Dahan first prince

Chapter 253 Battle!
"Quick, stand up!"

"Not enough! Not enough planks!"

"Get all the door panels in the city!!!"

After about half a quarter, the range within a hundred steps inside the city wall was occupied by a burst of howling.

Following Liu Ying's order, all the buildings in the entire Yongcheng were 'opened' in an instant.

One by one, the thick wooden boards, which were large or small, but thick enough to ensure that bows, feathers and arrows could not penetrate, were sent to the south city wall in sequence, and then the sergeants hugged each other and propped up one side with two wooden sticks.

If she hadn't been sober-minded, Liu Ying would have thought that the scene in front of her was a common solar power generation base in Northwest China in later generations.

After all the planks in the city were fetched and propped up, Liu Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief, turned sideways, and nodded to the Southern Army jailer holding a huge shield not far away.

Seeing that Liu Ying was finally no longer stubborn, on the city wall, Li Shang finally let go of his hanging heart.

"Your Highness, it's really..."

As soon as he opened his mouth, he felt Wang Ling's vaguely reminding eyes beside him. The word'stubborn' that Li Shang hadn't said yet was finally quietly swallowed back into his stomach.

"Well, what a wonderful plan!"

Bluntly moving the topic away, Li Shang slowly turned around, frowning slightly.

Outside the city wall, the Huainan rebels who had reorganized their array had already reached a position three hundred steps away from the city wall.

"Three hundred steps away from the enemy!!!"

"put!!!!!!"

Accompanied by a roar from the bed crossbow, the final decisive battle began...
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"put!"

Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh! ! !
The middle-ranking general roared loudly, and thousands of arrow feathers immediately flew up inside the city wall.

But after flying over the city wall not far away, the bow, feather and arrow, which was originally in an upward posture, flew flat for a while to adjust its posture, as if someone was remotely controlling it, and immediately plunged down!

The difference from the battles of the previous few days is that after this round and every subsequent round of crossbow salvos, the crossbow phalanx soldiers in the city wall all turned sideways immediately without exception. They hid under the slanted planks.

And in this huge "wooden forest", a thick board surrounded by a giant shield of two feet in all directions is undoubtedly very eye-catching...

"Huchi~huchi..."

After taking a few breaths loudly, Liu Ying turned her head irritatedly, and looked at the guards of the Southern Army who surrounded her tightly.

But for these giant shield soldiers of the southern army who surrounded themselves circle after circle, and could not even shoot a gleam of light through the wooden boards, Liu Yingzong wanted to drive them away, but there was no good way.

The reason is simple: in theory, Liu Ying at this moment is a crossbowman of the Dingbu captain of the Yongcheng defenders!
And this crossbowman school lieutenant is the one that suffered the most casualties in the battles of the Yongcheng defenders in the past few days.

——It has only been three days since the army was 'driven' into Yongcheng by Yingbo, and Cao Shen led the army to the battlefield!

That is to say, today is the third day of the Yongcheng defense battle!

And in the past three short days, the crossbowmen's lieutenants, who obviously didn't have to climb the city wall and face the Huainan rebel peak, suffered more than [-]% of their casualties!
The original five teams of Sima, with a total of more than 2000 people, became the current three teams of Sima, with less than 200 people in just three days.

Liu Ying still remembers the wise saying: In the era of cold weapons, if the casualties of the army exceed [-]%, the morale of the army will be shaken;

But in the past three days, the captain of Dingbu, the crossbow soldier of the Yongcheng garrison, suffered more than [-]% casualties...

Such a casualty ratio is undoubtedly a huge psychological blow to the crossbowmen of the Dingbu Xiaowei and other Han soldiers in Yongcheng.

In this decisive battle, the only thing Liu Ying can do is to play her own role in these aspects that may affect morale and shake the morale of the army.

Therefore, Liu Ying went to the wounded barracks first, and brought out the lightly wounded who could still walk and draw bows. Then, she joined the crossbow soldier Dingbu captain and became a crossbow soldier. pawn.

The reason is also very simple: the only way to make soldiers believe in themselves is to charge with them!
But fortunately, compared to those ordinary soldiers who still need to draw bows, set arrows, and load crossbows by themselves even if they are injured, Liu Ying, a "crossbowman" who is surrounded by a whole giant shield for security, enjoys the comfort of ordinary soldiers. Unimaginable 'privilege'.

Stretching out her hand to the left in the dark, a skin bag filled with salt water was stuffed into her hand, allowing Liu Ying to drink heartily.

Regardless of the image, he wiped his mouth with his sleeves casually, and just put his hands on his sides to stand up, nearly ten loaded four-stone crossbows were placed outside the wooden board, waiting for Liu Ying to take it at any time.

After a while, a high-pitched 'Beep!' came from above the city wall! At that time, Liu Ying was able to get her birth from under the plank.

Grabbing a crossbow casually, imitating the appearance of the crossbowmen beside him, he raised the crossbow slightly, and followed another shot! With the call sign of ', Liu Ying was finally able to throw the crossbow arrow out through the only gap the size of a ping-pong ball between the giant shields under the cover of six huge shields.

After pulling the trigger, Liu Ying didn't dare to delay for a moment, and hurriedly threw the crossbow in her hand aside, grabbed another crossbow that had been adjusted, and waited for the command to fire a volley.

After repeating this five or six times, there was another sound of 'Avoid! ', Liu Ying, who hadn't had time to pull the crossbow in her hand, was pushed under the wooden board by the jailer beside her regardless.

When Liu Ying came to her senses, the 'space' propped up obliquely by the planks fell into darkness again...

"Huchi~huchi~"

The heavy panting and the occasional swallowing sound formed most of Liu Ying's memories of her first battle experience.

But what surprised Liu Ying herself was that it was this kind of "combat" full of irony and "image project" that made the bow and crossbow phalanx in the city ignite an inexplicable Goldman Sachs Fighting Spirit······

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"Well······"

"it is good!"

"With the power of the bow and crossbow, the rebels outside the city can't even line up under the city wall for a while!"

"Very good!"

With a slightly excited expression, Li Shang involuntarily turned around again and looked at the huge wooden board that was half a foot thick, one foot wide, and nearly two feet long.

Due to the angle, Li Shang couldn't see Liu Ying's figure at all, but could only see the six huge crimson shields clinging to the wooden board, forming the second 'wooden board';
From time to time, crossbow arrows shot out from the small holes deliberately left in the wooden planks, and crossed the city wall with the salvo of the crossbow phalanx, and then flew towards the rebels rushing outside the city.

Li Shang knew nothing about Liu Ying's complaint of "what kind of battle is this?"

If he knew, Li Shang would definitely tell Liu Ying: Your Highness, this is the first nobleman I have ever seen who dared to enter the crossbow phalanx!

As a founding father and famous general who will surely go down in history, Li Shang knew very well: as long as it was a war, whether it was a field battle on the plain, a highland battle at the junction of the hills and the plain, or today, the mediocrity The city is facing the defensive battle of the city, and even the chasing battle between the infantry and cavalry, and the bow and crossbow troops will always face the greatest casualties!

As for the reason, it is also very simple: in the past, in the present, and even in the foreseeable future, crossbowmen have always been the most lethal unit among infantry.

Just like in the wars of later generations, light machine guns will inevitably attract enemy snipers, and heavy machine guns will definitely become the target of artillery fire. The same is true in the era of cold weapons.

When the two armies confront each other, where should they fight first?
——Whoever hits me the most hurts, I will hit there first!

The same is true when it comes to city offensive and defensive battles.

The crossbow troops on the defensive side will basically be arranged inside the city wall, causing damage to the outside of the city through projectiles;
The attacking side will also arrange all the long-range strike forces evenly at a distance of 50-80 steps outside the city wall, striking the city wall and the defenders inside the city wall. .

As for the attacking side's bow and crossbow troops, why they would cause huge damage to the defending crossbow and crossbow troops in the city can't be regarded as deliberate.

——For the siege party, the most important thing is always to climb the city wall and then seize the city wall!

Therefore, in order to reduce the pressure on the sword and shield siege soldiers in front and create a good opportunity to climb the wall, the bow and crossbow troops on the siege side outside the city will continue to shoot at high frequency on the defenders on the city wall.

As for the inside of the city, the bow and crossbow troops on the side of the city will also use round after round of volleys to kill the enemy in order to make it difficult for the enemy to get close to the city wall.

In later generations, this kind of action was called fire suppression.

The reason why the crossbow troops on the attacking side would cause greater damage to the crossbow troops inside the city wall, rather than the defenders on the city wall, is actually a very simple matter of perspective.

——As the defender of the city, the crossbow troops of the defenders in the city have two different shooting angles.

Either stand on the city wall and shoot flat out of the city, or stand inside the city wall and shoot out of the city;
But for the siege side outside the city, the shooting angle of the bow and crossbow troops is only one of throwing.

This is easy to understand: the city wall is high, but the outside of the city is short.

In this way, an ironic scene appeared.

——The bows and crossbows of the defenders in the city were thrown, and those who shot were the vanguards who were charging outside the city;

However, as long as the arrows thrown by the siege party outside the city were not shot outside the city wall due to insufficient strength, they would definitely cause damage to the defenders.

——Either shoot the defenders on the wall with swords and shields, or shoot the defenders on the other side of the wall with bows and crossbows!
In other words: As the long-range strike force of the attacking side, the rebel crossbowmen outside the city do not need to aim too precisely. They just need to draw the bowstring as much as possible to ensure that the arrows are not caught by the city wall. Can cause damage.

And under this shooting concept of "strengthening miracles", the ones who suffer the most are often the defenders' crossbow phalanx with thin or no armor and exposed inside the city wall without any cover.

The high casualty rate of bow and crossbow troops also makes most of the honored ministers who are ambitious to show their ambitions often choose the sword and shield troops that look more dangerous, but are actually relatively safer, and it is easier to win the first rank and obtain military honors get started.

As for the bow and crossbow troops, which looked extremely safe but were actually dangerous, and it was difficult to obtain martial arts, few people were willing to lead them.

——Beheading and beheading, beheading the enemy's head, and holding it in your hands is a real military achievement!
As for bows and crossbows, in wartime, when thousands of arrows are fired at once, who can say for sure that one arrow is shot by oneself, and which enemy is knocked down by oneself?
But then again, the high casualty rate of bows and crossbows and the difficulty of obtaining martial arts, but it does not affect the war at all, and it is often these unlucky people who play a greater role.

In many battles, it seems that the two sides are hedging at the end, and finally one of them stands at the end.

But the actual situation is that one of the parties suffered huge casualties from the opponent's crossbow, and was in a dilemma, so he had no choice but to put all his eggs in one basket. The battle came to an end.

To put it bluntly: the final charge and hand-to-hand combat are just the last straw that crushes the camel's back; what really overwhelms the camel is the round after round of arrows piercing people's hearts.

But now, due to the existence of Liu Ying, the defenders' crossbow troops in Yongcheng have gained the upper hand in terms of 'firepower'.

Especially in the current situation, the rebels outside the city need to race against time to capture Yongcheng before dawn, while the defenders in the city only need to ensure that the city is not broken, which will give them an advantage in firepower and make the defenders in the city more calm , Let the rebels outside the city become more and more anxious.

"Um······"

"In the city, how many bows, feathers and arrows are left?"

"Since the war, how many salvos have been fired in the city?"

Hearing Li Shang's question, Wang Ling on the side just turned his head, and Zhang Cang on the side cupped his hands without hesitation.

"Report to the Prime Minister of the Right."

"There are less than 20 bows, feathers and arrows left in the city. If you shoot more than ten rounds in volley, you will be exhausted!"

"And salvo..."

"—Seventeen rounds of volleys have been fired in the city since His Highness personally entered Captain Dingbu!!!"

Following Zhang Cang's steady and powerful report, a look of excitement slowly appeared on Li Shang's face.

"it is good!"

"With such momentum, if a thief wants to get close to the wall, it will still take an hour!"

With that said, Li Shang raised his head with a sigh of relief, and looked at the still dark starry sky above his head.

"Wait until dawn..."

"hey-hey······"

"With Yingbu's head as a tribute, the old man should be able to retreat bravely, and still be respected by the world..."

With that in mind, Li Shang slapped hard on the wall in front of him, and gave his last order with an excited face.

"Get the halberd!"

With a roar like thunder, Li Shang did not forget to turn around and smile at the extremely blinking shield wall.

"Your Highness is not as young as the crown, so you have the courage to shoot with a crossbow!"

"No matter how old a certain person is, he is still not as courageous as His Highness..."

(End of this chapter)