Volume 1 Jiangdong Fengyun Chapter 70: Sun Ce's Challenge
"Report! Governor, Governor, Sun Ce's army is already ten miles outside the city." The scouts have delivered the latest intelligence.
"Has the 'Flying Yaksha' been installed?" Bai Tu asked the captain in charge.
"It has been installed!" said the captain.
"Lord Lu, shall we go to the city wall and take a look together?" Bai Tu asked Lu Kang.
"Let's go together!" Lu Kang felt a little unsure. He had seen the strength of Sun Ce's army before, and it was not on the same level as Liu Xun's army.
But now that things have come to this, Lu Kang will not say anything discouraging.
Arriving at the top of the city wall, I saw that every ten steps or so, there was a city defense device similar to the "wolf tooth dagger", but the hanging heavy objects were not "wolf tooth wooden boards", but wooden beams covered with steel spikes!
If you look closely, you will find that these steel spikes are not directly on the logs, but are wrapped around the logs in a spiral pattern with circles of belts with steel spikes...
Like the Langyadui in the white map, it can also be moved and has the iconic "magic gourd" hanging on it.
This is exactly what Bai Tu brings!
The Shucheng city had stored the huge and thick round logs, which could be thrown down to knock down the enemies when they attacked the city, or they could attack the enemy's siege equipment when convenient.
There is also another kind of "Yaksha Lei". Bai Tu doesn't know whether anyone is using it now, but it is not common. It is a city defense device that uses iron chains tied on both sides of the wooden beam and connected to a winch. The iron chains can be used to retrieve the wooden beam that has rolled down.
However, compared to the wolf-tooth racket, it is easier to cut the rope, and it is much heavier than the wolf-tooth racket. Usually, this winch is not used to pull up the wooden beam, but to make the wooden beam roll under the city before the rope is cut, so as to attack the enemy at the foot of the city!
However, with Bai Tu's "magic gourd", the Yaksha Arena became more flexible and he named it "Flying Yaksha".
Compared with the Langya Die, the Feitian Yaksha is more convenient to carry - the craftsmen put a lot of effort into the plate that fixes the wooden pole. As long as the diameter and length of the wooden pole are within a certain range, it can be installed on it, and then wrapped with thorny belts. There is no need to bring your own wooden pole.
Since it only has the "magic gourd" and the stand, it is naturally much easier to transport and carry.
When Bai Tu and Lu Kang arrived at the tower, they found that Sun Ce had already arrived with a large army. Taishi Ci took a look and whispered to Bai Tu, "About 8,000 men, but judging from the formation, most of them are veterans."
Bai Tu nodded when he heard this, thinking in his heart that although the central army led by Zhou Yu had about 20,000 people, they were all soldiers trained by Yuan Shu in Huainan.
The army under Yuan Shu can be roughly divided into three levels. The strongest is the Nanyang Army where Yuan Shu started. These were all troops recruited and trained in Nanyang with the help of the Yuan family before the eighteen princes went to fight against Dong Zhuo. If they are still in place now, they can be said to be soldiers who have fought in a hundred battles.
The second is the Danyang Army, which were soldiers trained by Yuan Shu using the population of Danyang when he controlled Jiangdong. Although the army was formed only a short time ago, they are not easy to deal with because of the characteristics of the Danyang soldiers.
Finally, there is the Huainan Army. After Yuan Shu killed Chen Wen, the previous governor of Yangzhou, and occupied the Huainan area, he trained soldiers here...
Among the three, the Huainan Army had the largest number of troops. When recruiting troops in Jiangdong, although the major families favored Yuan Shu, they would not let him take advantage of them. Even if there was an overdraft, it was controlled within the range that could be recovered in two to three years.
In Huainan , Yuan Shu could be said to have been levying heavy taxes and overdrawing manpower year after year, which was why the army expanded so quickly.
The price paid was that the people of Huainan dared to be angry at Yuan Shu but not to speak out - if the people were not on his side, the training of recruited soldiers would be less efficient and their morale would generally be low.
Of course, these three levels are just a rough division.
The central army led by Zhou Yu was composed entirely of soldiers from Huainan, while Sun Ce's 8,000 vanguard troops were mostly old soldiers from Jiangdong. I think they were the last legacy left by his father Sun Jian. The foundation was the soldiers trained by Sun Jian in his hometown of Wujun and Changsha, where he served as a prefect.
Although a lot of other sources of troops have been added in recent years, just like Lu Bu expanded the Bingzhou Cavalry in Xuzhou, as long as the organization remains and the proportion of supplementary troops is controlled within a certain range, the army's eliteness will not decrease too much - veterans will also lead the new recruits.
"Just as Lord Lu expected, Sun Ce is indeed aggressive and is attacking the city without stopping." Bai Tu couldn't help but marvel at Sun Ce's killing all the way over without any intention of resting or setting up camp.
"Not only is Sun Ce a young tiger, the Jiangdong soldiers under his command are also strong soldiers. They are not comparable to the armies of Liu Xun and his peers." Lu Kang still remembers the strength of Sun Ce's troops clearly.
Of course, it would be useless to rely on only a few thousand elite soldiers. The reason why Zhou Yu had always hoped to get Yuan Shu's support was not only to avoid being hostile to Yuan Shu after leaving directly, but also to get Yuan Shu's assistance in sending troops.
As for these 20,000 Huainan soldiers, the grassroots captains and dukes were all Yuan Shu's men. Zhou Yu wanted to take them away. Even if they did not mutiniate on the spot, it would easily cause chaos afterwards.
Sun Ce's army stopped at a distance of an arrow from the city, and then he rushed out on his own horse, shouting proudly at the foot of the city: "Sun Ce of Wujun is here, who dares to come out of the city to fight me!"
At this time, Sun Ce was wearing an orange vest and battle skirt, and no armor. He just rode a "war horse", carrying a huge anchor-shaped weapon, and rode alone to challenge the enemy at the foot of the city.
"Sun Ce! Your father was the General Po Lu and the Governor of Changsha of the Han Dynasty. Now you have rebelled against the thief Yuan. Are you worthy of your father's spirit in heaven?" Lu Kang shouted on the city wall.
“Hahaha, old Lu Kang, my father’s spirit in heaven will watch over me as I support the Han Dynasty and bring honor to our family. You keep calling me a thief, but I don’t know which court recommended you.” Sun Ce said with a smile.
"If you want to fight, then fight. The soldiers and civilians of Shucheng are united and will never be defeated by the bandits!" Lu Kang shouted.
If one does not respond to a normal challenge, the morale of his own side will be lowered. However, for Lu Kang, there is no such hidden worry. The buff of "military and civilians are united" will make the resilience of the defenders extremely terrifying.
"My lord! Let me go and defeat him first! If we can capture him alive, it will save us a lot of trouble." Taishi Ci requested.
Bai Tu thought about it for a moment. Although he didn't think that Taishi Ci could really defeat Sun Ce, if he looked at the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the strength of the two should be almost the same at this time. A draw would be better than being bullied by Sun Ce.
"Okay, but... Sun Ce is known for his bravery, Ziyi, you'd better be careful and don't fight too long." Bai Tu advised.
"Yes!" Taishi Ci accepted the order.
Then Taishi Ci displayed his military talisman, transformed into a suit of white armor, and jumped down from the tower, saying, "Taishi Ci of Donglai is here, Wujun boy, stop being so arrogant!"
"Huh? Taishi Ci? I seem to have heard of it somewhere... Never mind! Finally someone brave has come, I'll give you three moves!" Sun Ce became slightly interested.
