After the Tang army withdrew its troops at noon, they cut down trees on a large scale on the east hillside out of sight of the rebels. Lin Sichang led eight thousand soldiers to knock down tall and strong trees one after another. Then Zhou Tinggou led the cavalry of the brigade and used horses to drag the logs back to the camp one by one.
The craftsmen in the camp were sweating profusely as they sawed these towering trees into logs in batches, and soon built a large number of fences and arrow towers.
But the felling of so many trees was not just for building fortifications.
Now that the situation in the Southern Tang Dynasty was critical, the battle in Shouzhou City must be fought quickly. In the past few days, the Tang army had almost exhausted all kinds of siege methods, including trebuchets and crossbows, but the effect was not satisfactory. The sturdiness of Shouzhou City obviously exceeded Li Yuan's imagination. Although the trebuchet was powerful, when it hit the thickened city wall of Shouzhou, it unexpectedly only collapsed a few crenels, and the accuracy of the crossbow was really good. Too bad. The only result recently was that the rope of the East Gate Suspension Bridge was almost broken. I was still a bit unlucky.
Since Shouzhou City is so strong, it is obviously useless to rely on manpower-consuming methods such as ant attack. So from the first day of siege, Li Yuan kept thinking hard until he set his sights on the five trebuchets in the camp.
Speaking of trebuchets, this mass murder weapon has actually been used on the battlefield since the Warring States Period, especially after the Han Dynasty. The trebuchets at that time had their base buried underground, making them immovable and very heavy.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao, the heroic leader of the generation, used a small trebuchet that was mobile and easy to operate for the first time in the Battle of Guandu. The result of the final battle was that Yuan Shao's army was several times larger. Cao Cao was finally defeated by Cao Jun. This is not to say that Cao Jun's victory was entirely dependent on the trebuchet, but its role was also obvious. Later generations called it the "Thunderbolt Chariot."
Now in the Tang Army's camp, the five trebuchets transferred from Haozhou are different in appearance from the Thunderbolt Chariot, but they also sacrifice power in exchange for mobility.
These trebuchets were built by Liu Jin, the father of Liu Renzhan during the Yang and Wu Dynasties. They have been around for some years, but their appearance is no different from the current standard trebuchets in the Southern Tang Dynasty. They only need to be pulled gently by two horses. The small wooden wheel moved slowly, which was very convenient for the army to fight.
But correspondingly, the size and carrying capacity have been reduced a lot. It may be enough to attack some small cities or field battles, but throwing stone bullets weighing forty or fifty kilograms is almost impossible for an exaggerated fortified city like Shouzhou. superficial.
After observing the camp for several days, Li Yuan also saw the clue. If he could manage to make a trebuchet that could project a larger weight, even if he sacrificed some mobility, as long as he could pull it onto the battlefield, it might not be impossible to hit it. Pass through the Shouzhou city wall.
After consulting the craftsmen in the camp, Li Yuan's idea took shape. The inspiration was similar to the "Hui Hui Pao" in the Southern Song Dynasty. This kind of "Hui Hui Pao" introduced from Mongolia to China actually relied on the lever theorem. The trebuchet is made with a heavy object at one end and a stone bullet to be fired at the other end. Before launching, the end where the ammunition is placed is pulled down with a winch, pulley or directly by manpower. After the stone bullet is placed, release or cut the rope. Stone bullets were also thrown.
So Li Yuan drew a few drawings based on some memories and discussed them with the craftsmen for two or three days. In the end, due to Marshal Li's order, the confused craftsmen had no choice but to follow these crooked drawings, together with the ones in the camp. More than a hundred soldiers worked together to build several behemoths with weird shapes, but the test results were extremely disappointing. Often, before starting, either the throwing arm broke directly, or the base could not bear it and collapsed directly.
When Li Yuan was about to give up, an old craftsman made a suggestion. The key to success may lie in the selection of materials for the throwing arm.
During the launch process, the throwing arm must withstand huge deformation, but the weight of the throwing arm cannot be too large, otherwise the throwing arm will bounce very slowly, and the thrown projectiles will not reach the required speed, affecting the range and power.
Simply put, the material must be hard and flexible, such as pear wood and wax wood.
Obviously, the logs on Bagong Mountain today cannot meet the material requirements, and it is impossible to find other types of wood in a short time. So the old craftsman suggested that it is better to try to make a composite of wood, animal sinew and animal skin. Throw your arms to supplement its elasticity and bending, and there is no shortage of animals such as bison and wolves in the surrounding mountains and forests...
Although Li Yuan is a little puzzled, he can't think of a better solution now, so he can only treat it like a dead horse! I decided to adopt it and give it a final test today.
Raw materials were transported into the camp in batches. After half a day of hard work by the craftsmen, a giant trebuchet with a height of more than two feet and a throwing arm of five feet stood impressively in the experimental open space at the foot of Bagong Mountain under the setting sun.
This time not only did the weight of the base increase, but everything from the wooden frame to the throwing arm was made using a composite method. One end of the two ropes at the top of the throwing arm is connected to the wooden shaft of the base, and the other end has a thick iron hook. The five-foot-long throwing arm is firmly installed on the rotating shaft. The shorter end is tied with a boulder weighing eight or nine hundred kilograms specially excavated from Bagong Mountain as a counterweight, and the longer end is , a huge basket was waiting for him.
After Lin Sichang and Zhou Tinggou led the soldiers back to camp, the test personnel were already in place, and Li Yuan led Liu Renzhan and a group of generals to watch eagerly.
After hearing Lin Sichang's order, dozens of soldiers struggled to pull the noose to pull down the longer end of the throwing arm, while the boulder weighing eight to nine hundred kilograms at the other end was slowly hoisted into the air. When I thought that the throwing arm would suddenly break like the previous tests, I only heard a few "squeaking" sounds. Although the throwing arm was bent into an arc, it actually withstood the pressure!
Surprised, the soldiers did not hesitate and quickly loaded more than a hundred kilograms of stone bullets into the throwing basket, and then fastened the iron hook firmly.
Then Zhou Tinggou came on the stage. At this time, he was walking slowly with two thick arms exposed and a huge black hammer in his hands.
After seeing Li Yuan raise his hand to indicate, Zhou Tinggou calmed down, twisted the muscles of his arms slightly, grasped the handle of the hammer firmly with both hands, swung the giant hammer high with a "hum" sound, and smashed the wooden shaft at the base. past.
There was only a "whoosh" sound, the wooden shaft popped out, the iron hook came loose, and the weighted boulder crashed onto the ground, collapsing directly into the pit. The throwing arm was like the giant wings of a roc that had broken free of its restraints, and it quickly raised towards the sky. The throwing basket rose rapidly. When it whirred, everyone only saw the stone bullet weighing a hundred kilograms flying into the sky. As the height increased, It disappeared into a black dot from the sight, and then followed the parabola perfectly, hitting the ground in the distance. There was a loud "boom", causing dust and sand to fly all over the sky!
In an instant, the soldiers and craftsmen in the camp were dumbfounded, and then cheered crazily!
"Oh my God! This is not the work of human beings!"
"Commander! It's done!"
"The handsome man is mighty!"
...
Looking at Liu Renzhan next to him with his mouth wide open and a look of shock, Li Yuan's heart surged like a tide. He originally thought that this "Hui Hui Pao" could be imitated based on his own memory alone. Due to restrictions, it would be difficult to succeed. At that time, the old craftsman did not have much hope for the composite arm throwing proposal. After all, it was different from the records in the history books, but he never expected that it would be a success in one fell swoop!
Sure enough, the wisdom of the working people is endless.
"Commander, the stone bullet is 390 steps away from here!" A soldier rushed to Li Yuan to report.
Li Yuan nodded. The distance of three hundred and ninety steps was already considered ideal.
But when I just launched, I looked carefully and found that the throwing arm was not damaged, but the base seemed to break slightly. Then the trebuchet also shook a few times, so the projection direction was slightly deflected. This problem will need to be improved with the craftsmen later. If it is to be used in actual combat, it must be tested for a few more rounds and then adjusted to improve the accuracy of the hit as much as possible in order to exert the maximum power.
Seeing the soldiers rejoicing around this new trebuchet, Li Yuan took a deep breath, excited and nervous. He didn't know what Shouzhou City would be like tomorrow...
