Three Kingdoms

Before artillery appeared, the defender had an advantage in siege warfare, and it was a huge advantage.

Siege strategies can be roughly divided into four types: storming, siege, luring the enemy, and raiding.

In the early days of the Chinese feudal dynasty, and even in ancient times, the army often hoped to directly destroy the city gates and achieve the purpose of attacking the enemy's city. However, during this period, due to the underdeveloped siege equipment and extremely backward siege tactics, there were very few successful battles by force. Therefore, in "The Art of War", Sun Tzu emphasizes that "attacking a city will lead to defeat" and "attacking a city from below, the method of siege is a last resort", which largely reflects this problem.

According to historical documents, sometimes even if the attacking force has more than ten times the strength of the defenders, they still have to besiege the city for a long time, and finally defeat the opponent by eating, drinking, shitting and pissing. Therefore, those who use tricks to capture the opponent's city are often widely publicized, such as Trojan horses, secret tunnels, digging a river, etc...

But once the artillery was born, the gap between the offensive and defensive sides was narrowed.

There is almost no need to emphasize this. After everyone has seen the artillery, they will inevitably understand this.

The era of city walls collapsed after the emergence of artillery. Just like feudal barriers, they will eventually disappear in the long river of history, being submerged by the development of science and technology and becoming a broken piece of rubble at the bottom of the river.

His soldiers were making final preparations for the battle, and Taishi Ci was not idle either. He and several military princes confirmed the specific steps to capture the royal city. After eliminating the loss of clinging to the strong attack, everyone was full of confidence in the battle directly entering the royal city, so Taishi Ci said that he would not only capture it, but also fight it well, smoothly and beautifully.

If the artillery unit successfully opens a gap, but the infantry and cavalry that follow are staggering and trapped in street fighting and unable to extricate themselves, wouldn't it be a slap in the face?

Taishi Ci, based on the limited information gathered from capturing horse thieves, roughly divided the structure of the city into three parts. One is naturally the core area of ​​the palace and the royal city, the other is the commercial warehouse and hoarding area, and the last is the royal city. Residential areas, etc. The importance is also arranged from front to back.

And if you want to eat these three parts relatively completely, of course you need a certain arrangement.

It's not impossible to rush in like a swarm of swarms, but it may cause confusion in command. When the time comes, the jurisdiction of the area will be unclear, the divisions will not be clear enough, and it will be ugly to fish in troubled waters with chaos.

Even if you control the soldiers, you may not be able to control the local situation.

After all, if the distribution of responsibilities is not clear, there may be a state of two or three. How can it be called clean and tidy?

If you want to fight, you must set a benchmark!

Not only to reassure General Fei Qian, but also to set a benchmark for all the countries in the Western Region to take a good look at!

Therefore, Taishi Ci divided his troops into three parts, each with their own responsibilities. One part was to directly raid various city gates along the streets. All city gates must be closed in a short time, so that various areas of the city could be divided for convenience. The surrounding soldiers and horses entered the city as quickly as possible and controlled all parts of the city.

The second part is to surround the royal city and palace, and at the same time clear out the remaining enemy soldiers and horses on the streets.

The third part is to occupy the storage area and seal off the residential areas. At the same time, the three parts of the force have their own main coverage areas, some overlap with each other, and some operate independently.

Taishi Ci will be the core, responsible for scheduling and coordination. Anyone who is undecided must report it in time. Taishi Ci's requirements for all departments were to be brave and swift, not to disperse troops in secondary places, to focus on core tasks, and not to plunder without authorization.

Of course, these plans are based on the artillery directly blasting through the city gates and walls. Everyone, including Tai Shici, had full confidence in this item after seeing the power of the artillery.

When Taishi Ci and several military princes were determining the order of entering the city, high-pitched shouts rang out from the artillery position in front, followed by continuous roars, which suppressed the human voice again!

A deafening sound erupted from the artillery position, and thick bluish-gray and bluish-white smoke spread out, covering the long front line.

In order to prevent the artillery from affecting each other if there was any problem, the artillery positions were almost side by side, occupying the entire front of the battlefield.

Amid the roar, the artillery shot back violently, and immediately the shells roared out of the muzzle and smashed into the muddy city wall. The city wall near the city gate was smashed into dust, and large chunks of bricks and broken earth were thrown into the air. It fell, sending up smoke and dust all over the sky!

Even though there had been martial arts performances before, such a dense and loud sound still made the horses in the back row and on the periphery neigh, shake their heads, stamp their feet, and snort.

The God of War showed extremely tyrannical power when he first stepped onto the battlefield.

The gunners of each gun immediately cleaned the barrels of the guns with sticks wrapped in wet wool felt blankets. The water should not be too much, otherwise it will impregnate the gunpowder for the next launch, but it should not be too dry, and the gunpowder residue that has not been completely burned will be deposited in the barrel, which will affect the firing efficiency of the next artillery.

There was the sound of water vapor evaporating from the hot barrel, and the white smoke loomed over the soldiers.

After the gunner quickly cleaned the barrel, he waited for a moment and saw that the water at the mouth of the barrel was about to dry up. The loader filled the gunpowder bag into the barrel again, and at the same time another gunner covered it with a semi-wet cloth. Above the fire door, prevent torches or other igniting objects from accidentally falling into the fire door and igniting the gunpowder in advance.

After the charger, there is the task of the loader.

Two people held round iron bullets, raised them, and filled them into the muzzle. After loading, a third person needs to hold a special egg press... Well, it is a long rod with a top surface to press the iron bullet onto the gunpowder.

At this point, the preparations for launch are completed.

As for the subtle adjustments of the secondary launch and the modification of the target trajectory, at this moment, they do not exist yet...

Even with such a simple step, mistakes often occur at the beginning, but people who make mistakes often don't make mistakes next time, because most mistakes are fatal.

The next round of bombardment soon roared out again.

The smoke that filled the position spread layer by layer.

Although gunpowder is already considered a third-generation or fourth-generation formula, the purification work and particle packaging are gradually being carried out. Just like the gunpowder for the artillery this time, the weight is determined in advance, and then specially prepared. Bamboo paper is used for packaging to avoid the situation of being nervous when loading gunpowder and loading less or too much.

The burning of black gunpowder brought out a thick sulfide smell, like a gap opening in hell, spreading out the smell of death.

The old monk Busen in the rear array was in a completely sluggish state. He was trembling all over, like a dehydrated fish, and drool was unconsciously flowing from his open mouth, dripping. He fell to the ground, his eyes dull and lifeless...

Layers of smoke filled Bu Sen's vision, and his mouth and nose were filled with a strong smell of sulfide, making Bu Sen almost think he had fallen into hell.

"devil! Devil! Bu Sen shouted heartbreakingly, tears streaming down his face. Although he didn't see clearly the situation in Muni City across from the smoke, he could already imagine...

When a new era comes, everything in the old, no matter how brilliant it was before, is as humble as an ant.

The sounds of bricks and stones falling and collapsing kept coming from up and down the city, mixed with many screams and panic sounds. In front of the artillery, the city wall that claims to be powerful and solid is like a layer of egg shells. In the face of gunpowder, personal bravery is suppressed. When smokeless gunpowder is born and rapid-fire weapons appear, personal force will be completely worth mentioning.

After three rounds, the artillery position became quiet.

In order to extend the life of the artillery, after three rounds, it will stop and wait for cooling.

In order to extend the life of the artillery, after three rounds, it will stop and wait for cooling.

Although on the surface there does not seem to be any big changes, in fact because of the metallurgical technology and alloy technology are not up to standard, the bronze or black iron used in the artillery will undergo slight deformation after continuous firing, especially In the area at the rear of the breech, the explosive and burning gunpowder not only exerts force on the shell, but also on the breech.

Continuous firing will cause the originally cast or forged gaps in the gun bore to expand, increase metal stress, and shorten the life of the gun.

To put it simply, it costs money.

At present, within an hour, the artillery can probably fire six to nine times. After every three consecutive rounds of firing, you need to wait for the gun body to cool down. And even so, the life of the artillery is very short, and it can only guarantee a hundred times. It is safe to launch once, but it may explode at any time after that. Therefore, the use of artillery is basically limited to a hundred shots before it needs to be scrapped.

A scrapped artillery piece cannot be melted down, reused, and cast into an artillery piece again. Because with the current metallurgical technology, there is no way to completely remove sulfides, carbides and other impurities from the metal. They can only be used for secondary needs, such as making agricultural equipment and so on...

Therefore, these artillery were not only used as sharp weapons for the current siege, but also as raw materials for copper and iron agricultural tools for the subsequent development of the Western Regions. It can be regarded as barely killing two birds with one stone.

While waiting to cool down, the smoke slowly dissipates.

The devastated city of Muni was like a man and a woman who had overindulged in sexual pleasure and stayed up late. Their outer robes were torn off, revealing a broken face and body, completely losing their previous gorgeous appearance.

The yellow rammed earth city wall has almost no immunity to cannonballs. Under the gunfire, many cracks are almost visible to the naked eye, like land that has been dry for a long time, and the black cracks are bottomless. The battlements on the city wall are also quite damaged. I don’t know whether they were knocked down or knocked down by the earthquake...

The Shanshan King Tong Grojia who was originally on the city wall has long since disappeared, and the remaining Shanshan soldiers are like walking zombies, moving almost instinctively, as if they are still proving to themselves and others that they are still alive. …

Half an hour later, the artillery roared again.

The morale of the Shanshan garrison on the front wall had dropped to freezing point under the renewed firing of artillery.

Taishi Ci couldn't help but look back. As a top-level general, he had a deeper understanding of the horror of artillery than ordinary soldiers. Fortunately, the rate of fire of artillery was slow, and the firing was cumbersome and expensive. if not……

Taishi Ci couldn't help but shiver as he thought about it, and felt a chill on his back, but he soon felt glad that he was now on the side with the artillery. Then I thought of what Hussar had said before. The big man must always be ahead, at least thirty years ahead of his surroundings, whether it is military force or civilization. At first, Taishi Ci was confused and did not have a clear understanding. But everything in front of him also made Taishi Ci thoroughly understand the meaning of the word "leading".

Meanings written in blood and iron.

During the artillery fire, the city gate that was the focus of attention was not blasted. Instead, a section of the city wall near the city gate collapsed with a heart-wrenching sound, revealing a big gap!

"Send the order!" ” Taishi Ci shouted in a deep voice, “Attack! 』

In the wilderness, the war drums roared, as if taking over from the artillery's loud voice, they began to sing the next song "Xintianyou" from Guanzhong of the Han Dynasty.

According to the original plan, all the arrays moved, crossed the artillery line, and approached the foot of Wuni City.

The resistance on the wall of Muni, which was shelled from the front, was almost zero.

Because their respective tasks have been assigned and confirmed repeatedly in advance, the soldiers under the hussars basically did not stop at all, and did not even block or collide with each other. They were like flowing water, flowing from a distance. came, and then blended together naturally, mixed into the smoke and dust, as if they were originally here and had always been here.

The first team's array successfully rushed to the gap in the city wall and erected simple ladders. In some places, ladders were not even needed because the collapsed masonry and broken earth had already paved a not-so-steep path. Corridor. The commanding officer in the front row gave an order loudly. Immediately, the vertical array divided into two teams, and then divided into combat teams. Some moved along the collapsed rocks and mounds of earth, while others moved along the ladders. Quickly climb up the wall.

By the time these soldiers had climbed onto the city wall, it seemed that the Shanshan soldiers had reacted in panic and confusion, shaking their heads and bodies, and rushed forward in a scattered manner.

I have to say that those who can still maintain their fighting spirit under such circumstances may be considered very good warriors...

Unfortunately, that's all.

Regardless of morale, equipment, or even battle formations, they all lagged behind the Hussars' soldiers. Even if these Shanshan warriors mustered up the remaining courage to resist, how effective would it be?

The hussars and soldiers cooperated smoothly. After the first queue climbed into the city, the second queue was waiting at the bottom of the city. When the second queue climbed up, Li Long was in the third queue, in the city. Line up.

When Li Long led his people up, the Shanshan soldiers in other directions of Wuni City tried to come to block the gap in the city wall.

Unfortunately it's too late.

If we can set up an array at the first time, and then attack and suppress the fragile link of the hussars climbing with more strikes and fewer attacks, we may not be able to hold on for a while longer, but by the time the hussars have climbed up After forming two queues and spreading out left and right, even if these Shanshan soldiers reorganized their array, it would not have much effect.

The hussars fought while advancing forward. After occupying a certain city wall, they began to build a position. According to the plan, subsequent soldiers either supplemented the left line, supported the right, or advanced towards Li Long. Follow the direction, clear direction, no hesitation, no delay, no confusion and congestion.

The soldiers in King Shanshan City had no idea what they were going to do. One moment they heard this person shouting for support, and the next moment they heard another person shouting that they had been broken through by the Han people. It felt like they were trapped. Under the heavy siege of the Han people, there were loopholes everywhere and no one could defend against them.

Li Long led the people and ran straight forward along the street. Their purpose is very simple, which is to seize the city gate while the other party is unable to react, then open the city gate and then stand guard in place. As for other things, it has nothing to do with him!

After rushing forward for a certain distance, the smoke and dust gradually became thinner.

A group of Shanshan people rushed over. The leader of the team in front shouted an order. Immediately, there were soldiers holding crossbows. They took the crossbow arrows and fired them in front of their faces without saying a word!

Several Shanshan soldiers who rushed to the front were shot to the ground on the spot. Some died immediately, while others rolled and screamed on the ground.

The Shanshan soldiers who rushed behind were either startled by the death in front of them and their movements changed, or they had to dodge because they wanted to avoid the compatriots who were rolling and screaming on the ground. Queue big bad.

Li Long and others did not stop at all. After the crossbowmen finished shooting, they moved sideways to get out of the way and continued to load new crossbow bolts. The soldiers with shields and guns rushed forward to cover each other, and soon They defeated and killed the Shanshan people who were in chaos, and opened the way to move forward.

"continue! Keep going! Don't stop! 』

Li Long roared loudly, "Leave the enemy troops behind to be dealt with by the people behind!" 』

This tactic is completely unbelievable in the eyes of Shanshan people. They don't even know whether they should chase the team that passed before or face the next team that is coming.

In fact, this fighting method is an infantry fighting method that evolved from cavalry tactics.

After all, when the cavalry clashes, there is no way to say that it is like a TV movie. In the huge military column, a wide area is specially opened for the protagonist and supporting characters to fight each other, and others need to applaud on one side.

Most of the time, when cavalry are hedging, they only have one chance to fight. No matter whether they can kill the opponent or not, they have to face the next opponent immediately, and there is no time to care about the situation behind them. Only after the two sides stagger and rush out of the roundabout can they make a U-turn. In the next battle, Li Long and others, who were accustomed to cavalry tactics, naturally cooperated with each other in a tacit understanding, like a sharp knife, thrusting straight into the belly of the city...

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