Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 320: Strong Attack
When the enemy's ladder covered with thick leather was pushed to the "range within which an arrow can be shot", Huang Zhong's eyes closed and opened, and a circle of golden "eye shadow" appeared around his eyes, and golden light also shone through his pupils.
He stretched out his ape arms and took out a giant crossbow that was more than three meters wide and had an arrow groove like a small cannon barrel from the back of the armor. He used the handle on the side of the crossbow to pull the bowstring as if loading a bullet. The golden arrow light condensed out of thin air, and then he shot an arrow at Lu Gongche who was coming towards him!
Lu Gongche was shot through directly, and golden light was cast from the back...
Although we couldn't see inside, from the faint noise of chaos, as well as the momentary pause and slowdown, we could tell that the arrow had caused casualties inside, and even caused panic!
Moreover, this is Huang Zhong's "one-arrow range" - more than 500 steps, which is equivalent to the arrows shot by Lu Bu in the golden and jade armor.
The Jingzhou defenders shouted " mighty" repeatedly, and when Lu Gong's carriage and the corridor bridge carriage approached to 350 steps, during this 150 steps, Huang Zhong had already shot more than 20 arrows...
The siege equipment moved slowly, and Huang Zhong's charged shots had an astonishing frequency. However, just 350 steps away, the enemy suddenly began to counterattack, and... it was not just one or two generals who were counterattacking, but eight variant ladders, whooshing, whooshing, each firing a small wave of arrows with more than ten arrows!
Huang Zhong was also shocked - three hundred and fifty steps should be considered a "hurdle" in the range of bows and crossbows. Unless General Jin Yu possesses special archery skills, his range will stop here.
It was not surprising that someone in the General's Mansion could shoot 350 steps, but...what was going on with these hundreds of arrows? Could there be some multi-person heavy crossbows inside? Or did someone on the other side have the same combat skills as himself, such as the Fiery Bow, or even stronger?
Although he was puzzled, Huang Zhong immediately gave the order: "Take cover!"
Because they had habitually believed that this was a safe distance, the soldiers defending the city did not hide behind the parapet in time, and were killed or injured by the random shooting.
The power of this arrow was truly terrifying. From three hundred and fifty steps away, it could even penetrate wooden and stone armor. The gilded armor would also be damaged if it was shot at a weak point. Moreover, the arrow was extremely fast, so it took a lot of skill to deflect it.
Huang Zhong grabbed one with his bare hands, feeling the power in it, the arrowhead that seemed to have strong penetrating power, and... the front and rear ends of the arrow body were made of iron, and his face couldn't help but change.
Although the opponent obviously did not have any special archery skills, which made it impossible to break through the constraint that "the arrow will fly randomly if it is more than 350 steps away, no matter how hard you try", but... this power is really strong!
With these powerful arrows, they can even penetrate ordinary Ji-zao soldiers within 350 steps and continue to harm the back row!
With this level, if it was a one-on-one fight, Huang Zhong would just sneer. Even if seven or eight of them appeared at the same time, Huang Zhong would only sigh that the General's Mansion had many talented people and then deal with them calmly. But... now there are hundreds of them?
If Chen Gong knew what he was thinking, he would definitely feel helpless - there was no other way. Although the Jingnan Expeditionary Force was a frontline army, it was too difficult to supply them. Until now, among the more than 5,000 generals, less than one-tenth were equipped with the first-generation Qi crossbows, and there were only about 500 sets in total!
At this time, there were only about a hundred sets of ladders at the top of the eight ladders, all held by generals...
It’s such a pity that I can’t let you see thousands of warriors, each holding a Qi crossbow!
Soon, the opponent also felt the true horror of the Qi crossbow. It was almost a continuous rain of five waves of small arrows, faster than a normal bow!
Afterwards, its speed gradually slowed down and its power became much smaller, but its range was still 350 steps.
When they were almost 200 steps away, the soldiers, who were accustomed to serving under Huang Zhong, began to get ready.
Normally, this was still not within their "arrow's reach", but...
Huang Zhong shot an arrow into the sky, and the golden arrow of light scattered in the air into countless arrows. It did not fall on the enemy, but on every soldier around!
Then, the soldiers who were hit by the light arrows, whether they were generals or Jizao soldiers, all had light golden eye shadow appearing in their eyes.
At the same time... everyone felt that their eyesight had greatly improved, especially when they were drawing their bows and aiming, it felt like the passage of time was a bit slower, and the bows and arrows in their hands were much more "friendly" than before.
There was no need for Huang Zhong to give orders or pass on instructions. Naturally, the soldiers who were protected by the "Fierce Bow" began to tacitly take turns to shoot from a distance...
However, Huang Zhong soon discovered that the enemy also began to shoot at him in large numbers through the arrow holes!
Even though he had activated his own group combat skill "Fiery Bow", the rain of arrows from his soldiers was still comparable to the enemy in range and power?
That’s two hundred steps!
For a normal longbow, it can only reach about 150 steps...
There is no advantage in height, and the range is even inferior to that of the Fierce Bow, but there is no advantage either?
The only advantage the defenders have at the moment is that there are more people on the walls than on the ladders, and... Huang Zhong's heavy shooting, although it is unknown how many lives of generals or Ji Zao's soldiers were taken by each arrow, it can be seen that the effect of suppressing morale is obvious.
Every time Huang Zhong shot through it, the corresponding bridge chariot or Lu Gong chariot would slow down for a while, obviously because they were shocked by the destructive power of the arrow...
Of course, even Huang Zhong could not keep up with this level of heavy shooting, and he became out of breath after firing thirty arrows. An ordinary trained archer would be exhausted after shooting arrows from a stone bow with a draw of 70% or 80% of its force after seven or eight times in a row.
"Strong men, come forward and grab the fork!" Huang Zhong gave the order directly after the ladder got closer.
Several gilded warriors, with a group of heavily-armored soldiers, each seven or eight of them held a push rod more than ten meters long. Under the protection of the shield-bearing warriors, they stood behind the parapet and tried hard to hold back the ladder.
There are grooves in front of the push rod, which are normally used to push a ladder or an ordinary long ladder to the top column foot of the wall.
A group of professionally trained strongmen can even work together to push back a ladder that has more than a dozen people climbing up it!
But now... the covered bridge carriages could still barely hold on, but Lu Gongche - the riders at the bottom, all stood up and pedaled, and the heavy armored infantry were pushed so that the soles of their boots rubbed backwards.
Just when he was on the top floor of Lu Gong's chariot, close to the edge of the parapet, with five or six steps left, the baffle in front of him, which was already in tatters and full of arrows, was put down directly and just rested on the top of the wall. The warriors inside had been prepared in advance and jumped up one after another using the baffle for leverage!
Taking advantage of the slight chaos among the defenders on the wall, it was easier for Lu Gong's carriage to force its way up. The platforms of the four Lu Gong's carriages were connected to the city wall. After sharing the pressure everywhere, the covered bridge carriage was finally able to get closer.
Although those who climbed the city first still had to face siege and unfavorable situations, they did not suffer too many casualties. In fact, up to now, the casualty ratio of both sides was not too different, but the besiegers had already forced their way up first. This has demonstrated the role of the mechanical science, materials science, and engineering system!
This was even Huang Zhong, who possessed the "Fiery Bow" combat skill, defending the city. Otherwise, the defenders would have to "suffer" even more, which directly changed the concept of war between attacking and defending the city...
