A soldier swung a sledgehammer and hit the bayonet of the machine shaft with a hammer. The bayonet fell off and the rope broke away. After the throwing arm lost the traction of the thick rope, the heavy object on the other side suddenly fell, driving the throwing arm violently.
As it rose, a buzzing sound was heard that shook the eardrums, the long throwing arm trembled violently, and the entire catapult seemed to be jumping on the ground.
Dozens of black balls weighing two hundred kilograms shot out, making a buzzing sound as they shot through the air, and quickly disappeared into a small black dot in the air.
The soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou Dynasty at the top of the city raised their heads and watched dozens of black balls thrown high from the bottom of the city flying toward their heads. They could clearly hear the harsh whistling sound of the thrown objects rubbing against the air.
.This whistling sound is creepy and frightening.
However, judging from the flight route and arc, the target seems not to be the city head, but the streets inside the city. Facts have also proved this. These black balls passed through the air dozens of feet above the city wall, and then landed one after another.
Arriving at the street four or five hundred steps away from the city wall, that was where the soldiers and horses preparing to defend the city and the people assisting in the defense gathered. Some of the black balls fell directly into the crowd, killing hundreds of people on the spot.
The soldiers and civilians were smashed into pieces. The black ball exploded after falling to the ground. Countless sharp and hard black lumps flew everywhere. Hundreds of people were killed and injured by these splashing objects. The scene of blood and flesh flying everywhere was shocking.
The people were miserable, causing chaos. Some heavy objects directly penetrated the roofs and walls, destroying more than a dozen houses and pavilions. Smoke and dust flew into the air, and the people in the house ran away, their heads covered with blood, crying and crying.
Siege battles rarely affect within a few hundred steps of the city. The city wall has recently been affected or may be affected. It is not uncommon for arrows and thrown objects to fly over the city wall and fall into the city. Therefore, the general gathering of personnel and materials
They were all in an area a hundred steps away from the city wall to avoid being accidentally injured. However, this wave of Jurchen attacks extended directly to blocks hundreds of steps inside the city, which happened to be the area where supplies and personnel were gathered, causing great panic.
The bombardment continued, and giant black balls flew into the city one after another, blooming everywhere. The streets were in a mess, soldiers and horses were in chaos, people were running away, and there were houses that were penetrated and collapsed everywhere.
Lu Zhongtian and others, who were supervising the battle on a high platform a hundred steps away from the city wall, almost suffered divine punishment. Several balls fell where they were, and the splashing hard objects caused great damage to the surroundings. One of them scraped a corner of the high platform.
It flew over and almost hit the high platform. Lu Tianci, who was following Lu Zhongtian to watch the battle on the high platform, was so frightened that he screamed repeatedly. A group of officials and generals accompanying him also turned pale with fright. Lu Zhongtian forced himself to calm down and kept his expression as usual, but he still agreed.
At the advice of his subordinates, he immediately led everyone out of this dangerous area.
It can only be said that they left in time, because after several rounds of heavy bombardment, the Jurchens' Tianlei vehicle changed the ammunition they threw. The ceramic black oil bombs finally appeared. Huge ceramic balls filled with black oil.
The outer shell was wrapped with cotton wool dipped in kerosene, and was immediately ignited after being placed in the throwing basket, burning into huge fireballs. These flaming fireballs then fell into the city with long black smoke trails.
Among the streets. After the cannonball hit the ground, the clay pot shattered, and the black oil inside flew everywhere. It was quickly ignited, and the ground was suddenly full of fire. Hundreds of black oil bombs fell into the area within 500 to 600 steps of the city, and they started to do random things.
The whole street was ignited with raging fires.
The thick, acrid smoke turned the streets into a flaming hell.
The defenders at the top of the city looked at all this with their mouths open, and the horror in their hearts was indescribable. Some generals reacted and ordered the crossbows at the top of the city to fire at these monster-like throwing vehicles. However, the main parts of the sky thunder vehicles were all
Made of fine iron, even if the crossbow arrow hits the target, it will be useless. The bed crossbow only caused partial damage to the Jurchen soldiers and horses controlling the sky thunder cart, but this did not stop the sky thunder cart from continuously firing black oil bombs, further spreading the fire in the city.
expansion, causing greater damage.
Moreover, the sky thunder carts can actually adjust the angle of the projection, and the distance of the projection can be adjusted by removing the weight of the counterweight. They adjust the landing point in this way, and soon even the city walls are covered with fire ignited by the sky thunder.
, the tall tower of Fengqiumen was hit by sixteen or seventeen black oil bombs, and the entire tower was burned into a raging fire. The black oil on the city wall was splashed on the rolling logs and other materials prepared for the defense of the city, and the fire was ignited.
The fire was no smaller than other places. The city wall was a sea of fire, with almost no place to stand.
In just one hour, only sixty thunder chariots reduced the city walls on both sides of Fengqiu Gate to the point where no one could stand. And those within the city within five to six hundred steps were also in the sea of fire.
The fire was scorching, and the houses and buildings were set on fire, with thick smoke billowing into the sky. The soldiers and civilians in the area, as well as a large number of arrow tents and other materials gathered in the area, were burned into ashes in the fierce fire. The number of casualties
Soon there were tens of thousands of people, and the material losses were incalculable. Most of them had black oil spilled on their bodies, and they were unable to avoid being burned to death or burned when their bodies were ignited. The fire was ruthless, not to mention the fact that this was black oil.
Even if you don't burn to death in a big oil fire, you will faint to the ground if you take a few more puffs of smoke.
The Zhou soldiers guarding the city seemed to have nowhere to escape. They had to cover their mouths and noses tightly and look for a place to hide. All the defenders at the top of the city had already fled, because staying at the top of the city would mean death. The only safe place was
Conveniently, it was a small open space on the inside of the city wall. Because the height of the city wall could shield them from the black oil bombs, they could hide a little. They could only huddle on the inside of the city wall, holding their noses and looking up at the smoky sky.
Those big fireballs roaring past.
This is like a reappearance of the earth-shaking doomsday situation described by the storyteller in the teahouse in ancient times: fireballs rained down from the sky, destroying everything on the ground. Everyone was shattered by the rain of fire, shaking in despair.
The only good thing is that under such circumstances, the Jurchens could not launch an attack on the city wall because the fires all over the place also prevented them from attacking. But the Jurchens did not need to attack at all, and they had no intention of attacking.
After more than an hour of indiscriminate bombardment, the Jurchens ended today's siege, ceased their activities, and withdrew their troops back to camp.
Although the opponent's attack had stopped, the fire in this block within Fengqiu Gate still could not be extinguished. The soldiers and people in the city seized the time to put out the fire, but the black oil fire was not easy to extinguish. It was not until midnight that the fire was finally extinguished.
The fire was extinguished. However, the entire two miles of Fengqiu Gate, a distance of six to seven hundred steps, had become a mess. A large number of houses and buildings were burned, all the trees were burned, and the walls collapsed
, high-rise buildings collapsed, leaving a dark ruin. Burnt materials were everywhere on the streets.
The wreckage and burnt corpses of soldiers and civilians could be seen everywhere, and the air was filled with a disgusting smell of burnt fish.
The Fengqiumen gate tower has been completely burned down, leaving only half of the collapsed wreckage. Everything on the city wall was destroyed. It was originally severely damaged by the continuous bombing of 600 catapults. After experiencing the baptism of black oil bombs
There was nothing left. A large number of rolling logs were burned, weapons and iron tools were burned out of shape, and the heightened battlements had all collapsed under the falling rocks and fire. The large blue bricks paved on the top of the city wall were all destroyed.
It was loose, warped, and broken a lot. Fortunately, the main body of the entire city wall was made of rammed earth. The falling off of these blue bricks on the surface did not affect the solidity of the entire city wall. However, the ferocity of the opponent's long-range attacks
It has completely exceeded the psychological expectations of Dazhou soldiers and horses. Dazhou people did not expect such a situation to occur.
What they could think of was the brutal fighting between the two sides when the opponent attacked the city, and the brutal battles between you and me. They were mentally prepared for these. But what they never expected was that the Jurchens did not directly launch an siege at all, but
This unprecedented giant trebuchet was used to bomb the city, completely destroying the city head and everything within a certain range of the city. Although this method was temporarily impossible to conquer the city, the psychological pressure it brought was huge.
, and the losses caused are also huge.
After a simple inventory, the number of casualties among the soldiers and civilians defending the city in this few hours of fighting, which had never been a direct battle, was as high as 35,000 or 6,000. In terms of supplies, there were countless and immeasurable damages. The three streets of Beicheng were two miles long.
All the houses in the neighborhood were destroyed. All the fortifications at the city head were destroyed. However, the opponent only lost more than a hundred ordinary catapults and less than five or six hundred operators who were shot dead by crossbows.
After dark, the Jurchens began another bombardment. This time they confidently and boldly pushed the Tianlei chariot to within a hundred steps of Fengqiu Gate, because although the fire on the city was extinguished, it was still unable to gain a foothold.
There is no need to worry about the threat of the soldiers and horses guarding the city. The purpose of advancing closer to the city wall is to allow the black oil bombs to attack deeper positions in the city.
In the dark night, the fireballs burning in the night sky and flying into the city were particularly dazzling and shining, just like the fireworks that once rose in the night sky in Bianliang, the capital city of the Great Zhou Dynasty. But what they brought was not
There is peace and joy, but there are fires everywhere and ruthless destruction.
This time, the depth of the black oil bombs extended 200 steps into the city, where the more prosperous neighborhoods and residential areas gathered. After the previous attack, in order to prevent the opponent's attack, the soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou Dynasty specially mobilized supplies and
The soldiers and horses gathered in this neighborhood outside the opponent's range, naturally with the intention of being able to defend Fengqiu Gate at any time to prevent the opponent from taking the opportunity to attack the city. However, the Jurchens' bold move to advance the bombing in depth was misguided, and happened to destroy these supplies again.
The soldiers and horses were destroyed, which greatly exceeded the expected results. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed and injured, and a large amount of supplies were damaged.
The people of Beicheng were forced to evacuate through the streets deep in the city. Countless people were forced to flee without even having time to pack up their belongings and clothes. They gathered on the Imperial Street of Beicheng, panicking and not knowing where to go. No one came to the chaotic situation.
Comfort and shelter them. Everyone cried bitterly, their cries were loud, and they were shivering on the street in the cold wind.
