The Three Kingdoms Voyage

Chapter 332
Sun Shao sat down on the throne that once belonged to Varag, but now belonged to him. The smile on his face suddenly disappeared, showing a worried look. He looked at the flattering Varag and sighed: "My king of Axum, you have done harm to others this time."

Varage was puzzled, and the smile on his face froze: "Why did the king say that?"

"Don't be fooled by the truth outside. No matter how powerful Tu Hu is, how many people can he kill? One hundred thousand Sassanids, the old man Ardashir really thinks highly of me, and probably brought all the main forces in the country. Let’s go.” Sun Shao sighed and said, “If I’m not in Axum City, you’d better surrender him, and you won’t be besieged by the army. Of course I can’t escape now, and you will have to suffer accordingly. Do you think it’s detrimental to others? already?"

Warrag was proud of himself, but his face was a little embarrassed. He patted his chest and said, "What are you talking about? There are 2 of the king's elite, plus we Axum people, there are more than [-] people defending the city. Even if all the Sasanians come, so what? Is it possible to break through the city of Axum? Don’t worry, the king, I have repaired the city wall with the help of the generals in the past few months. The city of Axum is now very strong. With enough food and water, even if the Sassanids surround us for two years, there will be no problem. In two years, even if we send reinforcements from Vietnam, they should arrive.”

"That's all there is to it." Sun Shao rubbed his brows and muttered sadly, "I knew there were so many Sassanids coming, so I should avoid the limelight first."

Valag sneered twice to himself, and then said a few words of comfort, and then he left the palace and returned to his residence. He still maintained a serious expression until he entered the secret room, and he showed a smile. The meekness just now became fiercely.Poured himself a cup and held it in his hand, he paced back and forth in the long and narrow secret room, gritting his teeth and talking to himself.

"The hateful Romans actually gave my country of Axum to the Yue people. The hateful Yue people will not leave my Axum. You give me back all the benefits you swallowed, including the skin and bones. Roman emperor? Huh! It’s really useless, and he was beheaded by a barbarian, King Yue? See how wise you are this time, reinforcements? Hahaha..."

The more Walag thought about it, the happier he became. He tilted his neck, drank the wine in the glass, then sat down on the wide chair, put his head on the back of the chair, and looked up at the beautifully decorated roof. , chattering and sneering.After a while, he murmured again: "Don't be in a hurry, let the Sasanians suffer a little bit before contacting them, otherwise, he won't take me seriously."

Perhaps because he felt that he was too smart, Varag nodded triumphantly, looked at the empty cup in his hand with unsatisfied satisfaction, and licked his thick lips.He really wanted to drink another glass of wine, but he knew that this was an extraordinary period, and if he drank too much, he would miss things, and even if he said a word, it might ruin his previous efforts.Since his contact with Shapoor, he has stopped drinking so as not to leak the secret.Originally, he didn't believe what Shapur said. He always felt that the Sassanids would not be able to help him restore the country under the attack of the Romans and the Guishan people. But now he believed it, and the most powerful Romans actually made a fuss. The Sasanians seized the opportunity and forced the Guishan people to surrender. However, the Yue people who were originally the safest to stay out of the matter became the enemies that the Sasanians focused on.

Varag had to admit that Shapur's strategy was too far ahead. As early as in the Four Nations Alliance, he probably instigated Maximus and laid the most important move.Now he has not only done his own meritorious service, but also made Rome a mess, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.It is beneficial to cooperate with such a person.However, Shapur is too powerful. If he is not allowed to realize the role of his Valaq, I am afraid that even though he swore in the name of Ahura, he will find a way to deny it. Not only will Egypt not get it, but I can't even get my own Axum back.Valag carefully weighed the strength of the city. He felt that it would be difficult for the Sasanians to take down Axum in a short period of time, and it would be difficult to simply rely on siege, because the Yue people were too rich. Sun Shao spent half a year in Axum. In time, they brought enough food to support the city for two or three years.They also dug many new wells and remodeled the city. The current city of Axum can be described as a strong city.

Is Axum also going to be Troy?
Varag sneered, with me, the biggest wooden horse, even Troy would fall.

The question now is how to seize the right time and obtain the greatest benefit.

Valage looked at the roof, carefully calculating various possibilities.

With the cooperation of Warrag and Tu Hu's heroic battle, the tense atmosphere in Axum has gradually calmed down. The people received the necessary food and drinking water every day according to the order. Women and children Gathered to a safe place, the men were organized to assist the guarding soldiers to move the equipment. The original soldiers in Axum City had been trained for more than half a year, and they had been integrated with the Destroying Front Camp, obeying Ding Feng's command. Feng divided them into eight thousand-man teams to defend the city in turn. The 8000 Destroying Front Battalion left 200 elites led by Zhou Yin as Sun Shao's guards, and the other [-] people were also divided into eight thousand-man teams to cooperate with Aksu Mu people defend the city together.In order to prevent the shortage of troops, he asked Sun Shao to organize the strong slaves in the city, and the more than [-] gladiators who were originally skilled in martial arts were immediately organized into a reserve team, and Tu Hu personally led them to be ready to rescue any dangerous places at any time. , and the others are handed over to the subordinates for training.Ding Feng told them, if you can make meritorious service in this war, then you will be free people, and you will even have the opportunity to live a free life in the mainland of Yue in the future. human slavery.

Axum, like Rome, has a large number of slaves. After Sun Shao took control of Axum, he has not started to solve the problem of slaves. First, he did not want to touch the interests of those nobles. Second, the time has not come. Now he uses war as an excuse to He used coercive means to seize the slaves from the slave owners. Although the nobles were dissatisfied, they did not dare to disturb them. They reluctantly accepted the corresponding compensation.

After this rectification, Sun Shao gained nearly 200 strong men, especially the more than [-] gladiators, who were proficient in killing skills. If they were incorporated into the army to fight with large armies, they might not be able to play much role, and they would be handed over to Leading by Tu Hu, used as a fire brigade, is definitely a sharp sword.These people are used to being brave and fierce, and they only recognize the strong. It is not easy for others to command them. Only Tu Hu has become a hero like Achilles because he killed Alpha and other three warriors in World War I. , These gladiators respected him very much, and they were careful with what they said, lest they annoy him and be beaten to death by him.

With so many people defending the city, coupled with sufficient ordnance, food, and water sources, Axum City has almost no flaws.Valag recalled Sun Shao's worries, and was a little puzzled. What was Sun Shao worried about?Although the Sasanians have 10 people, they are mainly cavalry, and there are not many people who are really good at attacking the city. With the current strength of Axum, if the Sassanids want to capture the city, they may suffer staggering losses.Shapur dared to come to attack the city, perhaps part of the reason was because of his internal support, Valage, and Sun Shao didn't know about it, so what was he worried about?
Valage pondered for a long time, repeating Sun Shao's words and deeds over and over again. After a long time, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and stood up in surprise: "Could it be that he is worried that the reinforcements will not come?"

Thinking of the Sasanian cavalry outside the city, Valag suddenly realized that what Sun Shao was worried about was not inside the city, but outside the city. There were Sassanids guarding outside the city, and even if reinforcements from the Yue Kingdom came, they would not be able to get close to Axum. City, let alone clearing the siege.

Hehehe... He still wants to deceive me.Varag chuckled triumphantly.King Yue, King Yue, you only worry about the outside of the city, but you don't know that the inside of the city is more dangerous. Do you really think that Axum is invulnerable?Yes, without me, the city of Axum might really be invulnerable. No matter how powerful the Sassanids are, they don’t want to break through the city in a hurry, but you forgot, you took my country, how could I still be loyal to you Woolen cloth?Just let you be proud, when that day comes, I will definitely let you know how I feel these days, and repay the humiliation I have suffered a hundredfold on you.

Thinking of that moment, Valag couldn't help but paced back and forth in the secret room.

Half a month later, Ardashir prepared the siege equipment and got Shapur's return.There were warships from the Yue Kingdom on the sea, but after several small-scale contacts, they found the light cavalry led by Shapur, and they did not dare to confront them. They stayed at the beach and did not go ashore, waiting for the arrival of a large number of reinforcements. It is difficult to have any large-scale battles inside.

Aldashir had anticipated this a long time ago, and he immediately ordered the siege to give the city a bad start, so as to restore the depression caused by Alpha's death.He lined up an army of [-] in all directions and launched an attack at the same time. Once he found a door that was weaker in defense, he immediately led a heavy army to press on it.

With the sound of melodious horns one after another, the messengers rushed to and fro, and the slaves were bare-chested, showing their shiny muscles, roaring neatly, and pushing tall trebuchets to the front of the formation.The archers stood outside the shooting range, ready to go, and the soldiers in charge of the siege looked at the city from a distance, suppressing the tension and fear in their hearts.

Sun Shao sat on the highest city wall, holding his clairvoyance, looking at Ardashir in the distance through the hanging wooden curtains.These wooden curtains were just developed by the craftsmen, specially to deal with the trebuchets. All important buildings were hung with such wooden curtains on the outside. Mucheng was covered with a piece of wooden armor.

"The Sassanids must want to destroy the city in one battle, and they put on a big posture." Sun Shao joked.

Varag, who was beside him, laughed and said, "I think they are just a dream. With a king sitting in town, the city of Axum is as solid as... so what kind of soup?"

"It's as solid as gold." Sun Shao added with a smile.

"I'm so stupid, I haven't learned this word yet." Varag said with shame.

"Varag, don't underestimate yourself, your current Chinese level is already very good." Sun Shao laughed, pointed to the soldiers over there and said: "You should know that even among my Han people, I am the one who can know this word Not a lot. You are a learned man."

"Thank you for your compliment, Your Majesty." Warrag smiled more and more happily, pointing to the Sassanians outside the city and said, "Your Majesty will accompany you here today to see how our Yue people beat the Sassanids to death. of."

"Okay, very good." Sun Shao nodded with great satisfaction, and looked at Varage with admiration and satisfaction, and Varage became more and more respectful.

The sound of the horn became more and more urgent, and the Sasanian archers walked forward slowly amidst the sound of the horn. In the front was a row of huge shields, each of which was as tall as a man, and was carried by two soldiers. Hiding behind the giant shield, approach the city wall carefully.In order to cover them, the trebuchets already in place began to roar, shooting oil-soaked grass balls into the sky one after another, drawing flames in the blue sky, and flying towards the city like thunder.

"Get ready!" Ding Feng waved his hands and gave the order calmly.The command flag soldiers waved the command flags in their hands, the drummer shook his arms, and beat the giant cowhide war drum. The deep drum sound echoed over the city of Axum. Live closer and closer to the enemy.The people under the city hid in designated corners one after another to avoid being hit by the flying fireball.

"Boom!" The fireballs hit the wooden mantle covered with rawhide and wet mud one after another, and the wooden mantle was shaken violently, making people very worried that it would be smashed, but they miraculously It was intact, just shook a few times, and fell back again, and those fireballs that hit the wooden mantle were relieved of part of their strength. Although some still hit the city wall or buildings, they did not achieve the expected effect, just exploded. Come on, sparks radiate.The people who were prepared under the city immediately stepped forward to clean up the places that might cause fire.The city of Axum is dominated by earthen and stone walls. There are not many wooden structures, and most of the houses are protected. Therefore, although the streets seem to be full of flames, the danger is not great.

Sun Shao observed the city for a while and saw that although the people were busy, they were not chaotic. People in Taiping days are stronger than one or two points.

"Varag, the people of Axum are very calm, you deserve it." Sun Shao patted Valag's shoulder affectionately.

"It's all about the wise king." Warrag nodded at Tu Hu again in a blink of an eye: "There is also General Tu's bravery, so the common people can feel at ease."

"Actually." Sun Shao picked up a glass of wine from the table, sipped it with gusto, and said to Varag mysteriously: "I'm not afraid of the Sassanids attacking the city, I'm afraid the Sassanids will not attack the city." Siege."

Varag blinked his eyes, and said in a puzzled way: "What does your majesty mean? Why are you not afraid that the Sassanians will attack the city, but why are you afraid that the Sassanids will not attack the city?"

"Look, we have so many elite soldiers and the support of so many common people. Who are we afraid of in Axum? If he attacks the city, we won't have any losses. On the contrary, they will suffer a lot. He will be hit again. After a long time, will he still be able to hold on? After a few months of fighting, he can't even touch the city wall, so he can only retreat. The siege will be solved, so I'm not afraid of him attacking the city. If If he doesn't attack the city, he keeps surrounding it like this. That's a troublesome thing. Think about it, I only have these troops, and I don't have cavalry. If I go out of the city to fight in the field, I will lose. If I don't go out of the city, I can't hurt his bones. With such exhaustion, when will we be able to break free?"

Warag frowned, and smiled secretly in his heart. Sure enough, he didn't count on reinforcements and could only rely on himself.According to this, the Sasanian siege is indeed beneficial to him. If nothing else, just look at the wooden curtains. He originally thought that these things that could even be blown by the wind were useless, but now it seems that dealing with throwing The fireball thrown by the stone machine was really effective, restraining at least half of its power.It's just that Sun Shao probably didn't expect that although he saved the city of Axum by doing so, he couldn't save his own life.

"What the king said really makes sense, but the Sassanids definitely couldn't think of this."

"Hahaha, how can these barbarians understand these principles." Sun Shao pointed to the outside of the city vigorously, "I'll show you what my defensive crossbow looks like when it's in full swing."

Valag looked along his fingers, and saw more than a dozen defensive crossbows installed on the city wall were adjusting their direction. The crossbowmen leaned in front of the crossbow arm, put their eyes on a clairvoyance, and carefully corrected the direction. After a while, more than a dozen observers returned to their original positions and raised the green pennants in their hands. The Captain Qiangnu who was in charge of commanding on the tower shouted loudly and waved down the command flags in his hands violently. At the same time, the crossbowman in front of the city crossbow raised the huge wooden hammer in his hand and struck down with all his strength.

Almost at the same loud noise, more than a dozen spear-like crossbow arrows flew out with afterimages. The roar of the crossbow strings was still in my ears. The crossbow arrows had already flew dozens of steps away, then turned their heads downward, Several trebuchets in the Sasanian formation.Valage noticed that the dozens of city defense crossbows did not fight independently, they seemed to have arranged it, and about three or four city defense crossbows were aimed at the same target, and they cooperated very tacitly.

Just when Varag guessed their intentions, more than a dozen crossbow bolts had already flown to the catapult, and nearly half of them hit the target directly, and the rest were not too far away from the target.The crossbow bolts that hit the target suddenly burst into flames, and then the trebuchet caught fire, and the crossbow bolts that shot near the trebuchet also caught fire. The Sassanids suddenly panicked and attacked. The rhythm has been greatly affected.But the defenders at the top of the city were greatly encouraged, and they adjusted their direction one after another, switching to the next target.

"Great... Great King, why... did it catch fire?" Varag said in surprise.

"Secret." Sun Shao said mysteriously: "This is the sky fire specially prepared for the Sasanians. Just watch it. I will make Ardashir suffer."

Seeing that Sun Shao didn't say anything, Varage didn't dare to ask more, so he had to pay attention secretly.It seems that I still don't know much about the Yue people. It is right to decide to hold off on contacting the Sasanians. When the Sassanians are beaten by the Yue people, I will give them news. That is valuable. .

The Sasanians were caught off guard by the counterattack in the city, and lost a few trebuchets at once. Fortunately, they had a large number of trebuchets, and the loss of a few did not have much impact on them. After the slaves were in a panic, they replaced the hit trebuchet and pushed a new one to continue firing, one after another fireballs flew into the city.

Ardashir has been watching the reaction in the city, and he feels that something is wrong.Those fireballs hit the city wall with sparks and sparks, which looked mighty, but he knew that these were just good-looking. No matter how big the fire was, it would not hurt the city wall at all. Instead, it would cause trouble for the soldiers who attacked the city behind. He had high hopes It is those fireballs that fly into the city. If they can cause a big fire in the city, or destroy some main buildings, especially the royal palace, it will bring panic to the city. Observation of the overall situation.But now they have been attacking for a long time, and there are not three hundred or two hundred fireballs flying into the city, but there has been no sign of fire in the city, and the highest palace is safe and sound.

Could it be that the things that were beaten and shaken did the trick?What on earth is it that can stop the fireball thrown by the trebuchet?Ardashir was at a loss and couldn't figure it out.He looked at the palace that was tightly covered by wooden curtains, he knew that Sun Shao must be watching him there, maybe there was still a smug smile on his face now, but he couldn't think about it.

Just as Ardashir was meditating, the archers had already entered the range under the cover of the giant shield. They put down their wooden shields, drew the bows and arrows in their hands amidst the sound of horns, and fired bows and arrows into the city.

The Sassanids are dominated by cavalry, and the most powerful is the heavy cavalry, and the heavy cavalry does not shoot arrows. They rely on a strong impact to directly defeat the opponent's formation, especially the infantry phalanx facing the Romans. works best.The light cavalry are mainly mercenaries from subordinate tribes. They use riding bows with a range of about sixty or seventy steps.The infantry is an auxiliary arm in the Sasanian organization. They usually do some logistics work, and there are not many opportunities to go into battle. Like today, there are not many opportunities to start as the main force of the siege. Most of them are equipped with bows , the range is at most about a hundred paces. If they want to attack the enemies at the top of the city, they must get as close to the city wall as possible under the cover of a huge shield.

And they obviously didn't expect that in the eyes of the Han people who are experts in defending the city, it would be a joke to attack with such archers. You must know that the worst thing in the hands of the defenders at the top of the city is the three-stone crossbow with a range of about 120 steps. , There are not a few five-stone and six-stone crossbows, and there are even dozens of exaggerated ten-stone crossbows, and the two sides are not on the same starting line in terms of range.

What's more, the crossbows of Yue State are all continuous crossbows improved by Ma Jun and others. They have proved their powerful combat effectiveness in countless battles. Today, these continuous crossbows will let the Sassanids know what it means to defend city ​​weapon.

Watching the Sasanian archers enter the range, Ding Feng had a smirk on his face. He waved his hand and shouted at Yu An: "Command all the archers to fire in echelon."

"Here." Yu An's fair face also showed a hostility that did not match his image, and he raised the colorful flag in his hand high.

Seeing the signal from the city tower, more than a dozen screams sounded from the top of the city at the same time: "Bowmen, get ready—"

The crossbowmen who had already been eager to try held their breath, and put their fingers on the crossbow trigger.

　The fierce "Great Qin Empire Wind and Cloud Records" is finished, and there is a brother who has been supporting him that can be slaughtered.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)