Chapter 192 Fire Attack
The shrill howls gradually subsided, and She Chongming looked sadly at the dark piles of debris under the Chengdu wall, including two to three thousand piles of lying corpses.
These are his soldiers.
Each little ball of black ashes is a charred corpse. Under the devouring flames, the fat in the human body begins to burn, and after the water in the organs evaporates, the charred remains of the corpse will shrink to an incredibly small size, curled up to the size of a child.
Neijiang, Ziyang, Jianzhou... Along the way, She Chongming conquered cities and territories as if entering uninhabited territory. Although these cities are not as big as Chengdu, they still have walls and defenders. In the face of the crushing strength of more than 100,000 troops, Jianzhou, which had resisted the longest, could only barely hold on for two days - there was also a Yang'an Pass there! The attack has become a familiar process, and you just need to go through it: at an order, the brothers shout and charge, the defenders shoot arrows, the defenders throw stones, dozens or hundreds of ladders are erected one after another, someone falls from the ladder, At one point when they climbed the city, fighting groups began to appear in several places on the city head. A series of black heads surged on all the ladders - the defenders collapsed, no one was throwing stones anymore, and the city was broken!
In the past, when the soldiers were still two hundred steps away from the city, there would be defenders on the wall who would shoot arrows early out of fear. This distance is more than double the range of ordinary bows and arrows, so the killing effect is zero. Not only will it not have the slightest impact on the attack, but it can further stimulate the morale of the men. The Yi soldiers waved their weapons, jeered loudly, and strode towards the city wall - they all knew that they had to conserve their physical strength and only rush when they were a hundred steps away from the wall. Han soldiers are all stupid: before almost all Han dogs attack a city, they have to drive auxiliary soldiers or civilians to carry earth and stone bags to fill trenches. They are simply stupider than pigs! How can we Yi soldiers need this? Everyone has climbed mountains and ridges since childhood. Isn't it just a trench? If you put a few ladders flat and put them on, wouldn't you run across them? By the time most of the people were leaning against the wall, the defenders had already shot more than ten rounds of arrows, and their physical strength was beginning to weaken, especially those who had never seen blood. They had probably shot fifteen or sixteen rounds, and their arms were sore and numb. No more shooting. Use the shield to protect your head and put the ladder up on the wall, and then you can wait and see which brother from the village can jump up first...
But something was wrong with this attack from the start. When we walked a hundred steps away from the city wall, there was still no movement on the wall! The veterans were muttering in their hearts, so they slowed down and pointed their weapons at the city head and began to curse and shout. She Chongming knew that they were right to do this: to provoke the defenders to fire arrows. Feathered arrows from this distance pose no real threat. Once the first round of arrows rises into the sky, everyone will start sprinting. During the period of running to the wall, the defenders can only shoot two or three rounds of arrows at most, and then use shields to protect their heads. Just set up a ladder and climb up the wall!
However, no matter how noisy outside the city, it was still eerily quiet on top of the city. The iron helmets reflecting the sunlight among the battlements did not move at all. If the mountain wind hadn't blown the red helmet tassels and flags, they would have looked like a painting. The curses of the brothers subsided, and those in front stopped unconsciously, while those behind were still walking forward. She Chongming, who was on the slope behind the formation, saw that the Yi soldiers began to crowd together... No. good! If the Han dogs set off cannons, many brothers would be killed or injured!
"Command: All troops charge!"
The melodious beep of the horn sounded. She Chongming waited with trepidation to see the flames and smoke rising from the top of the city.
Fortunately, the brothers rushed forward, the formation dispersed slightly, and the cannons on the city had not yet been fired!
Ha, late! Even if the cannon is fired now, it's no big deal. The team has completely dispersed, and the cannonballs can't hurt two or three people!
Hey, why didn't you fire just now?
"Guodong, why didn't you fire just now?"
Zhu Xieyuan was also asking Sun Jie in the tower.
"My lord, on the day I entered the city, I asked General Kuo Lao that there are eighteen cannons in the capital. I sent someone to look at them. Most of the cannon bodies were rusted or cracked, and only seven were usable. Sir, please take a look, extravagant thief We only brought a ladder today and didn't get up when we crashed into the car. It should be a feint to test the strength of our army. There are many thieves, and even if the shots are accurate, the number of people killed by artillery will eventually be limited. These thieves can be dealt with by Chang Jieying and General Lao's men. . The general thought it would be better not to allow extravagant thieves to get a glimpse of the strength of our army."
"Okay! Guodong said it well! I will watch you being a thief here!"
"Don't worry, sir, the general will live up to his command!" Sun Jie's words were low, but he showed full confidence. Just after he finished speaking, he felt someone tap him on his forearm. Looking back, he saw Laoshun's fat smiling face. Laoshun stretched out his thumb and praised: "Sun Junmen insists on getting it!" Then he lowered his voice and whispered, "There are many thieves, and I was scared to death just now. If it was so, I would have called the children long ago. Let's fire off the cannons...the army wants to get it, it needs to get it!"
Sun Jie really looked down on this fat man in his heart at first, but now he has grown to like this down-to-earth guy.
She Chongming saw that his soldiers had rushed dozens of steps outside the wall. At this moment, a cloud of migratory locusts suddenly rose up from the top of the city. They were not thrown, but swooped straight down diagonally. The fire was In a flash - locusts carrying fire!
Then came the second wave, the third wave, and the fourth wave!
Four rounds of rapid fire!
On the tower, Zhu Xieyuan stood up from the Grand Master's chair, rushed forward a few steps, holding on to the railing and looking down. He turned his head to look at Sun Jie, his mouth wide open in surprise and speechless for a long time. Master Zhu originally wanted to imitate Xie An, playing chess or playing the guzheng to defeat the bandits. Wouldn't that be a story for the ages? It's a pity that Mr. Zhu can't play the piano, and Sun Jie can't play chess. In fact, Sun Jie knew how to do it, but as a military general, being down-to-earth is the key to survival. The enemy's life and death were at stake, so he didn't dare to play such fancy tricks with Mr. Zhu, so he said no... Mr. Zhu had no choice but to ask someone to move an imperial chair. Sitting on the tower, I was thinking about where to find a goose feather fan - if I can't learn from Xie An, I might as well learn from Zhou Yu. "The east wind does not go along with Zhou Lang, and the bronze bird spring locks Er Qiao deeply"... When Du Mu and Su Shi were reading, Kong Ming's dead fan Luo Guanzhong was still hundreds of years away from being born, I wrote it right (haha), the thieves launched a charge, long The Jie camp started shooting. What surprised Mr. Zhu was the shooting speed of these sword and shield soldiers! Mr. Zhu has seen the Ming army's exercises in Suzhou and Chengdu before. The professional archers pointed their bows at a 45-degree angle to the sky and fired under the long command of the team officer. Such a fast and fierce rapid fire was still Seen it for the first time in my life. There was a torch stuck under the right foot of each soldier, but there were only about a dozen arrows in the quiver. At first, Zhu Xieyuan thought it was because they were not professional archers and their physical strength was limited and they could only shoot so many. In order to take Sun Jie's No question about face. Thinking about it now, it was actually because the arrow clusters were tied with grease-soaked cotton wool, and the arrow pot could only hold so much - looking at the smooth shooting speed of these rounds, who would doubt their arm strength?
Well, this is Sun Shuai's personal guard camp!
Compared with Zhu Xieyuan, who was a dabbler, She Chongming's understanding of military affairs was not even the slightest bit better. Not only did he see four rounds of arrow rain coming one after another on the city, but what frightened him the most was the target of these rockets: all these rockets were focused on the brothers carrying the ladders!
The cotton wool tied behind the arrow cluster was soaked in grease. After the arrow was hit, the burning grease ball rushed forward under the action of inertia and hit the rattan armor or rattan. The splashing flames instantly expanded to the size of a palm. A piece of armor that was also soaked in tung oil immediately began to burn. Of course, the rattan armor cannot be removed in a hurry, and the rattan soldiers are not much better - many people have the rattan tightly tied to their forearms, and they can't get rid of it even if they are licked by the hot tongue of fire!
The ladder is the only tool for crossing the trench - as long as the ladder cannot reach the trench, everyone can only stand at the edge of the trench as a living target, waiting to be slaughtered by the defenders calmly!
Of course, the leaders who commanded the charge in front of the formation also understood this truth. They roared at the top of their lungs and ordered others to run towards the ladder abandoned by the firemen on the ground... However, waves of rockets poured down one after another, one after another. Burning corpses piled up around the ladders. Soon, a wall of fire was ignited around almost all the ladders, blocking the Yi soldiers who wanted to run over.
There is no need for the defenders to shoot arrows here: the Yi soldiers, who are mostly covered with flammable materials, have no chance of getting close. When the smartest, bravest, and luckiest Yi soldiers untied each other's rattan armor and cut the leather ropes binding the rattan plates, they were equally horrified to find that their work was in vain - the ladder in the wall of fire had also begun. combustion! Before they could wake up from their shock, the warriors who lost their protection and stood frozen on the ground screamed and were shot down. At this time, the defenders of Chengdu Zhongwei also started shooting under the orders of the officers of Changjie Battalion. These The almost stationary and unprotected enemy army became an excellent target for them.
Sun Jie's Changjie camp received 500 infantry bows, and each temporary archer was equipped with ten rockets. Of course, five thousand feathered arrows can't do anything to the twenty thousand warriors attacking the city. However, there are only a hundred ladders. To deal with them, these are enough... Invest decisive power in the decisive key point - for the famous general!
Four rounds of rapid fire knocked down all the Yi soldiers carrying the ladder. Afterwards, the soldiers of the Changjie Battalion began to focus on targeting the crowds running towards the ladder, while the soldiers of the Chengdu Zhongwei Battalion concentrated on dealing with the bewildered guys crowding the edge of the trench... It only took a little more than two sticks of incense to finish. In less than half an hour, the battle was over: She Chongming finally woke up from the shock that was no different from ordinary Yi soldiers, and sounded the bamboo tube ordering the withdrawal.
Tengjia and rattan are a kind of armor unique to the Miao soldiers of Guizhou (the Miao, Yi, Tujia and other compatriots were all called Miaoman). The specific method is to soak the old vines in water for half a month to a month to dissolve as much as possible the substances other than fiber, and then expose them to the sun for several days to dry completely. In order to increase flexibility, they are soaked in tung oil for half a year to a year, and finally weaved. After the finished product, you can brush some tung oil at any time for maintenance.
Rattan armor is light and waterproof. A few pieces of rattan armor can be tied together with a spear to make a simple raft for crossing the water. The strength and toughness are also good. It can resist bows and arrows at a distance of more than fifty steps, and it also has certain protection against slashing at close range. Of course, it will definitely not work against a direct thrust from a spear - not to mention rattan armor, even mail armor will not work.
But the rattan armor has a fatal weakness: it is afraid of fire - it has been soaked in oil for a year, how can it not be afraid? However, the Miao people are brave and fight with each other mostly in close combat. In addition, the Miao land is full of trees. In addition to hunting, in large-scale battles, the shooting effect of bows and arrows will be seriously affected by branches and branches, so they are rarely used. Therefore, this weakness usually does not show anything.
However, in the siege battle, this normally insignificant weakness turned into a fatal injury - especially when they encountered Sun Jie.
The ancestors of the Sun family were generals who opened up territory for the Ming Dynasty and contributed hundreds of lives to this empire. Therefore, no matter how the civil servants in the DPRK and China fought for power in the past two hundred years, the Sun family has always been a holy family. . The ancestors of each generation have accumulated valuable experience condensed with blood through cruel actual combat and passed it on to future generations. Therefore, Sun Jie's generation was not only familiar with various formations in their early childhood, but also understood the characteristics of various armed forces on the border. I am already familiar with it.
Looking at the enemies retreating hastily, Zhu Xieyuan stroked his long beard and laughed loudly. Lao Shun also smiled and slapped the railings of the city tower and cursed, praising Sun Jie's martial arts from time to time. However, Sun Jie's words made them feel anxious again: "This is just the beginning. The general will think that the extravagant thief will have more powerful killing moves next..."
