Seeing that the city wall on the northwest side was also flocked by hundreds of Liang troops, hundreds of cottage recruits had to hastily withdraw the city wall and flee to the second line of defense in the city, seeing more Liang troops pouring in from the gap completely unscrupulously at this time, and only more than a hundred remnants of the soldiers around him retreated to Han Qian's side, at this moment he wanted to cry without tears.

Zhou Yi wiped the blood stains on his face and said, "Lord Han, Zhou did his best!" ”

Although Zhou Yi had to be appointed as Sima of the Prefecture and the commander of Canglang County, he was still emotionally closer to Han Qian, who had been personally recruiting copycat forces from beginning to end.

Maybe it's because they've been closed in the mountains and old forests for too long, and the leaders of the cottage are wary of the outside world, but even Zhou Yi, who is in his thirties, is actually far less scheming than Chai Jian, Shen He, and Li Chong.

Zhou Yi could still feel that many people were wary of them, but Han Qian had always fought for their greatest interests.

At this time, he was forced to retreat to Han Qian's side to rectify the remnants, and Zhou Yi felt heartache because of the heavy casualties among his subordinates, and he was extremely unwilling.

"We are not defeated in this battle, with Han here, Xichuan City will not fall so easily. Zhou Sima first reorganized the soldiers and horses, and then maybe he would have to rely on Zhou Sima to recapture the city wall! Han Qian pretended to stretch his posture relaxedly.

Han Qian stood behind a ditch about two hundred steps away from the north city wall and dug in the east-west direction, looking at the bloody battle on the north city wall, more than a thousand generals in Li Zhihe and Zhou Yan's department were either injured or killed, and his face couldn't help but twitch for a while.

However, when he saw more Liang Jun killing from the gap like a torrent, the uncontrollable fear in his heart receded little by little like a tide, and his eyes became more and more cold staring at the bloody blade and iron shield in front of him.

Behind Haogou was the array of the Xuzhou battalion, and Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Xi Chang, and Zhao Wuji all put on battle armor and gathered around Han Qian.

Only Xi Ying was wearing light leather armor, vigilantly guarding Han Qian's side, guarding against the archery masters in the Liang army from shooting coldly.

The two rows of sword and shield soldiers in front of them blocked the incoming arrows, and all they could hear was the clattering of arrows on the iron shield.

Although trenches began to be dug in the city since Han Qian presided over the fortifications of Xichuan City, these trenches were too narrow, and the widest part was only one zhang, mainly widening and deepening on the basis of sewage canals.

After all, the manpower and material resources that Han Qian can call on are too limited, and the time is too limited.

These moats, even if they were able to contain the enemy's offensive, were of limited use, and were paved with slightly wider planks to serve as a means of attack.

Zhou Yi saw that Liang Jun's attack posture was extremely firm today, and he didn't feel that with such a narrow trench, he could really hold Liang Jun for long.

At this time, the enemy had already carried the few remaining heavy bed crossbows to the northeast side of the city, and the click of twisting the bowstring was faintly distinguishable in the earth-shattering shouts of killing.

The penetrating power of the bed crossbow was terrifying, and the inferior iron shield could penetrate it, and Zhou Yi was forced to retreat into the rear formation with Han Qian and the others, and he felt that the chance of victory was slim.

Although the Xuzhou battalion also had more than a dozen tendon bed crossbows and shot at the Liang army, at this time, the Liang army transported the heavy shield through the gap, and the effect was not as obvious as the first few waves.

Yao Xishui was wearing leather armor, walked out of the town general's mansion, and didn't know who she came out to find, and saw Han Qian, Zhou Yi and others walking to the rear of the Xuzhou camp array, striding over, and asked in a low voice: "My father-in-law sent me to ask you, how sure are you that you will kill the Liang army this time?" Don't use the words you just said to your Highness to push us off! ”

Han Qian glanced at Yao Xishui, didn't say anything, just stared at the Liang generals who poured in like locusts at the gap.

At this time, Zhou Yi also knew that Yao Xishui, who was dressed as a man, was the adopted daughter of Zhang Ping, the eunuch of the Hou Mansion, and he could guess that Zhang Ping asked Yao Xishui to come over for questioning, and he had the intention to plan for the worst.

Shen He, Yang En, Shen Yang and others, and even Zhang Ping, all of them are in a higher position than Han Qianquan, but Zhou Yan has long seen that His Royal Highness still only listens to Han Qian's opinion on this crucial matter.

Zhou Yan also wanted to persuade Han Qian to advise His Highness to prepare for a breakthrough as soon as possible, and secretly felt that Li Zhihe and Zheng Hui should decisively give up the east and south cities, and go north along the Xichuan River out of the west city.

Zhou Yan just wanted to open his mouth to say something, when he suddenly heard the sound of the wind whistling, turned around and looked back, and saw that between the houses on the south side of the town general's mansion, a puff of loose stone bullets was thrown out like a swarm of locusts, whistling over their heads......

Looking at the scattered stone bullets flying over his head, Zhou Yi was a little shocked.

Although it was blocked by the town general's mansion, he still knew that there were more than 20 trebuchets made by the Zuo Si craftsman household camp placed on the south side of the town military mansion, but it was less than 300 steps away from the south city wall, and 600 steps away from the north city wall.

Even if a part of the Liang army came in through the gap, even if they directly arrived in front of the trench in the north city guarded by the Xuzhou battalion, they were more than 400 steps away from the street on the south side of the town general's mansion.

The large trebuchet built by Liang Jun and required more than 100 people to pull at the same time could only barely reach a distance of 400 paces!

Of course, Liang Jun was not unable to build a longer range trebuchet, but that kind of giant trebuchet was more complex to build, and the material toughness of the projectile rod was higher.

Even if it was barely built, such a giant trebuchet would have required up to three hundred men to operate at the same time to throw stone projectiles six or seven hundred paces away.

For the time being, Liang Jun felt that there was no need to spend so much effort to build this kind of giant trebuchet—this kind of giant trebuchet should be used in a siege war of this level against Xiangzhou City.

With the nest cart seven or eight feet high, the Liang army had long seen their defensive deployment in the city clearly, and it should have been because they saw that they had deployed more than a dozen trebuchets on the south side, so they focused their attacks on the north side in the past two days.

Zhou Yi thought to himself, if these scattered stone bombs were thrown more than 300 steps away, they would fall from mid-air, wouldn't they just smash the front of the Xuzhou battalion to a pulp?

In addition, near the street on the south side of the town general's mansion, there are only more than 300 craftsmen guarding 16 trebuchets in the Zuo Si Craftsman Household Battalion, which is far from enough to operate more than 20 large trebuchets at the same time.

Seeing the stone bullet cross the sky above the Xuzhou battalion array at this moment, Zhou Yan opened his mouth in shock, and saw that the stone bullet further crossed the part of the Liang army that had already entered the city, and smashed intensively into the inside of the gap in the collapsed city wall, he was even more shocked beyond words.

The inside of the gap is far from the trebuchet position in the south of the town general's house, even if it is not six hundred steps, it is incomparably different.

Six hundred steps, Han Qian built a trebuchet with a range of nearly six hundred steps?

Doesn't it take two or three hundred people to operate a trebuchet with such a range to be able to operate one at the same time?

Zhou Yan wondered if he was hallucinating at this moment, or if he had seriously miscalculated the distance from the southern end of the Zhenjiang Mansion to the northern city wall before?

Moreover, the coverage of this wave of stone bullets fell on the inside of the gap, and it is obvious that the stone bullets are precisely controlled!

What kind of training do hundreds of auxiliaries need to carry out to operate the trebuchet so accurately?

…………

…………

When the stone bullets were falling intensively, the Liang army at the gap in the northern city wall was extra dense, and they couldn't wait to rush into the city.

Therefore, in the bombardment of the first stone drawing projectile, almost 200 Liang troops were smashed to the point that their limbs and bones were broken and their brains were splattered.

The Liang army, who was bravely charging inside, seemed to be poured with ice water at this moment, and it was unbelievable that the stone bullet was thrown from such a far corner of the city.

They knew that the defenders had deployed trebuchets in the city to prevent them from forcing into the city walls, but the few remaining trebuchets of the defenders were indeed deployed near the southern city, but why could they attack near the northern city walls?

Moreover, the scattered stone shells weighing more than ten or twenty pounds were unusually dense, and there were as many as seven or eight hundred in the first wave.

This meant that the trebuchets deployed by the defenders on the south side of the town general's mansion had a range far beyond their previous estimates, and the weight of each trebuchet was far beyond normal levels.

Isn't this what Liang Jun can do with the top giant trebuchet he can build at the moment?

But this kind of giant trebuchet needs 300 people to pull at the same time, so that it is possible to send such a heavy stone projectile to a distance of 600 steps at a time!

In such a narrow street on the south side of the town general's mansion, where could five or six thousand auxiliary soldiers operate more than twenty giant trebuchets at the same time?

No matter how much shock and doubt the Liang generals who had already killed the city wall or were climbing the city wall, they had already rushed to the city and could not give up easily, not to mention that the war drums behind them were still beating desperately, urging them to attack the city.

They also didn't know whether the commander who was presiding over the battle in the rear didn't see this scene, or whether he thought that this was just the last dying struggle of the defenders, but the blood and courage tempered by years of fierce fighting also made the proud Liang generals unwilling to retreat at the slightest setback, and desperately fought into the pocket formation prepared for them by the defenders.

The generals of the Liang army outside the city may not have realized the seriousness of the problem, and the earth-shaking war drums urged the Liang army to still move forward like a flood, but the scene just now completely fell under the eyes of the defenders, like a miracle, and it suddenly inspired people's hearts and blood to boil.

Yang En, Shen He, and Shen Yang accompanied the three princes to stand on the watchtower in the town general's mansion, looking at the white-hot and pocket-like battlefield in the north, they were also so excited that their hands and feet trembled.

What made them even more excited was that the chief general of the Liang army, who was presiding over the battle outside the city, had not yet realized that inside the gap, it was actually a pocket array like a death trap carefully laid by Han Qian for them.

If you think about it, you can understand that the battlefield is so fierce, mainly relying on the transmission of information, even if the nest cars and building cars that are approaching the city wall were not completely destroyed in the previous fierce battle, but also because the Liang army completely occupied the city wall at this time, these easily destroyed weapons, people, and auxiliaries were temporarily withdrawn.

The middle and lower-level generals of the Liang army, who stood on the city wall and were directly responsible for leading a group of fierce soldiers to carry out a strong attack, were completely filled with blood and bravery, at least before the largest charge in more than half a month since the outbreak of this wave of Xichuan war, the main generals of the Liang army may not be able to wake up.

No matter how narrow the trenches relied on by the Xuzhou battalion and Guo Liang's troops in Beicheng, the Liang army also needed to borrow ladders, planks and other objects to build a passage for attack in the fastest time, but how wide can the ladders, long boards, and even the climbing vehicles that were barely dragged into the city from the gap and buckled onto the trenches to build offensive passages?

In front of such a narrow offensive channel, the morale of the Chu army generals was also completely inspired, and this moment was also extremely heroic, with iron shields, spears and simple and practical shield vehicles, forming a series of gods and Buddhas insurmountable moats and thunder pools, arrows flew sideways, fire oil cans were thrown at each other, and the arrays of the two sides were broken up again and again, and regrouped again and again.

However, no matter how heroic the Liang army that rushed into the city, they were always locked in a small space less than 200 steps from the gap in the northern city wall, as if they were stuck 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, and the stone grinding disc and the scattered bricks obtained from the demolition of the house were used as stone bullets and thrown accurately towards the area.

Although the trebuchet position was covered with a cloth curtain at this time, Yang En and the others stood on the watchtower of the town general's mansion and still saw it clearly.

The biggest difference is that the tail tip of the Zuosi trebuchet is no longer dependent on hundreds of people to drag and exert force, but hangs a huge, solid wooden box weighing more than 10,000 catties after being filled with earth and stones, and uses the sudden fall of the wooden box to drive the long pole and throw the stone projectile.

The operation is also quite simple when loading, thirty or forty people use the principle of long and short levers, pull down one end of the long rod, fix the loading with a rope, cut the rope, the tail tip wooden box falls down suddenly, and fires stone bullets, the efficiency is twice as high as that of the traditional trebuchet.

And it's more accurate than you think.

Especially in the past two days, Han Qian asked people to fill the gondola with sand and gravel and push it out, and Yang En didn't realize what the difference between the trebuchet built by Zuo Si was different from the traditional trebuchet.

The Liang army, which rushed in from the gap, was suppressed in a pocket formation within a radius of two hundred steps, which was incredibly dense, and almost every wave of stone bullets smashed down, hundreds of Liang generals were killed and wounded.

"Han Qian is in the work of creation, but there is an unpredictable talent, this trebuchet has been around for a thousand years, but no one can imagine that such a transformation will multiply its power." Yang En said with emotion.

Han Qian's talent, Shen Yang also felt deeply, but he was even more worried that Han Qian was too biased.

The main generals of the Liang army outside the city didn't seem to realize the brutal killing inside the city, and just desperately beat the war drums to urge more generals to kill through the gap.

They were like gamblers who had lost red-eyed, fanatically believing that if they held out a little longer, the will of the defenders would crumble in the next moment, and that as long as they won the final victory, all the casualties they had paid in front of them would be meaningful......