Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

The Montenegrin Army is good at attacking cities and capturing strongholds. It doesn't mean that they have particularly sophisticated siege methods. The most commonly used tactic is to use the absolute numerical advantage to intimidate the soldiers defending the city. If they can scare the enemy directly, then the matter is over. If they can't be scared, they can either attack by force or surround the city from all sides, blocking the traffic in and out of the city. Within a few days, the people in the city will lose their morale.

For Zhang Yan, he never even used catapults when attacking a city. After the team arrived at the destination, it was enough to cut down trees to make some ladders and battering rams. However, this was only for small cities. For a strong city like Jinyang, it would not work without the use of catapults.

Zhang Yan had some catapults in his stronghold that he had seized from the treasuries of other cities. He brought them all here this time and set them up outside the western half of Jinyang's city wall on the west and south sides to protect the soldiers attacking the city. As for the east side blocked by the moat, Zhang Yan only deployed 20,000 soldiers there to create momentum, with the aim of dispersing the troops in the city.

"Adjust the distance of the catapult first."

The autumn wind was cool. On the west bank of the Fen River in the south, Zhang Yan sat upright on a majestic black horse, observing the top of Jinyang City from afar and said to Wang Dang.

Wang Dang narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the weapons on the top of the city wall and said, "It seems that the enemy's defenders are not many, but they have crossbows and it seems that there are also some catapults."

Zhang Yan said, "The catapult is too small, so it shouldn't pose much of a threat. Let's push our cart to a suitable distance and see if the enemy makes a move. If he doesn't, there's no need to worry."

The range of a catapult is proportional to its size. The space on the top of the city wall is small, and it is impossible to transport a large catapult to the city. Zhang Yan is not worried that the enemy's catapult will smash his own car. Those small catapults should only be used to smash the soldiers attacking the city.

However, under the impact of their own large trucks, those small cars will soon be scrapped.

"Okay!" Wang Dang responded and went to direct the soldiers to test the driving distance.

On the top of Jinyang City, Xu Chu saw the enemy's catapults inching forward. He turned back to look at the neatly arranged row of three-bow crossbows behind him and asked Zhang Mo, "Is it time to start?"

"Ok!"

Zhang Mo pointed to an inconspicuous tree on the bank of the Fen River in the distance and said, "We can't let the enemy's catapults cross this line."

"got it!"

After Zhang Mo retreated to the crossbows, Xu Chu waved the command flag in his hand, and dozens of crossbows began to be strung. Along with the buzzing sound of taut bowstrings, arrows as thick as children's arms flew out like thunder, and the sharp arrowheads cut through the air and rushed towards the bandit army that was pushing the catapults with fierce momentum.

"what--"

A soldier who was clearing obstacles on the road ahead was shot head-on. The arrow pierced his body and nailed him to the catapult behind him. The huge impact force even caused the body of the catapult to tremble.

"what--"

"puff--"

Countless screams and the sound of arrows piercing flesh were heard, and several soldiers pushing the carts nearby were directly strung together like human skewers by a single arrow.

"Click——"

Many more arrows shot directly into the wheels of the catapult, jamming the vehicle to the ground.

After only three rounds, half of the wheels of Zhang Yan's dozen catapults were stuck. Wang Dang was shocked. He hurriedly hid behind a catapult and estimated the distance from here to the top of the city. It was about a thousand steps. The ordinary crossbows had a maximum range of only six or seven hundred steps, and their power was far less than that. What kind of magic weapon did the other party have?

He subconsciously looked at Zhang Yan, only to see that Zhang Yan also had a look of horror on his face.

"What should we do?" Wang Dang ran back and asked.

Zhang Yan had been a bandit leader for so many years, and he had seen countless storms and waves. He quickly recovered from his shock and said, "These crossbows are indeed powerful, but there are only a few dozen of them. The killing power is strong but not dense, and the time between each blast is quite long. It is difficult to cause large-scale casualties on our side."

He glanced at the stuck catapult and said decisively, "Abandon the catapult and use all our forces to attack the city."

So, the Black Mountain bandits used their usual fighting style again, crushing the enemy with their numerical advantage.

Accompanied by the rumbling sound of war drums, tens of thousands of bandits swarmed like ants to the south-western half of the city and the entire west side of the city wall.

On the top of the city wall, Zhang Mo calmly said to Xu Chu, "Remove the treadle arrows and replace them with jackdaw arrows. Also, prepare the catapults."

When Zhang Mo first developed the three-bow crossbow, he intended to use it with treadle arrows for sieges. However, after many experiments, the craftsmen discovered that no matter how powerful the crossbow was, it was difficult to nail the arrows firmly into the city wall. Even if it was nailed in, it could not withstand the weight of an adult climbing up, and the crossbow's siege function was declared invalid.

Since the bed crossbow can only be used to defend the city, Zhang Mo thought of another crow arrow that can be paired with the bed crossbow.

Jackdaw Arrows are twenty arrows filled in an iron barrel with a mechanism inside. When shot from a crossbow, the arrows automatically scatter to form a dense rain of arrows. A barrel of Jackdaw Arrows is equivalent to the combat effectiveness of twenty archers.

However, due to technical issues, the range of the jackdaw arrow is far shorter than that of the treadle arrow, and is even shorter than the range of ordinary archers, so it can only be used after the enemy troops rush to the city.

Barrels of jackdaw arrows were loaded onto the three-bow crossbow, and tung oil and burning coke were also ready next to the catapult.

As the Black Mountain Army approached step by step, the catapults began to move. Just like when they resisted Qu Yi in Juyi Village, the first thing thrown out was tung oil, followed by cans of coke. Unlike the shortage of supplies back then, this time Zhang Mo prepared enough tung oil and coke, and a rain of flints fell on the enemy army.

The attacks of coke and tung oil are different from those of bows and arrows. Even if they are blocked by shields when they hit, the red-hot carbon falling to the ground can still cause damage to the enemy. The high morale of the Black Mountain Army slowly faded away because of this rain of flint, and the momentum was obviously not as strong as before.

Seeing this, Zhang Yan couldn't help but frowning. This officer guarding the city was not simple. He first used the crossbow to attack the catapult from a distance, and now it was raining flint in the middle of the city. What could he do close to the city wall?

There was a hint of expectation in Zhang Yan's heavy mood. Although many soldiers were injured, there were no deaths except for some people who were on fire. He did not order a retreat, but stared at the soldiers who were rushing towards the city wall step by step.

One hundred steps, ninety steps, eighty steps...

Just as Zhang Yan breathed a sigh of relief, he saw the crossbow moving again. Then, in his astonished eyes, a rain of arrows flew down from the top of the city wall, like flowers scattered by a fairy, which was quite spectacular.

However, the scene under the city wall was not spectacular. The Black Mountain soldiers were shot and killed in large numbers. The low wails when they were burned by the flint turned into tragic screams.

Before they even reached the city wall, the Black Mountain Army had suffered heavy casualties, most of whom were burned by flints, and most of whom died from arrows. However, for Zhang Yan, who had a wealthy family, these casualties were still acceptable to him, and he still did not order a retreat.

The rain of flints in the middle of the battlefield continued, and the rain of arrows near the city wall also continued. Under such harsh conditions, the Black Mountain Army relied on their tenacious perseverance to put ladders on the city wall.