That year, that cicada, that sword

Chapter 1207 The Battle of Zhuolu Begins

The 24th year of Taiping may be the last year of Emperor Taizong Wen's Taiping reign, but it is also very likely to be the last year of Wei State, which has caused the court's confidants to suffer for decades.

After several tug-of-wars, several armies deployed by the Daqi court in the south of the Yangtze River finally formed a decisive battle with the army of the Wei State. Now Huang Xiao's army is defending Zhuolu City and surrounding Zhuolu City. The two sides continue to gather troops, and the two sides are in a stalemate. No less, they all found another strange path, and finally formed a situation of two battlefields.

One of the battlefields was Zhuolu City where Huang Xiao was located, and the other was the little-known Peng Lao Town.

Today's Zhuolu City has no longer seen Wei's half-way army outside the city. In other words, today's Zhuolu City has become an isolated city, and the outside of the city is full of Qi's army.

The howling wind blew the flags and moved fiercely. After a night of offensive and defensive battles, Zhuolu City was in a mess. Huang Xiao stepped over corpses with a sword in his hand, and came to a lookout and looked out. .

I saw a big banner with the Wei characters on a black background and gold letters waving in the wind, and under the banner was a tide of black armor that could not be seen at a glance.

Black armor, among the five forbidden armies, only the Tianzi Central Army and the Northwest Left Army will wear this armor. The Northwest Left Army is resisting Lin Han's army, so it is impossible to appear here.

Then it is the emperor's army.

That is, Wei Wuji personally led the army to arrive.

Huang Xiao is already at the age of knowing destiny this year, with a clean and elegant appearance, not like a general, but more like a civil servant.

He was born in Jianzong in his early years and worshiped under Gongsun Zhongmou. He was regarded as Xu Beiyou's senior brother, but because of his disagreement with Gongsun Zhongmou, he finally chose to rebel against the weakening Jianzong and surrendered to King Wei.

I don't know if it was because of the strong wind on the top of the city, Huang Xiao narrowed his eyes, looked at the big flag with Wei characters deep in the layers of black armor, smiled lightly, and said: "It's actually a human cat coming, it really makes me Huang Flattered."

Huang Xiao could laugh, but the other people around him couldn't, what's more, their faces were ashen.They didn't know if His Royal Highness King Wei, who was far away in Jiangling, had any tricks up their sleeves, but they knew that it would be very difficult to rely on the city under their feet to stop Wei Wuji's army.

The fall of Zhuolu City seems to be only a matter of time.

All the generals in the city subconsciously clenched the handle of the knife, and the hand holding the handle was slightly cold.

Huang Xiao restrained his smile, and asked solemnly, "Is the grain and silver in the treasury ready?"

A middle-aged armored general clasped his fists and said in a deep voice, "It's all ready."

Huang Xiaodao: "All of them will be handed out. This is a critical moment of life and death. There must be no mistakes. If someone dares to reach out at this time, don't blame me for not being sympathetic."

The middle-aged general who was in charge of military supplies, money and rations had a terrified expression on his face, and he replied heavily: "Promise!"

Huang Xiao said to an old man dressed as a scribe behind him: "Tell the gentry in the city to help them defend the city with money. If they don't agree, they can just ransack their homes and rob them. You might as well tell them that if we can't defend Zhuolu City, they can't defend it." Don't try to live alone."

The old man promised to leave.

Huang Xiao pondered for a moment, then turned to the lieutenant beside him and said, "Gather the young and strong in the city and make them ready to assist in defending the city at any time, and at the same time send people to demolish the houses one by one from the south of the city to use as wood and rock."

The deputy general promised loudly, then turned and went down the city.

After arranging all this, Huang Xiao sighed lightly, looked around and said, "Everyone, it's time to be loyal to the king."

A desolate and whimpering horn sounded suddenly, followed by the sound of rumbling drums.

Huang Xiao's hand on the hilt of the sword trembled slightly.

If facing the Northwest Left Army or the Grassland Army, he still has some confidence to defend Zhuolu City. After all, the Grassland Army and the Northwest Left Army are better at cavalry and weaker than siege. For thousands of years, the Central Plains has relied on a Zuoxiongguan blocked the foreign cavalry from the door.

But this time the opponents are different. This time the opponents are the most elite Tianzi's pro-army among the five imperial guards. They once stationed in Shanhai City to block Mu Tangzhi's Northeast Right Army. They are good at defending the city, and naturally they are also good at attacking the city.

Different from the cavalry who can only use simple ladders and crash carts, this time the Daqi army is equipped with the necessary ladders, crash carts, shield carts and other siege objects, and also uses the Zhongdu Cannon, which is supervised by Lan Yu himself. .

Since ancient times, there is nothing like a cannon for offensive and defensive weapons.If the attacker has the skill of cannon, the city will be destroyed.If the defender has the skill of cannon, he can control the enemy.When Hou Jian's army conquered Xiangyang, they fired a volley of boulders and cannons to destroy the city walls of Xiangyang. The three-year offensive and defensive battle of Xiangyang was finally settled amidst the sound of artillery.

The Zhongdu Pao, named Pao, is actually a trebuchet, and the objects fired are boulders, not solid iron bullets.There was a stone-throwing machine in the ten-year competition. After Ailinnan’s improvement, it saves more effort and can throw a boulder weighing 150 kilograms. The throwing distance is 250 steps, about 130 feet. After the boulder falls to the ground, it can be Seven feet into the ground, the Earth Immortal cultivator who has just entered the Earth Immortal Realm can only hit with all his strength.

After Xiao Yu led his army into the customs, he was able to rely on these sharp weapons to no disadvantages. Because the improvement project was completed in Zhongdu City, it was named Zhongdu Pao.

At this time, nearly a hundred Zhongdu cannons lined up outside Zhuolu City.

Nearly a hundred of them are all cannons, say more or less, say less.If they were to attack a majestic giant city like the Imperial Capital or Jiangdu, they might not be able to do so, but they could attack Zhuolu City quite a bit.

At this time, Wei Wuji and Wang Sheng, the master craftsman of Tianji Pavilion, came to the front of the formation. Wei Wuji looked at the huge stone already loaded on the stone machine, and said softly: "There is no better weapon for siege."

Wang Sheng said with a smile: "The palm seal officer is wrong."

Wei Wuji turned to ask: "How many such trebuchets can we make?"

After thinking for a while, Wang Sheng replied: "Based on the current manpower and materials, we can still build more than a hundred frames."

After pondering for a while, Wei Wuji asked again: "When will the construction be completed? There are still fewer of these trebuchets now."

Wang Sheng said: "The construction is already underway, and it can be completed in the second half of the month."

Wei Wuji nodded, and said, "Two hundred units is enough."

Then he turned his eyes to Wang Sheng beside him, and said with a smile: "This time, Master Wang has made great achievements. After capturing Zhuolu City and pacifying the south of the Yangtze River, I will definitely ask the general for your credit."

Wang Sheng responded with a smile.

Wei Wuji looked at Zhuolu City again, raised his hand and said, "Let's start."

Bai Yu, who was wearing a purple cotton armor, immediately waved his hand, and the soldiers standing on both sides of the Zhongdu Cannon immediately started to move. The voice soared into the sky, drew a terrifying arc in the sky, and crashed towards the head of Zhuolu city.

The next moment, a huge boulder hit the city wall of Zhuolu City, the sound shook hundreds of miles, countless smoke and dust rose, gravel and dust fell from the cracks, and it seemed that the entire city wall was trembling.

Boulders continued to fly directly to the top of the city, and several city defenders who had no time to dodge were smashed into bloody mud when they landed.

(End of this chapter)