Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 283 277. Siege
The sun rose normally the next day... Oh no, it didn't rise as usual, because it rained heavily today.

The Han army huddled in the camp, strengthening their rain protection measures. Feng Xi required that several moisture-proof storage rooms be built to store the gunpowder weapons that would arrive later.

Because of the recent plum rains, the Han army suffered heavy losses in its gunpowder weapons, and heavy rain was not conducive to sieges.

For the attackers, the heavy rain would block their sight and even get into their eyes, which would greatly affect the climbers and crossbowmen under the walls. In addition, the rain could make the soldiers slip, and there were many more obstacles from non-combat factors.

On the other hand, the Wu army defending the city was looking down, so they didn't have so many concerns. Moreover, there were many buildings to shelter from the rain, so the situation was much better than that of the Han army attacking in the rain.

The soldiers and generals of the Eastern Wu were all very nervous, fearing that the Han army had filled up the moat yesterday and would attack the city today.

Fortunately, the Han army seemed to have no intention of leaving the camp, so the soldiers of the Wu army breathed a sigh of relief and began to chat in low voices, intentionally or unintentionally, in order to ease the fear of yesterday.

The two sides unexpectedly remained calm and rested for a day. The Han army was preparing for battle, speeding up the pace of making some siege weapons, and waiting for the supply of gunpowder weapons in the rear, while the Eastern Wu army was strengthening the city defense and boosting the morale of the soldiers.

The heavy rain lasted for three days, and neither side made any moves, but the situation became increasingly tense. The Han army's intensive movements did not escape the observation of the Eastern Wu, or rather, the Han army was too lazy to conceal it. The Han army was now overwhelming with its mighty force, and the Eastern Wu was almost unable to resist.

The heavy rain cannot continue forever. After three consecutive days of heavy rain, it finally came to an end. Although the sky was still overcast on the fourth day, the rain had stopped and the air was filled with the unique fragrance of soil and grass in the natural environment.

The Han army had been quiet for three days and was eager to try. During these three days, the Han army craftsmen braved the rain to make several ladders, and the gunpowder and weapon supplies from the rear were also delivered. Originally, everything was ready, except for the east wind. Now that the heavy rain stopped, the east wind came.

The generals of the Wu army naturally knew this. When they found that the heavy rain had stopped today, they immediately gathered a large number of soldiers to guard the city towers, and were ready to fight even with boiling water and rolling stones.

The Wu army was still in a state of panic because there had been no fighting in the previous three days, which allowed many soldiers to have time to chat. One hurdle that could not be avoided was the Han army's magic.

The question is very simple. What if the Han army used magic to attack the city?
No one could answer, and no one knew the answer. Everyone held their breath and waited for today's results.

"Squeaky..."

The white-robed Han army filed out of the camp, carrying a lot of siege equipment among them, and stopped not far from Jianye City.

In an instant, it was as if a white ocean appeared under Jianye City, making people dizzy.

"Dark clouds are pressing down on the city to destroy it, and the armor's light is shining towards the golden scales of the sun."

Feng Xi, riding his "Yanyun", stood in the formation and could not help reciting an "ancient poem" about the "future". Of course, there were only soldiers around him and the generals were commanding their own troops. No one could respond to Feng Xi's beautiful poem.

The soldiers of the Han army continued to escort the siege machines forward like a precision machine and soon reached the range of the catapults.

"Put on the oil tank."

Feng Xi gave an order, which was passed down through the flag bearers and messengers. The soldiers on the front line who were ready for battle immediately took out some sealed tubes from a box nearby and placed them on the catapult.

"Ignite, throw!"

At the command of the military commander, the soldiers operating the catapults used torches to light the fuse on the oil tank and then put it into the basket of the catapult. The soldier in front of the launcher heard the military commander's order, and after confirming that the oil tank was in place, he immediately released the throwing rod that was pressed to the bottom in his hand, and the oil tank flew towards the wall of Jianye with a roar.

"Crackling..."

With the sound of breaking pottery jars, these thrown pottery jars fell near the walls of Jianye. Some fell on the walls, forming a waterfall of fire; some fell in front of the walls, burning alone; some fell behind the walls, setting some houses on fire, causing exclamations.

"Ahhh!"

An unlucky soldier of the Wu army was splashed with the burning black kerosene and his body immediately caught fire. He could only roll on the spot in pain.

"Bring some water, bring some water!"

People nearby were frantically pouring water to try to rescue and put out the fire, but the black kerosene could not be extinguished at all. The water droplets even flew everywhere due to splashing, causing another wave of chaos.

"Samadhi True Fire! It's the Han army's Samadhi True Fire!"

Many of the Wu soldiers who escaped back immediately remembered the flames of the Han army that could burn for a long time in the rain, and they couldn't help but scream in fear, causing the other Wu soldiers who were still in doubt to panic.

"Gunpowder pack, fire!"

The Han army under the city wall didn't care what the Wu army above was thinking. Seeing that the city wall had turned into a sea of ​​fire, Feng Xi immediately gave orders to the soldiers operating the catapults to replace the ammunition on the catapults.

The soldiers carefully picked up the wrapped paper packages from the box next to the jar. The packages were bulging and had a thick fuse on them.

Unlike the oil tanks just now, these gunpowder bags were not ignited directly, but were first placed on the catapult basket with the string re-strung.

"Light it up! One, two, three, fire!"

The general gave an order and counted to three, and then the burning explosive packs drew an arc and flew towards the city wall.

This was something Feng Xi had calculated through experiments a long time ago. With a fuse of this standard length, it would take five to six seconds for the explosive pack to detonate when it was thrown to the farthest distance by the launch vehicle.

Therefore, Feng Xi asked the officer in charge of the catapult to count to three seconds before firing. This way, there would be no risk of a chain reaction and there would not be much reaction time when the catapult hit the ground, so it would explode directly.

Even if there are problems due to some objective differences, it doesn't matter. For example, the burning time is too fast, resulting in an air burst. This bulging gunpowder bag also contains iron nails, gravel and other objects in the interlayer. Even if it explodes in the air, the fragments will have a great killing power.

“Whoosh—Boom!”

As the explosive packs flew towards the top of Jianye City one by one, in addition to the bright flames and black smoke, there were also bursts of violent noises and the following screams in the direction of the city wall.

Those soldiers who were hit by the explosion were naturally lucky, their eyes only flashed before they lost consciousness. However, those Wu soldiers who were hit by fragments were unlucky, they could not die, but the situation was not optimistic, they could only fall to the ground and wail.

(End of this chapter)