The Rise of the Song People of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 35
Huang Gai, Han Dang, and Chen Wu led the remnants of the remnant army to land near Yanyang County in a panic. They grabbed a local villager who knew how to get to Yuzhang City as a guide, and marched towards Yuzhang City.

After walking for more than 50 miles in the direction of Yuzhang, when passing a forest, he was suddenly ambushed by a group of soldiers and horses. The few remnants of the soldiers scattered and fled in all directions. Huang Gai was secretly startled.

It turned out to be Hu Yanzan, one of the best generals under Lu Heng's command!

As far as Huyanzan's fame is concerned, it may not be very well-known in the whole world, but it is very popular in Jiangdong, Huainan and other places!This is a fierce general who can knock down the contemporary bully Sun Ce!
Sun Ce's name was earned on the ground. He was famous for his bravery in Huainan and Jiangdong. Especially after he defeated Liu Yao, most of Liu Yao's generals died in the hands of Sun Ce.

Huang Gai didn't think that his military strength could match Sun Ce who was already at the peak, let alone Hu Yanzan was surrounded by a fierce general who was more than nine feet tall and holding a handful of barbed wire.

This barbed wire thorn bone belongs to the long weapon of the hammer, and there are spikes on the long-handled sledgehammer. People who are not of great strength cannot use it. Since ancient times, there is a saying that the hammer and stick are invincible.

Wherever Dong Xi went in the rebellious army, he would die if he touched him, and he would be injured if he knocked him.

Dong Xi, who was in high spirits, saw a general fighting there, and urged his horse to throw at this general. During the battle, Chen Wu saw Dong Xi's ferocity and unusually charged towards him, and he knew that the horses that had speeded up were not his two horses. One leg can run across it.

Only a donkey rolled and dodged a fatal blow, stood up and fought with Dong Xi with a gun.

Chen Wu danced the iron spear up and down, and with a move, the spirit snake came out of the hole and attacked Dong Xi's vital point. Dong Xi saw the long spear going straight to the vital point, but he didn't dodge, and raised the barbed thorn bone with one hand to face the iron spear.

"Dang!" With the sound of weapons intersecting, Chen Wu's iron spear almost missed and flew out, with such great strength that he was invincible, Chen Wu changed his moves and walked around Dong Xi.

When it comes to generals who use hammers and sticks, they are often powerful, and many of them are born with supernatural powers!

They like to fight against people like Sun Ce who are open and close, defeating the opponent with force, and wrestling with each other with force is their favorite rhythm.

Often this kind of martial arts will ignore the training of their own moves, so they cannot improve their martial arts skills. This is also the reason why there are few top fighters who use hammers and sticks.

Chen Wu's own martial arts skills are not low, and he is indeed inferior to Dong Xi in terms of strength. He no longer dares to confront Dong Xi head-to-head. The enemy general, Chen Wu, was as nimble as a monkey.

The two generals fought back and forth like this for more than twenty rounds and were locked in a stalemate. However, there were fewer and fewer soldiers around Chen Wu, and he could no longer fight with Dong Xi. He jumped out of the battle group and ran into the woods with a feint.

Huang Gai, Han Dang, Chen Wu and others had no horses, so they could only fight on foot, not wanting to fight, and fled to Yuzhang in a hurry.

But they discarded all the military supplies (the horses were all in the merchant ship, either captured by Jiang Qin or drowned), even the generals traveled on two legs, not to mention the soldiers of this defeated army.

Fortunately, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Chen Wu and others had few soldiers. Except for the main cities and official roads in Yuzhang County in the Eastern Han Dynasty, most of them did not develop many mountains and forests, which was conducive to their escape all the way.

Just when Huang Gai and Han Dang tried their best to get rid of Hu Yanzan and Dong Xi.

Lu Hengjun had been smashing Yuzhang City with catapults for three or four days. A few days ago, after more than ten days of rushing work day and night, the craftsmen finally produced the first batch of fifty catapults with pulleys.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu waited for more than ten days without Lu Heng's army attacking the city, nor did they wait for Danyang's elite to arrive, but they waited for the overwhelming boulder to attack.

The matter started four days ago, when Sun Ce was patrolling the wall as usual.

Lu Heng's army's calm for several days made Sun Ce feel a little slack. Suddenly, Sun Ce noticed that Lu Heng's army had launched a huge monster. It was about several feet high and needed dozens of people to push it.

After seeing such a siege equipment, Sun Ce secretly recalled, could it be?
Uncertain in his heart, he immediately ordered his soldiers to call Zhou Yu to the top of the city. When Zhou Yu rushed to the top of the city in a hurry, he saw the catapult that Lu Hengjun was debugging without being reminded by Sun Ce.

Sun Ce asked Zhou Yu uncertainly, "Gong Jin, is this kid Lu Heng building a trebuchet?"

Zhou Yu nodded and said with certainty: "It must be. It turns out that there has been no siege for more than ten consecutive days. It should be making this siege machine."

Sun Ce said worriedly for a while: "How can this be good? Our army has no horses and cannot destroy such a siege weapon!"

"Bo Fu, don't worry too much. This trebuchet is indeed a powerful weapon for siege, but the manufacture of this trebuchet is cumbersome, and it is too heavy to be transported. It can only be manufactured on site. Yu Ding Lu Heng doesn't make many, only a few trebuchets It should be fine!
Moreover, the trebuchet is extremely difficult to control, and the hit rate is extremely low!
As far as Yu knows, a trebuchet requires more than a hundred people to operate, and it cannot be used for a long time at all!

I just need to stay close to the city wall to avoid the sporadic boulders when boulders fly out. If Lu Heng's son presses the treasure on this trebuchet, it will definitely be useless! "

While Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were talking about the trebuchet, Lu Hengjun's trebuchet, which was being debugged, began to test fire the first shot, and more than a dozen artillerymen in Lu Heng's army pulled the gun rope together.

Because Lu Heng was afraid that Sun Ce would go out of the city and destroy it, he placed the catapult in the army, so Zhou Yu didn't see this scene clearly, otherwise he would be shocked, and he wouldn't be so confident.

I saw the boulder from the first shot flew for a long time before falling to the ground a foot away from the city wall. There was a loud bang and the earth flew up.

Sun Ce burst out laughing when he saw this: "Lu Heng has made a mistake. It is impossible to break into a certain Yuzhang city with such a weapon!"

After about a cup of tea, the second stone bullet flew out. This time, the angle of the wooden pole was obviously adjusted, and the boulder flew farther.

But it was far away, but this time it crossed the city wall, flew into Yuzhang City, smashed into the open space of the east gate, rolled three times and then stopped.

Seeing this situation, Sun Ce laughed so hard that he couldn't support his waist, but Zhou Yu's expression changed slightly, and then he suppressed the anxiety in his heart. Sun Ce was still laughing and didn't notice Zhou Yu's abnormality.

The third cannon was not fired that day, so Lu Heng's army withdrew hastily, without saying anything for a day.

The next day, the relaxed and careless Sun Ce finished washing up as usual and was about to have breakfast before going to patrol the city.

The guards suddenly came to report: "General Qi, all the weapons that Lu Heng's army test-fired outside the city yesterday are all laid out. General, go and have a look."

Zhou Yu, who was on the side, asked Xiang's soldiers: "How many trebuchets are there in total? It's the equipment that attacked the city yesterday, ten or fifteen?"

In Zhou Yu's mind, in just ten days, at most a dozen catapults can be built is already very remarkable, but with these catapults alone, it is impossible to destroy the city of Yuzhang.

The soldier heard Zhou Yu's inquiry and blurted out: "Many, many, many, I counted at least forty, and the enemy is still installing them!"

Zhou Yu was taken aback, and reconfirmed in disbelief: "Confirm more than [-]? If you dare to deceive our military law!"

The soldiers replied loudly: "If there is any deception, you can cut off my head!"

"Not good!" After hearing the news, Zhou Yu didn't even bother to eat, and rushed out of the prefect's mansion to the south gate. Zhou Yu's personal guards followed in order to avoid falling behind. Seeing Zhou Yu's gaffe, Sun Ce also followed.

The prefect’s mansion was still some distance away from the east gate. Zhou Yu galloped on horseback, not caring about the people on the road. He could only yell and let the people get out of the way. Fortunately, the people who had been besieging the city were panicked for days. There were no people on the road, which greatly reduced Zhou Yu’s hustle. time.

But before Zhou Yu reached the east gate, he heard, 'thump, thump, thump'.

Zhou Yu's place was more than a dozen miles away from the east gate, and there was such a loud noise, which showed what kind of terrifying attack was being made at the east gate.

Zhou Yu galloped on his horse and arrived at the east gate, where he saw a scene of ruins and ruins!

A lot of huge stone bombs hit the open space, and two watchtowers were smashed down. The originally neat and solid wall stacks seemed to have been squeezed by something. Some were only half a piece, and some were missing a corner. , and some disappeared directly.

The bed crossbows placed on the city suffered a major attack, and almost all of them fell apart!

The soldiers guarding the crossbow on the bed were all stunned. Some were smashed into blood by the boulder, some were hit by the impact of the boulder and spurted blood to death, and the worst was half crushed under the boulder. Still howling there!
Just as Zhou Yu was about to say something, he saw the second wave of boulders flying towards the city wall. From a rough look, there were more than 50 huge boulders flying in the sky, and they would fall on the heads of his soldiers and horses in the next moment!

Zhou Yu had no time to sigh at such a spectacular scene, and shouted loudly with all his strength: "Everyone disperse, everyone disperse, hide in the wall!"

As soon as the shout fell, Zhou Yu heard: "Boom! Boom! Boom!, Boom! Boom! Boom! Kacha! Ah!" All kinds of voices!
Zhou Yu was terrified to see several giant stone bullets, which were thrown at his own guards, and landed on their heads, plowing out two bloodstains!
A few more arrow towers were smashed, and the soldiers hiding in the arrow towers fell directly to the city, and the few remaining bed crossbows were all smashed into waste wood.

Several huge boulders rolled directly onto the boiling oil on the inside of the city wall. The hot boiling oil poured on the soldiers lying on the ground hiding aside, and screams were heard!

Some stone bombs hit the city wall directly, and the rammed city wall began to vibrate, cracking long and short holes.

After about three breaths, a loud bang passed and everyone on the city wall and under the city wall was in mourning. Zhou Yu, who was hiding in the wall, felt that the earth was shaking (from the boulders that fell on the city wall), and his ears were a little deaf. I don't see what other people are saying.

The city wall of Yuzhang was in chaos, with various screams, shouts, and howls intertwined in the ears.

Sun Ce, who was chasing Zhou Yu, was a little dazed. Sun Ce was rushing from the city, and easily dodged the boulder flying towards him when he heard a deafening sound.

Sun Ce, who was worried about Zhou Yu's safety, rushed to the city wall before the boulders fell. Seeing Zhou Yu standing beside the wall, he hurried over and shouted, "Gong Jin! Gong Jin!"

Zhou Yu, who was temporarily deaf, only saw Sun Ce rushing towards him, as if calling his name, but he couldn't hear anything, his ears were buzzing, and his pupils dilated instantly when he looked back at the city.

Zhou Yu, who didn't have time to say anything, hugged Sun Ce and hid in the wall, but the soldiers and civilian husbands of Sun Ce's army on the city wall were not so lucky, and were instantly submerged by large and small stones!
It turns out that Lu Heng's army's first two salvos of trebuchets were loaded with boulder bombs, with the purpose of destroying the defensive equipment on the city, such as arrow towers, bed crossbows, boiling oil, etc.

But the third volley was loaded with large and small stones. These stones were of different sizes, some were the size of a ping-pong ball, some were the size of a badminton ball, and the largest were the size of a bowling ball. soldiers!
After all, the area under the wall was very narrow, and there were not many people to avoid. More soldiers just lay there, or fled under the city wall. Lu Heng concluded that Zhou Yu's army was very strict, and the soldiers did not dare to escape from the city wall without authorization. A salvo will kill a lot!
In fact, Lu Heng originally imagined that there would be a fourth wave of salvo. What this salvo fired was not stones, but coal soaked in fierce fire oil!

It's a pity that today is the first time that the trebuchet has been unveiled. The rocket and the well rail are not ready, and there is no way to use the rocket to ignite it.

Otherwise hum!snort!Let Vulcan Zhou Yu become a roast chicken!

The facts were exactly as Lu Heng imagined. After this round of rubble, except for those who were hiding under the female wall or had cover, very few other soldiers could stand up on the city wall.

Large and small stones are very lethal. Even if you lie on your stomach, a large stone may fall from the sky. Either it will break your limbs, or it will directly cause internal injuries.

The entire army of personal guards who followed Zhou Yu to the city wall was wiped out, and sixty-seven out of ten of the 3000 people on the south wall were lost.

Only a few hundred people were unscathed, and the catapult was only the result of the first round, and the battle damage accounted for one-eighth of Sun Ce's total force.

(Sun Ce has a total of more than 3 soldiers and horses, 3000 of which are assigned to guard Chaisang, and [-] people and horses from each of the four sects are rotated)

Seeing such a heavy loss, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were shocked!
Zhou Yu also doubted his own judgment for the first time. He has read military books and dare not say that he has experienced hundreds of battles, but he is by no means a person who does not know how to fight!
If the trebuchet was so sharp and a siege weapon, it would have been as popular as a bow and crossbow in the Eastern Han Dynasty!

At present, the siege equipment of various princes is still mainly rushing carts, ladders, and wells. Few of them use trebuchets. Sun Ce is not new to the battlefield. If Sun Ce had such a sharp weapon back then, Lu Kang would not have been able to defend for a year. .

The catapult was indeed invented in the Spring and Autumn Period, but it was rarely used at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty!

The biggest problem is not that it is bulky, nor is it not accurate, but that it is too slow, difficult to operate, easy to damage, difficult to scale, and so on.

A catapult without pulleys, a catapult needs to be pulled by two or 300 people to throw a giant stone bomb!

These two 300 people can't be civilian husbands or soldiers brought in at random, they must be trained to a certain extent, and they must be strong and durable soldiers!

And you have to train hard together. If the force is not uniform, the launch force will not be enough. The weight of the boulder plus the acceleration will directly break the wooden pole (lever) and cause casualties!

Even a well-trained artilleryman will be exhausted after two or three pulls, and the decompression wooden pole without a pulley is easily broken and cannot be scaled at all.

Coupled with the fact that the aim is difficult to control, the deterrent effect of the catapult is far greater than the actual lethality.

But Lu Heng threw out the pulley. This small device made a big step forward in technology in this era, allowing the trebuchet to be launched without the soldiers' dead effort, and by borrowing the pulley's strength.

This greatly reduces the situation of uneven force, and also greatly improves the accuracy of the head!

It became possible to fly stones all over the sky, and the combat power of the trebuchet was greatly increased. In fact, after a few years, the Thunderbolt chariot used by Cao Cao was also used with manpower and quantity, which made the princes of all walks of life pay attention to the trebuchet.

Zhou Yu had no choice but to pull the reserve troops to the city wall to defend the city. He couldn't stop the soldiers from defending the city for fear of casualties, so he might as well give Yuzhang City to Lu Heng.

Zhou Yu said helplessly: "Give out all the big guns and iron shields in the city to the soldiers, and if there are not enough, the door panels will be removed. If the enemy releases huge stone bombs and orders the entire army to disperse. Playing defense may reduce casualties."

Both Zhou Yu and Sun Ce also realized that Lu Heng's army with the sharp weapon of catapult is already very difficult to deal with!
After Lu Heng builds all the siege equipment such as cloud carts, rush carts, and wells, Yuzhang City will be difficult to defend.

At this time, Zhou Yu began to worry about the elite troops going south from Danyang. If there were any mistakes in this army, and if there was no foreign aid, I might have to think about how to deal with it in the future.

　I feel like the three recommended tickets for reading books quickly, thanks to the book friends: the recommended tickets for the sky!Thank you for your support!Ask for collection!Ask for a recommendation ticket~
　　


(End of this chapter)