sweeping the world

Chapter 1078
Naturally, Sasan also has a bed crossbow, a weapon of war.

This Sasanian army that invaded Jidoro did not carry too heavy siege equipment.Although the bed crossbow is also large in size, it is not as bulky as other large equipment, and there are still nearly a hundred of them carried by an army.

The reason why Dospars Canandina did not put the bed crossbow into use immediately was simple, it was simply that it was not timely.

The offensive and defensive battle of the city wall began again as the offensive and defensive armies entered the range of each other's long-range weapons.

That is, various types of arrows were fired by the crossbowmen, and they would cross in mid-air. Some arrows collided and fell down, and more arrows flew forward according to their own fixed trajectories.

When the arrow falls, the arrowhead falls first. The kinetic energy of the flight plus the sharpness of the arrowhead will produce penetrating power when they hit any object.

The arrowheads of Sassanid and Jidoro are both in the shape of a flat body with double undercuts. This type of arrowhead is actually lacking in terms of accuracy and penetration. However, this type of arrowhead is generally used to shoot without armor. Soldier, if you want to pull it out after it enters the flesh, the double barb will definitely cause a second damage when it is pulled out.

On the battlefield, soldiers were constantly shot down by arrows, and screams and groans appeared again and again.

For the advancing Sasanian troops, the soldiers carrying ladders in the front row started running as soon as they entered the bow and arrow range of the defenders. They themselves were carrying ladders, so they didn't have any sensitivity, so they could only run forward dully.

The defenders on the city wall of Peshawar, of course, aimed at the Sasanian soldiers carrying ladders. The more they shot to death, the fewer ladders they would have to climb the city wall, and the less pressure their defense would have.

Some people carrying ladders attracted the rain of arrows on the city wall, and the follow-up Sasanian soldiers began to make the necessary arrangements. They used shield vehicles to form a curved horizontal line.

The Sasanian sword-shield fighters who had set up the shield chariots began to charge forward. When they charged, they would try their best to lower their bodies and put the shields in their hands on top of their heads, feeling the force of the arrows hitting the shields, listening to the There was a clanking sound of metal and skin.

Of course, it is not absolutely safe to charge with a shield on. The shield only protects a large part of the upper body, from the waist to the soles of the feet are still exposed.

Some Sassanid sword and shield fighters were hit by arrows in their thighs while running, and at the same time they lost their balance and staggered and fell to the ground. The bad luck was that the shield had just been removed from the position protecting the vital points, and the next moment there was an arrow Shoot it and get killed.

The Sasanian soldiers carrying the ladders approached the city wall, and before they had time to breathe, they began to erect the ladders against the various heavy objects thrown from the city walls.

Not long after, the Sasanian sword and shield fighters also approached the city wall. Those sword and shield fighters who ran to the edge of the erected ladder naturally began to climb. Keep smashing things down. If the stones are not so exaggerated, you can use the shield to withstand them. If it is a big stone or a log, you can't hold it at all and you will fall down.

The Sasanian sword and shield fighters who ran to the place where the ladder had not yet been erected had to join in the work of erecting the ladder. During the process, they also had to suffer from constant objects falling on their heads. Many people were hit while they were busy. Injure or die instantly.

Both the city wall and the city wall were busy. The Sasanian soldiers who had already reached the city wall wanted to go up, and the Peshawar defenders on the city wall naturally wanted to stop them. They were just a part of this huge battlefield.

Sasanian crossbowmen arrived at the position where the shield chariots had been deployed.

The relatively small number of crossbowmen started the winding action with the crossbow machine imitated from the Han Empire.

Sasanian obtained the crossbow should be in the 14th year of Yuanshuo?They disassembled and researched, and began to mass-produce their crossbows when it was approaching the 16th year of Yuan Shuo.

Some imitations have been improved and their performance is much better than the genuine ones.

Some imitations are substandard due to some missing performance aspects.

Sassan had actually made a comparison, and they had to admit that they didn't seem to fully understand that the imitated crossbows were not only inferior to the crossbows of the Han Empire in terms of range, but they were damaged very quickly.

It always takes time to get familiar with a new thing, especially when it comes to technological creations. Without the precipitation of time, how can we produce any excellent technological creations, especially in terms of imitation.

The Persian craftsmen can confirm that there is no wrong installation of any part, and guess that the difference in range should be related to the bowstring.As a result, they used bowstrings worth far more than those of the Han Empire, and the range was up to the standard, but the cost also increased.

In fact, it is related to the knowledge of material science. The same parts made of different materials will have different performance. But it is not just the relationship between the bow strings, but also the materials used in some parts.

In addition, even if the Persian craftsmen chose the same materials as those of the Han Empire when building the crossbow, the performance of the crossbow is still inferior to that of the Han Empire due to the gap in the specifications of each part, and the damage rate is also related to the substandard parts. Direct relationship.

"The Persians imitated our crossbows." Ma Bin had known this news for a long time: "Today is the first time I saw them use it with my own eyes."

The Han army will try its best not to leave anything related to firearms on the battlefield, and the packing of other war equipment is not so strict.

Furthermore, before the 17th year of Yuanshuo, the Han Empire did not have many troops equipped with firearms, and the number of times they were sent to the battlefield was even more numerous, and the loss rate was far lower than other war supplies.

Almost every field army of the Han Empire was equipped with a large number of crossbows of various styles, especially the most powerful crossbows used by infantry.

In fact, it is not only the army, although it is forbidden for the people to own crossbows, but the history of using crossbows as a weapon in Zhuxia has been so long. count less.

The difficulty for the Persians to obtain crossbows was much lower than that of firearms. They worked hard for three or four years to obtain very little gunpowder, but they were able to obtain a lot of styles of weapons such as crossbows.

The Sasanian crossbowmen cocked the bow directly with their feet. They pulled the bowstring to the trigger position and held it before cocking the arrow. They did not fire immediately after finishing the bow, but waited for the command.

"shoot!"

The sound of the trigger and the bowstring sounded almost at the same time. The crossbow arrows left the arrow trough and shot forward. They actually made a sound of breaking through the air the moment they shot out.

"There are about [-] crossbowmen on the western battlefield." Zhou Bian took a visual inspection and said, "That's all we saw. Sasanian probably copied a lot."

The crossbow is the ultimate cold weapon individual long-range weapon.The reason why it can shoot far is because some parts are loaded with the tension of pulling the bowstring, otherwise it would be extremely difficult to pull it apart only by manpower.There is no doubt that the greater the tension, the longer the shooting range, but it also depends on the material of the arrow.

"The shooting range is about 250 meters." What Ma Bin saw was that the crossbow arrows fired by the Sasanian crossbowmen not only reached the city wall, but a considerable number of Sasanian crossbowmen did not control the elevation angle and shot over their heads, and they shot into the city: "Our A powerful crossbow can shoot up to 480 meters. Ordinary crossbows can basically shoot up to 280 meters."

I don't know what style of crossbow the Persians imitated. Judging from the situation of use on the battlefield, it should be that they didn't get a good style, or that the Persians couldn't imitate it?

Whether it is a cold weapon war or a firearms war, usually the long range has the advantage. It is a dilemma that you can attack me, but I cannot attack you.

"They don't have many crossbows, otherwise they should be continuously covered by arrow rain." Zhou argues that Zhu Xia has enough powerful crossbows and enough arrows for general warfare: "Use the advantage of the range to continuously cover arrows and rain, and defend in frustration. If the morale of the army is weakened after a long time, the morale of the defenders will be slackened, and another attack on the city will definitely get twice the result with half the effort."

In the history of the Xia Dynasty, it was the Qin army that took full advantage of long-range advantages. Every time they attacked a city, they basically carried out a rain of arrows for several days or even more than a month to clean the ground.In this way, many cities encountered the Qin army, but before the Qin army could launch a real siege, the city defenders could not bear the psychological pressure and surrendered.

Later, it is basically difficult to see the Qin army's arrow rain washing the ground. Firstly, the number of crossbows is rapidly decreasing, and secondly, the consumption of arrows is difficult to maintain.It would be so embarrassing because the assembly line production technology mastered by the pre-Qin Dynasty was lost, so that it was obvious that the crossbows of the pre-Qin Dynasty were damaged and could be repaired by replacing parts, but the later crossbows were damaged but the parts did not match.The same goes for the consumption of arrows. The national power has increased, but the production efficiency has been low. Naturally, the production speed cannot keep up with the consumption speed.

Zhuxia has been developing all the time, but with every change of dynasty, some technologies are lost in the chaos of war.

A funny thing that isn't funny.At the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Zhao Kuangyin bullied orphans and widows and created the Northern Song Dynasty, but the technology of making crossbows he mastered was not as good as Xiang Party members.

That's because the Xiang Party members inherited Li Tang's crossbow-making technology and made some improvements, but other forces did not inherit the crossbow-making technology, such as the Northern Song Dynasty, which once nominally ruled the Xiang Party people.

Later, the Party members split from the Northern Song Dynasty and founded the country on their own.The Northern Song Dynasty still had something captured in the war with Xixia, and after its own research and improvement, it was considered to have a powerful weapon for the country that surpassed Xixia, that is, the god arm crossbow.

The problem is that after the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, the manufacturing method of the divine arm crossbow was lost again.Since then, the status of crossbows in war has repeatedly declined, and the further back they go, the harder it is to see excellent crossbows.

Now, because the Sasanian army has mastered individual weapons with a longer range than the Peshawar defenders, they have staged unilateral bullying relying on range.

The defenders on the city wall of Peshawar were still shooting arrows at the Sasanian soldiers under the city wall at the beginning, but they couldn't reach the Sasanian crossbowmen 200 meters away.

Waiting for the Peshawar defenders to be covered by Sasanian crossbow arrows again and again, they didn’t even shoot arrows at the Sasanian siege soldiers below the city wall. They could only hide behind the parapet or shield and wait for the Sasanian crossbowmen’s archery to enter the interval , they can show their heads and continue to shoot arrows.

In addition, the defenders who were responsible for throwing stones, wood, gold juice, kerosene, and boiling water to the enemy under the city wall actually wanted to avoid the coverage of Sasanian crossbowmen.

It’s just that there are crossbowmen with a longer range than the defenders, and the arrows they shoot have also caused accidental injuries, but they have repeatedly suppressed certain sections of the city wall, so that the Sasanian soldiers who attacked the city can fight in the relative environment. Climb the ladder.

"If the Persians had more crossbowmen, it would not need to be four or five times, but only two or three times..." Zhou Bian actually looked down on the accuracy of the Sasanian crossbowmen, as if he didn't know the importance of shooting elevation angles. Compared with the soldiers, it is really far behind, but it is enough for the Peshawar defenders who have no counterattack ability at all: "With their ruthlessness that they don't care about accidental injuries, it will be much easier to climb first."

That's right, how long have Persian talents owned crossbows in batches.They are still figuring out how to use the crossbow. They haven't discovered the importance of shooting elevation yet, or they know it but don't have enough time to train the crossbowmen. This is normal.

The Han army was promoting cultural education in the army. It didn't intend to teach a bunch of champions, but just let the soldiers know how to read.

Educated soldiers and uneducated soldiers are two groups.When educated soldiers are trained, the speed at which they master training skills is definitely much faster than that of uneducated soldiers.

In the pre-Qin period, it was recognized that crossbowmen needed to master mathematics knowledge. The Qin army did not have universal education, but the strict military law forced soldiers to concentrate on learning when receiving training, dare to be sloppy or fail to keep up with the training progress However, flogging may still be light, hard labor or more serious punishment is not a problem, and he is not stingy.

The attack and defense on the battlefield are not yet fierce, but the trend of victory and defeat has already emerged. The mere appearance of crossbowmen has changed the trend. Once those siege equipment are pushed up, the battle will inevitably be against the Peshawar defenders. more unfavorable.

This time Li Tan ventured closer to within fifteen miles of Peshawar, relying on the latest telescope... that is, the relatively large one that needs a stand, to watch the development of the battle situation in the distance.

"Last night, the Persians attacked overnight?" Li Tan nodded in response from the scouts following him, "They are quite determined to attack the city!"

After commenting, Li Tan actually didn't care whether Peshawar would fall, and even wished it would fall quickly, otherwise the longer their army stayed in hiding, the more likely they would be exposed.

"Attack from all sides at the same time, and the main attack direction is the west." Li Tan left the telescope and rubbed his sore eyes: "The courage is still too small, and the army has an overall advantage. If you don't attack all four sides, two sides are better than one side."

Li Tan guessed that the Sassanian army did not have enough commanders who could act alone.

To have enough troops, you really need to have enough commanders, otherwise just having more soldiers is just one thing.

Li Tan was able to act independently and had the most basic judgment. He believed that he should go back immediately and be prepared to lead his troops to Peshawar at any time.

(End of this chapter)