Shibi Khan, who was watching the front-line troops in the barracks, saw that his troops were frustrated in the siege at this time, so he asked Tuoba Shishu on the side with some frowns: "What are the Han people using?" Could it be some kind of sorcery? How could we let the warriors who came to the city suffer so many casualties? ”

When Tuoba Shishu heard Shibi Khan ask himself, he was also speechless and didn't know how to answer, so he had to say hesitantly: "I don't know what the Han people use here, but in this way, someone must operate this thing of theirs." So as long as we find a way to kill all the Han people in the city, we should not be any longer a threat to us. ”

"Then how do you say you should kill the Han people in the city now? Our warriors can't get to the city, and our arrows are blocked by their shed, and we have no effective way of killing or wounding the defenders of the city. Shibi Khan looked at the battlefield in the distance and said a little weakly.

"Khan, why don't you simply send the stone-throwing machine we brought to the front line, and let the stone-throwing machine bombard the defenders at the head of the city, so that they have no time to hinder the attack of our siege troops." Tuoba Shishu thought about it for a while, and then put forward his own suggestion.

The stone thrower he was talking about was actually a siege weapon given to the Eastern Turks by the Goguryeo people earlier this year when the Eastern Turkic army was stationed on the border with Goguryeo in order to express their friendliness. But this kind of stone thrower could not be made by the Goguryeo people alone. The stone throwers they paid tribute to the Eastern Turks were also left behind in Goguryeo during the retreat of the Sui army during the Sui and Gao Wars in the early years. Over the years, Goguryeo has cherished these siege heavy equipment that it cannot produce by itself, and has maintained it very well. But this time, in order to ensure that Goguryeo was not destroyed by the Eastern Turks, he could only reluctantly transfer the stone thrower captured from the Sui army to the Eastern Turks.

At that time, Shibi Khan had secretly made up his mind to seek revenge against the Han people, but he was also suffering from the extreme lack of heavy siege equipment in his army. Therefore, even if he accepted the gifts offered by the Goguryeo people, he also withdrew the Eastern Turkic army on the border of Goguryeo. In fact, Shibi Khan also cherished these cannons, and this time in order to capture the defense line of the Great Wall in one fell swoop, Shibi Khan brought out more than a dozen cannons with the army.

After hearing Tuoba Shishu's words, Shibi Khan nodded directly in agreement after a little thought, and then called his subordinates to order them to assemble the stone-throwing machines that came with the army, and push them to the front line to prepare to bombard the defenders on the city wall.

Therefore, some ingenious Turks pushed more than a dozen wooden carts to the outside of the camp, and immediately assembled the whole stone throwing machine, and then the stone bullet was put on the stone nest by the wrestler who was on standby, and then the person in charge of aiming after a rough aim was to signal all the stone throwing machines to conduct a test shot.

With the order of the Turkic commander, more than a dozen stone throwers attacked at the same time, threw more than a dozen stone bullets into the air, and flew in the direction of the Great Wall defense line.

The sound of heavy objects breaking through the air immediately attracted the attention of everyone attacking and defending in the city, and they all put down what they were doing and turned their heads to look up at the sky. I saw more than a dozen black dots slowly getting bigger, as if they were flying in the direction of the Great Wall.

As the sound of breaking the sky became louder and louder, the dozen or so black dots were getting closer and closer to the Great Wall. There was a commotion among the Turkic crowds besieging the city, who tried to find some safe place to take refuge, but found that there was no place to hide at the foot of the Great Wall.

On the other hand, although the soldiers of the Great Wall garrison on the Great Wall were facing the possible bombardment of stone bullets at this time, even though their faces were pale and their legs were unstable, and some of them even began to tremble, they still gritted their teeth and stuck to their posts without causing a riot.

It was too late, but it was fast, and the stone projectiles thrown by the catapults were only a fleeting thing in the air, except for a few stone projectiles thrown by the more accurate stone throwers that hit the walls of the Great Wall. The rest were all smashed at the foot of the city wall, and in a moment the blood and flesh of the Turkic crowd who were besieging the city were scattered, and the soldiers scattered and fled.

Zhang Deqing, who had just arrived at the head of the city, leaned out of the city wall and looked at the city wall that was bombarded by stone bullets, and after seeing that there was no fatal damage, he breathed a sigh of relief, turned to the city guards on the city wall and said: "You see, this is the consequence of not reading the instruction manual, the biggest drawback of this kind of stone throwing machine is that the trajectory is extremely unstable. No one can precisely control his landing point, only a rough one. Now you know why the instructor at the military school told you to be cautious about using the stone thrower, right? ”

Zhang Deqing's appearance and his smiling look effectively calmed the panicked soldiers on the city due to the bombardment of stone bullets, but although Zhang Dexing's expression on his face was very relaxed, he also knew in his heart that if the Turks' stone throwers could not be destroyed as soon as possible, then it was likely to be faked and the Turks could easily take the Great Wall. When the time comes, the crime of letting the Turks go south to slaughter the people is to make himself a sinner for the ages, so Zhang Deqing said to the people next to him: "Order the artillery battalion to smash their stone throwing machine for me with a tooth for a tooth." ”

The people next to him faithfully conveyed Zhang Deqing's order to the artillery battalion stationed in the south of the Great Wall, and after receiving the order, the artillery battalion immediately set up a posture and assembled all the stone throwers in the camp, and then launched a round of test firing at the Turkic stone throwing positions outside the city.

The well-trained artillery battalion soldiers, assisted by observation posts on the city walls, delivered stone projectiles directly to the head of the Turkic catapult position during the second round of firing. One of the stone throwers had just loaded the stone bullets and was about to be projectile, but they were smashed by the stone bullets fired from the direction of the Great Wall, and the stone bullets that were supposed to be shot in the direction of the Great Wall immediately flew out directly sideways and knocked all the Turks near the stone throwing machine to the ground.

The stone thrower used by the Turks could no longer move after it was assembled, and if it did, it would have to be disassembled again to move. Therefore, even if they were bombarded from the direction of the Great Wall, they could only grit their teeth and continue to bombard the city, hoping to receive an order to retreat before the stone throwers were completely worn out, or to kill and wound the defenders on the wall as much as possible.

(End of chapter)