Chapter 68: The City Wall

The crash was improved from the battering ram.

The most primitive battering ram was a giant log carried by a group of soldiers or hoisted from a simple cart with beams, striking the city gate back and forth. In order to defend against attacks from overhead, the cart was later covered with a ramp and a mixture of wet mud and straw to prevent fire.

Unlike the image of a crash we see in most domestic dramas, the hammer head of a real crash is blunt. Otherwise, braving the rain of arrows and arrows pouring on the head, it is easy to get to the city gate, and it will break when it hits, which is a bit too ridiculous (I don't understand why the props are designed like this.) In the same way, I have also seen the carved beast head hammer vividly, hehe, carefully carved for a month, a second beyond recognition, why bother). In order to strengthen the hammer head, a thick layer of iron is often breaded outside.

There are big stones blocking the city gate, and it is estimated that it can be carried for the time being, and Wang Jian now has to concentrate on dealing with the dozens of ladders that come up.

There are many types of ladders. If the main attacking force is the elite of the general's men, in order to provide maximum protection, it will even be modified with a chariot, which is very similar to the shape of a modern fire engine: ladders are stacked on the roof, and the soldiers hide in the carriages to push them down the city, and the bricks and stones are used against the wheels, and the ladder carts are firmly against the wall, and it is difficult for the defenders to push them away from the city unless they destroy the ladders or burn the body.

However, Takato has built a simple ladder - an extended version of the wooden ladder. Most of the first wave of ants attacking the city were cannon fodder civilians and auxiliaries, which were used to consume the energy and materials of the defenders. However, there is still a big difference between the siege ladder and the ordinary wooden ladder: there are two rollers at the top and two iron hooks. The auxiliaries carried the ladder to the bottom of the city, put the rollers on the city wall, and pushed the ladder hard to go up the wall, wait for the top of the ladder to emerge from the battlement, and then pull down, the hook will firmly buckle the city head, and the defenders will not be able to push away no matter what.

The defenders' firepower would certainly be concentrated near the siege equipment, so the most casualties were carried by the civilians. The soldiers, each holding a round shield, scattered and rushed to the city. Under the cover of the great shield of the auxiliary soldiers, the people braved the arrows pouring from the city to carry the ladder to the root of the city, and then they were forced by the soldiers to use knives to put the ladder on the head of the city and hold it steady.

Seeing the ladders on the wall one after another, Gao Fujidou on the lookout platform ordered the archers to attack.

The herald grinds ("grinding the flag" is a military term that means holding a circle) the green flag.

Two hundred or so auxiliaries hunched their waists and held them diagonally, or more accurately as pushing, and the large wooden shield, which was nearly human high, advanced to a distance of twenty or thirty paces in front of the city, and thrust the spire into the earth fiercely, and their own cats resisted it in the back. Behind each shield is an archer, who will be responsible for suppressing and disrupting the city's head as the warriors ascend the walls.

Tuk, tuk.

The crossbowmen at the head of the city had apparently noticed the new threat and were aiming and firing at the city. However, apart from nailing the shield with a few feathered arrows, it had little effect, and the ineffective attack was quickly stopped by the officers.

Gao Fujidou on the lookout saw that most of the archers were already in position, and gave the order to attack again.

The black flag grinded, and a bangbang suddenly sounded in the array.

With the sound of bangs, the archers who were already ready to shoot their arrows behind the shield half-crouched and drew their bows, and then quickly leaned out half of their bodies and shot their arrows in the general direction of the city. The archers and crossbowmen in the city also began to aim at the side where the thieves might lean out and shoot back under the orders of the officers, and the long-range fire pouring down on the big shield gradually intensified.

At this distance, the slingers were not a threat: heavy masonry could not be thrown so far, and if they could hit the shield, they would not cause much damage. Damage comes mainly from crossbows - especially crossbows.

Crossbow machines and bows and arrows have their own advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of the crossbow machine is that it has strong lethality, it can aim for a long time after winding, and the accuracy is high. The disadvantage is that the rate of fire is slow, and it needs to be pedaled to wind, whether it is a sitting position or a hunched position, and the exposed body area is large, so it is easy to be attacked.

The advantage of a bow is that it has a fast rate of fire. A skilled archer can shoot four or five rounds of arrows in a single shot from a crossbowman, but the bow must be fired in a very short time, unable to sustain long-term aiming, and the effect on armor is extremely limited: many people have seven or eight feathered arrows stuck in their bodies, like hedgehogs, but they still chase people alive and kick.

Gao Tengdou's team of archers had just formed an army, and there were not a few crossbow machines, so they were not organized with the archers, but were sent to the city with the sword and shield soldiers, and under the cover of the shield soldiers, they secretly attacked the defenders attacking the probe.

Takato glanced at the battlefield.

From time to time, the archers of the city and below were shot by stray arrows. Although the defenders have the advantage of vision, overall, the damage of both sides is still about the same, which makes Gao Fujidou very satisfied. The defenders could wait for the archers to emerge from behind their shields before shooting, and the attacking archers began to play psychological warfare with their opponents: they often took a step after half-drawing their bows and then retracted, waiting for a few arrows to be planted in the ground next to them, luring the defenders to fire and then jumping out and shooting quickly. Due to the obstruction of the city walls and battlements, most of the arrows were high or low in vain, but for the same reason, as long as the defenders were hit by arrows, they were often fatally wounded to the head and face, while most of the attackers were wounded by arrows in the limbs, as long as they did not hurt their muscles and bones, most of them could recover.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Takato waved his hand and gave a new order.

The soldiers under the city obviously felt that the pressure of the attack from above was suddenly much less, and then they heard the second sound of bangs coming from the rear formation, so they held a round shield in one hand to protect the vital points above their heads, and climbed the ladder with a knife on their backs or in their mouths. He was followed by the pikemen, holding spears that were more than five or even two feet long, and stabbed aimlessly at the wall with the help of their shoulders, trying to protect the climbers. The spears were also specially made, with a half-foot-long iron pipe between the head and the shaft of the spear - if cut by the blade of the castle head, everyone up and down the ladder would be in greater danger.

From time to time, the defending officers with iron helmets on the top of the city quickly probed to reconnoiter the city, and heard two bangs one after another, knowing that this was an order to ascend the city, so they redistributed the defensive fire again: the archers focused on suppressing the archers of the thieves, and the slingers dealt with the ladders that climbed the wall.

Guan Shengyun built a total of five siege towers, and after destroying one by the bed crossbow, the rest were obviously afraid, and their marching speed slowed down thirty or forty paces away from the city's head. Wang Jian is also worried: there are only about a dozen arrows and spears, even if you don't consider the loading speed and accuracy, at best, you can only overturn two more, what should you do with the rest? Wang Jian stared at these ugly beasts: if he waited for them to get closer, he would reveal a larger area of flanks that were not protected by shelters, and then he should only need two, or at most three arrows and spears, to kill one! Wang Jian was waiting for an opportunity. As if to guess what he was thinking, the towers began to move parallel to the side, trying to avoid the danger.

A series of terrible howls rang in my ears. The thieves who climbed the ladder were exposed to a small area, and a small round shield could protect them, unless they were hit by a large rock weighing dozens of pounds, and the boiling water and boiling oil would only hurt them - so the defenders used asphalt!

The hot asphalt was poured down, sticking to the shields, clothes, and ladders, and then the torches were ignited, and one by one the burning men fell from the air screaming......

Several of the defenders lifted a log with ropes at both ends and nailed to it, and pushed it down against the ladder that was erected in front of them. There was a muffled sound accompanied by a scream, and the wood was pulled up again, and the nails were covered with fragments of armor, dripping with bright red blood...... Several soldiers were about to drag the log to another ladder, when a rain of arrows broke through the air, and one of the guys suddenly let go, covering the neck of the arrow and opening his mouth to make a sound, his tongue sticking out of his head, his eyes bulging out of his sockets, and a line of blood gushing out from the corner of his mouth...... Suddenly, the end of the beam fell and nailed the calf of the person next to him, who also let go of his hand and fell down holding his calf. A few guys on the other end were startled, threw down the rope in their hands, jumped away, and rolled forward, crushing a boiling pitch pot with black bubbles, and the flames flowed, slowly dispersed, and dispersed the defenders on this small section of the wall...... Fortunately, the ladder in front of him was burning, and no one could break into this potentially fatal gap for the time being. Ding Zhuang ran over with dirt bags on their backs and poured sand on the flames. The burned area became smaller and smaller, and the defenders rushed back again to fill the gap.

Not far in front of him, he angrily picked up the knife of the chief Wu Qian, and just cut down a Ding Zhuang. The man carried most of his bag of lime and shook it down to the city—lime and bran were good guards, and the attacker was blinded and lost most of his life. But this guy happened to loosen the mouth of the bag when a gust of wind blew, and the lime was filled, and the defenders around him threw down their weapons one after another, covered their eyes, cursed, and rolled on the ground. The lime and tears instantly released a high temperature that was almost boiling point, and I saw that these people were all blind!

A spear tip popped out of the battlement, stretching and stabbing chaotically, and the thief was coming! Wu Qian threw down his knife and roared, another soldier rushed over, and the two of them lifted Ding Zhuang's body and smashed it down to the place where the tip of the spear emerged!

There seemed to be a muffled sound in my ears, followed by the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground. Wu Qian held his helmet in one hand and the battlement in the other, and poked his head out of the wall to look down...... Suddenly, a spear head appeared from the side of his head near his eyebrows, and Wu Qian's whole person immediately froze! The tip of the spear that came out was pulled back, and Wu Qian's body shriveled to the ground, and then, a hand stretched out from outside the wall and grabbed the battlement. said that it was too late and that it was fast, Wang Jian jumped over with an arrow step, and chopped with a knife. There was a scream, and the small half of the palm and a few fingers were scattered on the city wall.

Without even looking at it, Wang Jian roared, and several soldiers dragged a wolf tooth and rushed over......