Seeing that the city wall on the northwest side was also swarmed by hundreds of Liang Jun, hundreds of copycat recruits had to hurriedly withdraw the city wall and fled to the second line of defense in the city. Seeing more Liang Jun, they were completely Zhou Dang, who poured in unscrupulously from the gap and retreated to Han Qian with only a hundred remaining soldiers, was about to cry at this moment.
Zhou Pan wiped away the blood on his face and said, "Master Han, Mr. Zhou did his best!"
Although Zhou Tan was appointed Sima of Prefecture and Magistrate of Canglang County, he was still emotionally closer to Han Qian, who had been personally recruiting copycat forces from beginning to end.
Perhaps because they have been isolated in the mountains and forests for too long, the village leaders are wary of the outside world, but even Zhou Pan, who is in his thirties, is actually far less scheming than Chai Jian, Shen He, and Li Chong. Heavy, so gloomy.
Zhou Pan can still feel that many people are wary of them, but Han Qian has always fought for their best interests.
At this time, he was forced to retreat to Han Qian's side to rectify the remaining troops. Since his men suffered heavy casualties, Zhou Pang felt heartbroken and extremely unwilling to do so.
"We have not been defeated in this battle. With Han here, Xichuan City will not fall so easily. Zhou Sima will organize his troops first, and he may have to rely on Zhou Sima to retake the city wall later!" Han Qian pretended to be relaxed and relaxed. He took a look at his posture.
Han Qian stood behind a ditch dug east and west about two hundred steps away from the north city wall. Looking at the bloody battle on the north city wall, Li Zhigao and Zhou Pan's troops had more than a thousand generals injured or dead. He His face couldn't help but twitch.
However, when he saw more Liang Jun coming from the gap like a torrent, the uncontrollable fear in his heart receded like a tide, and his eyes became colder and colder as he stared at the bloody weapons in front of him. War blade, iron shield.
Behind Haogou was the formation of the Xuzhou camp. Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Xi Chang, and Zhao Wuji all put on battle armor and gathered around Han Qian.
Only Xi Rong, wearing only light leather armor, stood vigilantly at Han Qian's side, guarding against cold shots from the archery masters in Liang's army.
The two rows of soldiers with swords and shields in front blocked the incoming arrows, and they could only hear the jingling sound of arrows hitting the iron shields, which was shocking to the soul.
Although trenches had been dug in the city since Han Qian took charge of the fortifications of Xichuan City, these trenches were too narrow, with the widest point being only one foot. They mainly needed to be widened and deepened on the basis of the sewage canals.
After all, the manpower and material resources that Han Qian can mobilize are too limited, and the time is too limited.
Even if these trenches in the city can contain the enemy's offensive, their effect is limited. If they are paved with slightly wider wooden planks, they can become a passage for attack.
Zhou Pan saw that Liang Jun's attack was extremely determined today, and he didn't think that such a narrow trench could really hold Liang Jun back for long.
At this time, the enemy army had carried the few remaining heavy crossbows to the city head on the northeast side, and the clicking sound of the bow strings was faintly discernible amidst the earth-shattering shouts of killing.
The penetrating power of the bed crossbow was terrifying, and it could penetrate even inferior iron shields. Zhou Pan was forced to retreat to the rear formation along with Han Qian and others, feeling that the chance of victory was even slimmer.
Although the Xuzhou camp was also surrounded by more than a dozen crossbows with ropes and ropes, and they fired at Liang Jun, but at this time Liang Jun moved the heavy shield through the gap, and the effect was not as obvious as in the first few waves.
Yao Xishui wore leather armor and walked out of the town general's mansion. She didn't know who she was looking for. When she saw Han Qian, Zhou Tan and others walked to the back of the Xuzhou camp array, strode over, and asked in a low voice: "My foster father Let me ask you, how sure are you of defeating Liang Jun this time? Don’t use what you said to His Highness just now to refute us!"
Han Qian glanced at Yao Xishui and said nothing, just staring at the Liang Jun generals who were pouring in like a swarm of locusts from the gap.
At this time, Zhou Tan also knew that Yao Xishui, who was disguised as a man, was the adopted daughter of Zhang Ping, the eunuch of the Hou Mansion. He could guess that Zhang Ping asked Yao Xishui to come over for questioning and was planning for the worst. If Xichuan City was really not sure to be defended today, he should take advantage of it as soon as possible. Consider breaking out.
Shen He, Yang En, Shen Yang and even Zhang Ping were all more powerful than Han Qian, but Zhou Fang had already seen that on this crucial matter, His Highness still only listened to Han Qian's opinion.
Zhou Fang also wanted to persuade Han Qian to advise His Highness to prepare for a breakout as soon as possible. He secretly wanted Li Zhigao and Zheng Hui to decisively abandon the East City and South City, leave the West City and walk north along the Xichuan River. Maybe there would be one or two thousand elites left in the end. Escort His Highness to escape from the siege of the rebels.
Just as Zhou Pang was about to open his mouth to say something, he suddenly heard the sound of howling wind. He turned around and looked back, and saw a cloud of scattered stone bullets thrown out like a swarm of locusts in the house on the south side of the Zhenjiang Mansion. came out and roared over their heads...
Zhou Zan was a little shocked when he saw the scattered stone bullets flying over his head.
Although it was blocked by the Zhenjun Mansion, he still knew that there were more than twenty trebuchets built by Zuosi Jianghuying placed on the south street of the Zhenjun Mansion, but it was less than 300 steps away from the south city wall and 300 steps away from the north city wall. But it's a full six hundred paces away.
Even if a part of Liang's army came in through the gap, even if they arrived directly in front of the trench in the north city guarded by Xuzhou Camp, they would still be more than 400 steps away from the south street of Zhenjiang Mansion.
The large trebuchet built by Liang Jun, which required more than a hundred people to pull it at the same time, could only barely reach a distance of 400 steps!
Of course, Liang Jun was not unable to build a trebuchet with a longer range, but that kind of giant trebuchet was more complicated to build and required higher toughness of the material of the projectile tip.
Even if it was barely built, such a giant trebuchet would require up to three hundred people to operate it at the same time to throw stone bombs six to seven hundred steps away.
For now, Liang Jun feels that there is no need to spend so much effort to build this type of giant trebuchet - this type of giant trebuchet should be used in siege warfare of the level of Xiangzhou City. middle.
Liang Jun had already clearly seen their defensive deployment in the city with the help of his seven or eight-foot-high chariot. It should have been because he saw them deploying more than ten trebuchets on the south side that he decided to attack in the past two days. Focus on the north side.
Zhou Fang thought to himself, if these scattered stone bombs were thrown more than 300 steps away and fell from mid-air, wouldn't they just smash the front line of Xuzhou Camp to pieces?
In addition, near the main street on the south side of Zhenjiang Mansion, there were only more than 300 craftsmen from Zuosi Jianghu Camp guarding 16 trebuchets. The number of people was far from enough to operate more than 20 large trebuchets at the same time.
Seeing the stone bullets passing over the Xuzhou Camp array at this moment, Zhou Fang opened his mouth in shock. He saw the stone bullets further passed over the part of Liang's army that had already entered the city, and intensively bombarded the inside of the gap created by the collapse of the city wall. He was even more shocked and speechless.
Even if the distance between the inner side of the gap and the trebuchet position south of Zhenjiang Mansion is not 600 steps, it is still extremely different.
Six hundred steps, Han Qian built a trebuchet with a range of nearly six hundred steps?
Wouldn't it take two to three hundred people to operate a trebuchet with such a range at the same time?
At this moment, Zhou Zang wondered whether he was hallucinating, or had he seriously misestimated the distance from the southern end of the Zhenjiang Mansion to the northern city wall?
Moreover, the coverage of this wave of stone bullets all fell on the inside of the gap. It is obvious that the impact points of the stone bullets are precisely controlled!
What kind of training are required for hundreds of auxiliary soldiers to operate the trebuchet so accurately?
…………
…………
When the stone bullets were bombarded intensively, the Liang army at the gap in the northern city wall became extra dense, and they couldn't wait to rush into the city.
Therefore, in the first stone bombardment, nearly two hundred Liang Jun soldiers were hit with broken limbs and bones, and their brains were shattered.
Liang Jun, who was charging forward bravely, felt as if he had been doused with ice water at this moment. He could not believe that the stone bullets were thrown from such a far corner of the city.
They knew that the defenders had deployed trebuchets in the city to prevent them from pushing into the city wall, but the few remaining trebuchets of the defenders were indeed deployed near the south city, but why could they attack near the north city wall?
Moreover, the scattered stone bombs weighing more than ten or twenty kilograms were extremely dense, with as many as seven or eight hundred in the first wave.
This meant that the range of the trebuchets deployed by the defenders on the south side of the town general's mansion was far beyond their previous estimates, and the weight of the stone projectiles loaded in each trebuchet was also far beyond the normal level.
Isn't this what Liang Jun can currently build with the most advanced giant trebuchet?
But this giant trebuchet requires three hundred people to pull it at the same time to be able to send such a heavy stone projectile to a distance of 600 steps at a time!
How could five or six thousand auxiliary soldiers be crammed into such a narrow street south of the Zhenjiang Mansion to operate more than twenty giant trebuchets at the same time?
No matter how shocked and doubtful the Liang Jun generals were who had already passed through the city wall or were ascending the city wall, they had already rushed to the top of the city and there was no way they could give up easily, not to mention that the war drums behind them were still beating and beating desperately, urging them to go forward.
Attack on the city.
They didn't know whether the commander in charge of the war at the rear had not seen this scene, or whether he thought this was just the last desperate struggle of the defenders. However, the bloody courage honed by years of fierce fighting also made the proud Liang Jun generals
, unwilling to retreat after a slight setback, they rushed into the pocket formation prepared by the defenders regardless of their own safety.
The Liang Jun generals outside the city may not have realized the seriousness of the problem. The earth-shattering war drums urged Liang Jun to rush forward like a flood, but the scene just now was completely under the control of the defending generals.
The look in his eyes was like a miracle, which immediately inspired people's hearts and made their blood boil.
Yang En, Shen He, and Shen Yang accompanied the third prince and stood on the watchtower in the town general's mansion. They looked at the white-hot, pocket-shaped battlefield in the north. Their hands and feet were trembling with excitement. Han Qian endured until this moment.
Only then did he play the last trump card in his hand, and it actually had such a magical effect.
What made them even more excited was that General Liang Jun, who was presiding over the war outside the city, did not realize at this time that the gap was actually a pocket array carefully laid out for them by Han Qian, like a death trap.
If you think about it, you can understand that the battlefield was so fiercely fought, mainly relying on flags and drums to transmit information. Even if the nest cars and building cars approaching the city wall were not completely destroyed in the previous fierce battle, they were still because Liang Jun was completely occupied at this time.
The city walls, these easily destroyed weapons, as well as civilians and auxiliary soldiers, were temporarily withdrawn.
As for Liang Jun, the middle and lower-level generals who stood on the city wall and were directly responsible for leading groups of soldiers to attack were completely filled with bloody courage. At least before the largest charge in the Xichuan War broke out for more than half a month, Liang Jun was finished.
Even the military leaders may not be able to wake up.
Xuzhou Camp, no matter how narrow the trench Guo Liang's troops relied on in Beicheng, Liang Jun still needed to borrow ladders, wooden planks, etc. to build attack passages as quickly as possible, but ladders, long boards, and even
How wide can the climbing vehicle that was dragged into the city through the gap be pushed back onto the trench to build an attack channel?
In front of such a narrow attack channel, the morale of the Chu army's generals was completely inspired. At this moment, they were also extremely brave. They used iron shields, spears and simple and practical shield carts to form a series of natural chasms and thunder pools that were difficult for gods and Buddhas to cross.
, arrows flew across the sky, fire oil cans were thrown at each other desperately, the formations of both sides were scattered again and again, and regrouped again and again.
However, no matter how brave the Liang army was when they rushed into the city, they were always blocked in a small space less than 200 steps away from the gap in the northern city wall, as if they were trapped in a pocket like a death trap.
Then, the trebuchet on the south side of the town general's mansion was launched again and again calmly and firmly, using the stone millstones and the scattered bricks obtained from the demolished houses as stone bullets, and accurately threw them towards that area.
Although the surrounding areas of the trebuchet position were covered with curtains, Yang En and others could still see everything clearly while standing on the watchtower of the Zhenjiang Mansion.
The trebuchet built by Zuosi's craftsmen is basically the same as the trebuchets of the day. The biggest difference is that the tail end of Zuosi's trebuchet no longer relies on hundreds of people to drag it to exert force, but is tied to a rope.
A huge solid wooden box, weighing more than 10,000 kilograms after being filled with earth and rocks, uses the sudden fall of the wooden box to drive a long pole to throw the stone bullets.
The operation when loading is also quite simple. Thirty or forty people use the principle of long and short levers to pull down one end of the long tip pole, fix it with a rope to load the ammunition, cut the rope, and the wooden box at the tail tip suddenly drops again, and the stone bullets are fired, which is very efficient.
It is twice as high as the traditional trebuchet.
And it's more accurate than imagined.
Especially in the past two days, Han Qian had people fill the hanging box with sand and gravel and push it out. Before that, Yang En didn't realize the difference between the trebuchet built by Zuo Si and the traditional trebuchet.
Liang Jun, who rushed in from the gap, was suppressed in a pocket formation with a radius of 200 steps. It was so dense that it was beyond imagination. Almost every wave of stone bombs hit, hundreds of Liang Jun generals were killed or injured.
"Han Qian is good at craftsmanship, but he has unpredictable talents. This trebuchet has been around for thousands of years, but no one could have imagined that such a modification would double its power." Yang En said with great emotion.
Shen Yang was deeply impressed by Han Qian's talent, but he was more worried that Han Qian would go too far.
The Liang Army generals outside the city seemed unaware of the brutal killings inside the city. They just beat the war drums desperately to encourage more generals to come in through the gap.
They were like gamblers who had lost their money, fervently believing that as long as they persisted longer, the will of the defenders would collapse in the next moment. As long as they won the final victory, all the casualties they had paid before would be meaningful...
