The border town of Sveron, which used to be just an obscure town, but after the Eastern Empire ceded the land west of the town of Sveron to Qindong four years ago, the importance of the town of Sveron was highlighted, it was a town from the Xiongnu Empire to the forefront of the Eastern Empire, whether it was strategically or in the geographical location of the border trade, there was no town that could be replaced, in order to strengthen the defense of the border, the Eastern Empire built a huge fortress in the part north of the Maricha River, The road between the two countries passes through the fort, so the purpose of this giant fortress is not only to defend against enemies, but also to set up checkpoints to collect transit taxes.

In the part south of the Maricha River, the Eastern Empire built a wall 8 meters high and 3 meters wide, which led to the south of Mount Petro, connecting the border between the Greek provinces and the Xiongnu Empire, the length of this wall was not very long, only 20 li, but it took two years.

In the Maricha River, which runs through the small town of Sveron, the defenders of the Eastern Empire pulled up three chains the thickness of an adult's arm on the surface of the river to lock the channel on the river.

At this time, the west wall of the fortress on the north bank of Sveron was already full of Xiongnu troops, and the infantry of the 16th Division of the Xiongnu Eastern Expeditionary Army was lining up in a large and small, neat and dense phalanx at a distance of 600 meters from the city wall, while the cavalry of the 16th Division and the 4th Cavalry Division were guarding the left and right flanks of the infantry phalanx respectively.

In the center of the middle infantry phalanx, a wooden platform six meters high and four meters long and four meters wide stands tall, with black square and triangular flags inserted at the four corners of the high platform, and the infantry phalanx below is also fluttering with flags. On the high platform, Ma Liduan, the commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, sat on a wooden chair and observed the huge fortress of the Eastern Empire opposite with a telescope.

From Lesovo in the north to the small town of Petro at the foot of Mount Petro, the distance was just over 100 kilometers, with five legions and about 30,000 men. This is also the largest number of troops that can be drawn from the Thrace region of the Eastern Empire, but there are two legions here in the fortress of Sveron alone, because the terrain here is the flattest, although there is a huge fortress of Sveron as the main fortification, but the Eastern Empire is still not at ease, if there are more troops, the Eastern Empire will definitely be deployed here.

It's already around nine o'clock in the morning. It had been two hours since the Fourth and Sixteenth Divisions had set out from the main camp to arrive here, and after the offensive formation and all the siege equipment had been installed, the soldiers had rested for more than an hour and had recovered their bodies.

"It's time for a tentative siege!" Ma Li thought to himself. Put down the binoculars and said: "Order, one-third of the trebuchets of the siege camp will start firing stone projectiles at the opponent's tower!" ”

"Yes, General!"

The herald standing on the tower behind the high platform received the order and began to wave the flag with a small pennant, and the officers of all levels in the infantry phalanx saw the flag. The huge phalanx split in two in a very short time. There was a huge passage in the middle, and the phalanx openings on both sides of the passage moved forward slowly, and the soldiers stepped on the ground with neat steps, and the whole made a rumbling sound, and the sound was extremely huge. The soldiers of the siege camp in the rear pushed catapults into the middle passage, followed by many soldiers pushing wheelbarrows, the bodies of which were filled with stones of comparable size.

Who first invented the wheelbarrow is highly controversial in later generations, but it is generally believed that it was invented during the Han Dynasty in China. There is a clear record in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", leaving "wooden oxen and flowing horses." All out of their own mind", foreign scholars believe that the wheelbarrow was first invented by ancient Greece, but there is no clear evidence to prove this.

Unicycles are ergonomic and can withstand rough terrain, but cannot be used to transport goods or tools on sloping ground. The lever principle is used to bring the resistance point of the load close to the fulcrum (i.e. the wheel) to make its own operation efficient, and also to share the load on the wheelbarrow and the operator. Because the wheelbarrow makes it easy to move heavy or large loads, it is indispensable on construction sites, farmland, and gardens. While two-wheeled wheelbarrows are more stable on flat ground, wheelbarrows are more maneuverable in areas that are easily balanced, such as small, paved or upturned roads, and are easier to control when unloading. Before the popularization of modern means of transportation, it was a light means of transporting goods and carrying people.

After arriving at the optimal firing distance of the trebuchet, the herald waved the triangular flag again to issue an order, the infantry phalanx stopped neatly, and the cavalry phalanx on both sides also stopped, and the siege camp soldiers in the wide middle passage began to disassemble the trebuchet parts on the trebuchet, and then assemble them on the ground, the trebuchet can be packed on the four-wheeled cart, usually when not in use, it is mounted on the quadriddle, and can be dragged away at any time, and the trebuchet parts on the cart are removed and assembled if they want to be used. This one lives very simple in the hands of a skilled soldier.

In about a quarter of an hour, all the catapults were assembled on the ground, and the siege camp sent a message to the high tower that they were ready.

"General, the siege camp is ready, now do you want to start throwing stone bombs?" The herald saluted and asked.

Ma Li nodded and said, "Then let's start, throw for a quarter of an hour and see the effect!" ”

"Yes, General!" The herald then gestured to the soldiers on the wooden tower behind, and the soldiers on the tower issued the order in flags.

At the end of the rows of trebuchets, the soldiers holding small flags saw the commander giving the order, so they raised the small pennant and waved it downward, and the soldiers next to each trebuchet wheeled the hammer to smash the launching pole on the trebuchet, and the heavy object hanging at the front end of the trebuchet arm fell and drove the rear end of the arm to wheel upward, when the rear end of the arm rose to the highest point, the stone in the net pocket at the end of the end was thrown out, A parabolic line of stones slammed into the fortress of Sveron, three hundred yards away.

"Boom, boom, boom......" Stones smashed into the fortress with a loud roar and vibration, but the stones did not do much damage to the fortress of Sveron, only smashed some diamonds, but smashed a few more holes.

When the first wave of stones was fired, several soldiers next to the trebuchets quickly ran up and hoisted the weight at the front of the arm with a winch, pulled the back end of the arm down and placed the stones again in the net, waiting for the flag bearer to wave the pennant again, a process that took at least two minutes.

Because the wheelbarrow was tinkered out by Qin Dong's craftsmen, so that a single soldier could use a wheelbarrow to load supplies during the march, the siege camp prepared enough stones, and the number and scale of the trebuchet in the siege camp was much larger than that of any legion in the Eastern Empire, and the number of stones fired during the salvo of the trebuchet was beyond the imagination of the generals and soldiers of the Eastern Empire, and the damage caused was much greater.

"Oh, my God, stones are raining down from the sky, and the damage caused by smashing on the castle is unimaginable, since the construction of this castle, the confidence of the imperial high command that this castle is indestructible seems to be a little shaken for me, if the Huns keep smashing stones like this, I am afraid that Sveron Castle will not be able to withstand it for even a day and will be smashed into rubble!" A clerk hid in a corner of the castle's interior, trembling and writing such an empathetic record.

The trebuchets in the camp of the Hun army threw stones without stopping, wave after wave, as if there was no sign of stopping, and at this time the Hun army had no intention of using infantry to attack, and the two infantry phalanxes on the left and right were still standing on the ground without moving. This situation almost made the Eastern Empire defenders of the castle think that the Huns were planning to stone their castle.

After a quarter of an hour, observing the damage caused by a burst of stone bombs, Ma Li ordered the siege camp to continue throwing stone bombs, but a third of the trebuchets switched to fire and oil bombs.

"Oh, are the damned Huns really going to stone my castle to ruins?" The general of the Eastern Empire in the castle kept cursing, and he saw through the lookout hole that the overwhelming stones were constantly smashing over, and the walls of the castle were constantly falling stone chips and dust, and the walls of the castle were shaking all the time.

"Fool, quickly send an order for the soldiers to hide, hide well for Lao Tzu, don't be stoned to death, are the damned Huns crazy? Where did they get so many stones? ”

Trebuchets can not only be used to destroy the defender's fortifications, but also to deter the defenders. The boom is 50 feet long, and the 10-ton counterweight is capable of projecting 200 to 300-pound stones over a distance of about 300 yards. Some catapults can shoot nearly 1,000 pounds of projectiles. Throwing large, bulky projectiles can have an important psychological effect, throwing boulders into fortresses to smash houses, and throwing filth, dead beasts, enemy dead heads, and prisoner corpses to scare the soldiers and people of the city.

"Bang, bang, bang......" The oil bombs with the long tail and thick smoke kept falling from the sky and smashing on the castle, and after the oil canisters were broken, the fire oil was almost all scattered on the outer walls of the castle, and then a raging fire was ignited. After a while, the entire castle façade was enveloped in flames.

"Ahem, ahem" The guards of the Eastern Empire in the castle kept coughing, and touched the beads of sweat on his forehead with his hand and scolded: "Damn, why so much smoke? Why is it so hot? Even if it's not so hot at noon, if it continues like this, I'm afraid that before noon, we will all become roast suckling pigs! (To be continued......)