Chapter 124: A New Kind of Lethal Weapon

The commanders at New Spring City were frantic with worry, and things were no better at Dingbian City or Pubian City.

When Huang Wenlong received Magistrate Kou’s message, his heart sank. The Hu had sent another twenty thousand men to attack New Spring. It seemed they had resolved to take the city at any cost. Although he believed that the ten thousand defenders within the city should be able to deal with those twenty thousand troops, he feared the Hu would continue sending reinforcements.

Dingbian City had originally been defended by only twenty thousand men under Bala Tian and Han Qianhu. Yet over the past two days, another ten thousand soldiers had arrived under the Yeli brothers, and the ten thousand troops sent by the Kingdom of Kangle had also arrived that day.

Dingbian was now under tremendous pressure. As soon as Kangle’s troops arrived, they joined forces with Bala Tian and the Yeli brothers, completely surrounding the city.

Furthermore, Huang Wenlong had received a battle report from Jin Xi at Pubian the day before, stating that thirty thousand enemy troops were besieging that city as well.

At present, Dingbian barely had enough soldiers to defend itself, let alone spare troops to reinforce New Spring or Pubian.

There was another problem. With Dingbian surrounded, the local militia responsible for escorting grain and supplies to the garrison had yet to arrive. Even if they managed to bring the provisions to Dingbian, the Hu troops would certainly seize them first.

Dingbian was only a small county town, and the city’s stores of grain were already limited. If the transport troops outside could not get the provisions inside, the soldiers within the city would soon go hungry.

How could they fight without military rations?

Huang Wenlong was as frantic as an ant on a hot griddle. His only hope now was that, after receiving the urgent appeal he had sent to Yongzhou, his superiors would dispatch reinforcements as quickly as possible.

But worry or no worry, the battle still had to be fought. Though his heart was aflame with anxiety, Huang Wenlong nevertheless climbed onto the walls and continued directing the defense.

The Hu attacks had grown fiercer with each passing day, and the garrison under his command had rapidly dwindled. Only a little over ten thousand men remained. If reinforcements did not arrive soon, he believed Dingbian would hold out for no more than a few days.

At New Spring, the Hu continued launching frenzied attacks against the city from all four directions. Magistrate Kou, Commander Cao, and Little Ding each stood atop a different section of the walls, directing the defense.

Magistrate Kou held the north gate, Commander Cao the east gate, and Little Ding the west gate. The attack on the south gate was the weakest, and two lieutenants under Commander Wei were directing its defense.

At that moment, a soldier came before Little Ding and reported, “General Tian, the new crossbows you ordered have been partially completed. The military workshop requests that you inspect and approve them.”

Little Ding was overjoyed. “Excellent. I’ll go at once.”

He temporarily handed command of the defense to a lieutenant beside him, then descended from the walls and headed for the military workshop.

The workshop was not far from the county office. When Little Ding arrived, he saw several enlarged crossbows standing inside.

The newly built crossbows came in two models. One was medium-sized and could fire bolts more than three feet long. The other was large and could launch iron-tipped wooden spears nearly seven feet in length. The larger model could not be operated by one person; at least two or three were required.

To make the large crossbows easier to transport, the workers had modified Little Ding’s design by mounting each one on a small cart. The cart had four little wheels, making it easy to push, while the compartment beneath could hold spare wooden spears.

“This is an excellent design,” Little Ding praised.

With weapons like these, defending the city would surely become much easier.

“How many of these new crossbows have been completed?” Little Ding asked.

“Two hundred and thirty medium crossbows, and eighty-seven large ones,” the workshop supervisor replied.

“Good. Have them all taken up to the walls. Send fifty-seven medium crossbows and twenty-three large ones to each gate. The north gate may have a few more, and the south gate a few fewer,” Little Ding ordered.

Before long, the new crossbows had been distributed among the four gate towers. Little Ding quickly returned to the tower above the west gate. Shu Tianxiu was personally directing the attack there that day, while Chibu Gou commanded the assault on the north gate. The fighting was therefore fiercest at the north and west gates.

Once the new crossbows had been brought onto the walls, Little Ding wanted to test their power. He explained how to operate them to the defenders, then ordered them to fire a volley from the medium crossbows.

After a rapid clatter of mechanisms, more than fifty bolts, each over three feet long, shot toward the enemy troops charging forward. A whole section of the enemy line collapsed.

The bolts could actually pierce the enemy’s armor. Some even passed through two or three men in succession. Their range was astonishing as well, exceeding five hundred paces.

Little Ding was delighted and ordered the large crossbows tested next. Since they were mounted on carts, he named them repeating-ballista carts.

Two or three men operated each cart. More than twenty long spears were launched in an instant, and another swath of enemy soldiers fell.

The repeating-ballista carts were even more terrifying. Their spears could skewer several men at once, and when fired at horses, they could pass through two or even three animals in a line. Their range exceeded an astonishing eight hundred paces.

Shu Tianxiu was at that very moment about eight hundred paces from New Spring City. It should have been a perfectly safe distance. No matter how powerful a man’s arms were, neither arrows nor ordinary spears could reach so far.

But that day, misfortune found him.

One of the soldiers operating a repeating-ballista cart atop the walls—no one knew who—happened to aim in Shu Tianxiu’s direction. The moment the spear was fired, it shot straight toward him.

Fortunately, several soldiers stood in front of Shu Tianxiu. The spear pierced through two of them before striking him in the chest. His breastplate shattered with a sharp crack, and the tremendous force knocked him from his horse. He spat out a mouthful of blood, clearly suffering severe internal injuries.

Chaos rippled through the Hu ranks, and their attack weakened noticeably.

From atop the walls, Little Ding watched the scene with delight. He could not help thinking that although this age possessed neither firearms nor artillery, weapons of such power were impressive enough.

The other gates tested the new weapons as well, and they too succeeded in suppressing the momentum of the Hu assault. The Hu had never seen such miraculous weapons. To be able to pierce several men from hundreds of paces away was simply terrifying.

Thanks to these new weapons, the Hu suffered a crushing defeat that day. Their casualties rose to seven or eight thousand, while New Spring lost only a little over a thousand men.

Even so, the situation at New Spring remained bleak. More than four thousand defenders were still inside the city, but if no reinforcements arrived, the daily losses would soon make continued resistance impossible.

Magistrate Kou and Commander Cao were both deeply troubled. Little Ding, too, could think of nothing but holding the city to the death. With the few troops remaining inside, they could not possibly open the gates and fight the Hu in the open. The enemy would have been delighted if they had done so.

The stubborn defense of New Spring was giving Chibu Gou a severe headache as well. He had already promised the First Imperial Prince that he would capture the city, yet after several days of continuous attacks, New Spring still stood. Instead, his own army had suffered heavy losses. Of the thirty thousand troops he had started with, more than ten thousand were already dead or wounded, and Shu Tianxiu had been gravely injured that day, narrowly escaping with his life.

He had also seen the terrifying weapons on New Spring’s walls. He could not understand what manner of divine instruments they were, or how they possessed such astonishing power. It was almost beyond belief.

Now that the enemy had such weapons, he could no longer foolishly send his men forward to die. He had to find a way to counter them.

After pondering for a long while, Chibu Gou finally came up with what he believed was a fairly sound plan.

He immediately ordered men to cut down trees. He intended to have them build wooden carts that could shield his troops from the deadly weapons and ordinary arrows fired from New Spring’s walls.