Spring and Autumn I Am King

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The "secret weapon" that Zhao Wushi asked Gongshu Ban to make with the craftsmen was actually a trebuchet.

But in this era, its name in China is "Flying Stone".

Probably during the slack after the autumn harvest last year, Zhao Wuxi summoned Xiaogong to take the class. After making the ladder, he gave him another task.

"I heard Xu Cheng, the captain of the boat division, say that when Chu and Wu were at war, in order to defend the city, the people of Chu made a kind of machinery: a stone was placed on top of a big tree, and the flying stone weighed twelve kilograms. You can cross the city wall and take a hundred steps to attack the enemy..."

At that time, Gongshu Ban was stunned: "It's really a whimsical idea, there is such a weapon in this world?"

Sometimes Zhao Wuxi can't help but sigh with emotion. The people of Chu in the south are indeed very smart. The crossbows and catapults were invented by the artisans of Chu at the turn of the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Period. Because they only emerged in this era, the northern craftsmen are still very concerned about it. Know nothing.

It was probably not until the later Wu-Yue War and the later Mozi era that the trebuchets would spread in all countries, but Zhao Wuxi had to introduce this offensive and defensive weapon into the Central Plains ahead of time.

He had this idea before, because fighting the world, attacking and defending the city is indispensable, and even in the opinion of the great military strategist Sun Wu, attacking the city is still extremely difficult. To avoid is to avoid, so the war will be protracted.

Coincidentally, Xu Cheng, who came from Wu State, also participated in the Wu-Chu War. After conquering a recalcitrant Chu State city, he saw this kind of offensive and defensive machinery with his own eyes. Zhao Wuxi asked him to draw a sketch based on his impression and give it to Gongzu class, and the public transport class can see the principle at a glance.

"First build the trebuchet frame, and then use manpower to pull the tips connected to the crossbar together at a place far from the trebuchet, and the tips are placed on the wooden frame. Throwing stone bullets by human pulling with many ropes..."

"Isn't this the 'leverage principle' that the general told me!"

Zhao Wushi used a scale to describe this kind of physics knowledge in junior high school to the public school: "The distance from the fulcrum of the scale to the end of the weight is called 'ben' (heavy arm), and the distance from the fulcrum to the end of the weight is called 'mark' (force). arm). When the weight is equal to the weight and the weighing instrument is balanced, the weighted object is at one end of the weighing instrument, and the end of the heavy object must sag; That's the principle of leverage."

Just relying on rough sketches and simple theoretical foundations, Gongshuban made the fine parts of the trebuchet with his talent, and finally incorporated the inventions of the Chu people, and also made finished products in Lu. It is said that The experimental effect is very good.

But for actual combat. This is the first time...

For the next ten days, the Zhao army continued to shoot arrows and harass the city. Let the guards in the city weary and frightened. Then the rear formation became a large construction site. Five thousand laborers and one thousand soldiers were transferred to the public transport class, and all the carriages were used by him.

The public transport class asked 2,000 people to cut wood in the forest to the west, transport the wood along the Qishui River to Chaoge, and then drag it ashore, where the craftsmen directed another batch of laborers to dry and process it.

To make a trebuchet, in addition to huge wooden beams, you need a lot of various materials. A thousand people quarried in the quarry to the east, and they were transported back to the construction site by carriages pulled by oxen and people. Then there are a thousand more people dedicated to handling the stones.

In addition, tanned or tanned cowhide and horse hides, ropes for carts and carts, and metal parts for siege weapons were made in situ, or shipped from the treasuries of conquered Fan clan cities.

What makes Gongshuban strange is that, besides that, Zhao Wushi also gave him a lot of bamboo, paper, and brocade, so that he could make some high-flying kites...

Public transport classes do not understand. This kind of thing that has gradually become popular in Ludi can also be used in the battle of attacking and defending the city?

He patted his head: "Could it be that you want to measure the wind direction and speed with a kite? Is it easy to aim?"

Zhao Wuxi smiled mysteriously: "You will know then."

...

Day after day, in the first ten days of July, more than fifty trebuchets with a height of 30 feet stood side by side on the field outside the construction site, like a group of giant beasts standing among the gradually yellowing millet straws.

Although Zhao Wuxi didn't know much about woodworking and machinery, he had also heard that there were many types of trebuchets: there were torque trebuchets in Greece. In later generations, there are centrifugal catapults, counterweight catapults, especially counterweight catapults, also known as Xiangyang Cannons, which are the most terrible siege weapons before the birth of artillery.

However, even if Gongshu Ban was a genius, he would not be able to create the perfect instruments that took human beings over a thousand years of experience to perfect in half a year. Therefore, this time, it is still a relatively primitive long-pole thrower, that is, the hair stone is pulled by human power.

It is twice as high as the "flying stones" used by countries such as Chu and Wu in the south to defend the city. The throwing arm is made of the trunk of an old tree, with iron hoops to prevent breakage, and there are wheels under the base frame, which can be pushed along the flat ground to adjust the attack distance and angle. The appearance is rough and full of the beauty of wooden machinery, and its power is stronger than that of the "flying stones" in the south. It can throw stone bombs weighing dozens of pounds two hundred steps away!

Until the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao also bombarded Yuan Shao's barracks with thunderbolts of similar structure.

At least Zhao Wuxi can guarantee that the ignorant Fan and Bank of China guards in the city are definitely the first time in his life to see this kind of offensive and defensive weapon. It is more difficult to break through the city wall, but the siege of the city is largely about morale. When they are suddenly attacked, it is a good opportunity to break the city!

...

"This is all the Di people in the city?"

At the same time, Chaoge Sima Liu Xiang was examining the eight hundred Bai Di soldiers in front of him. These Di people were always capricious and unreliable. Before, their compatriots sold the Gongcheng and surrendered to the Zhao clan.

But what made Liu Xiang feel helpless was that Chaoge's defense had to continue to rely on the Di people. He unloaded their weapons and arranged for them to carry stones and bricks to the city wall.

Fan's and Zhongxing's soldiers were also unreliable. Thanks to Zhao's blessing, there were only 6,000 soldiers who fled into Chaoge, which was not enough, so they could only temporarily recruit men over fifteen years old to help defend the city. I actually collected 30,000, but no more than a quarter of them could be counted on.

Chaoge is a big and prosperous city with convenient transportation, good economy, large population, and a lot of equipment stored in the government treasury, so the training situation of Chinese people is not optimistic. Liu Xiang also regretted that the training intensity and density of the Chaoge people were far inferior to those of the Bank of China.

Usually it's nothing, but when things go wrong, it will show some disadvantages.

Zhang Liushuo warned him, "The villagers who have been trained more often have been recruited by the lord to fight, and they have been damaged outside. The remaining people in the city, those who fled from outside, are more tender than the spring grass. They joined the defense of the city. , in addition to wanting to get enough food rations, but also because Bo Xingbo preached that the Zhao family likes to slaughter after the war."

"As soon as the war broke out, when the trumpets were loud and the flags were flying outside the city, they might have fought bravely to survive at first, but as long as the momentum was not good, they would collapse immediately and flee. One man throws down his spear, and a thousand men will study."

Of course, the guards also had experienced backbones: the 2,000 Dongyang guards beside Zhong Xingbo were divided into two, guarding the southwest and southeast corners, and the five hundred Fan clan soldiers beside Liu Xiang followed him to patrol the city wall.

Up to now, he only hopes that there is a sentence in the art of war that can be verified: stand high in a strong city, and one is worth ten.

...

The attack and defense of the city wall for more than ten days seems to have verified this sentence.

Zhao Bing has been besieging the city for almost 20 days. In Liu Xiang's opinion, Zhao Bing, who is good at field battles, seems not to be good at sieging the city, and their offensive is not violent.

They first filled in the moat to the south, and at the same time built up several earthen hills that were as high as the city wall. But not to let the archers stand on it and shoot arrows, but to block the view of the guards in Chaoge City, so that the guards can't see what the construction site behind Zhaoying is doing. Beams, stones, leather, etc. are transported by train.

When Liu Xiang wanted to come, what Zhao Bing built were nothing more than some siege equipment, such as chariots, shield chariots, and the strange ladders that Zhao used to attack the city.

Sure enough, ten days ago, Zhao Bing's offensive gradually began to accelerate.

At first, the soldiers hid behind the shield chariots they built, and pushed the siege chariots against the arrows and stones in the city, trying to forcibly breach the city gate~www.readwn.com~ But there were too many people in the city, and Liu Xiang led his troops to defend, Zhao Bing couldn't get close at all, and the attacking vehicle was burned by torches and grease thrown from the city.

Afterwards, the Zhao army was divided into two divisions, one feigned to attack the two southeast walls. After the guards were mobilized, the main force attacked the west city wall. Relying on the cloud ladder, Zhao Bing boarded the Chaoge City for the first time, but was led by the Bank of China Yin personally. Hundreds of daredevils rushed down.

Immediately, the cloud ladder was pushed down by the guards on the city, and the warrior Tian Ben fell off. Fortunately, the soldiers below caught him recklessly, so he was spared from falling and died, but he was also slightly injured.

Afterwards, the Zhao soldiers attacked with fire. They gathered all the bowmen of the army, several thousand of them, and fired rockets into the city as they approached at night. The rockets shot into the night sky, like shooting stars falling into the city. However, Zhang Liushuo had been prepared for a long time. He had demolished all the houses near the wall in the city before. Therefore, although the Yanyao rocket with insufficient range caused a small fire, the soldiers in the city quickly diverted water to extinguish it.

After this night, the Zhao army no longer attacked, but no matter day or night, there were people outside drumming and feigning attack.

After more than ten days of siege, the Zhao army made little progress, but there were not many casualties. On the contrary, the guards were harassed every day without knowing the truth, and it was difficult to sleep, and they were a little tired.

In addition to being exhausted, they also breathed a sigh of relief: "Is Zhao Jun discouraged? They have stopped sending troops to attack the city these few days..."

Just as the defenders in the city were getting used to this kind of life, and their tense nerves began to relax, on a fine morning in mid-July, a mid-line guard who was dozing off with a spear opened his eyes under the push of his companions. But saw such a situation.

After the mountains that had been piled up for many days, dozens of rough wooden instruments slowly opened, and under the push of more than a thousand people, they began to slowly move towards the outside of Chaoge City... (To be continued.)

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