Chapter 846 Hidden Mystery
Turning from Xiyuanzhou to the southwest, the barbarian army went smoothly.
After defeating Si Lang and Guang Yuan one after another, they reached Gaoping Fort in less than ten days.
The 60,000 barbarian army from Bozhou came all the way, attacked the city and destroyed the villages, and after massacring several villages one after another, Nong Sanniang brought many Xidong barbarians with him.
In addition to Xidong young and strong, many women and children, old and weak, followed behind. The young and strong were all wrapped up, and those old and weak women and children could not be left alone, so they had to follow behind with the old and the young.
Arriving at the foot of Gaoping Fort, Nong Sanniang and Fu San, dressed in military uniform, came down to Gaoping Fort surrounded by barbarian chiefs, and looked at the castle from a distance.
Gaoping Fort is not too big, it was built in an open river valley basin, and the site was selected on a high ground. At the beginning, Qin Lang personally took a fancy to Gaoping's unique geographical location, and designed the castle for Gaoping Fort based on the five-star bastion in Diezhou. . Choose a polygonal castle.
The original traditional square castle has become a concave polygon, so that when the enemy invades, any point of the attacking castle will be exposed to at least two or three facets, and the defenders can use cross-fire coverage to attack the enemy.
Especially Qin Lang's multiple trenches, and the design of the **** surface, coupled with the moon fort, corner towers and towering watchtowers located outside the main fort, have brought the three-dimensional cross firepower to the extreme.
This makes the Gaoping Fort itself not too big, and it is only used as a defensive garrison fortress, but it has powerful firepower that many large cities cannot have.
Small Gaoping Fort means that the scope of defense is also small, the surface to be attacked is also small, there are fewer loopholes and gaps, and fewer defensive troops are required.
Judingman fought Gaoping Fort the last time he came here, and suffered enough losses under the fort. He thought that a small fortress, even if it was full of teeth, could be piled up to death with people, but the soldiers of Gaoping Fort used the facts It proves that Xiang Qiang, the party under the Five Star Fort in Diezhou, was not wronged when he lost.
Gucho people were beaten to death under the fort.
The strong attack is not enough, so I want to besiege, but there are not many soldiers in the Gaoping Fort, and there are no people. The food stored is enough for the defenders for more than a year, and there is a well in the fort.
Couldn't hit, couldn't spend enough, so in the end Juding conceded defeat and withdrew.
Now Nong Sanniang, the queen of Juding, is here, and Fusan, the king of Zuoxi Man, is also here.
Fusan looked at this Gaoping Fort, but his heart was actually very complicated.
At the beginning, they followed Qin Lang to attack the Nong clan in Jinlongdong, Guangyuan. After the Nong clan was destroyed, Qin Lang established Jinlong Prefecture. Because his son was the first to lead troops into the Jinlongdong stronghold, Qin Lang awarded him a golden dragon. Governor, because of this matter, Fusan was very grateful to Qin Lang, and felt that Qin Lang was very interesting.
Later, his son also cooperated with Qin Lang to dig gold mines in Jinlong Prefecture, and then went to Gaoping to smelt copper and smelt gold, build a business house, build Gaoping Fort, Qin Lang produced blueprints, but many people who built the fort were The person who helped the three fathers and sons.
Nong Sanniang is wearing a military uniform, very heroic, and standing with the burly Fusan, it is a good match.
"This Gaoping Castle looks ordinary, is it so difficult to attack?" Mrs. Nong San narrowed her slender phoenix eyes, as if a little disbelieving.
Fu San smiled wryly when he heard this, and his son came up.
"Gaoping Fortress hides a mystery. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Even if the enemy is ten times stronger, it will be difficult to take it by force. You see, although this fort is small, it can be built on a high ground. It is condescending and has a wide view. The prismatic walls of the castle, But there are two inner and outer moats, and between the moats there are moon forts, corner platforms, and tall stone watchtowers. If you look closely at those moats, they are layer by layer, high and low. In fact, you can only understand the mystery when standing on them. ..."
"There are also those moon forts, corner towers, and watchtowers, all of which are equipped with powerful bows and crossbows. There are many super-powerful Fuyuan crossbows, three-bow crossbows, and large single crossbows. Trebuchets, these trebuchets are extremely advanced, they are not big, and they don’t even need many people to operate them, but they can throw heavy stone bullets very far.”
"The castle is equipped with a large number of crossbows. Basically, they will not fight us head-to-head."
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Ms. Nong San has also experienced the strong bows and crossbows of the Tang people. In Tuolu, he really saw the power of those sturdy and burly armored longbowmen of the Tang people.
Just imagine, this Gaoping Fort full of organs, full of crossbowmen standing on those towers and fortresses that are out of reach and out of reach, this battle is really difficult to fight.
"Look closer, I don't believe there are no flaws!" Nong Sanniang felt a fire in her heart. Although she came from Xiyuan Prefecture and slaughtered more than a dozen capricious villages along the way, the fire not only did not subside , but even more prosperous.
Fusan's son was terrified, and hurriedly persuaded, "We can't go there anymore. In fact, our current position is not completely safe."
Nong Sanniang was surprised.
"We are at least one mile away from Gaoping Fort, right?"
Quite a few Juding Man also felt that making a fuss out of a molehill is such a long distance, how powerful is the Tang Dynasty?
"It is indeed one mile away from Gaoping Fort, but if you go to the outermost corner platform, it is actually only about 300 steps. There are Fuyuan Crossbow, Baoxu Crossbow, etc. on it, and those ranges are super terrifying. Fuyuan Crossbow has a range of 700 steps. , while the three-bow and eight-ox crossbow can shoot a terrifying distance of a thousand steps."
Nong Sanniang shook her head, "That must be bragging. I don't believe that a crossbow can shoot a thousand steps away. Even if it can shoot so far, it must not have much power, let alone aim."
"I have witnessed the Qin family's test firing drill on the fort before, and it can indeed reach a thousand steps."
Seeing that everyone didn't believe it, he hurriedly explained, and his face turned red.
"Really, I saw it with my own eyes. The Qin family called it a ballista. It was equipped with a twelve-stone crossbow, and it was a combination of three twelve-stone crossbows. If a human was used to draw the bow, It takes thirty strong men or eight oxen to pull it, which is called three-bow and eight-ox crossbow."
Nongshi was secretly surprised when he heard this.
"But I don't think those corners are wide enough, and they may not be able to accommodate the thirty strong men you mentioned."
"That's because they have improved these ballistas. They don't need thirty strong men or eight cows to draw the bows. They use winches to draw the strings and draw the bows. A three-bow crossbow can be manipulated by a few people. Those three There are seven arrows on the arm of the crossbow. The arrow in the center holds a huge arrow, three feet five inches long and five inches thick, with iron leaves as feathers, and three smaller arrows on the left and right. When the arrows were fired at once, all the horses and chariots in it were destroyed, and they even built an earthen house for test shooting, and they were able to destroy it with a single crossbow."
Three bows, eight oxen, seven guns, thousand-step winch ballista, the Qin family even gave it a nickname, called the Seventh General.
Because this kind of seven generals uses a winch to wind up, the Qin family also improved it and replaced the winch with an advanced ratchet. A strong man can twist and wind. Even thicker and longer than the spears of ordinary spearmen.
Such artifacts can be found on almost every bastion, moon fort, corner tower, and watchtower in Gaoping Fort, not to mention the crossbow opened by feet, the large single crossbow opened by two people, etc.
One thousand steps. Under normal circumstances, this is only the longest range, not the effective range. The effective range may be more than halved. After all, the farther you are, the harder it is to guarantee accuracy.
But the problem is that the crossbows on Gaoping Fort are all in fixed crossbow positions. They have already drawn various marks under the fort during their usual training, such as what direction, what distance, etc.
Often fixed-point aiming and shooting, over time, many crossbowmen have practiced very well, abruptly improving their accuracy a lot.
One thousand steps away is not enough to say killing people, but five hundred steps away is already somewhat dangerous, and within two or three hundred steps, it is very dangerous.
If you dare to go within a hundred steps, several crossbow machines cooperate with each other to attack, and you can basically guarantee to take it away in one round.
Many savages were dubious, feeling like listening to a myth.
Although they said that there was a shortage of bows and crossbows, they used more bows and arrows, fewer crossbows, and almost no large crossbows. But I have never eaten pork, and I have seen pigs run away.
Some people do not believe in evil.
There are indeed those honest and upright masters who insist on leading people to Gaoping Fort.
Five hundred steps, four hundred steps, three hundred steps.
When they entered three hundred steps.
More than a dozen ballistas in this direction have begun to aim and stand by.
A Juding master led five hundred men, and he was a little nervous at first, but he saw that within three hundred steps, there was no movement on the castle, so he began to relax, thinking that Fusan's son was just bragging for Tang people.
These guys were triumphant and showing off their might, and some even started to untie their belts and **** on the dew birds on the castle, full of ridicule.
Sudden.
A thunderbolt sounded.
Then, a rain of arrows like locusts flew out from Gaoping Fort opposite.
Eighty crossbow machines of different sizes, together with five hundred crossbowmen, stood on the high watchtower and fortress to fire, directly facing the sky.
They don’t even need to test shooting positions. They often practice, and they already know all the positions around the castle.
Almost several rounds of continuous shooting with eyes closed, thousands of arrows and crossbows poured down like rain.
The 500 barbarians who crossed the 200-step line and entered Gaopingbao with a distance of more than 100 steps turned into hedgehogs almost instantly.
There were screams and wailing.
The barbarians originally thought that they were safe a hundred paces away, so they didn't take it seriously. Many of them didn't even take out a piece of wood, and many of them didn't equip their only one or two pieces of armor after marching all the way.
Like five hundred barbarians who fell into hell, it was already too late to run away.
It is indeed nearly 200 steps away from Gaoping Fort, but Gaoping Fort was originally built on a high slope, not to mention the towering towers and corners.
The large crossbows, ballistas, and strong bows are condescending, and the range has been greatly increased, and the intensive lobbing is even more deadly, which is much more lethal than the arrows shot from the front. Increase, especially the arrows coming from above the head are more difficult to guard against.
It's too late to say it, but it's too soon.
It was almost between the rabbits rising and falling, like a storm blowing, and the five hundred barbarians failed to escape. Although some people ran back, they were all shot into hedgehogs within three hundred steps.
Blame them for being careless and frivolous, running around without wearing armor or holding up shields. The key is that they are still standing so densely. For the crossbowmen, their posture is simply too good. I can't help myself.
When the rain of arrows stops.
There was no longer a barbarian standing in front of Gaopingbao.
The five hundred savages all became hedgehogs.
The arrows were densely packed on the ground, as if a piece of arrow weed suddenly grew.
There are some large crossbow guns scattered all over the place.
Some crossbow guns even directly connected several barbarians in series.
That arrogant lord died early and miserably.
Because he stood at the front and was the most arrogant. He also wore a horned helmet on his head and a set of shiny armor that he got somewhere, which made him enjoy extra respect.
He was shot by three big crossbow guns, and more than a dozen crossbow arrows also shot him. The three big crossbow guns hit Dongzhu, and his whole body was blown to pieces into several large pieces.
The shiny Mingguang armor was as thin as paper when facing the super large iron crossbow gun.
The sound of inhalation continues.
Miss Nong San retreated again and again until she was 1,200 steps away before finally stopping her flustered footsteps. Now, no one doubted that the eight-ox crossbow of the Tang people that Fu San's son said could have a range of 1,000 steps.
Five hundred people.
Even if the five hundred people were not wearing armor or holding shields, they were careless and underestimated the enemy for a while, but they didn't even have a chance to escape.
How much is the opposite side?
Nong Sanniang estimated that there were no more than five or six hundred crossbowmen shooting just now.
Even if six hundred kills five hundred, it is normal to kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred. Even if they are **** and let them shoot, it will take a long time to shoot.
But in the blink of an eye, all of them were killed?
Miss Nong San, who was still in shock, looked at the silent Gaoping Fort, and suddenly shivered, feeling that her underwear was wet.
"How many soldiers and horses are there in Gaoping Fort?"
"one thousand!"
Receiving this answer, Nong Sanniang looked in disbelief, as if she had seen a ghost.
Yes, there are only a thousand people, but just now they were able to gather five or six hundred crossbowmen at once, and directly slaughtered five hundred of them.
"Could it be that this castle is full of sharpshooters?"
"The sharpshooter is not sure, but the people in the fort are all the soldiers and horses of the Qin family and the vassals of Wu'an Prefecture who came to reinforce them later. Although they are not the regular Tang army, they have a large number of bows and crossbows just like the Tang army."
"How much is the crossbow?"
"Twelve points, and more!"
Getting this answer, Nong Sanniang took another breath, feeling uncontrollable, and poured out a little urine again.
Twelve points, how could it be twelve points? Could it be that there are a thousand soldiers and horses in the castle, but there are 1,200 crossbowmen?
"In the Tang Dynasty, each soldier was equipped with a bow, and crossbowmen were equipped with double, so there was a saying that there were 12 bows and crossbows. In Gaoping Fort, because there are too many ballistas and crossbows Machine stone cannons, etc., that's why it may be more than twelve points."
A sigh sounded.
How the **** do you fight?
Fusan's young son persuaded with a complicated expression, "I suggest going around the fort. Before Qin Lang comes with a large army, Gaoping Fort has strong bows and crossbows, but he dare not go out to fight. Go around."
"If they dare to come out of the castle to fight, it will just annihilate them."
He suggested to use the elite main force to stare at the Gaoping Fort, cover nearly 100,000 people passing through the fort, and withdraw to the barbaric land of Juding.
Nong Sanniang said bitterly, "This Gaoping Fort is built on the highlands beside the Pinger River. If you don't take Gaoping Fort, even if you go around, you have to walk next to Gaoping Fort. There is a river on one side and Gaoping Fort on the other. Pass through Gaoping Fort, but when we passed Gaoping Fort, we were all within their shooting range, they have such powerful crossbows, if we force our way through, do you know how many people will die?"
"We don't take the main road, but cross the river, and take the small road on the south bank. Although the road is not easy, we don't need to pass under Gaoping Fort. After bypassing Gaoping Fort, we will cross the river again in the west and return to the north bank, and continue along the main road. Walk."
Walking around Gaoping Fort and crossing the river twice, there were nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses, women, children, old and weak in total, as well as a lot of money and livestock looted along the way, as well as many belongings brought by Zhudong villages that evacuated together.
Nowadays the river is flat and the river is full. It will take a lot of time for so many people to cross the river twice.
This is what they lack most now.
(end of this chapter)