But the panic could not stop the attack of the Liao catapults, and the catapults were still slowly advancing, from five miles away to three miles, and at this time the Liao army, which had stopped moving, approached two miles again, and stopped again one mile away from the city wall. The Liao army had already discovered the range of mines laid by the Ming army and knew that this mile was a death zone.

The catapults advanced again two miles from the city wall and began to drive piles and take root.

The soldiers of the Ming army on the city wall also counted the approximate number of catapults of the Liao army at this time, and the number of catapults erected along the side of the Great Wall has exceeded 2,000, and they are also lined up in three rows to increase the launch density.

It took half an hour for the Liao army's catapult to be erected from the time it appeared, and in front of the powerful Liao cavalry lineup, the Ming army naturally would not go north out of the Great Wall to attack the catapult.

In this half an hour, the Ming army had already completed the dispatch of the army, and the Great Wall was densely covered with Ming soldiers, and in addition to the muskets with a range of only fifteen zhang, the Ming soldiers could only throw grenades that were closer. The only thing that can be relied on is the mines planted within a radius of one mile.

After several years and rounds of planting of these mines, even the Ming army itself no longer knew where the mines were, and there was no way to talk about dismantling them. But there are also mines, but these mines are string mines, which will not detonate if stepped on, and need to be pulled to detonate after hanging the strings.

Therefore, although the Ming soldiers were a little nervous, they did not panic, and placed the pistol bullets neatly along the battlements one by one, so that they could be thrown when the battle began. The musket is then placed on the battlement, ready to be fired.

The structure of the catapult of the Liao army was simple, a huge lever. The long end is a stone loaded with a holster or wooden basket, and the short end is tied with dozens of ropes. At this time, after the installation was completed, after an order was given, dozens of people pulled the rope at the same time on each catapult and threw the stones using the principle of levers, which was the ancient god of war (Stalin said that artillery was the god of war). As a result, countless huge sharp stones smashed into the direction of the Great Wall like dark clouds.

The already bright sky darkened again. More than 2,000 catapults fired stones at the same time, basically obscuring the sun's rays, here and now. There is no sun ...... on earth.

Huge stones falling from a great height, accompanied by a whistling sound, combined with the kinetic energy of the throwing and the inertia of falling from the sky, smashed into any area around the perimeter of the city walls. will all "boom". Splitting apart, then, splattering dense fragments of stone, striking any Ming soldier who dared to stay within its splash range.

For a time, the soldiers of the Ming army, who did not have any defense against the catapult bombardment, began to suffer casualties. The catapult, which threw it very far, actually threw stones into the camp of the Ming army behind the city wall, and some tents were instantly razed to the ground. No, it should be a depression.

Fortunately, this time. The Ming soldiers had already rushed up the city wall, relying on the northern battlement wall for cover, and the stones smashed into the camp did not cause casualties.

And the real damage is the morale of the Ming soldiers, the boulder smashed on the outside of the city wall, the strong vibration caused by the city wall, which makes people tremble, in fact, the power of such a number of catapults, in addition to the unique gunpowder smoke of artillery, is no less than the power of artillery salvo as a whole.

Just as it is said in the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts", "all cannons, sharp weapons in the army, offensive and defensive divisions are used", the word cannon has already appeared before the Tang Dynasty, which shows the importance attached to catapults in ancient times.

The catapults of the Liao army were fired endlessly, and there was no sign of stopping, and the defending Ming soldiers could only close their eyes and pray that this unbearable suffering would pass soon.

……。

Just an hour after Wu and Ruzhou were bombarded by the Liao army's catapults.

In the city of Yanzhou (also known as Youzhou), Chai Rong really couldn't stand the unbearable silence, walked to Baili Wuji, who closed his eyes and recuperated, and asked eagerly: "The war has begun, such a scale catapult has been attacking for a long time, even if the soldiers of the Ming army can resist, I'm afraid the city wall can't withstand it, won't my brother go to command the battle?" ”

Baili Wuji didn't answer, and he didn't even open his eyelids.

Chai Rong stomped his feet hatefully and said, "You're not in a hurry, I'm in a hurry." If you feel that the Ming army is not enough to mobilize, I will order the 25,000 Zhou troops in Zhenzhou to immediately go north to reinforce Wu and Confucian. ”

Chai Rong is really anxious, he knows the power of catapults, ten, even if it is dozens of catapults, Chai Rong will laugh at them, but thousands of catapults are volleyed, that is not the power that people can think of, not to mention that there are now more than 2,000 catapults, bombarding the front line of Wu and Confucian.

Chai Rong was deeply worried that the Ming army in Wu and Confucian states would not even have a chance to fight the Liao army, and would be defeated under the bombardment of catapults. This is not that Chai Rong underestimated the combat power of the Ming army, this is Chai Rong's experience. Because this kind of catapult attack that is impossible to resist by huge manpower, although it does not kill many soldiers' lives, it can easily break the will of soldiers and cause a rout.

Chai Rong believes that what the front line needs most now is to boost morale, and the most effective way to boost morale is for the emperor to visit the front line and give rewards.

If it was the Zhou army who was on the front line now, Chai Rong would have already stepped forward, so why would he need to rap with Baili Wuji here.

Listening to Chai Rong's eager tone, Baili Wuji opened his eyes lightly and said lightly: "Second brother, you are already a person who has passed the age of establishment, why are you still so impatient." ”

Chai Rong frowned and said: "It's about the survival of the two countries, how can there be no urgency." ”

Baili Wuji said: "This is just the foreplay of the Liao army, if the Ming army can't even resist this, how can it withstand the full force of hundreds of thousands of Liao troops in Yanyun?" ”

Chai Rong refuted: "If you can't even win the first battle, why do you have fierce morale for the follow-up struggle? ”

Baili Wuji said: "Morale is a very delicate thing, it can be obtained with praise and reward, it can be obtained with murderous prestige, and it can also be obtained with pride and courage, but in my opinion, it can't last." The only way to maintain and develop morale is to maintain and develop the morale of the soldiers when they are spontaneously enlightened from the bottom of the spectrum, and what I have to do is to create an environment and soil for them to realize spontaneously in their daily training, and that's it. ”

Chai Rong disagreed and asked, "So, what about the battle?" Just like you are now watching them die? ”

"Commanding the battle is not what the emperor should do, Chen Yanzheng will do it, I just need to sit here, it is enough."

Chai Rong Yilin, indeed, the emperor is sitting in Yanzhou, maybe there is no more way to motivate morale than this, the emperor is not afraid, why should the soldiers be afraid, how dare they be afraid? (To be continued......)