Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 225
Echeng, geographically known as "Wuchang" in later generations, is still using its original name like Xiakou, which is also known as "Hankou" in later generations.

The city walls of Hubei are far inferior to those of later generations, and Xiakou is still just a small port. The three towns of Wuhan have experienced the establishment of the capital in the Eastern Wu Dynasty, the immigration of people from Runan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the great construction of Xiakou in the Southern Song Dynasty, the establishment of Jiedushi in the mid-Tang Dynasty, and the establishment of Yue Fei in the Southern Song Dynasty. Guarding... After a series of reinforcements, it became the most important place in the three towns.

At present, Echeng has not even carried out a wave of reinforcements as the capital of Soochow. Although it is the seat of Jiangxia, it is only stronger than ordinary county towns, but from the perspective of state towns... it is below average.

Jiangxia's most important barrier to the east is still the former Miangou...

If Miankou is lost, Hubei City will be undefeated. Except for the city tower, the city wall is only five or six steps wide. Moreover, Gongkou City’s sharp weapons can be transported directly to Miankou by water, and can be reached within ten miles by land. Under the E city wall!
"Dad! How can I go back to Nanjun at this time? I..." Huang She retorted excitedly after hearing Huang Zu's arrangement.

"Shut up! I regret that I should have let Mi Heng go. Look, now... you have learned to talk back?" Huang Zu said angrily.

"Here, get his military talisman! Escort him to Xiling!" Huang Zu gave the order directly.

Huang Zu forcibly sent Huang She away. Within a day, he received the news that Sun Ce led the army to come.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were not prepared to go through the city gate and directly transported sixty Baigong cannons to the southwest of Hubei City.

Hubei City has an excellent geographical location, with the Yangtze River and Mian River on its lap, the mountains and lakes, Lu Fei on the left, and Fan Han on the right. It is not only adjacent to the remnants of Mufu Mountain in the east, but also close to the Mian River... which is the lower reaches of the Han River. Dig a moat.

However, the current city of Hubei is not yet "in the garrison of Jiangdong". It is easy to bypass the mountain roads and intermittent semi-natural moats and reach the bottom of the city...

Facing the city wall that was only five feet high and five or six steps wide, Zhou Yu chose a location. Instead of going through the city gate, he chose a location where it was easy to quarry stones for ammunition and avoided the city towers. He directly set up camp in front of the camp. He opened up Bai Gongpao's stance, looking like he was going to break through the wall and attack.

Huang Zu also didn't expect that Sun Ce and Zhou Yu didn't even want to leave the city gate. Above the city gate was the city tower. The wall in the city tower area could be wider and easier to defend.

However, when attacking a city, it usually revolves around "climbing the wall" and "breaking down the door." It is usually a two-pronged approach. If one side is successful, then both the attacking side can see hope.

Especially "breaking the door". After all, even if you succeed in climbing the wall, it will only make the ratio of offensive and defensive casualties closer. Successful climbing on the wall ten times may not necessarily mean you can finally stand firm once.

And if the door is broken, as long as it is not blocked in time, it will be a long-term passage!

But when Sun Ce and Zhou Yu arrived, they didn't even look at the city gate, and they had no intention of building wells or ladders on the spot. Instead, they dug into the mountains and took rocks...

This is also the method of siege that Bai Tu recommends - avoid climbing buildings to avoid causing too much damage to the enemy and ourselves. We must directly demolish the wall!
As a cold weapon counterweight catapult, the Baigong Cannon is much stronger than the primary artillery during the Song and Yuan battles in history. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, both sides also had artillery put into use, but the effect was not good. In the end, it was still used as a cold weapon "Returning the Cannon" played a decisive role.

However, it is obviously unwise to ignore the development of firearms because of this. The "future" has proved that although the Huihui artillery is better than the rudimentary artillery in all aspects, but... the Huihui artillery is basically the limit of the cold weapon catapult. And the development of artillery has just begun.

Since France experimented with artillery during the Anglo-French War, artillery has been developing day by day driven by industrial civilization.

In the battle between the Ming Dynasty and Hou Jin Dynasty, artillery must be present in major battles. Whether it was the "imported" Fran machine cannon or the powerful self-produced general cannon, they were never absent in the later stages of the battle between Ming Dynasty and Hou Jin Dynasty. Later Jin Dynasty reversed its decline. It was also from the capture of a group of craftsmen such as Liu Han, the support of artillery casting, and the surrender of Kong Youde that the number of artillery possessions gradually surpassed that of the Ming Dynasty...

It is a pity that the Qing Dynasty after the Peace also relied on red cannons to quell chaos and fight against Tsarist Russia, but... compared to the West, it gradually adapted to the "weak chickens pecking each other" in firearms, slacked in development, and even took the initiative to suppress it, and ultimately ended in humiliation. The way started the modern history of the Chinese nation.

But now, because Baitu strongly advocates the "breaking the wall" siege mode, whether it is the tactics of the generals who lead the troops, or the technical aspect of the Gongkou City, they are all trying to develop in the direction that Baitu advocates...

Blast furnace ironmaking has already taken shape, reverberatory furnace copper smelting is still under trial, and the steel filling method was applied on a small scale last month!
Although it still needs accumulation when applied to war applications, and the initial artillery is not as good as returning artillery. When there is already a "Bai Gong Cannon", it will take longer for artillery to have practical significance, but... Baitu has been able to Looking forward to the emergence of the Mercy wall-breaker.

As for the current E city...

Even though the city wall of Chengji World is much taller and stronger due to the existence of the battle armor, and it also has the defense bonus of the people, it seems that the scale of E City today can be slowly "knocked open" with the Baigong Cannon!
In the evening of the day when the camp was set up, Sun Ce, who had collected enough stone bullets, first fired concentratedly at the city wall in front of him for a while.

Huge stone bullets hit the city wall. Although there was a light golden people's heart barrier, which relieved a lot of the force, the defenders above still felt a little "vibration" under their feet.

And I don’t know if it was an illusion, but it was just the first round, which lasted for a quarter of an hour. It seemed that... at the end, the tremors of the city wall were more obvious than at the beginning!
Sun Ce had no intention of attacking. After smashing it, he pushed the Baigong cannon back and arranged a vigil for the entire army to rest...

Early the next morning, we continued to collect stones - this is also the disadvantage of catapults compared to artillery. Stone bullets need to be heavy to be powerful, and transportation is extremely inconvenient, so they rely heavily on collecting stone bullet materials in situ.

In comparison, the original solid bullets and shotgun shells of the artillery are more expensive, but... at least transporting fist-sized solid iron bullets is much easier than transporting stone bullets.

After being bombarded again at noon and evening, Huang Zu finally couldn't stand it anymore. At midnight, he sent troops to attack from the south gate and west gate at the same time, hoping to attack Sun Ce's army in the southwest at night!

However, Zhou Yu had long expected that in this case, the Echeng defender would definitely seek a night attack to repel the enemy, and given Huang Zu's temperament, he could not endure it for more than a few days, so he had already arranged batches of scouts...

Seeing that the sneak attack turned into an open battle, Huang Zu still wanted to rely on the physical strength of the soldiers to attack forcefully - he also knew in his heart that tonight was the last chance, and Sun Ce would not let down his guard after that!
At least now, the Echeng defenders had rested during the day, while most of Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's armies had just been interrupted from rest and hadtily entered a state of war.

And... at least a night attack would be based on a frontal attack. Neither side could set up a military formation in the dark. Even if they prepared in advance, they would not be able to notify the entire army, making it easier to blow up the camp.

However, Huang Zu obviously underestimated the huge gap between the two sides from generals to soldiers. It is also a night battle, and it is also impossible to get real-time command. It can only be fought by the grassroots officers below Dubo, and the opponent obviously does not have enough rest. ...but it was still Sun Cejun who won the victory!

Huang Zu's sneak attack was not enough to cause Sun Ce's army to blow up the camp. Especially some of the soldiers who were affected by the "heroic appearance" defended against the night attack, creating the effect of charging into the formation.

Huang Zu's vanguard Chen Jiu and Deng Long were both beheaded by Sun Ce, and then chased Huang Zu all the way back to the west gate of E City, only to be forced back by the defenders on the tower with bows and arrows!

Although Huang Zu saved his life, Echeng not only lost troops and generals, but also suffered a further decline in morale...

Ever since the two major defeats at Miangkou, the morale of Jiang Xia's soldiers had been at a low level. "Fortunately" Huang Zu had always been experienced in dealing with defeats, so he reluctantly comforted him.

However, after this night attack, Huang Zu was no longer able to organize another attack - the overall morale had been determined, and now the defenders of E City would probably collapse if they left the city.

All he could do seemed to be lazily every day, shooting some weak and disorganized arrows when Sun Ce pushed the Baigong cannon into the range. However... the sixty Baigong cannons were still there four days later. There are 51!
Most of them are their own problems... After too much use, the detailed parts were damaged. Although it can still be used after being dismantled and put together, it still reduced the number of three - the arm shaft is too easy to damage, so you should bring some extra spares in the future... Zhou Yu Note it down.

If you can't rush forward, relying only on arrows will not be able to effectively destroy these big guys.

Although Huang Yueying did not appear again, she sent the design drawing of a city defense catapult to Huang Zu through the Huang family's generals.

It's just... With the current situation of E City, it is too late to build it, and it is very difficult to go out of the city to obtain materials.

Perhaps it was precisely because she understood that her uncle's defeat could no longer be prevented that Huang Yueying did not want to see her uncle...

As Huang Chengyan said, since Huang Zu has chosen his own path, he must pay for it himself!

On the fourth day, a corner of the city wall of Hubei collapsed...

Sun Ce took the lead and rushed forward in his "Yingzi".

Although the bottom is only three people wide, there is no time to block the gaps in the collapsed city wall. Even... because the morale of the city wall collapsed, the arrows fired by the defenders on the city wall seemed a little sparse .

On the contrary, many of Sun Ce's generals, especially those currently leading the charge, were mostly disciples of Wu County, and many of them had served for Sun Jian.

On the one hand, it is to avenge the old master, on the other hand, there is also the encouragement of Sun Ce's "heroic appearance", which makes him more and more powerful!

Sun Ce's horse (armor) took the lead and rushed to kill through the gap. Although there were defenders who overflowed the defense, it was difficult for Sun Ce to join forces. Within five steps, the defenders were almost incapable of getting close, and they forced the battle line back. A gap in the city wall.

A young general in green armor behind him also cheered up at this time, and when Sun Ce almost suppressed the defenders in the gap almost by himself, he was the first to enter the city with a leap and a dive!
It can be seen that this young general has very young facial features. He is a bit more immature than Ding Feng when he first went to the battlefield in Qu'a, but he is already wearing a gilt armor.

Seeing someone coming in, the defenders gathered in the gap in the city suddenly became a mess, and no one cared about the heavy objects that were pushing over and trying to block them.

"Hahaha, good job!" Sun Ce laughed and boasted about the young general. At the same time, his fighting spirit surged, and 28 riders rushed out of the surroundings, completely breaking through the gap in the city wall. defense.

In the city, more and more Jiangdong troops were pouring into the city. When Huang Zu saw this, he ignored the advice of his deputy and silently turned around and returned home...

(End of this chapter)