The stone rain is over, and the generals of the Liu Song garrison once again feel that they have walked out of hell and will live for the rest of their lives!

Xue Tong covered his bloody head and shouted: "Pro-soldiers, pro-soldiers, how many times did the stone rain just now?" Several times? ”

The soldiers were shouted back to their senses by Xue Tong's shouting, some said it was four times, some said it was five times, and some said it was six times, but most of them said it was five times.

"Five times? Are you sure it's five times? Are you sure? Xue Tong asked loudly.

Most of the pro-soldiers said in unison, "Yes, five times!" ”

"Yesterday it was five times, and today it is five times······" Xue Tong muttered to himself.

At this time, the sentry shouted: "General, the cadres are ready to attack the city!" ”

Xue Tong looked up and saw that the Qianjun had really started to attack, he turned his head and shouted to everyone: "Send the order to go down, let the soldiers who take turns to rest go up to the city wall to carry down the corpses of their comrades, and the wounded people also go down!" Everyone else listens and prepares to fight! ”

After the order was delivered, a group of soldiers who took turns to rest went up to the city wall to carry away the corpses of their companions, and it was inconvenient for these corpses to be left on the city wall, and the wounded soldiers also took their weapons and walked down the city wall quickly, and those with broken legs and feet could only be carried down by their companions.

The iron pots on the city walls for boiling water and hot oil were all smashed by the rain of stones of the dry army yesterday, and they could no longer be used, and there were two more means of defense on the city walls, and now the only ones that could be used were rolling logs, bows and arrows, and stones.

Xue Tong instructed the newly promoted lieutenant general: "You go to the city and organize some people to gather all the stones projected by the trebuchets of the cadres and pile them up at the foot of the city wall, and once the stones on the city wall are almost used, let the people quickly carry the stones to the city wall!" ”

The adjutant general said: "Don't worry, general, the last general has already been arranged, and the people are collecting and carrying stones!" ”

Xue Tong was relieved, and the deputy general thought for a while and asked: "General, the kind of ladder that can push and move is too powerful, it can rush up to four soldiers at a time, it is too much of a threat to our city defense, and our lifting hammer has been destroyed again, and now there is no weapon that can restrain the moving ladder, do you want to use this thing?" After speaking, he pointed to the tall triangular stand erected next to him.

Xue Tong raised his palm: "No, this thing can't be used easily, if the cadres find a way to destroy it or restrain it, we will no longer have the strength to defend the city, and we can't use it unless we have to, unless the soldiers are really about to be unable to withstand it!" ”

The lieutenant nodded.

"Woo-woo-woo-" The sound of a horn came from outside the city.

The dense cadre infantry rushed to the city wall with swords and shields from a stone's throw away, and the deafening shouts of killing spread in all directions, and the momentum was extremely huge, and the murderous spirit arrived before the people arrived.

The overwhelming shouts of killing followed the ant-like cadres and soldiers rushing over and taking the lead in rushing towards them, even though they had been fighting for several days, but the defenders were still terrified by the huge momentum and scene.

One after another cloud ladders were erected on the city wall again, and the cadres and soldiers bravely climbed the first, one by one they were not afraid of death, and there were people climbing everywhere on the ladders and the outer walls of the city wall.

A wheeled siege ladder was also pushed to the edge of the city wall, and the soldiers of the cadres rushed up with weapons and shields on the pedals.

"Shoot me, shoot them!" Xue Tong shouted.

The archers of the defending army kept shooting arrows at the ladders and the soldiers on the city wall, some of which hit the soldiers, and some of which were blocked by the soldiers with their shields.

In order to resist the ferocious attack of the cadres, the defender Xue Tong had to order an increase in the number of defenders on the city wall, and the strength of the defenders on the city wall was doubled per unit area, which made the pressure on the defenders much less and doubled the pressure on the attacking cadres.

A row of wells was pushed closer to the wall, and the archers on the platform at the top of the wells began to fire arrows at the defenders on the wall.

The defenders had to put their shields in front of them, although they could reduce some casualties, but they also increased the difficulty of defense, and it was inconvenient for the battle, and the attention was seriously distracted, so that the cadres and soldiers who climbed the ladders and the city walls had an opportunity.

One after another, the soldiers of the cadres and soldiers got the opportunity to rush to the city wall and fight with the defenders, and the fierce white-knuckle battle of the city wall began, the two sides fought to the death at the head of the city, and the cadres and soldiers put in their troops again and again in order to seize a foothold at the head of the city, and the corpses of both sides were piled up into a mountain at the head of the city erected by the ladder.

"General, the well fence of the cadre army is too great a threat to us, and the brothers are about to be unable to withstand it!" The deputy general fought with a knife while yelling at Xue Tong behind him.

Xue Tong, who was covered in blood, turned his head to look, and after hacking to death a cadre soldier, he ordered: "Order, push the stone cart under the city wall, and smash all the well railings outside the city for General Ben!" ”

"Yes!" A herald agreed, running to the female wall behind him and waving the flag desperately.

When the commander of the stone cart in the city saw it, he immediately ordered the soldiers to push the stone cart to stop at a distance from the city wall, and lined up, and a large number of people and soldiers carried stones.

This catapult is different from the trebuchet, it is also known as a ballista, the trebuchet must be fixed on the ground to fire stone projectiles, and the stone projectiles are heavy and far away; The ballista does not need to be fixed and can be fired directly from the car, but the projection distance is short, the projectile weight is light, and the size is small, and the power used by the two is different.

The catapult also uses the principle of levers to throw stones out, but instead of using gravity as power, it is equipped with a large crossbow arm on the car, and the crossbow arm is wound by manpower, and the tension of the crossbow arm is ejected to drive the lever, and the weight is projected out through the lever.

The advantage of the stone cart is that it is fast to fire, easy to move, it can launch a stone bullet in a few seconds, it is very fast when moving, and it can be easily withdrawn, the disadvantage is that the projection distance is short, but it is enough to use it to deal with the well fence.

"Crossbow arm winding—"

"Stoneball—"

"Put-"

"Whoosh ······"

One by one, stone bullets were projected, and a few two or three hit the well fence outside the city that was much higher than the city wall on the spot, and after the platform at the top of the well fence was hit, the crossbowmen of the cadre army wailed, some fell directly from the height and fell to their deaths, some were stoned to death by stone bullets, and some were affected.

"Stand back, stand back—" shouted the crossbowmen on the railing to the generals below.

The well bar is bulky, especially when standing on it, you have to be careful if you want to push and move, and one careless will cause the well bar to tip over, resulting in non-combat attrition.

By the time the soldiers below began to pile up the well railings and retreat, the second wave of stones fired by the stone trucks in the city had already been smashed, and this time several more well railings were hit, and the archers on the top platform suffered heavy losses.

The catapults in the city fired ten rounds of stone bullets in a row, and it only took two or three minutes, and nearly one-third of the well fences outside the city were lost.

Without the long-range support and containment of the well railing, the casualties of the cadres and soldiers besieging the city suddenly increased sharply, and the defenders could go all out to deal with the cadres and soldiers who climbed the ladder and the city wall, but the troop investment of the wheeled siege ladder of the cadres was too terrible, and the defenders of Liu Song and Song transferred reserves twice in a row to reinforce before they could suppress the attack momentum of the cadres.

The battle lasted all day, and neither side took much advantage, not only did the cadres who attacked the city suffer heavy losses, but the defenders of Liu Song also suffered heavy casualties.

Dusk, the camp of the dry army.

The atmosphere in the tent was a little solemn, all because today's siege battle was a bit fierce, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

"Tell me, how much did you lose in battle today?" Zhao Junsheng asked.

Gao Xu stood up and hugged his fists and replied: "There are more than 620 brothers who have not returned, and more than 20 have been lost in the well fence!" The loss of the well fence was due to the fact that Liu Song Jun installed and erected a trebuchet in the city, and used the trebuchet to fire stone projectiles to defeat more than 20 well fences, and also caused more than 80 casualties of archers! ”

Zhao Junsheng frowned and asked in a slightly questioning tone, "No, can a trebuchet be so big?" Dozens of our trebuchets fired hundreds of stone shells one after another to hit three, and how many of them destroyed more than 20 of our wells? ”

Dongfang Chen stood up and arched his hand and said: "King, in the opinion of the ministers, Liu Songjun should not use a trebuchet, but a stone cart, also called a ballista, the accuracy of this thing is much higher than that of a trebuchet, the rate of fire is fast, and it is easy to move, but the range is short and the power is smaller!" ”

Zhao Junsheng had heard of ballistas, but he always thought that ballistas were bed crossbows, but now it turns out that ballistas are obviously not bed crossbows!

"You say, how can you deal with the defenders' ballistas?"

Dongfang Chen hesitated for a moment and said: "King, its practical bed crossbow can deal with ballistas, but now the opponent's ballista is hidden behind the city wall, and the bed crossbow can't shoot!" ”

Zhao Junsheng's face was a little ugly: "So we can't deal with Liu Songjun's ballista?" ”

Dongfang Chen thought for a while and replied: "Don't worry, the king, maybe you can lure out the defenders' ballistas first, and then use a wheeled trebuchet to shoot a rain of stones against it, a large amount of stone rain falls, and it can also be smashed if it is smashed, it is behind the city wall, so the range of the wheeled trebuchet must be increased!" ”

Zhao Junsheng immediately looked at the siege camp officials: "Tell me, can you increase the range of the wheeled trebuchet and destroy the ballista behind the city wall?" ”

The supervisor of the siege camp stood up and said, "Your Majesty, increase the range······ It may be possible to increase the number of knights who draw the rope, but this is not guaranteed to increase the range, but it is still possible to project the rain of stone projectiles above the enemy ballista behind the city wall, and tomorrow you only need to move the trebuchet forward a certain distance, add two horse-drawn ropes to each wheeled trebuchet, and add some oil to the flywheel, gears and shafts of the trebuchet to increase lubrication, I think it should be feasible! ”

Zhao Junsheng immediately made a decision: "Okay, it's decided." Continue the siege tomorrow, first lure out Liu Songjun's ballistas, and then use the flywheel trebuchet to drop a large number of stone bullets to destroy them! ”

But it backfired, and in the early morning of the next day it rained heavily, and the siege had to be stopped, and the rain continued for two days in a row, intermittently, and on the third day, the rain slowed down and weakened, and then became a drizzle again.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhao Junsheng ordered to send soldiers and generals to collect the corpses under the city wall with scepters, but Liu Songjun, who was defending the city, was not embarrassed, they also needed to collect the corpses.

Therefore, the well water of the corpse collection teams on both sides does not interfere with the river water, you collect your corpse, I collect my corpse, each does his own thing, and no one cares about anyone.