Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Gunpowder smoke filled the south city, and the sound of cannons roared like a thunderstorm. √∟Apex novel, the siege troops have retreated to the first line of defense, watching the messy scene of bricks and lime soil splashing and spreading on the city wall.

The shelling stopped after a while. There was a short period of tranquility outside the city wall, but there was a lot of noise inside the city wall, "Get your weapons! Line up..." The shouts of generals, the sound of gongs and drums made a commotion.

But at this time, the Zhou army did not swarm the city according to the original tactics.

At the Zhou army camp, Guo Shao came to the front on horseback and ordered loudly: "Decree, stop the siege on the whole line!"

Gao Yanchou stepped forward and clasped his fists and said, "Your Majesty, the Jiannan army has made up their minds to sacrifice their lives for the country, and their morale has not been shaken."

Guo Shao said solemnly: "The less the soldiers are afraid of death, the more I am afraid of their death!"

...After a while, scattered rangers galloped towards the city wall, galloping across the messy battlefield. The soldiers of the Northern Han Army didn't know what the Zhou army's rangers were doing. The cavalry attacked the city and there were so few people?

The Northern Han defenders on the city fired the ballista first, and the ballista had a range of more than two hundred steps! But the number of ballistas is heavy and there are not many, and the sparse arrows can't deal with the rangers running at high speed. The catapults in the city also fired their cannons one after another, but the sporadic rangers still had nothing to do, "Boom boom boom..." Stones smashed into the mud one after another, not even hitting a single person.

A group of rangers went far and near, within dozens of steps of the city wall, bows and arrows also greeted them, and the arrows shot at the armor of the cavalry of the Zhou army. Suddenly there was a horse neighing, and the horse of a Zhou army knight was shot, and the person on it fell down, rolling in dust.

But not long after, those rangers withdrew.

A general galloped to the banner of the Central Army of the Jiannan Army, got off his horse and knelt down on one knee, clasped his fists and said, "Your Majesty, the last general has been ordered to find out that there are eighteen gun pits around fifty steps away, six within a hundred steps, and two outside a hundred steps!"

"Okay." Guo Shao waved his hand.

At this time, forty or fifty military generals rode horses from all directions and gathered one after another, saluting the emperor riding on the tall black horse. Guo Shao nodded, and then said directly: "In Nancheng for more than a day, I have fired more than 1,500 times in total, and there are only more than 20 misfires within 50 steps. It takes about 75 times to fire cannons before I miss 50 steps. After misfiring, it may not be able to damage my equipment..."

Guo Shao's tone was not strong, but he was very calm, with clear articulate words and bright eyes. At such important times, he usually maintains a clear head and state, and his emotions are calm but sharp.

The generals listened with wide-eyed eyes. Since Guo Shao spoke at a relatively fast speed, not all of them could understand the meaning at once; but as long as Guo Shao understood them, he was not directing blindly, as long as they believed.

He continued: "So I decided to stop the method of attacking the city with ants attached to the city. This kind of method would cause too much loss and would not be able to effectively consume the enemy army. Changing the attack tactics, we can't hope to rush to the top of the city overnight, as long as the Northern Han army feels threatened and constantly deploy troops to defend and consume. Let General Gao assign specific command responsibilities."

...In the afternoon, outside the two- to three-hundred-foot-wide section of the Nancheng wall near the Wengcheng, the Zhou army concentrated more than two hundred artillery pieces; the siege fortifications in other places remained the same, but the artillery and military supplies were given to the key attack areas.

A large number of soldiers pushing wheelbarrows rushed towards the city wall in a sparse arrangement, and the carts were full of dirt! The carts are pushed by soldiers, not minzhuang, because soldiers have armor that is very good against bows and arrows. There are many archers, sword and shield players, and large ordnance accompanying the wheelbarrows. A large group of people slowly spread towards the city wall like a tide.

The military generals of the Northern Han Dynasty observed it, and built up soil to attack the city?

The flags on the top of the city waved, and a queue of Northern Han soldiers rushed up the city wall, carrying ballistas, cauldrons, and oil drums. Some strong men came up with stones and logs on their backs. There were many more people on the city wall than before.

Unexpectedly, those Zhou soldiers who were pushing the cart stopped at about a hundred paces. Then I heard the sound of drums in the open field outside the city, and after a while, the sound of "Boom! Boom..." cannons sounded, and rows of white smoke rose out of the artillery salvo.

The general on duty of the Northern Han Army yelled in a deep voice: "Oops! It's a trick!"

Zhou Jun's artillery is probably pretty accurate, and they will adjust the angle if they are not firing on time. Heavy rolling stones roared from the sky!

The Zhou army's catapults that attacked within two hundred steps also launched one after another. Some gunpowder bags tied with stones (increased weight) flew towards the top of the city, a bag of gunpowder suddenly caught fire in mid-air, and exploded with a "boom"! The flashing fire is more dazzling than fireworks. Moreover, the tumbling stones were still flying with explosive gunpowder, and an arc of fire and smoke was drawn in the air, like a rainbow! It was so bright that the defenders looked up at the sky and were stunned, but there was only one stone left when it fell on the city wall, and it was over with a sound.

Another medicine bag fell on the city wall, and the lead wire in the bamboo tube was still burning. Everyone looked shocked and avoided it. After a while, it exploded with a "boom", as if a fire was suddenly set on the wall, and the smoke was very large.

When another medicine bag came up, a soldier took a scoop of "golden juice" and poured it on the medicine bag, and there was no movement.

However, those hundreds of catties of rolling stones came whistling, hitting the female wall and the brick floor, and the earth and rocks were flying, very powerful! The dense crowd had a disastrous end, and screams were heard everywhere. "哐!" Suddenly a rolling stone violently knocked over the iron pot, and even the stove and firewood below flew up, and the "golden juice" in the iron pot splashed, and the surrounding soldiers covered their faces, screaming "Wow", and a stench spread.

The rolling stones fired by the artillery were heavy, and they flew obliquely from mid-air, as if they were invincible! With a "boom", the bricks on the city wall were directly shattered, and stones and soil splashed like arrows! If the crowd is too dense, several people will be injured by the rubble alone. Even the hard soil below will be broken into a big hole! The soldiers of the Northern Han Army were most afraid of this thing, and the battle alone was very scary.

"Boom boom boom..." The flames and white smoke on the field flashed in rows, and after each round of volleys, there would be terrifying stones whizzing down from high places! A thing weighing a hundred catties fell from mid-air with great force. If it happened to hit the parapet wall, that section of the parapet wall would burst and collapse!

Ghosts and wolves howled on the city wall, and many people retreated along the ramp of the upper city, and the ordnance was destroyed.

Amidst the sound of cannons, a large area of ​​Zhou soldiers and horses under the city continued to advance. Several huge cloud carts behind have been slowly being pushed closer, and one of them has slowly approached within a hundred steps of the city wall. It was a large chariot as high as four feet!

The huge cloud car is like a tower, with a lot of thick wooden wheels installed underneath, dripping oil on the wooden shafts, requiring dozens of people to push it, moving very slowly, with almost no maneuvering, it is easy to become a big target and be damaged; it is troublesome to build and consumes a lot of manpower. But it is considered a relatively powerful weapon when attacking the city. The three-story arrow tower above it is higher than the city wall, and it can turn around and attack the city wall when it is close! Moreover, the state of defense on the city wall can be clearly observed from above.

Three rows of bows and arrows protruded from the arrow holes, and "swish..." the arrows were thrown towards the city wall. The top of the city wall was filled with gunpowder smoke. The huge shout pierced through the gunpowder smoke, as if rushing to the sky.

Dots of rockets poured down from the city wall, "crackling" nailed into the planks above the clouds, and the oilcloth on the arrowheads was still burning. But the wooden board in front of the cloud car was covered with a thick layer of mud, and the rocket was useless to it. The city wall was also in a mess, and they didn't attack much.

After a long time, a group of burning fireballs flew out of the city, and black smoke was drawn in the air. Burning objects thrown by catapults. Most of them fell to the ground, but they were all near the cloud car, obviously aimed at this thing. The second time, many fireballs flew out, and a fireball wrapped in oilcloth hit the top of the cloud car, and there was a "bang" sound, and the black oil spread out and the fire became more intense. Not long after, another fireball hit Yunche.

A soldier rushed out of the arrow tower with a bucket of water, stood outside, and poured water on it. Unexpectedly, there was a "bang" sound of fire and boiling oil, and the soldier immediately dropped the things in his hand, holding his head and screaming heart-piercingly.

The archers on the arrow tower ran down the stairs quickly, and everyone shouted. The cloud cart was pushed backward by the people below, and the flames and black smoke spread from above, and there was a huge battle.

However, most of the Northern Han soldiers on the city wall withdrew to escape, but the catapults inside the city wall were still throwing stones outside the city.

A large crowd of Zhou Jun used it to about fifty steps from the city wall, and they planted flagpoles along a line one after another! It seems to be marking the approximate distance. At this time, a cyan flag shook violently from side to side, and the sound of the artillery from behind quickly subsided.

A group of soldiers pushed the soil to the corner of the wall. There was not much soil in one truck, but Zhou Jun's soil trucks kept going, and they dug holes to collect soil a hundred steps away. There were even people carrying wooden hammers to tamp the earth under the corner of the wall!

From time to time, people were hit by stones from catapults, but compared to the endless stream of people, the casualty ratio was very small, which did not stop Zhou Jun from working under the city at all.

Finally, there was a noise on the city wall, and more soldiers of the Northern Han Army were driven to the city again, and new equipment was also carried to the city. The movement was observed by a cloud car with more than 200 paces, and the gold was sounded in unison from behind, and the generals on horseback shouted among the people, "Go! Go back! We are going to fire the cannon..." The crowd under the city wall dropped their wheelbarrows and various things one after another, turned around and ran away.

The crowd had just retreated fifty steps away from where the flag was planted, when a tall red flag waved. The prepared artillery array immediately roared "boom boom boom..." and the mighty bombardment resounded through the world again. Although the lethality was still limited, it was enough for the people in the upper city of the Northern Han army to suffer another burst of losses!