Chapter 57: Dark Clouds Pressing Down on the City

  Chen Kefu followed his voice and looked over, and indeed, in the midst of the repeated drumming sounds, the western attacking troops finally began their assault.

  The first to take the field were those dozens of squads of longbowmen, so many archers lined up in separate formations that Chen Kefu had never seen before.

  These bowmen were infantry, and the bows they used were also infantry longbows, which differed from the light bows used by their cavalry. This bow was larger and harder, requiring great strength to draw, and the arrows shot out could travel further.

  Under the command of the leaders of each formation, all the archers drew their bows and arrows. A burst of bowstring sounds came, followed by dozens of loud voices shouting "Release!"

  A whistling sound came, and the ten thousand strong archers of the Wan Ren Bow Formation shot their arrows in unison. Wave after wave of breaking air sounds came, and the hundred thousand arrow feathers rushed straight towards the head of Liao Dong City. The gazes of Chen Kefu and other generals followed the movement of the arrow rain, and the hundred thousand sharp arrow branches formed an invisible dark cloud in the sky, even the sun above was blocked out in an instant, and the entire sky darkened.

  Chen Kefu's mouth was agape, staring at the scene before him in shock. A rain of arrows, a true rain of arrows, endless and filling the sky. This is the Great Yu, this is what it means to be the Great Yu. In all the land, only the Great Yu could have 100,000 longbowmen fire in unison. Each arrow that was shot out was one of 100,000, how much money would that cost? How many craftsmen and how much time would it take to make so many arrows?

  The arrow rain that made the entire city of Liaodong dark seemed to have been flying in the air for a long time, even making Chen Kefu feel like it had been over ten minutes. However, in reality, this was just an instant matter.

  Such a rain of arrows was something that even the seasoned warriors of Goguryeo had never experienced before. Although the veteran generals quickly realized the situation and ordered their soldiers to raise their shields, the number of arrows shot by the Sui army was simply too great, like a downpour of rain, shooting upwards from the Sui army's formation below the city, then swooshing down from above with a whistling sound over the heads of the Goguryeo people.

  Such a rain of arrows, except for those iron-made large shields, ordinary wooden shields could not withstand such a rain of arrows. Those small round shields and other small shields were completely useless. The soldiers held up their shields, exposing their heads and bodies, under the dense rain of arrows, it was simply an indiscriminate attack. Any part that was slightly exposed below the shield would be instantly filled with ruthless arrow shafts, ruthlessly taking away the lives of one by one Goguryeo soldier.

  Chen Kefu turned his head to look at the generals beside him, from the generals to the knights, all of them in the Broken Army were staring with their mouths agape at everything before them. It was too shocking, this was indeed the momentum of a thunderbolt.

  Li Benlei's eyes were filled with excited light, his fists clenched tightly as he exclaimed, "Shoot well, shoot again, keep shooting, shoot these high-ranking Goguryeo barbarians to death. Shoot them dead, kill every last one of them."

  Wang Lin, the military advisor, had recently been promoted three ranks in a row, from eighth rank to seventh rank. At this time, he was wearing a suit of armor and standing behind Chen Kefu and others, looking at the arrow rain in front of him with excitement and saying, "These arrows are the ones we brought back from Xin City! If it weren't for us bringing back a large batch of arrows from Xin City last time, they wouldn't have been able to create this scene of 100,000 people shooting together! There's definitely some credit due to us in this. Shoot quickly, and best if you can directly shoot all the Goguryeo people dead! At that time, we'll definitely get a share of the great merit, and who knows, maybe we'll even get rewarded again." Wang Lin was now extremely interested in meritorious achievements, hoping that all the merits would go to their Broken Army Camp.

  One wave passed, another wave continued, the defenders on the city wall of Goguryeo were suppressed by such a rain of arrows that they couldn't even move an inch. If they moved slightly, their bodies would be pierced with arrows as soon as they exposed themselves.

  When the archers launched their attack, the infantry siege formation, which had been waiting for a long time behind them, moved forward. These infantrymen took advantage of the good opportunity that the Goguryeo people were suppressed and rushed to the west wall in units.

  In the past, Chen Kefu watched TV movies, where wars were depicted, and when it came to siege scenes, there were basically just a few routines. Soldiers would carry ladders and rush to the city wall, setting up ladders and climbing up. Others would push large battering rams, holding shields for cover, and charge at the city gate, using the ram to smash the gate. Then there were more advanced ones, where they would set up a row of catapults behind them, launching stones, fireballs and so on. Apart from these, he hadn't really discovered any other routines for siege warfare.

  But at this moment, the Sui army's siege corps opened Chen Kefu's eyes wide. He finally saw the ancient siege situation, and it was really frightening to see so many siege engines, all sorts of them, too many to count, let alone name. The cloud ladder was just a simple introductory level siege engine. Besides that, there were mobile siege towers wrapped in thick rawhide armor. In front of this thing called a battering ram, a large pillar stood upright at an angle, with an iron head on top, using lever power to smash the female wall on top of the enemy's city wall.

  This battering ram is enormous, about four or five stories high, with huge wheels installed below, resembling a mobile watchtower, over ten meters high, it's simply a giant siege tower. The most impressive thing about this battering ram is the extremely long and thick beam that stands upright to strike the city wall, according to Li Benlei, this beam is 15 zhang (a unit of length) long, which is equivalent to 40 meters long.

  But such a battering ram was not the only one, and it was lined up in a row, with as many as 100 battering rams being pushed to the bottom of the Liao Dong city under the brave push of the soldiers. As soon as they arrived at the bottom of the Liao Dong city, those guards were all like they had been injected with chicken blood, and they all bit their knives in their mouths and started climbing onto the platform on top of the battering ram.

  Beyond the storming chariots and cloud ladders, closely following behind, from within the Sui army's large formation, under the soldiers' escort, some even bigger ones were pushed out. These so-called flying buildings are basically taller than the walls of Liaodong City. Underneath these flying buildings, there are eight big wheels, and on top of the flying building, wooden boards are used to cover it, and outside, a layer of raw cowhide is used to cover it, and the outermost layer is all soaked in water, not only fearless of the defending army's bow and arrow attacks, but also fearless of fire arrow attacks.

  This big guy is like the gangway of an airplane, as long as it's pushed to the bottom of the city wall and leaned against the top of the city, the soldiers below can have a ramp that can accommodate four or five people at the same time. This big guy is compared to the cloud ladder, which is a simple tool that can be easily knocked down by the enemy if not careful, it's really a luxurious version.

  However, the flying tower also has its drawbacks. Firstly, this big guy moves too slowly, even if it's just a short distance to the city wall, it takes a long time to get there. Secondly, making a flying tower is very difficult, not only does it require various materials, but it also takes a lot of time. The Sui army has been besieging Liaodong for nearly a month now, and it wasn't until today that they finally finished making these flying towers. Moreover, these big guys can't be transported, basically they have to be made on the spot, used once and then discarded, purely consumable items, and they are also very expensive. If it weren't for a national siege war like the Sui dynasty's, there would be no need for such a big guy.

  Hundreds of people guarded a flying building, with shields all around the periphery and big strong men in the middle. Every time they moved forward, everyone shouted "Heiyou" in unison.

  Apart from this upgraded cloud ladder flying building, the Sui army lined up a row of big guys behind their formation. These guys were similar to the previous flying buildings, also higher than the city walls and driven by eight large wheels. However, these big guys looked more like a tall building, called Yun Lou (Cloud Building). On top of each Cloud Building was a platform that could hold one hundred archers. The purpose of these Cloud Buildings was to transport Sui archers close to the city walls, allowing them to shoot directly down at the defenders on the walls and inside the city.

  With the cloud building of Sui army, they can completely suppress the Goguryeo defenders with bow and arrow. This strategic weapon is also limited by its high cost, long time-consuming, and slow movement during battle.

  These cloud buildings were not the only siege engines of the Sui army. In addition, conventional and essential weapons such as catapults were also indispensable to the Sui army. Under the efforts of camel horses and auxiliary soldiers, rows of catapults were pulled to the front line, and soon Sui army auxiliary civilians brought stone bullets. Those stone bullets were large stones weighing dozens of kilograms in round shape after grinding.

  Apart from the catapults that shot stones, some of the trebuchets were loaded with clay pots filled with oil. The Sui soldiers had stuffed cloth into the mouths of the pots and set them on fire before throwing them into the city, causing great destruction to the defenders.

  Apart from the Western City, the Sui army also dispatched 50,000 troops to attack each of the three city gates in the southeast and north, while the main force was deployed at the western gate. Although the Goguryeo people could see that the Sui army's main attack was on the western gate, they were unable to transfer all their troops from the other three cities to the Western City because the other three cities also faced fierce attacks by 50,000 Sui soldiers each.

  The Sui army's archers had already launched nearly ten waves of arrow showers, and in this short period of time, they had shot out over a million feathered arrows. Relying on this brief moment, the Sui army's cloud ladders, battering rams, and catapults had all charged to the foot of the city wall, while the flying towers and cloud towers had also arrived at a place not far from the city wall. Even those trebuchets had been pushed to the front lines and calibrated. With just one more test shot, these trebuchets would be able to take over the archers' suppressive task.

  After all, the power of 100,000 archers firing together is indeed unparalleled in the world, but the consumption of arrows is also unmatched on earth. Such an arrow rain can only win a little time for the vanguard troops to attack and gain the upper hand, but it's impossible to keep shooting like this forever.

  On the west wall of Liaodong City, a group of close guards of King Yeon-ga of Goguryeo held up the doors that had been dismantled from the houses in the city and guarded Ga Ji-won and his generals as they rushed over.

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