When the Wei army arrived at Jiuyuan City, they only set up a battle formation in the south of the city and did not adopt the method of besieging the city on all sides.

To besiege a city on all sides requires a sufficient number of troops. The art of war has it that siege by ten means that if you want to besiege your opponent, you need ten times the strength of the enemy. Even if you don't have ten times the strength, you must have at least six or seven times more.

It depends on the strength of the troops. The current strength of the Wei army is not to mention twice that of the opponent, but probably less than half of the opponent's strength. Such strength is really not enough to besiege the city.

Therefore, if he wanted to attack Jiuyuan City, Cao Liang could only use the method of concentrating his troops and attacking from one direction. In order to prevent the Huns from counterattacking, Cao Liang adopted the strongest method when setting up camp.

Deep trenches were dug around it, and a large number of antlers and horses were set up to guard against Hun cavalry attacks.

After all, the strength of the Huns' cavalry is obvious to all. Although Cao Liang used side carriages to defeat the Huns' attack in the Battle of Dongguan, this does not mean that the Huns' cavalry lost their threat, so the defense of the camp is extremely important.

Yes, if the Huns find an opportunity to take advantage of it, the Wei army's situation will be disadvantageous.

As the last battle with the Huns, Cao Liang naturally did not dare to take it lightly. Although the Pingbei Army had fought and won consecutively since the Northern Expedition, it had defeated the Huns several times. But so far, the Huns

The main force of the Huns was not severely damaged, so the Huns' combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated.

Cao Liang has a very clear understanding of this point. Don't be arrogant when you win, and don't be discouraged when you lose. This is the real way to win.

Continuous victories over the Huns undoubtedly improved the morale and confidence of the Wei army, but at the same time, it also gave rise to a lot of feelings of underestimating the enemy, thinking that the Huns were nothing more than this.

This kind of underestimation of the enemy is actually very dangerous. Not to mention that the current Pingbei Army is not as powerful as the Huns. Even if the Pingbei Army has the strength to defeat the Huns, if it becomes arrogant and arrogant, it will be so far away from the Pingbei Army.

Defeat is not far away.

Therefore, before this expedition to Jiuyuan, Cao Liang warned the generals very seriously that this decisive battle with the Huns will still be an unfavorable situation in which we attack the strong with the weak and the large with the small, so we must not underestimate the enemy in any way.

Thoughts, we must continue to maintain a rigorous fighting style. There is no luck on the battlefield, and we must devote 100% to any victory.

Setting up a camp is a guarantee. When attacking Jiuyuan City, you need to focus even more. Cao Liang placed the Yueqi Camp and the Tunqi Camp on the two wings of the battle formation to ensure that the two wings would not be attacked by the Xiongnu cavalry.

The three infantry attack units of the Infantry Battalion, Changshui Battalion, and Shesheng Battalion were arranged into three square formations. Under the protection of the sidecar formation, they marched step by step and advanced slowly towards the foot of Jiuyuan City.

Among the phalanx, the most eye-catching ones are the dozens of counterweight catapults.

This new type of catapult is more than double the height and width of the previous catapults used by the Wei army. They move forward slowly following the infantry phalanx, completely giving the impression of standing out from the crowd.

These catapults are built with thick logs. They are thick and strong, just like a Big Mac. They have a strong visual impact and are shocking.

During the previous march, the ordnance battalion naturally had no chance to build such a big thing. After arriving in Jinyang, Cao Liang put the construction of the catapult into practice.

Jinyang is the largest city in Bingzhou and has sufficient resources. These resources include material resources and human resources. This is of great benefit to the construction of large equipment such as catapults, especially when Cao Liang is in charge.

After becoming the governor of the state, he had the power to mobilize these resources, so the construction of catapults naturally became a matter of course.

As early as in Luoyang, Cao Liang and Ma Jun completed the design of the equipped catapult and built a prototype. However, in order to prevent the technology from leaking, Cao Liang resolutely dismantled the catapult after completing the test.

However, Cao Liang preserved the design drawings. He had been looking forward to a suitable opportunity to rebuild these catapults and actually equip them into the army to achieve practical purposes.

Now that Cao Liang has commanded an army and a state, it is time for the catapult to be born.

But building catapults is a huge project after all, requiring a lot of raw materials, and the number of craftsmen from the ordnance battalion is not enough, because Cao Liang wants to make the catapults form a combat scale, and just a few of them are not enough.

Yes, at least build dozens of catapults first.

Cao Liang initially set a production quantity of fifty vehicles and purchased raw materials according to this quantity. In addition to the craftsmen of ordnance, Cao Liang also specially recruited hundreds of craftsmen, blacksmiths and stonemasons from Jinyang City.

, joined the team building catapults.

Prior to this, Cao Liang had stopped the manufacture of repeating crossbows, crossbows and other ordnance, and the ordnance battalion devoted all its energy to the construction of catapults.

Compared with the crude traction trebuchets equipped by the Wei army, the equipped trebuchets built by Cao Liang this time are much more sophisticated. Most of the previous traction trebuchets were disposable products and could be used for a single time.

There will be a lot of damage in the process, so that the power of the trebuchet is fierce in the early stage, but becomes muted later.

Every component of these counterweight trebuchets has been calculated and designed by Ma Jun. The entire vehicle has strong and massive components. Reinforcement measures have also been adopted at key stress-bearing parts to increase its durability and prevent it from falling.

After only one battle, it was scrapped into a pile of rotten wood.

Therefore, the process of building these catapults is complicated and labor-intensive, and it is just an ordinary stone projectile. Cao Liang insisted on excellence and asked the stonemason to carve the stone into a stone ball shape, with the same diameter and the same weight.

Compared with polygonal stone bullets, spherical stone bullets have a much smoother trajectory and higher hit accuracy. Moreover, this standardized stone bullet is easy for the gunner to adjust and has higher controllability.

However, in comparison, the production of this kind of stone bullets is much more difficult, and it is far inferior to those ordinary stones used as stone bullets. It only needs to be of the right weight, and there is no need to consider its shape at all. The workmanship is even more different.

Much more.

Cao Liang invested a lot of manpower and material resources to build the catapult, which was officially equipped to the army later that year. It also caught up with the decisive battle with the Huns. Since the Wei army faced a difficult task, the catapult was used this time.
Chapter completed!