This day was too difficult for the defenders of the Southern Dynasty and the guard general Xue Tong, the lifting hammer was all destroyed by the heavy crossbow of the dry army outside the city, the well fence of the cadre army was like a nightmare for the defenders, a large number of archers condescended on the well fence and kept firing arrows at the defenders, causing heavy casualties, even if the guards were later issued to the generals, they still could not completely prevent the opponent's arrows.

In today's siege battle, the cadres rushed to the city wall several times and fought with the defenders for control of the city wall.

Xue Tong was covered in blood and leaned on a spear against the battlements of the wall, looking at the retreating cadres who retreated like a tide, but did not mess up at all, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and at the same time he was deeply worried about the siege combat effectiveness of the cadre army.

Today is over, what about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow?

Seeing that the sun was gradually setting and the sky was darkening, Xue Tong wiped the blood on his face, turned around and walked towards the city tower.

At this time, the men had already carried steamed cakes and soup to the city wall, and distributed food and soup to the soldiers defending the city all the way.

The adjutant general came over and reported: "General, the last general ordered someone to count it, and eight hundred were killed in battle, two hundred were wounded, and the casualties totaled more than 1,000, most of which were shot by the archers on the enemy's well railing!" ”

Xue Tong heard it with blood dripping from his heart.

"General, it's time to eat!" The man came over and handed out food to Xue Tong.

Xue Tong couldn't sit still, he told the deputy general to be on duty on the city wall, and he took the food and went to the city.

As night fell, in the camp of the cadre army, Zhao Junsheng's tent was full of generals and staff members of the army officers, and everyone was eating while discussing things.

Zhao Junsheng nibbled on the mutton and looked at Dongfang Chen: "Dongfang, how are the casualties of our army today?" ”

"More than 400 people were killed in the battle, more than 200 were wounded, and more than 600 were killed or wounded!"

Zhao Junsheng sighed: "The casualties are quite large! ”

Gao Xu said: "King, today's siege strength is already the strongest, several siege echelons take turns, and the Southern Dynasty army is not papery, but they are not comfortable, and the last general estimates that their casualties should far exceed our army!" ”

Zhao Junsheng asked: "By the way, go and ask the craftsman battalion, how many wheeled ladders, stone bullets, and oil canisters have been built today?" ”

The siege camp officer stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the wheeled ladders built by the craftsman battalion today have been transported, a total of twelve. There were two hundred and eighty oil tanks and more than six hundred and thirty stone bullets, all of which were transported to the siege camp and ready for use tomorrow! ”

"There are too few wheeled ladders for twelve!" Zhao Junsheng said a word, thought for a while and said to the generals: "In this way, today's casualties are larger, and tomorrow we will still set up a position outside the city and make a posture of attacking the city, but not really attacking the city, only use the trebuchet to fire stone projectiles at the city wall, so that the soldiers who operate the trebuchet are familiar with the operation process, summarize the experience of accurate projection, and strive to improve the projection hit rate!" If you can't increase your hit rate, no matter how many stones you project, it's useless, and it's not an overnight thing to try to smash down the city wall with a catapult! ”

Hua Mulan said: "That's right, Licheng is a good example, the Southern Korean army has not been able to defeat Licheng for more than half a year, how many stone projectiles did their trebuchets fire?" Hundreds of them were projected every time they attacked the city, and they waited until our reinforcements arrived, and the walls had not yet fallen, so the idea of using trebuchets to smash the walls would not work! ”

Zhao Junsheng continued: "The role of the trebuchet is to make the defenders scared and frightened, suppress their morale and will to fight, and let the soldiers of the siege camp launch the trebuchet tomorrow is to familiarize them with the operation process and precautions, and you should not have too much hope!" ”

Early in the morning of the 14th day of the first lunar month, after having breakfast, the officers and men of the cadres and soldiers set up a military formation outside the city as usual under the command of the generals and colonels, and made a posture of preparing for the siege of the city.

Seeing this situation, Xue Tong did not dare to slack off, and ordered all the defenders on duty to stand by on the city wall and pay attention to protecting themselves.

Zhao Junsheng came to the military formation with his son and Hua Mulan fighting horses, and Gao Xu reported to Zhao Junsheng: "King, Liu Songjun has added new siege equipment to the city wall!" ”

"Oh?" Zhao Junsheng looked up in the direction of the city wall, and really found that the situation on the city wall was a little different from yesterday, two tall triangular brackets were erected between every two enemy towers, and the triangular brackets were all giant trees used, and the diameter of each giant tree only needed two or three people to surround it.

Between the top of these triangular brackets and the enemy tower, there are long beams, and the thickness of the beams is only as thick as the giant wood of the brackets.

What kind of fortification weapon is this? How is it used? Zhao Junsheng looked at it for a while and couldn't understand it.

Zhao Junsheng, Gao Xu and others: "Do you know what this thing is for?" ”

Yuan He shook his head and said, "King, we haven't figured it out after thinking about it for a long time."

Zhao Junsheng saw that the faces of the others were also confused, and he didn't want to, "Then don't be foolish, let the soldiers of the catapult crew aim at those triangular brackets and launch, and practice their heads!" ”

"Yes, King!"

When the soldiers and generals of the catapult crew were making preparations, Zhao Junsheng came over with his son and Hua Mulan, Gao Xu, Yuan He, Dongfang Chen, Cui Hao and other military generals.

The officials of the siege camp accompanied him and introduced: "Lord, lady, generals, you see that these trebuchets are all using long arms as levers, animal power as power, and heavy objects falling through the long arm levers to transmit power to launch stone projectiles, you can take a look!" ”

Everyone looked around a trebuchet, only to see a large basket full of stones, only two or three tons of weight, the basket tied with a thick rope through the block of pulleys to the back of the sling, one end of the rope was pulled by four horses, a groom drove four horses to pull the rope forward, the heavy two or three tons of stones to the trebuchet support frame in front of the hanging at one end of the long arm lever.

In the past, when the trebuchet was used in the army, it was necessary for a dozen strong men or dozens of strong men to pull the rope together to lift the heavy object to the long arm lever and hang it up, but the cadre army did not lack livestock, and the use of livestock instead of manpower to lift the heavy object into the air and hang it up, greatly saving manpower, and only seven or eight people were needed to operate a trebuchet.

At the other end of the lever is a barbed wire pocket with a large stone ball in it, and it is not easy to polish such a stone ball.

"Your Majesty, generals, this trebuchet is a heavy trebuchet, and the stone projectiles it throws are heavy and large, and you can only throw one stone projectile at a time. There is another kind of trebuchet, which can throw multiple stone bullets at a time, but each stone bullet is small in size and weight, please go over with the lower officials to have a look! ”

The group followed the siege camp officer for a while to the side of another trebuchet, and when they looked up, they found that this trebuchet was indeed completely different from the heavy trebuchet just now.

This trebuchet was more complex and had a large footprint, using not only a lot of wood, but also a lot of iron-cast gears and shafts, which were not common in this era.

Zhao Junsheng found that several craftsmen from the artisan battalion were busy assembling, and there were several soldiers watching and noting down the steps of their assembly.

Zhao Junsheng looked at it and found that the trebuchet did not fire stone projectiles with a long-arm lever, but a huge wheel hung in the middle of the tall wooden support, and a thick iron bearing passed through the middle of the wheel to support it on the support, and there were two large gears on the bearing that were tightly combined with the gears below.

The trebuchet bracket was flanked by two smaller wheels, on which were a large circle of thick ropes, flanked by four horses, and four knights on horseback, each holding a rope.

Zhao Junsheng beckoned to a craftsman: "Come on, come on, you can introduce to this king how this trebuchet fires stone projectiles!" ”

"Yes, King!" The craftsman ran over and agreed, and introduced to Zhao Junsheng, Hua Mulan, and other generals and officials: "King, generals, please see, the ropes on both sides are the driving force, and the eight knights each pull a rope to ride their horses to the rear, accelerate, pull the rope, and the wheels will rotate rapidly, and the force of their rotation is transmitted to the launch wheel through the gears and shafts!" ”

"Hang many, even dozens, dozens of nets on the launch wheel in advance, and attach stones to the net pockets, and once the knights run on horseback, the launch wheel will start to rotate, and the speed will get faster and faster, and the hanging weight will rotate with it!"

"When the launch wheel turns to the highest speed, the eight knights also run to the end and throw away the rope, then the soldier at the top of the bracket will stretch out his blade, and the net ropes hanging on the launch wheel will be cut one by one, and the net bag with the cut rope will be thrown out with heavy loads······"

Zhao Junsheng was deeply shocked after listening to the introduction of this craftsman, who said that the ancients were not as smart as the modern people? This trebuchet is simply the pinnacle of ancient machinery, using the high-speed rotation of a flywheel to launch stone projectiles, the person who invented this trebuchet is simply a genius!

Zhao Junsheng asked excitedly: "Who?" Who came up with the idea of launching stone projectiles with a flywheel? Who made this trebuchet? ”

The craftsman said: "The villain heard that Jiao Sima in the camp said that the trebuchet that used this kind of rotating flywheel to launch stones actually appeared in the late Han Dynasty, it seems that a minister named Ma Jun of Cao Wei ordered someone to make a simple one and report it to Cao Shuang, wanting Cao Shuang to order the allocation of manpower and money and materials to support him to continue research and increase its power, but Cao Shuang thought it was unnecessary, so he didn't do it!" This trebuchet was researched by everyone in the craftsman camp using Ma Jun's idea! ”

Zhao Junsheng was overjoyed when he heard this: "Okay, do a good job!" You tell Jiao Yunzhe that in the future, if the craftsmen of your craftsman battalion have any ideas, they can write them out and report them to the chief to know, as long as it is feasible through argumentation, this king will allocate money and manpower to support you! You have made such an amazing siege weapon, which will be of great help to the siege of the city, and this king will reward you very much! ”

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