When Wu Xun, the commander of the giant elephant of the Han army, saw that the high platform in front of him suddenly fell like a papier-mâché, he immediately felt that something was wrong, how could Lin Feng not be stupid enough to rely on this pile of wood to stop him, right?

Just when Wu Xun subconsciously tightened the reins of the horse, a loud "squeak" sound that was enough to sour his teeth sounded, and Wu Xun suddenly lost his soul and couldn't help but exclaim: "Ballista?!" ”

Yes, this terrible sound is exactly what the ballista sounds like when it is wound up powerfully!

Just behind those high battle flags, just behind the fallen high platforms, the tall ballistas painted black all over were revealed, and twenty ballistae were arranged in a big "U" shape, facing the galloping Han cavalry and elephant soldiers.

"Put!" With a loud roar, the wooden giant arrows let out a terrifying roar and flew towards the panicked Han cavalry.

Finished! Lin Feng is so ruthless! Wu Xun looked at the cavalry huddled around him, and couldn't help but close his eyes.

From the Tang Dynasty onwards, ballistas were widely used in siege and defense operations. The Tang people called the ballista "winch crossbow" or "car crossbow". Du You's "General Dictionary" once recorded: the frame is installed with the "twelve stones" strong crossbow, the axle turns the car (i.e. the winch) to open the bow, there are seven arrows on the crossbow arm, and the arrow in the center rests a giant arrow, "three feet five inches long", "five inches thick", with the iron leaf as the feather, three slightly smaller arrows are placed on the left and right, and all the arrows are fired together, "the city fortress in the place is all destroyed, and the building is also upside down."

The crossbow was originally used to attack the city, but it was used to shoot the cavalry who were close at hand, which was definitely a knife and a chicken, and the blockers were invincible:

The smaller of the arrows was carrying the horse, and the horse's body was pierced through a huge hole in an instant; The cavalry was piggybacked, and the part of the arrow was immediately blown into pulp; The huge arrow in the middle of the ballista is even more domineering, and it can often penetrate four or five cavalrymen in a row, plowing a bloody passage in the cavalry.

Wu Xun was relatively lucky, dodging the first round of crossbow arrows. He restrained the fear in his heart, snatched the horn in the hand of the trumpeter who was only half of his body left, turned around and blew three rapid long sounds, and commanded the war elephant rider in the rear, who had stopped advancing, to continue to rush forward, even if he used the elephant's body to collide, he also had to knock these ballistas away and crash them, otherwise, none of them would be able to run!

However, Wu Xun is ruthless, and Lin Feng is even more poisonous! He traveled thousands of miles to pull twenty ballistae dismantled from the city wall of Tanzhou by boat, just to give the Southern Han army an unforgettable lesson!

Lin Feng arranged to build such a long command platform, and there were so many high battle flags, not to talk about pomp and circumstance, but to cover these ballistae that were quietly transported in place before dawn today. The high platform is simply a false prop, except for a small number of places where people can stand, the rest of the places are held with wooden pillars; The sound of the gong just now was not used to sound gold, but to direct the soldiers to pull the rope of the pillar of the high platform at the same time. As for how the ballista was fired, Lin Feng had already arranged it in advance, and only fired one after two ballistas.

With the sound of another round of "release", another round of crossbow arrows was fired, once again plowing a large area of the Han cavalry; Immediately after, a third round of crossbow arrows was fired, sweeping down the cavalry that had just escaped. When the sound of crossbow arrows sounded, all the Tang soldiers who had fled to the two wings just now turned around, lined up in two encirclement lines on the left and right, and shot arrows at the cavalry and war elephants in front of them.

In this way, after three consecutive rounds of crossbow arrows like a shower, except for a very small number of cavalry who moved quickly and avoided the range of crossbow arrows to both sides, the Han cavalry in the middle battlefield was basically no longer in sight. Wu Xun was also hit in the second round of crossbow arrow rain, and his entire left leg was taken away from his body by a crossbow arrow, and he fell in a pool of blood with his people and horses.

At the same time, the two rows of sixteen war elephants that had already pressed forward were all shot off their legs, and they collapsed to the ground with a hissed pain, raising clouds of dust.

At this time, the ballistas fired in the first round had been reloaded, and a new round of slaughter began. The lethality of the giant wooden crossbow frightened all the soldiers on the scene, and the Chu-Tang coalition army, which had slowed down its attack on the left and right flanks, was the first to wake up from the shock, and immediately felt that the strength in his body burst out, and he let out a cheer unfreely, and attacked his opponent.

Ma Jiwei, who had long been encircled by the Han army's infantry, also regained his confidence and shouted loudly: "Speed up!" Hasten! Trying to lead the remaining hundred or so cavalry to run again, continuing to disrupt the formation of the infantry.

When the drastic changes on the battlefield had just occurred, Wu Huaien was already cold all over there. Fooled! Lin Feng recklessly engaged in a flank-like grappling with the Han army on both flanks, and completely vacated the middle lane, which was to lure his ambush soldiers to assault from the middle lane!

Where did Lin Feng's ballista come from? Two years ago, after the destruction of Guizhou City, the only two crossbow torches had already been chopped up by themselves and burned as wood, before this war, he had already sent people to reconnoiter in Guizhou City, there were no ballistas on the city wall at all, could it be that Lin Feng had been pulled from Tanzhou City? Could it be that all this was already in Lin Feng's calculations? Could it be that he fell into Lin Feng's trap from the moment he agreed to the duel?

"No, it can't be!" Wu Huaien suddenly woke up, turned his head and shouted to the soldiers around him, "Beat the marching drum, attack the whole army, and fight the Chu Tang people to the end!" "As long as the war elephants in the middle can force up and destroy those ballistas, and you still have a personnel advantage, you will definitely be able to achieve the last victory.

A group of lieutenants and guards were startled by Wu Huaien's sharp and piercing voice, came back to their senses, and ran to the huge war drums behind the command platform.

Hearing the sound of the drums from behind, the drivers of the giant elephant lifted their spirits one by one, grabbed the sharp knives in their hands, and stabbed them into the soft position behind the elephant's ears, driving the war elephant screaming in pain and continuing to walk forward.

"Change the arrows! Three crossbows in unison! Lin Feng, who was personally standing behind a ballista, sneered and commanded loudly. Li Congqian, Chen Fei, Duan Rui and several other children ran away to pass on their lives.

Soon, all the ballistas that were fired in the air were replaced with arrows smeared white at the front, and some soldiers lit torches and set these arrows wrapped in wax clothes on fire, and suddenly became flaming rockets.

This is the hospitality that Lin Feng specially concocted for these war elephants!

Historically, when the Northern Song Dynasty unified the north, pacified Houshu, collected the Southern Tang Dynasty, and sent troops to prepare to sweep the Southern Han Dynasty in one fell swoop, it conscientiously absorbed the strategy of the Qin and Han Dynasty when they conquered Lingnan and attacked the most difficult and then failed, concentrated the superior forces, first swept the peripheral fortresses on the west and north sides of the Southern Han Dynasty, and then at the foot of the Lianhua Peak Mountain near Shaozhou City, concentrated the powerful bow and crossbow aimed at the elephant and shot fiercely, defeating the biggest war weapon of the Southern Han Dynasty in one fell swoop, and won the decisive battle. And when Lin Feng heard Xi Mucheng mention the name of Wu Xun, the commander of the Southern Han Giant Elephants, he prepared ballistas and rockets for these giant elephants.

This time, twenty-four ballistas were fired at the same time, and one hundred and sixty-eight rockets were fired in one salvo, instantly knocking down a large area of the giant elephant that had scattered in all directions. Many of the flaming bolts hit the wooden fence on the elephant's body, and the fire quickly spread.

Before entering the battle, all the elephants are blindfolded, and they naturally have no idea that they will face ballistas that are scared to death. However, as soon as the smell of fire spread in the air, the elephants began to go berserk, and no longer tried to hide where there was no fire, despite the whipping of their drivers.

When all these elephants fell into panic, the huge bodies that moved slowly suddenly became a burden, and they were constantly shot at their bodies by crossbow arrows and arrows of the Tang army, and their movements became even more sluggish.

There were three more rounds of crossbow arrows, and the elephants that had not been hit by the arrows were basically gone, and the menacing war elephants had been completely destroyed.

And by this time, several ballistae in continuous use had already struck struck. Lin Feng shook his head regretfully, waved his flag again and shouted: "Abandon the ballista, change hands, three rows of crossbows, on!" ”

Immediately, the four hundred soldiers of the Chu State who were originally operating the ballista bent down and picked up the quivers on the ground, picked up the hand crossbows at their feet, loaded the crossbow arrows at the same time, and quickly ran to the front of the ballista to form a staggered crossbow array. They shouted a neat "one-two-one" in their mouths, and their legs ran forward quickly with the rhythm, approaching the Han infantry who were losing ground in the middle of the battlefield.

At the same time, Lin Feng commanded Li Congqian to set up a red high battle flag.

On the command platform of the Han army, Wu Huaien, who was red-faced, grabbed the placket of his chest with his right hand, panting rapidly, and looked at the absolutely unexpected development of the battle situation in front of him with some confusion.

"General Wu, the enemy's warship has moved!" One of the lieutenants suddenly ran over and shouted in the distance.

Wu Huaien was frightened and quickly looked up at the Lishui River.