Chapter 1013: The Law of Restraint
The Qianjun catapult fired five rounds of fire and oil bombs, and the results were remarkable; the accuracy rate of the first two rounds was not high, but after two rounds of test firing to adjust the firing angle and the length of the arm, the accuracy rate was greatly improved.
Originally, the main target of the fire was the enemy tower on the city wall, but the power of the fire oil bomb was too great, it used the black oil coming out of the ground, and it was used to make fire oil bombs after being refined by secret methods, and once burned, even watering could not be extinguished, and the fire oil bombs could burn a large area after they fell to the ground and smashed them.
Therefore, after the five rounds of fire bombs were dropped, not only did the enemy tower burn up, but the entire eastern city wall, including the castle tower, was turned into a sea of fire.
A large number of rolling wood, oil and planks piled up on the city wall also burned, which greatly contributed to the spread of the fire.
The defenders, who had not had time to escape the walls, were engulfed in flames and danced in the flames, but their mouths let out terrible screams.
In a few moments, the entire eastern city wall was surrounded by fire, and the scorching heat made it impossible for any creature to get close, and the defenders fled dozens of zhang away under the leadership of Chen Xian before stopping, and they could still feel the terrifying high temperature coming from such a distance.
"Lao Huang, count the number of people and see how many people have been lost!" Chen Xian gave an order in a deep voice.
"Yes, General!"
After a simple count, General Huang came over and hugged his fists and reported: "General, after a preliminary count, about 250 people were burned to death, plus today's battle damage, a total of more than 430 people have been lost!" β
Chen Xian had already expected this result, but he lost nearly a thousand people in just two days, which made it difficult for him to accept, these losses of troops had already accounted for a quarter of his total strength, if there were such casualties every day in the future, it would not take ten days, and his troops would be exhausted!
The living defenders all stared blankly at the fire that had been burning on the city walls, and no one said a word.
After a long time, Chen Xian ordered: "Pass the order, carry other city defense materials to a position fifty zhang away from the city wall, and assign a hundred people from the reserve team to guard and be responsible for transporting materials to the city wall, how much to transport, and don't store excess city defense materials on the city wall!" β
"Also, send someone to continue to collect the door panels and planks, sawn them up enough to cover their backs, and distribute them to the soldiers to tie on their backs, and they are not allowed to take them off if they have nothing to do!"
"This fire will not be extinguished for a while and a half, let the soldiers rest, let the men prepare dinner early and send it over, and when the soldiers finish eating and drinking, they are afraid that the fire will also be extinguished, and then they will go to the city wall to be on duty!"
Chen Xian's estimate was very accurate, and by the time the defenders finished eating, it was almost dusk, and it was too late for the defenders outside the city to launch an offensive at this time, it was going to be dark, what else to fight? Su Ji had no choice but to order the troops to be collected and returned to the camp.
On the third day of the siege, it was actually a cloudy day, but the temperature was still very high, which did not affect the battle at all.
"Your Majesty, the hour is almost up!"
Zhao Junsheng nodded: "Okay, then let's start, still throw a few rounds of fire and oil bombs first, kill the sharp spirit of the defenders, and then attack the city!" β
Su Ji clenched his fists and said, "Back to Your Majesty, the fire oil bomb has been projected!" β
"Finished? Aren't there three hundred? Finished one shot yesterday afternoon? β
"Yes, it's all over!"
Zhao Junsheng was a little angry, pointed at Su Ji and said, "You, you, why don't you know how to save a little?" β
Su Ji was silent, but his heart was active, you began to say that the projection was three rounds, and the effect was not bad, and two more rounds were added, and the three hundred were all projected like this, and now you let me save, I want to save, but you don't let me!
Zhao Junsheng waved his hand: "Forget it, I won't attack the city today!" What about Yang Lie? β
Yang Lie hurriedly walked over and arched his hand: "The minister is here!" β
Zhao Junsheng asked, "How are you prepared for asking you to send someone to collect 20,000 displaced people?" β
"Back to Your Majesty, due to the rush of time, only 5,000 displaced people have been recruited so far, but displaced people from all over the country are coming, and the gap should be filled within two days!"
Zhao Junsheng waved his hand after listening: "Forget it, first send 5,000 homeless people over to fill in the moat, and fill it so that the well fence can pass!" β
"Yes!"
Yang Lie immediately ordered to send troops to let the displaced people carry soil to fill the moat.
The defenders on the city wall were puzzled, the hour was not early, why did the cadres not attack the city?
Soon, the cadres told the defenders what they were going to do, and a large number of homeless people came to the moat with baskets.
"This Β·Β·Β·Β·Β·Β· What are these people going to do? Xiang asked with a frown.
Today's commander is Ye Tongzhang, Ye Tongzhang understands it, "The cadres are driving the people to fill the moat!" β
General Xiang saw that the displaced people in front had already walked to the moat with their burdens, turned his head and asked, "General, they have already entered the firing range, what should I do?" Let the soldiers release their arrows? β
Ye Tongzhang pointed to the distance and said, "Look, with so many people, how many can you shoot?" Besides, there may be the parents and brothers and sisters of the soldiers among these people, and if you now order them to shoot their relatives, will they listen to you? If you give the order, you will force them to surrender to the army! β
Xiang General had no choice but to give up this idea.
Ye Tongzhang looked at it for a while and ordered: "Pass the order, no one is allowed to release arrows, everyone is on standby!" β
Yesterday afternoon's fire not only burned all the materials and equipment on the city wall, but also burned all the corpses of the soldiers killed on both sides, so that only the ashes remained, and there was no need to collect the corpses.
Ye Tongzhang was still worried that the cadres would use these displaced people to attack the city, but the cadres did not do so, and the refugees only picked up soil to fill the moat, and did nothing else.
For two days in a row, the cadres did not attack the city, and it was the displaced people who were filling in the moat, and the moat was almost filled in the first place, and in just two days, such a number of displaced people completely filled in the moat, and the cadres retreated to the well as if they were walking on the ground.
It was getting dark, and the displaced people who had filled the moat retreated with baskets.
"General, the moat has also been completely filled by them, if they attack the city tomorrow, the well fence can be pushed to the edge of the city wall, and then the cadres can rush directly to the city tower through the well fence, if we can't think of a way to crack it, the defense will face unprecedented pressure!" Huang Jian said to Chen Xian.
Chen Xian sighed: "I'm afraid it's not just the well fence, I once followed the Northern Expedition with Marshal Tan, and I saw a kind of equipment used by the Qianjun to climb the city wall, which is a kind of siege ladder that is different from the siege ladder, it can be lifted and telescopic freely, the pedal is very wide, and the soldiers who are besieging the city can easily climb the city wall with it!" β
Chen Xian is talking about the lifting siege ladder, the bottom is like a well fence with a wheeled structure for pushing, the telescopic wooden ladder is inclined to it, once pushed to the edge of the city wall, the people at the bottom pull the rope, the inclined wooden ladder can be stretched until the top of the city wall, but the bottom reaches the ground, because its pedal is very wide and long, three or four soldiers can be placed side by side at the same time, this ability to project troops is completely incomparable with other siege equipment.
General Huang showed fear on his face: "General, how is this good?" With the current siege strength of the cadre army, we are already very difficult to defend, and if the cadre army uses such siege weapons again, it will be difficult for us to resist! β
Chen Xian looked at him and reassured: "Don't worry, I've been thinking about how to restrain this siege weapon all these years, and I've thought of several ways!" In this way, you organize some people to go to the city to find a batch of small clay pots, the kind that must have lids, and then fill the small jars with oil after finding them, seal them with lids so that they can't leak oil, and then Chen Ye quietly carries them under the wall stacks, don't transport too much, if the enemy launches fire oil bombs again, they will burn if they are transported too much, and it will be in vain! β
Huang Xuan's eyes lit up, "I understand, the general wants to use fire oil to deal with the enemy's well fence and siege ladder, both of which are wooden, and fire oil is indeed their nemesis, so the general will prepare!" β
Early the next morning, the cadres began to attack the city.
After the siege began, the cadres did not drop stone bullets and fire oil bombs this time, and the people of the siege camp rushed directly to the front with the ladder, and the soldiers who besieged the city followed behind, and quickly began to climb after the siege ladder was erected.
In the rear, the well railings of the cadres were pushed over, and there were more than 30 wells in a row, followed by a large number of siege infantry and archers.
The battle began, and the two sides once again clashed up and down the city wall, arrows flew wildly, stones and stones kept falling from the city wall, and the co-followers under the city were smashed one by one to the point of breaking their heads and bleeding.
The well railings of the cadres stopped at a distance, and the archers climbed up the well railings, and the well railings were pushed forward, but they did not approach the city wall, but stopped ten zhang away.
"Shoot the arrowsβ"
With a shout, the archers on the well railing began to fire arrows at the defenders at the head of the city.
The defenders had planks tied to their backs, and they quickly turned around, only to feel the constant vibrations behind them, and the whistling of arrows coming and hitting the planks.
In a short time, the planks on the backs of each of the defenders were filled with arrows, and the soldiers who were full of arrows were quickly replaced by the others, and some of them took the arrows from the planks and stored them together.
After shooting the arrows for a while, the general of the dry army archers noticed the abnormality, and he saw that the defenders were actually collecting arrows with wooden planks, and immediately ordered: "Stop firing arrows!" β
The archers stopped shooting.
"Someone, report the situation to the general quickly!" The archers will give the order.
"No!"
The signal soldier rushed over and reported to Su Ji: "General Qiyu, the enemy fought with the planks on their backs, and once our troops released their arrows, they turned to face our archers, and all the arrows were shot on the planks, and they collected the arrows and used them to shoot our soldiers!" β
After hearing this, Su Ji was about to give an order, when he suddenly remembered something, turned to Zhao Junsheng and hugged his fists and said: "Your Majesty, this Chen Xian is really not ordinary, he actually came up with this method to restrain our archers, and he can also collect our arrows and shoot our generals in turn, it is really hateful!" I beg your Majesty permission to give the order to launch an all-out attack from the north gate! β
Zhao Junsheng thought for a while and nodded, "Yes!" β
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