Liu Pingji returned to the machine and shouted to several craftsmen nearby. The craftsmen put down the wooden buckets and first put bags of sand into the wooden buckets. After they were full, the craftsmen entered the two huge wooden buckets. He started walking in the wooden wheel, and the wooden wheel began to rotate. Everyone was surprised to see that the wooden bucket filled with sandbags began to slowly rise, and the other end of the long arm lowered accordingly. When the wooden bucket arrived, At the highest point, the craftsmen fixed the long arm with an iron wedge, then straightened the long rope at one end of the long arm, and put four stones weighing at least 40 kilograms in the leather pocket.
"Since the enemy has already said hello, we should also respond, otherwise it would be too rude!" Wang Wenzuo smiled at everyone, nodded to Liu Pingji, waved his right hand, and made a starting gesture.
The craftsman swung the hammer and smashed the iron wedge apart. The heavy wooden bucket that lost its support suddenly fell, causing the long arm to start rotating. The long rope at the other end of the long arm was pulled, pulling the stone in the leather pocket into the sky. It accelerated to an astonishing speed, and finally the stone bullet flew out of the pocket along a tangent line until gravity pulled it to the ground again, which was already 350 meters away from the starting point.
"How about it? Our greetings should be more 'warm', right?" Wang Wenzuo clapped his hands lightly: "This is worthy of the reputation of the Tang Dynasty as a country of etiquette!"
No one spoke, everyone was so stunned by the huge power and range of this new weapon that they forgot to respond to the quips of their immediate superiors. The first person to regain his consciousness was Cui Hongdu. He grabbed Wang Wenzuo's arm and said, "Sanlang, if you have this thing, why didn't you take it out earlier? Then we would have captured Rencun City long ago!"
"What do you mean I didn't take it out earlier!" Wang Wenzuo frowned: "Go and see how big this thing is. How much manpower and financial resources were spent just to make the metal parts. How could I have the ability to make it earlier? Besides, then The mountain road in the mountain city is so steep, and it won’t take ten and a half days to move such a big thing up the mountain, right?”
"That's true!" As soon as Cui Hongdu finished speaking, he realized that he wanted to accuse Wang Wenzuo. He quickly smiled and said: "Don't be angry when you join the army. I was just impetuous and said the wrong thing. But you should take this thing out earlier. Everyone feels at ease!"
"This is a tool for siege. We are defending the stronghold now, so it's not very useful. Why should we feel at ease?"
"It's wrong to join the army. Even if this thing can't kill a few people, the sound is like thunder and it can throw such a big stone so far. The morale of the soldiers will definitely be boosted. How can they not feel at ease?" Cui Hongdu smiled.
"Hongdu is right. When the two armies are fighting in full swing, if you use this thing to throw a few oil cans, fire bombs, etc. in the direction of the enemy's commander's flag, you don't have to kill a few people. As long as the flag in the army falls, it will definitely be The morale of the military is in great disarray.”
All the generals were elated, as if victory was already within their grasp and all they had to do was reach out and grab it. The original nervousness before the battle had long been gone. Only Hei Te Changzhi had a complicated expression, a little lucky and a little disappointed. He was only more than ten meters away from the gravity trebuchet. Thousands of people pull, but only seven or eight people walking in the wooden wheel can lift the wooden bucket filled with sandbags.
Obviously this kind of trebuchet does not require a lot of manpower, but its range and power are far better than the old trebuchet. This means that in front of the Tang army, the mountain cities that the Baekje people relied on to protect themselves can no longer rely on. Except for a few mountain cities whose terrain is extremely dangerous and even counterweight trebuchets cannot function, most of the city fortresses have the only The function is to delay time. As long as the Tang army could transport the parts of the trebuchet and put them together, it would take five or six days at most and two or three days at least. The Tang army would be able to destroy the city walls and houses in the city without losing a single soldier outside the range of the defenders. In this case, resistance has no meaning. Perseverance to the end is synonymous with suicide. Baekje's demise is already a matter of time. It is a wise move for someone like me to surrender to the Tang people earlier.
"Keep on, keep on, show the traitors how powerful I am in the Tang Dynasty!"
The shouts drew Hei Te Changzhi away from his thoughts. He saw the wooden bucket rising slowly again. The craftsmen moved the stone bullets into the leather bags. The Tang Army generals blushed, waved their fists, and cheered loudly. Even the onlookers The Baekje civilian husband also looked excited. Seeing this, Hei Te Changzhi suddenly felt that a part of his heart stopped beating, as if it was dead.
"It seems that I can only survive as a Tang man for the rest of my life!" Hei Te Changzhi clenched his fists: "Since those civilians can survive, so can I!"
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"Mr. Wang, you are really a learned man! Didn't you say something earlier: gold, soup? I still don't understand what it means. I just saw it and realized that this is gold soup! Now I believe that the thieves can't beat them. !”
"Yes, with a loud bang, you can throw a big stone so far that even steel and iron bones can't withstand it! With such a thing, no wonder the generals of the Tang Dynasty were so sure!"
"That's right, they are blessed by gods and Buddhas, which is different from us!"
"Then as long as we wait here, dig the soil and cut the wheat, we can win the battle? We can go back with the copper coins and wheat? It's so good, I can't believe it!"
"Why can't you believe this? You didn't see that big thing. If you were a thief, how dare you attack after seeing such a big rock falling? It would be nice if you don't wet your pants in fear!"
Seeing the villagers chatting happily, Wang Peng felt happy in his heart. He did not expect that things would go so smoothly, but the facts were in front of him, and he couldn't help but not believe it.
"Wang Peng, Wang Peng!"
"Hey!" Wang Peng stood up and greeted him: "Master Yuan? What's the matter?"
"The thief has temporarily retreated. You take the people out and finish digging the trench. We will work harder tonight and put up the sharp wooden stakes. The reward will remain the same!"
"Yes!" Wang Peng responded, turned around and said loudly to all the people: "Everyone, be quiet. Master Tang has given an order. The thieves have retreated. Let us finish digging the trench. The rewards will remain the same!"
Cheers erupted from the crowd. The Baekje civilian husbands picked up their hoes, led by the leaders of each team, returned to their own areas, and began to work. In fact, the enemy's exploratory cavalry was not far away, but the civilian husbands But they didn't care, they just immersed themselves in their work. The huge figure of the gravity trebuchet behind them gave them a sense of security they had never experienced before.
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Yin hour three quarters.
The bonfire of the enemy camp shone like falling stars on the hillside not far away. In fact, it is brighter than the stars, but it never twinkles. Sometimes it expands and stretches, and sometimes it becomes gloomy, like distant fireworks, weak and dim.
