The Three Kingdoms Voyage

Chapter 362

Twenty bare-chested brawny men waved their muscular arms and slammed a drum as tall as a man. The deep drums sounded suddenly, one after another. Although the rhythm was not fast, it hit people's hearts repeatedly, and the heartbeat echoed. The sound of the drum became more powerful, pushing streams of hot blood to the limbs and bones.

Listening to the majestic drumbeat, Sun Feng felt his temples thumping, his scalp felt numb, his hands and feet were swollen, and a wave of true energy flowed slowly between the meridians, gurgling.This was his first time commanding a battle independently. Although the overall plan had been discussed countless times with his father and uncle, and his experienced uncle would guide him as his deputy, he was still a little nervous.It is possible to command an army of 20 troops for the first time in a battle. I think few people in the world can have such an opportunity.

Sun Feng knew clearly that if he could win this battle, his future would be bright, and all this was paved for him by his father.

Sun Feng couldn't help thinking of his own uncle, Sun Deng, who was also supported by his father step by step on the horse, and started to fight on the battlefield from a dozen steps, but now he is nesting in Yuzhang to burn porcelain. It is said that because he is too focused on firing Ci, his health is very bad, he coughed up blood at a young age.Sun Feng knew very well that it wasn't tired at all, it was angry.

I was very lucky that I didn't meet a father like Sun Quan. On the contrary, in order for him to gain a firm foothold here, my father did everything possible to establish his prestige.And all of this was originally his glory, but he gave it to himself without reservation.

No matter what, I will win this battle.Sun Feng clenched his fists, suppressed his excitement, and shouted loudly: "The order, the two wings will start to attack!"

Du Yu turned around with a "wow", walked to the edge of the stage, stood facing east, waved the command flag, and issued an order to the Romans on the left.Quintus got the news, returned the semaphore, and immediately gave the order to attack.Du Yu turned around again, walked to the west side of the platform, and gave the order to attack the Guishuang people on the right.Bodiao got the order and also gave the order to attack.

The phalanx formed by the two Roman legions began to march forward in neat steps. The front row was a row of warriors holding large shields as tall as one person. The shields in their hands were too heavy, and they could only take two steps to the beat of the drum and then stop. .Behind them was a row of warriors holding spears. They leveled the spears in their hands and pointed them forward, forming a forest of spears in front of the warriors holding shields.Immediately behind were two rows of Han Chinese crossbowmen, holding Qingyi-style crossbows in their hands. The arrows on the crossbow pointed obliquely forward and upward, and their fingers rested on the crossbow machine, ready to fire at any time.

Behind these four rows of warriors were siege engines driven by slaves.The siege vehicle is huge, and the front, left, and right sides are covered with thick wooden boards. The thick wood protrudes at least two feet outside the board. Warrior inside.There are many shooting holes in the wooden board, so that archers can shoot inside without opening the wooden board.The siege vehicles are divided into four cities. The uppermost layer is a passage for the soldiers who climbed the city. The lower two layers are equipped with two hundred archers. The cars are equipped with eight huge wheels, and the wheels are also hidden in the car body to avoid being attacked by the enemy.

Sixty siege vehicles spread out on the battlefield less than two miles away. The distance between the two siege vehicles was about twenty steps, and they kept moving forward at the same pace. Although the speed was not fast, the pressure they brought was very Xiao Ke.Seeing the siege engines approaching slowly like a moving city wall, the Sasanians in the city could not help but gasp.

Ardashir frowned. Could it be that they were so short of cannon stones that they wanted to use siege engines to forcibly attack the city?
Soon, Ardashir saw the ballista.Behind the siege engine, a row of ballistas was rolled out.They hid behind the siege vehicles, only the long barrels could be seen.Ardasil frowned. He understood the other party's intentions. The siege vehicles were just bunkers. They used this reinforced siege vehicle as a cover for the ballista to offset the lack of concealment of the attacker's ballista. .

Both sides of the siege have ballistas. Because the ballistas are so powerful, as soon as a battle starts, both sides will try to destroy the opponent's ballistas first.The ballista in the city has an inherent advantage in this respect. It can be placed in the city to prevent the enemy from seeing it. Observers on the city wall can check the effect of the blow and adjust the counterweight and angle according to this effect.The opponent can only estimate the position of these ballistas based on the flight route of the cannon stone and implement them. After all, there is a big gap between seeing with their own eyes.Since the attacking side's ballista has no cover, it can only be exposed to the opponent's blow, and the probability of loss is far higher than that of the defending side.Now Sun Feng uses a siege vehicle with super anti-strike capability as a mobile bunker, which can make up for this disadvantage to a large extent, giving the ballistas more safety and allowing them to operate with confidence.

Ardasil sighed. He wanted to use the negotiation to delay the time, but it seems that he failed to achieve his goal. The other party also used the time of the negotiation to do a lot of preparation work.He waved his hand and gave the order to attack.

The horn sounded, and with the shouts, the ballista hidden in the city began to roar, and pieces of cannon stones flew over the city wall and rushed towards the enemies outside the city.

"Establish the shield—" Mennolufis raised his long sword, the herald standing beside him waved the colorful flag in his hand, and the drummer beat the drum to convey the order to the soldiers in the phalanx.The shield who was walking in the front stopped immediately, stood the huge shield on the ground, set up the pole, and then hid his whole body in the shield. The spear-wielding warrior behind took a step forward and squatted down, The crossbowmen also rushed forward, trying to hide themselves under the shield.

"Boom—" Most of the heavy artillery stones fell in front of the phalanx, and the ground trembled, transmitting the force of the artillery stones to everyone's psychology through the ground.

The Roman soldiers gritted their teeth and looked at the smoke and dust stirred up by the artillery stones in front of the battle. Although they were nervous, they did not panic.

A cannon stone flew over the top of the phalanx, hit the front side of the siege vehicle, was blocked by two huge wooden pillars, and made a loud noise, causing the entire siege vehicle to tremble.However, although the protruding bark trees were hit hard, they did not break. After shaking for a while, the whole siege vehicle quickly regained its calm. .

"Forward!" In the gap after the ballista attack, the Romans accelerated and galloped forward.Run three or five steps before the next wave of ballista flies, and immediately stop and hide yourself when you hear the sound of the drum.Taking advantage of the obvious gaps between ballista shots, they were not in a hurry to push forward, and finally pushed the siege engine within 150 steps of the city wall.Once in position, they no longer moved forward, but retreated behind the battering engine.The ballista players immediately pushed the ballista into place, and then started to fight back. Some of them went to pick up the cannon stones that the Sassanians had just fired, and repacked them with the prepared straw bags for later use.

They were in order. Although the Sasanian ballista started to show its power, and the cannon stones flew in the air. From time to time, some people were hit and screamed, but they still buried their heads in their own things, just trying to protect themselves , to avoid injury.

The ballista began to roar, throwing bricks or mud balls wrapped in straw bales into the sky and hitting Taixifeng City.With the siege vehicles in front as cover, the safety of the ballistas has been greatly improved. They can calmly do their work and shoot in an orderly manner.

When the Romans launched an attack, the Guishan people also launched an attack. The two sides came and went, and the fight was very lively.

While the soldiers in front were fighting, groups of soldiers ran out from the battle formations of the Romans and the Guishan people. They did not carry weapons, but in groups of two, carrying a stretcher composed of two pieces of wood and one piece of cloth, braving the Pao Shi, who could die at any moment, rushed to the wounded soldiers, skillfully carried those wounded soldiers onto stretchers, and then ran back in a hurry.Behind the podium is a temporary ambulance hospital, where the wounded soldiers were carried in for emergency treatment.

This was also proposed by Lu Xun and Sun Feng. The wailing of wounded soldiers on the battlefield will not only disturb the attention of others, but also affect morale. They should be carried down for medical treatment, so that the doctors, prostitutes and civilians accompanying the army Taking care of them made the soldiers less screaming, and at the same time felt that even if they were injured, they would not wait to die. Instead, they could enjoy the care of those military prostitutes, which was very effective in soothing people's hearts.

Both wings fought, but the Han position facing the city gate in the middle was silent.The Han soldiers lined up in the square stood silently outside the range of the Sassanid's ballista. Although they did not take any action, that silence brought great psychological pressure to the Sasanian at the head of the city.A big fiery banner fluttered in the air, always reminding the Sassanids that they saw a miracle last night.

Did Ahura, the god of light, really abandon Ardashir?Many people are circling this idea in their minds.

The Sassanids sent out a few cannonballs, but unfortunately the range was not long enough. Except for a few bursts of smoke and dust, they did not touch the opponent. The cannonballs rolling over the position had a sense of ridicule instead, like a person He sang and danced, but no one responded, and everyone acted as if he didn't exist.Ardashir stopped this kind of useless work in time, and treated it with silence.

The confrontation between the two sides became more and more intense. After 150 steps, the attacking side just let the Sasanian bows and arrows fail. The two sides only had to use the ballista to attack. They both wanted to use the ballista to gain an advantage before the siege. .To a certain extent, the attacking side even had a certain advantage, because the arrows shot from more than 60 siege vehicles actually went over a distance of 150 steps and shot directly at the top of the city.This far exceeded the expectations of the Sassanians. In the first wave of arrow rain, many Sassanians who were watching from the top of the city were severely injured.

This made Alda Hill very worried.

Whether it is the Guishuang people or the Romans, their bows and arrows are similar to those of the Sassanians. They mainly hold bows, and the range of riding bows is sixty or seventy steps. The shooting range is about [-] steps, and it is the main force in the siege. The range of the torque crossbow can reach more than [-] steps, and the accuracy is also high. However, the shooting speed of the torque crossbow is slow, so it can only be used to strike key targets. It cannot be used as a suppressive weapon, and it is not as important as a ballista.

However, now an arrow with a range of more than 150 steps was shot from the siege vehicle.

Aldashir knew that the Han people had a weapon called a crossbow, which could reach more than 150 steps when operated by manpower, and the farthest was even comparable to the ballista. He had seen it in the city of Axum.But this kind of powerful weapon is usually not provided to others, and even the allied forces may not be able to share this kind of weapon.

Then, there are only two explanations for the current situation. Either the Han people joined the camp of the Romans and the Guishan people and took on the task of shooting, or the Han people taught the Romans and the Guishan people this sharp weapon.Either way, it wasn't a good thing for the Sasanians.

Ardasil was inexplicably agitated, did he really do something wrong?Sun Shao led the alliance of four countries, is it true that the world is peaceful and wealth is shared?

"Your Majesty, there is still no movement under the city." A centurion of the Immortal Army hurried up the city wall and whispered in Ardashir's ear.Ardasil raised his eyebrows: "They didn't come to dig?"

"I don't know." The centurion frowned in confusion: "Could it be that they found out that we were waiting for them?"

"Discovered?" Ardashir sneered, thought for a while, and said, "Impossible. Don't relax. I guess they will wait until the siege begins to dig to hide the movement."

"Yes." The centurion bowed and stepped back.

Ardashir looked at the Han camp in the distance, and couldn't help sneering. It seems that you also know that digging tunnels can't hide it from people, and you want to cover it up with the sound of siege?You think I'm a fool, and I have no defense at all.

Just when Ardashir was secretly complacent, a sound of drums suddenly sounded on the Han's position. Ardashir sneered in his heart, and immediately gave the order to prepare for battle.

With the sound of rumbling drums, the Han Chinese also rolled out siege vehicles covered by shieldmen, spearmen, and crossbowmen. Behind the siege vehicles were also ballistas, which were in parallel with the positions of the Romans and Guishan people. There is not much difference, but the density is much higher and the number of people is also much higher.Ardashir did not dare to neglect, and immediately ordered more ballistas to turn around, ready to compete with the Han people.

Cao Zhi was on the left and Li Yan was on the right. Nearly [-] soldiers were lined up on the battlefield that was [-] paces wide, and it was extremely dark and scary.Not only were the Han Chinese more numerous, but they also had more siege vehicles and ballistas than the Romans and Guishuang. Sun Feng dispatched [-] siege vehicles and [-] ballistas at once. The red siege vehicles were almost crowded together, leaving only room for one person to walk, and they pushed forward like a moving wall of fire. The self-evident coercion made people a little breathless, jumping The pattern seems to make people feel the heat of the fire.

The Han people were very arrogant. They kept pushing their position forward, 150 steps, another [-] steps, and then within [-] steps. Just when Ardashir thought they would stay, they Braving the dense ballista in the city, he pushed it to within fifty steps.

Ardasil was taken aback. Could it be that Sun Feng was going to attack the city directly like this?He immediately ordered the archers at the head of the city to start shooting to prevent the enemy from approaching further. At the same time, he dropped a large number of troops near the city gate to prevent the opponent from forcibly attacking the city.

At this point, the Han people stopped, the soldiers retreated behind the siege vehicles, and a hundred ballistas began to show their power, hitting pieces of artillery stones on the city wall.

The two sides began to fight fiercely. In such a short distance, not only the ballista began to attack, but even the archers were engaged in the battle. Not to be outdone, the hand poured arrows into the top of the city. The long arrows made the wooden shields of the Sassanids rattle. on the Shan people.These arrows are very powerful and can easily pierce the iron armor worn by the Sassanians. As for the soldiers who only wore leather armor, it was even more horrible. People were constantly shot through by the powerful arrows, and blood gushed out. The soldier next to him turned pale.

The strong arrow array of the Han suppressed the Sassanids at the top of the city unable to raise their heads, and the situation at the top of the city immediately became tense. Ardashir immediately called in more shieldmen and ordered them to form a series of shields for the city. The archers at the head provided cover and saved the day.At the same time, the catapults under command were transferred to the city gate to strengthen the defense of the city gate.

Under the command of Ardashir, the Sassanians formed a dense defensive formation at the top of the city. They either relied on the city wall or shields, shot arrows at the fastest speed, and counterattacked with dense arrow arrays, and finally saved their lives. A little bit of the situation.

Seeing that the two sides were stalemate, Cao Zhi rushed up to the top floor of the front siege vehicle, pushed open the top cover, and suddenly appeared on top of the siege vehicle regardless of the obstruction of his personal guards.Before the modified siege vehicle started to attack the city, there was no one on the top floor, and it was covered tightly with thick wooden boards to avoid being broken by the enemy's artillery stones. The top floor would not be opened until it was close to the city wall. Gai, the soldiers rushed to the top of the city to fight hand-to-hand through the closed bridge ladder.Now Cao Zhi suddenly pushed open the top cover and jumped up, neither of the two parties thought of it.

The Sassanid archers at the top of the city first spotted the Han general, and immediately shot long arrows without further ado.

The long arrows whizzed towards Cao Zhi's guards, who were so frightened that they rushed to Cao Zhi's face and set up their shields.

"Pop!" "Pop!" "Pop!"

Almost in an instant, dozens of long arrows hit the shield. The two guards only cared about protecting Cao Zhi, but exposed themselves to the enemy's arrow rain. They groaned and fell to the ground.The guards who rushed up from behind didn't care to say more, a few people raised their shields to block the front, and two people picked up Cao Zhi and were about to push him back into the siege vehicle.Cao Zhi was furious and struggling desperately. The two guards looked up and saw a black dot flying out of the city, flying in this direction. Stuffed it into the exit and threw it down.

With a sharp whistle of "嗖", a huge arrow shot first, splitting a huge shield easily, the long arrow remained strong, and then shot through the body of the bodyguard.The guard didn't even have the time to open his mouth, and another giant shield shot at him. The spear-like arrow cut his neck, and shot hard at the roof of the siege vehicle, making a "bang" sound. There was a loud bang.After a while, another cannonball flew over, smashing the three bodyguards who were frantically about to flee back to the siege vehicle, smashing them to pieces.

Cao Zhi couldn't defend himself, and was thrown dizzily all of a sudden. He jumped up, but he didn't scold him, and he didn't look at the guards above who had been severely injured by the enemy. He rushed to the back of the siege vehicle, stretched his head out, The ballistas behind the siege truck shouted, "Change the oil!"

When the crossbowmen heard this, they immediately dropped the straw bags in their hands and replaced them with the oil tanks built aside.Cao Zhi then yelled at the crossbowmen next to him, and passed on the orders one by one. After a short time, even the crossbowmen on Li Yan's side got the order, and they all removed the straw bags and replaced them with oil tanks.

The Sassanians at the top of the city didn’t realize the danger. When several oil tanks fell on the city wall and smashed to pieces, they laughed disdainfully, saying that the Han people were bluffing and using such things as cannon stones. , It wasn't until the black viscous oil was flowing everywhere in the city that something was wrong.The Sassanids are no strangers to this viscous oil, which can often be seen in the desert, and many people specially collect this oil for lighting, knowing that this oil is difficult to extinguish when burned, and the smoke Very big.

As soon as Ardashir saw the oil on the ground, his scalp felt numb, and a burst of cold air rushed straight to the back of his head along his spine. He raised his head and looked at the densely packed crowd at the top of the city. He opened his mouth and let out a hissing sound. Exhausted roar:

"Spread out—beware of enemy fire—"

It's a pity he shouted too late.

In fact, there was no need for Ardashir to shout, the Sasanian soldiers at the top of the city had already realized what was going to happen, and they really wanted to evacuate, but it was not that easy.The oil tanks that fell from the sky smashed to pieces one by one on the city wall, black and viscous oil flowed everywhere, the city wall and people's bodies were covered with this oil.The Sassanids were frightened out of their wits, dropped their weapons and fled around. The military law team could not stop their defeat even after killing dozens of people.It's just that the chaos not only does not help evacuation, but also increases the difficulty of escaping. Countless Sasanians crowded together, pushing each other, crying, not only to guard against the oil tanks constantly flying from the sky, but also to guard against the people under their feet. , If you are not careful, you will slip and fall, as long as you slip, you will never have a chance to get up, and you can only be trampled to death by the supportive crowd.In order to escape, many people simply jumped from the top of the five-foot-high city.

As a batch of rockets fell from the sky, igniting the black oil everywhere, a raging fire ignited at the top of the city.The fire burned more and more fiercely, and quickly spread to the bottom of the city, and the entire city gate soon became a sea of ​​flames.

Ardasil was dumbfounded.

(End of this chapter)