On the eighth day after the army arrived at the city, the catapult was finally built.
Generally speaking, siege equipment is not carried. A catapult weighs hundreds of kilograms, and a catapult weighs a ton. If you bring a few more siege equipment, you don't know whether the army can march ten miles a day.
Therefore, in ancient wars, usually when besieging a city, local materials were used during the stalemate stage, trees were cut down outside the city, and a new batch of siege equipment was remade.
For example, when Lu Zhi besieged Guangzong and Cao's army in the Battle of Guandu, they made temporary equipment instead of carrying them in advance.
Chen Mu brainstormed with the scholars from Taishan Academy to improve the catapult. It was originally pulled by manpower. If a 100 kilogram stone was thrown, the range was only 40-70 meters. If a 30 kilogram stone was thrown, the range was only more than 100 meters.
Not too far.
Now they have used cowhide bands as spring ropes, and improved the projectile pillars, which are more powerful and have a longer range. With the strength of the entire army, and with the blueprints available, the craftsmen built it very quickly, and they built 20 pieces in seven or eight days.
Multiple racks.
We have only built catapults so far. If we build siege equipment such as well rams and rams, it will probably take more than a month. Therefore, we must first use the catapults and then work hard to build other equipment.
The camp slowly opened, and soldiers walked out of the camp in rows. The sword and shield bearers in the front row raised their large shields and pressed forward. Behind them were the spearmen with swords on their waists.
The military flag was fluttering and the drums were roaring. Liu Bei was riding on the horse, with a big "Liu" character erected. In the lower right corner of the black and red military flag representing the Han Dynasty, the four characters Jinan Prime Minister were embroidered in very small characters, which represented Liu Bei.
official position.
In addition to Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Chen Mu, Dian Wei, Tai Shici all had their own military flags. Guan Hai led the horse for Guan Yu? Acting as the forward army? Liu Bei and Chen Mu were in the middle army, with Dian Wei's left army on the left and Zhang Fei's rear on the right.
Army? In the rear is Taishi Ci’s rear army.
The front, rear, left, and right armies of the army are tight and the formations are neat. When Chen Mu trains his soldiers, the most basic way is to walk in the forward step. This is very helpful for the formation. It can ensure that the formation of the soldiers will not be disordered.
Chen Mu didn't want to make Sun Quan's mistake.
How did Sun Quan lose in Xiaoyaojin?
It's just that the formation suffered a loss.
The 100,000-strong army had not yet established a foothold, and even before the camp was set up, Zhang Liao led 800 dead men to rush into the camp.
He was almost captured alive, which shows the importance of army formation.
But think about it carefully? You can’t blame Sun Quan.
After all, 100,000 is worth 7,000? The flying dragon is riding on the face. You know that Zhang Liao and Li Dianyue will definitely defend the city when they enter. Who knows they will run out?
Liu Beijun came to the city with neat steps, leaving the distance of two arrows.
Zhang Fei jumped out of the crowd and shouted provocatively: "Are you listening to the thieves in the city? The officers and soldiers have been ordered to punish the thieves. Surrender and avoid death!"
"Surrender and avoid death!"
"Surrender and avoid death!"
The officers and soldiers raised their weapons high and shouted one after another, their momentum overwhelming the Yellow Turban thieves.
The yellow scarf thieves on the city wall all looked pale, looking at the crowd of officers and soldiers below the city with horror in their eyes.
In terms of status, are they thieves? The enemy is an official.
Talking about combat power? It is common for an officer or soldier to defeat more than two Yellow Turban thieves.
Or even say? More than two.
The great sage's 200,000-strong army was defeated by 30,000 to 40,000 elite soldiers.
Bocai in the south also had an army of 200,000, but was killed by Huangfu Song and Zhujun with less than 20,000 troops and was completely abandoned.
It can be seen that the combat effectiveness of the Yellow Turban soldiers is very poor, but the Yellow Turban thieves around Zhang Jiao have a good fighting will. They fought to the end and would rather jump into the river than be captured.
The yellow scarf thieves around Xu He were far inferior to Zhang Jiaobo's men in terms of combat effectiveness and fighting will, and they couldn't be compared at all.
If Xu He were to fight in the wild, not to mention that there were 40,000 people in Xu He's city, even if he gathered 200,000 horses, he would just end up collapsing.
Not only Xu He knew this, but also the soldiers under him.
"Brothers, don't be afraid. If the army wants to attack the city, just let them attack it. Our families have all been sent to the stronghold, so there's no harm in abandoning the city. If we really can't resist it, the worst we can do is evacuate from the west gate. We still have a way out."
Xu He encouraged loudly on the city wall. In fact, it was okay if he didn't say it. When he mentioned it, the soldiers' fighting will was even worse. After all, who wants to die on the battlefield when they think of a way out?
Zhang Fei, who was outside the city, saw that there was no movement in the city, and laughed loudly: "How dare a bunch of cowardless rats come out of the city to fight me to the death!"
"Who dares to go out of the city to fight to the death!"
The thunderous voice penetrated everyone's eardrums like ultrasonic waves, even the soldiers in the city who were not on the city wall could hear it.
Chen Mu even wondered if his third brother had a loudspeaker hanging on his body. How could a normal person shout so loudly? It could be heard hundreds of meters away. It was outrageous.
Seeing that there was still no response in the city, the morale of the officers and soldiers rose sharply, and the ladders were ready. If they attacked the city at this time, they would probably lose one or two thousand casualties at most to capture Changguo.
However, Chen Mu didn't want to lose even one or two thousand men, so he gave an order: "Get on the catapult and blast me!"
Catapults were pushed to the front of the city about ninety steps away, almost 120 meters.
In ancient times, a stone's throw was about 300 meters.
In fact, the effective range of bows and arrows is generally between 80-150 meters.
The so-called piercing the willow tree with a hundred steps means that if you can shoot a willow leaf from a hundred steps away, you can be called a marksman.
However, Qin Zhi's six-foot step is 23.1 centimeters per foot, which can be seen as a hundred steps, which is about 140 meters.
Then why is there 300 meters within a stone's throw?
Don't ignore the terrain.
If you shoot an arrow straight on flat ground, the range will naturally be short.
But if you stand on high ground and throw it, the range will naturally be longer.
Therefore, in ancient battlefields, there were almost no cases of archers shooting directly in the field. Most of them used group army projectiles. They did not pursue accuracy and only needed to find a good angle to shoot into the enemy's dense formation.
Seeing the enemy's catapult appearing within the shooting range, Xu He immediately ordered the archers in the city to shoot. Thousands of archers raised their bows and shot countless arrows at the command.
"Swish swish swish!"
Arrows fell down like raindrops, hitting the wooden curtain next to the catapult, making a dull sound.
The wooden mantle is a huge wooden board, specially used to protect against bows and arrows, to cover infantry approaching the city, or to cover the archers on the well fence to fight back inside the city.
Therefore, experienced generals who defended the city would not waste their bows and arrows on the wooden curtains. Instead, they would wait until the infantry arrived at the city and could no longer rely on the wooden curtains for defense, and then use arrows and rolling stones to fight back.
After all, Xu He is just a yellow turban miscellaneous fish. First, he does not have a high force value, and second, he does not have much commanding ability. Otherwise, he will not be easily defeated by Xia Houyuan in the future.
As a result, a large number of arrows were shot out, densely piercing the wooden curtain, pricking the wooden curtain like a hedgehog, but causing almost no casualties.
While Xu He was still doing useless work over there, the officers and soldiers here had already pulled up the rubber bands, put tens of kilograms of large rocks in the throwing pole, and hung the other end of the throwing pole.
Put on hundreds of kilograms of counterweight, just waiting to loosen the rubber band.
"three!"
"two!"
"one!"
"Get ready, loosen the rope!"
Under the command of the lower-level officer, the slinger unzipped the rope.
Then I heard a "buzz" sound. Without the leather band to hold the weight, the counterweight crashed to the ground and picked up the throwing pole.
The rocks in the shot flew up instantly, and more than twenty large rocks weighing tens of kilograms crossed a parabola in the sky, falling like meteors, and hit the county town.
Bang bang bang bang!
Dozens of loud bangs were heard, and large rocks hit the city walls, towers and even the city, splattering countless dust.
The officers and soldiers looked from a distance and saw dust flying all over the city wall. A stone hit the tower above the city gate, causing half of the tower to collapse and the dust and mist filled the air.
Perhaps due to various problems, more than ten stones did not hit the city tower as expected, but fell on the city wall and were blocked by the city wall, causing no casualties.
But more than ten pieces still fell into the parapet or into the city, and the huge impact caused the houses to collapse.
After the dust and smoke dissipated, wailing sounds continued to be heard, and the figures on the city wall had become sparse. Everyone only dared to hide under the female wall and did not dare to show their heads.
In fact, the casualties caused by the catapult are very limited. After all, the stones are not as dense as the arrow rain and cannot cause much damage to the enemy.
But this kind of visual impact is unmatched by anything. If you are slashed on the battlefield, you will die at most. But if you are hit by a large stone weighing tens of kilograms, your brain will burst and your internal organs will be smashed out.
.
No one wanted to die in such a tortured manner. At this moment, the horror of the catapult gave them a powerful shock.
Liu Bei saw this scene in the distance and praised: "Fourth brother, this new catapult is really good. If it can be mass-produced, I am afraid that any city will be easily destroyed."
Chen Mu said with a smile: "This thing looks good, but in fact it's just that. It can't cause any harm to the city wall, it's just bluffing people at most, and it's too bulky."
"It looks pretty awesome."
Liu Bei was puzzled.
Now only twenty catapults have such power. If hundreds of catapults hit it like this, wouldn't they be able to level a city?
But in fact, the catapult is still full of limitations. Firstly, it is not powerful, and secondly, it is really heavy.
Liu Bei thought it was good because the cities of the Han Dynasty were not big. Although the buildings of the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin Dynasty and were beautiful in magnificence, they were mainly reflected in royal palaces and noble families.
The houses of ordinary residents are very small, so the county town will not be too large. If it were the size of Luoyang, many catapults would be useless.
For example, when the Jin army attacked Bianliang later, they deployed 5,000 catapults. That scene was an exaggeration.
Therefore, after the emergence of artillery, it is normal for catapults to withdraw from the stage of history.
It's just that gunpowder probably hasn't come out yet. Chen Mu does know the formula of black gunpowder, but it's really useless.
Many people traveled to the past and immediately thought about making gunpowder.
But are they sure they don't want to see the power of black powder?
If you want to blow up a person, you'll need at least dozens of kilograms, and if you want to blow up a building, you'll need more than two tons.
Black powder developed for more than a thousand years from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. If it could really replace cold weapons, it would have been replaced long ago. How could it be possible that cold weapons were still the mainstay until the Qing Dynasty?
So in fact, the combat power provided by gunpowder is very limited, and the upper limit is cannons and flintlock guns. But by the time Chen Mu developed these two things, it was probably decades later, and Liu Bei's body was cold by that time.
What's the use of having cannons and guns?
Therefore, be pragmatic, don’t mess with the black technology that is eccentric, develop it step by step, and wait until you have enough strength in the future, for example, you have occupied several states and there are no opponents in the world before you consider these issues.