The more than 50,000 people in the city should have lost between 4,000 and 5,000 at this time. The heavy losses severely damaged morale.
Almost all the siege weapons against the city wall were burning fiercely. The flames and smoke prevented them from getting close.
While he was hesitating, those damn trebuchets showed their power again.
They had seen with their own eyes how these super long-range trebuchets defeated the camel artillery team. At this time, these stone bullets rained down on their heads.
Every minute, 20,000 stone bullets weighing one kilogram rain down like a downpour.
They raised their shields in vain to try to block it, but to no avail. The one-pound stone bullets and pebbles not only smashed through the five-layer rawhide shield, but also fractured his arm. Then hit him.
As long as they were hit by these falling rocks, they would break bones and tendons. At this time, they lost their siege vehicles and other protective equipment, and were completely exposed to the rain of bullets.
Inside the city wall, each trebuchet is operated by a team. A team leader is responsible for measuring angles and calculating range.
Two loaders, responsible for loading stone bullets. The two launchers are responsible for pulling the chain under the pulley to raise the weight box.
Finally, the corporal commander adjusted the range based on the data coming from the city wall, then pulled the latch and launched.
The Oirat army outside the city kept running in fear, as if this could reduce the chance of being hit by stone bullets.
But in fact, it is completely random which unlucky person is hit by the stone bullet.
Gushi Khan looked at it for a while and said, "Remove it."
Several others nodded. The northern city wall is now a wall of fire. They can't get close at all, and the trebuchets are firing non-stop. The current situation is just increasing casualties.
As the horn sounded, the army retreated like a tide.
Yan Yingyuan shouted loudly: "Don't stop the trebuchet, keep hitting it to the maximum range."
There are too many people in Oirat, and only by consuming them as much as possible can there be any hope of holding on. In Yan Yingyuan's view, every opportunity to kill them should not be missed. Adding up a little makes a big thing is also a tactic.
This pulley block weighted trebuchet has one advantage. That means it can be used unlimited times. Because manpower is used to lift the counterweight box, only rice is consumed. The cobblestones are everywhere on the Yellow River beach. There are as many as you want. Even a hundred years of hunting will not be enough.
As long as the equipment is not damaged, you can keep playing. If it's damaged, parts can be shipped in. This is the disadvantage of siege.
If these trebuchets only carry a weight of one hundred kilograms, they can be projected to a distance of 500 meters, which is a full mile. It can be said that it has reached the limit of mechanical ejection. Many firearms in this era have a range of less than 500 meters.
The Oirat people ran back, enduring the rain of stone bullets.
Every time a dark cloud composed of stone bullets fell from the sky, smoke and dust would rise from the ground. Countless people were hit with broken bones and tendons by the stones.
The trebuchet fired five more times before these men escaped from the range.
Dalai Tush looked at the miserable scene within 500 meters of the city in the distance and let out a long sigh. He had already estimated that this city would be difficult to defeat, but he did not expect it to be so difficult to defeat.
Their only artillery was the camel cannon, and their muskets came from the Ottoman Empire, the same type of matchlock as the Rumi gun. In fact, these are not lagging behind. Even seventy or eighty years later, they still had an advantage when confronting Kangxi.
But although Yang Fan only used a trebuchet, it was a cold weapon. However, in terms of design and materials, the limits have been reached. Firearms in the early stages of development are still no match for cold weapons that have reached their peak.
The splashing of molten iron was a stroke of genius, causing Hala to suddenly feel a toothache.
This gray-white city has now been blackened by fire. It looked mottled and seemed to be dilapidated. However, he knew that today's attack did not cause any substantial damage to the city wall.
The camel cannon only caused some stones to fall off the crenels. As for the rams and siege vehicles, they basically had no effect and were burned.
"We can't continue to fight like this. At least more than 6,000 people died today. We can't stand it if we continue to fight like this. We must come up with new methods."
Gushi Khan, Dalai Tush and others all frowned. There was no good solution for a while.
They didn't know what Yang Fan had in store. Judging from the current situation alone, there is nothing they can do if they keep pouring iron juice.
Because if you want to attack a city, you must have siege weapons. These weapons, whether they are building vehicles, siege vehicles, trench-filling vehicles, trebuchets, or ladders, are all made of wood.
Once these things get close to the city wall, the defenders will pour molten iron with a temperature of more than a thousand degrees. The wood will ignite almost instantly.
Once a person is stuck with molten iron, he cannot bear even a drop of it. The molten iron can burn the skin instantly and even cause fat and clothes to burn.
Today, it is clear that all the troops have rushed to the city. But the splashed molten iron fell like raindrops on the densely packed army under the city. These people were rolled all over the ground so hot that the whole battlefield smelled of cooked meat.
There is no solution to this tactic. Even if they could use camel cannon to block the crenels, it would be useless. They didn't need to show their heads, just throw the molten iron down.
No one knows how much molten iron they have and how much coal they have. Anyway, the Yellow River is still open to navigation, so I don’t know the specific situation.
For a while, the Taijis all lowered their heads in thought.
At this time, He Duo and Qin suddenly said: "I have thought of a way, but I don't know if it is feasible."
Gushi Khan said quickly: "Tell me about it, we don't have a good solution anyway."
He Duo and Qin said: "Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. There is no moon at night and it will be very dark. We will take advantage of the darkness to push the trebuchet up. Bombard their city walls and kill their defenders on the walls."
Gushihan's eyes lit up, this was a good idea.
It was clear during the day that neither the camel cannon nor their trebuchets could get up on the city wall. Because the opponent's trebuchet has a range of 500 meters, and their trebuchet has a range of 200 meters. The camel is only over 300 meters long.
And you can see outside the city from the city, but you can't see the city from outside the city. It was impossible to find the location of the trebuchet in the city and destroy it. There is no way to win in this kind of style of play where you can only be beaten passively.
However, if you take advantage of the cover of darkness to transport the trebuchet to a place 150 meters away from the city wall, then launch an attack, bombard the city wall all night, and retreat at dawn. Then you can destroy their walls bit by bit.
After all, no matter how strong the city wall is, if it continues to be bombarded by forty or fifty kilograms of stone bullets, sooner or later it will be damaged. Ancient sieges were long-term operations, and some sieges lasted seven or eight years. It also takes time to hit a city wall with a trebuchet. It doesn't take a few days for the city wall to collapse.
In this case, the advantages of both parties are reversed. It became that the Beijing camp was in the light and they were in the dark.
Some people died, but not completely...
