44. Li Tie's gunmen hit Fangzhou City ii

Even the cloud ladders and flying ladders used to climb the city have not been built, not to mention auxiliary siege tools such as trench bridges, trains, pointed wooden donkeys, wooden cattle, wooden mantles and so on.

Speaking of this, I want to mention what is a ladder. The ladder used in the Song Dynasty to attack the city is not the people who appeared in the rough and abusive TV series of later generations to carry the big wooden ladder.

The standard cloud ladder in the army of the Song Dynasty was made of big wood as the bed, with a large wheel under it, and two ladders up, each with a length of more than two feet and a rotating shaft. The four sides of the car are shielded by raw cowhide, and the inside is pushed into the city. It takes off on the remaining ladder to peep into the city, so it is called the ladder.

In order to explain more vividly, for example, everyone has seen the fire ladders of later generations. The two have something in common. They are both folding heavy equipment. The difference is that the fire ladders are driven by machines. In ancient times, there were no machines, so they had to move forward with human trolleys, and the ladder can be raised by up to one layer, or pulled by rope. Get up. If there is too much, it will collapse.

Next, let's talk about the flying ladder. The flying ladder is two or three feet long, with the first two wheels. If you want ants to attach, you can push forward with the city in turn.

This flying ladder also appears in the military books of the Song Dynasty. It has the principle of a unicycle, and its operation is like this.

There are ten strong sergeants on each side, carrying ladders. When they attack the city, they bravely rush to the city wall. Then, they stick the head of the ladder, also known as the ladder, to the wall, slide up along the wall, and attach it to the mouth of the city for a moment. Then, the siege army can climb the city smoothly.

Of course, there are also cases where the ladder head is not equipped with wheels, but it is very difficult to lift it, which will bring great trouble to the siege troops. You should know that many people will die every second delay on the battlefield. Speed is the key, and it is the same in ancient times. The siege troops can't rush to the bottom of the city, and the ladder has not been erected yet. In that case, the brothers who climb the city will be unlucky and have become the target of others.

The train, the train in the siege of the Song Dynasty, is not the train we took. If you are bold enough, of course you can take it, but it is not too late to listen to my introduction before making a decision.

The Song military train, also known as the arson car, takes the wheeled car as the furnace, and it is full of oil and blazing charcoal fire, which makes it boil. It still has four areas of salary. It is pushed to the downstairs of the city gate and set fire and goes away. The enemy must go into the water, and if the oil gets water, the flame will be higher, and the building will burn.

(Note: cuan, read cuan, meaning cooking)

To explain, this kind of car is actually a two-wheeled flat cart, which is very similar to the two-wheeled cart pushed by uncles and aunts who sold tea eggs a few years ago. There is a clay stove on the car, and there is a big pot on the stove, and tea eggs are boiled in the pot.

Looking back, Song Jun's train is not simply a matter of loading a truckload of grass and pushing it under the gate to set fire. That's too pediatric, but any general who knows how to defend the city will deal with it.

The whole secret of this arson car is the hot oil in the iron pot, not ordinary oil for cooking, but a chemical weapon invented by the ancients. It is similar to the Greek fire used in ancient Western battlefields. The formula should have the following ingredients: sulfur, asphalt, rosin, resin, cotton wool, limestone , bone charcoal, urine, feces, etc. In this way, it can burn immediately after touching the water. There is no need to light it. In the process of burning, it can also release highly toxic substances, which can play the role of one stone, two birds or even three birds.

The pointed wooden donkey is shaped like a crocoach, but with two more wheels, the upper horizontal wood is the ridge, one foot five feet long, the top is sharp and below, eight feet high, wrapped in raw cow leather, covering ten people inside, pushing the city down, and attacking the city as a tunnel. ( Note: Yan, read wēnfén, one of the siege vehicles)

Wooden cow, also known as wooden cow cart, takes a thick wooden board as a flat house, wraps it in raw cow leather, and pushes it from the inside to shield the people who attack the city, as well as wooden donkeys and so on

These two kinds of equipment are actually mobile bunkers, covering the engineers inside to dig earth and dig holes, carry out tunnel warfare, and break the city.

The wooden mantle is recorded in the General Summary of the Martial Arts. It is made like a screen, wrapped in raw cow leather, covered with oranges, loaded with four wheels, low, and tied with rope. Anyone who attacks the city and wants ants to be attached to it will be a stone in front of the mantle.

To take an example, if the mast is erected on the bamboo row and the white sail is hung, the bamboo row must be very beautiful. This kind of wooden mantle is also the same principle. It uses a huge sail-like barrier to block the arrow rain and protect the siege troops. Of course, it is also used to cover the arrows when guarding the city.

To get back to the main,

Li Tiegun's plan is to let Zhou Mei shell Fangzhou City and force the army inside to go out of the city to fight in order to reduce casualties. Therefore, it took a lot of hard work to get the only gun in Xiangzhou City to Fangzhou.

Fangzhou has no artillery, only a small number of muskets, which was borrowed by Chen Xiliang from Lord Li Chui Li, the governor of Junzhou, for the defense of the city.

It can be imagined how miserable Fangzhou City was under the bombardment of Zhou Mei's artillery. However, Zhou Mei was overjoyed and thought that the place of two arrows was very safe. Unexpectedly, there were six horse faces on the east city of Fangzhou, each with a crossbow platform.

The top is narrow and the bottom is wide, such as the city system, the height and the city, etc. The surface is one foot and six feet wide, three steps long, and is connected to the city.

The house on the stage is made like a shed, hanging with felt on three sides to cover the arrows.

It can accommodate 12 crossbowmen, one captain, and is also equipped with thunderstone rolling wood.

Among them, there are bed crossbows on the three crossbow platforms, known as the three bow bed crossbows, the first two bows, and the last bows, commonly known as the eight oxen crossbows, and the eight cows can be pulled away. The arrow is made of wooden poles and iron feathers, and the soldiers jokingly call it one shot and three arrows. This is very domineering, and one arrow can shoot through ten people. Three sluice can be shot up to 200 steps away.

Zhou Mei was careless and lost Jingzhou. She only cared about aiming at the gate tower and bombarded the gate. She forgot that she should kill the defenders on the horse first.

Only three cannons were fired, and the Dongcheng crossbow platform found this place. It killed the five gunners that Zhou Mei worked hard to train with only one volley. The next moment, he had to send someone to drag the artillery out of the land of the three arrows and temporarily pull people to fire back.

Although anyone can draw tigers according to cats, many of Zhou Mei's own soldiers have seen how the five gunners fire, but when it's their turn to fight in person, the accuracy and operation essentials are much worse.

Six shells were wasted in vain, only two crossbows were smashed, and two canine teeth-like gaps were blown out of the east wall.

Zhou Mei also expected to bombard the East City with these 15 shells and force the defenders in the city to fight.

It seems that there is no hope.

He had to change his mind temporarily and personally aimed at the East Gate and bombarded the gate. After three shells, the East Gate fell down. Zhou Mei was excited and quickly ordered someone to tell Li Tiegun the good news.

Li Tiegun sent his confidant Zeng Yike to check. If Dongcheng really opened up, their siege plan would be changed.

However, although the East Gate fell down, the Weng City was still there. What's more, Chen Xiliang mobilized the people of the whole city to dig earth and carry stones, and completely blocked the Weng City Gate in the East City within half an hour.