My players are all acting

"oh?"

General Han Fuyue took advantage of the dim light in the camp to look at the drawings that Li Hongyun handed over.

"Is this... a trebuchet?"

General Han Fuyue vaguely recognized the objects on the blueprint, but there was not much joy in his words.

Because trebuchets are not a particularly rare item in this era.

As early as the Liang Dynasty, there were large-scale trebuchets, which required 150 to 250 people to pull the cannon cable, and fired stones weighing about 70 to 100 kilograms, with a range of seventy to eighty meters.

In daily siege battles, trebuchets are also quite commonly used siege equipment.

For example, during the Jingping Change, in order to conquer the capital of the Qi Dynasty, the Jin people sent craftsmen to build hundreds of large-scale catapults around the capital before the official siege, and stormed the city wall of the capital.

But the effect of this kind of trebuchet on the battlefield is not necessarily very useful.

It has at least three shortcomings: one is the short range, the other is insufficient destructive power, and the third is that it requires a lot of manpower and is very troublesome.

Because most of the trebuchets in this era are human-powered trebuchets, not counterweight trebuchets.

Throwing stones requires a large number of gunners to drag the sling.

This kind of trebuchet also uses the principle of leverage. The long section is used to place stones in the net bag, and the short end is tied with dozens of catapult cables.

When in use, everyone needs to drag the sling rope together to throw the stones in the net bag.

Obviously, this usage has relatively high requirements for the soldiers who operate it.

Dozens or even as many as one or two hundred soldiers must move in unison, no one can fish and paddle, and their movements must be coordinated with each other. Moreover, the power of manpower bursting out in an instant is relatively limited, so the stones thrown by such a trebuchet will be somewhat insufficient in terms of strength and range.

When General Han Fuyue was preparing to attack Yanjing City, he naturally prepared such manpower catapults.

Therefore, he was not very surprised when he saw the drawings of these officials from the Ministry of Industry.

Li Hongyun smiled slightly and reminded: "General Han, take a closer look at the size of this trebuchet."

General Han Fuyue took a closer look, and then took a deep breath.

Because it is clearly stated on the drawings that the size of this catapult, whether it is the footprint of the base or the length of the top lever, is several times that of an ordinary large catapult!

Take the largest trebuchet in the Liang Dynasty so far as an example, all of which fired stones weighing about 70 to 100 kilograms, and the range reached 70 to 80 meters.

However, the trebuchet on the drawings launched a huge boulder weighing 300 kilograms, and the range reached 250 steps, which is nearly 400 meters!

The weight is three times that of the original trebuchet, and the shooting range is more than four times.

More importantly, the drawings did not show a riprap cable that required a large number of soldiers to operate, but changed it to a huge weight box. After a large number of stones are loaded into the counterweight, the pulley structure can be used to pull down the projectile section before throwing the stones, allowing the counterweight end to rise to store energy, and then use the gravity of the counterweight end to throw the stones out.

Compared with dozens of people working together to pull the catapult cable to throw stones, such a mechanical structure is obviously more delicate.

General Han Fuyue couldn't help but his eyes lit up: "Good stuff!"

He could see that this trebuchet was obviously improved by more than a little compared to the original trebuchet.

It's just that I can't help being a little puzzled. Logically speaking, this structure is not particularly complicated. Why has no one researched it before?

Why has no one thought of using a counterweight trebuchet to replace a human trebuchet during the hundreds of years since the trebuchet appeared?

But no matter what, the appearance of such a big killer on the battlefield at this time is tantamount to adding a lot of variables to Yanjing City, which has been unable to attack for a long time.

General Han Fuyue immediately made a decision: "Okay, send an order immediately to build this new type of trebuchet!"

...

On the battlefield outside Yanjing City, the Qi army became busy.

A large number of soldiers began to transport the giant logs felled and transported from the rear, and then laid them according to the drawings at a place more than 200 meters away from Yanjing City.

First, a layer of sleepers at the bottom is laid in the already compacted ground, and then various structures are built layer by layer above, and a super-giant trebuchet is gradually formed in this way.

The surrounding soldiers, who were either busy or resting, all looked at this behemoth curiously.

"This trebuchet is too big! With a range of more than a hundred steps, can it really be thrown on the city wall?"

"The biggest trebuchet before could not do it."

"The moats and trenches outside the city of Yanjing were dug to a distance of nearly 70 to 80 steps by the Jinren. Ordinary catapults can no longer be thrown so far. This catapult is even more than a hundred steps away..."

"Seeing that this piece is much bigger than the average trebuchet, it should be able to throw it?"

"However, how many soldiers would need to pull the catapult to control such a huge monster?"

The soldiers were obviously a little unsure whether this new type of trebuchet could exert its due power.

At this time, the trebuchet has not yet shown its full appearance, so many soldiers thought it was still a traditional manpower trebuchet.

The reason why the human-powered trebuchet stagnated at a range of 100 catties and 70 to 80 meters is because it has basically reached its limit.

Dozens of people need to pull the riprap cable together to use it, which itself has reached a certain threshold. If 100 or 200 people pull the riprap cable together, since the personnel occupy a certain area, and the more people, the more difficult it is to control, so the difficulty of using it will also increase greatly, and the gain outweighs the gain.

Quite a few soldiers of the Qi army had used traditional manpower trebuchets, and of course they were well aware of this, so they were naturally skeptical of this behemoth under construction.

But soon, they realized they were wrong.

Because the shape of this new type of trebuchet is completely different from the original ones!

At one end of it is a huge weight box filled with heavy stones; at the other end of the long swing arm, it is connected by a rope to the pulley device below.

As long as a dozen soldiers work together to pull the lever, the long swing arm can be lowered by means of a pulley device, and then other soldiers will work together to roll the boulder weighing three hundred catties into the net bag.

"put!"

With an order, a soldier slammed the lock pin connecting the lever and the swing arm with a small hammer, and then the weight box suspended in the air fell heavily, and the huge boulder weighing three hundred catties naturally flew directly with the help of the powerful lever principle. into the air!

This boulder drew a perfect parabola in the air, and then fell into the city of Yanjing.

"boom!!"

There was a loud noise, and these soldiers could even feel the ground rumble and tremble under their feet.

It can be seen that this huge boulder crossed the city wall and directly smashed the buildings behind the city wall to pieces, and with no loss of strength, it rolled and bounced on the ground for a long distance.

On the high watchtower, you can see more clearly.

This boulder flew into the city, not only destroying all the buildings along the way, it even smashed into the ground several feet before stopping.

The city defense of Yanjing City was already solid, and the moat and trenches outside the city were more than 100 meters wide, which completely exceeded the range of ordinary trebuchets.

For the attacker, if the opponent's city wall cannot be covered with trebuchets, then one's own soldiers can only forcefully cross the trenches and moats to climb the city. In this process, the defender's various weapons will cause major damage to the attacker.

Even the soldiers couldn't get to the city at all, and they had already suffered heavy losses.

But with this giant trebuchet, the soldiers didn't have to forcefully attack the city at all, they only needed to keep moving boulders and throwing them into the city.

General Han Fuyue looked at the city of Yanjing from a distance, and couldn't help but beam with joy: "It seems that in a month or so, this city is expected to be conquered!"

However, players such as Li Hongyun and Cui Huowang felt a little disappointed after seeing the power of this trebuchet.

"The legendary return cannon, this is it?"

On the blueprint they took out, it was the return artillery used by the northern barbarians when they conquered Xiangyang City.

The ancient "cannon" is next to the word stone, which actually means a trebuchet. The reason why the "cannon" in chess requires a gun mount to shoot is also because the trebuchet actually uses the principle of leverage and also requires a bracket to be used.

At that time, Xiangyang City resisted the northern barbarians as an isolated city for six years, and it was finally conquered because of the appearance of the return artillery.

In fact, the detailed drawings of the return gun have been lost, but the structure of this kind of counterweight trebuchet itself is not complicated. Through various remaining drawings, these players who have obtained the status of "magic machine" are enough to make it recovered.

It's just the restored effect, but it's not very satisfying.

It's just a trebuchet after all.

As a matter of fact, although the Huihui artillery conquered Xiangyang back then, although it was blown hard, it was actually just the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Although the huge boulder thrown by the return cannon is powerful and destructive in this era, its accuracy is worrying after all. Even after professionals adjust the range and shooting angle, the hit rate is only about one-fifth.

Although the siege crew can calmly and continuously throw huge stones to a certain section of the city wall or inside the city outside the city, the transportation of the stone itself is also more troublesome, and it will take a lot of time to really capture a fortified city .

If Yanjing City at this time was guarded by the natives in this historical slice, it would not last long.

Because the return gun, a big killer, appeared on the battlefield for the first time, bringing not only powerful siege capabilities, but also a strong psychological deterrent.

The morale of the defenders was broken, and they were terrified by the boulders thrown by the return artillery. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before the city was captured.

However, the golden soldiers affected by the magic energy do not have the problem of morale collapse, and they will still resist tenaciously.

In this case, the time required to break through the city with return artillery increases exponentially.

General Han Fuyue said: "No matter what, this new type of trebuchet has greatly advanced the time for us to conquer Yanjing City!

"As long as we build a few more such cannons and attack several walls of Yanjing City at the same time, we will always be able to create a gap."

Li Hongyun shook his head slightly: "No need, General Han, we have something better."

General Han Fuyue was even more surprised: "A better one?"

With his level of cognition, he couldn't think of any better siege equipment than this giant trebuchet.

Li Hongyun and the other players left the battlefield and returned to their camp to be busy for a while.

Then, the heavy cannon dragged by several mules and horses came to the battlefield.

"This is?"

General Han Fuyue looked at this huge copper cast with some curiosity, and roughly estimated that it weighed several thousand catties.

Li Hongyun and other players commanded the soldiers to place the cannons, clean the barrels, load gunpowder and shells in a specific order.

"This is a new type of artillery that can replace the trebuchet!"

General Han Fuyue looked seriously at the cannon in front of him, somewhat doubting how it could replace the trebuchet.

After all, he has already experienced the powerful power of the return cannon.

Judging from the size, the return gun is more than ten meters high, and people below are like looking up at a huge monster. Pulling the lever and lowering the swing arm requires the joint efforts of many soldiers, and with so many stones in the counterweight box, its weight can be easily estimated.

Therefore, people in this era can more easily imagine the terrifying power of the return cannon.

But the artillery in front of me is hard to say.

It appears to be cast from copper, and its size is impressive, but how on earth does such a copper lump turn into a siege weapon? This is indeed a test of imagination for people at this time.

"Get ready—fire!"

With an order, Li Hongyun held a torch and lit the fuse of the cannon himself.

After the sound of "呲味味味" the fuse burning, Li Hongyun ran to the safe area in a hurry, and kindly reminded General Han Fuyue to quickly plug his ears.

General Han Fuyue did so with some doubts, and then, he heard a loud noise that shook the sky!

"boom!!"

The sound this time was far more terrifying than the sound of the boulder falling into the city of Yanjing!

Under the explosion of the gunpowder, the cannon weighing several thousand catties was buried in the soil, and the extremely heavy cannonball that was stuffed into the muzzle flew towards the city wall of Yanjing City!

The return gun is already the pinnacle of the trebuchet in the cold weapon era.

But in front of the cannon, it pales in comparison.

The trajectory of a stone thrown by a trebuchet is a parabola. As the stone rises, it first converts kinetic energy into potential energy, and then converts potential energy into kinetic energy.

In this process, huge rocks have to face the loss of air resistance, the farther the range, the greater the loss of kinetic energy.

Therefore, the return cannon can hit hundreds of meters, which is already the limit.

It is the most powerful weapon manufactured by human beings using physical properties under cold weapon conditions.

However, artillery directly converts the energy generated by the explosion of gunpowder into the kinetic energy of the shell, which not only has a high combustion rate, but also produces a large amount of high-pressure gas. The flight trajectory of the shell is similar to a straight line, so it can not only avoid the loss caused by the parabolic trajectory, but also greatly increase the range.

Therefore, the reason why the return gun did not appear later is not entirely because its technology was lost. The more important reason is that compared with the artillery, it is completely blown up in all aspects, and it is no longer suitable for the brand-new battlefield.

After a loud noise, all the Qi soldiers were so shaken that their ears buzzed and their eyes went black.

Then, they all looked in the direction of Yanjing City in unison.

I saw that heavy shell roaring and crashing into the city wall of Yanjing City.

Then, directly smashed a huge gap in the city wall!