Lei Youzhong smiled and stroked his long beard and said: "General Lu, listen to me. I led the East Route Army southward and entered Kuimen. When passing through Kaizhou, I discovered a talented person in the local Tang family. , this person loves to study the art of crossbow craftsmanship and mechanism, and he has developed two kinds of powerful crossbows that can kill enemies from a long distance..."
Zhang Yong said with some surprise: "Oh? What kind of crossbow is it? I also know something about the Tang family in Kaizhou. The Tang family is good at making hidden weapons and bows and crossbows. It is famous in Kaizhou, but crossbows Most of them are things that can be killed at close range. Now Zhang Yu and Xianggui’s Chinese army formation is at least 300 steps away from us, far beyond the range of crossbows. What kind of killing weapon is Master Lei talking about? Why not get it quickly? Come out and meet us..."
Lei Youzhong laughed, waved to the soldiers behind him, and shouted: "Push up!"
The soldier went down to the city tower. Within a moment, he saw several civilians carrying several wooden objects to the top of the city. One of the young men was directing the civilians to assemble the objects.
"Mr. Tang, come here..." Lei Youzhong waved to the young man and said with a smile. The young man said yes and walked towards the crowd.
Lei Youzhong introduced to several people: "This is the talent I just mentioned to the two adults, Mr. Tang Yutang..."
Then Lei Youzhong introduced to Tang Yu: "One of these two adults is Mr. Zhang, the magistrate of Zizhou, and the other is Mr. Lu, the inspection envoy..."
After a few people exchanged polite greetings, Lu Bin, who was already paying close attention to the items being assembled, said: "Mr. Tang, I just heard Master Lei say that you have a powerful crossbow that can kill enemies three hundred steps away, but That thing?" After speaking, Lu Bin pointed to the large crossbow that was almost assembled.
Tang Yu cupped his hands and replied: "Yes, it is exactly this thing. The name of this crossbow is "bed crossbow", also known as "eight cow crossbow". It is a weapon that took me six years to develop. It was just completed last month. It is also I have never fought in actual combat, and happened to catch up with the rebellion in central Sichuan. I have already handed this thing to the Kaizhou government office to contribute some modest efforts to quell the rebellion. When Lord Lei led the Eastern Route Army and passed by Kaizhou, he asked me to take it with him. The craftsmen of the Tang family came to Zizhou together..."
While Tang Yu was talking, several people came to the assembled "bed crossbow". Zhang Yong, who didn't know much about ordnance, just nodded in praise. He didn't know much about this kind of larger crossbow and thought it was useful. Although it would be more beneficial to defend the city after getting this thing, we didn't have much expectations.
Lu Bin, who was well versed in military affairs and ordnance, gasped when he saw this object. This object was as big as a bed, with three huge bow arms and bow strings in the middle. Each bow arm was made of a whole bow. Made of Qingcheng mangosteen, it is strong and elastic, and the bowstring is made of whole beef tendons.
These three giant bows are several times larger than ordinary bows. They are arranged in an orderly manner on the bed wood. Arrows as thick as wrists are placed next to the giant bows. There are dozens of arrows. The arrow at the front of the arrow is like two sickles overlapping each other, with a cold light shining on the edge.
The tail of the arrow is even more mind-numbing. In order to keep the arrow stable after being shot, the tail of ordinary arrows is usually inlaid with tail feathers or something similar. The arrow of the bed crossbow in front of me has four pieces of iron on its tail. Each piece of iron is inlaid with a sharp short blade, which is symmetrically inlaid on the top, bottom, left and right of the tail.
Lu Bin believed that as long as the arrows from this trumpet were fired at the crowd, the damage caused would be very terrifying. Even if the enemy dodges the sharp edge at the front of the arrow, the short four-edged blade at the tail will cause a second kill. And once three arrows like this are fired together, the damage range caused will be very large.
Lu Bin calmed down the shock in his heart and said, "How far can this "bed crossbow" shoot?"
Tang Yu cupped his hands and answered: "I haven't really tested it yet. I fired it once next to the pond in Tangjiabao. The arrow flew directly over the pond and stuck into the big tree on the other side of the pond..."
"How far is the pond?" Lu Bin asked eagerly.
"About eight hundred steps..." Tang Yu replied.
After hearing the answer, Lu Bin laughed and said: "God help me, even if the bandit leader below the city is hiding in the camp, he can't escape..."
It turns out that the range of ordinary crossbows is only more than two hundred steps at most, so when the two armies fight, the Chinese army camps on both sides are usually located outside the one-shot field. This time, Xianggui led more than 200,000 rebel troops to besiege the city. In order to boost morale, Xianggui moved the camp forward and set it up 300 steps away from the city wall. After Zhang Yu arrived, he saw that the Chinese camp was too far forward. If the officers and soldiers in the city boldly left the city for a surprise attack, the Chinese camp would easily be within the shooting range of the officers and soldiers.
For the sake of safety, Zhang Yu advocated stationing the camp five hundred steps away from the city wall, so as not to give the city defenders any chance.
And after the city-defending officers and soldiers had the crossbows, the rebel camp, five hundred steps away, was no longer a safe place.
In the camp of the rebel army, after a day of fighting, Xianggui and his generals were exhausted. Although they failed to capture the city today, they also caused great losses to the defenders. I believe that such an siege effort , the city can be breached in less than five days.
"Brother, we are attacking the city today. We are just shooting arrows and throwing stones with trebuchets under the city. It is really boring. After the city is broken, you must not stop the brothers. We will not seal the sword for three days!" The general said angrily.
Because he has been with Xianggui for a long time, he does not address Xianggui by official title, but as eldest brother.
Xianggui laughed and said: "Of course, our king had a rule at that time. As long as there is no resistance, the city will not be massacred. This Zizhou City is so stubborn and will be massacred after the city is broken!"
"Furthermore, I don't think Zizhou City can hold out for a few more days. When we attacked the city today, I found that the defenders at the top of the city even pulled up the big bed they slept on. It must have been used to withstand arrows and arrows. Those who threw stones, this shows how embarrassed the defenders in the city are..."
"You guys should rest for a night first. Privy Council Zhang has led a group of troops to ambush at the east gate of Zizhou. With such a fierce attack on the city, the defenders in the city must have known that they would not be able to hold on for a few days. They will definitely find a way to break out of the siege. The only direction to break out is the East City Gate. We originally chose the West City Gate as our main attack direction and only deployed a small number of troops at the East City Gate in order to make the defenders think that the East City Gate was weak and easy to break through..." Xianggui added.
The generals under his command were even more happy when they heard this, and said: "Brother is really clever. He has laid out such a big game. The chess game has been laid. It depends on how the opponent moves, but no matter how he moves, it will be a dead end, haha. Ha ha……"
