzhou to be loyal to them, and the situation would be even more unfavorable.

Until the last moment, he didn't want to give up Changyi, even if he persisted for one more day, it would be good.

At this moment, he could not think of any hope besides persisting.

After making the decision, he wrote a three thousand-word military newspaper and sent people to Jizhou.
Chapter completed!