Although the people in Kirihara City were panicking under the pressure of the soldiers, due to the two-year tax exemption and the capture of the imperial officers and soldiers who had been domineering in the city for a long time, the city showed a prosperous atmosphere, and the people

He was so happy that when he heard that the imperial court was invading, everyone was filled with righteous indignation. Strong men from all families rushed to join the army, willing to fight to the death to protect Tongyuan. Old, young, women and children also worked together to help the soldiers and soldiers fortify the city overnight.

According to the drawings provided by Tianci, the skilled craftsmen in the city worked all night long. Early the next morning, one hundred and twenty instruments built according to the same pattern were placed on the top of the city.

Tianci then invited General Chu to go to the city to watch, and he demonstrated the wonderful use of this device to everyone.

General Chu went up to the city tower and took a closer look at the object. He saw that the object was composed of a row of ten human-sized wooden boards. There was a crossbow in front of each wooden board. Five of the wooden boards were standing upwards. The other simple wooden boards were

The five wooden boards in between were placed upside down on the ground. These things were arranged on top of the tower, as if they were standing in a row of soldiers holding arrows.

Tianci stepped forward to demonstrate the operation, and he stepped on a pedal under the wooden frame. The lever chain on the five wooden boards lying on the ground began to operate, and the string of the crossbow was immediately fully pulled.

The soldiers ordered by God took the arrows and inserted them into the arrow slots of the crossbows. Each crossbow had five arrow slots, which were filled with twenty-five arrows.

Tianci stepped on the second pedal again, and the five wooden boards lying on the ground, holding the fully loaded bow and the crossbow, immediately stood up from the ground, while the five wooden boards that had been erected before fell backwards.

Get down and lie on the ground.

Tianci stepped on the third pedal again, and saw five crossbows firing in volley, and twenty-five arrows flew out of the city at the same time, and were all inserted into the ground about fifty feet away from the city wall.

above.

"This device is called 'Arrow Array', and it works like this in a cycle. It only requires two or three people to operate it. One person is responsible for triggering the pedal, and the other two are responsible for loading the arrows on the collapsed crossbow. It is very simple. At the end of the day, General

I only need to send two to three hundred women and children with me to protect the city, so you can rest assured."

General Chu exclaimed, "Wonderful!" and added, "But with this method of firing, I'm afraid there won't be enough arrows in the city."

Tianci said: "Don't worry about this, it will be solved in due time."

The Chu general was overjoyed and immediately ordered the craftsmen to build eighty more towers, making up a total of 200 towers to place on the city.

At this time, General Chu suddenly thought of something, and he couldn't help but said worriedly: "It's just that the enemy will use catapults to attack the city from a long distance, and then I'm afraid that all the archery equipment on the city will not survive."

"The general is worried about this, but I have already taken precautions. When the time comes, I will make sacrifices to the sky to pray for the auspicious clouds from the sky to cover our city and not be hurt by the enemy's cannons and rocks." Tianci said.

"Please ask the general to order people to find thirty large pots, and place them eighty feet away from the city wall, one pot every three feet, in a line." Tianci then said to the skeptical General Chu:

"Fill the pot with water, prepare a charcoal fire under the pot, and then put a packet of my special medicinal powder into each pot."

No matter what mysteries Tianci made, General Chu could only obey Tianci's words at this time, and ordered his people to act according to the plan.

At this time, spies from the front came to report that General Dingchao of the Auxiliary State had led an army fifty miles away. He found that the grain and grass troops were not waiting at the same place, so he hurriedly sent Chai Yu as the commander-in-chief to lead an advance force of 50,000 people to march towards Kirihara. It is expected that they will arrive tomorrow morning

Can be reached.

After hearing the report, General Chu could not help frowning, and said with deep concern: "I have less than ten thousand troops in the city. How can I withstand the strong troops pressing down on the border? I am really going to die from heaven."

Seeing this, Tianci comforted him and said: "There is nothing to be afraid of when you are young. Don't forget that I am an expert. When the time comes, I will spread the beans and form an army to help you secure the city. Don't worry."

"Are you serious about what you said?" General Chu was also seriously ill and sought medical treatment. He hurriedly asked God for help.

"Haha, sowing beans may lead to an army. That may not happen, but I can send heavenly soldiers and generals to help you." Tianci said with a smile, took out a picture from his arms and handed it to General Chu.

General Chu took the drawing and looked at it. He saw a lantern drawn on it. There were three threads hanging from the bottom of the lantern. A tray was tied to the three threads, and an oil lamp was placed on the tray.

"Brother, please don't make fun of me. Isn't this just a sky lantern?" General Chu said without interest.

"Exactly, the general can order people to make five thousand Kongming lanterns and release them into the sky when the time comes. I will turn them into heavenly soldiers and generals to help our army."

General Chu had no choice but to order his people to go down and make the same thing with suspicion.

At almost noon the next day, Commander Chai Yu's 50,000-strong army had already arrived at the city gates. They saw a black mass of soldiers coming overwhelmingly, kicking up dust all over the sky. They stopped two miles away from the city. After arranging their positions, Commander Chai

Order people to set up catapults and prepare to attack the city.

Here, Tianci has ordered dozens of soldiers to light a charcoal fire in thirty large pots outside the city, boil the water in the pot, and put in the prepared medicinal powder.

Suddenly, a layer of mist rose outside the city wall and slowly enveloped the city. When looking at Kirihara Castle through this layer of mist from a distance, it seemed a bit ethereal, as if it was really covered under a glass cover.

Same.

At this time, a starting gun was fired outside the city, and the enemy's catapults were launched in unison. In an instant, flying rocks flew towards Kirihara Castle, intending to destroy the tower with one blow.

After the dust settled, the enemy commander took a look and saw that Kirihara Castle seemed even more ethereal under the mist, but it seemed to be intact. He was very angry at the moment and ordered the catapult to adjust the firing range, and then there was another burst of bombardment.

.

When the coach looked again, he saw that the stones in front of Kirihara Castle had been piled up into a row of rubble walls. The smoke and dust were so thick that it was impossible to see the scene in the city clearly.

In fact, the enemy's catapults did not inflict any damage to Kirihara Castle. This was only because the steam evaporating from the thirty cauldrons placed by God's orders changed the enemy's vision of Kirihara under the refraction of the sun.

The real distance between the city and the city brought Kirihara City closer in the eyes of the enemy by a full ten feet. Naturally, the enemy's slinging siege vehicles were unable to hit their targets.

After the catapults stopped attacking, Commander Chai ordered 10,000 archers and 10,000 pikemen each to attack the city. The siege troops followed up.

The archers came to the city and stood sixty feet away. They saw that there were only a sparse defense of more than a thousand soldiers on the top of the city.

It turned out that the craftsmen in the city slightly modified the God-given equipment, placed the soldier's helmet on top of the wooden board, and put a war robe on the wooden board. From a distance, it looked like a soldier.

Seeing a pile of rubble blocking the front, the commander ordered the pikemen to move the rocks away so that the siege troops behind could move forward to attack the city.

He also ordered the archers to fire arrows for cover. The archers listened to the order, stepped forward, fired their bows and arrows, and fired thousands of arrows at the top of the city tower, hoping to immediately wipe out all the more than a thousand soldiers defending the city.

After the rain of arrows, the soldiers on the city appeared to be unscathed. However, at this moment, two waves of arrows rained down on the city, and thousands of arrows only penetrated the enemy's camp.

Unexpectedly, the more than a thousand soldiers on the city wall could shoot so many arrows. The soldiers below the city were caught off guard and suffered numerous casualties.

I saw bows and arrows flying back and forth above and below the city, shooting at each other, but the number of arrows shot from below was less and less, while the arrows from above the city were always as dense as rain.

The young men, women and children in the city saw that they could easily kill the enemy on the battlefield, and they all became more energetic. They were worried that they would have no more arrows, but saw the enemy's arrows coming again, and they were full of arrows stuck on the wooden planks, so they immediately took them.

Bring it down, mount it on the row of arrows, and shoot it back.

After a few rounds, almost half of the archers under the city were lost, and they were no longer able to withstand the attack.

The pikemen held their shields high in one hand to block the arrows, and had to carry the stones with the other hand. They had no choice but to put their spears aside and carry them with their bare hands. After a lot of effort, they saw that the pile of stones was about to be leveled.

At this time, I suddenly heard the sound of trumpets and cannons, and saw a team of fast horse cavalry coming out from both sides of the city. There were actually 20,000 people. Suddenly, there were shouts of killing, dust was flying, and in the blink of an eye, they were approaching.


Chapter completed!