Chapter 281 – Field Operations Outside the City (1/2)

Field Operations Outside the City

There was a loud sound. Interrupting Hao Shao’s thoughts was the fact that the walls did not shake. Instead, the ram below the wall were smashed by a rock dropped by the soldiers on the wall.

With two wheels scattered to the side and the huge rock blocking the way, Hao Shao’s Army has earned themselves a bit more time.

Rocks? Hao Shao looked at the pieces of rocks below the city and mumbled to himself. It was a large millstone. In ancient times, flour is made by a family’s own millstone. As Yangzhou was once a bustling city, it had a lot of millstones. However, large millstones like that could only be found in the n.o.ble families. After all, the poor would not have that much food to grind into flour.

“Move it away! Move it away!” Liu Pi’s Army’s commander shouted from below. The ram was smashed but they had dozens more in reserve. Having two break down was not a problem. What he needed to do was remove the rocks blocking the way.

“Use large rocks to smash it?” Hao Shao frowned. The effect was good. The earlier rock had smashed the ram. If they threw another one, the third ram would be smashed.

Hao Shao’s problem now was that he did not have so many of the huge rocks. Most of the rocks and wood were smaller than the millstone earlier and were of no use. Those could only injure people and could not even kill. Those small rocks could not even make those soldiers wearing heavy armor to spit out blood. As for the large rocks of similar size to the millstones, Hao Shao does have a few. Guangzhou may be small but there were still a few n.o.ble families. Hao Shao had found five millstones. After using one, there were only four left.

If they were all thrown out like this, they would only destroy a few rams. Just like how the huge rocks were lost after destroying the earlier rams. At that time, Hao Shao would have no way out.

“How many rocks could we throw? How many rocks do we still have?” Suddenly, Hao Shao had an idea.

“Do not stop throwing rocks and woods down! Prevent the rams from reaching the gates! Bring me those 4 millstones!” Hao Shao loudly shouted at his men.

“Yes general!” Li Er Ye responded loudly.

“Xuan Jian. Find me thick ropes! The thicker the better! The more the better! Also find me large wooden planks! The more the better! Get more manpower!” Hao Shao shouted at the thousand reserve troops.

“Understood!” Xuan Jian did not know what Hao Shao wanted to do but was not negligent. Ropes were not easy to find in the city.

After all, at night when the gates were closed, hanging baskets were used to bring urgent messages up. The body of that basket was definitely thick enough.

“Come up and help me! Tie up these four millstones as soon as possible!” Hao Shao no longer cared if they were reserve troops. If they do not help now, when the city falls, everyone is doomed.

Within a short while, the four millstones were tied up and hanged up by Hao Shao’s order.

“What are the defenders of Guangzhou trying to do?” What are they doing hanging up the millstones? Smash people? It takes a lot of effort to lift that stone and it is hard to hit anyone below the city unless they crowd at a spot. Blocking the road? That is a feasible method but even if you block the gate there is still the walls. How are you going to block such a big area? Hao Shao seemed to be doing something pointless.

Liu Pi then stopped thinking about whether the defenders have become stupid. In his eyes, Guangzhou was at its last. The huge rocks had been cleared and Liu Pi could feel that Guangzhou would not last much longer.

“Lu Bu’s Army is really filled with talents.” Pang Tong sighed as others looked at Hao Shao with disdain. When still studying under Shui Jing at Jingzhou, not many gave Lu Bu attention.

When appraised, Lu Bu was headstrong and ignorant that would sooner or later become dead. The only people they saw and thought of helping were people like Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Ce. Even then, Lu Bu had won half of Yanzhou. He almost destroyed Cao Cao. Even though he captured Xuzhou and had hundreds of thousands of elite troops, n.o.body had good opinion of Lu Bu. They believed that Lu Bu would have lost Xuzhou. Lu Bu had really lost Xuzhou and was chased away like a dog of a deceased family. He became the laughing stock of the learning inst.i.tution. They never expected Lu Bu to be like a hidden dragon that shed its skin and seemingly swim across the boundless ocean for a brighter future.

Incorporating Chen Deng’s Guangling Army and replenis.h.i.+ng the Formation Breaker and the Wolf Cavalry, the two peaks once again appeared in the turbulent era.

Also appearing were two new troops. One was the Black Flag and the other was the Urban Army. Not only did they become the knife that could kill Sun Ce. They even captured Lujiang. With Lujiang as a springboard, they captured half of Yangzhou.

If this were to continue, Lu Bu would become a powerful warlord. The timing was good. Four powerful groups were fighting. Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were fighting at Guandu. Sun Ce was also fighting against Liu Biao. Lu Bu was really like a talent revealing himself. If this was the case, Pang Tong would become helpless. This is because Lu Bu now had a lot of people under his command such as the strategist Chen Gong and the veterans and powerful warriors, Zhang Liao, Gao Shun and Zang Ba. The newcomers, Xu Sheng, Cheng Yu, Zhao Yun, Yang Hong and Huang Zhong. These were people that Pang Tong knew about. He did not know about his good friend Xu Shu. One example was the general of the small city in front of him. He was just an officer with two thousand men but was better than Liu Pi who was one of the higher ranking generals in Liu Bei’s Army. How was Lu Bu supposed to be fought? On top of that, there was still the Sage King Liu Mang. Pang Tong’s eyes squinted as he thought about Liu Mang.

Fortunately for Pang Tong, Lu Bu had offended too many people. Sun Ce, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Zhang Xiu and even Liu Biao was trying to get Lu Bu killed.

With Sun Ce heading the alliance, it would be hard for Lu Bu to escape.

As Pang Tong thought of this, the situation on the walls changed. This time, it was not the rams that threatened Guangzhou. Instead, Guangzhou was now a threat to the rams.

Hao Shao hoisted the millstones high. This was so that the millstones would smash the rams. Each stone could only smash a few wheels. One ram has about a dozen wheels. Right now, there were three rams at the gates.

It does not matter. Hao Shao let four of the millstones fall. The millstones smashed and destroyed a ram. It also blocked the other rams. As there was a rope attached, it could be dropped, pulled up and then dropped again. The three rams were quickly destroyed.

“Phew!” Seeing that the three rams were no longer a threat to Guangzhou, Hao Shao took a deep breath to ease his own tension.

“Xuan Jian. Do you dare to go out of the city with me?” Hao Shao looked at the hard fight below the city. The Liu Pi’s Army continued to vainly attack the gates.

“What is there to be afraid of!” This person does not have any fame. His martial prowess and his skills as a commander was also nothing special. However, Hao Shao liked him for two of his points which was obedience and courageous. As he was obedient, Hao Shao could use him as his arms without worry. As he was courageous, he could become a role model as he dared to fight and kill.

“Good! Open the gates! Today, we will counterattack once!” A group of defenders would be dispatched outside the walls, forming like a horn to protect the city. This is also to make the enemy afraid to attack the city. As Guangzhou was a small city, there were little people and those outside were not prepared.

They could only wait for the enemy to attack in Guangzhou and they could not harm the enemy. However, this time, Hao Shao took the initiative to attack.

“General. Can we really fight like this?” One of the commanders was suspicious if they could do it. They had little experience marching and fighting soldiers on the battlefield. They probably did not even know who was the general.

“We will not win!” Hao Shao did not lie as they really could not win. One against one, and they would win. Two against one and they had eighty percent chance of winning. Three against one and it became fifty. Only if he was on the opposite side would he believe he could win when the enemy had five times more.

“We cannot win but we are going out?” Li Er Bu could not understand. Can’t we stay inside the city?

“It is precisely because we cannot win that we have to go out!” Hao Shao replied. The rams below the city were not terrifying. The terrifying one was the heavy armors. It completely ignored all damage from the arrows. Although they could not siege, they could always go back and return with even more rams. Rams were not difficult to make and they also only needed to wrap the wheels of the rams with iron sheets.