On the eighth day of the 12th month of the fourth year of Yanxing, Xiaoxue.

As the sparse snow particles were flying, more than 15,000 Han army troops, led by Zhang Zhi, arrived at the southern entrance of the canyon where Jiange Pass was located. After the situation was reported to the pass by the Jin army scout Fei, Gong Zun and Wanlun and other Jin army guards immediately understood that the Han army was coming to the real world this time.

Gong Zun and other generals also understood that Jiange must not be taken away by the Han army. Otherwise, the Han army would only need a few thousand troops to easily defend this Shuzhong Pass, making it difficult for the Jin army to surpass Jiange even if there were thousands of troops, and they would never be able to threaten the Han army's hinterland at any time. On the contrary, once Jiange fell into the hands of the Han army, important passes such as Jiameng Pass, Baishui Pass and even Guancheng would be directly threatened by the Han army. If the Jin army wants to protect the safety of Hanzhong, it must station a large number of troops to guard the major passes on Jinniu Road, which will inevitably increase the manpower and material consumption of the Jin army.

Fortunately, Gong Zun and others were full of confidence in defending Jiange, and the reason was nothing else. The terrain of Jiange was too dangerous. The length of the Guancheng was even less than 100 meters. Only a small amount of troops were needed to ensure the safety of the closing. At the same time, Jiange Guancheng was still on a high ground and could attack the invading enemy condescendingly. Such terrain was undoubtedly the paradise for the defender and the hell of the attacker. At that time, Zhong Hui's army could not take Jiange back, and was almost exhausted by Jiang Wei until his food was exhausted. This was a proof that Jiange was easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Because of this, looking at the Han army flags at the entrance of the valley from Guancheng, Gong Zun and Wanlun and other generals were inevitably snorting proudly and said, "Come on, let alone more than 10,000 troops, even if you come to a large army of more than 100,000, it will be guaranteed that it will be difficult for you to step into Guancheng."

The only thing that made Gong Zun and others worried was the cliffs on both sides of the city. On the cliffs, thousands of Han soldiers didn't know what to do on it. They had been preparing for more than ten days. Fortunately, the cliff was too high. Even if they stood on the top of the cliff and shot arrows, the arrows would be exhausted before the arrow landed, and they were destined to be unable to cover the entire city with bows and arrows. Therefore, what the Jiange defenders needed to do was just to cover the roofs of the houses in the city with mud, and to be careful to prevent the Han army from throwing stones from the cliff.

Chen Shi was about to pass, and a pile of firewood suddenly lit at the entrance of the valley to release wolf smoke. The experienced Gong Zun immediately guessed that the Han army was sending a signal and shouted: "The thief army is sending a signal. Pay attention to the top of his head. The thief army on the cliff may smash stones!"

The soldiers of the Jin army shouted and agreed, either hiding under the shed, or raising their shields to protect their heads, staring at the sky and waiting for the Han army to take action. As expected, the tops of the cliffs on the left and right sides of the Jiange were indeed ringing the war drums one after another. Then, countless large bundles of objects fell from the sky and hit the south gate of Jiange one after another. After seeing clearly that the objects were bundled firewood, Gong Zun and others would inevitably laugh and say, "Fire Attack? Do you actually want Fire Attack?"

It is no wonder that Gong Zun and others laughed so happily. Due to the production technology and productivity of this era, the use of ignition materials for fire attacks is generally primitive tung oil and sulfur. Not only is the combustion effect average, but the cost is also extremely high. Even the Jin army, which had already occupied more than two-thirds of the world, would find it difficult to bear a large-scale battle to use tung oil and sulfur. Of course, let alone the Han army that had only occupied the surrounding areas of Chengdu before.

After laughing, for safety reasons, the Jin army immediately began to clean up the firewood bundles that had smashed on Guancheng, and threw the firewood bundles as much as possible to the bottom of Guancheng, so as not to ignite the top of Guancheng when the torch fell. In addition, the Jin army in Guancheng also seized the time to clean the firewood bundles and let the firewood bundles stay as far as possible away from the houses. At the same time, the main general Gong Zun hurriedly left the south gate of Jiange, returned to the city to command in the center, and handed the front line to Wanlun for responsibility.

At this time, the first fireball had fallen from the sky, and it was still dying and hit the top of the wall, releasing a raging fire. The soldiers of the Jin army quickly picked up the basin of water that had been prepared long ago to put out the fire. However, the soldiers of the Jin army who put out the fire were stunned that the water was splashed on the fire and did not work at all. The flames were not extinguished, but on the contrary, they burned even more vigorously. The soldiers of the Jin army quickly shouted: "Report to the general, the fire of the bandits should not be extinguished with water!"

It was too late, when the soldiers of the Jin army shouted, countless fireballs had fallen from the sky and hit the south gate of Jiange, hit Guanlou and Guanlou and caught fire, hit the firewood bundle and smoke, hit the house, the mud on the roof completely lost its function, and the flames quickly rose. Exaggeratedly, even if they hit the open space and the arrow pile, the open space and the arrow pile also rose, and the flames became more and more prosperous, and quickly burst into flames.

The sound of despair began to sound on and inside the city of Jiange Pass. After the strange flames hit the ground, the flames like liquid were immediately attached to the skin of the Jin soldiers' armor and burned wildly. No matter how they slapped the water, they would not be extinguished. The flames close to a thousand degrees quickly melted the skin and body fat of the Jin soldiers to burn, burning the poor Jin soldiers' howling and screaming.

Even the Jin general Wanlun, who was hiding under the city tower, was splashed on his thighs by flames. The sticky liquid attached to the armor and burned wildly. Wanlun first felt a piercing pain, and then he was frightened to see the armor quickly burning on his body, causing his pants to smoke and catch fire. Wanlun was so scared that he quickly took off his clothes and unarmed, screaming and cursing, "What kind of ghost fire? So powerful?"

The Jin army defenders who were originally waiting for battle on the city were in chaos, but the Han army on the cliff was not polite. While trying hard to take off the firewood bundle, they vigorously pulled the light trencher and smashed the lard burning bombs with sulfur, phosphorus and charcoal toward the south gate of Jiange one after another. With the power of the firewood, the raging fire quickly completely surrounded the south gate of Jiange, which was less than 100 meters wide in the east and west.

The poor Jin army soldiers had already screamed in vain. There were many people who were on fire on the Guancheng. The soldiers of Jin army who had already suffered losses were already screaming. They were afraid that they would be affected and no one dared to save their companions who were on fire. They could only watch their companions burned to death. During this period, there was thick smoke, which made the soldiers of Jin army cough and breathe, and even fainted by the thick smoke.

Needless to say, the most conspicuous Guanlou had already turned into a huge fireball, forcing the archers in Guanlou to abandon the building and flee. Wanlun, who was responsible for commanding the front-line army, could not hold on, and could only rush to Xiaguancheng to avoid it. However, what was very unlucky was that when Wanlun went downstairs, another can of lard burning bomb fell behind him and exploded. The splashing flames immediately ignited Wanlun's back, causing a fire to ignite Wanlun's back, turning into half a fireman screaming and running around, rolling all over the ground, and finally being burned to death by the fire.

At this time, the Han army's catapult had already begun to extend and shoot into the interior of Guancheng, and the houses of the garrison in Guancheng quickly ignited a fire. The raging flames also caused a fire whirlwind. The wind helped the fire, covering the southern part of Guancheng in Jiange in a sea of ​​fire. The soldiers of the Jin army were suffering from the hell of burning fire. Hundreds of people were choked by fainting and choking, and countless people were burned alive by the fire.

This is also a luxury fire attack that the Han army can afford. Lard is naturally extremely valuable to the Jin army and Wu army. However, it is available to the Han army. A can of 500 grams of braised pork can produce at least hundreds of grams of lard. A person consumes a can of braised pork for one meal. The Han army, with a total of more than 40,000 people around Chengdu, can eat at least 4,000 kilograms of lard in a meal. Based on the consumption of five kilograms of fuel for a combustion bomb, it can produce eight or nine hundred incendiary bombs, so the Han army dared to use lard combustion bombs to attack the city in such a luxurious manner.

At the same time, this tactic is useless even if it is learned by the Jin army and the Wu army. Even the Han army generously announced the formula for adding lard. There is no such thing as this - without so many sources of lard, what did the Jin army or the Wu army use to make so many incendiary bombs?

Such a luxurious attack of course also brought a catastrophe to the poor Jin army. Firewood bundles and lard burning bombs fell one after another. The city of Jiange Pass, which was only more than 200 meters long in the north and south, soon caught fire. Depending on the situation, Gong Zun could only leave the city from the north gate and return to the main force stationed outside the north gate of Jiange Pass, so as not to be burned to death in the sea of ​​fire.

Gong Zun also escaped extremely wisely. As soon as he left the city, a lard burning bomb had already hit the north gate of Jiange. The first tank of burning bomb hit the Guanlou at the north gate of Jiange and ignited a fire. Immediately afterwards, firewood buns and lard burning bombs fell one after another. The north gate of Jiange Pass soon shot into the sky, and the fire was as bright as the sea, cutting off the way for the defenders in the city to escape from the north and also cutting off the main force of the Jin army to enter the city to reinforce.

Originally, Zhang Zhi planned to wait until the fire at the south gate of Jiange decreased before launching an attack on the city. However, what Zhang Zhi didn't expect was that the remaining defenders in the city surrounded by fire did not know who had come up with a genius' way to escape. He actually opened the south gate of Jiange and ran out of the city to escape. He threw down his weapons and ran to the Han army's formation to surrender, allowing the Han army to take down Jiange, the Xiongguan of Shuzhong without any effort, with only the fire attack launched at the top of the cliffs on both sides.

Gong Zun was also very smart. After fleeing to the main force in the north, he saw that the northern gate of Jiange was surrounded by fire. Gong Zun immediately understood that Jiange would definitely not be able to save it. In order to protect the army from giving the Han army a chance to pursue, Gong Zun quickly fled with the remaining more than 3,000 main forces and fled to Jiameng Pass in the southeast of Jiange. That's right, it was in the southeast. Due to the restrictions of mountain roads, he had to flee northward to the main road. The Jin army had to escape to Jiameng Pass in the southeast first, and then he could retreat to Baishui on the main road, or to Guancheng and Yang'an Pass in the small road.

After seeing the Han army flags re-inserted back to Jiange City after three years, the Han army team at Shuzhong Xiong Pass was restored without losing one person, and naturally the Han army was cheering. Zhang Zhi himself was filled with joy. After a while, he said to himself: "After finally closing the North Gate, from now on the North Line, I finally fight if I want to, and I will defend if I want to, and I will no longer have to act according to other people's faces."

After Zhang Zhi sighed, Yan Yu said, "The latter general, Jiange has almost been burned into ruins. Why don't the prisoners choose to stay and leave for the time being, and let them help us repair the city before letting them go?"

Zhang Zhi was a little moved, but after thinking about it, Zhang Zhi shook his head and said, "We can't do this. We have promised those prisoners that we would immediately let them choose to stay and stay by themselves as long as we restore Jiange. Now we have done this. If we break our promises and force them to help us repair Guancheng, then they will not be so easy for them to put down their weapons and surrender on the battlefield in the future."

Yan Yu nodded and said, "Then can we think of any way to keep more of these prisoners? We are too short of manpower now, especially soldiers."

Zhang Zhi thought about it and quickly said: "Today I would like to reward the three armies, and give each prisoner a can of elbow and a bottle of rice wine, and let out the wind, which means that they will choose to stay or leave themselves today, and tell them..."

Because of Zhang Zhi's generous decision, the Jin army prisoners, who were more than 30,000, finally had the most delicious meal since their birth this night. However, just as the Jin army prisoners were smiling and drinking rice wine, an astonishing rumor suddenly spread among the Jin army prisoners. That was the Jin army guarding Jiange threatened that it was to retaliate against the Jin army's prisoners to help the Han army transport supplies to attack Jiange Pass. After the Jin army prisoners returned to the Jin army's control area, they would be severely punished by military laws.

Previously, there were already deadly members of the Jin army threatening these prisoners, saying that they helped the Han army transport supplies to capture the city and even if they went back, they would be punished. Now that they heard such rumors, more than 30,000 prisoners of the Jin army were of course panic, and someone quickly shouted such words, "Then why should we go back and find death? Anyway, you can eat good food when you join the Han army, so we might as well stay and join the Han army."

When the breakup meal was eaten the next morning, the Han army began a psychological offensive again. Hundreds of Han army propagandists went deep into the Jin army captive team and promoted to the Jin army soldiers who were queuing for the meal: "Brothers from Zhongyuan, you will choose to stay and stay for yourself in a while, but we don't understand, why are you going back? The Jin thief court does not treat you as human beings at all. Even if you are willing to sacrifice your life for them until death, your sons will continue to sacrifice for them. If you unfortunately die in battle, your wife will be sleeped by others, and the money you earn will be spent on others, and the baby will be beaten by others. What's the point?"

Such a method certainly had a great effect. He was originally greedy for the good food of the Han army, and was afraid that he would be held accountable by the Jin army when he went back. In addition, the sage system implemented by the Wei and Jin courts was indeed too unauthorized to treat the soldiers, so when he chose to stay, more than 10,000 prisoners of the Jin army chose to stay and join the Han army. After the Jin army prisoners who were more than 20,000 had left, before they could reach Jiameng Pass, two or three thousand people felt regretful and returned to Jiange to request surrender, which was also warmly welcomed by the Han army.

After completing the work of releasing and recruiting prisoners, Yan Yu proposed to take advantage of the situation to attack Jiameng Pass and take Jiameng Pass to form double protection for the hinterland of Yizhou. Zhang Zhi shook his head decisively and refused, saying: "There is no need. Let's not say that Jiameng Pass does not have a terrain like Jiange, which makes it easy for us to attack. Even if we can take it down, it doesn't make much sense. We are now short of troops, and the troops that can stay in Jiange are limited in guarding Jiameng Pass. If we divide our troops to defend Jiameng Pass, we will easily be defeated by the Jin army that has made a comeback. Instead of doing this, it is more safe to concentrate our troops and guard only Jiange one pass."

After flatly rejecting the suggestion of continuing northward, Zhang Zhi first arranged the army to rebuild Jiange City, leaving a large amount of junk food in Jiange, and arranged for Mao Jiong to lead 5,000 troops to guard Jiange, and then led the main force of the Han army with more than 38,000 troops to join the captives and went south, preparing to return to the Chengdu General Leadership.

During this period, Zhang Zhi also made another major diplomatic decision, which was to appoint his old lackey Mo Sheng as the envoy of the Han Dynasty, bring the letter of state to Jianye and the Eastern Wu to communicate with each other, demand that the Eastern Wu army withdraw from the territory of the Han army, give up the siege of Yong'an, work hand in hand with the Han army to fight against Jin, and trade with the Han army to communicate with each other.

Being able to be promoted from a small county to the Han military envoy, Mo Sheng of course received this important diplomatic task with great excitement. Then Mo Sheng took the initiative to say: "Sub-General, should you give up the post to bring Luo Xian a letter of persuasion to surrender and persuade him to take the initiative to change his flag and surrender our Han army? As for the current situation, isn't Luo Xian not possible to change his flag and surrender?"

After a brief calculation, Zhang Zhi shook his head and said, "There is no possibility. It is not that Luo Xian will not be able to change his flag and surrender. It is the dog thief of the Eastern Wu that will definitely not let you climb Yong'an Island surrounded by water. Forcing the island to force it will definitely ruin the major event of our joint efforts with the Eastern Wu to fight against Jin, so don't worry about this matter. As for Yong'an, let Luo Xian decide for himself. I believe that with his feelings for Yong'an and Yizhou, even if he would rather continue to hold up the Jin flag high, he would never surrender to the Eastern Wu, and lead the wolf into the house and let the dog thief of the Eastern Wu always threaten our hinterland."
Chapter completed!