Jingzhou was in chaos. Liu Bei held the four counties south of Xiangyang in his hand, but was unable to launch an action to unify Jingzhou and instead carried out internal rectification. In Pang Tong's words, only by consistent internal thoughts can we better use foreign troops. Liu Bei agreed with this.

Taking advantage of Liu Bei's inadvertent opportunity, Sun Ce took over Jiangxia and Changsha in the west of Jingzhou, stretched his tentacles into Jingzhou, and occupied the two counties with the most abundant money and food in Jingzhou. After that, Sun Ce did not continue to erode Jingzhou counties. After all, the troops and generals he could now are not the best configuration. He took over the two counties by surprise. If it was a head-on battle, Sun Ce knew that it was not necessarily an opponent of Liu Bei, Pang Tong and others. Therefore, before Zhou Yu and others helped Ao Lie stabilize the situation in the north and returned to Jiangdong, Sun Ce adopted a defensive strategy. In Jiangxia, Changsha was stationed in Changsha and could not stand.

Cao Cao, who had just taken Qingzhou and returned to Guandu, couldn't help but feel a little worried after learning that Sun Ce was pretending to die. He immediately called Guo Jia to ask him about the specific matters of arranging the assassin to assassinate Sun Ce. After analyzing with Guo Jia, Cao Cao felt that Sun Ce did not find out that the killer was sent by himself. Although the assassination failed, it caused turmoil in Jingzhou. In order to turn bad things into good things, Cao Cao actively remedies them. He asked Cao Ren to lead a team of troops south to join Xiahou Yuan stationed on the Yuzhou border and attack on his own according to the specific circumstances.

Cao Ren led his troops to Jingzhou and found that the entire Jingzhou was in chaos. After Liu Biao's death, no one could maintain the unification of Jingzhou. Liu Bei, the nominal governor of Jingzhou, was busy rectifying internal affairs, and was temporarily unable to use troops to Jingbei because he had just entered Xiangyang. Sun Ceying, who was entrenched in Jiangxia, was unable to use troops even if he had the will. Cao Ren was worthy of being the chief general of the central army that Cao Cao valued the most. After accurately judging the situation, Cao Ren made a quick decision and joined Xiahou Yuan to attack the two counties of Nanjun and Nanxiang respectively, and then joined forces with one place. He quickly took the northwest side of Jingzhou, connecting Yongliang in the north, and Shangyong County in Hanzhong in the west.

At this point, the huge Jingzhou began to be divided into pieces as in history. The three counties in the north fell into Cao Cao's hands, and the four counties in the central and southern areas were controlled by Liu Bei. The two counties in the west were occupied by Sun Ce. The three families of Cao, Liu and Sun divided the entire nine counties in Jingxiang.

The Central Plains War had not officially begun, and Jingzhou in the south had already carried out the war in full swing. Correspondingly, the war in Luoyang was also burning vigorously.

Li Jue, Guo Si and others led 160,000 rebels to trap Luoyang, clamoring to break Luoyang. The three-light policy of killing, robbing and burning were implemented in Luoyang City. The anger of the rebels in Liangzhou originated from Zhang Ji's actions of burning Chang'an. Originally, Li Jue told the rebels that after breaking Chang'an, they could plunder the Chang'an for three days. Unexpectedly, a big fire before Zhang Ji died almost burned Chang'an to white land. Not to mention money, grain and women, even the city walls of Chang'an were burned down. The rebels who invaded Chang'an were shocked to find that the Chang'an they obtained was just a broken city with empty buildings and no value. The residents, money, grain, and weapons and materials in the city had long been transferred to Luoyang by Zhang Ji.

For this reason, Li Jue and others were angry. Regardless of the rectification of the troops, they came to Luoyang with one another, trying to make up for what they lost in Chang'an from Luoyang City.

Looking at Li Jue who was shouting under the city, Zhang Xiu shouted angrily: "Don't be arrogant, I will meet you!" As he said that, Zhang Xiu was about to go out of the city to fight, but was stopped by Ao Lie.

He reached out and slapped Zhang Xiu's shoulder, and Ao Lie said earnestly: "Youwei, my uncle is willing to burn Chang'an without hesitation. The purpose is to strengthen the walls and clear the fields so that the rebels cannot get supplies. When the rebels gather, their morale will naturally not last long. We should focus on perseverance and wait for the rebels to invade themselves before we can send troops to attack them. Youwei, we cannot, and we will not let our uncle die in vain, but it is not time to take revenge now. There is still Meng Qi, and we will settle the revenge together with our uncle's revenge."

Under Ao Lie's comfort, Zhang Xiu and Ma Chao calmed down with tears in their eyes. However, their fists were already clenched tightly in secret. This deep blood hatred must be recovered at the cost of blood.

After waiting under the city for a while, Zhang Xiu left the city, Li Jue's shouting became even more unscrupulous: "What? I don't plan to leave the city anymore? I'm scared? Haha, the big man's energy is over. Men, attack the city!"

Under Li Jue's order, 160,000 rebels took action one after another, and 40,000 rebels, led by the Qiang people and Han Sui's troops, took the lead in launching the siege.

Ao Lie looked at the rebels under the city coldly, slowly raised his right hand, and said coldly: "The red-clothed crossbow cannon is ready, get some interest first." Zhang Xiu stepped to the red-clothed crossbow behind the wall, pushed a crossbow cannon away, and then pulled off the red cloth from the red-clothed crossbow cannon. With endless hatred in his eyes, he looked at the rebels under the city who were preparing to attack the city, but said to the crossbow cannon who had just been pushed away: "Recharge! Don't stop recharge for a moment!"

"kill--"

Forty thousand rebels shouted hysterically and rushed into the distance of 500 steps under Luoyang City. Seeing the rebels entering the best range of the red-clothed crossbow, Ao Lie's right hand, which had been holding high, suddenly fell down and shouted: "Fire the cannon!"

Zhang Xiu was the first to carry out Ao Lie's order. The red-clothed crossbows he controlled in his hand shot out the five powerful crossbows on the tip of the cannon in the blink of an eye. Because the rebellion in Liangzhou happened too suddenly, in order not to affect the speed of the march, Ao Lie only brought twenty red-clothed crossbows this time. This was the elite Tiger Ben who relied on their physical strength to separate the red-clothed crossbows, each carrying the components of the red-clothed crossbows, and then reassembled the red-clothed crossbows after they arrived in Luoyang. If it were other troops, it was impossible to bring the red-clothed crossbows in a hurry.

A hundred powerful crossbows flew into the air, with a breathtaking roar, and in a blink of an eye, they came to the eyes of the rebel vanguard troops. Amid the air conditioning, fear and pain, hundreds of rebels were pierced by the powerful crossbows and turned into a new group of dead souls under the red-clothed crossbow.

On the battlefield, the deterrent power of the red-clothed crossbow cannon is always far higher than its own lethality. After seeing the first round of shooting of the red-clothed crossbow, Han Sui said to Li Jue in fear: "General, this crossbow cannon is too powerful. This battle cannot be fought. If it continues, some subordinates will die..." When he attacked Chang'an, it was the vanguard of Han Sui's troops, and Zhang Ji resisted tenaciously. Han Sui's troops were forced to resist.

The subordinate suffered heavy losses and was now hit by a red-clothed crossbow again. Han Sui began to worry about his subordinates. His concerns were not unreasonable. Among the rebels, Han Sui was the weakest, so he had to obey Li Jue and Guo Si, but Han Sui also knew that if his troops were exhausted and he had no troops in his hands, the first one to kill him was Li Jue and Guo Si. This was an unsolvable cycle.

Of course, Li Jue understood Han Sui's thoughts. Li Jue wanted to take advantage of this rebellion and take the opportunity to destroy Han Sui's strength. In the future, one person could share the benefits. Isn't that a good thing? However, Li Jue didn't want to do things too obvious, as that would make the Qiang leader feel disappointed. After hearing Han Sui's request, Li Jue pondered for a moment, turned around and said to Guo Si: "We each sent 5,000 infantry troops. How about replacing General Han Sui's 10,000 troops?"

As a partner with Li Jue for a long time, Guo Si naturally knew Li Jue's thoughts. He knew that although Li Jue was talking to him, he was actually telling Han Sui that he could only let Han Sui remove 10,000 soldiers, which was the maximum concession. Immediately, Guo Si agreed without any objection.

Han Sui was obviously not satisfied with the concession between the two, but he was helpless and the situation was stronger than that of others. Han Sui was not as strong as Li and Guo. This rebellion was led by these two people. Even if Han Sui was unwilling to accept it, he had to accept it helplessly.

After Han Sui withdrew 10,000 vanguards, Li Jue and Guo Si, each of them added 5,000 soldiers, the rebels' offensive was launched again.

On the Luoyang city wall, Zhang Xiu had completed three rounds of volleys. He had only one thought in his mind. He was to shoot the powerful crossbow on the red-clothed crossbow as soon as possible to avenge his uncle Zhang Ji! Under the leadership of Zhang Xiu, the speed of the Tiger Elites operating the red-clothed crossbow was faster than usual, and the gap in loading was greatly shortened.

Under the uninterrupted fire of the red-clothed crossbow, the rebels under the city had to pay a huge price for every step they took. Within a short distance of 100 steps, they had already paid more than 2,000 lives, but under the shouts of Li Jue, they had to harden their heads and continue to charge towards Luoyang City.

A Qiang leader was angry by the powerful crossbow shot down. He pulled off his armor, revealing his hard-covered upper body, and shouted: "I'm not a good man because I'm afraid of death! Men, follow me!" The tribes following him roared, speeding up and following behind their leader.

Although courage is commendable, under the huge power of the red-clothed crossbow, there is no difference between going into battle with bare hands and seeking death. Zhang Xiu saw the Qiang leader with a sharp look. The crossbow in his hand slightly adjusted the direction, and five powerful crossbows shot at the Qiang leader at the same time.

The Qiang leader who was still brave enough to move forward was the next moment when he was hit by the powerful crossbow shot out by Zhang Xiu. The javelin-shaped crossbow pierced his body into pieces and turned into a pile of minced meat. The death of the Qiang leader made several other Qiang leaders who were charging. The Qiang people were not afraid of death, but this unresistible death greatly hit their determination not to fear death.

From five hundred steps away to a place 100 steps away from Luoyang City, the rebels left nearly 10,000 corpses in just four hundred steps, only half of which were shot directly by red-clothed crossbows. The rest were either injured and fell to the ground and trampled to death by the people behind them, or died of panic and collision. In short, under the intimidation of the red-clothed crossbows, the rebel formation had begun to appear in chaos.

Taking advantage of the chaos of the rebels, Ao Lie reached out and raised the Qiankun Bow. This treasure bow was given to Ao Lie by the dead Liu Hong. He had not used it on the battlefield for a long time. He drew out two carved feather arrows and placed them on the bowstring at the same time. Ao Lie calmly gave the order: "All crossbowmen are ready, and the enemy approaches ten steps more, and immediately launches an attack."

Ten thousand elite soldiers of the Blood Killing Army immediately raised their arms in an orderly manner and quickly adjusted the shooting angle. The other five thousand Tiger Ben Army who did not control the red crossbow cannon were the same as those of the Blood Killing Army. Their movements were exactly the same as those of the Blood Killing Army. Those who were slightly slower than these two elite soldiers were four thousand unshaven veterans. Judging from their clothes, they should be the soldiers of Xiliang. The Xiliang soldiers who could appear in Luoyang City were about to emerge. They must be the four thousand bearded soldiers left by Ma Teng. After the bearded soldiers, they were the crossbowmen among the thousands of imperial guards guarding Luoyang. Under the leadership of Qu A, they raised the bows and arrows in their hands in a little messy manner.

It is true that Wang Yue and Qu A master and apprentice are masters, but they are not real generals, and the level of training soldiers is far less than that of Gao Shun and Xu Rong, and the Imperial Guard stationed in Luoyang, to some extent, is Liu Xie's private army. They usually have no chance to truly step on the battlefield and experience the feeling of life and death on the battlefield for a moment. The psychological quality and reaction in their hands are worse, which is also common sense.

The distance of ten steps was quickly crossed by the rebels. Ao Lie took the lead in shooting out two carved feather arrows on the Qiankun Bow. His target was two middle-level officers among the rebels. Although he had not shot arrows on the battlefield for a long time, Ao Lie usually spent a lot of time in shooting skills. Therefore, his shooting skills did not fall, but he made a little progress. The two rebel officers who were targeted by him were dismissed and were simply and neat.

With Ao Lie's shooting, more than 20,000 crossbowmen on the head of Luoyang City looked for targets and began to scatter. These crossbows were generally divided into two types. One was a relatively short crossbow arrow, which was shot in a flat manner. This was a unique shooting method of the Blood Killing Army and the Hu Ben Army. Under the force of the Xizi Crossbow, the crossbow arrow itself has extremely strong penetration power. They only need to aim at the target. Therefore, their efficiency was obviously very high. The middle and lower-level officers in the rebels suffered their collective attacks, and a large number of rebel officers and their personal soldiers were shot down by them.

Another type of shooting is to use the method of shooting, which throws arrows of arms short into the air, and after reaching the apex, they whistle and fall from high altitude. The archers are shooting in this way, such as bearded soldiers and imperial guards. The bows do not have the mechanical power of crossbows, so most archers choose to shoot and use inertia to enhance the penetration of the arrows. However, this kind of shooting method has extremely high requirements for shooting techniques. It is not easy to calculate the landing point of the arrow through a parabola. Therefore, their lethality to the rebels is much inferior to the Blood Killing Army and the Hu Ben Army. Fortunately, the rebels are densely crowded, and even if they don’t need to aim, they have a great chance to hit the enemy, so they still cause certain damage to the rebels.

PS: PS: Today's third chapter is here, and it's still a big chapter. It's a little compensation for the internet that was cut off yesterday and it was not updated in time. There is another chapter later.
Chapter completed!