"Everyone, calm down. Think about what I have taught you!" Hao Shao cheered the soldiers on as he walked. The enemy was getting closer and closer. The scaling ladders had already reached the top of the walls of the Guangzhou City.
"Aim well. Try to hit them in one shot!" Hao Shao knew that these soldiers were very nervous. Who wouldn't be nervous? This was only the first wave of the enemy's attack. The first wave was definitely underestimating the enemy. Their formation was scattered and not concentrated. Some of the scaling ladders that were placed on Guangzhou had already been pushed down by Hao Shao's hundred-man team. Hao Shao only had a thousand men on the wall. The remaining thousand served as reinforcements. Hao Shao divided the thousand men into two teams of five hundred men on both sides of the wall.
Hao Shao dug a trench outside Guangzhou. It was not long. The two trenches added up to two-thirds of the city walls. Hao Shao used the water from the Huai River in the middle to form a moat. Only the middle part of the moat was not dug. This was to make it easier for people to enter and exit the city. There was also no drawbridge above the trench. It could be said that it was like walking on flat ground.
"The moat is well dug. However, what is the use of an incomplete moat?" Liu Pi coldly looked at the moat outside the city walls. Hao Shao's moat was dug very deep. Without the help of tools, people would not be able to cross it. However, Liu Pi criticized him for not being able to dig through the middle of the moat.
"All troops, charge and capture Guangzhou. This Qu Shuo will reward you heavily!" Liu Pi's anger towards Hao Shao made him forget that he was now the Governor of Yuzhou and not the Qu Shuo of the Yellow Turban Army. Normally, he would pay attention to it. But now that he was angry, how could he care so much?
Although Liu Pi's Yuzhou Army was formed by the Yellow Turban Army, they were a small group of elites. If they were a mob, they would have already been dealt with by Cao Cao. Yuan Shao would not have arranged them to be a thorn in Liu Pi's side. These twenty thousand Yuzhou Army were Liu Pi's main force. It was because of them that Lao Cao was not able to deal with him.
An army of twenty thousand was not enough to spread out in the small Guangzhou City. Therefore, they could only send five thousand men. Furthermore, there were moats on both sides of the city. If they wanted to cross, they would have to lay down ladders on both sides of the moat. If they were not careful, they could easily fall into the moat. The moat seemed to be very deep. Those who could swim would find it difficult to climb back up. After all, the distance between the two sides of the moat was very high. Those who could not swim would definitely die if they fell in. Therefore, a large number of soldiers were not stupid. If they could not walk on either side, they would naturally walk in the middle.
Therefore, the five thousand soldiers rushed towards the middle.
"I thought that this Lu Bu's army's little general had a lot of skill. Not only did he build a moat, but he also placed his archers on both sides of the moat. Does he want to leave the middle gate wide open for us?!" Liu Bei looked at the small Guangzhou with disdain. It was just a small city. If he captured Guangzhou, he would make the Lu Bu's soldiers die without a burial place. Liu Bei was someone who had been on the battlefield for a long time. In his opinion, the moat should be complete. Moreover, there should be a drawbridge on top of the moat. This way, the defense of the city would reach its peak and the enemy would not be able to attack. Once the enemy attacked, they would need to pull up the drawbridge. If the enemy wanted to attack the city, they would need to cross the moat. This way, it would be a protracted battle.
"Huh?!" Pang Tong did not follow the general tactical thinking because in the general tactical thinking, Guangzhou's defense was really a pile of flaws. The flat road in the middle was flat. If they rushed quickly, they could reach the city quickly. The moat on both sides also lost its meaning because of the flat land in the middle. However, Pang Tong was a strategist. He did not consider the terrain like a general. When a general attacked a city, a strategist attacked the heart. He thought from the heart and thoughts of a person. He was thinking about what Hao Shao, this Lü Bu's general, was thinking!
Why did he stop halfway through the construction of the moat? Was there not enough time? Pang Tong sized up the entire Guangzhou! No, if there wasn't enough time, then there should be some places that hadn't been started yet, or perhaps they were halfway through the construction. However, Pang Tong saw that Guangzhou's moat was still intact. This meant that there wasn't a lack of time at all. If there wasn't enough time, then they should have dug a whole path!
Was there not enough manpower? Pang Tong rejected this idea. If there was not enough manpower, then it was better not to dig. This was because there was no point in exposing the middle of the moat. They could completely bypass the moat. If that was the case, then there was no point in having a moat.
Pang Tong looked at Hao Shao's 1000 archers on the left and right sides of the city walls. Each group of 500 archers was placed on both sides of the city walls. The middle of the moat was empty! Pang Tong did not understand. If you placed the archers in the middle, then no one would go to the moat on both sides.
Pang Tong did not understand, but his heart had a trace of uneasiness. This was because this Lü Bu's Army general did not seem like a useless person. This could be seen from the fact that he did not surrender even when surrounded by enemies ten times his size.
Pang Tong's uneasiness was soon realized. That's right, Hao Shao had purposely left the middle section behind. The Guangzhou Province was a small city, so even if he surrounded the entire city with a moat, so what? There were only so many soldiers defending the city, and there wouldn't be a lot of rations in the city. Furthermore, the Guangzhou Province wasn't located in a dangerous location, so even if they surrounded the city with a moat, Hao Shao could still spare them.
Instead of building such a huge moat, it would be better to build a section of the moat. This section of the moat would be able to protect Guangzhou. As for the remaining section, there was a reason why he didn't build it. This was because the section facing the city walls was flat land without a moat. Originally, Guangzhou was not a place that could be defended. No matter who saw it, they would only treat Guangzhou as a fat piece of meat that was about to be eaten. As long as the army bypassed the moat, they would be able to take Guangzhou down. After all, how many soldiers could a small city have?
Liu Bei and Liu Pi thought this way. Hao Shao really wanted them to think this way. It was human nature to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. No one would go through the trouble of going to the moat to get to Guangzhou City. Instead, they would all stay on that piece of flat land.
Five thousand people was not a lot. Compared to the large scale battle in Guandu, they would not even be able to make a single bubble. However, the five thousand people here were more than double the number of Hao Shao's men. They surged through Guangzhou and blocked the path. Although Liu Pi's Yellow Turban Army entered the moat in an orderly manner and did not cause any disturbances, it did not matter.
Hao Shao's lips curled into a cold smile. He raised his hand high, and more and more soldiers poured into that piece of flat land.
"Shoot!" Hao Shao spat out this word. Under his command, a thousand archers rained down a rain of arrows towards the flat ground.
"Raise your shields!" Looking at the rain of arrows, Liu Pi roared. He was disdainful. Before the siege, his front row was already equipped with large shields. This rain of arrows was like a drizzle to his troops. As long as his troops reached the walls, they would be able to break through this small city of Guangzhou. Liu Pi would be able to take revenge for his idol's humiliation.
What Liu Pi disdained the most was that the Lu Bu's Army's young general had placed his archers on the two sides. If he had placed a thousand archers in the middle, then they would have been able to injure his subordinates. Now, these scattered archers were useless in front of the giant arrows.
Liu Pi's lips curled into a ferocious smile. He wanted to see his Yuzhou Army reach the walls and then lead his personal guards to charge. His hand was already raised but he could not put it down. This was because the scene in front of him made him stunned.
The arrows raining down from the towers of Guangzhou City seemed to have opened their eyes, piercing through the shields and shooting towards his subordinates. Moreover, these scattered thousand archers not only didn't turn into the useless people Liu Pi disdained, they were even more terrifying than a concentrated rain of arrows.
The soldiers charging at the front were like chives while Hao Shaojun was the scythe. Under his wave of arrows, not a single arrow missed its target. It could be said that the entire flat ground was covered by the arrow rain without any blind spots.
Some people were hit by more than one arrow. There were also arrows that pierced through the first person and hit the people behind. Before Liu Pi could react, the second wave of arrows rained down. This time, the casualties were even more severe.
"How is this possible?" Liu Bei was not the only one paying attention to the siege. There was also Pang Tong, Liu Bei, and Zhang Xiu's Army. They did not expect that the scattered arrows could cause more damage than concentrated arrows. Zhang Xiu calculated in his heart. If a thousand archers were placed in the middle, they would only be able to cause more than a hundred damage. After all, on the battlefield, the damage of arrows was ten to one or even twenty to one. After all, no one was born to be an archer. Moreover, the garrison troops had to be both archers and soldiers. It could be said that it was impossible for them to be proficient in archery.
How could it not be? Hao Shao was also shocked by his own results. He did not expect that after splitting up a thousand archers, he would be able to cause such damage. His idea of splitting up the archers came from his little lord Liu Mang.
Liu Mang once joked about this idea. Instead of putting the archers together, it would be better to spread them out. Half of the archers will be placed on each side with an empty space in the middle. This way, they can form a crossfire and maximize the damage output. When Liu Mang said this idea, he thought of using firearms in a war and using the crossfire of trenches. However, he did not expect Hao Shao to use this idea with cold weapons.
If a thousand archers were placed in front of Liu Pi's giant shield, they would only be able to shoot past the shield and injure the soldiers behind. However, a lot of the arrows would become redundant. If a person was hit by ten or twenty arrows, there would be no difference between ten or twenty arrows. This was because it was a dead end. Now, it was different. By splitting up, not only did they avoid the first row of shields, the range of the arrows was also covered. It could be said that the two flanks of Liu Pi's troops were completely exposed to the attacks of Hao Shao's archers.
Wave after wave of arrows made Liu Pi's eyes almost pop out of their sockets.
Hao Shao knew to strike while the iron is hot. Originally, he had absolute trust in Liu Mang. That was why Hao Shao made such a deployment. He did not expect that it would have such a good effect. If Hao Shao did not know to make use of it, then he would be a fool.
"Charge! Charge!" Liu Pi was also angry. His Yuzhou Army was his capital. The reason why Liu Bei gave Liu Pi the position of Yuzhou Provincial Governor was not only because Liu Pi gave Runan to Liu Bei, but also because Liu Pi had twenty thousand elite Yellow Turban Army soldiers. Liu Bei was embarrassed to seize military power from Liu Bei. Thus, in order to appease Liu Pi, he made Liu Pi the third in command of the Yellow Turban Army.
The first two contestants were Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Guan Yu did it before Chen Dao. He was the first to command an army.
If the twenty thousand Yellow Turban Army soldiers were lost, then Liu Bei would consider making Liu Pi a deputy.
"Charge! Charge! " “
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