Xiang Yu fights the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 127 Surprise Attack on Catapult

Dong Zhuo's pikemen had no good way to defend against Han Sui's longbow and crossbow. They could only disperse the formation as much as possible to reduce casualties. Dong Zhuo built a lot of catapults in front of the formation. The rook can cause damage to the city walls and the defenders on the walls by launching huge stones.

In the face of Dong Zhuo's catapult attack, Han Sui's archers on the city wall also suffered a lot of losses, and the range of the archers is difficult to reach as far as the catapult, which means that the catapult can hit the enemy on the city wall. Archers, but the archers can't hit the catapults outside the city. As long as the archers on the city wall are temporarily suppressed, Dong Zhuo's siege troops can take this opportunity to set up a large number of ladders under the city wall, and then launch an attack. At this time, Han Sui's defenders poured some boiling oil from the city, and then dropped the torches, which ignited the fire, ignited the ladder and burned the soldiers on it to death.

The siege battle was extremely fierce. Soldiers on Dong Zhuo's side rushed up the city wall one after another along the ladders, and fought protracted battles with Han Sui's defenders on the city wall. Dong Zhuo's catapults needed huge Han Sui's Xiliang cavalry launched a surprise attack on Dong Zhuo's soldiers while they were carrying the stones. On the one hand, they cut off the ammunition of Dong Zhuo's catapult, and on the other hand, they also effectively killed Dong Zhuo's vital forces. .

The Xiliang cavalry came and went in a hurry, and the guards sent by Dong Zhuo did not have much effect. Facing a place with a little tight defense, the Xiliang cavalry used cavalry to carry out uninterrupted bow and arrow fire suppression from a distance, and then After causing a certain amount of damage and destroying the defensive formation, a sudden attack will be launched, and then Dong Zhuo's transport team, including the guards, will be beaten to pieces.

Soon Dong Zhuo's catapult did not have enough stones as ammunition to launch an attack. At this time, Dong Zhuo came up with another trick, which was to put the corpses of the soldiers who had died before being buried on the spot into the catapult. Throw it directly into the city wall as ammunition, - after being thrown into the city by a catapult, a large number of corpses become biological weapons, and after they rot, they emit rancidity and toxins to the surroundings. When there are enough corpses, their power is still considerable.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Han Sui would really be a big trouble if these catapults were not dealt with, so he sent a letter to the Xiliang cavalry outside the city, ordering them to destroy Dong Zhuo's catapults at all costs.

After receiving the order from Han Sui, these Xiliang cavalry aimed at the catapults under Dong Zhuo's command. Of course, Dong Zhuo could think that these catapults would become Han Sui's key targets at this time, so he also sent out His most elite spearmen corps went to defend them.

The three floors around the catapult were full of elite spearmen waiting in full force. If Xiliang cavalry dared to force their way into the formation of spearmen, they would have to pay a heavy price in casualties.

At first, the Xiliang cavalry didn't realize how powerful Dong Zhuo's elite spearmen were, so they made two or three waves of rapid charges. As a result, some Xiliang cavalry who rushed to the front rushed into the spearmen formation, and were then attacked by soldiers from all directions. Surrounded by spearmen who came, all of these spearmen were armed with long spears five or six meters long. Armed heavy cavalry, there is nothing to do. When you are surrounded by countless spears stabbing at you at the same time, all you can feel is despair.

This wave of Xiliang cavalry was wiped out quickly, and then a group of Xiliang cavalry who rushed in was hit hard again. He rushed out, but he only had half his life left.

The rest of the Xiliang cavalry didn't dare to continue rushing, they all retreated immediately, only dared to harass from a distance with cavalry and shooting, but bows and arrows could hardly cause damage to catapults, and if rockets were used, cavalry on horseback It is also difficult to shoot rockets that are too far away, and the hit rate is also very low. Even if it hits the catapult by chance, the surrounding soldiers can often quickly extinguish the fire in the first place.

The Xiliang cavalry encountered setbacks in the first wave of attack, but they did not give up the attack so easily, and soon they will find an opportunity to launch a new round of attack, this time they sent more cavalry, and Divide into batches and attack from several different directions at different times.

Its main combat idea is to use the mobility of the cavalry to pull the defensive spearmen left and right, sometimes launching a wave of attacks from the west, sometimes launching a wave of attacks from the east, and sometimes turning the main direction of the attack to the opposite direction. To the south, the defensive spearmen had to be forced to move a certain distance after every pull.

On the other hand, the Xiliang cavalry on the offensive side often only need to use a small part of the cavalry to mobilize a large range of defensive spearmen to make corresponding moves. Soon Dong Zhuo's defensive spearmen will be tired, and they will no longer follow The Xiliang cavalry moved continuously with small-scale attacks from left to right, and simply stuck to their position, regardless of where the Xiliang cavalry came from around them.

And this is exactly what Han Sui's Xiliang cavalry wanted to see. After they confirmed that the elite spearmen used by Dong Zhuo for defense had hardly made effective dynamic defensive movements, they decided to concentrate their forces at one point, and then The key point was to break through one point. The reason why Dong Zhuo kept these elite spearmen moving dynamically for defense was because he was afraid that the Xiliang cavalry would join forces to launch a wave of fierce attacks.

Afterwards, the Xiliang cavalry joined forces and launched an attack from the relatively weakly defended position of Dong Zhuo's army in the southwest. Sure enough, the other elite spearmen around did not make effective defensive moves this time. For a long time, after round after round of cavalry and shooting, when their formation was chaotic, wave after wave of Xiliang cavalry rushed over, completely disrupting the formation of these elite spearmen.

Elite spearmen must form a dense formation on a large scale to be powerful enough. Once dispersed, not only will they not pose too much threat to the enemy, but they will easily cause huge damage to the surrounding friendly forces. harm.

The formation was quickly disrupted, and the only thing left was to wait for death in place, or throw away the armor and armor, throw away the long and heavy spear in his hand, and then run away in all directions.

These Xiliang cavalry did not go after the fleeing spearmen, but concentrated their forces to attack Dong Zhuo's catapults. Soon row after row of catapults were set ablaze, and the other spearmen around reacted at this time. When they were about to come to support, they encountered a large number of friendly troops who broke up, which blocked the advance route of the spearmen, and at the same time caused a certain degree of confusion in the formation of these spearmen.

(End of this chapter)