In Changyi, Dong Zhao waved his hand and signaled the scout who came to report the message to retreat.

The scout looked at Dong Zhao and then at Dong Je. He spoke several times and his face was flushed with anxiety and his forehead was covered in sweat. Dong Je shook his head and signaled him not to speak. The scout Wugui clenched his fists unwillingly, stomped his feet, and walked out.

Dong Fang took a step forward and whispered: "Brother, what should I do? You can't watch Ji Ling and Zang Ba kill people. People's hearts are dispersed, and the city cannot be defended. We brothers..."

Dong Zhao glanced at Dong Jie, and Dong Jie subconsciously closed his mouth and swallowed the words he had not finished. Since childhood, he has been respectful to his brother as a god. He never refuted his brother's opinions, nor dared to refute him. Facts have proved that what he could think of would be what his brother could think of. What he could not imagine would still be able to think of.

"Gongming, I can't understand some things."

"Uh..." Dong Je didn't know how to answer. Dong Zhao couldn't figure it out, and he couldn't figure it out even more.

Fortunately, Dong Zhao didn't plan to ask him, and he was pacing back and forth while talking to himself. "What do you think Sun Ce wants to do? If he wanted to seize Yanzhou, he would have been able to seize it long ago. Why should he wait until now? Besides, the battle is worth winning, not long. If he wants to fight quickly, why didn't he lead the troops personally and insist on letting Zhu Huan, a person who doesn't even lead the entire unit?"

Dong Zhao also felt a little strange and couldn't help but ponder. Sun Ce's use of troops this time was indeed confusing, and even a bit of a joke. The candidates of the main generals were wrong, the timing of attack was wrong, and the configuration of troops was not right. Zhu Huan, Man Chong, Lu Fan and Ji Ling's total of only 50,000 infantry and cavalry, and even if Gan Ning's navy was less than 60,000. It may be more than enough to capture ordinary county towns, and the attacking cities like Changyi and Dingtao were obviously insufficient. The offensive forces must be at least 1 to 3, Dingtao had more than 10,000 troops, Dong Zhao could use at least 50,000 troops, and Sun Ce prepared at least 80,000 people to besiege Dingtao now. If Dong Zhao did not send troops, they might not be able to take them down. Even if Sun Ce's subordinates were elite soldiers and well-armed, Li Jin was not a person who could give up easily, and the losses of the siege would definitely not be small.

Besides, Ji Ling also killed a lot. As soon as he broke out a Jinxiang town, he killed all the clans in Jinxiang town. Even Lu Jun's grandson was not spared, but he just looked like he wanted to offend Guang the Yanzhou family. He was not afraid that the Yanzhou family would be forced to fight with them. The military strategy says: One person will die, and ten people will not be able to wait. Once this news spreads, everyone in Yanzhou will fight to the death, and these fifty or sixty thousand people are far from enough.

It might be almost the same to use all the 200,000 soldiers in Yuzhou. Dong Fang felt a sudden chill. "Brother, will these tens of thousands of people be just forwards? Sun Ce is waiting for the autumn harvest. After the autumn harvest, the 200,000 people in Yuzhou..."

Dong Zhao shook his head without thinking. "Impossible. Even with Sun Ce's wealth, he could not support the long-term battle of the 300,000 army. Although Yanzhou is on the side of Yuzhou, the transportation consumption is limited, and the expenditure of 200,000 people is still too high. Don't forget that after conquering Yanzhou and Jizhou, will he consume all his supplies in Yanzhou?"

Dong Zhao nodded repeatedly, thinking that this idea was too unreliable. If Yanzhou was taken down, he could pacify the world, and it was understandable that he had all his strength to attack. Now the gains and losses of Yanzhou are very limited to the situation in the world. Jizhou is the key. Sun Ce would never waste all his financial and material resources in Yanzhou, but in the end he saw that Jizhou was powerless.

"What's that for?"

Dong Zhao pondered for a long time and slowly spit out two words. "Sharpen the knife."

"Grind...a knife?"

"Yes, Sun Ce wants to use Yanzhou as a stone to sharpen the sword he can use. Zhu Huan is just one of them. If he is useless, Sun Ce will choose another person, such as... Lu Yi, or Zhu Ran. Sun Ce is from Jiangdong, but now the only general who can truly stand on the side of Jiangdong is Shen You, which is far from enough. He needs more generals, so he regards Yanzhou as a stone for sharpening the sword and a training ground for training generals."

Dong Fang was stunned, the more he thought about it, the more he became, the more afraid he was. A sea of ​​corpses appeared in front of him. As a general who commanded the army, he was not unfamiliar with the scene of sharpening his sword. No matter how hard the sharpening stone is, it will become thinner and thinner after being used for a long time. Yanzhou is exhausted, and when Sun Ce uses it to train generals, how many people can be left in the end?

The dozen heads outside Jinxiang City are the beginning. The heads of the Yanzhou family will be hung up, and no one can escape. Just like the Yuzhou family back then, even if they escaped to the swamps of Guangling, they were caught out by Sun Ce. What he wants is the Yanzhou family to fight to the death, so that they can act as an opponent for Zhu Huan and others to train troops.

Dong Fang's neck was cold and his hair stood up one by one.

"So it's basically certain that Sun Ce will not go into battle before Zhu Huan and others make major mistakes. He will ask Zhu Huan and others to practice fully. But even if the Yuzhou army is elite and the military is well-armed, most of these people have some experience. With such a little force, are they sure to attack the city?" Dong Zhao turned his head and looked at Dong Jen with a puzzled look. "Or, Sun Ce has other reliance to quickly break the city and minimize the losses?"

"Break the city quickly?" Dong Jen disagreed. "Unless Yu Ji casts a spell, a divine weapon descends from heaven. Oh, no, brother, I remember something."

"What's up?"

"I seemed to have heard from Zhang Fujun that Runan Wood School has developed an ultra-large stone throwing machine that can shoot 200 kilograms of stones out of 300 steps. Once it hits, it is enough to score. He will not be..." Dong Je didn't dare to say it, his face turned pale.

Dong Zhao was shocked. "Is this happening? Why have you never heard them use it?"

"That stone thrower... is too heavy, inconvenient to create, and inconvenient to move. He has been staying in Runan and has not been in battle. Now..."

"Use a boat." Dong Zhao said loudly, turned around and walked to the map, first found the location of Runan, then turned around in the realm of Runan, went up the lanyard, and then went down the Ji River, stopping in Dingtao. He knocked hard, knocking on the map made of silk, making a sound. "Immediately notify Li Jin and ask him to block all the city gates, especially the South Gate, Zhu Huan must have brought a giant stone thrower by ship."

Dong Fang smiled bitterly and said, "Brother, Yan Xing, Wen Chou's cavalry have cut off the contact between Dingtao and the outside world, and the news can no longer be sent."

Dong Zhao turned around suddenly, his eyes widened and shouted sternly: "Then find a way. No matter how many people die, you must send the news in. Go quickly!"

Dong Fang was startled and nodded in agreement.

Dong Zhao gasped, looked back at the map, clenched his fists, pounded his palms hard, and sighed repeatedly. "I have read books for my whole life, but I finally lost to several craftsmen. Oh my God, the Mo family is revived. Is this really over the Confucian school?"

_—

Jiyang is the yang of the Ji River, which refers to the Nanji River. In fact, Jiyang City is closer to the Beiji River, and Jinkou is not far from the north gate.

In summer and autumn, the water volume is sufficient, and the tower ship carrying giant stone throwers can sail calmly. After the renovation, the Feilu has been greatly reduced, leaving only one 1 zhang square in the center, but there is a platform three or four zhang for the observation hand to stand high and observe the calibration direction. There is a viewing building on the bow and stern of the ship, and there are also observation hand standing inside to perform triangular calibration.

Considering the limitations of the inland water system, a medium-sized building ship can only carry a giant stone thrower and various projectiles equipped with it. The observer, the operators are only 30, and there are less than fifty sailors. Everything unnecessary is removed, and there are not even protected soldiers. Fortunately, the nearest range of this giant stone thrower is 300 steps, with protection from front, back, left and right, so I don’t worry about being attacked by the opponent. Before they entered the position, the infantry had landed and established a defensive formation. Not to mention that the defenders in the city may not dare to rush out, even if they rush out, they would not be able to rush in front of them quickly.

Seeing the Sagittarius busy and observing his hands constantly reporting numbers, Lu Fan was a little confused and asked Zhang Fen on the side, saying, "What are they talking about?"

"Ballistics." Zhang Fen stared at the soldiers on the tower and said without looking back. This was the first time that a giant stone thrower had officially started. Although he had been practicing for a long time, he was still a little worried, afraid of showing his bad luck. The idea of ​​the giant stone thrower came from Huang Yueying, but he was responsible for the real investment in the development. He didn't want to be laughed at, nor did he want to be blamed by his uncle Zhang Zhao.

He didn't say it, Lu Fan could guess something. When he said it, Lu Fan was even more confused. Lu Fan smacked his lips and decided not to ask. It would be better to leave this professional matter to professionals. It would be too late to ask again in the future. Now, with so many subordinates, I can't afford to lose this person.

Lu Fan regretted it a little. Although Mu Xuetang's articles were not widely spread, he could still receive them as a war zone supervisor, but he hadn't read them much. These articles were too boring and I couldn't quite understand them. He used to throw them aside when he received them. Recently, he felt that it was necessary to read them. The reason was related to Lu Yi. Lu Yi's idea of ​​designing Xun Yan came from a paper on water control by Yuan Min, which put him very stressed.

If you don’t work hard, this war zone will be supervised for a while.

After working for a long time, the giant stone thrower was ready. The thick and long tip rod was pulled down and fixed. The two hundred pounds of stone bullet was loaded into the bullet basket. After observing the hand and the operator checked the equivalent data again, the head of the gate issued the order to launch.

"put!"

A strong man with naked upper body and muscles buzzed a huge wooden hammer and hit it hard. With a loud "bang", the crossbow as thick as a thigh was opened, the huge counterweight box fell, and the tip rod pulled the bullet basket and began to slide, the speed became faster and faster. The bullet basket slid through the long groove and threw it into the sky. At the highest point, the stone bullet broke away from the bullet basket and whistled away with the harsh sound of breaking the wind.

"Boom--" With a loud bang, the stone bullet deviated from the target - the city gate two or three meters, and in the corner of the city tower on the city gate fell into the city wall, trembling, causing the earth to tremble. The part of the city tower was hit instantly scattered, and wood chips flew everywhere. With the loud noise, half of the city tower collapsed, tiles and wood kept breaking down. The soldiers under the city were frightened, holding their heads, squatting on the ground, and not daring to move.
Chapter completed!