Xie Changzhi asked a dozen soldiers to carry out a raft-like long board from the cabin. It was about one foot and five feet long and seven feet wide. It was taller than a person. It was made of dozens of logs and was very strong and strong.
The soldiers put the raft on the side of the ship and turned it sideways. Xie Changzhi laughed and said: "The soldiers can stand behind it to avoid arrows. When using it, they can stand it upright and put it directly on the city wall.
The iron hook is hooked on the city wall, and this end is buckled on the side of the ship. The other party cannot drag it over even if it wants to drag it. In addition, the ship ladder is actually two levels up and down, and can be adjusted and extended, up to two feet long."
This thing is called a siege boat ladder. It was an idea proposed by Chen Qing, and it was specially designed by craftsmen and installed on the boat. This is actually a professionalization of Changde's siege weapons. Changde used very rough wooden boards to siege the city, but Xiangyang
No, you must use professional siege weapons.
Each of the twenty three-thousand-stone ships is equipped with one such siege ladder. Soldiers can use it with a little training. If used skillfully, they can reach the top of the city in ten seconds at most.
Chen Qing pondered for a moment and said: "Actually, I also want to modify another collision ship."
"I know from my humble position that the bow of a ship is equipped with a special ram, usually made of pig iron, which can break enemy warships in half and sink them."
Chen Qing nodded, "It's this kind of ship collision. Installing pig iron to hit the head costs about two thousand stones."
Xie Changzhi nodded, "There are ready-made pig iron heads, and there are also ships. Even if it takes time to install, I will give him three days."
"Well, I'll wait for your good news in three days!"
After a night of construction and at the cost of hundreds of casualties, two pontoons appeared on the east moat of the city at dawn the next day.
At the top of Dongcheng, 7,000 puppet Qi troops were waiting in full formation. They launched more than 30 small trebuchets, which could throw a 20-pound kerosene ball dozens of steps away.
Now it was easy for the puppet Qi army to destroy the two pontoon bridges. They could just throw a ball of kerosene and burn them down. However, Dong Xian also needed a victory to boost his morale.
They were not in a hurry and waited patiently for the Song army's attack.
At this time, a soldier ran to Dong Xian and whispered a few words. Dong Xian was startled, "Are you sure?"
"It should have started last night, and a brother just discovered it."
"Take me to see it!"
Dong first got on his horse and ran towards Beicheng. After a while, he arrived at Beicheng. He dismounted and looked at the city wall. A soldier pointed to the other side of the moat and said: "There is a big barrier over there. It appeared last night.
of."
Dong Xian also saw a long baffle, which was more than ten feet long and one foot high. The situation behind the baffle was invisible.
In this case, tunnels are usually dug, but with such a wide moat, there is obviously no point in digging tunnels. Another possibility is to install a large siege weapon to avoid being discovered by the city, so it is covered with baffles.
"What's behind the baffle, haven't you seen it?" Dong Xian turned around and asked the soldier.
A soldier hesitated and said: "I saw a little bit last night, but I couldn't see very clearly in the night, so I'm not sure."
"Tell me what you saw?"
"I saw a lot of thick wood, very long and thick, and the soldiers carried them over. Beizhong must be wood, but I don't know what they are specifically."
Dong Xian nodded, and his guess was correct. The Song army must be installing giant siege weapons. Only bed crossbows could reach this distance, so they used baffles to prevent bed crossbows from firing.
"Woo"
The horn sounded outside the east city. Dong Xian had no time to waste here. He said to several soldiers, "Continue to keep an eye on them and notify me when the specific objects come out!"
He got on his horse and ran towards Dongcheng
Outside the East City, 15,000 Song troops have been assembled. Five thousand crossbowmen rushed to the moat first and fired arrows intensively at the city head. Four thousand Song troops ran to the fierce sound of war drums, carrying huge siege ladders.
, this kind of siege ladder is not the ordinary siege ladder used by Jurchens or Xixia people, but a heavy siege ladder. A siege ladder weighs several thousand kilograms, is four feet high, six feet wide, and is made of very thick materials.
There are three huge iron hooks at the front end.
This kind of siege ladder requires more than thirty soldiers to carry it. Each rung is square and half a foot wide instead of round. It is not that easy to cut it with an axe.
The soldiers of the Song Army carried a total of more than a dozen heavy siege ladders. They ran off the pontoon bridge and ran to the other side of the moat.
The soldiers of the puppet Qi army on the top of the city were completely suppressed by the Song army, but the small trebuchets were not affected. Fire oil balls flew out from the top of the city, either falling into the moat, or hitting the city.
The pontoon bridge was filled with kerosene and began to burn rapidly.
But the soldiers had a way to deal with it. They spread wet burlap on the kerosene. The soldiers stepped on the burlap and ran, and the fire was extinguished.
This is a very good way to deal with kerosene, but the key is to be prepared in advance. For example, when Kong Yanzhou attacked Jiangling City, he was not prepared in advance, and the result was extremely heavy losses.
"Throw thunder!"
Zhentian Lei is a firearm invented during the Xuanhe period. Simply put, it is a gunpowder porcelain ball. This kind of porcelain ball is very thick and will not break when dropped from the city wall into the soil. Once the gunpowder explodes, it will sound like muffled thunder and sharp porcelain pieces will scatter in all directions.
, is a powerful weapon for defending the city and dealing with cavalry, so it is called Zhentian Lei.
Compared with the Thunderbolt of the Song Army or the Puppet Qi Army and Chen Qing's double-layered gunpowder barrel, the two are about the same power and lethality, but the difference lies in the ignition.
The gunpowder barrel uses a match rope, which is also a fuse, but the Zhentian Thunder uses a gunpowder paper tube, which is the cartridge tied to the gunpowder arrow. It is just a little thinner, with one end inserted into the specially reserved hole and the other end outside.
Light the gunpowder barrel and throw it out with the trebuchet.
Generally speaking, it can ignite and explode in the test field, but this may not be the case on the battlefield. The fundamental reason is that the explosion time is not controlled well, and it is often thrown out too early. It does not explode after landing, and the enemy soldiers directly pour it with water hyacinth.
Went out.
Li Gang once threw a large number of these thunderbolts when he was defending Tokyo. They were very powerful, but the effect was not good because a large number of thunderbolts turned into dumb thunders.
Thunderbolts were thrown out one after another, but only two landed on the pontoon and exploded, killing dozens of Song soldiers, but the others fell into the moat and there was no more movement.
"Change the kerosene ball!"
Dong Xian found that the thunderbolt had little effect, so he immediately ordered it to be replaced with fire oil balls.
At this time, the Song Army's heavy siege ladder was set up on the top of the city, and hundreds of soldiers began to climb up the city. Rolling logs and boulders fell like hail on the top of the city. With the pouring of kerosene, the siege ladder and the bottom were ablaze.
The fire was raging, and bundles of hay were thrown down, which intensified the fire. Thunderbolts continued to explode in the raging fire, and the sound was deafening.
Chen Qing and several of his men stood watching the battle from a distance, including Zheng Ping who also came.
Zheng Ping frowned and said, "I think they used wet linen cloth to put out the fire, and it worked well! Why don't you continue to use it?"
Chen Qing shook his head, "The fire is too fierce and cannot be extinguished at all. Kerosene is indeed the number one weapon for defending the city, but the output is too small. After capturing Xiangyang, we must first grab the kerosene and gunpowder!"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
At this time, Liu Cui also curiously asked: "I think this kind of heavy siege ladder is very good, why don't the Jin soldiers use it?"
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "Of course there is a reason, which one of you thought of it?"
Couture blurted out, "It's too heavy!"
Chen Qing said with a smile: "That's right, it's too heavy. The ships used by the Song Dynasty are okay for transportation. Each one weighs several kilograms, and hundreds of them can be transported at a time. It's completely unrealistic for you to ask the Jin soldiers to transport them in large trucks. It's still ordinary."
The siege ladder is more convenient."
Yang Zaixing also said: "Du Tong, are their porcelain bottle fire thunders more powerful?"
Chen Qing shook his head, "Unless it has a cast iron shell, all kinds of fire mines are about the same power, but I don't advocate the development of iron shell fire mines."
"Why?" Everyone looked at Chen Qing together.
Chen Qing said calmly: "Any weapon is a double-edged sword. We use it to kill the enemy, but the enemy also uses it to kill us. Just like iron armor and cavalry bows, they were both created and improved by the Han people, and were finally used by the nomads to destroy us.
, the same goes for the Iron Shell Fire Thunder. This is not because of choking, but to whom is it more valuable?
When we deal with the Jurchen cavalry, there is not much difference in the killing effect between the iron shell fire thunder and the wooden barrel fire thunder. But once the Jurchens get the powerful iron shell fire thunder, the Jurchens who are originally at a disadvantage in attacking the city will use it.
It can easily blow down city walls one after another, and it will be a disaster for the Han people."
"If we keep it a secret, the Jurchens won't learn from it!"
Chen Qing sneered and said: "Can our court keep this secret?"
If everyone has realized something, it seems that some things cannot be easily revealed.
At this time, the bell rang to withdraw the troops, 'Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!'
The Song army that besieged the city suffered heavy casualties. Cheng Changyu was so anxious that he jumped to his feet and ordered to withdraw his troops.
