Chapter 218 The Bad Idea of Lack of Virtue and Smoke

The Tang Army camp in Cijian is like a flat boat in the vast ocean at this time, and it may capsize at any time. Wang Shichong mobilized almost all the troops that could be mobilized at hand and surrounded the Cijian battalion, although it was impossible for as many as 100,000 troops to surround the Cijian battalion, but it was still easy to concentrate superior forces to attack the Cijian West battalion.

The west is high and the east is low, and the general topography of China is no exception.

Tens of thousands of Zheng Army soldiers, holding torches, slowly approached outside the Tang Army camp, although they did not attack, but such a number and such a tactic made Li Shimin and Changsun Shunde dare not slack off, let alone take it lightly to support the East Battalion - instead of thousands of torches, nearly 20,000 torches appeared there!

Wang Shichong made full use of the superiority of troops, and at the same time invested 50,000 or 60,000 troops in the four directions of the Cijian camp, southeast, northwest, and northwest. In fact, the officers and men of the Zheng Army who appeared outside the Tang Army camp this time were not the elite troops of the Zheng Army, but the troops of Yang Qing and Tian Zhan, who were very poorly equipped and had weak combat effectiveness, but Li Shimin did not dare to take the initiative to attack, so he could only shrink his forces and hold on to the camp.

The night is as dark as ink, at a glance, it is full of torches and human heads, outside the Tang army camp, there have been many Zheng army soldiers rushed to the Tang army camp two arrows, at this time, like ants as dense Zheng army soldiers, slowly assembled trebuchets, rough estimates, at this time outside the magnetic stream camp, densely assembled trebuchets are not less than a thousand bodies, once the thousands of trebuchets are assembled, they will definitely be a fatal blow to the Tang army.

"Are these horses and horses that Zheng Jun is lined up in the West Battalion, the South Battalion and the East Battalion the elite or pseudo-elite?" A solemn look appeared on Li Shimin's face, and he slowly spoke: "There are so many stone cannons, it can't be that you want to create fake stone cannons to attract this king to attack, right?" ”

After all, stone artillery is a very lethal weapon for the side holding the big camp. No matter how strong the battalion is, it cannot withstand the bombardment of four or five hundred catties of stone projectiles, and even if it is more than 100 catties of stone bullets, under the action of huge inertial kinetic energy, it is enough to easily collapse the camp wall. Li Shimin had guessed that the Zheng soldiers sent by Wang Shichong to block the Zheng soldiers in the west, east and south camps were just suspicious soldiers, but if this guess was not accurate, in fact, the other party was also a team strong enough to attack the city outside his own camp, and as soon as the Tang army slackened, it would suddenly rush forward, and the matter would be dangerous.

The countless torches were like chains, locking the actions of Li Shimin and the eldest grandson Shunde.

The eldest grandson Shunde shook his head and said: "Outside the camp, the stone cannons that Zheng Jun is assembling will definitely not be so many, and the wet wood that has just been cut down is still okay to use to build ladders or siege vehicles, but it is impossible to build stone cannons!" ”

Although the stone cannon is simple in structure and easy to make, it has certain limitations, the most important part of which is the boom, because the weight of the wet wood is too heavy, the counterweight is not reasonable, so that the rod arm can not reach the speed required to throw the projectile with high efficiency. Therefore, when building trebuchets, the heavy pole arm made of hard solid wood is of course not as light and efficient as the rod arm made of wood, animal tendon and animal skin. The former is inevitably slower to throw rocks, while the latter is faster and more resilient. This is like shipbuilding, the most suitable boom needs to be made of wood from the yin pole, if it is in the city, the dry wood used to build beams or load-bearing columns in various places, you can make trebuchets.

However, the closest city to Cijian is Xin'an, but there is no such reserve wood in Xin'an City. So he swore and said: "More than 1,000 trebuchets need at least more than 1,000 dry armbands, where did Wang Shichong get so much wood to act as an arm?" ”

Li Shimin showed a thoughtful look, but in fact, he also considered this issue. However, some things cannot be faked, and these gradually forming trebuchets can be assembled in half an hour at most, and it will be clear at a glance whether they are true or false. If it is just a fake trebuchet, as long as Li Shimin does not go out of the camp to fight back, he Wang Shichong will be in vain, for an uncertain factor, to make so many fake trebuchets, the price is inevitably too great.

"It's not good...... Cheng Zhijie smiled bitterly: "His Royal Highness King Qin, the trebuchet built by Wang Shichong is probably real!" ”

The eldest grandson Shunde asked rhetorically: "Where does Wang Shichong have so much dry wood?" ”

Cheng Zhijie said: "Although Xin'an City is not big, there are always tens of thousands of houses!" ”

Li Shimin's face changed, and he hurriedly ordered: "Quick, prepare the wet soil, prepare to prevent stone artillery bombardment!" ”

The biggest damage of the trebuchet is the kinetic energy generated by the kinetic energy of the stone projectile. The ancients were very clever and had long thought of a way to deal with trebuchets, that is, to use wet soil or sand to quickly reduce the kinetic energy of stone bullets, so as to reduce the lethality of stone bullets.

Slowly, minute by minute, under Li Shimin's order, the Tang soldiers frantically dug in the camp, digging big pits in front of and behind the camp wall. These large earth pits are actually used to consume the kinetic energy of the stone bullet, as long as there is no kinetic energy of the stone bullet, the lethality of the stone bullet can be well reduced.

What puzzled Li Shimin was that after Zheng Jun assembled the trebuchet, he did not immediately adjust the launch angle, but put the stone on the fire to burn, because the distance was too far, Li Shimin actually couldn't see clearly, and the trebuchet built by Zheng Jun at this time was also different from the ordinary trebuchet.

In the past, the stone bullets loaded on the arm were made of animal leather, but at this time, Zheng Jun's trebuchet did not use a leather bag, but a basket made of steel.

The red-hot stone bullets were put into those iron baskets by the soldiers of Zheng Jun with iron clips.

When Li Shimin saw this scene, his face changed in fright, and he hurriedly ordered: "Quick, disperse!" ”

Almost at the same time, the Zheng army's formation also sounded the sound of "dong dong" war drums, and in the Zheng army's large array outside the Tang army camp in Cijian, more than a thousand trebuchets almost did not distinguish between them, and let out a terrible roar. The long arm swing out, throwing dozens of stone bullets weighing more than ten catties into the air, and tens of thousands of red-burning stone bullets swirled in the air, roaring and smashing towards the army camp.

Tens of thousands of red-hot stone bullets are very obvious in the dark night. The flying stone bullets were simply like rushing meteors, dragging the fiery red tail flames and flying towards the Tang army camp. These tens of thousands of red-hot stone bullets are like fiery meteors.

The soldiers of the Tang Army were stunned by fright, all the soldiers of the Tang Army, including Li Shimin, had never seen such a scene. Some soldiers were so frightened that they turned around and ran, while others were so frightened that they collapsed on the ground.

It's just that it's too late, and this wave of tens of thousands of red-hot stone bullets finally fell to the Tang army camp. Although one-third of the stone bullets deviated from the direction and landed on the ground before they flew to the Tang army camp, these red-hot stone bullets made a loud "bang" as soon as they landed on the ground.

I don't know how Wang Shichong came up with such an idea of lacking morality and smoking, the red-hot stone, when it encounters water vapor, will expand rapidly and explode in an instant. A stone bullet weighing more than ten pounds immediately turned into thousands of fragments, bursting into dazzling sparks. Each of these red-hot stone bullet fragments is a kindling of fire, and when it touches a combustible substance, it immediately ignites a raging flame.

A stone bullet landed on a rejection horse, and the wooden rejection horse collided with the stone bullet and exploded with a "boom", and the flying stone bullet hard fragments immediately ignited the rejection horse, which was about three feet long.

A stone bullet happened to fall on the arrow tower of the Tang army camp, which was as high as three zhang, 'Boom! The stone bullet fragments were originally not very powerful, at least far worse than the power of the cannonball fragments, but these red-hot stone bullet fragments, because each piece was like a soldering iron, it burned wherever it touched, and more than a dozen Tang Army archers were beaten by the stone bullet fragments, and their flesh and blood were blurred, and they were miserable.

"Disperse, disperse!" Li Shimin looked at this scene and let out a roar.

In an instant, Li Shimin's roar was drowned out by the explosion of the stone bullet falling to the ground.

Nearly one-third of the stone bullets finally hit the camp wall of the Tang Army, and the originally solid camp wall was instantly covered with cracks, and within thirty steps of the camp wall, a rain of fire was formed.

Tens of thousands of red-hot stone bullets fell into the Tang army camp, and the entire camp was like a strong man who had been punched hard, and it was shocked, and countless Tang soldiers were shrouded in the fire and rain in the sky, and there were screams one after another. The soldiers of the Tang Army in the rain of fire were suddenly scalded by the red stone bullet fragments, and they wailed again and again!

Just a wave of tens of thousands of stone bullets caused more than 100 casualties to the officers and men of the Tang Army in the camp. Although it is difficult to cause fatal casualties due to such stone projectile fragments, this kind of scalding is not easy to heal, and it is extremely painful, which is a very big blow to the morale of the officers and men of the Tang Army.

Looking at the Tang soldiers in the camp who were rolling on the ground due to pain, Li Shimin was so angry that his hand slammed into the hardwood hand, and immediately smashed his flesh and blood into a blur, and blood was dripping.

"What a poisonous mind!" Cheng Zhijie roared with a hideous face: "Wang Shichong's old thief's mind is so vicious, this is forcing us to go out of the camp to fight with them!" ”

Qin Qiong hugged his fists and said, "His Royal Highness King Qin, why don't I take my sons out of the camp to kill their sharpness!" ”

"No!" Li Shimin obviously knew that the passive beating would be a great blow to the morale of the soldiers, but he also understood that Wang Shichong must have left a back hand outside the camp at this time, and he was hoping that they would go out of the camp to attack these trebuchets at all costs.

As the so-called mercy is not in charge of the army, righteousness is not financial management, Li Shimin said coldly: "Wang Shichong still has a backhand, maybe their ambush is eyeing outside the camp, once they leave the camp, they will definitely be ambushed, we can't take advantage, but just what Wang Shichong wants!" ”

"Alas!" Cheng Zhijie said resentfully: "This battle is too aggrieved!" ”

Li Shimin said loudly: "Order the bed crossbowmen to prepare and shoot their trebuchets!" ”

The bed crossbow has a very long range, and is in fact fully capable of shooting Zheng Jun's trebuchet and dragging personnel. It's just that the bed crossbow is slow to load, the accuracy is too poor, and it is inconvenient to move, once the launch position of the bed crossbow is exposed, it means that the bed crossbow will definitely be hit by the coverage of Zheng Jun's long-range weapons, these bed crossbows are Li Shimin's last mobile phone at the bottom of the box, and it is not the best time to expose it at this time.

In fact, Tang Jun was quite lucky. First of all, the weight of these stone bullets was too small, not enough to smash down the camp wall of the Tang army camp, and the accuracy of the trebuchet was too poor, less than one-tenth of the camp wall really hit, and more stone bullets either fell outside the Tang army camp or fell inside the Tang army camp.

And Li Shimin reminded that these soldiers dispersed in time. Although these fiery meteor-like stone projectiles may seem very powerful, they are actually far less powerful than real cannonballs. The most important thing is that the camp of the Tang army soldiers is stationed outside the city, not inside the city, and there is not much combustible material in the camp in the open area.

However, the power of the red-hot stone bullet is still quite powerful, as long as it is hit, it is basically a large area.

However, Wang Shichong, who was watching the battle behind Zheng Jun, saw that the red-hot stone bullet was so powerful, and he was immediately overjoyed, stroked his palm and said with a smile: "Spread my will, continue to fire stone bullets, let's have dinner tonight, and the soldiers participating in the battle will be rewarded with military merits." ”

Seeing that victory was in sight, the originally low morale of the Zheng army gradually rose. Especially the trilogy of Tian Zan and Yang Qing, these people have never seen the strength of the Tang army soldiers at all, and when they saw the Tang army soldiers being bombarded by trebuchets and were embarrassed, they felt that the Tang army soldiers were nothing remarkable.

Countless Zheng soldiers shouted and shouted again and again, shouted the trumpet together, neatly grabbed the arm of the trebuchet, and smashed the red-hot stone bullets one by one like they didn't want money, and smashed them into the Tang army camp.

Countless red-hot stone bullets flew in the air, and the stone bullets carried a soaring sound, which made people feel palpitating, making the Tang soldiers' bodies tremble like chaff.

The red-hot stone bullets reflected the entire night sky red, as if the air was burning, and the Tang army camp was like boiling water, and wounded soldiers were wailing in pain everywhere.

The red-hot stone bullets fell one by one, and the red-hot stone bullets made a thunderous roar from time to time, and the explosions that came from time to time became the only swan song on the battlefield.

Looking at the battlefield, one after another red-hot stone bullets crossed the camp wall and exploded in the camp, the tents near the camp wall were ignited, the fire burned rapidly, and the soldiers in the camp also fled in panic......

In the Zheng army's trebuchet continued to project red-hot stone bullets, the radiation range of the stone bullet fragments exploded was as much as a square circle, so that the Tang army officers and soldiers had nowhere to hide, and suffered heavy casualties.

It is also Li Shimin's only choice at present, otherwise these more than 1,000 trebuchets can bomb the morale of the Tang army camp in Cijian, and will also blow up the last trace of decisive battle in the hearts of the Tang army officers and soldiers.

Time slowly slipped to the second watch, and the offensive of the Zheng army did not retreat with the darkness of the night, but intensified. The raging crowds kept coming. Climbing the ladder under the firelight, even if the Tang army at the head of the city kept pushing down the ladder, even if the soldiers who rushed to the head of the city with swords under it, it would weaken the offensive of the attacker at all.

Suddenly, Li Shimin missed Chen Yinglai very much, if Chen Ying was here, he should be able to remove most of the burden on his shoulders.

PS: Thank you very much for the heartless and ruthless reward, and there will be more later, adding more to the Dharma Protector Wuthoughtless and ruthless.