Amidst the roar of artillery, the shells hit the Loulan city wall one after another, and the soil from the city wall fell down layer by layer like flour.
Esiwei and all the Huns soldiers were dumbfounded.
In fact, the Huns soldiers were already scared to death at this moment.
Although they don't have much education, they still understand victory, defeat, life and death on the battlefield.
In the situation before us, it is obvious that the Qin army's artillery can hit the Xiongnu, but the Xiongnu can only watch helplessly and have no countermeasures.
In particular, many Huns soldiers are still thinking:
Since those artillery cannons can knock down solid city walls piece by piece, what would happen if they hit people?
Thinking of this, the Huns soldiers became confused. Some of them had already held their heads and ran down the city on horseback to escape...
This is normal for the Xiongnu. It can even be said to be the habit of the Xiongnu. If you can beat them, fight, and if you can't, then run away.
Therefore, the Huns were actually better able to fight with favorable conditions.
That is to say, when the war situation is favorable, the Xiongnu will surround them like wolves from all directions to grab some benefits, for fear that if they arrive late, all the valuable things will be robbed by others.
If the battle situation is unfavorable, they will scatter and run away with a "hoo!"
Of course, this situation will be much better since Modun Shanyu succeeded to the throne.
From this point of view, the difference between the Huns cavalry and the Mongolian cavalry is still very big.
The Mongolian cavalry also "fight if they can beat them, and disperse if they can't."
"Scatter" is used here instead of "escape" because the Mongolian cavalry has developed this "escape" into a tactic, which is a commanded and orderly "escape".
The Mongolian army despises cowards without courage, and military orders are very strict. Whether to fight or retreat is under the command of the commander, so the word "escape" is not appropriate, and it should be "dispersed".
The Huns' cavalry has not yet reached that level. Its command still relies more on consciousness, telepathy, and the sensitivity of animal instincts.
The disadvantage of this command model is that the control and restraint on soldiers is not very strong.
For example, now, when being bombarded by the Qin army's artillery, their instinctive reaction is to escape on horseback.
The soldiers didn't know the situation, but Esvi did.
He stood at the top of the city and shouted:
"Loulan is surrounded on all sides, we can only hold on to one side."
"All officers and men listen to the order. Anyone who steps back even half a step will be killed without mercy!"
After Ersiwei shouted this, the commotion of the soldiers gradually calmed down... They knew that what the Captain said was right, the four city gates were blocked by the Qin army, and they had nowhere to escape.
The captain hurried to the top of the city, dodging the debris thrown up by the cannonballs hitting the city wall, and ran to Esvi and shouted:
"Captain Ten Thousand, I'm afraid Loulan City will be captured by the Qin army if this continues."
"Contact the cavalry outside the city to break out. If it's too late, I'm afraid we will all die here!"
There is some truth to what the captain said.
Because the Huns deployed four thousand cavalry outside the city.
Although these cavalry are divided into left and right wings, as long as Esvi uses the signal of wolf smoke to pull them close and then uses the horn of the horn to give the order, they can be commanded to concentrate their forces and cooperate with the city to attack one area to support the soldiers in the city to break out.
But Ersiwei looked at the formation of the Qin army outside the city, shook his head and said:
"The Qin army had expected that our army was going to break through!"
"At this time, the outside of the city is full of horse-repelling rifles and horse traps. It is necessary to cooperate with the inside and outside... How can our army successfully break through?"
The situation outside the city is indeed as Esiwe said, there are obstacles set up by the Qin army for the cavalry everywhere.
As mentioned before, the advantage of cavalry over infantry is that the battlefield is undecided and the cavalry has the choice of the battlefield and whether to start a battle because of its speed advantage. Therefore, the right time and location always favor the cavalry.
However, it was different when the Huns cavalry was used to defend the city.
Defending the city means that the battlefield has been decided, so the infantry's advantage is even more obvious.
Because there are many ways for infantry to disable cavalry...
Falling into a horse pit is the cheapest but takes longer.
The anti-horse gun is the most expensive but takes very little time.
The cost and time-consuming of tripping is between the two.
The three jointly deployed, and in just an hour, traps for the cavalry were everywhere outside the small Loulan City.
In addition, the gate of Loulan City is too small and only two riders can be sent out at a time...
So let alone the Xiongnu inside the city who could break through, even the four thousand cavalry outside the city would be hard-pressed to play a role.
The commander glanced in the direction of the cannons that were still roaring, and said worriedly:
"But Captain Ten Thousands, if this continues..."
Ersiwei thought for a while and replied:
"It doesn't matter."
"After the Qin army destroyed the city wall with iron cannons, it was necessary to send people to attack the city."
"We just need to hold on to the gap!"
As Esiwe said, he immediately ordered his men to set up their formation.
Ersiwei believed that the Qin army had a weakness in attacking the city in this way: it concentrated artillery to attack one part of the city wall, which meant that after the wall collapsed, it would definitely attack from the gap.
Therefore, the Xiongnu knew the Qin army's offensive position in advance and could arrange it in advance.
From this we can also see that Esvi has learned some offensive and defensive skills.
He first divided his thousands of troops into three parts and concentrated them on the three sides of the gap, with swordsmen and shieldmen in front and archers in the rear.
Then place the trebuchet at the rear.
Once the Qin army invaded through the gap, the Xiongnu attacked with bows, arrows and trebuchets.
Because the area was not open enough, Erswe even urgently demolished a tent and wooden house.
The captain said with some worry:
"Captain Ten Thousands, but the iron cannons of the Qin army..."
Ersivi knew what the captain meant.
Even if the Huns arranged it like this, if the iron balls hit them one by one, the copper and iron walls would be smashed by them.
Esiwe said with relief:
"It doesn't matter."
"The Qin army must not have brought many iron balls with them when they came from afar. If they destroy the city wall, they will probably have very few iron balls left."
"not to mention……"
"The iron ball may be a powerful weapon for siege, but it may not be as good as a trebuchet in combat."
This is right.
The advantage of artillery is that it is powerful and has a long range, but the iron ball is as big as the mouth of a bowl, so the probability of hitting people is much smaller than that of larger rocks.
Moreover, the human body is very fragile. If you are hit by an iron ball, you will die, and if you are hit by a stone, you will die. Therefore, the iron ball has no advantage when fighting people.
But this is just Ersvi's misunderstanding.
In fact, iron balls also have advantages against infantry phalanxes:
Stones falling from the sky can hit a few, but after the iron ball hits the ground, it will turn into water and float forward, so it is possible to knock down more infantry and cause greater casualties.
The real disadvantage of artillery is that...it requires too many people to operate it. One artillery requires fifty people.
With the same number of people, five trebuchets can be operated.
So the real comparison is between one artillery and five trebuchets, and the firing speed is even slower. By the time it takes to fire out one cannonball, the trebuchet has already fired ten stone projectiles... In this comparison, the artillery is at a disadvantage.
Ersiwei thought it wrong but did the right thing by accident.