Zhang Xi received Liu Bei's letter and learned that Liu Zhang sent people to attack Jiameng Pass, and also learned of Liu Bei's decision to attack Luocheng.
At this time, Pang Tong was at Zhang Xi's side. He was shocked when he heard that Liu Bei had made such a decision.
"Huo Zhongmiao only has a thousand men. He has to guard against Zhang Lu in the north and Liu Zhang in the south. He is under attack from both sides. How can he guard the grain road?!" Pang Tongyi said as he prepared to write a letter to persuade Liu Bei to at least send someone to stay behind. Meng Da of Zitong led an army of five thousand to rescue Jiameng Pass.
But Zhang Xi is not in a hurry at all, really.
If Liu Xun is good at discipline, then Huo Jun is an enhanced version of Liu Xun.
Besides, Zhang Lu and Liu Zhang had a grudge against their mother, so how could they help Liu Zhang attack Huo Jun from both sides?
Zhang Xi persuaded Pang Tong not to write such useless letters.
Don’t you know what our lord’s temper is like? He has made a decision. We should be his subordinates and we should try our best to help him make a good decision.
So, Zhang Xi stopped playing psychological warfare with Liu Xun and started to seriously build siege equipment and carry out siege.
As a result, Liu Xun's pressure suddenly increased.
Liu Bei's siege equipment is nothing more than ladders, wells, and rams.
But on Zhang Xi's side, in addition to the regular siege equipment, they are also testing catapults.
Unlike Zhou Yu, Zhang Xi at least knew the evolution process of some catapults, so he quickly built a prototype.
But this catapult was new to Pang Tong.
The catapults at this time basically had a rotatable shaft set horizontally at the top of the car, and then a "tip" was mounted on this shaft.
This "tip" is a wooden pole fixed on the horizontal axis.
A leather bag is tied to one end of the "tip" to hold the thrown stones, while the other end is pulled by manpower, using the principle of leverage and inertia to throw the stones.
It is said that a catapult with only one wooden pole is called a "single-shoot" catapult, and a catapult with multiple wooden poles is called a "multi-shoot" catapult. The more "tips", the heavier and farther the stone projectiles can be thrown.
Zhang Xi didn't have time to research a more advanced "multi-shoot" catapult, so he built a "single-shoot" catapult.
However, it is not a man-pulled catapult, but a counterweighted catapult.
Well, it’s commonly known as Hui Hui Pao.
The principle of the counterweighted catapult is actually the same as that of the commonly used catapult today, both of which use the principle of leverage.
It's just that the counterweight catapult uses the gravity of the counterweight stone instead of manpower to pull the lever, which can improve the stability of the range.
After all, manpower varies, and as a person pulls for a longer time, his strength will become smaller and smaller, and the natural projection distance will become closer and closer, and the accuracy will become worse and worse.
This is also the reason why catapults cannot be used in large-scale sieges in this era. The stones thrown by catapults are not accurate. The catapults controlled by strong people can cross the city wall and directly hit the city. The catapults controlled by weak people can The catapult, all the stones hit the muddy ground, it was useless.
But the counterweighted trebuchet does not have this concern. As long as gravity is not in some special places, the probability is the same. And after the counterweight, as long as the size of the thrown stones is controlled, the range and accuracy can be improved. There are enough guarantees.
Even those who are more courageous can launch an ant attack at the same time as throwing stones.
The prototype car made by Zhang Xi achieved a distance of 100 steps in the first test.
Pang Tong was immediately shocked.
It's not that I've never seen a catapult, it's that I've never seen a catapult that doesn't use manpower to pull the "tip".
You know, even for a small catapult, at least three or four people are required to pull the "shooting". If a large catapult has more "shooting", it will require hundreds of people to operate it.
Unlike now, just tie it with a stone.
Even Pang Tong couldn't wait to put this catapult into practice, but Zhang Xi stopped him.
Come on, it's a hundred steps, and it's still within the range of a bed crossbow. Well, even some strong bows and hard crossbows can reach this range.
What if there is an unlucky person who is shot in the neck by an arrow while visiting the catapult? !
So, to be on the safe side, I have to change it.
Adjust the lever torque, test slowly, and fire a few shots in the direction of the south gate of Luocheng if you have nothing to do. If you try the effect, you can always find the torque ratio with the longest range.
Zhang Xi can experiment slowly, but Liu Xun looks worried every day.
The range of this catapult is getting farther and farther, and the farthest throw is already close to 150 steps, right? !
At this distance, nothing could threaten the catapult except the bed crossbow. Although Luocheng was equipped with bed crossbows, after holding on for such a long time, there were not many crossbow arrows left specifically for bed crossbows.
There are fewer and fewer crossbows on our side, but the catapults on the opposite side can be made with trees and stones.
Liu Xun has not yet appreciated the power of the new catapult, so he is just a little worried now.
As for Zhang Xi, after trying for a long time, he finally gave up and determined that the maximum range of the "single-shoot" catapult was about 150 steps.
It seems that the catapult recorded in ancient books can have a length of 300 steps, and it should be a "multi-tip" catapult.
Zhang Xi also wanted to continue studying this "multi-shoot" catapult, but was stopped by Pang Tong.
Zhang Yuanchang, have you forgotten that our retreat is being attacked by Liu Zhang's army? Is now the time for you to conduct this kind of ordnance test? !
Pang Tong persuaded Zhang Xi, and then ordered all the craftsmen in the army to quickly build a new catapult.
In fact, the shaft and tip of a truly powerful catapult must be made of special wood. Otherwise, it will not be able to throw dozens of stones, and it will crack and eventually break.
But now we are in a hurry to attack the city, so we don't have to pay much attention to it. It is just a consumable item anyway. Pang Tong doesn't care whether it is practical or not, as long as it can be used.
Pang Tong ordered his people to spend twenty days building fifteen catapults. Then he selected a large number of stones according to the counterweights experimented by Zhang Xi, and began to advance the front line, setting it up at a distance of one hundred and twenty steps. On the defensive line, catapults were placed one hundred and forty steps away.
Then the projection begins.
Originally, Pang Tong wanted to move forward to observe the actual effect, but Zhang Xi refused to let him go, so he asked Pang Tong to watch the battle with him on a hillside 500 steps away, not letting the guy move forward.
Pang Tong was helpless, but he was not angry with Zhang Xi over this matter, and Zhang Xi was right. After all, it was a battlefield, and there was no sense of loss.
Therefore, Pang Tong had no choice but to follow Zhang Xi to observe the actual effect of the new trebuchet.
Hmm. That’s a tragedy.
It's about the defenders at the south gate of Luocheng City.
When Liu Beijun set up the front line at first, Liu Xun didn't take it seriously, but when Liu Beijun launched the catapult, he immediately realized that something was wrong.
After all, the test data of Zhang Xi's catapult was based on Luocheng as a target. Liu Xun looked at it almost every day, and he still didn't know that this thing was used to throw stones.
Liu Xun immediately ordered the crossbow to attack the catapult. But as soon as he gave the order, before the crossbow was ready, Liu Beijun's rocks had already flown over.
Fortunately, Liu Xun's bodyguards reacted quickly and grabbed Liu Xun, pressing him under him. This allowed Liu Xun to escape the first round of stone throws.
But those soldiers who didn't escape were really unlucky.
At first I didn't know what it was for, but when they noticed the rocks flying over, the city defenders didn't even have time to hide.
With luck, nothing happened. After all, the first time the fifteen catapults were launched, they all fired rocks.
But those who were unlucky were hit on the head by a stone. Well, the head was gone, and the ground was just red and white, which is indescribable.
Liu Xun was disgusted by what he saw.
But Liu Xun was the general of the city after all. Seeing this situation, he still wanted to say something to boost morale. The second round of stones came again.
Liu Xun was held alive by his guards and left the city wall, but the soldiers on the wall could not leave. They could only squat under the female wall and tremble, praying that they would not be so unlucky to be hit.
The second batch of stones did not hit a few people, but the city wall suffered serious damage.
Of course, the city wall was not destroyed by just a few stones, but there were obvious cracks in one corner of the female wall because it was hit by two stones in succession.
After that, the third round, the fourth round, the fifth round. One morning, Liu Beijun did nothing else but threw stones at the south gate of Luocheng.
At the south gate of Luocheng now, the soldiers guarding the city are slowly getting used to it.
Anyway, fifteen stones were thrown at one time, and most of them hit the city wall. Occasionally, some unlucky people were killed. As long as it wasn't me.
But Liu Xun was going crazy.
The soldiers didn't know, but Liu Xun knew it very well.
Yes, they were just throwing rocks today, but their target was not the soldiers, but the city walls.
No matter how strong the city wall is, if Liu Bei's army keeps smashing it down for many years, the city wall will eventually be unable to hold on.
Another thing, do you think that people are stupid and just keep throwing rocks? !
Sure enough, Liu Xun had just finished thinking, and what Liu Bei's army threw at the south gate in the afternoon was not stones, but countless small stones.
Although many small stones fell down halfway and failed to hit the soldiers on the city wall, as long as one hit the tower, the lethality of the small stones would be huge.
There were at least seven or eight casualties at one time.
There is no way. When defending the city these days, there must be people on the city wall. I am afraid that there are not enough people. How can it be like filming a TV series, with only one person defending a few meters away.
Liu Xun had no choice but to evacuate the south gate and put half of his soldiers in the city gate. Once Liu Bei's army was found attacking the city, he would let the soldiers go up the city wall.
But there is another problem here - why should I be beaten on the city tower, but he can hide in the city gate hole? !
Liu Xun had no good way to deal with this. On the one hand, he drew lots to arrange the situation, and on the other hand, he suppressed it forcefully. Anyone who continued to be nagging would be served by military law.
In this way, Liu Xun thought he had made the best response, but after being thrown away for seven or eight days, Liu Xun couldn't bear it anymore.
Cracks have appeared in some parts of the city wall, which can be seen in the city, which seriously affects the morale of the defenders in the city.
As for the soldiers, in just seven or eight days, they had already suffered more than 200 casualties, which was already comparable to the casualties in the last siege.
You know, Liu Beijun outside the south gate just went to the mountain to get some rocks, and spent some effort to smash the rocks into stones.
We can't continue like this. If we continue like this, we are just waiting to die.
Liu Xun looked at Zhang Ren with a dark face.
Although his view of Zhang Ren has changed now, Liu Xun still doesn't think Zhang Ren can play a big role in the battle to defend the city.
Therefore, Liu Xun found Zhang Ren and gave him a task - to wait for an opportunity to leave the city and attack Zhangxi camp's main formation.
It is useless to burn the siege equipment. At most, it will delay the attack for a while.
But if Zhang Xi can be killed and Liu Beijun cannot build a catapult, then he will have the capital to continue to hold on.
Zhang Ren, on the other hand, happily accepted the order.
(End of chapter)
