Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 169

Not the original one thousand, but three thousand!The reason why the courier was not killed was because he leaked all the information in Bohai, the ratio of troops, and various dark and dark forces.Selling himself for glory, the messenger not only survived, but also made a lot of money in the hands of the Xi people, gaining fame and fortune.

The people of the Xi people got the information, they stayed put and sent people back to their tribe, and brought in another 2000 people, with the momentum of annexing the Bohai Sea in one fell swoop.

After Duan Hongchen learned the truth, he jumped up angrily, pointed at the sky and the ground, and cursed something unique to Mohe people.After scolding, Duan Hongchen mobilized the army to respond to the enemy.

Mohe people are half farmers and half herdsmen, and there are still many horses in the country.Duan Hongchen collected the horses and formed a cavalry team of about 500 men. He also gave Xu Qing a breakup and asked Xu Qing to form a cavalry team of [-] men.

Don't look at these dozens of horses, they are grassland horses outside the Great Wall, completely different from the horses bred in the Guannei racecourse.The grassland horses are taller and stronger, while the horses in the pass are weaker.Historically, almost all Han dynasty would try their best to find grassland horse hybrids to breed to improve the combat effectiveness of the army. The so-called thousand gold horses are really thousand gold.

However, people on the grasslands will be very wary of buying horses from the Han people. Only three generations of waste horses without war horses will be sold to the Han people.In other words, this is technopoly, even when the two sides are at peace.It is difficult for Han people to buy horses, but the transaction between grassland people is much simpler.

Xu Qing saw the value. If Bohai State was used as a transit point and wanted to pick up the horses in Cangzhou by sea, wouldn't it be possible to buy horses continuously?Xu Qing only thought about this idea in his heart for the time being, and now it is still necessary to work together to solve this wave of threats from the Xi clan.

Duan Hongchen and Xu Qing had 6000 men and hundreds of cavalry in their hands. Among the 6000 people, there were [-] Bohai soldiers. Most of them were armed with hatchets, but Xu Qing gave them the equipment of the [-] Goguryeo soldiers, and finally they looked like an army. .But the [-] infantry against the [-] cavalry is still a dead end.In addition, the cavalry in Xu Qingduan Hongchen's hands was only newly formed, and they were not proficient, and they were not capable of fighting against the cavalry of the Shangxi people who were skilled in bowing and horses.

Can't we defend the city?No, because many people in the city migrated here, and they did not bring much rations.When not besieged, you can hunt and fish, and there are caravans coming. Anyway, there are many ways to get food, but after you are besieged, you can only live on your laurels.

It is terrible to live on the old. Originally, we could eat food while we were making food, and we could eat a month's food. If we only lived on the old, we could only eat for less than ten days.When they captured the Five Kingdoms before, they seized a large amount of military rations, but that was still not enough.Even with the planned distribution, the food in the city is not enough for everyone to feed for a month.

If there is not enough food, it will be impossible to defend the city.But let's go out to the city for a decisive battle. Even if we win, we will suffer heavy losses. If someone else comes to attack us in the future, we will be powerless to resist.escape?Where are you going?Two legs can't walk on four legs.Duan Hongchen was helpless again.

Xi cavalry stationed outside the city.Alas, there is no way, cavalry against infantry, natural restraint, who can defy the destiny?

Xu Qing said: "I can!"

Xu Qing's infantry and cavalry's anti-sky law is the crossbow.The crossbow is a deadly weapon. The reason why it is widely used is that it can be operated without much training. Even a novice can quickly become a master with a crossbow, and the hit rate is extremely high.

In Western Europe, the crossbow was considered an improper weapon because it required little skill to kill an armored knight who had spent a lifetime training for combat.

Richard the Lionheart of England was shot twice by crossbow arrows, and died of his injuries the second time.The death of such a great man at the hands of an ordinary or inferior soldier was so appalling to the nobility that in the twelfth century the popes tried to ban the use of crossbows on grounds of cruelty.

The crossbows of Western Europe were passed down from China, and the crossbows of disciples and grandchildren are all so powerful, let alone the crossbows of the ancestors.The bed crossbows of the Ming Dynasty can reach a range of a thousand meters, which is farther than some rifles.

The Mohe people, or the Bohai state, still only have bows, but no crossbows.Coincidentally, Xu Qing just studied the making of crossbows.

The structure of the crossbow is actually not complicated, but it is: arm, bow, machine. The "arm" is generally made of wood; the "bow" is across the front of the arm; the "machine" is installed behind the arm.

The most important part of the crossbow is the "machine". The crossbow machine is generally made of copper or iron. ", which is equivalent to a sight; the "Wangshan" of the crossbow is engraved with a scale, which is convenient for adjusting the firing angle of the crossbow according to the target distance and improving the hit rate of shooting.Below the Tong Guo there is a "hanging knife", which is the trigger, which is used to shoot arrows.

When the crossbow is fired, first open the string, hold it on the "teeth" of the crossbow machine, install the arrow in the arrow slot on the "arm", aim through "Wangshan", and pull the "hanging knife" to make " The teeth are retracted, the string is unhooked, and the kinetic energy formed by the rapid rebound of the opened bowstring is used to shoot the arrow at high speed.

Xu Qing knew a kind of strong crossbow, the god arm crossbow in the Northern Song Dynasty.You must know that the Northern Song Dynasty has always been weak in military power after all. It was able to block the Mongolian cavalry not only because of the extensive use of firearms, but also because of the rapid development of crossbows.Because firearms could not be equipped on a large scale at that time, but relatively simple crossbows could be made.

The god arm crossbow is a standard weapon equipped on a large scale by the Song army, and almost every infantry has one.The length of the bow is three feet three, the string length is two feet five, and the range is as far as more than 340 steps. It is so powerful that an arrow can penetrate half a rod of elm wood.Powerful enough and easy to make.In addition, Datang's excellent crossbow arrows are not weaker than this one. The strength of this magic arm crossbow is that it can be equipped on a large scale, so Xu Qing is not afraid that Bohai State will threaten Datang with it in the future.

Thinking clearly about the stakes, Xu Qing hand-drawn the drawings and told Duan Hongchen and Xu Qi what he thought.Relying on this crossbow alone is not enough, the reloading of the crossbow is relatively slow, and it needs to be fast with continuous control when facing mobile large cavalry.In order to have sustained lethality, Xu Qing also made a five-row line array.

Since the crossbow shoots farther than the bow, it takes more force to reload when using the crossbow.Every time you fill the crossbow, you need to bend over with your feet and use the lever to fill the crossbow.

Based on this, Xu Qing made a three-row line array.After the first row of shooting arrows, bend down to fill, and then continue to shoot arrows in the second row. After shooting, fill the waist, and shoot arrows in the third row.After the third row was shot, the first row was just filled and it was time to shoot arrows again.If the filling is completed in advance, just squat on the ground and release the arrow.

In this way, a formation with crossbow arrows against cavalry becomes.In fact, this three-row line array has a nice name, but Xu Qing can't remember it.

The equipment of the government soldiers is bows and arrows, horizontal knives and iron thread guns. Goguryeo imitated the equipment of the government soldiers, so the last time Xu Qing wiped out them, there were still [-] strong bows left. Thousands of bows.Pick out those that are strong enough and easy to use, and you can modify the "bow" part of the crossbow.

In addition, Xu Qing's guard has a crossbow in his hand, so the patterns of "arm" and "machine" are also easy to draw.The previous overhaul of the city wall left a lot of good wood. Although it is not strictly dry wood, it is enough to deal with this battle.

Duan Hongchen saw Xu Qing's plan, shouted that it was feasible, and quickly made a decision to implement Xu Qing's plan.Xian Xiaoyu told the people in the city that once the Xi people came in, they would burn, kill and loot, arousing the desire of the people in the city to defend the land.Later, Duan Hongchen organized the common people to make the "arm" and "machine" parts of the crossbow, and the army carried out bow modification.

The reason why the bow is not as powerful as the crossbow is because the bow is considered manual, from drawing to shooting, it all depends on one person's "arm strength".The better the bow, the greater the arm strength required. Except for a few famous generals such as the parachutist Li Guang, ordinary people can't even pull it.The arm strength of ordinary people is only so strong, so the power of the bow is limited.

The crossbow is different. Using a crossbow can catch forces other than arm strength, such as the "pedal" mentioned above, so you can use a stronger bowstring to bow the body, which is more powerful.What Xu Qing had to do was to harden the body and string of the bow that he already had in his hand, so as to meet the requirements of a crossbow.How to even meet the requirements of the crossbow?The two of them just can't pull apart...

Since the outside of the city has been besieged, the situation is relatively urgent, and the various parts that everyone rushed to make are not very delicate.Xu Qing took out an assembled crossbow and tried it. Effective shooting, it can shoot more than 310 steps, which is slightly worse than the God Arm Crossbow, but much stronger than the previous bow.Anyway, to solve the urgent need, let's be "Mr. Almost".

The rations were in storage for one month, and [-] enemy soldiers were out. The time was urgent and the situation was critical. In this atmosphere, the will to survive and defend the soil was fully stimulated, and [-] usable crossbows were produced in one day.

While rushing to make crossbows, they trained three rows of line arrays. In No. 18 days, three thousand strong crossbowmen were ready to go.

For some reason, the Xi people outside the city were very proud of themselves. From the siege to the present, they only came to yell and scold a few times, and they didn't even shoot an arrow.Of course, apart from cursing a few words, they really can't do anything else.Although Longquan City was dilapidated, it wasn't something that could be flown there by riding a horse.

On Xu Qing's three-line formation, Duan Hongchen made some improvements.However, one thousand spearmen are placed in front of the formation, three thousand strong crossbowmen are in the middle, and one thousand crossbowmen are behind the formation. work together.Gives a more intensive arrow rain strike.In addition, three hundred cavalry were placed on each side of the formation.

One day, when the Xi people came to shout and curse again, Duan Hongchen only ordered Xu Qing to lead 1000 people to defend the city, gather the remaining [-] soldiers and horses, and storm out of the city.Before the Xi people could marvel, Duan Hongchen had already arranged the formation.

The sound of war drums is silent, and only the wind blows on the battlefield.

(End of this chapter)