The 30,000 troops led by Taishi Ci and Ju Su stayed in the outskirts of Xuchang City for more than ten days and have not launched any attack on Xuchang City. It seems to be monitoring the Cao army in the city. In fact, it is not just a surveillance issue, but a continuous dispatch of scouts to conduct thorough reconnaissance on the situation within 300 miles of Xuchang, especially for rivers, mountains, jungles and other terrain, which is for subsequent combat preparations.

Regarding Cao Cao, Lu Ning has always taught his generals that he must pay attention to it. He must not relax at all, nor can he let go of any strategy that may fail. Cao Cao is also an expert who is very good at using terrain and rivers to win. Just like cutting the river to store water and opening the gate to release water, once it succeeds, it will cause devastating damage to the army.

In order to avoid unnecessary disasters, countless scouts of the Taishi Ci Sect also conducted detailed reconnaissance of Yingshui and arranged personnel to pay close attention to it. Yingshui is near Xuchang, so it is easy to plan to flood Jinshan.

After Taishi Ci and Ju Su's army controlled the surrounding areas of Xuchang, Kaima led the army to attack Xuchang City every day. In fact, it was not a real siege battle. It was just that soldiers were asked to use long-range weapons and equipment in their hands to bomb the Xuchang city walls with long-range weapons and equipment. The soldiers never approached the Xuchang city walls, and they did not give Cao's soldiers a chance to counterattack.

When Cao's soldiers saw Taishi Ci taking such despicable and shameless methods, they were furious and cursed Taishi Ci's shamelessness, and criticized Taishi Ci's ancestors countless times. Especially Xiahou Yuan, two senior generals, Le Jin, were even nagging and scolding them in private.

This is war, and it is also very cruel and ruthless. Who made the weapons and equipment that Cao's soldiers compare with those of Lu Ning's army in terms of performance? Especially in terms of long-range weapons and equipment, there are too many related things.

Lu Ning, a time traveler, certainly understood that the wars in later generations were basically speaking of long-range weapons and knew the importance of long-range weapons. In Lu Ning's dictionary, those who can use long-range weapons to solve problems will never let soldiers engage in any stick-shooting and hand-to-hand combat. Everything is based on reducing the casualties of soldiers. This concept was not available to the ancients.

Besides, before going to the expedition, the General Staff Department had already formulated a combat plan to deal with Cao's army, especially in the attack on Xuchang to consume its vital strength and try to use long-range weapons to solve the problem, so as to reduce casualties of soldiers.

After several days of bombing, Xiahou Yuan could not bear it anymore and ran to Cao Cao's official residence and said, "Lord, Taishi Ci is too shameless and has taken rogue methods; if this continues, the morale of the soldiers will be gone."

Lao Cao was also angry. Of course, he understood the measures taken by Taishi Ci, but what could he do? Who made his weapons and equipment better than ours, and the arrows shot farther than ours.

Cao Cao smiled bitterly and said, "Miaocai, then what solution do you have?"

Xiahou Yuan said: "Lord, let me lead an army to open the city gate and attack Taishici's crossbow archers!"

Cao Cao said: "Miaocai, there are iron cavalry guards beside those crossbow archers. Can this attack be successful? Don't make it a steal to leave rice."

Xiahou Yuan said: "Lord, I don't want to win in full, I just want to annihilate some of Taishici's crossbow archers, and arrows will increase my morale."

Cheng Yu said: "General Xiahou, Taishici's crossbow archers have 20,000 cavalry guards around him, so it is not easy to successfully attack. Besides, those crossbow archers will also aim the arrows in their hands at the army that you left the city. What should we do?"

Dong Zhao said: "The most troublesome thing is that Taishici's crossbow archers shoot very fast and can shoot more than ten arrows in an instant. After you lead the army out of the city, you probably will be greeted by the arrows before you even reach the other party. Besides, there are 20,000 iron cavalry eyeing them."

Xiahou Yuan said: "We can't sit still, right? Once Tian Chou and Guo Jia's two-way army reach the city, it will be surrounded. Will we still have a chance to fight back at that time? It is not a solution for us to huddle in the city like this. We have to find a way to eliminate Taishi Ci's army, and then deal with Tian Chou and Guo Jia's two-way army."

Cao Cao also knew in his heart that if he could not take the opportunity to eliminate Taishici's army, the situation would be even worse once the three armies met; by then, it would be even more impossible to withstand the siege of the three armies.

Cao Cao said: "We have the advantage in terms of military strength, but we don't have cavalry in our hands, so we must engage in field battles with Taishici's army. However, field battles are the strength of Lu Ning's army. Even if we have more than three times the strength of the troops, we are not sure to win, let alone completely destroy Taishici's army."

Cheng Yu said: "The problem is that even if we want to fight Taishici's army now, the other party may not necessarily fight to the decisive battle!"

Dong Zhao said: "General Xiahou, if we lead our troops out of the city to fight, are we sure we will win? How big will the casualties be?"

Xiahou Yuan thought about it and smiled bitterly, "There is a 30% chance of winning, and the casualties should be around 5:1; mainly because the opponent's crossbow arrows are too strong, and the soldiers' weapons are much better than us, especially when infantry fight against cavalry, they have no chance of winning."

Dong Zhao said: "Since that's the case, even if we pay 100,000 soldiers, we cannot eat Taishici's 30,000 troops! Besides, Xuchang City must preserve its strength and should be defeated by Tian Chou and Guo Jia's second-way army attacks."

Cheng Yu said: "If you use a sneak attack at night, will you have a chance to win?"

Cao Cao shook his head and said, "Taishi Ci and Ju Su are both old men. They have experienced countless battles and are not the first time they have led troops to fight. How could they be unprepared?"

After hearing this, Cao Ren immediately opposed: "It is difficult to succeed in a sneak attack at night. We carried out once in the Beihai. Who knew that Lu Ning's army camped at night, not only did it have light and dark sentries, but also hunting dogs to keep watch. The soldiers who attacked the attack will be exposed before they get close."

Dong Zhao smiled bitterly and said, "Lu Ning is really good at doing things. Many years ago, he used dogs to pull carts and successfully eliminated a large number of Xianbei tribes in one fell swoop. Now he lets the dogs keep watch. What are they doing!"

Cao Ren said: "This hunting dog has a particularly good effect in keeping watch, and we can also learn from it in the future."

Cheng Yu said: "It is easy to deal with dogs, but it is a bit difficult to block the watch."

Cao Ren said in confusion: "Zhongde, what good way do you have to deal with the dog sentinel?"

Cheng Yu smiled and said, "Zixiao, why is this difficult? Wouldn't it be enough to throw a few pieces of meat to the dog? Will the dog still howl?"

After hearing this, Cao Ren shook his head and said, "Zhongde, your method will not work. I later found out that the hunting dogs under Lu Ningjun are all fed by special people. Except for the food given by special people, the hunting dogs do not eat any food given by anyone, and they will not eat them even if they starve to death. The hunting dogs are called military dogs in Lu Ningjun. The breeding cost is bizarrely high, and the monthly cost is dozens of times that of a soldier."
Chapter completed!