My Chinese ancestors

Chapter 650: Weapon Attack, Shattering the City Wall

"The Seres are coming!"

"Each city section is ready!"

"Knight Commander Lancelot is here!"

"Knight Gawain is here too!"

Looking at the huge smoke and dust, the Sakpruit soldiers on the city wall suddenly heard shouting in the distance, and their morale was immediately boosted.

The generals defending the city straightened their backs and looked at the knights who were on the city wall on behalf of the emperor. They drew their swords and shouted, "Soldiers, return to your positions and prepare for battle!"

On each section of the city wall, the conscripted young and strong laborers took the distributed wooden sticks and retreated to the battlements behind. Shield soldiers and archers quickly moved forward and formed the first line of fire at the front battlements. Lightly armed spearmen squatted behind them to prevent the next enemy attack by climbing the city wall.

At this time, those guarding the city on the wall were the Third Legion of Nongma City, the Fifth Auxiliary Corps, the Seventh Infantry Corps, and the Eighth Crossbow Corps.

The rest of the legions stayed in the city as support troops, ready to support the east wall at any time.

Lancelot and Gawain climbed up the city wall, inspected the morale of the army on the wall, checked the soldiers' armor and weapons, and then looked outside the city.

"Gawain, do you think we're going to win this?"

"..."

Gawain, who was standing aside, pursed his lips and said nothing. At the other end of his field of vision, on the eastern plain of Nongma City, the Great Xia Dragon Flag and the Emperor's Flag were spreading from the front.

The morning light rose into the clouds, and a giant eagle with spread wings flew across the sunlight above its head. It let out a loud cry, and its cold gaze reflected everything on the top of the city, then turned back.

On the plain below, the army was advancing slowly like a tide.

Countless feet in leather boots stepped over the dry ground, and particles of dust were startled and filled the air.

Near the raised flags of each army, on the vehicles with war drums, soldiers with bare upper bodies and red scarves on their heads raised wooden hammers and beat them hard.

dong dong dong...

Officers at all levels in the army, either on foot or on horseback, held their weapons tightly, pointed at the city walls, and shouted to boost morale.

Thousands of shouts followed, spreading in all directions and turning into a huge wave of sound. The Qingzhou Army, Youyan Army, Tang Army, Qin Army, and Yizhou Army were divided into five square formations, separated by a distance of two miles, and advanced forward in an overwhelming manner.

The Satsuma army combined bows and infantry, with the Qin army guarding on the left and right wings, and the Tang army on the left and right wings.

In front and on the left and right of the layers of overlapping figures and moving heads were the living slave soldiers and the small-scale military formation of the Yuezhou Army.

The raw slaves were good at hunting, and throwing stones and spears was effective in guarding against cavalry, and could also serve as a buffer zone in the event of a surprise attack.

After that came the Yuezhou Army. Although most of the Yuezhou Army soldiers were left to Zhuge Liang, there was still a part, about 10,000 troops, who followed Su Chen to Nongma to fight. The formation they organized was located behind the Shengnu people, becoming the second buffer.

In order to provide sufficient reaction space for the Qingzhou Army and Yizhou Army in the center.

Further inside is the emperor's imperial carriage, as well as the Tiger Guard Battalion and the Divine Machine Battalion that guard it. Although these two guards are not numerous in number, one is tall and strong and fully armored, while the other holds the most advanced firearms as a ceremonial weapon. If one wants to break through them and kill the Emperor of Daxia, one would have to rush directly towards the ancestral coffin carriage from the sky.

Nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses were deployed in a relatively concentrated formation in this golden morning.

Under the Great Xia flag with a black background and a white dragon pattern, Su Chen was wearing a black armor with a mountain pattern. He rode on his horse and raised his hawk-like eyes to gaze at the towering city walls in the distance.

"Within two days, the other side should have made sufficient preparations to defend the city."

Before the war, all the words that should be used to boost morale had already been said, but for an emperor, the mentality is different when approaching a battlefield, and he will inevitably be thinking about the upcoming siege in his mind.

Dian Wei sat on his giant elephant and said in a rough voice: "Your Majesty, you are worrying too much. Most of our troops that can fight are here, and there are Bingzhou troops and Zhou Yu's fleet behind them. If we can't win even with this, haha, then we'd better go back as soon as possible!"

"That's right, it's just a city. How can it be harder than climbing to the sky?" Xu Chu looked at the city wall in the distance and laughed fiercely: "This is the last remaining army of the barbarians. If Your Majesty is still worried, Lao Dian and I will join in the siege later!"

In the distance, there was a voice shouting "Stop!", and the Tang army stopped in unison, their spears dropped to the ground with a loud bang.

Qin Qiong put on the Phoenix Wing Iron Helmet and said, "Send someone to check the catapults one last time. Yuanba, you should also make preparations to directly flatten this city of the barbarians."

Li Yuanba yawned with his eyes still a little hazy. It was not that he had no desire to fight, but he was too excited last night and swung the Wengjin drum hammer for most of the night.

"I'm going to wait for the city wall, not smash the door!"

This human-shaped battering ram was quite dissatisfied with the task assigned to him by Qin Qiong and Li Jing. He turned over and dismounted, took a heavy weapon from his personal guards, and smashed it on the ground: "Let me get on the city wall!"

"Let him go up to the city wall." Qin Qiong wanted to say something else, but Li Jing came up on horseback from behind. He came to observe the army and the opposite city wall. He heard the two men arguing and saw that Li Yuanba was stubborn. He didn't want to dampen his morale, so he took over the conversation without waiting for Qin Qiong to speak.

"Really? Haha, that's great!"

Li Yuanba was like a giant. He excitedly banged his two hammers together, sending sparks flying. He turned around and shouted to the Tang army soldiers who were looking at him with smiles: "When the time comes, you must follow closely behind me. Haha... I will help you to flatten the walls of the barbarians!"

As he was speaking, the messenger cavalry had already run through the various formations of the Tang army and waved flag signals.

In the long square formation, Han Xin, who was giving orders in the middle formation, ordered the cavalry beside him to blow the war horn. Li Jing in the Tang army formation in the front formation raised his hand and clenched his fist when he heard the horn!

The Tang army has always used weapons as their main means of attack. Although the armor they wear is all leather armor, it does not affect their status as the top pillar of Daxia.

At the command of the commander-in-chief Li Jing, the first and second battalions attacking the city, about 4,000 soldiers, beat their chests and let out ferocious roars.

"Must win!"

"Must win!"

Qin Qiong jumped out on his horse, his eyes fierce. He drew the blade at his waist and pointed it at the city wall. The "Tang" flag behind him fluttered in the wind.

"Catapult, ready!"

"Shield soldiers, guard forward!"

The Tang army soldiers from the first and second battalions each sent out fifty shield infantrymen. At the same time, in the gaps between the formations in the rear, catapults were pushed forward slowly by the soldiers.

The shaft of the cart rolled over the rugged road, shaking slightly, and the vehicle pulling the stone bullets followed closely behind.

On the drum cart in the Tang army's formation, the bare-chested soldiers waved their arms even harder at this moment, hitting the drumsticks again and again, the drumhead vibrating with powerful and passionate syllables.

The light cavalry that was detecting the distance had already started running ahead. After visually estimating the distance, they leaned over and reached out their hands while riding on the horse's back, and inserted a small flag into the ground.

The fifty catapults that advanced forward immediately stopped within three steps of the flag on the ground. The laborers carrying the stone bombs shuttled through the crowd and put the heavy stone bombs into the spoon.

The lieutenant colonel who was giving the order raised his arm and shouted, "—Ready!"

The capstan began to turn in the hands of the sturdy soldiers. …

In the distance, Lancelot and Gawain on the city wall were running and calling out, and the legionnaires guarding the city, under the orders of their legion commanders, rushed to their respective positions.

“Down below!”

"Tell Bedivere of the Thunder Legion down below to guard the wall!"

"Attention, the enemy is moving!"

Several scouts who were observing the movements of the Seris army ran and shouted at the foot of the city, while also rushing towards the Thunder Legion and the Holy Light Legion on both sides of the city wall.

Holy Light Knight Percival knelt in front of his warhorse and made his final prayer. After the Holy Light Legion under his command was defeated and retreated to Nongma, in order to atone his sins, he once again took on the most dangerous task and defended the wall with Thunder Knight Bedivere.

The Crusader Knight Gaheris had died in battle, his beheaded by an old man in Seris's army. He clearly saw Gaheris's head being held in the enemy's hand amid the chaos.

He originally wanted to take back Gahoris's head, but unfortunately, when he fought with the old Seris, he found that he could not even defeat an old man.

When he returned to Nongmare and faced King Arthur and the other knights, he felt ashamed.

Rather than living in shame, it is better to take on a mission that will lead to death, prove yourself with death and courage, as a knight's honor.

"May Heavenly Father have mercy on me and grant me boundless courage and glory. I will use my mortal body to wash away the shame of the past."

Compared to the tranquility of the Holy Light Legion, in the tense atmosphere of war, the Thunder Legion on the left side of the city wall seemed particularly noisy.

Amid the noisy shouts of preparation for battle, the leather-armored war horses were breathing heavily. Bedivere above was issuing orders, asking the army to assemble and stand by. As long as the Seris army launched an attack on the city wall, he would lead the legion to charge forward.

However, just as he handed the last order to the messenger cavalry, he suddenly felt the subtle atmosphere, and the soldiers who were gathering in front of him suddenly raised their heads.

There was a different sound in the air coming from afar.

Before Bedivere could figure out what was going on, he followed the direction the soldier was looking, and at the end of his field of vision, before he saw any object, he heard a sudden bang.

The next moment, there was another series of sounds: bang, bang, bang.

His pupils suddenly shrank, and in his sight, he saw dense black shadows rising into the sky and then drawing long arcs across the sky.

It was getting bigger and bigger, and more and more. When it got closer, the soldiers around them screamed and ran. There were dozens or hundreds of stone bullets flying towards them from the sky in front of them.

boom--

When the first stone bullet hit the city wall, it set off countless shouts and a few shrill screams. In an instant, more stone bullets poured down like a rainstorm.

Boom boom boom boom!
One stone bomb after another hit the long city wall, and countless debris splashed wildly. The horrible impact sound almost drowned out the entire city in an instant, making Bedivere feel that the city wall was shaking.

Stone bullets flew over, and the shields and the infantry, archers, and spearmen behind the shields were pushed out, plowing a bloody path.

"Fill the gap!" the centurion guarding here shouted, waving his blade.

The reserve soldiers rushed forward, and around them, stone bullets were doused in kerosene and flew over with tails of flame, like a meteor shower.

With a loud bang, it hit the flat city gate directly, shattering the wall and stone bullets, and the flying fragments mixed with flames fell on the soldiers guarding the city around.

"what!!"

Someone's leather armor caught fire. He screamed while slapping the flames. He was then dragged out of the crowd by his comrades behind him. Several soldiers came forward to help put out the fire.

Above the sky, another stone bullet came flying, trailing flames, and smashed directly into the crowd.

"Fight back! Notify the scorpion-tailed artillery troops in the city and have them fight back to suppress the Seres' catapults!"

Lancelot shouted on the city wall, and the cavalry who received the order had already rushed down the city wall.

The scorpion-tailed cannons near the inner city had already been prepared. These were developed by Sakpruit in the past. It was the only time he was inspired by the ancient Roman scorpion cannons, and he asked the craftsmen to manufacture them according to his ideas.

Many of them were taken away during the conquests, and there are still hundreds of them in Nongma City.

They were stretched out against the inner city wall, and the prepared stone bombs were moved onto the riprap base, connected to which were special ropes, hanging behind like a scorpion's tail.

"Throw stones, quick!"

The centurion who was giving the order rode his warhorse in front of the scorpion-tailed cannons and shouted orders, and the soldiers who were stirring the capstan turned the capstan to the maximum.

The moment of release.

The lever suddenly tilted upward, and the taut rope pulled the bottom of the spoon. With a bang, the stone bullet was thrown high into the air. The moment it flew over the city wall, it smashed towards the array of catapults of the Seres people on the field.

"Yu!"

On the field, the Tang army's hundred-man team guarding the catapults, when they saw dense objects flying out from the other side of the city wall, they quickly pushed their shield carts forward, lowered the rear supports, and held on to the ground tightly.

The shields on these shield carts were all wrapped in iron sheets, making them difficult to be damaged by swords or knives, but this was the first time they could be used to defend against stone attacks.

Just as the soldiers retreated and raised their shields to form the second line of defense to guard the catapults, the flying stones hit the ground not far in front of them. The stones bounced off the ground and rolled a few steps. The next moment, more stones fell towards this side like rain.

The shield vehicles in front were hit by stone bullets, and their bodies were shaking violently. The shields that were not firmly secured were directly smashed away.

There were also cases where the shield vehicle's supports could not bear the weight and broke, and the entire vehicle body fell apart with a bang.

More than a hundred stone bullets hit the shield cart, but more than twenty still fell on the catapult. The Tang soldiers holding shields rushed forward fearlessly and stood in front with their shields.

The stone bullet hit the shield, and the soldier spit out blood and was killed on the spot.

"Don't listen, keep smashing!"

The officers who saw this scene had red eyes and roared on horseback.

In the distance, the cavalry on both sides of the entire Great Xia army were making final adjustments. Han Xin's order had already arrived and was delivered to Lu Bu, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Xiang Yu.

It clearly pointed out that the two armies under the enemy's city wall should be tied down to buy space for the Tang army attacking the city and give the Mongolian light cavalry enough time to harass the city walls.

Under the four flags, Lu Bu, Xiang Yu, Zhao Yun and Ma Chao handed the orders to others. They raised their hands almost at the same time and used the same words.

"My fellow men of Great China, teach the barbarians how to appreciate the might of China!"

More than 10,000 cavalrymen who had been on guard for battle suddenly moved on both sides of the army.

(End of this chapter)