After listening to the assistant's report, Liu Tie couldn't help but frown tightly.
In this kind of siege battle, the role of heavy crossbows was greatly reduced, and catapults became the main force for long-range attacks.
However, he limited the amount of grenades and kerosene that could be used, and the bodyguards and female soldiers could only fill the catapults with stones.
In this way, the stone consumption becomes faster.
When they first stocked up on supplies, neither Zhang Liang nor Liu Tie thought that someone could destroy the airship, so they didn't stock a lot of stones.
In everyone's opinion, with such a powerful combination of airships and grenade flash bombs, the probability that the enemy would dare to attack Yuguan City is really low!
Who would have thought that such a day would come?
But it's too late to regret it now.
Liu Tie stood on the city wall, full of worries.
The catapult is the main force used to defend the city today. If there are not enough stones to fill it, the catapult will become a pile of decorations!
Thinking of this, Liu Tie hammered the city wall hard.
The next second, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"Come here, please inform the logistics camp to demolish the unoccupied houses in the city and bring up the bricks and stones for building the houses!"
Yuguan City had been occupied by the Eastern Barbarians for decades before. When Zhang Liang led the Northern Expeditionary Army to seize the city, many of the Eastern Barbarian nobles followed Shan Yu and ran away. Those who did not escape were captured by the Northern Expeditionary Army and asked to do some physical work.
labor.
Last time, Dongman's elite organized these prisoners to launch a riot, which resulted in five of the seven granaries in the city being burned down, and the equipment warehouse was almost breached.
Zhang Liang was extremely angry about this. After suppressing the riot, he ordered a large-scale purge of the Eastern Barbarian prisoners.
At that time, the Eastern Barbarian prisoners in the city either directly participated in the riot or assisted. After the cleanup, almost all the Eastern Barbarians in the city were killed by Zhang Liang.
Afterwards, an investigation revealed that in addition to the Eastern barbarian captives, there were also some Central Plains slaves who assisted and participated in the riot.
These people have been enslaved by the Eastern Barbarians for too long. Even if the Northern Expeditionary Army has captured Yuguan City and returned their freedom, some people's servility has penetrated deep into their bones. They will still be afraid of going underground when they see their old masters.
kneel.
The old masters asked them to participate in the riots, so they did.
Zhang Liang did not show mercy to these people and executed them together with the rioting Eastern Barbarians!
At the same time, this incident also reminded Zhang Liang that he could no longer keep these slaves in Yuguan City.
Later, a steamship came to Yuguan City to deliver grain, and Zhang Liang sent the Central Plains slaves in the city aboard and asked the steamship to take them to Dujiangyan for water conservancy construction.
After Wei Datong learned the identities of these slaves, he placed them in a separate place and sent people to keep an eye on them.
After a period of observation, Wei Datong discovered that the slaves were performing well.
No one wants to be a slave forever. After leaving the nightmare-like Yuguan City, he gradually forgot that tragic memory and started a new life.
Then Wei Datong removed the people who were following him and just asked other nearby villagers to pay attention.
Anyway, the place where he placed these people was a small basin, surrounded by steep mountains, with only two roads in and out.
There are checkpoints set up by militiamen on both roads. Even if there are some Eastern barbarians among these people, they won't cause any trouble.
Zhang Liang received a letter from Wei Datong and was very satisfied with this arrangement.
After executing the Eastern Barbarian prisoners and evacuating the Central Plains people, Yuguan City has now become a veritable military city, with only more than 5,000 Northern Expeditionary Army members left.
Even if one person is allocated a courtyard, he cannot live in a city.
Besides, Zhang Liang would not let the Northern Expeditionary Army disperse like this. Instead, he cleared an open space near the northern city wall as a school ground.
To the west of the school grounds is the area where the powerful Eastern barbarians gathered in the past. There are many large houses left behind. Zhang Liang renovated the two largest houses among them and used them as dormitories for bodyguards and female soldiers.
Usually, the bodyguards and female soldiers are either on duty on the city wall, practicing in the open space, or resting in the dormitory, and rarely go to other places in the city.
This resulted in many empty houses in Yuguan City.
If these houses are demolished, wouldn't the bricks and stones be used as filling materials for catapults?
Following Liu Tie's order, the logistics camp immediately began to demolish the houses.
The Eastern Barbarians have been attacking the city for two consecutive days. Many bodyguards and female soldiers think that they have withdrawn their troops now and will not continue to attack until tomorrow at the earliest.
But who knew that not long after they started demolishing houses and transporting bricks, the Eastern Barbarians would start the fourth round of siege overnight!
What's even worse is that it was completely dark and overcast at this time, and the moon was blocked by dark clouds. Looking down from the city wall, all you could see was pitch black.
There is a bonfire burning on the city wall, and the enemy can easily see the bodyguards on the city wall by looking up from below.
After Liu Tie discovered this situation, he immediately ordered a catapult to eject the kerosene jar, regardless of the kerosene reserves.
Not to stop the enemy, but to illuminate.
Otherwise, the enemies would all run under the city wall and they would not be able to see clearly.
As baskets of kerosene jars were smashed out, Liu Tie finally saw clearly the situation on the grassland.
Just like during the day, at this time, the grassland was full of densely packed heads, running towards the city wall.
At this time, just relying on the logistics battalion to demolish houses and transport bricks and stones would definitely not be enough for the catapults. Liu Tie immediately sent someone to call back the escorts and female soldiers who were taking turns to rest, and helped the logistics battalion transport the bricks and stones together.
Fortunately, when the city wall was renovated, craftsmen sent by Mancang built several simple cranes on the city wall in order to transport the heavy catapult base to the city wall.
With these cranes, the logistics camp no longer has to climb stairs to carry bricks and stones to the city wall.
Just send the dismantled bricks and stones to the crane, and then use the crane to lift them to the city wall. The escorts and female soldiers on the city wall will then use small carts to transport the bricks and stones to the catapult.
Although there is lighting from the kerosene altar, the visibility at night is still much worse than during the day. The number of enemies rushing to the bottom of the city wall is much greater than during the day, which puts a lot of pressure on the bodyguards guarding the city wall.
In two locations, due to the carelessness of the escorts, the enemy actually climbed up the ladder.
Although the enemy was repulsed in the end, more than half of the bodyguards guarding these two places suffered casualties.
In order to reduce the casualties and pressure on the escort, the catapult must maintain a faster throwing frequency than during the day.
Even if there is a crane, even if the bodyguards and female soldiers who are taking turns are pulled up, the masonry transported can only be enough for a catapult.
This situation lasted until late at night.
Those who came to attack the city at this time were basically cannon fodder, and most of them didn't even have any decent clothes.
The winter nights on the grassland were so cold that they could carry them during the day, but at night, many cannon fodders were too cold to move even before they reached the city wall.
Perhaps the Chanyu of the Eastern Barbarians also realized that the casualties during the night siege were too great, and finally stopped the siege.
But all escorts know that this is not the end.
The enemies will definitely be even crazier tomorrow!