"boom......"
Dozens of heavy stone bullets, spanning a distance of hundreds of steps, hit Zhi City hard.
Standing on the city tower, I felt a strong wind roaring in the air, followed by stones as big as a giant sun falling hard in front of and behind the Zhao soldiers.
Amidst the loud rumbling sound, bursts of dust instantly flew up.
When the dust dispersed slightly, the huge depression on the ground was clearly visible.
The only two stone bullets that hit the city tower, apart from killing several unlucky Zhao soldiers, did not cause serious damage to the walls of Zhi City - except for a slight dent.
It was not that the power of the stone bullets was insufficient, but that the city wall of Zhi City had been solidly reinforced by Zhou Qi, and there were only two stone bullets that hit the wall.
Yes, the stone bullets of the Qin army seemed to be overwhelming and powerful, but in fact the stone bullets that could hit the towers of Zhi City were extremely limited. Instead, many houses in the city were smashed to pieces.
Of course, what was bad luck was that behind the city wall, the Zhao army's catapults, which were weapons for defending the city, were accidentally hit by Qin army's stone bullets and destroyed two of them.
However, if you stand on the city tower, you should be able to see dozens of improved catapults arranged in an orderly manner in the area blocked by heavy curtains.
A mere two catapults had no impact on Zhao Jun at all.
If you look closely at Zhao Jun's catapults, you will find that they are completely different species from Qin Jun's silly, big, black and thick things.
Although from the appearance point of view, Zhao Jun's catapult is far less powerful than Qin Jun's, its power is not at all
It is not comparable to the catapults of the Qin army.
If the Qin Army's catapult can be regarded as the most primitive catapult that utilizes brute force, then the Zhao Army's catapult is at least the third generation of catapult.
Judging from the actual combat effects, the Qin army's huge stone bullets were indeed enough to bluff people.
When a stone bullet hits, whether it is soft ground or a solid city wall, there will be a huge crater at most and a slight depression at least. It is very powerful.
But the problem is, this thing is not accurate at all. Even if nothing changes, if the same catapult is launched twice in a row, the distance of the stone bullets can be a hundred steps different.
It can be said that where this thing hits depends on God's will!
There is no way, this is determined by the principle of this type of most primitive catapult. As mentioned above, the Qin army's catapults were still powered by manpower.
The problem with this accuracy lies in the activation of this manpower.
This time the person did not exert any strength. The next time the person's foot slipped, the pulling force applied was different, and the distance the stone bullet flew was different. Even because there were seven ropes tied to one end of the rope, each one Different forces on the rope will also cause the stone projectiles to fly out at different angles.
The angle and distance are all uncontrollable. It would be strange if we could be accurate!
This is also the reason why catapults usually stop attacking after a close encounter, or even before the army is about to rush to the city. It's a very simple reason. If you are not careful, there is a risk that the stone bullet will hit your head. The siege party will naturally not continue to use such a weapon that can damage the enemy by eight hundred and damage itself by a thousand.
but
The defenders don't have this worry. They can fire at the enemy all the time. Even if they can't kill many enemy troops, they can still block and delay the enemy's attack.
However, as the war continues, the physical strength of the soldiers will decline predictably, and the distance at which the natural stone bullets are thrown will become closer and closer. In the end, even if they block the enemy, they will have little effect.
But the catapult modified by Zhao Kuo himself was different! Although its principle is not complicated, its power, especially its accuracy, is much higher than today's rock dump trucks.
And of course it has left a mark in history - the return of the cannon!
Yes, it was the Mongolian cavalry that traveled across Europe and Asia, smashing countless castles, walls, and camps. It became famous in the Battle of Xiangyang and made the enemy afraid of the counterweighted trebuchet-"Hui Hui Cannon."
In fact, his principle is not worth mentioning, which is to replace human power with gravity.
Specifically, it uses the lever principle to modify the original riprap truck. The longer end that was originally pulled by human power was turned into a fixed wooden box containing heavy objects, while the other shorter end was left empty, waiting for the loading of stone bullets.
Before launching, the end where the stone bullets etc. are placed is pulled down with a winch or directly by manpower and fixed with a hook. At the same time, the other end containing the heavy objects will also rise at this time.
During the battle, after placing the stone bullets, unlatch the hook on one end of the stone bullets, and the end where the weight is placed will fall instantly due to the torque, thus throwing the assembled stone bullets smoothly.
Compared with human-powered catapults, the advantages of such a powerful catapult are very obvious.
First, only
As long as the weight is heavy enough and the long end is long enough, theoretically, the attack range and attack power of the trebuchet can be increased exponentially!
Secondly, in terms of manpower, using winches and pulleys, such a return gun only requires five people to operate - three people to press the rod and two to load the ammunition. Greatly save manpower and material resources.
Of course, last but not least, the most important thing is: with this kind of return cannon, you only need to master the ratio of a section of counterweight to the thrown stones, and you can hit almost wherever you want!
Although, such arithmetic is somewhat difficult for the soldiers of the Qin army who cannot read a few Chinese characters.
But this is not difficult for Zhao Kuo! A physical problem of force analysis, coupled with a mathematical problem of finding a parabola trajectory, it is easy to come up with a formula about the relationship between heavy objects, stone bullets and attack distances.
Although it is difficult for Zhao Kuo to teach this formula, as long as the specifications of the stone bullets are roughly determined, it is easy to compile a table of the mathematical relationship between heavy objects and attack distance.
Even this table does not require too many coefficients. There are three distance corresponding relationships of "short, medium and long", which is enough.
The "short range" counterweight is responsible for destroying siege equipment approaching the city wall; the "middle range" counterweight is responsible for blocking and destroying the enemy's effective forces as much as possible; as for the "long range" counterweight, then Naturally, they are responsible for destroying the opponent's long-range weapons such as catapults.
Of course, fine-tuning can be done on this basis. Just remember one principle: add counterweight to shoot farther, and reduce counterweight to shoot closer.
As a secret force trained by Zhao Kuo for a long time, naturally he has already figured out its nature.
now that
The Qin army's catapults had already launched a brazen attack, so naturally the Zhao army's catapults should not be superior to the previous ones.
Looking at the dust in front of him, Lian Po decisively ordered: "Command the artillery battalion to destroy the enemy's catapult immediately."
"Yes." Zhou Qi agreed immediately.
Just like the sniper's primary target, the sniper is always the opponent. Although Lian Po didn't know what a sniper was, he obviously knew that as long as he dealt with the things that could threaten his trebuchet, his trebuchet would be invincible.
Naturally, the Qin Army's trebuchet that had been exposed was his first choice. Of course, the shaking caused by the huge boulder hitting the tower just now may be one of the reasons why Lian Po wanted to capture the Qin army's trebuchet in the first place.
Soon, the flags on the top of the city were tumbling, the sound of drums and horns was changing, and General Zhou Qi personally held the token and rushed down the city tower, rushing towards the tightly defended artillery camp behind the city tower.
There was no other reason why Zhou Qi had to personally deliver the order. This "returning gun" style catapult seemed to be different from today's catapults, but in fact his principle was not worth mentioning at all.
It can be said that the technology is just a layer of window paper, which can be broken with a poke.
Before the advent of more powerful long-range attack methods such as gunpowder, this was almost the most powerful long-range attack method among cold weapons.
The powerful technique is simple, and therefore, its technology must be kept strictly confidential.
Naturally, Zhao Kuo set extremely strict rules for the use of this artillery battalion. In the entire army, apart from Lian Po, the only one who could mobilize the artillery battalion was Zhou Qi.
In other words, the battle of Zicheng will affect the next five to ten years.
The strength of Qin and Zhao changed hands, otherwise, Zhao Kuo would not have shown his trump card in front of the Qin army!
Soon, the artillery battalion that received Lian Po's order had already adjusted the counterweight.
As the red flag fell from the hands of the captain, Zhao Jun's catapults finally let out their roar.
With a "swish, swish", dozens more stone bullets were launched into the air, but Zhao Jun's stone bullets were nothing compared to Qin Army's stone bullets.
Especially when the stone bullets from both sides were intersecting in the air, Zhao Jun's stone bullets were almost as weak as a little chicken against the Qin Army's stone bullets.
The soldiers of the Qin army who had already begun to advance towards the tower of Zhi City couldn't help but laugh out loud when they saw this funny scene in the sky.
However, what they don't know is that although the chick is weak, it has a sharp beak, a beak that can peck through gravel.
But soon, Zhao Jun will teach the soldiers of Qin Army this lesson!
The Qin Army's second round of stone bomb attacks almost fell into the opponent's camp at the same time as the Zhao Army's first round of stone bombs.
However, the stone bullets of the Qin army that blocked the sky and the sun in the air still only caused slight dents and dozens of casualties to the Zicheng tower and the soldiers of the Zhao army.
But the seemingly weak stone bullets of Zhao Army fell straight into the array of Qin Army's catapults.
After several crisp sounds of "bang bang bang", several giant trebuchets that the Qin army had finally assembled were annihilated in the billowing smoke. Hundreds of soldiers of the Qin army who were pulling fibers nearby were also trapped in the broken wood and gravel.
Blood flowed all over the ground almost instantly!
Wails also instantly sounded on the front army positions.
As the commander-in-chief of the former army, Meng Ao
He couldn't help but frown. His troops were wailing like this before they even touched the tower. Obviously, this was not a good sign!
However, the army has already been deployed, and all kinds of siege equipment have been pushed onto the battlefield. As the saying goes, the arrow has to be fired when it is on the string. Even if Meng Ao is worried, it is impossible to stop the attack at this time.
