Chapter 85 Knocking on the Pass
Everyone on the wall saw that the thieves fighting on the opposite side were still mainly unarmored minions, with some wearing armor mixed in here and there. Well, it was the thief chief who took a stand against the trapped beast and asked his personal guard Ding to supervise the battle.
This battle was much bigger than the previous two. After the drum sounded, the thieves hit their shields with their weapons and shouted in unison: "Kill, kill, kill!". Even though they were separated by a full seventy or eighty feet and four to five thousand people roared together, the sound was still quite scary. The veterans who had just put on airs in front of the new recruits on Guanqiang couldn't help but put away their pride - no wonder most of their so-called combat experience was limited to the first two defensive battles with no danger. , the most senior General Manager Qian was just a bandit who had followed Sun Fugui to chase down a dying bandit who was unable to fight back. As for the new recruits who had just been transferred to the reinforcements, their faces were even more pale. Their knuckles holding onto their weapons were white, their palms were numb, and many of them were trembling slightly.
According to the predetermined plan, Guan Shengyun's troops formed an intimidating formation and began to approach the Guan wall in groups of three or five with skirmishers advancing quickly. At the front of each group was a veteran holding a tall wooden shield.
"Whoosh".
A newly arrived reinforcement was really frightened when he saw the thieves approaching with great momentum, so he shot the first arrow regardless of whether he could get it or not.
"Whoosh", "whoosh", "whoosh"...
With the first one, other archers naturally followed suit, drew their bows and threw the arrows out.
"Pah, pah", several feather arrows were inserted two or three feet away from the battle line, and the attacking soldiers burst into laughter.
We have all heard of the archer who can pierce the poplar with a hundred steps. In fact, in most cases, this can only be said to be artistic exaggeration. Even with the blessing of modern technology, bows, strings, shock absorbers, front sights, carbon arrow shafts, years of targeted hard training day after day...all these things are difficult for professional athletes to do under these conditions. In ancient times, hungry semi-slave craftsmen made horned bows based entirely on experience, thick and thin bow strings twisted from animal sinews, arrow shafts with a high probability of unstable center of gravity, and a severe lack of training. (The arrows that are shot are almost useless, and few of them can be reused, so you don’t have so much money to waste) Guys shoot it... How can they do it? Especially the effect of wind - a sniper rifle with such a high initial velocity of the projectile still needs the assistant shooter to correct the wind deviation and assist in aiming.
Therefore, in most cases, bows and arrows, which are long-range suppressive weapons, rely on probability to hit the enemy: if everyone shoots probabilistically in the same direction, there will always be some hits. The main function is mental deterrence, delaying and disrupting the enemy's offensive rhythm.
Of course, there must be some sharp archers, such as the flying general Li Guang. However, don't forget who his opponent is - the Huns. The Huns are unarmored! A hard bow is naturally famous for being unarmored. The Huns compatriots are not ignorant of this truth. However, first of all, there is no place to get so much iron to wear as clothes. Secondly, the average weight of a Mongolian horse is only five or six hundred kilograms. It can barely carry a person who weighs more than a hundred kilograms. iron? Then I really can’t run!
All dynasties also had special armor-piercing arrows. However, not everyone can pull a hard bow and shoot an iron arrow. It requires a high level of physical fitness of the user, and usually requires a lot of training costs. Also... iron arrows are not generally expensive! Only senior generals can afford it. Therefore, most of the time, these generals can only equip their three or five most reliable personal guards with ten or eight weapons each. On ordinary battlefields, it is more cost-effective to exchange the free lives of the beggar soldiers.
This is generally true. Taking iron armor as an example, the unit price reported by Xu Guangqi to the court was twenty taels of silver per pair - and to recruit a beggar as a soldier, one and a half taels of silver was enough for the settlement fee! So the adults from the Ministry of War, Ministry of Household Affairs, and Ministry of Industry naturally made a calculation: the money for a pair of armor can be used to recruit a dozen soldiers. As for A, he might be snatched away by the enemy. A dozen beggars will swarm him. Even if more than half of them die, the court will still gain in the end! On the surface, this seems to be the case, but it is a pity that the uncles missed one point: of course the court does not care about the lives of the beggars - but they themselves do! You don't care about my life or death, why should I work for you? When facing the enemy, they broke up in a panic, or even switched sides... Then the Ming Dynasty was finished.
Probability shooting, the arrows fired sporadically have almost no impact on the enemy. Sun Fugui was so anxious that he yelled: "Sister-in-law! Stop, stop! Wait for me to order a volley of fire! It's so far away, and you can't even shoot! Who can shoot arrows randomly and throw them away! Stop for me!" !" Hearing this, the generals used their scabbard knives to hit the archers head-to-head with their backs. They also cursed: "I asked you to let them go around..." After a commotion of pain and pain, The archers finally stopped scattering in an unorganized manner. Each one of them put an arrow in the string with wet hands full of cold sweat, licked his dry lips, looked nervously at the approaching enemy, and occasionally glanced at the side. officers and companions.
At this time, Guan Shengyun's troops were approaching another twenty or thirty feet: completely different from imagination or in movies and TV dramas. In this era, even if it was a strong attack, they would rarely run and charge, but would stride forward - because they needed to conserve their physical strength! Even modern people who are well-nourished can only gasp on their knees after sprinting for 100 meters at full speed, and have no energy left to protect themselves within a few minutes. Originally, the arrows fired were only sparse, but now they stopped, and short whistles sounded in the slowly advancing skirmisher line - this was the "speed up" issued by the leading officer to his subordinates. "The command. The soldiers who first raised their shields changed from slow steps to fast steps, and advanced more than ten feet in the blink of an eye.
When the enemy forward was about forty feet away from the wall, Sun Fugui shouted: "Fire the arrow!" The archers unloaded their bows and shot the arrows at an angle of forty-five degrees. The arrow flew diagonally halfway up the sky, exhausted its kinetic energy and reached its peak, then changed its flight path. The arrow clusters pointed downwards, drawing parabolas, and then plunged downwards. Under the influence of gravity acceleration, it became faster and faster, rushing toward the attacking crowd.
The leader of the charge was Zhang Ding. Suddenly I saw a swarm of locusts rising from the wall, and the whistle in my mouth whistled sharply. Upon hearing the order, the shield soldiers in the front row immediately tilted their shields and raised them above their heads. The few people behind them hurriedly followed, half-crouching and trying to hide as much of their upper bodies under cover as possible.
Tuk, Tuk, ah...
Most of the arrows were only inserted into the open space in the formation, and a small number were nailed to the large shield. Four or five people who were hit by the arrows were rushed to the ground, one was killed on the spot, and the others who could still move wailed and struggled to retreat towards their own camp.
As soon as the last feather arrow fell, short whistles sounded one after another in the formation. The soldiers hunched over and followed the shield soldiers and walked a few steps towards the wall until Zhang Ding's long whistle sounded again...
Qi Xiaoguang looked at the enemy worriedly: the effect of this round of shooting was extremely poor, the sides of the ladder were well protected by enemy shields, and the arrows had no effect on the car - they did not even stop in the rain of arrows, slowly and And push it all the way firmly. At this rate, the enemy will be approaching Guanqiang before long!
"Divide into two rows, split into two rows! Shoot alternately!" Sun Fugui's roar exploded not far away. Although he did not have much experience facing enemies, Sun Fugui came from a military family after all. He had been exposed to the influence in the camp since he was a child, and he immediately had countermeasures.
"Arrow in front"!
"The front row retreats, the back row steps forward, let go"!
"Stand back, get on the back row, let go"!
"Change to flat shot!"
…
At a distance of more than ten or twenty feet, the interval between arrows raining down at the critical moment became shorter and shorter. The thieves' attack rhythm was obviously disrupted. The long and short whistles no longer sounded. More thieves fell down in the field of vision. Qi Xiaoguang I made a rough calculation in my mind and found that nearly a hundred battles had been achieved and two ladders had been climbed. If this continues, in a few more rounds, more thieves will fall. If only I had been braver earlier and organized people to plan the road before the pass...
"Hahaha, okay! Shoot these idiots to death! Shoot the arrows, shoot the arrows!" Qi Xiaoguang, who was staring at the wall with all his concentration, was startled by the loud roar in his ears, and turned his head to look over, Kou Zhizhang, who had been huddled far behind just now, came to the wall at some point. Seeing that many thieves were shot down by bows and arrows, his courage suddenly increased, and he patted the crenels vigorously and started dancing and shouting. Qi Xiaoguang moved half the stack to the side in disgust, but before he could stand still, he suddenly heard a shout from under the wall, and saw the thieves shouting, no longer walking together, and rushing towards the wall at full speed.
"Archers, shoot on your own! Enter the slingers, hit me hard!"
With a "pop" sound, the grappling hook of the first ladder finally caught the wall.
"Pa", "pa"...the other ladders were pushed up one after another, and in a blink of an eye, forty or fifty ladders were erected outside the wall.
"Pour in the kerosene!"
"Pour golden juice on it!"
"Burn the thief to death!"
"Lean forward and throw stones!"
The roars of the various stack commanders and Qianbang commanders all started along the wall.
Sun Fugui half leaned forward and looked at the rushing cars. The five rush cars were filled with arrows like hedgehogs, and the nearest one was only more than two feet away from the door. "What do these killers think of shooting arrows at the charging car? They've wasted so many good arrows!" Sun Fugui thought angrily, pointing at the charging car and shouting an order: "Throw the fire cans and fire rockets!" He couldn't wait. It collides with the door and then ignites a fire - the main body of the door is also made of wood, which really helps the thief if it catches fire. It must be ignited from a safe distance!
"Bang, bang!" Several clay pots filled with kerosene and sulfur were smashed to pieces on the rush car and the ground nearby. Several lit rockets shot over, and suddenly...
A few small flames ignited in the car.
hateful!
This push cart is the largest among the five. The top is much wider than normal, almost flush with the two door doors, shielding and protecting most of the thieves pushing the cart. The thieves smeared a lot of wet mud and weeds on the top of the car. Under the mud and grass was a quilt soaked in water, and there was more than one layer! It looks like he won’t be able to burn anymore for a while! The other four vehicles were divided into two rows and parked five or six feet away. It was obvious that the thieves were planning to destroy one vehicle and then push another one up to hit them in turn.
"Tum, tom."
There was a dull banging sound, and the thieves began to bang on the door.
But you don’t need to worry too much: the thick door is covered with a layer of iron, and the back is firmly supported - of course Sun Fugui will not be stupid enough to completely block the door with a big stone like Ma Wensheng did. Sun Fugui from the general family I have long heard the elders say that only cowards and hopeless fools would put themselves in a passive situation where they would be completely beaten. If there is no way to put some soldiers at the city gate, then the city gate must be arranged so that it can withstand impact and can be opened at any time to launch a counterattack. This is called skill! The method Sun Fugui learned from his grandfather was very practical: several oxcarts filled with bricks and stones were pushed against the front and rear of the city gate, and wedge-shaped wooden blocks were used to secure them under the wheels. Not only can it greatly increase the impact resistance of the city gate, but when a counterattack is needed, just remove the wedge and let the oxen drag the cart away, and the soldiers can quickly attack!
What Sun Fugui was most worried about was that thieves would use trains to burn down the door. Although there are sand pools and pools at the critical moment to deal with various fire attacks, they are all for one-time use. It will be a headache if the thieves continuously attack. At this moment, hearing the real impact sound made me calm down. Since there was no danger of closing the door for a while, Sun Fugui decided to leave this place alone for a while, told the gatekeeper Qian a few words, then turned around and patrolled along the wall.
