Chapter 615: Land and Water Battle
Chapter 615: Land and Water Battle (Part )
In the darkness of night, shadows swayed on the moat. Hundreds of Sui soldiers were dismantling the stone bridge. Arrows rained down from the top of the city wall, but they were basically useless. The Sui soldiers all hid under the stone bridge.
Xiao Yan was watching the busyness below the city from the top of the city wall. General Li Kun whispered a suggestion: "Why not lower the drawbridge and charge out!"
Xiao Yan looked at the large ship in the distance and shook his head, saying, "It's too risky to fight our way out. We can't take that risk. Besides, even if the stone bridge is demolished, it won't have much impact on us."
"I understand the humble position!"
Xiao Yan ordered again: "Notify the soldiers to stop shooting arrows!"
Archery has almost no effect, it is a complete waste of arrows. Xiao Yan still plans to defend the city for a year, the arrows must be used on the blade, and he cannot shoot arrows randomly like this.
After the order was passed down, the arrows from the top of the city stopped shooting, and the dismantling of the pontoon bridge under the city was accelerated. The Sui soldiers dived into the water and tied several thick ropes to the bottom of the stone pier. Hundreds of Sui soldiers behind them pulled hard, and the stone pier was pulled down, and the stone slabs on it also fell into the water.
The stone piers were pulled down one by one, the bridge planks kept falling into the river, and the stone bridge became shorter and shorter.
At two o'clock in the morning, the two stone bridges in the north and south were dismantled almost at the same time. Two thousand soldiers left behind a few long ropes that were almost worn out and disappeared into the night.
Just as day broke, the rumbling sound of war drums rang out in the wilderness. From the Sui army camp three miles away, teams walked out one after another. The 80,000-strong army quickly formed a large battle formation in the wilderness. There were more than a hundred siege ladders in the team, but no large siege weapons.
"Your Highness, the enemy's siege ladders seem a bit strange!" the general pointed at the siege ladders in the army.
Xiao Yan also saw that the siege ladder was indeed strange. It was not a ladder, but a long and wide wooden board with hooks at both ends.
He couldn't figure out what it was used for?
Just then, a soldier shouted, "The boat is coming! The boat is coming!"
Xiao Yan turned around and his eyes suddenly widened. He saw three magnificent warships with a capacity of 10,000 shi were slowly sailing from the Caohe River into the moat. The moat, which was a hundred feet wide, easily accommodated the three large warships with a capacity of 10,000 shi.
Xiao Yan's whole body trembled, and he suddenly understood that the other party wanted to use the warship to climb the city, and the wide wooden planks were used for climbing the city.
"Order the Fiery Army to attack the city immediately!"
Three thousand Fiery Army rushed to the city. Xiao Yan had also developed gunpowder, so how could he not use it? After repeated experiments, he found that paper fire bombs and porcelain bottle fire bombs had little killing effect except for the noise, and he could not develop iron fire bombs with great killing effect.
Xiao Yan simply gave up the explosion route and chose the combustion route instead. However, he did not have enough raw materials, so gunpowder could only be used as an combustion aid.
He used the straw fireball that was commonly used in the Southern Dynasties. It was a ball made of straw and wrapped with stones to increase the weight. Xiao Yan also sprinkled gunpowder into it to aid combustion.
In total, they made tens of thousands of straw fireballs and formed a 3,000-man fire army.
Xiao Yan nervously looked at the ship that was getting closer and closer. He felt his mouth dry and his whole body trembled unconsciously. Not only him, but all the soldiers on the city wall were staring at the ship nervously.
"Trebuchet ready!"
Xiao Yan shouted, and hundreds of medium-sized catapults on the city walls were ready to go.
Xiao Xia was also watching the approaching large ships from the bottom of the city. These three large ships were just feinting attacks to test the opponent's defense measures.
At this moment, drums sounded loudly on the top of the city wall, and countless stones rained down on the large ship in front. The medium-sized catapults could only throw stones weighing thirty or forty kilograms, which did not have much impact on the warships.
But at this moment, the stones suddenly disappeared and turned into fireballs that were thrown at the ship. The burning straw balls immediately scattered after hitting the ship and burned on the deck. Especially with the help of gunpowder, the burning on the deck was even more intense.
The soldiers tried to put out the fire, but to no avail. The deck began to burn. At this time, many soldiers were also hit by the straw and were burning with flames.
More than a dozen soldiers screamed in pain from the burning fire and jumped from the ship into the moat.
The big ship immediately turned around and no longer approached the city wall, but instead moved towards the moat. There was a sudden cheer from the top of the city.
The catapult on top of the city wall is really a troublesome thing, it must be eliminated first. Xiao Xia ordered in a stern voice: "Prepare the heavy crossbows to board the ship!"
‘Woo——’
A low horn sounded, and ten large ships came in the distance and sailed into the moat, but did not approach the city wall. Instead, they sailed along the outside of the moat, seventy or eighty feet away from the city wall.
A thousand heavy crossbow soldiers rushed forward, carrying their heavy crossbows on their backs, ran onto the small boats on the shore, and then climbed onto the big ship using the small boats.
One thousand heavy crossbowmen were distributed on twelve large ships. They used five-stone heavy crossbows, which required two soldiers lying down and working together to pull a heavy crossbow.
The crossbow arrow is four feet long and can easily penetrate a two-inch wooden board from three hundred steps away. But the crossbow arrow is not important. What is important is that there is a small iron fire bomb weighing two kilograms tied to the crossbow arrow.
The real intention of the heavy crossbow army was to use the range and accuracy of the heavy crossbow arrows to throw iron fire bombs onto the distant city walls.
This small iron fire mine cannot blow down the enemy's city wall, but it can clear everything on the top of the city, including soldiers and small catapults.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The drums sounded, and five hundred heavy crossbows were fired. Five hundred heavy arrows carrying hissing iron fire bombs shot towards the top of the city in a parabolic manner.
Xiao Yan could see clearly that the five hundred arrows in the air were actually smoking. He was horrified and shouted, "Everyone get down!"
Some of the soldiers with quick reactions fell down, while some of the slightly slower soldiers did not react at all. At this time, five hundred heavy crossbow arrows fell on the top of the city like raindrops.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" A series of explosions sounded on the top of the city, and the air was immediately filled with smoke.
More than a dozen large ships stopped and moved, and after five rounds of shooting, the five hundred heavy crossbows finally calmed down. The one hundred catapults on the top of the city were wiped out, and the top of the city was littered with broken limbs and arms, blood flowed down the slingshots, and the city walls were covered with shocking blood lines.
But among the 8,000 soldiers on the city wall, 5,000 were not killed. They all hid under the battlements, far away from the explosion point. More importantly, they all lay down. This is the best way to deal with the explosion.
However, although they escaped death, everyone was terrified, as if they had been killed by a bomb, and they lay on the ground, not daring to move.
Xiao Yan slowly sat up and sighed, "This is fucking amazing!"
It was also the first time for him to personally experience the explosion of an iron fire bomb. He did not expect it to be so violent that it actually wiped out all the catapults.
He saw that the soldiers were lying motionless, and he became furious. "Are they all dead? Get up!"
The soldiers finally came to their senses and sat up in their tents one by one, looking at the chaos on the city wall with still great shock.
"here we go again!"
Some soldiers shouted in fear. They looked up and saw countless black spots flying towards the top of the city wall. They were so scared that they lay down again.
Xiao Yan also quickly lay down, but this time there was no explosion. He slowly raised his head and saw many gunpowder arrows burning on the top of the city, but most of them were shot into the city.
Xiao Yan suddenly thought of something and shouted, "Not good!"
He crawled to the other side of the city wall and looked into the city. He saw that tens of thousands of straw balls piled on the edge of the city were ignited, and a raging fire quickly spread out, including other supplies.
Dozens of houses were also set on fire. Countless soldiers shouted to put out the fire. The houses could be saved, but the straw balls could not. The straw balls sprinkled with gunpowder burned quickly, and the raging fire engulfed everything in a very short time.
There was a raging fire and heat waves below the city, but Xiao Yan felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave.
(End of this chapter)