The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 394 The Battle of Zhangshui (4) 4K[-]
Amidst the sound of rumbling footsteps, rows of spears rose and fell along with the bodies of the soldiers of the Xiyuan Imperial Army on the front line about [-] meters long.

The [-] West Garden Forbidden Army, with the village as the unit, lined up a tight formation and moved forward slowly.

Fighting on the battlefield, unless it is an assault, it is absolutely not allowed to leave one's own army without authorization.

Chunyu Qiong rode in the most central position, giving orders calmly and calmly. Although the imperial army in the West Garden was the best in the world, after a certain distance, the army still needed to be regrouped.

"General! Be careful!!!"

Just as Chunyu Qiong looked around the army formation and issued an order to a messenger, a cry of surprise rang out in his ears.

Chunyu Qiong's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly turned his head to look in the direction of the Yellow Turban Army.

Chunyu Qiong's pupils suddenly dilated due to the incomparable fear, and he saw a scene that he will never forget in his life...

Dozens of boulders rose from behind the formation of the Yellow Turban Army, crossed the gloomy sky, and flew towards him rapidly.

The stones in the sky are falling, they are getting closer to the ground, and they are getting closer to where Chunyu Qiong is.

Chunyu Qiong's face was pale, and he just stood there in a daze. The huge stone flew towards him rapidly, and he couldn't control his body at all. There was only panic in his mind, and his muscles had even become stiff.

"Boom!"

At a critical juncture, the guard who had raised his voice to remind him suddenly lifted his body, kicked off the saddle, and leaped from the horse he was riding towards Chunyu Qiong.

"catapult!!!"

Panic was also caused in the formation of the Imperial Guards in the West Garden. Huge boulders in the sky were rushing toward their direction!
Under the action of gravity and inertia, the stone bullets thrown by thirty Yellow Turban army torsion trebuchets slammed into the formation of the Forbidden Army in the West Garden.

Huge stones were quickly thrown down towards the Han army's formation, and the stone bombs thrown by the torsion trebuchet could weigh 23-79 kg. The first round of stone bombs loaded by the Yellow Turban Army was about 40-50 kg.

Amidst the ear-piercing whistling sound, stone bullets weighing tens of catties fell down one after another.

There was an unstoppable turmoil in the army formation of the Xiyuan Imperial Army. No one wanted to be hit by the boulder falling, but the general was right beside them, and strict military orders restrained them.

When marching and fighting, if he does not obey orders and leaves the army without permission, he will be punished by beheading.

And Xiyuan Forbidden Army is indeed an elite army selected from the Communist Party of China. Even if the stone bullets are getting closer, no one still stops their footsteps.

"Raise your shield!!!"

The voice of the general of the Han army even became shrill because of fear, and all the forbidden soldiers of the West Garden in the army formation raised their curved shields and blocked them above their heads.

Even if everyone knows that the stone bullets thrown by the trebuchet cannot be resisted by a mere curved edge shield, but this is more or less a psychological comfort.

The stone bullet bounced and rolled on the hard grass with great force, whizzed from the air and slammed into the formation of the imperial army in the West Garden, directly leading a path of blood.

All the soldiers who blocked the stone bullet's path, no matter whether they were wearing iron armor or holding curved edge shields, had only the next end-that was to be broken into pieces!

"Oh!"

A stone bomb whizzed down from the air, smashing hard into a formation of the Forbidden Army in the West Garden.

"Crack!"

The curved edge shield wrapped in the animal skin shattered at the sound, but the inertia of the stone bullet has not subsided, and the huge force directly acted on the head of the forbidden soldier.

"Bang!"

But after hearing a crisp sound, a piece of the iron helmet on the head of the Xiyuan Imperial Army soldier was dented, and his head shattered on the spot like a watermelon, blood spurted out, and the white liquid slowly flowed down the iron helmet .

"Ahhh!!"

There were screams around the soldiers of the Xiyuan Imperial Army who fell down.

The shattered curved edge shield also turned into a terrifying hidden weapon at this time, and pieces of wood flew out. The worst person had a sharp piece of wood stuck in his eyeball.

He knelt on the ground, the sword and shield in his hand had already been thrown aside by him, he wanted to touch his injured eye with trembling hands, but the piece of wood could not be touched, once touched, it would be hurt even more for severe pain.

Blood slowly dripped down his injured eyeball, the general shouted loudly to continue forward, shouting desperately, the surrounding soldiers could only bypass the injured soldier and continue to move forward.

There was no one in the army to take care of him, and the stone bullets flew in, and everyone was panicked.

More stone bullets fell into the formations of the Forbidden Army in the West Garden. Not all formations were as lucky as the first wave of attacks, but one person was killed and several others were injured.

A big rock weighing seventy to eighty catties smashed into an army formation with unparalleled impact.

This time, good luck did not favor the imperial army established in the West Garden. The soldiers holding their shields did not block the sudden boulder.

The stone bullet slammed into the crowd, and the huge impact directly broke the arms and half of the bodies of the two soldiers, denting the iron armor.

The unabated stone bullets bounced a little on the grass, and smashed the legs of several soldiers of the Xiyuan Imperial Guards into a bloody mess.

The armor of the Han army focused on the protection of the head and chest, and the legs with skirt armor also had good protection ability, but the protection of the lower legs was generally relatively weak, and ordinary soldiers did not have the protection of the lower legs at all.

Troops like the Imperial Army of the West Garden only had relatively thin leg armor tied to their calves to prevent stabbing, so how could they block the heavy blows of stone bullets.

The brave Xiyuan Imperial Guards screamed and wailed and rolled to the ground one by one.

Chunyuqiong was thrown to the ground by the guards from the horse, and before she could recover, she heard a loud whine and crash.

The stone bullet fired by the Yellow Turban Army's catapult smashed the head of his mount into minced meat, and the horse fell limply to the ground, and the stone bullet hit the front leg of a horse behind it as it was still alive.

The huge impact directly broke the horse's leg, and the horse fell down with a wail. The knight on the horse couldn't react in time, and was crushed by the horse. I'm afraid that the thigh that was pressed by the war horse has already broken a bone, and he will have to rely on crutches for the rest of his life.

Chunyu Qiong's complexion was pale, and he glanced gratefully at the bodyguard who threw him to the ground. He was only one step away from life and death. If his bodyguard hadn't reacted, he might have become the No. A school lieutenant who died at the hands of bandits.

Before Chunyu Qiong was lucky enough to escape from the dead, more stone bullets also fell into the formation of the Imperial Guards in the West Garden.

There were shrill screams coming from all around. The formation of the Xiyuan Imperial Army was too dense, and the distance of the Yellow Turban Army's catapults had already been adjusted in advance, so it would be difficult to miss them even if they wanted to.

Although the hit rate of the trebuchet is impressive, if it really falls into the army formation, the long-distance intensive killing effect it will cause is also extremely terrifying.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were only human-powered catapults. Since the size of the manpower was different each time, the landing point of the stone projectiles thrown by the human-powered catapult could almost only depend on luck and could not be predicted at all.

That is to say, when attacking the city, it is useful to attack the city that cannot be moved, or when defending, it is somewhat useful to attack the siege troops at a close range against the dark area below the city.

Lu Zhi looked at the two wings with a livid face, the Forbidden Army of the West Garden who was in a panic because of the stone bombs thrown by the trebuchet.

It never occurred to him that Xu An actually hid that strange catapult machine in the formation of the Yellow Turban Army. It didn't need many people to pull it, and it was much smaller than the human-powered catapult machine.

When Lu Zhi came to take over Jian Shuo's command position, he also learned that there was a strange large-scale stone throwing machine in the Yellow Turban Army, which could throw large stone bullets nearly two hundred steps away.

That strange large-scale trebuchet was also recorded by the Embroidered Clothes Messenger, and Lu Zhi also learned about related experiences. Although this kind of trebuchet has a long throw distance and great lethality, it must not be used in field battles, because that The reloading of this kind of catapult is really slow, and it is too bloated.

However, Lu Zhi carefully observed the formation of the Yellow Turban Army before going out into battle. Lu Zhi saw the bunkers, fences and yellow steps clearly at that time, just because the information he received was that kind of strange large stone throwing machine, He was quite tall, and it was impossible to hide in a bunker, so Lu Zhi didn't think about that.

Although Lu Zhi is proficient in the art of war and is familiar with equipment, he has no idea of ​​the particularity of the torsion catapult at all.

Although the torsion trebuchet may be inaccurate due to the dissipation of the elastic force of the torsion twisted rope, it is better to judge the landing point than the manpower trebuchet that relies entirely on manpower. Some are more traceable.

Thirty stone bullets hit, as many as twenty-one stone bullets hit!
Of the remaining nine, only four fell outside the formation, and the other five fell in the gaps between the formation of the Forbidden Army in the West Garden, losing power.

The right camp led by Chunyuqiong and the left camp led by Xia Mou were simultaneously attacked by the yellow turban army's catapults.

This sudden stone bomb attack also caused the Han army to panic.

It's not that the people who served as soldiers had never seen the trebuchet, they had all seen the fixed trebuchet on the city wall, but now they were in the field, and they were actually attacked by the trebuchet.

And still at such a long distance, they were attacked by stone throwers, and even those stone bullets were too accurate.

Panic spread in the Han army's formation, and there were screams one after another. It was the wailing sound of soldiers who had broken their legs and feet by stone bullets, were seriously injured, and were about to die.

Xia Mou's situation was much better than Chunyu Qiong's. There was no catapult throwing stone bullets near him. He did not take the lead like Chunyu Qiong, but took command from the rear, but Chunyu Qiong was indeed too unlucky.

"Speed ​​up, walk fifty steps forward and form a team!"

Xia Mou drove his war horse, galloped through the gaps in the army formation, shouting for victory.

"It's inconvenient to load the enemy's trebuchet and it takes time to load it. Hurry up and press it, our army will win!!!"

In the formation of the Han army, the sound of the drums on the chariots suddenly became urgent. The left barracks was attacked by catapults. The soldiers in the barracks still regained their composure.

The inconvenient loading of the trebuchet and the inaccurate landing point are almost well-known things.

At this time, as long as you speed up, you will definitely be able to avoid the second wave of stone bombs.

Xia Mou is an old official of the Yuan family, and he used to advise the officials, but he is not an ordinary scribe who only deals with scriptures. The position of Lieutenant of the Xiyuan Forbidden Army is up.

Xia Mou has also heard about the trebuchet from the records, so he naturally knows some countermeasures and common sense.

Xia Mou brandished his horsewhip, and kept giving orders, commanding the soldiers under his command to change the formation. The line of the Xiyuan imperial army in the left barracks had been stretched from the original length of more than [-] meters to nearly [-] meters long.

The strength of the trebuchet will affect the distance, and the strength is basically different each time. Therefore, lengthening the front and reducing the width of the army can reduce the hit rate of some stone bombs.

Just when Xia Mou was concentrating on directing the soldiers under his command to change formations, he suddenly heard an extremely loud noise.

Xia Mou's complexion changed drastically, and he looked up at the gloomy sky.

really!

The Yellow Turban Army's trebuchet was activated again, and the stone bombs were flying towards them rapidly.

……

"First team, fire!"

A yellow turban army led the ring head knife in his hand and slashed down heavily.

A quick and sharp whistle sounded, and the ten torsion catapults on the far left were suddenly activated by the warriors of the Yellow Turban Army. The projectile rods rebounded suddenly and hit the beam with a loud noise. The bomb was thrown into the air.

"The second team is ready!"

The yellow turban army's catapult position seemed extremely orderly. The observers in the watchtower used binoculars to observe the position of the Han army, and reported the data loudly to the yellow turban army under the watchtower.

"Team [-], three laps, three laps! Speed ​​up!"

The ten catapults in the center are the catapults of the second team. They turned the wheels hard to wind the catapults.

"The third team, let's take two and a half laps! Get ready!"

The soldiers of the catapult brigade shouted eagerly, the distance of one or two hundred meters, in fact, it doesn't take long for people to run across.

In combat, the army needs to line up the army formation and move forward slowly to keep the army formation intact so that they can have multiple attacks. There is not much time left.

Xia Mou's face was livid, the Yellow Turban Army's catapults far exceeded his imagination, why can the loading speed be so fast!
One after another, the stone bullets hit the Xiyuan Forbidden Army who were marching fast, but this time, the hit rate was not as terrible as before.

Only four of the ten stone bullets hit, but Xia Mou still couldn't be happy.

He saw more stone bullets flying towards this side, and the atmosphere of panic was spreading. The actual damage caused by the stone bullets was actually not as much as imagined.

Twenty-four stone bombs hit, only causing casualties of [-] to [-] people. For the left barracks of the Xiyuan Imperial Army with [-] people, the loss can be said to be minimal.

The Yellow Turban catapults were more of a blow to their morale.

"Steady the army formation and go forward another [-] steps! As long as we engage with the enemy, the 'Moth Thief''s trebuchet will no longer be able to continue firing!!"

Xia Mou screamed hoarsely, the atmosphere of panic has spread, and the army has somewhat escaped Xia Mou's control.

……

On the pole-cart, Xu An pulled out the sword from his waist and looked at Liu Pi who was beside him.

"Order Cheng Lian, Wei Yue, Hao Meng, and Cao Xing to lead the Xiaoqi Battalion to attack, and leave me the left and right wings of the Xiyuan Imperial Army!"

A fierce light shone in Xu An's eyes, and a burning murderous intent ignited in his heart.

"Attack ahead, now is the time for our army to counterattack!!!"

Xu An's big banner on the pole-watching cart was raised high by the warriors of the Yellow Turban Army, and then swung forward violently. On the high platforms on both sides of the pole-watching cart, the sound of the twenty-seven yellow war drums suddenly changed. urgent.

The tortoise-like formation in the front of the Yellow Turban Army suddenly broke open, and countless Yellow Turban soldiers attacked with their shields. The first three rows of Yellow Turban soldiers were wearing heavy armor and holding ring knives, and the last two rows of soldiers were holding spears. back.

The offensive and defensive momentum has been reversed in an instant!

(End of this chapter)