Chapter 493 Invincible
boom! boom! boom!
Huge bombardments sounded every once in a while. Although it was impossible to observe the power of each cannon stone in detail under the cover of night, the enemy's tall towers were successively bombarded by cannon stones and collapsed, and their outlines became smaller and smaller. It's visible to everyone.
"Wait a minute, adjust the gun barrel and add a layer of sand to the weight box."
After the thirty or so regular-shaped stone bullets he had prepared were all fired within half an hour, Li Tai was not in a hurry to send people forward to see how the enemy's defenses had been destroyed. After one stone bomb was fired, he ordered the two stone cannons to make slight adjustments.
These two trebuchets are the heavy war weapons that Li Tai has hidden for a long time, but in this dimension, they probably have to be named Heyang cannon.
The Hui Hui Cannon is extremely famous, and it seems that as long as it is fired with one cannon, it will be invincible. In the eyes of ordinary people, there must be some great black technology contained in it. But compared with the traditional man-made trebuchet, the principle of the return gun is the same, except that the source of its power is changed from human pulling to the sinking of the counterweight's own gravity.
The traditional trebuchet uses manpower to pull the front tip and throws the stones from the rear tip using the lever principle. The more powerful it is, the more manpower is needed to drive it and more cannon tips are added. The upper limit of its power is not high. Due to the limitations of physical space, a trebuchet cannot increase the number of operators without an upper limit, and the human power drive also faces the problem of inconsistent force.
The trebuchet is a counterweighted trebuchet that fires shells through the natural sinking of the front counterweight. Theoretically, there is no upper limit to its power. After all, it only needs a fulcrum and a lever to move the earth.
Many important equipment improvements in the history of cold weapon warfare may not necessarily contain advanced technologies. For example, the emergence of stirrups is more of a summary of experience.
Li Tai has even restored complex models such as the large hydraulic spinning wheel, and of course he will not miss the return cannon. Although Heyang Nancheng does not have craftsmen who know how to build this kind of trebuchet, he does have accurate parameters for different models.
The river bridge itself is a wooden pontoon bridge that needs maintenance and repairs over the years. Therefore, there is no shortage of qualified timber materials in Nancheng, and they have all undergone initial processing.
Without maximizing power, it is not difficult to build two return cannons. Different craftsmen are responsible for manufacturing different parts, and then transport these parts to the river bridge for assembly by their own troops. Because the river bridge itself is not a stable ground, it cannot support an overly powerful gun mount.
Although Li Tai loves to rush, he is not reckless. He knows that with his forward troops, it is impossible to defeat the Heyang defenders of the Eastern Wei Dynasty under normal conditions. Moreover, neither the friendly forces in the Heluo area nor the overlords in the Kansai Rear Area are very reliable, and they may not be counted on at critical moments.
He still led his troops to Heqiao without hesitation. Of course, he also had to prepare his trump card. He couldn't just come here and die for a moment's greed for power.
Although he had determined the plan to use the return artillery to continue the attack to the north of the river bridge early in the morning, when he actually arrived here, Li Tai discovered that he had not thought of a key issue, that is, the enemy also had a large crossbow, a weapon for defending the city.
Although theoretically there is no upper limit to the power and range of the return gun, in actual application it is limited by many factors such as materials, structure, terrain and environment.
After a brief comparison with the bed crossbow captured in Nancheng, Li Tai found that the range of the returning artillery he prepared was completely covered by the bed crossbow range.
This is definitely a fatal problem, especially the return cannon he uses for attack is not yet a finished product. If he wants to attack the enemy's Guancheng, he must advance to a certain distance from the enemy's line for assembly. During this time, they will be completely exposed to the range of the enemy's crossbows.
Li Tai chose to attack at night to take advantage of the enemy's vigilance and ignorance. The sand carried on the vehicle can be used to block the enemy's crossbow fire and can also be used as a counterweight for the return cannon.
Although the density of sand is not as good as that of stone and iron, it can be re-weighted after being transported to the destination and poured into the river, which can reduce the initial investment in transportation capacity and the load capacity of the river bridge. Moreover, the finely crushed sand facilitates fine adjustments to the increase or decrease of the counterweight, allowing the power of the return gun to be put into actual combat for the first time to be more flexibly adjusted.
The heavy armored infantry equipped with the Saber Saber can be said to be completely inorganic and has little use in most actual combat scenarios. It can be said to be a high-cost, very passive, and extremely low cost-effective unit.
It can be said that as long as the enemy does not rush up stupidly and sticks out his head to be stabbed, it will be difficult to cause effective damage to the enemy, but as long as the enemy takes the initiative to attack, it will be chopping melons and vegetables.
Therefore, given the wealth of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, it was not very common to form strange units such as armed forces. Because the investment was too high but there were few application scenarios, Li Tai, a bastard who was accustomed to doing business without capital, directly organized two hundred troops after making a windfall. A crowd.
This kind of luxury unit is really useless if it is not organized, but if it is really organized, it is much easier to use than ordinary infantry. The happiness of a krypton gold boss is not something ordinary people can understand.
Li Tai's vision for tonight's battle was for two return artillery pieces to bombard Zhongli City and Heyang Pass, so that the enemy could not bear the blow and attack out of the city, destroying the siege weapons, while he lined up two hundred heavy armors in front. Bridge, just like playing Fruit Ninja, kill all the attacking enemies. Isn’t it easy to kill thousands of them in one night?
But the expected situation did not happen. Even Xue Guyan, a strong man who cut off more than a dozen knives a day, couldn't retreat after rushing forward and delivering another big shot.
They were hundreds of meters away from each other, and in the thick darkness, it was difficult for Li Tai to conduct real-time and detailed monitoring of the enemy's movements. However, based on what he saw, he felt that the enemy's reaction was not positive enough. Although he saw the surging heads of Wuyang Wuyang, But there were no people coming out of the border to charge, so they planned to expand the strike range to let these Eastern Wei soldiers fully appreciate the ruthlessness of artillery fire.
"Master Lang, the cannon tip has been calibrated. Are we going to launch an attack now?"
After the soldiers finished correcting the ratio of the front and rear cannon tips, He Ruodun personally used a shovel to add a lot of river sand to the heavy wooden bucket hanging on the front tip and watered it with river water. He heard that the iron chains wrapped around the outer wall of the wooden bucket were stretched. The rattling stopped, and he took out the calibrator and compared it for a moment, then hurriedly squeezed in front of Li Tai and asked for instructions.
Real men love big guys. This powerful stone cannon really fits He Ruoden’s aesthetics. Compared with it, even the shooting skills that he was good at in the past became like embroidery in his eyes. Son, it’s really not worth mentioning.
"Launch!"
After hearing this, Li Tai waved his hands and said, watching He Ruodun personally watch the fort operations, he couldn't help but wonder in his mind whether he should let this guy be the commander of the artillery battalion in the future?
During the period of artillery suspension and adjustment south of the river bridge, the chaos of the defeated Eastern Wei army on the opposite side also subsided. Hu Lujin personally led the supervising team to stand on the north side of the river bridge. Seeing the defeated soldiers swarming on the bridge, he directly ordered to kill dozens of people before barely controlling the rout.
After some pushing and squeezing, Xue Guyan, who was behind the team, managed to reach the end of the river bridge. When he saw Hu Lujin's cold eyes, Xue Guyan couldn't help but lower his head and said in a harsh voice: " Grand Sima, the defenders were defeated not because of the timidity of the soldiers, but because of the ferocity of the rebels' cannons and rocks, which were really unstoppable..."
At this time, the river was still roaring and shaking, and Hulüjin could guess the enemy's attack method. However, in his opinion, although the stone cannon's attack was fierce, it would not scare away the entire army. If they really had such power, why would their army have been so powerful that they were able to drink and hate Yubi City last year!
So he held his sword in his hand and yelled angrily: "You disciples are important in guarding Heyang. If you don't stand on the wall, where can you go? The only thing standing here is to fight bravely without retreating and without fear." A strong man who sacrificed his life for the country! If you stand here today, you will be killed without mercy!"
Hu Lujin's unequivocal statement, coupled with the dozens of corpses that were beheaded at the bridge, immediately gave these rogue soldiers a great deterrent effect. The front could not rush down the bridge, and the desperate banging sounds from the rear could be heard from time to time. Many of the frightened soldiers could not help but roar and howl in grief, anger and despair.
But not everyone suffered a mental breakdown. After all, these defenders were veterans of the Six Towns who had been tempered by war. After realizing that they were in a desperate situation with no way to advance or retreat, they quickly adjusted their mentality and recalled the enemy's offensive. Although the momentum is not small, it is not a dead end. Moreover, even if he dies fighting at Heguan, it is better than being killed by attacking the bridge. The former can at least provide a pension for his wife and children.
After people are put to death, courage grows instead. In particular, the banging sound from the south did not resound after a while, and the shock and panic it created in people's hearts naturally diminished sharply.
"The thieves only rely on the power of cannons and rocks. Now that they have captured the city, it is difficult to attack with cannons and rocks. My sons, follow me back and bury all these thieves in the river!"
Seeing that the mood of the crowd had recovered, Xue Guyan raised his arms and shouted again, organizing the soldiers to fight back. After hearing this, the defenders quickly regained their confidence. When it came to hand-to-hand combat, they were not afraid of any opponent.
So soon the soldiers who were stranded on the river bridge each held swords and guns, spontaneously formed an array, and marched toward the south of the bridge.
However, before they could return to the river island, there was another sudden sound of wind in the night sky, and an irregular black shadow rolled over their heads, and then landed heavily on the bridge.
There was a loud click, and the two soldiers were immediately smashed into pieces when the cannon stone hit. Immediately, the boulder fell heavily on the bridge. The bridge suddenly sank, and then bounced up again. This section of the bridge They all fluctuated violently, and several soldiers nearby were lifted directly off the bridge and quickly disappeared into the river.
"This is heaven's punishment, heaven's punishment! Retreat, retreat quickly... I don't want to die!"
The soldiers were already in shock, but this bloody and shocking scene immediately broke through their psychological defenses, causing even more frightening chaos than before. Many soldiers were extremely worried and unable to advance or retreat, and actually jumped directly and actively. in the river.
"This shot is a bit far away. It should have hit the river bridge. While the thieves are panicking, fight and seize the city quickly!"
Han Xiong led his troops to the front and waited for the battle. At this moment, he was already a little exhausted. He Ruoden was still having fun playing with cannons. Li Tai felt that after this series of bombardments, the enemy must have been panicked. So he personally led the light-armored troops and rushed straight to Heyang Pass.