Chapter 466: Life and Death Decision

After the great victory in the Jingxiang War, Huang Zhong and Guan Ping were stationed in Duyang City.

The land borders Jingzhou and Yuzhou, and there are dangers of Funiu Mountain and Fuyu Mountain in the north and south.

Controlling the two states, the road is more than 40 miles narrow, and the north and south are all places that must be fought for.

When Huang Zhong and Guan Ping came, there was only a small county of Duyang here, which was not enough to control the road to resist Cao thieves.

Huang Zhong, a local, knew this, but after all, there were very few cases of disputes between Jingzhou and Yuzhou, so there was no need to set up a pass here.

Moreover, for Jingzhou, both Xiangfan and Jiangling Jiangxia were much more dangerous than Duyang.

But the situation is different now, so after clearing the Cao army here last year, Guan Ping and Huang Zhong imitated Guan Yu in Jiangling.

While sending troops to resist Cao's troops, they built a new city to store baggage and defend against strong enemies.

"The Cao army is about to make a big move again."

The color of the new soil on the wall of Duyang is still quite obvious. Huang Zhong stood on it with a slightly solemn expression.

Guan Ping said nothing beside him, but nodded slightly.

During this period, the two of them were quite happy to help defend Duyang. Guan Ping focused on training soldiers and building cities, while Huang Zhong was responsible for defending the city and pursuing. With the combination of the old and the young, Duyang is still as stable as Mount Tai.

However, since July, the Cao army in the direction of Yuzhou has been silent. Huang Zhong used to ride out of the city with a bow every day to pursue, but now he has been idle for a long time.

Being at the forefront of the struggle between Cao and Liu, and both of them are veterans, they understand this situation very well.

Scouts returned to guard to coordinate the mobilization of the army, and the defense line was retracted to avoid leaks. The longer the silence, the more uneasy it is.

It was not until the morning of September that the silence was broken by Huang Zhong's scouts:

"General Huang, Cao's army!"

Huang Zhong and Guan Ping hurriedly climbed the city wall to look out, and couldn't help but take a breath of the cool morning air.

The Cao army came from the east in an overwhelming manner, like a roaring wave hitting the shore, and there was no end in sight.

Even though the Cao army had been defeated for more than a year, the scene they saw with their naked eyes now made Huang Zhong and Guan Ping know clearly what the later generations called "one mine to attack nine mines".

"General, now the enemy army will be arrogant when they gather together, so why not go out of the city to attack them."

"If the enemy army is afraid of the enemy soldiers and besieges Yang, we can defend it and wait to respond to General Yunchang. If the enemy army rushes straight to Wancheng, we can attack them from behind to tire the enemy army."

The Cao army was so powerful that everyone looked stern, but there were still people who were not afraid and went out to fight.

"Liu Min is so brave!" Huang Zhong did not hide his admiration on his face.

This cousin of Jiang Gongyan is not a boastful person. He joined Huang Zhong's army and fought in Xiangyang and Pingxinye successively, and his performance was remarkable.

After arriving in Duyang, he had a good understanding of the city defense and was praised by Guan Ping.

The strategy of attacking at this time was not aimless, because the stability of Duyang also relied on Guan Yu's heavy troops stationed in Bowang County in the rear, and the two cities were in a state of mutual assistance.

And Liu Min's suggestion was just right. If the Cao army was in charge of Duyang, they would cooperate with General Guan Yu inside and outside. If the Cao army did not care about Duyang, they would harass it from behind and then cooperate with General Guan Yu inside and outside.

What disappointed Liu Min was that Huang Zhong did not hesitate to lead the cavalry out of the city after praising him, and cruised close to the Cao army to harass.

"Is that Huang Zhong?"

Seeing that every time the white-bearded general in the lead drew his bow, there would be Cao soldiers in the camp falling over, Xiahou Yuan hissed, lowered his head and asked around.

This cavalry was not large in number, but they could all shoot their bows on horseback, and they could always keep a subtle distance from Cao's army when advancing and retreating. Cao's scouts were shot down one after another when they went out to drive them away, and the soldiers were slow to surround them and inevitably missed. For a moment, Xiahou Yuan felt overwhelmed, and there was also a little grievance with it:

There were six Cao troops attacking Wancheng via Duyang this time, why did Huang Zhong only run into his own?

And staring at Huang Zhong, Xiahou Yuan's heart was filled with the three words "sending heads" that Zhang Fei said.

Although he was dissatisfied, seeing that everyone retreated wherever Huang Zhong's strong bow was pointed, and thinking about the death of Le Jin and Le Wenqian, Xiahou Yuan honestly lowered his body again.

Although the strong bow was sharp, the arrows were limited, and Huang Zhong's cavalry was still few in number. After Xiahou Yuan frequently mobilized troops to form a formation and raided the formation with longbows, he finally forced Huang Zhong's cavalry back to Duyang.

After a sigh of relief, Xiahou Yuan once again looked at Duyang, and then led his troops to continue heading westward towards Wancheng without hesitation.

This old general was extremely brave, and he was also about sixty years old. Now he had difficulty opening a three-stone bow, but Huang Zhong could still ride a horse to pull the bow and kill the enemy with a single shot. Le Wenqian's death was not unjust!

Before the army set out, the commander of this route, Cao Ren, had proposed that Xiahou Yuan lead a part of the troops to encircle Duyang, but Xiahou Yuan refused without hesitation.

Rather than leading the army alone to face Huang Zhong and Guan Yu's son Guan Ping, he would rather serve as Cao Ren's general to fight against the fierce Guan Yu!

Xiahou Yuan still knew which was more important.

Now seeing Duyang being left behind, Xiahou Yuan just wanted to laugh. He felt that the three words "sending heads" that Zhang Fei joked about were getting farther and farther away from him.

Huang Zhong returned to Duyang City, and without removing his armor, he climbed up the city again. Standing on a high place, he could see the movements of Cao's army.

The Cao army, sweeping in like a wave, did not stop, and slowly went to the back of Duyang City. It was obvious that they did not intend to waste time on Duyang, but wanted to go directly to find General Yunchang to fight.

But the Cao army obviously did not intend to let the defenders of Duyang City threaten their retreat:

Dozens of strange-looking weapons were pushed to the foot of Duyang City by Cao's army with great effort, and a group of Cao's soldiers began to debug them.

Such a scene immediately made Huang Zhong and Guan Ping a little nervous - no wonder they were nervous, after all, when it comes to the power of engineering weapons, the generals under Liu Bei's command may be more clear than ever.

Nowadays, even Lei Xu, who maintains law and order in the rear, can praise the engineering creations of Zhuge Military Advisor and Mrs. Huang when drinking in his spare time, saying "A gentleman is not born different, but is good at using things."

But soon, the debugging of Cao's weapons dispelled the tension in their hearts.

A stone about one foot long was thrown high after more than a dozen people pulled the weapon together, and finally hit the waistline of the Duyang city wall, leaving a shallow mark.

The Cao army on the other side, which was responsible for besieging Duyang, suddenly burst into warm cheers, which made Huang Zhong silent for a moment:

Not to mention throwing stone bullets into the city, you can even make a dent in the city wall...

Guan Ping said with a somewhat uncertain tone:

"This thing... could it be the Thunderbolt Chariot that defeated Yuan Benchu?"

After the rise of engineering in Gong'an County, Zhuge Junshi and Madam Huang naturally also tried to imitate and disassemble various military equipment, including the Thunderbolt Chariot used in the Battle of Guandu, so Guan Ping also knew about it.

But now that he saw it, he felt greatly disappointed.

And Huang Zhong's response was even simpler:

"Use the crossbow!"