C140

Although Yuan Shao was holding onto the city wall and did not fall, his vision suddenly darkened, as if someone had hit him with a wooden stick on his head. His entire body was so weak that he could not muster up any strength, and both of his legs also began to tremble, as if he would fall to the ground at any time.

"My lord!" Shen Pei and Chunyu Qiong turned pale with fright, and quickly rushed forward to support Yuan Shao.

"General Chunyu, shoot!" Yuan Shao recovered a little of his spirit and pointed at Gongsun Zan and the others, shouting orders to them.

'How did it manage to reach us from such a distance? ' Chunyu Qiong was extremely confused, but seeing Yuan Shao's ashen face, she did not dare ask. She turned and ordered the archers to release their arrows.

Shen Pei secretly nodded his head, what Yuan Shao did was the right choice — had lost in a battle of words, but the reason for the loss was not because Yuan Shao was not good at words, but because, as Zhang Yan had said, he did not righteously obtain the Jizhou, regardless of whether it was in terms of principles or morals, he was at a disadvantage, thus, it was difficult for him to win against the other party! Since that was the case, it would be better to show his subordinates that he was determined to fight to the end. As for whether or not he could kill the enemy, it didn't matter at all.

Thousands of archers started to release arrows, but and the rest were more than 200 steps away from the city walls. Other than a few strong bows that could reach Gongsun Zan, the rest of the archers were stuck in the ground 100 steps away. The pike in Gongsun Xu's hand flashed, and easily knocked the few flying arrows to the ground, not a single one of them were injured.

Gongsun Xu laughed: "Father, Yuan Shao seems to have gone crazy from anger, to actually do such an unwise thing!"

"My people, you are wrong!" Gongsun Zan shook his head, his expression serious, "Yuan Benchu's actions are not unwise, it's something that I have no choice but to do!"

Zhang Yan smiled and nodded, obviously seeing through Yuan Shao's intentions.

"What does father mean by this?" Gongsun Xu was a little confused.

Gongsun Xu said respectfully: "Fei Yanxiong and this old man's words have already caused Yuan Benchu to completely lose face. If he does not display a little more unyielding attitude, the morale of his army will definitely plummet! This is a statement, do you understand? "

Gongsun Xu suddenly realized something. He thought that Yuan Shao had used this trick because he was anxious and frustrated, but he never expected that Yuan Shao's real intentions were actually this way. Yuan Shao had replaced Han Fu as the master of more than half of the Jizhou, and then was able to expel the power of the Youzhou Army from the Jizhou.

Zhang Yan looked ahead at the flying arrows, and laughed coldly: "Bo Guixiong, since there is no respect, shouldn't we also take action?"

Gongsun Zan laughed out loud, "Fei Yanxiong's words are reasonable! Son, get Trades and Crafts Camp to bring the siege equipment over, we will show Yuan Benchu our might! "

The Trades and Crafts Camp that Gongsun Zan mentioned was the same Trades and Crafts Camp that Gongsun Xu had expanded in Tianjin. With Ma Jun and Ma Tiedan's efforts, the Trades and Crafts Camp had expanded to a total of more than two thousand people, and all sorts of talented people who were proficient in smithing steel, forging weapons, making equipment, and improving equipment had been absorbed in. This time, south of army of Youzhou, the people from Trades and Crafts Camp who were good at using siege equipment were also led by Ma Tiedan. However, since the Galleon did not have any place to use it, they did not reveal their skills. Gongsun Zan didn't really understand the Trades and Crafts Camp, which was why he got Gongsun Xu to personally pass down the orders. Actually, it was to get him to bring the most excellent equipment and craftsmen with him, so that he could display the power of the Youzhou Army's siege attack to Yuan Shao.

Gongsun Xu promised as he brought the Gongsun Jia brothers and quickly rode towards the Trades and Crafts Camp at the back.

During the siege, Gongsun Zan had placed the White Horse Camp at the north side of the city, and had assigned another ten thousand people to follow Gongsun Xu's lead. This was also because he wanted to attack the city from the north, and with the addition of the thousand people from the Trades and Crafts Camp, of the four sides of the city, Gongsun Xu's forces were the strongest, totalling over forty thousand people. In front of them were the elite soldiers and cavalry units, between them were the transport troops and auxiliary force soldiers, and behind them were the Trades and Crafts Camp s, which was about three to four miles away from the city, thus Shen Pei did not notice the existence of the siege equipment just now.

Ma Tiedan and the rest of the craftsmen were gathered by the fence, watching the commotion. Seeing that not even half of the ten thousand arrows in the city could hurt, they all mocked Yuan Shao's stupidity. When they suddenly saw Gongsun Xu coming over, everyone quickly scattered. Ma Tiedan, along with a few others, rushed over to the main entrance of the camp to receive him.

"Your subordinate greets the general!"

"No need for formalities!" Gongsun Xu waved his hand and asked: "Ma Tiedan, how many siege equipment are in place?"

Ma Tiedan answered loudly, "Reporting to General, there are a total of thirty lithograph s, four cars, and five hundred ladders. They are all assembled and ready to be used anytime!"

Gongsun Xu thought for a moment, then ordered: "Bring half of the lithograph with you and follow me to the front!"

"Are they attacking the city?" If they were to attack the city, they would definitely bring the ladders and the charging chariots. Since they were only bringing lithograph s, it was clear that they wanted to feign or scare the other party a little. It seemed that it would be impossible for Trades and Crafts Camp to perform meritorious services today.

"You little brat, you're depressed my ass!" Gongsun Xu laughed and scolded: "Are you afraid that the things you have created will be useless? There are plenty of chances for you to earn merits! Hurry, this general won't go in! "

"Yes sir!" Ma Tiedan chuckled and rushed into the camp, shouting for the craftsmen to gather, and began to select the most skilled artisans.

After the time it took to make a cup of tea, Ma Tiedan picked five hundred people and slowly pushed fifteen lithograph s that were installed on the base wheel out of the camp.

The first time lithograph were used in actual combat was during the Spring and Autumn Period. The "Fan Li Military Strategy" contained Yun Fei's Flying Stone which weighed more than ten Jin, and could be launched by an airplane. It could be used for three hundred steps.

The structure was not too complicated. On the top of the shelf, there was a shaft that could freely rotate to adjust the direction and height, and the long rod that was fixed on it was called the "turret", while the turret actually played a role as a lever. Only one wooden pole was called the "single tip", while the other wooden pole was called "multiple tips". The back end of the cannon was tied to a leather bag made of solid animal skin. Inside the bag was a stone that needed to be shot out. The front end was attached to a cannon rope.

At this time, most of the lithograph did not install a base plate or a wheel. They would be assembled when they were used, and after installing, they would not be able to move at all, and they would not be agile at all. After Ma Jun took over the Trades and Crafts Camp, following Gongsun Xu's suggestions, he started to install the base wheel on the lithograph, so that it did not need to be temporarily assembled and could be pushed out when using it. The biggest benefit of it was that it could move freely and adjust the direction and position of the attack freely. In addition to this, Ma Jun also spent a lot of time and effort on the cannon rope. After many experiments, he used a mixture of animal tendons, tough hemp rope and steel wire to make the cannon rope even more sturdy. It was enough to throw a twenty kilogram boulder over four hundred steps away, far surpassing any kind of lithograph.

Gongsun Xu looked at the large group of carriages that were carrying stones and asked: How many stones did you bring in total?

lithograph's stone was not something that could be randomly picked out. Normally, one would have to choose a round stone and polish it when necessary. Unless absolutely necessary, they would not use irregular stones. After all, the more irregular something flew in the air, the harder it was to control its trajectory – this shocked Gongsun Xu. He never thought that the current âancient people 'would actually be able to grasp onto this principle, even though Ma Jun and Ma Tiedan could not speak of the inherent reason, they knew how to best do it!

Each of them was three meters tall, four feet tall, and three feet wide. Adding the length of the cannons on the cannons, the cannons were around two to three feet long. Twelve cannons meant that every lithograph could shoot out twelve large stones. Of course, if a large stone was changed to a slightly smaller stone, each time, it would shoot out dozens of stones.

Ma Tiedan laughed, "Reporting to General, this subordinate has brought along a stone that can launch ten rounds of fire. I must let those fellows in the city have a taste of my might!"

"Ten rounds is enough!" Gongsun Xu was very satisfied with this number, when fifteen lithograph s shot out ten rounds, it also meant that one hundred and eighty rocks were shot out. Even if some of the stones could not be shot into the city, it would be more than enough for Yuan Shao to enjoy it.

After a while, Gongsun Xu brought fifteen lithograph behind Gongsun Zan and the others. Ma Tiedan and the others started to adjust the position of the lithograph, and everyone went their own way. Some of them started to stir the cannon rope, some moved rocks into the leather bag, and some of them even started to move the cannons skillfully.

After Yuan Shao had shot three rounds of arrows on top of the city walls, he ordered them to stop. At this time, when he saw the other party push out the strange lithograph, an ominous feeling arose in his heart. These strange lithograph looked very powerful, but they did not know how powerful they were. There were a small number of lithograph in the city, but Yuan Shao had ordered them to be fixed on the city walls.

Shen Pei looked for a while, and realized that there were a few lithograph ready to be shot, so he quickly advised: "Master, please quickly descend from the city walls, it looks like the enemy is using their lithograph on a large scale!"

Chunyu Qiong also advised by the side, "Master, please descend the city walls, leave this place to this lowly general! If the Youzhou s dare to rush over, I will make sure they will not be able to escape! "

Yuan Shao shook his head and rejected the idea flatly. If he were to go down the city wall now, he would definitely be mocked by the soldiers. He might as well first check out the strength of the other party's lithograph before making a decision.

Shen Pei was helpless, he could only order a dozen people to guard Yuan Shao's side with their heavy shields, preparing to defend against the falling rocks.

Bang! Outside of the city, the first lithograph began to fly. A dozen large rocks came flying over, and other than three or four that hit the city wall, the rest landed accurately on the city wall. There were more than a dozen people who could not dodge in time and were smashed into meat paste, causing the surrounding people to flee in panic.

A few large rocks flew towards Yuan Shao. Seeing that the situation was bad, Shen Pei quickly pulled Yuan Shao and dodged to the side. The dozen or so soldiers holding large shields bravely resisted, but they were smashed in the head by the rocks, causing them to bleed profusely. A few of them died on the spot, spitting out blood.

Seeing more stones starting to fall from the sky, Yuan Shao was so shocked that he no longer cared about face and took the lead to run down the city walls.