Chapter Eighty-Eight: Ballista

At noon, although Baishi City was besieged, Baishi City, which was not big or small, still had more than 8,000 soldiers after a period of fighting. Among these 8,000 soldiers, only more than 4,000 were originally stationed in Baishi City, and most of the rest were defeated and scattered soldiers after the invasion of Xiling, and after coming to Baishi City, they were regrouped and organized to participate in the battle. Such a force and such a composition of soldiers naturally cannot be said to have a high morale, especially in the besieged city, and the contact with the outside world is intermittent, I don't know what the current war situation is, but the continuous casualties of soldiers and civilians in the city, and the continuous consumption of stored materials are visible to everyone. Although everyone understood that sooner or later the army would come, there was still a market for the argument of surrender in the city.

Pan Xiangmin, the city guard of Baishi City, had never been in contact with military affairs before he was transferred to Baishi City. Baishi City was originally just a relatively large town near Ningshi City, and it was not officially upgraded to a city until more than ten years ago, but in the end, there was no separate governor's palace in Baishi City, but a city guard position in charge of military affairs and government affairs, which was half a level lower than the governor. The transfer of a person like Pan Xiangmin, who did not know much about military affairs, to Baishi City at that time, on the one hand, was the result of the balance of several factions in the DPRK and China, but on the other hand, it was also because Pan Xiangmin, who did not understand military affairs, would not interfere too much in various matters of the army in Baishi City, which was conducive to maintaining consistency with Ning Shicheng in terms of defense. Unexpectedly, it has only been more than a year since I was transferred to White Rock City, and such a thing happened. What he didn't expect was that Pan Xiangmin, who didn't know much about military affairs, became the backbone of Baishi City's resistance at this time.

When the commander sent by the city wall to deliver military information came to Pan Xiangmin's side, Pan Xiangmin was struggling to persuade the people in the city to incinerate their dead relatives at home. Burial was the basic concept of the funeral industry in this era, but it was obviously unlikely that there would be a place to be used as a cemetery in the city, and the piles of corpses could easily breed plague. These days, there have been such acts of persuasion almost every day, from the resolute resistance of the people in the city at the beginning, to now it has become somewhat formalized. After all. It is really unreasonable for the sergeant to pull the corpses of his relatives and burn them.

"What? Enemy movements? The news from the school surprised Pan Xiangmin, what tricks are there?

Although Pan Xiangmin is now the city guard of Baishi City, he rarely goes to the city to supervise the battle. The defenders of the city are loyal and reliable, and they are well-trained, and they don't want him to command blindly. However, if there is any situation, the guards will still summarize the situation to him.

Pan Xiangmin immediately went to the city. I was a little confused about what I saw.

Since a few days ago, the enemy army has begun to attack Baishi City every morning and afternoon, and then occasionally organize some temporary assaults, plus night harassment, after a few days of fighting, everyone can be regarded as knowing the roots. Today's noon round of offensive is obviously that the Xiling army asked some soldiers to have lunch early, and then came to disrupt the rhythm of the defenders. Just now, I have been seeing that except for one enemy army that is launching an offensive, the rest of the troops are also sharpening their knives and preparing for the routine attack in the afternoon. However, now everyone saw strange behavior of the enemy camps in several directions. A large number of soldiers gathered out of the camp, but in the other direction.

"What's going on?" Pan Xiangmin pulled over the commander-in-chief who was now guarding the city, and asked anxiously.

"My lord, if it weren't for the reinforcements. That's what happened in the opposing army. Yu Kang replied.

"Shall we send someone to pick it up?" Pan Xiangmin asked, in his opinion, this is at least an option.

Yu Kang hurriedly stopped: "My lord, this is not necessary. There are less than 500 cavalry in our city. We can't go far and send infantry out of the city to fight, and now we can't afford to consume it. If it's really reinforcements, then you might as well wait until they get to the city. I'm going to find someone to organize a team of people, and I'm going to rush out of the city at a critical moment. That's it. ”

Pan Xiangmin nodded again and again and said, "Then so be it, the city still depends on you." Be careful. ”

Yu Kang smiled. The greatest danger of commanding a defensive operation at the head of the city is that at some point, something thrown by an enemy catapult that is on target or shot off will hit him, and as long as he insists on standing at the head of the city where he can see the actual situation, this danger cannot be avoided. But that's the number of days, it's not up to you to decide. Yu Kang has always thought so.

A mixed team of infantry and cavalry of more than 1,000 men had just been organized and prepared to rush out of the city. The rumored upcoming reinforcements really appeared in sight. But. It's a little different from what all of them imagined.

The Xiling army, which had assembled out of the camp array, was actually pressed back step by step by the formation of this army. Don't dare to engage in battle. And this army slowly approached Baishi City little by little. The midday sun can be reflected so loudly and extravagantly by the armor on his body. In his mind, he couldn't figure out what kind of unit this was.

"General, look at that flag,......" a soldier with good eyesight hurriedly reported. In the middle of the steel phalanx that rumbled towards White Rock City, two huge flags were erected. When Yu Kang saw the pattern on the banner clearly, he actually felt a feeling of emotion in his heart for a while.

He had seen these two markers, and he had seen them when he had received the participating detachments of the two armies from the capital to consult the map and mapping competition, and it was at this time that he, a guy who had been promoted all the way up in a small town in the countryside, knew for the first time that the two armies were in a state of uproar in the capital, and the Huoqi Army and the Fierce Blood Army, which were based on elite veterans, senior non-commissioned officers and officers, as well as the sons and daughters of wealthy families in Dongping.

The two armies checked the combat effectiveness of the army under the jurisdiction of the government, Yu Kang didn't know, but just by virtue of the origin of this army, the identity of so many children of families in the army, it was really unexpected that they could come to the rescue in Baishi City.

Yu Kang ordered his subordinates to call Pan Xiangmin to the city again, and at the same time ordered the detachment that was ready to go out of the city to meet him to be ready to attack at any time, and also ordered several soldiers in charge of opening and closing the city gate to prepare the door......

The Blood Qi Army had already organized the huge number of carriages in the army into six columns to escort them in the middle of the ranks. On the outermost two columns stood some archers, and some soldiers who operated heavy equipment and temporarily switched to crossbows. On the middle two columns, the carriages were dismantled, and part of the divine arm bows were assembled on the carriages, and the carriages were used as the launch platform, staring at the outside of the team. This can be considered a self-propelled gun of this era. The two innermost columns are all kinds of baggage materials. and heavy equipment that is not assembled. After separating from the infantry, Dai Yun was determined to carry out the mobility to the end, preparing to obtain supplies by plundering the enemy, and this time he simply carried as many supplies as possible into the city.

In the middle of the entire car line, two large pillars are erected side by side. These two Daxu are the most important battle flags of the Blood Qi Army, and every time they conduct a drill, the winning side can set up Daxu in the camp as a camp flag. Until the next walkthrough. Fierce competition and strong incentives have led everyone to see these two sides as symbols of honor and victory.

In the car in the middle of Daxu, Ye Tao and Qiu Haohui were dressed in armor and led a few heralds. And in the cars in front of and behind them, they drove war drums. The combination of drums and flags can constitute the unique battlefield command system of the Blood Qi Army.

The Blood Qi Army now totaled a cavalry force of slightly less than six thousand people, led by Dai Yun, at the back of the entire rank. He hung about 800 paces away. At this distance, once the enemy troops on both flanks dared to attack the flanks of the infantry and convoy of the Blood Qi Army, then they had to have the consciousness of being attacked by Dai Yun on the flanks. Dai Yun's mood was also complicated, she didn't know how much sending these soldiers to White Rock City would change the entire battle situation, but she knew. This is the best option right now.

When they first entered the field of vision of the defenders of White Rock City, the phalanx of the Blood Qi Army still strolled forward with a relatively relaxed attitude. The Xiling army drew nearly 10,000 troops from several city walls, and the divisions were in front of and to the left and right of the Blood Qi Army. When the Blood Qi Army entered about two thousand paces away from the city wall, the Xiling army moved.

The infantry on both flanks shouted. Rushed towards the Blood Qijun like a tide. At this time, Dai Yun did not rush to kill, but gestured, signaling the whole cavalry to stop advancing.

The first thing to encounter the Xiling cavalry was the Divine Arm Bow erected on the carriage. These Divine Arm Bows, all produced by the Ordnance Workshop of Yip's Workshop, have the size of a spear for each arrow fired. At this distance, the Divine Arm Bow can be said to be shooting at close range, and its powerful ground movement can make each arrow grab more than one life. It is already commonplace to be strung into a gourd. The most striking effect comes from the arrows aimed at the officers on horseback. The slightly raised trajectory and ample power ensure that if the arrow hits, it will inevitably fly with the person on the horse for some distance. At that moment, the officer who was hit by the arrow didn't even have time to feel the pain, he would see the world begin to rapidly retreat around his land, perhaps, still upside down, spinning, and. He would sprinkle thick blood on his subordinates. His comrades-in-arms, and then smashed on one or a few unlucky ghosts in the horrified eyes of everyone. There was no doubt that the officer would die a painful death, but the extent to which his body had become the lethality of the Blood Qiqi Army was a question. When a giant arrow did not hit a person, but hit a horse, flew out with the horse, and threw the officer who was originally on the horse out and fell to death, the faces of the Xiling sergeants changed. With just one volley, the Divine Arm Bow inflicted fear on each enemy while fully exerting its lethality.

"Knock-knock-" The war drums sounded, and after two simple sounds, a total of four pairs of war drums played a sonorous and powerful beat. Following the beat, the outermost circle of heavy infantry of the Blood Qi Army neatly turned a little sideways, and they rushed out with their long knives in their hands, and their footsteps did not stop at all. When the enemy approached, all the big swords waved neatly, and around the phalanx of the Blood Qi Army, a circle of corpses and a circle of blood appeared.

"Fire oil bomb!" After the orders of the flag captain, the sentry commander, and the captain, the soldiers who operated the Divine Arm Bow carefully took out the oblong clay pot from the carriage and loaded it on the cluster of giant arrows. The giant arrows that originally needed to be specially made to fire oil bombs were replaced by Ye Tao in the Blood Qi Army with a specially shaped clay pot combined with a wooden buckle, as long as the clay pot was loaded on the arrow and the wooden buckle was installed. This little trick that was about to be promoted throughout the Dongping Army made the logistical preparation of the Divine Arm Bow much simpler.

With the two rounds of fire and oil bombs, the Blood Qijun almost burned a channel formed by flames on the side of the team. Amidst the moans and screams of the enemy, the phalanx of the Blood Qi Army seemed to be like a huge rock that could not be shaken by the waves of the stormy sea, and like a giant beast waving its claws to smash the waves, slowly but surely advancing towards the city gate.

"Let them into town!" Tong Bingwen's cronies, who were in charge of the siege troops of Baishi City, Zang Keming, the commander of the Moshui Battalion, couldn't stand it. Originally, as soon as he saw the size of the enemy, he didn't really want to fight. Of course, the casualties in the siege were greater than in the field. But there are also few variables. As long as there are sufficient troops and a relatively stable battlefield environment, it is only a matter of time before the city is breached. However, he also understood how damaging reinforcements from below the city would be to the morale of the defenders. So, between fighting or not fighting, he made the decision to fight. And now, he understands that in the military intelligence report, the army that has turned over the river and the sea in the area under the actual control of Xiling, and has repeatedly crucified the officers who have been caught and killed. It's a good set indeed. Although it was not a siege, in this short encounter, the casualties were too large to be understood, and the delicate and well-thought-out armor of the Blood Qi Army from head to toe had already made the heavily armed Blood Qi Army an active city.

It's better to put it in the city, the variables are a little smaller, and once the Blood Qi Army is scattered on all the city walls, it will be much easier to deal with. Zang Keming expected that there was nothing wrong. But he wouldn't have thought of what the Blood Qi Army that had entered the city had brought to White Rock City.

Dai Yun, who did not participate in the battle from beginning to end, watched his comrades-in-arms enter the city safely after a short engagement. It looks like more than a hundred casualties have been paid. But this result is still acceptable. Subsequently, Dai Yun turned around with nearly 6,000 cavalry, and when the rear team of Dai Yun's department changed to the front team, both the defenders of Baishi City and the Xiling army besieging the city were equally stunned. But Dai Yun has more important things to do. Just yesterday. Ye Tao conceived a tactic that might be dangerous, but it was entirely possible, a tactic that was very likely to turn the tide of the battle. It's a tactic she's going to execute.

"Master Pan, General Yu, we have brought some equipment, please allocate a little soldier to assist us in the installation." Ye Tao said respectfully.

After entering the city, after greeting Pan Xiangmin and Yu Kang, Pan Xiangmin, who did not understand military affairs, generously asked Ye Tao to discuss city defense matters with Yu Kang. And Yu Kang, who was deeply shaken by the performance of the Blood Qiqi Army just now. Hardly wanted to oppose any decision of the Blood Qi Army.

"There is a soldier in the city, which is a straggler, because there is no suitable officer to command, and he is usually placed in the city to fight fires. There are about 1,000 people in this department, so I'll leave it to your subordinates. Yu Kang thought about it for a while, and generously drew one. This one is not disobedient, in fact, this one is fighting fires and repairing houses in the city. Help the city to carry earth and rocks. It's all done very well. However, to fight a war is to fight a war. Support is support, and there are not enough low-ranking officers and non-commissioned officers who can intimidate them, and there are not enough low-level officers and non-commissioned officers to send such troops to the head of the city, only when there is no choice. And now, apparently, there are better options.

Ye Tao nodded, he asked Qiu Haohui to take this part of the people to assist the two flag teams to install and debug all the equipment, while he himself transferred more than a hundred people from the two flag teams, and nearly two hundred people from the four flag teams of the archers, and took over the ordnance repair workshop in Baishi City, which was now completely idle.

Pan Xiangmin and Yu Kang didn't know what Ye Tao was doing, but the people he brought quickly assembled the Divine Arm Bow and the catapult on the head of the city, and began to debug it. Although the city is the enemy, it is inconvenient to carry out test firing calibration, but the large equipment that obviously has different structures and processes, and looks extremely sophisticated, virtually makes everyone very confident. A total of 12 cranes with manpower winches and pulleys as the core installed on the four city walls can speed up the progress of transporting stone bullets and stones from under the city walls several times, and it is also much easier to use this set of things to remove the wounded from the city head.

While waiting for the results of Ye Tao's work, Qiu Haohui had already discussed with Yu Kang the use of heavy infantry. Qiu Haohui did not insist on the concentrated use of heavy infantry. In the current White Rock City, that is too unrealistic. However, it is still useful to use heavy infantry to plug the mouth and expel the enemy troops who have ascended to the top of the city. The heavy infantry was relatively evenly distributed across the four walls. But the archers are different, the archers of the Blood Qi Army are all equipped with bows and crossbows, with half-body light armor on their bodies and short scimitars on their bodies, if they want to talk about equipment, they are better than most of the infantry and even grassroots officers in Baishi City. As the backbone of the city, the archers were directly commanded by Qiu Haohui and used intensively in the direction of the enemy's main attack.

After Qiu Haohui and Yu Kang finished discussing, when they were looking for a new topic, a herald ran over, saluted and said to Qiu Haohui: "Commander Qiu, General Ye invites you to the workshop." ”

"The general is probably done, let's go and see, I don't know what it is." Qiu Haohui said with a smile.

"At this critical moment, General Ye should have come up with some kind of city defense weapon." Yu Kang smiled and responded.

But they didn't expect what they saw in the workshop to be so strange, with the base of the Divine Arm Bow, but also with a complex mechanism, a strange appearance with a narrow guide rail.

"...... this?" Qiu Haohui asked with a frown.