Chapter 179 - Killing Device (3) (1/2)
Chapter 179-Killing Device (3)
Translated by Gamer
Liu Mang also went to rest. He did not know how touched the Black Flag Army were when he gave them hot food and let them sleep in the tower. They stopped looking at Liu Mang with unfamiliar eyes. The day before, they helped Liu Mang for Xu Sheng’s sake. Now they can see Liu Mang as someone who is steadfast and someone who has earned the loyalty of the Urban Army.
This is when the Black Flag Army truly belonged to Liu Mang. Once someone has a sense of belonging they become fearsome and loyal like Lu Bu’s Army. Until the Lu Bu’s Army arrive, they will not retreat even one step from Wan Cheng City.
Even Song Xian who once betrayed Lu Bu finally returned to Lu Bu’s side and sacrificed his life to atone for his mistakes.
The next morning, Liu Mang and Huang Zhong were already at the city walls. Liu Mang finally realized why Sun Ce had retreated. It is not out of mercy but an actual stratagem. He intends to capture all the guardians in Wan Cheng City. In one evening, Sun Ce’s army erected 4 tall structures. Each structure was taller than the walls of Wan Cheng City which was at least 10 meters tall.
On top of those structures were figures holding bows and arrows. Meanwhile on the ground, soldiers were climbing these 4 buildings.
“Siege towers!” Liu Mang clenched his teeth as he said the name of the structure. Like the rams, siege towers are also meant to capture cities. The rams whose only purpose was to destroy the city gates was already used. Liu Mang even blocked the entire pa.s.sageway and so the rams have lost its role.
The towers before their eyes is different. The towers are meant for killing soldiers. The rams can only deal with city walls. In other words, the towers were like a killing device.
The siege towers were an invention of Mohism. The Chu king once used him to fight with the small Song Kingdom. Knowing that they were not able to fight the Chu Kingdom, the Song Kingdom contracted 50,000 soldiers to fight.
For a few months, the Song soldiers fought hard and pushed back the Chu. Despite the Chu Kingdom sending 200,000 soldiers, their casualty reached at least 80,000. Continuing the battle would end in defeat for Chu. Even if they were to win, their neighbors would take this opportunity to invade their kingdom instead.
The king was unable to do anything. At that moment a Mohist scholar approached him and gave him the blueprint for the siege tower. It could not be called an offensive weapon but a murder weapon. Large towers that allow soldiers to fire arrows at the city. The towers can also be moved with pulleys allowing mobile fire.
The king spent 2 days to build the siege towers. After that he ordered 10,000 archers to enter the siege towers. From the towers the rained arrows on the Song soldiers that have a harder time squeezing around on the city walls.
Originally the Song soldiers had the city walls to hide. At the time, they are able to shoot arrows on the Chu soldiers while the Chu soldiers are not able to shoot back. With the siege towers, their roles were reversed. Within one incense stick of a time, countless arrows were pouring over the Song soldiers, spelling the victory of the Chu Army.
It was an extremely tragic moment where the soldiers, city guards, citizens, maidservants and court officials died on the wall trying to repel the Chu Army. Among the hundreds of thousand deaths, the remaining survivors were less than a thousand, all sick or disabled citizens.
Ever since then, the siege towers became the killing weapon for major va.s.sal states and the fear of every defending state.
However, the siege tower has its own weakness. It is slow and easily damaged. One light cavalry would be enough to rush underneath the tower to break it. This will not only destroy the weapon but also kill all the soldiers on the siege tower. It would be impossible to survive a fall from 10 meters high.
Now there is two important problems. First is that Liu Mang has already deployed all the soldiers he can to defend the city walls. There is no opportunity for him to split up his forces as Sun Ce would be able to break into the city.
Second, he has already sealed all the pa.s.sages to counter the rams. Sun Ce would not be able to enter the city but that also means that he is not able to get out of the city to destroy the tower. Even if he had soldiers to send out of the city, it would be impossible.
“Little Lord, what should we do!” Xu Sheng himself has never seen siege towers before. During the Warring States, not many people have seen siege towers. This is because siege towers cause too many injuries. When used, either the enemies die being shot by arrows or the siege towers get destroyed and all the archers fall to their death. So unanimously agreed not to use siege towers. Who knew it would have appeared now.
“Not yesterday but today!” Liu Mang muttered to himself. This is something the Sun Ce’s Army have been manufacturing yesterday. They must have took those retreating soldiers to cut trees and manufacture the siege towers.
“What to do!” Liu Mang unexpectedly resigned. If the siege tower gets nearer, the entire city will be within its attack range and at that time the casualties will increase. Although Sun Ce is not like the Chu King that can deploy 10,000 archers, at the very least he would have 3,000 archers on the siege tower. 3,000 archers attacking and cannot be interrupted. Liu Mang shudders just to think about it.
“Attack from a distance!” Huang Xu spoke. He is someone who knows about fighting. He has been with his father for a long time and has been influenced by him. The only difference is that Huang Xu is more a scholarly type like Zhou Yu and Su Fei while Huang Zhong is a fierce warrior.