Early in the morning, in Youzhou City, Yelu Hu was urging his horse to run towards the city wall, and just now he heard a news that the Song army had erected an extremely large trebuchet in the east of the city, which surprised him.

Yeluhu rushed up to the top of the city, and at a glance saw a huge trebuchet hundreds of paces away, it was even bigger than the giant trebuchet, far higher than the city wall, the pole was ten zhang long, twice as long as the five zhang long pole of the heavy trebuchet at the head of the city, and there were six huge wheels below, each of which was taller than a man.

"Dashuai, this should have been shipped last night, and many brothers heard movement outside."

Yelu Huzhen also heard a strange noise, it was a rumbling sound, as if it was a sound from a black box below, Yelu Hujian's brows furrowed, what is that big black box?

Yelu stared for a moment and asked, "Is this the only one?" ”

"There's only this one at the moment!"

Yelu Hu nodded, "This is probably their ........ test"

He hadn't finished yet, he just listened, 'Bang! With a loud bang, a large boulder roared towards the city wall, and the crowd shouted in fright and crouched down to hide.

The boulder crossed the city wall and smashed into the city, and soon, the super trebuchet began to slowly retreat a dozen steps, and after a while, another boulder smashed, and the boulder was in the middle of the city, and rebounded at the head of the city, and smashed on the leg post of a heavy trebuchet at the head of the city, and the leg pillar snapped and broke, and the trebuchet fell down, crushing the two soldiers who could not dodge underneath.

Yelu Hu cursed viciously, it is not okay to be beaten like this, there must be a weapon to deal with the enemy's super trebuchet.

A soldier suggested: "Commander, the range of the bed crossbow can exceed that of the counterpoint!" ”

A sentence reminded Yelu Hujian, and he nodded, "Quickly order the military craftsman officer to come and see me!" ”

.........

Aware of the danger, he immediately increased the production of creation, and there were already more than 200 crossbows in the warehouse, which he ordered all of them to be carried up to the city.

"Shoot!"

At the head of the city, the Liao army general gave an order, and two hundred bed crossbows were fired at the same time, and a dense number of arrows were fired at the super trebuchet five hundred steps away.

The crossbow bolt of the bed crossbow is about three feet long, thicker than a thumb, and can pierce the golden cracked stone within 600 steps, and the lethality is extremely strong.

Song Jun's super trebuchet also had protection, and a two-zhang high wooden board was placed in front of it, supported by a triangular wooden pillar, but Song Jun didn't expect that the opponent's bed crossbow was so strong that it actually shot through the plank, and dozens of bed crossbow arrows were nailed to the high wooden frame.

The trebuchet is made of giant wood, the stake itself is not afraid of arrows, but the bracket connection and throwing rod at the top are more sensitive, it is the vital part of the trebuchet, because the position is too high to defend, the super trebuchet of the Song army can not withstand the powerful crossbow arrows on the city, and has to slowly retreat, retreating beyond the range of the bed crossbow, and the city head suddenly cheered.

In the afternoon, Fanning and Cao Shi led thousands of troops to rush to the east of Youzhou, at this time the super trebuchet had withdrawn to the range of the bed crossbow, Fanning turned over and dismounted, stepped forward and asked, "Are there any losses?" ”

The ordnance supervisor in charge of the test saluted: "Thirty-eight arrows were shot at the trebuchet, but there were no arrows in the vital point, and there was basically no loss, but two craftsmen were seriously injured. ”

"Can you be sent for healing?"

"It has been sent back to Lu County for treatment."

Fanning nodded, walked under the trebuchet, and asked, "How effective is the test?" ”

"The test results were very successful, including the pulling force of the steam engine, which was also very good, and we were able to accurately hit the 100-pound boulder on the head of the city."

"Then what can be done to protect the enemy's bed crossbow?"

The ordnance supervisor hesitated for a moment and said, "Initially consider placing a copper shield in front of the three connection points, but I am worried that the thinner wooden pillar will be shot off, or I am worried that the burning powder cartridge tied to the bed crossbow will still have an impact on the trebuchet." ”

At this time, Cao Shi said to Fan Ning: "Don't think about any defensive weapons, in fact, the best means of defense is to attack, bombard the city with hundreds of iron fire thunder, and all the crossbows will be blown into powder!" ”

Fanning smiled, "There is some truth to this, but before the twenty super trebuchets are in power, there are still necessary defensive measures to adapt to." ”

He said to the ordnance officer: "I don't care if you wrap iron or cowhide, you think for yourself, but I don't want any trebuchet to fall under the enemy's crossbow arrows." ”

..........

The pace of war is getting closer and closer, and half a month later, all twenty super trebuchets have been assembled.

On the morning of this day, 200,000 soldiers came to Youzhou City, set up a wall-type camp in the wilderness three miles away from Youzhou City, tens of thousands of big tents like mushrooms after the rain, quickly appeared in the wilderness, the camp of the Song army only had the east and south, showing the 'L' shaped layout, the total length was about more than ten miles, looking from the city, the dense tents were spread on the ground, particularly magnificent.

In order to transport these twenty trebuchets, the Song army took great pains, they first built five bridges across Lushui, and then organized 50,000 militiamen to widen the official road from Luxian to Youzhou City, and tamped it extremely flat, so that the huge trebuchet could move smoothly and would not lose its center of gravity and overturn.

The positions of the twenty trebuchets have been determined, all of which are located in the east of the city, which is also the strategy formulated by Fanning and the two lieutenants, to concentrate their fire on the east of the city.

Twenty black shadows like hills appeared outside the city, and immediately alarmed the defenders at the head of the city, and the defenders quickly reported to Jeruhu.

After a short time, Yelu Hujian rushed to the head of the city, and he stared for a moment and asked, "Is there a trebuchet in the south of the city?" ”

"Nope! At present, enemy trebuchets have only been found in the east of the city. ”

Yelu Hujian immediately ordered: "Quickly transfer all the bed crossbows from all places to the east of the city!" ”

At present, the Liao army has built a total of 500 bed crossbows, which are distributed and deployed in four cities, but looking at the current situation, it is estimated that the Song army will concentrate its forces to attack the east of the city.

The Liao army at the head of the city moved quickly, and in just a moment, all the five hundred bed crossbows were moved to the east of the city, and at this time, the twenty super trebuchets had been positioned, and the low roar of the steam engine began to sound.

"Shoot!"

Even though it was night, Yelu Hujian gave the order to fire, and five hundred bed crossbows were fired at the same time, and the dense bolts were aimed at the swarthy mountain.

After all, it was night, and most of the crossbow bolts were missed, but it still affected the installation and commissioning of the Song army.

Several craftsmen were shot by the crossbow arrows and fell to the ground screaming, and the other craftsmen ran under the baffle to avoid the crossbow arrows, and a super trebuchet was shot at the belt, the belt was broken, and the trebuchet suddenly lost its balance and made a terrible sound, as if it was about to collapse at any moment.

The soldiers shouted and fled, but the breaking of one belt was not enough to collapse the trebuchet, and the trebuchet finally stabilized.

When the news of the Liao army's offensive at night reached Fan Ning's ears, he was immediately furious, and immediately ordered: "Counterattack with iron fire and thunder!" ”

The Song army's super trebuchets did not have a plan to attack the city at night, but only took advantage of the night to debug and attack after dawn.

However, the Liao army's bed crossbow night fire forced the Song army to also have to change its plan and change the debugging directly to a counterattack.

Just as the Liao army fired the third round of crossbow arrows, the Song army's super trebuchet also began to counterattack, 'Bang! Boom! Boom! A series of crashing sounds.

Nineteen hundred-pound large iron fire thunderbolts rose into the air and flew towards the head of Youzhou City with a roar.

There are three kinds of iron fire mines in the Song army, one is an ordinary iron fire mine, weighing fifty catties, mainly used for ballista launch, or water battles; The second is the hundred-pound heavy iron fire mine, which is the most widely used, and is used in siege and defense and positional warfare, which is extremely powerful; The third is a 150-pound super-heavy iron fire mine, also known as the city explosion iron fire mine, this kind of iron fire mine is specially used to blast the city, because it is too heavy, it is not used much in other aspects.

The Liao army at the head of the city was preparing for the fourth launch, and suddenly a soldier pointed to the air and shouted, only to see a little spark in the air, and before the soldiers could react, a hundred catties of heavy iron thunder smashed into the city, and then exploded violently.

Twelve of the nineteen iron thunderbolts accurately hit the city's head, three crossed the city's head, and four hit the city wall.

Iron pieces and flames burst out, waves of air swept through the city, hundreds of quenched iron nails in the iron fire thunder shot out like a storm, the trebuchet collapsed, the bed crossbow shattered, and the soldiers on the city hit the iron nails one after another, and a miserable scream sounded.

After the explosion, the city became a mess, hundreds of bed crossbows were destroyed, fifteen trebuchets collapsed, and nearly 1,000 soldiers were killed or wounded.

At this moment, the second round of nineteen heavy iron fire thunderbolts roared out again.