Dong Xi's sergeants had already arrived under the city. They carried the ladders, quietly came to the city gate, and erected them toward the top of the city wall.

Then, one after another soldiers were seen holding short blades in their mouths and starting to climb quickly towards the top of the city.

They thought their actions were extremely secretive, but in fact, the tightness of Xiangyang's city walls far exceeded Zhou Yu's imagination.

Huang Xu, including the defensive fortifications, equipment, and soldiers, has all been arranged properly. Even he himself is on top of the city at the moment, watching every move below.

Seeing the soldiers sent by Dong Xi to climb up the city wall quietly, Huang Xu's eyes showed a fierce light.

He ordered a commander from another department behind him: "Have someone throw rolling stones and logs down."

Before the Sima from another department could speak, Zhuge Liang stood up from the side.

"Zhou Yu sent troops to sneak into the city in the middle of the night without a large-scale attack. In fact, it was just tentative. After all, attacking the city in the middle of the night is not in line with military common sense. If we used rolling stones and hammers to fight back, Zhou Yu must have known that our army was on guard.

If he withdraws from the boundary of Xiangyang, our army's previous efforts will be in vain. From Yi Liang's point of view, it is better to retreat first without exposing the strength of our army."

Huang Xu thought for a while, then nodded and said: "That makes sense."

Then, I heard someone shouting loudly from above Xiangyang City: "Someone is climbing the city! Someone is climbing the city!"

Amidst the shouts of the crowd, countless arrows were shot down from the top of the city in Xiangyang, heading straight towards the Tianling Gai to greet the soldiers who were climbing up the city.

As the sound of bows and arrows fired from the top of the city, the soldiers who climbed up the top of the city fell down one after another. When the soldiers who followed saw that there were preparations on the top of the city, they stopped moving forward. They could only

They removed the ladder, then retreated to a place far away from Xiangyang City, looking at the city in the distance, waiting for further instructions from the rear.

The situation in Xiangyang City naturally fell into Zhou Yu's eyes.

But it was roughly as he had guessed.

No matter how many things are going on in Xiangyang, it is still the capital of Liu Qi after all. It is simply unrealistic to conquer it with such a simple method.

Afterwards, they listened to Zhou Yu's instructions: "Let Lieutenant Dong lead his people to withdraw. Let's concentrate on attacking the city tomorrow!"

…

When Zhou Yu arrived in Xiangyang, Sun Ce had already arrived in Changsha.

But what was different from what was expected was that Liu Pan, who led his troops to Nanjun, turned back midway and reinforced Changsha's city defenses.

Liu Pan and Tai Shici, this combination had always made the Jiangdong Army fearful... But now, the war was imminent and had to be launched.

Sun Ce could only send troops to attack Changsha.

But how could Changsha City, which was carefully fortified by Liu Pan and Tai Shici, be captured so easily?

Within a few days, Sun Ce launched no less than ten attacks, but they were all repulsed by Liu Pan and Taishi Ci.

Changsha City has also built a lot of donated buildings over the years.

Because Jingzhou has developed Sanhetu, the defensive capabilities of the walls of huge cities like Xiangyang and Changsha have been greatly enhanced, and are even stronger than the brick cities of later generations.

Changsha City is the center of Jingnan, and its layout and defense are also very simple. Changsha currently has a double city wall layout, with an inner city and an outer city. The outer city of Changsha is special, with a larger building area, and it does not only encompass the city.

Instead of a gate, another city was built outside the inner city, like a "hui" shape.

Both the inner and outer cities are earthen cities made of triple soil, and both are protected by moats. The water for the moat comes from the branch of the Xiang River. The water is introduced from the southwest of the city and flows out of the moat into another branch. The inner city wall is about four feet high and the moat is three feet wide.

The water depth varies from five feet to more than one foot.

In the face of such powerful fortifications, one can imagine how difficult it would be for Sun Ce's army to attack the city.

But Sun Ce is the son of Sun Jian, and he will not admit defeat when faced with difficulties.

Sun Ce commanded the soldiers to attack Changsha City crazily. The soldiers of Jiangdong Army were indeed brave. Facing such a strong city wall, they fought bravely and fearlessly, fighting as if they were risking their lives.

In fact, Liu Pan and Tai Shici relied on the outer city to be able to fight against Sun Ce's troops.

But the two of them did not do this.

For them, the distance between the outer city and the inner city was only a few inches. When Liu Qi encouraged Liu Pan to spend a lot of manpower and money to repair the outer city, he did not want him to defend the outer city as the final barrier.

Using the outer city to weaken the opponent while preserving the effective strength of the defender is the ultimate goal of establishing the outer city.

Sun Ce's army attacked the city for twenty consecutive days, spent countless efforts and suffered huge casualties, and finally captured the outer city of Changsha.

But in fact, if Liu Pan wanted to continue to defend, he could have continued to defend, but he just gave up.

The actions of Liu Pan and Tai Shici gave Jiangdong Army unlimited hope.

Their bloodshed and sacrifice for nearly twenty days were not in vain.

However, when the soldiers of Jiangdong Army successfully entered the outer city and planned to cause a bloody storm in Changsha City, their morale suddenly dropped from the highest point to the lowest point.

Inside was not the main urban area of ​​Changsha City, but another tall city wall, the same as the outer city wall, located in front of them.

In other words, all the previous efforts and sacrifices must be done again!

They had to pay another price before they could take over this city.

Sometimes, destroying the opponent's morale is not just as simple as defeating them.

Letting the opponent taste the fruits of victory first, and then pushing them down from the heights may be more effective than defeating them on the frontal battlefield.

The huge gap can sometimes make people unable to recover.

Looking at the inner city of Changsha City, Sun Ce was so angry that his teeth itched. He rode up to the suspension bridge of the inner city and shouted loudly that he wanted to challenge Liu Pan in a one-on-one battle.

But how could Liu Pan fall into his trap?

Not to mention Liu Pan, even Taishi Ci, who was good at fighting formations, would not fall for Sun Ce's tricks at this moment.

In desperation, Sun Ce could only command his troops to continue attacking the inner city.

If the outer city is not captured, perhaps Sun Ce will choose to retreat over time.

This was not in line with Liu Qi’s original strategic intention.

But now that the outer city of Changsha has been captured, if Sun Ce were asked to withdraw his troops under such circumstances, he would definitely not agree.

Liu Pan gave up a city wall, but in exchange, Sun Ce was trapped in the mud.

Of course, the Jiangdong Army's combat power was there, and Liu Pan and Tai Shici did not dare to underestimate it. Moreover, the inner city was their last barrier to guard Changsha. Although it was calculated deliberately and unintentionally, at this moment, they were also under great pressure.

big.

In this way, the two sides started a bloody battle under Changsha City.

…

What happened in Jingzhou was learned by Kuai-Yue himself when his army marched to Luyang.

After learning about the changes in the rear, Kuai Yue's immediate reaction was to return to Jingzhou.

He doesn't know what the purpose of his return to Jingzhou is at this moment.

Is it to protect his family interests?

Or to protect Jingzhou from Jiangdong's army?

Or to defend your own hard work?

have no idea……

The only thing he knew was that he had to go back.

But it's obvious that Liu Qi is ready.

Zhao Yun and Gan Ning, two generals, led their troops to Lu Yang's army and were ordered to urge Kuai Yue to march north quickly.

From the moment Zhao Yun and Gan Ning arrived in Luyang, Kuai Yue understood completely.

Liu Qi had already arranged this and would not allow himself to refuse or be disrespectful!

A mixed feeling suddenly surged into his heart, making him unable to breathe.

But he had to go with Zhao Yun and Gan Ning.
Chapter completed!