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In the early morning of September 27 in the first year of Yongxing, everything in heaven and earth seemed to be quiet. However, the Zhou army gathered a strong force, lined up in a dense siege formation, and slowly walked towards the city of Hejian County.

At the forefront, there are catapults, and under the pedestal of each trebuchet, there are four small wheels, which are pushed by several trebuchet operators, and are slowly pushed to the battlefield.

After the city wall came into range of the trebuchet, the Zhou army quickly uncovered the protective tarpaulin on the trebuchet and aimed the firing direction at the city wall of Hejian County.

There are also some trebuchets placed on the city wall of Hejian County, but the style is relatively old, which was originally used by the Sui army. Under Wang Junlang's order, the trebuchet operators of the Tang army also fired several stone shells, but the range was short and the accuracy was poor, and they could not hit the trebuchet of the Zhou army at all.

Wang Junlang also relaxed at this time, and said to the Tang Army soldiers beside him who were pale: "Don't be afraid, although we can't beat the trebuchets of the Zhou army, they can't expect to be able to beat us either...... If these trebuchets are going to stay close to the city walls, then we can be condescending and can shoot boulders out of the range of the Zhou army's trebuchets and destroy their trebuchets......"

Just when he forced his composure and cheered up the Tang army, the Zhou army's catapults had all entered the range of stone projectiles.

"General Wei Chi, the catapults have all been pushed to the designated position!"

"General Wei Chi, the soldiers of the Catapult Engineer Regiment are all in place!"

"General Wei Chi, all the stone bullets needed for the catapult to launch are ready!"

The stone projectiles were all customized in the Zhou Army's Weapons Manufacturing Bureau, the surface of the sphere was relatively smooth, the air resistance was small, and the catapult had also been improved to a certain extent, which made the range of the Zhou army's catapult much higher than that of the other princes' armies.

As the return of the officers at all levels of the trebuchet engineer regiment ended, Wei Chi Jingde waved his hand violently and gave the order: "Start firing stone projectiles!" ”

"Tom! Tong! Tong! With a deafening loud noise, the trebuchet of the Zhou army began to roar, and the soldiers of the Tang Army, who were still waiting on the city tower just now, had not yet understood what had happened, and had been smashed by a stone bullet thrown onto the city wall and their brains were bursting, and their tendons were broken.

Several catapults fired stone projectiles together, like several huge sharp swords, and slashed at the walls of the river county. In an instant, on the city tower and city wall of Hejian County, stone chips suddenly flew and smoke and dust rose everywhere.

The Tang army, which was originally standing on the city wall and preparing to hit the enemy, was smashed into flesh and blood as the stone bullets fell, and they didn't even have time to scream miserably. The city wall was instantly devastated, corpses were strewn all over the field, and there were Tang soldiers screaming and moaning everywhere.

"Quick! Launch a counterattack! We also have trebuchets, so smash all the enemy's catapults for me! Seeing this, Wang Junlang hurriedly shouted.

As a result, the trebuchets of the Tang army at the head of the city immediately loaded the boulders and launched a counterattack against the Zhou army. It's just that because their trebuchets are still old-fashioned, as well as the Sui army's trebuchets, the range is short, and the stone projectiles have not been rubbed, just put a boulder weighing more than a kilogram on the winch. Therefore, although the boulders were launched, they could not hit the enemy at all.

As a result, the Tang defenders at the head of the city began to panic, where is this fighting, it is simply a massacre. His own trebuchet has a short range and can't hit others. And people's trebuchets are not only powerful, but also accurate,

In particular, the range of the catapult of the Zhou army was so far that not only the city wall and the city tower were hit by the Zhou army's trebuchet, but even the inner side of the city wall also fell a lot of stone bullets, which would be assembled under the city wall, and the Tang soldiers who were ready to go to the city to support were also smashed to the head and bloody, and the blood was dripping.

Although Wang Junlang shouted vigorously to calm down the soldiers and stick to their posts, how many people could listen to them now?

As a result, the Tang soldiers ran around on the tower, dodging the stone bullets falling from the sky.

Wei Chi Jingde commanded the trebuchet, and after bombarding the city wall for half an hour, Yu Mingfang said in a deep voice: "Pass the order: launch a charge!" ”

With the sound of "woo woo" horns, a large number of Zhou infantry rushed out with shouts. Each of them had a shield in one hand and a machete in the other. There were also many ladders and well railings in the team, and they launched a fierce attack on the county town of River.

At this time, the trebuchets of the Tang army also began to return fire, and huge stones fell from the sky and smashed into the running Zhou infantry, but they were all agile and most of them calmly dodged.

On the other hand, the slow-moving fences are more unlucky, and once they are hit by a boulder, they will fall apart and become splinters. Archers hiding in the well fence will also die.

But fortunately, the Zhou army's trebuchets shot very fiercely, and the number of trebuchets far exceeded that of the Tang army, so they had a great advantage in the fire of the trebuchets, so that most of the well rails were able to advance intact in front of the city wall.

"Shoot the arrows!"

Guo Yi, the general of the Zhou army who commanded the attack of the well fence, immediately ordered the archers who were hiding under the well fence platform to go up to the high platform together, and then condescendingly fired arrows at the Zhou army trebuchets on the city wall. This is what they want to target. Because these people were the greatest threat to the attacking forces of the Zhou army.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

A burst of dense arrows rained over, and the Zhou Jun trebuchetman, who was still operating to launch the boulder, was immediately shot down in a large area.

"Humph! Bullying me, doesn't the Don Army have archers? Wang Junlang snorted coldly at this time and said, "On the crossbow hand!" Shoot me back! ”

As a result, the crossbowmen of the Tang Army, who had been waiting behind the city wall, immediately held their crossbows and aimed them at the well fence outside the city wall, and shot at the archers of the Zhou army.

And this pair of shots shows the gap between the two sides. The archers of the Zhou army were all hoplites, and although they were bulky and slow-moving, they were highly protected.

However, most of the crossbowmen of the Tang Army wore lighter armor for the convenience of movement and archery. In addition, the bows and arrows they used were also much inferior to those of the Zhou army, so they were at a disadvantage in the counter-shooting. Often, after the crossbowmen of the Tang army took arrows, they died, while the archers of the Zhou army were only wounded after being arrowed.

As a result, the Tang army was gradually suppressed at the head of the city.

At this moment, the infantry of the Zhou army also began to set up ladders under the city wall and climbed up. Several siege vehicles also crashed into the city gate at the same time, and the defense of Hejian County showed a dangerous situation.

"Brothers! Come on! The enemy is already at a disadvantage! Everyone! Guo Yi was overjoyed when he saw this, and personally rushed out of the position, he was ready to take the lead in climbing the city and make meritorious contributions.

"Kill!" Tens of thousands of soldiers of the Zhou army let out an earth-shattering roar at the same time, surging like a raging tide to the city of Hejian County.

Look at the imposing and unstoppable soldiers of your own army. The generals of the Zhou army also smiled, and the enemy's defenses were already crumbling. Our army is now higher than the Tang army in terms of strength, firepower, and morale. Victory should be at hand!

However, what they did not expect was that the morale of the enemy did not collapse unexpectedly.

Li Jiancheng, who had been standing on the city tower and commanding the battle, sneered: "I heard that Yuming is the best at burning the city with fire oil, let him taste the taste of being burned by fire this time!" ”

He immediately snapped his fingers and said to Liu Jing: "Pass the order, you can start the fire attack!" ”

Liu Jing answered and went down. After a while, I saw that the ground twenty zhang away from the city wall suddenly collapsed into a large area, surrounding the city wall, forming a ditch about five zhang wide. The soldiers of the Zhou Army, who were standing on the ground, immediately fell.

Yu Ming was also taken aback, staring at it, but saw a large black patch in the ditch, which seemed to be filled with some pungent liquid, and the soldiers of the Zhou Army who fell down were suddenly dyed into black people.

"I'll just say how can there be no protective ditch outside Hejian County, the feeling is that the ditch was dug, but it was loaded with wooden planks and covered with a layer of soil!" Guo Yi looked at the group of Tang soldiers who were fleeing in front of him, and also snorted coldly: "Give me arrows and shoot all these rabbit cubs to death!" ”

These Tang troops were the dead soldiers who had just laid an ambush in the mezzanine of the ditch and then pulled out the planks. When they did it, they put themselves in danger as well. Now that the outside of the city is full of Zhou troops, it is very difficult for them to escape.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" Countless sharp arrows shot towards these Tang troops. Before they could run a few steps, they were shot into hedgehogs by a dense barrage of arrows.

Guo Yi looked at the ditch full of black pungent liquid, frowned, and was about to call the sappers to come up and fill it up, but Yu Ming's face changed drastically, and he shouted: "Yi! Come back to me! Danger ahead! ”

Guo Yi was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and when he turned back to look at Yuming, Li Jiancheng on the upper floor of the city pulled out his sword and slashed down hard: "Release the rocket!" Ignite the ditch! ”

As soon as his words fell, several rockets flew down from the city and into the ditch. I saw that the black pungent liquid in the ditch suddenly burned, forming a sky-high fire. The ditch immediately became a fire dragon, isolating the Zhou army around the city wall from the Zhou army outside the ditch.

And at this moment, only to hear a "squeak", the gate of Hejian County was opened. Then a large number of Tang cavalry rushed out from the city gate, and it was a slaughter of the Zhou infantry under the city wall.

These Zhou infantry are all holding a shield in one hand and a single sword in the other, not the kind of Modao army that specializes in dealing with cavalry. Moreover, in order to climb the city walls, they wore thin armor. In the face of these well-equipped cavalry of the Tang Army, who rode tall horses, how could they resist? Immediately, a number of people were killed on the spot.

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