As Chopin had predicted, the procession of more than 3,000 men did not delay for any time on the road, but only made a few simple rests in between, and then headed straight for the city of Paris, as if they had already eaten them. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because there was no further research and development of gunpowder, the trebuchet, as the world's most important siege weapon, has been optimized and improved again and again, and the range and power have been enhanced to a considerable extent compared with the trebuchet in the world where Chopin once lived.

The trebuchets pushed by dozens of strong men in turn at this time can be roughly divided into two categories.

One is the elastic trebuchet, which relies on the elastic force of the bowstring to eject, in addition to firing large arrows, it can also fire stone projectiles, which is a variant of the mechanical bow and crossbow.

The other type is the torsion trebuchet, which developed from the bow and relied on twisted ropes to produce a power ejection. The catapult rod is usually upright, the top of the rod is a "spoon" for the projectile, and the lower end of the rod is inserted in a tightly twisted horizontal rope.

When ejecting, first use a winch to pull the ejection rod to a near-horizontal position, put the projectile in a "spoon" or leather bullet bag, and when the winch rope is released, the ejection rod returns to a vertical position to shoot the projectile out.

The more than 3,000 figures who came almost on a rapid march all the way to the outside of Paris seemed extremely steady, and the more than 1,000 soldiers at the forefront were just surrounding a gate trebuchet, but there was no other movement.

While several commanders in charge of this battle gathered together to discuss the battle strategy, the heavy trebuchet of the gate had been slowly erected.

As the capital of the French Empire, Paris was the largest city in the West for nearly 1,000 years, and also occupied the title of the world's largest city for three consecutive centuries.

The walls were only about two feet high, and the entire wall was made of granite and stone blocks, but after arriving in this other world, Chopin ordered the craftsmen in Paris to work day and night, using the stones that were constantly mined, but the surrounding walls were raised again.

With walls nearly four feet high and a moat guarding it, it was not so easy for Conrad's soldiers to forcibly attack the city.

Therefore, after discussing the arrangements of this battle, the commanders finally decided to use the trebuchets to consume the living forces of the defense on the city walls first, and then make the next decision.

As soon as the order was given, the army of more than 1,000 people was quickly mobilized, and it did not take long for large pieces of stone bullets to be transported.

In fact, in addition to throwing boulders to smash houses in a fortress or smashing a soldier defending the city into pulp, trebuchets also have an important psychological effect, which is to throw filth, dead beasts, heads of the dead of the enemy, and even the corpses of prisoners to frighten the people and soldiers in the city, thus giving them great psychological pressure and forcing them to surrender.

As the ejection lever is pulled into the horizontal position, the stone bullets are loaded into the "spoon" where the projectile is released, and then as the catapult rod quickly reverts to the vertical position, the stone bullets placed inside are also immediately ejected.

The stone bullets danced wildly like the iron fists of giants, and then they opened their teeth and claws, and smashed viciously towards the walls of Paris.

Generally speaking, with the protection and blocking of the city wall, and the soldiers on the wall have been mentally prepared in advance, it is not easy for those stone projectiles that are directly smashed to directly hit the defending soldiers on the city wall.

Of course, there are not a few soldiers who were directly smashed into flesh by the roaring stone bullets, and they didn't even have time to scream.

Although the destructive power, lethality and even the scale of the damage generated by the artillery after landing are far more than the stones thrown out by the trebuchet, as long as they are hit head-on by the two, there is no difference in the ending, they are both certain death, if there is any difference, that is, the death of the former is undoubtedly more tragic than the latter.

However, the secondary damage caused by the watermelon-sized stones smashed into the city wall is the real fatal damage!

The moment the stones fall at high speed and hit the city wall, they will burst into countless rubbles of various sizes, and then they will be stirred in all directions.

Even though these soldiers had already been mentally prepared, it was still difficult to react to the shattered stones that were faster than the arrows of the feather.

These cracked stones, which were sharp, dull, heavy, or light, were accelerated by the tremendous reaction force behind the city walls, and the impact that burst out in an instant was impossible for even the strongest plate armor to resist.

Therefore, long before the start of the battle, Chopin had instructed his soldiers to hide their bodies under the protection of the city walls.

In the first round of more than a dozen trebuchets, only a few stone bullets smashed on the city wall, and the rest either did not hit the city wall at all, bringing out a graceful arc in mid-air, and then fell heavily on the ground, splashing bursts of billowing smoke, or they did not know how far they had deviated, and only hit two or three feet in the middle of the city wall or the rest of the places where they did not touch at all.

However, Chopin, who was hidden in the shadows, saw this scene, but his face did not have the slightest joy, and the haze between his eyebrows was even heavier.

He knew very well that the first few rounds of fire from the trebuchet were ranging to ensure that the subsequent projectiles would hit the target accurately.

At the same time, the archers, who had been loitering on both sides of the edge of the line and in the central area, finally made a move.

The range of the archers is naturally not as good as that of the trebuchet, so these seemingly scattered, but in fact closely connected five hundred archers, after carefully advancing more than 100 meters, to make sure that no accidents will happen, only then took out the feather arrows inserted in the quiver, ready to cooperate with the trebuchets in the rear, together with the living forces on the city wall.

And with the clear cry of one of the battlefield commanders, the originally tight bowstring was also loosened in unison.

"Whoosh whoosh—"

More than 500 archers threw together, and the dense rain of arrows was overwhelmingly shooting towards the city of Paris, and even the originally bright sky seemed to be dimmed for a moment.

Like raindrops falling from the sky, hundreds of arrows arced gracefully in mid-air, and then either slammed into the walls or fell into the walkway.

The rain of arrows like locusts came in waves, as if endless, and they were thrown in black pressure.

Generally speaking, the first thing to look at when selecting archers in the army of the Endless Sea is to look at the arm strength, after all, the stronger the arm strength, the greater the power of the feather arrows thrown out, and the longer the range, and the second is to pay attention to the ability to continue fighting, which is the so-called physical strength.

When it comes to real combat, the archers can't stand with the heavy infantry standing at the forefront of the battlefield, where to stand and confront the enemy, you cut me, I return you a sword, but to choose the safest position to shoot, whether it is a large-scale shooting, or divided into small groups of queues for scattering, you need to constantly run and move around on the battlefield, the physical requirements are naturally quite high.

And when the adventurous archers finished the third round of throwing, the trebuchets finally adjusted the angle of their shots, and then the hundreds of arrows that were originally stirring in the air were now mixed with large and small stones, and then all covered the walls of Paris.

A soldier guarding the city wall, at this time, strictly followed Chopin's previous orders, shrunk his body under the protection of the city wall, and then covered his body with black iron shields.

These iron shields forged by blacksmiths in Paris, although there are no intricate and elegant patterns engraved on them, and they look like ordinary black iron blocks, but their defensive power is much stronger than the shields carefully crafted by some forces in this other world.

Although with the cannons erected in the shadows of the city walls, as well as the flintlock pistols held by the line infantry and town militia on the city walls, as long as Chopin gave an order, the tide of the battle would be reversed in an instant.

The archers who thought they were still keeping a safe distance didn't know how many times they had turned around the door of the Ghost Gate, and if they were not careful, they would fall into a state of no return.

It's just that compared to the 1,500-strong army in front of him, what Chopin wanted to eat more in one bite was undoubtedly the elite soldiers under Fordes, who were at the rear of the battlefield at this time, always observing the changes in the situation in the field.

If you expose your hole cards now, then it will not be so easy to deal with them later.

Artillery, a weapon beyond the past cognition, will always burst out with unparalleled destructive power when it is first shown, but once the other party is prepared, especially those elite soldiers under Fordes, although it is far from becoming a useless ornament, but the lethality will undoubtedly be greatly discounted, and if the other party retreats, unwilling to continue to fight, and fall into an embarrassing situation, it is Chopin's side.

Of course, the most important thing is that the ambush troops sent by Chopin have not yet arrived at the designated place, so he doesn't mind wasting time with the other party first, and once the secret arrangement is completed, then the full-scale counterattack can be spread out without the slightest worry.

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