Hua Mulan looked at everyone, and in order to fiercely punish these thousand-commanders, she said: "Let's talk about rewards, the first to break through the city and complete the task, in addition to the reward that should be received, will also reward 100,000 yuan and ten brocade horses; The second to complete the task will be rewarded with 50,000 yuan and 5 brocade horses; The reward for the third person to complete the task is 20,000 yuan, and two brocade horses! If there is a vacancy, priority will be given to promotion and appointment! ”

"Let's talk about punishment, the time limit of the task is five days, and within five days, you must capture the city you want to attack to complete the task, and if you can't complete the task, you will be relieved of the position of the commander and fined for half a year! In addition, if someone completes the task first, the commander who has not completed the task can ask the commander who has already completed the task to help complete the task together, but the reward should be divided between the other party! ”

After listening to this, the commanders were eager to try it one by one, and the first three people who completed the task had an additional reward, which was a real surprise.

After the end of the military discussion, the commanders set off with their own teams of 1,000 people, and each rushed to his own goal, only from now to complete the task only five days, the time is not too abundant, so we must hurry, there must be a sense of urgency.

In order to win the first place, these commanders used their brains one by one, and the commanders who were not smart enough called their centurions over to discuss how to take advantage of the shortcomings of the Southern Dynasty generals who had night blindness to carry out night attacks.

Hua Mulan didn't personally lead the troops at all, but just assigned the task to these commanders, and used incentives and encouragement to let them play freely, which seemed to be suspected of herding sheep, but in fact, this greatly improved the enthusiasm of the commanders, and also allowed them to use their brains and give full play to their subjective initiative, and she herself did not have to work so hard, quite a feeling of strategizing.

"Hey, Mulan, didn't you lead your troops to attack the surrounding cities? Why are you still in the camp? After Zhao Junsheng inspected all parts of the camp, he returned to the handsome tent and found that Mulan was playing with his son, and couldn't help asking.

Hua Mulan looked up and said, "I have assigned the task of besieging the city to the commanders!" ”

Then, Hua Mulan told Zhao Junsheng about her rewards and punishments, and Zhao Junsheng laughed after hearing it: "This method is good, very good!" It's up to them to perform."

Before Zhao Junsheng began to attack Linzi City, there was already a commander named Ditong who captured Qiancheng County in the north, and this was the first commander among the ten commanders to complete the siege task.

On the eleventh day of the first month, Zhao Junsheng ordered Gao Xu to be the siege commander.

Outside the city of Linzi, 50,000 soldiers and horses surrounded the three and one, leaving the south gate.

The army was lined up in countless phalanxes, large and small, outside the city, and many people from the surrounding villages were conscripted to serve as people's husbands.

Siege ladders were lifted out, wheeled siege ladders were also pushed out and placed at the front of the military formation, a bed crossbow was deployed at the rear of the military formation, and the well railing was also pushed out after the assembly was completed.

Gao Xu was making the final deployment before the siege, and Zhao Junsheng asked the officials of the siege camp: "Why hasn't the trebuchet been assembled?" ”

The official of the siege camp replied: "My lord, the people are stepping on stones and polishing stone bullets, and if there are enough stone bullets for the siege, it will take at least two days!" ”

At this time, Jiao Yunzhe, the supervisor of the craftsman battalion, came to report and said: "Wang, my craftsman battalion has invented a new type of weapon, which is currently being tested, and I would like to invite the king to watch the test process!" ”

"Oh? Well, this king will go and have a look! Zhao Junsheng agreed, and sent someone to tell Gao Xu that when the time came, he would start attacking the city directly, and there was no need to wait for him to come back.

Zhao Junsheng followed Jiao Yunzhe to the camp of the craftsman camp, where a large open space was enclosed and surrounded by sentry posts.

Jiao Yunze ordered someone to bring something, and he said to Zhao Junsheng: "The situation of the king, this is it!" ”

Zhao Junsheng walked over to take a look, this thing was a big clay pot, the mouth of the clay pot was sealed, and a wet thick rope stretched out, he reached out and knocked on it, the big clay pot seemed to contain some liquid, he leaned his nose over and sniffed it, looked up and asked, "It's filled with fire oil?" ”

Jiao Yunzhe introduced: "Yes, king! But it's not just fire oil, it's also mixed with some flammable materials, such as silk wool, sawn wood ash, etc., we call this thing a fire oil tank. I'm going to shoot it like a trebuchet and see how it burns! ”

Fire oil bombs? Zhao Junsheng hurriedly said: "Try a jar of that piece and see how it works!" ”

"Yes!"

At this time, in the midst of the army, Gao Xu had already deployed all the siege matters, and was about to ask Zhao Junsheng for instructions, when he came to Daxu and learned that Zhao Junsheng had gone to the craftsman camp, and asked him to launch the siege directly when the time came.

Gao Xu immediately came to the front of the army formation and ordered: "Come on, order the siege camp to push the bed crossbow forward!" ”

A row of bed crossbows were pulled by horses to the front of the battle, a total of sixty-four, each with five people to operate, all fixed on the carriage, this kind of bed crossbow is called a ballista, the groom to pull the cart and the horse to restrain the horse, the soldiers unloaded the wheels, with a stake, hammer on the ground to lay a stake to fix the crossbow car in place, so as not to fire the crossbow arrow when the recoil force hit the person.

When a bed crossbow was ready, the standard-bearer raised the little yellow flag.

Gao Xu turned his head and glanced at it, and ordered: "Launch the stepping arrow!" ”

The herald flag-bearer directly played the flag, and the bed crossbow commander saw it and immediately ordered: "Prepare for the sting arrows, shoot zero!" ”

Each bed crossbow has a soldier who takes arrows and releases arrows to keep the arrows, there are also soldiers who smash the hammer and shoot it, and there are soldiers who wind it.

The angle operator of the crossbow machine lays the crossbow machine flat, parallel to the horizon.

A thick crossbow bolt was placed in a groove on the bed crossbow machine, all the loaders raised their hands, and the commander ordered: "Fire!" ”

The standard-bearer waved down the small yellow flag, the shooter raised the hammer and smashed the trigger, the thick three bowstrings were ejected together, the crossbow bolt was hit by the huge elastic force and flew away from the launch slot, and the iron plate inlaid at the tail played a good stabilizing role.

The crossbow arrows were nailed to the city wall, but they were not in the same horizontal position, and they were somewhat different from each other.

After the first crossbow arrow was fired, the defenders on the city wall were so frightened that they squatted down, but they were very open to find that these Lujiang were not shooting at them, but at the city wall, and they all held on to the wall battlements and looked down.

After firing the first wave of crossbow arrows, the soldiers in charge of operating the bed crossbow quickly wound the crossbow, raising the shooting range by one block according to the commander's order, and the bed crossbow with the labor-saving device was wound much faster than before, and the winding was completed in a few seconds.

The second wave of bolts was fired again, this time at a higher position than the first, but all the bolts were not on the same level, which was also normal.

At the command of the commander, all the ballistae fired a total of twenty rounds of treadmills, and rows of treadmills were inserted in the walls, although not very dense, but enough for the soldiers of an attacking unit to climb.

At this time, there was already a reaction on the city wall, and some soldiers of the Southern Dynasty were tinkering with something on the city wall.

"General, the defenders seem to be setting up weapons to defend the city!" The adjutant reminded Gao Xu.

Gao Xu put his hand on the pergola and saw that there were many people doing something on the city wall at intervals, and then a herald ran over and reported: "General, the Southern Dynasty army on the city wall is operating a bed crossbow!" ”

Gao Xu's face changed, and he immediately ordered: "Order the bed crossbow team to fire crossbow arrows and destroy the defenders' bed crossbows!" ”

"Yes!"

The bed crossbow commander received the order and immediately gave the order to shoot, the angle and direction of the crossbow machine were quickly adjusted, and one by one the crossbow arrows were placed in the firing groove.

"Launch—"

"Whoosh ······"

One by one, the crossbow arrows were fired, and the position of the bed crossbow on the defending city wall was shot by the crossbow arrows, and the defenders who operated the bed crossbow screamed one after another, and the people who were concentrated in the gravel covered the injured parts and hid under the wall battlements.

A bed crossbow was shot by a crossbow arrow, and the huge impact force split the crossbow arm of the bed crossbow from the middle, and the bowstring was also shot, and the bed crossbow was completely destroyed.

The defenders on the city wall quickly counterattacked under the command of the officers after a short panic, and these Southern Dynasty soldiers were very good at defending the city, and they were trained in this area, and the process of operating the bed crossbow was not chaotic at all.

"Put!" With the order of the guards on the city wall, the bed crossbows of the Southern Dynasty army also began to be fired to counter the bed crossbows of the cadres outside the city.

The second round of crossbow arrows of the cadre army came again, and this kind of firing speed shocked the soldiers and generals of the Southern Dynasties, how could the bed crossbow be fired so fast?

The two sides come and go, shoot at each other, the defenders have the cover of the wall battlements, although the bed crossbow on the side of the cadre army is fast, but the hit rate is not high, and the front of the bed crossbow of the cadre army is unobstructed, the crossbow arrows shot on the city wall can easily cause casualties to them, and the bed crossbow has also suffered losses one after another.

Soon, both sides ran out of crossbow arrows, and the scene of the bed crossbows firing each other came to an end.

Gao Xu looked at it, although the lethality of the crossbow arrows was terrifying, but because the order rate of both sides was not too high, the casualties caused were not too large.

"Order, let the people start filling the moat!" Gao Xu gave the order.

"Yes!"

After the order was issued, thousands of people rushed to the moat with baskets of dirt on flat poles, and their task was to fill in dozens of earthen dams on the moat that could be passed by the cadres and soldiers, and such earthen dams must also allow wells and siege engines to pass through and reach the city.

Filling the moat is not to fill up the moat, it is impossible, because the project is too huge, it takes too long, and the city has to be dug up again, which is to make trouble for their own people, generally only need to fill in a few dams before the siege to let the horses and siege equipment pass through.

The defenders on the city wall saw a large number of men rushing towards the moat with baskets of dirt, and they all raised their bows and arrows.

"General, what should I do? Do you want to give the order for the soldiers to release their arrows? The adjutant general walked up to Xue Tong and asked.

It is not uncommon to force the people to fill the moat by force, almost every large-scale siege battle must be filled in before the moat can be attacked, the moat of the small county town is relatively narrow, and it can be passed by paving it with wooden planks, but the moat of the big city is much wider, the length of the wooden plank is not enough, and the moat can only be filled, and if the besieging party is a foreign invader, it is generally necessary to recruit the people nearby to be the people's husband, and filling the moat is what the people have to do.

"Isn't it possible to kill some of the people with arrows to stop them from filling the moat?" Xue Tong asked rhetorically.