Daqin Engineering Corps

Chapter 61 火弹

No wonder Hui cherishes this small piece of jerky so much.

It is very difficult for people in this era to eat meat, especially for soldiers fighting on the front lines.

The third-level Jue and the fourth-level Jue are better. In addition to getting polished rice, they can also get something called "sauce".

In Qin Dynasty, the making of sauce was called "醢", which means meat sauce and also means to chop people into meat sauce.

The method of 醢 is to dry and chop the meat first, then mix it with koji left over from wine making, add salt, sometimes add beans (beans), add some wine according to the situation, and put it in a clay pot to ferment for [-] days. .

The sauce made in this way has become the standard meal of the Qin army because of its long storage time and convenient transportation.

Of course, this is the standard configuration of the meals of the third-level Jue and above.

If it is not "Gao Jue Ji", the resulting sauce has almost no meat but beans.

Taste and look a bit like modern bean paste.

Not to mention, this thing is quite good.

The piece of jerky that Xi presented was a piece sent by his family, and he saved it to eat and there is still such a small piece left.

Of course, Shen Bing didn't dare to "smile and accept", but politely declined.

But when you think about it, it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to eat meat.

Just when he was thinking about drooling, Zhang Xuan rode his horse and ran to Shen Bing, jumped off the horse, and asked:

"Worker!"

"According to the general, the city wall of Handan is more than thirty feet high."

"Can I wait for the trebuchet to throw the fireball into the city?"

I haven't tried this before. When attacking a city with a trebuchet, I always considered the longest distance as long as it could hit the city wall.

Only when Wo Niu Mountain attacked the city wall did the fire bombs go over the city wall and hit the city.

However, the wooden city wall is only more than ten feet high, so there is almost no need to consider the height of the city wall.

Shen Bing didn't dare to answer lightly, after all, it was related to the outcome of the battlefield, and if something went wrong, it would be a serious crime of beheading.

"Let me do the math."

With that said, Shen Bing walked out of the queue and picked up a branch by the side of the road to line up drafts on the ground.

Shen Bing's mental arithmetic ability is not bad.

It's just that the units of length in this era are different from those in modern times.

When calculating, you need to convert steps and feet into meters first, so the problem is complicated.

After the conversion, it is the problem of the parabola. The highest point of the parabola can be roughly calculated based on the range, so the conclusion is drawn...

The fat man followed closely beside Shen Bing without saying a word, staring at Shen Bing and gesticulating on the ground intently.

Shen Bing ignored him, and after a while, he raised his head and said to Zhang Xuan:

"Sackcloth bullets can cross the city wall at two hundred paces."

"Songming bullets and flint bullets need to enter about a hundred steps..."

The pine shells and flint shells barely crossed the city wall at the highest point, so the range was halved.

The result of halving the range is to expose yourself to the blows of the enemy's crossbow and city wall trebuchet.

Zhang Xuan didn't believe that Shen Bing could come up with the answer in this way, he thought he would at least try a few times with a trebuchet.

"Is this true?" Zhang Xuan asked.

"Really!" Shen Bing nodded with certainty.

If it doesn't work, it is not difficult to set up a high platform to raise the trebuchet by a few feet.

Zhang Xuan nodded and replied:

"That's it, I just need to throw the sackcloth bomb into the city!"

"I ordered them to make a large number of sackcloth bombs and rush them over!"

As soon as he said that, he jumped on the horse and sent the order.

That is really a flying horse, a flying horse without stirrups, and wearing armor...

This difficulty is not small, so it is really not easy to ride a horse freely in this era.

Zhang Xuan's movements are also fast, or it can also be said that the production of the sackcloth bullets is very fast.

When the artillery division arrived in Handan that night, the first batch of sackcloth bombs also arrived.

Zhang Xuan went to the handsome tent to report to Yang Duanhe:

"General, the artillery division has arrived."

"According to Shen Bing, an artillery engineer... the sackcloth shells can be thrown into the city from two hundred paces away."

The reason why Zhang Xuan added "Shen Bing said" was because he was a bit guilty of not trying it.

If you can't throw it in, you can still leave yourself a way out.

I don't want Yang Duanhe to seem to trust Shen Bing very much, so he nodded when he heard this and said:

"That's it, let the gunners prepare for the siege!"

Zhang Xuan was taken aback, he didn't expect it to be so fast.

Seeing that Zhang Xuan didn't answer, Yang Duanhe looked at Zhang Xuan suspiciously and asked, "What's the matter?"

Zhang Xuan replied:

"To the General."

"The gunner is on his way, and he hasn't had dinner yet..."

Yang Duanhe waved his hand and said:

"It's not too late to eat after shooting the fire bombs into the city!"

Zhang Xuan answered "No" and hurriedly sent the order.

No wonder Yang Duanhe was in such a hurry.

On the one hand, he wanted to take advantage of the darkness to attack Handan, and on the other hand, he was worried about Wang Jian...

Using the improved trebuchet at night may not be noticed by Wang Jian.

In other words, if Yang Duanhe was able to break through the North Gate overnight, it would be too late for Wang Jian to realize it early the next morning.

So Shen Bing and others, who were so hungry that their chests were pressed against their backs, were rushed to the battlefield immediately.

Fortunately, the task of the artillery division is to fire shells from a distance. If they are confronted with the enemy, they will simply surrender in this state.

There is a cool breeze, and the bright moon hangs high.

The city wall of Handan stood majestically in front of Shen Bing under the moonlight.

The city was pitch black, and there was an uncomfortable smell of blood wafting in the evening wind.

Shen Bing knew that it was the trace left by the Qin army when they attacked the city during the day.

Although Zhao Jun said that his morale was low because of Li Mu's death, he was facing the capital of Zhao State at this time.

Everyone knows that the state of Zhao will perish as soon as the capital city is destroyed.

So even though Li Mu's pillar had fallen, there were still soldiers and civilians desperately resisting.

It was only later that Shen Bing realized that the facts were not the same.

The reason why Handan can resist so far is related to Qin Wang Yingzheng...

Ying Zheng, also called Zhao Zheng, was born in Handan.

At that time, he was a hostage, so he was bullied by the nobles of Zhao State in Handan.

Now that the Qin army is approaching the city, even though King Zhao has lost the will to resist, those nobles who have bullied Ying Zheng dare not give up...

Because Ying Zheng's cruelty is known to all the world.

If the Qin army took down Handan, it would be a strange thing not to dig out these nobles one by one and wipe out the nine clans.

Ever since, the nobles of Handan, who had been fighting each other with their own ghosts, were surprisingly united this time.

All the powers spent all their wealth and even sent men and servants to fight in the city.

This made the Qin army helpless against Handan for a while.

Even the continuous onslaught of Wang Jian's army was the same.

At this time, Wang Jian was standing on a high platform looking at Handan, thinking hard about how to break the city tomorrow.

At this moment, they saw fireballs in the north of the city rushing straight into the sky like the scorching sun, crossing the city wall and falling into the city.

Soon the city of Handan was in a mess...

The houses in this era are all made of wood, and the capital city is still very densely connected to each other. Once it is ignited, the fire will spread easily.

Wang Jian was shocked and asked the general:

"What is that?"

The general looked at it for a while and replied:

"Subordinates don't know."

"However, it is said that Yang Ting, the daughter of General Yang, used fire bombs to set fire to the enemy camp!"

"Could it be that the fire bomb?"

Chapter 62 举荐

The wooden houses in ancient cities are usually connected one by one and row by row, so fire is the most avoided.

This is why, in ancient times, arsonists were often punished with felonies.

At night, the watchman often shouted "be careful of the fire and candle" while reporting the watch, reminding fire prevention at all times.

Of course, the situation in Handan at this time cannot be solved by "be careful with the fire".

Handan originally had protection against "fire" from the outside.

It's just that the previous protection was against rockets.

The rocket shot straight into the city from outside the city and reached the sky in fifty steps.

As a result, no houses were built within fifty steps of the city wall.

Another advantage of doing so is that the open terrain facilitates the deployment of troops and supplies.

But today is different.

The Qin army used trebuchets, and the range was more than a hundred steps longer than that of rockets.

And it was a sackcloth bomb, which was light, elastic, and quick to catch fire.

After being thrown into the city, they bounced around and burned everywhere.

It's really... a must-have ammunition for home travel, murder and arson.

But after a while, Handan, which was originally quiet and quiet under the curfew, became chaotic like boiling water.

Shouts, splashes, exclamations...

At this time, Yang Duanhe took the opportunity to command the soldiers to launch a fierce attack on the city.

For a moment, the flames blazed and the sound of killing shook the sky, and the crowds in front of the city were so lively.

Looking at the group of soldiers attacking the city wall like ants along the siege ladder in the night, Shen Bing couldn't help sighing again the benefits of being in the artillery division.

What Shen Bing didn't know was that his troubles didn't come from Handan in front, but from behind...