General Qin

The Qin State's 600,000 troops went south to attack Chu, and today they are divided into three parts.

Looking from south to north, the "Southern Army" is the 150,000 Qin Army led by Lieutenant General Yang Duanhe, stationed on the line of Shangcai and Rushui, and confronted Ye Sheng, the right Sima of Chu State.

In the north, Yangxia was the stronghold. Wang Jian took advantage of General Feng Wuze's skillful behavior and asked him to lead the Qin army with 30,000 troops to guard the Yangxia barracks. The garrisons of the counties and bitter counties confronted each other.

Wang Jian personally led more than 400,000 "Chinese troops" including Zhao Tuo's troops to the south, stationed on both sides of Guling and Honggou, and looked south at Chenying, the state of Chu.

Although the Qin army had a large number, they did not take the initiative to launch an attack. After setting up their camps, they began to order the coolies in their respective camps to build barriers and walls in front of the camps, assuming a defensive posture.

After nearly a month of rush repairs and rush construction, the Qin army's defense line stretching for hundreds of miles has built a simple barrier wall, and it is still being reinforced.

Qin State Central Army, a camp of 20,000 soldiers near Honggou Wharf.

General Zhao Tuo, who is in charge of the defense here, is leading his generals to inspect the construction of the barrier hundreds of meters south of the barracks.

The walls and barriers built by the Qin army used the traditional board-building method.

The so-called block building is to use two wooden planks to sandwich each other when building a wall, and the outside of the planks is supported by wooden pillars, and the space between the two planks is filled with soil. After the tamping is completed, the wooden boards and columns on both sides are removed, and the rammed earth in the middle becomes a wall.

There are also tall turrets built on the walls for defense and observation.

Behind the wall and in the open space between the barracks, many towering wooden watchtowers were built, on which guard sentries patrolled day and night, monitoring the vast land outside the wall, and immediately issued a warning signal if any Chu army was coming. .

Zhao Tuo noticed that in this era, the battlefield commanders mainly used drums and golden gongs, and there were no horns commonly used in later generations.

The sound of the horn is high and sharp, easy to make, and easy to carry. It is also used by ethnic minorities in some remote areas in this era.

It's just that no one in Zhuxia has used it in the army. It should be a long time before it is popularized in the army on a large scale.

With such a good thing, Zhao Tuo naturally would not let it go. He asked someone to hollow out the animal horns and make a special horn, which was carried by the sentry on the watchtower. When he saw a large number of Chu troops appearing outside the wall, he blew the horn Warning.

For this reason, Zhao Tuo also specially conducted several battle simulations to train his soldiers how to deploy formations to deal with and counterattack when encountering the Chu army's attack.

"This wall is not very good. If Chu people carry wooden piles to hit it, I'm afraid it will crack after a few strokes."

Everyone inspected along the wall, Hei Hip reached out and knocked on the newly built wall, muttering.

He had served on the watch before, had been involved in local projects, and knew a thing or two about wall building.

The Qin law stipulates that the walls built by the pawns in the service have a long warranty period. If they are damaged within the time limit, the relevant responsible persons and builders must be arrested and repaired. Therefore, every soldier serving in the service must know whether the wall he built will work or not, and whether it will leave hidden dangers in the project.

Zhao Tuo recruited Jun Sikong, who was in charge of building the wall.

As soon as the army commander came, he said with resentment on his face: "General, this barrier is not as good as the Guanzhong wall. Firstly, there is not enough time and it cannot be consolidated in a short period of time. Secondly, the soil quality in Huaibei is not good, which is far worse than that of the Guanzhong wall. Go to the loess in our pass."

Zhao Tuo nodded. This was due to objective conditions, so he did not embarrass Jun Sikong.

Instead, I thought of something that might strengthen the defense of the wall.

By mixing and ramming lime, river sand, loess and other things, it can become "three-in-one soil".

In the front line, lime is hard to find, but if you really want to get it, you can also burn it with clam shells in the chasm.

This material has actually been used a long time ago and is called mirage ash.

"Zuo Zhuan" clearly records that when Song Wengong died, he was buried with mirage ash. In the state of Qin, this kind of thing was often used no matter whether it was building palaces or painting houses.

It's just that the Qin army's defense line is too long, hundreds of miles away, even if the oysters in the chasm water are exterminated and all their shells are used to burn them to ashes, it is far from enough.

Therefore, Zhao Tuo gave up building a wall with triadic clay to increase the defense here, but since he had this idea, it must be useless.

Zhao Tuo still sent people to look for oysters in the water, and then asked military craftsmen to conduct experiments and ratios to find the best ratio formula for making hard triad.

Sanhe soil is strong and easy to use. If you can't use it now, it doesn't mean you can't use it in the future.

He figured out the formula first, and then found a large amount of limestone in the future, which can be used to great effect. This kind of building material has a promising future, and there are still many places where it can be used in the future.

Just as Zhao Tuo was thinking about his new invention, the soldiers on the turret responsible for the early warning suddenly issued a warning, and a high-pitched horn sounded from the wooden watchtower not far away.

Immediately afterwards, countless black smoke ignited on the walls and ramparts.

Beacon warning!

The army of Chu is here!

"Great, these Jingchu savages finally came, Naigong's buttocks are itching!"

Hei Hip's face was overjoyed. He had been in the barracks for nearly a month, and he was gearing up for a fight with the Chu people.

Unexpectedly, only in the first few days, the Chu army sent people to harass and attack. After being shot indiscriminately by the Qin army, they dropped the body and ran away. They never appeared again.

Today is finally here.

Zhao Tuo asked Shejian, Heiyu and other generals to return to the barracks immediately to organize soldiers to defend in formation, while he took Zhong Limei, Lu Wan and other cronies to the wooden watchtower behind.

Standing on the top of the towering watchtower, Zhao Tuo could see a huge red-armored army approaching from the south at a glance. At a glance, there are probably as many as twenty thousand.

"Really?"

Zhao Tuo narrowed his eyes slightly, but he was not afraid in his heart, but rather excited.

Because Qin Jun's advantage is too great.

The reason why Wang Jian set up the Chinese army camp along Guling was that he had to rely on Honggou Wharf and Guling City for supplies. It is also because this place is just over 30 miles away from Chenying, the state of Chu in the south.

This distance is not long, and it can be reached in a day's daily march.

If the Chu army sent troops from Chen Ying to resist here within a day, they must be exhausted. If you come back after a night's rest, you will have to travel ten miles that day. In terms of physical strength, it is impossible to compare with the Qin army who is waiting for work in the camp.

The second point is that although this wall was built hastily and is not particularly strong, it is very effective.

With this wall and barrier here, the Chu army's chariots and cavalry could not play a role, and it was impossible to make a surprise attack from the flanks and rear. They could only use infantry to charge the wall head-on.

In this way, the Qin army can first kill a wave of Chu soldiers with crossbows and arrows, and then use the cover of the wall to fight hand-to-hand when the Chu soldiers rush forward.

Even if the wall is captured by the Chu army, or even destroyed, it doesn't matter. With this wall in front of it, the Qin army in the barracks behind has already been alerted and lined up in the open space between the wall and the barracks. The array is full of strong bows and crossbows.

After the Chu army broke through the wall, before they had formed a formation inside the wall, they would encounter a rain of arrows and shoot at them head-on, causing heavy casualties.

After the rain of arrows was shot, the Chu people were greeted by the full-spirited and fully armed Qin army.

A small barrier wall is enough to change the entire battlefield situation, no wonder it is called a tortoise shell by Chu Ling Yin Xiangyan.

So Zhao Tuo didn't think that Chu on the opposite side would be stupid enough to really launch an attack. The Chu army had a small force, so why bother to launch an attack and harm its own soldiers?

The Chu army didn't want to compete with the Qin army to consume national power. The only way was to lure the Qin army out of the barrier and fight outside.

Sure enough, after the Chu army arrived, they did not immediately beat the drums and launch an attack.

"General, the Chu army is going to use equipment to attack the wall. Is that thing a stone machine?"

Lu Wan called out.

Zhong Limei, who was beside him, saw it clearly, and said in astonishment: "No, look at that posture, it's not an ordinary stone launcher, could it be a giant cannon!"

"Yes."

Zhao Tuo nodded slightly.

Standing on the tall wooden building, he could clearly see behind the Chu army outside the wall, there were various huge wooden blocks and metal parts being pulled by bullock carts.

The Chu soldiers unloaded those parts, and then began to assemble them in an open space about two hundred steps away from the wall.

This distance, this size, as the father of the cannon of this era, Zhao Tuo naturally saw what the Chu people were doing at a glance.

"The Chu army really has giant cannons."

Not only was Zhao Tuo not angry, but he looked as if he really did.

Because the state of Qin had prepared for it long ago, Lord Changping Xiong Qi had a noble status. When Li Xin conquered Chu, he was in Huaiyang and was in charge of all logistics.

Not to mention that after the defeat of Mengwu, the number of Qin soldiers captured by the Chu people was unknown, and there were many craftsmen among them, enough for the Chu army to make this kind of weapon.

Since Wang Jian wanted to use a defensive tactic, he would naturally take these factors into consideration.

"It's a pity that Chu people have no creativity, and the opposite looks like the oldest first-generation machine."

Zhao Tuo smiled and shook his head, and ordered: "Zhong Limei, go down and tell Zhao Guang. Pull out our army's new cannon. Let the other side see it."