Chapter Seventy-One: Casting Away the Chariot

  Han Feng Dai Xiao Zi thanks everyone, today the little guy's condition has been controlled and fortunately did not damage the liver, kidneys, heart and other organs. It's a blessing in disguise! I can finally breathe a sigh of relief! Unfortunately, I can only guarantee two updates for now, please forgive me, everyone!

  When the sky brightened up again, the villagers were shocked to see that several things had appeared on the empty land outside the village overnight. The clever ones recognized what these things were at a glance, and suddenly they cried out in panic.

  The Fan family heard the news and one by one hastily climbed up the wall of the villa, looking outwards. When they saw these things clearly, they were also shocked and panicked.

  "How did this happen? Didn't you discover it last night?" Fan Da asked the several guards, Zhuang Ding, after taking a look at these things.

  Several servants looked at each other and replied: "Young master! Last night we did hear a commotion outside, but we didn't see what they were doing. Besides, it was dark outside and nothing could be seen clearly until dawn when we saw these things! This is not our fault!"

  "What else are you talking about, think of a way to deal with the stick outside! What's going on here?! Where's Luo Li?!" Fan Lao Cai heavily slammed his cane onto the ground, interrupting his son and the villagers' conversation, and asked about Luo Li's whereabouts.

  Fan Dashao immediately slumped his shoulders and replied with a gloomy face: "Dad! Last night, Luo Li said that the pole seemed to be making some noise, and he insisted on going out to investigate what the pole was up to. As a result, he was caught by the pole and is probably dead by now! I didn't expect the pole to cause so much trouble in just one night! What can I do about it?!"

  Xiao Tianjian barely slept all night, bringing his men to help the carpenter, and overnight they hastily felled trees and built three simple catapults. Due to the urgency of time, these three catapults didn't even have their bark removed, and were as crude as possible. They didn't even have counterweights, just a few thick ropes tied to the beam, relying on manpower to pull it up. In an era where artillery was already widely used, creating such a thing was something that many people wouldn't have thought of.

  Although Xiao Tianjian now has a tiger squat cannon, after clearing up, Xiao Tianjian was very disappointed. The ammunition of the tiger squat cannon is only enough to fire a few shots. Before the drawbridge is lowered, if the tiger squat cannon is used to bombard the village wall, it will not have much effect and can only be used to bombard the village gate at critical moments.

  So he pondered for a good while and finally remembered this primitive catapult, so he started building it overnight with his men. Fortunately, the materials were simple, just sturdy wood would do, and the structure was simple to the point of being crude, just build a solid base, put a throwing pole on top, and it could be used roughly. So in one night, they managed to build three catapults, and last night they even tested them out, amazingly tossing a several-jin-heavy stone over a distance of nearly fifty paces, which was sufficient for their use.

  Taking advantage of the fact that it was still dark, he directed his men to move the three catapults to the outside of the manor gate and position them properly. By the time the guards discovered them, everything was already in place.

  Looking at these three ugly catapults, no one would think they were just decorations. The people inside Fanjia Fortress immediately became flustered and for a while did not know what to do.

  Xiao Tianjian stood far away on the empty land outside the village, shouting at the top of his lungs towards Fanjia Village: "Fan Lao Cai listen! I have no grudges or grievances with you, I only ask for the grain in your village. If you know what's good for you, quickly open the village gate and let us in. I, Xiao Tianjian, guarantee that we will only take the grain and not harm your lives! My words count!"

  "But if you're still reluctant, then don't blame me for being impolite! Once I force it in, you'll regret it later! I'll wipe out your entire family, not even leaving a chicken or dog behind! Did you hear that?"

  Xiao Tianjian's roar immediately spread to the wall of the village, startling Fan Lao Cai so much that he almost fell off his chair. He pounded his cane and shouted: "What's going on here? What's going on?! You all heard me, I'm staking everything today! You must hold out against these bandits for me! If you can drive them away, I'll reward each of you with ten taels of silver! Did everyone hear that?"

  Zhuang Ding was also frightened at first, but when he heard that there was a reward of ten taels of silver to be had, his enthusiasm returned. To know that at this time, ten taels of silver was not a small sum, buying a young maid would not cost so much silver, in good times, it could support a family for a year! After hearing Fan Lao Cai's words, these people were excited like they had been injected with chicken blood, one by one rolled up their sleeves and shouted: "Fan Ye Wai rest assured! As long as you are willing to spend the money, we dare to do it, absolutely cannot let them in! But Fan Ye Wai, you must keep your promise! After the event, you must give us enough reward!"

  At this point, Fan Lao Cai couldn't bear to part with his money anymore. Spending a few hundred taels of silver to protect his property was worth it. He repeatedly swore to the heavens that he would not shortchange these tenant farmers their reward money.

  Then the village men, one by one, puffed out their chests and began to load their guns, take up their bows, and assume a posture of determination to fight to the death with the outside forces. The pots of boiling water below were also immediately lit up. Whatever they could think of, whatever they could do, they all brought out at this moment. Someone shouted: "What's to be afraid of? It's just three broken carts! We're not afraid of cannons, let alone these things! Just be careful for a while and see what kind of tricks they can come up with! Brothers, add more strength!"

  After Xiao Tianjian finished shouting, he waited for a while. There was no response from the villa, but instead, there were busy preparations going on. He knew that this last threat had not worked either, so he didn't wait any longer.

  "Turn around and shout to the people behind him: "This Fan Lao Cai is going to take money but not his life! Since that's the case, then we won't be polite to him either! According to my arrangement, let's go! Pour it in and let everyone drink and eat meat!"

  Those who were beaten yesterday, after hearing Xiao Tianjian's order, also cheered up one by one and shouted in unison: "Kill!" Then they immediately picked up their weapons and rushed forward.

  This time, Xiao Tianjian divided the people into several groups. Zhao Erdui temporarily led a group of knife and shield holders to continue forward, carrying large shields to provide cover for the three catapults. After all, this distance was already within the effective killing range of firearms and bows and arrows. Without anyone carrying shields in front to provide cover, the people operating the catapults were basically like live targets, easily defeated by Zhuang Ding.

  There was also a group of knife shield men led by Tie Tou, preparing at the back of the team. Each person held a knife and a shield, wrapped tightly in clothing from head to toe, looking very strange. They selected twenty people, mostly old men under Xiao Tianjian's command, as well as a few new recruits who were relatively fierce. This was a temporarily formed assault team. Two long ladders were also assigned to them, which had been fitted with curved hooks made of hardwood by the carpenter overnight. As soon as the ladders were placed against the wall, the hooks would immediately catch onto the top of the wall. It wouldn't be easy for the guards to push the ladders down again unless they used a large axe to cut through the hardwood hooks. Originally, Xiao Tianjian wanted to use iron to make these things, but it wasn't feasible at short notice, so he had to settle for using hardwood instead.

  The rest of the people were divided into three groups, with each catapult equipped with twenty-five or six people, and one person was left to serve as a commander, who also served as a gunner, responsible for observing the landing point of the projectile launched by the catapult.

  Over a hundred people acted simultaneously and rushed out of the village to the open space outside, surrounding the three carts.

  Behind each catapult stood more than 20 people, holding the ropes on the catapult. This thing was called a cannon before the Song Dynasty and was actually used as a large cannon on the battlefield. Later, Genghis Khan of Mongolia learned new cannon-making techniques from Western Regions and created counterweight trebuchets, also known as Huihui cannons, which replaced this human-powered cannon. After entering the Ming Dynasty, the application of firearms became more widespread, and this thing gradually disappeared from the battlefield, so that few people thought of using it as a weapon for attacking cities and strongholds.

  More than 20 people, as long as they put their strength together and pulled the rope together, the force was still quite large. The throwing pole that rose up could throw a stone of more than ten kilograms dozens of steps away. For such a small village, it was still very effective.

  As soon as Xiao Tianjian gave the order, all three catapults immediately sprang into action. Someone quickly placed a stone in the pouch made of coarse cloth at the front end of the throwing pole.

  Under the command of each gunner, those pulling the ropes immediately shouted in unison and pulled the ropes with all their might. The three catapults instantly raised their long throwing arms, and then three stones weighing over 10 kilograms flew out.

  Zhuang Ding exclaimed and quickly stared at the three stones, rushing around on the wall of Zhuang's house, dodging the three stones that fell from the sky, afraid that if he wasn't careful, he would be smashed by the stones.

  But their worries were unnecessary, the effect of this first round of shooting was terrible. Everyone had no experience and couldn't position the catapults well. As a result, only one of the three stones hit the wall of the manor, one stone fell to the ground before it even reached the wall, and the last one flew off at an angle, not even touching the edge of the wall.

  The result made the villagers breathe a sigh of relief, burst into loud laughter, and ridiculed the poles outside while leaning on the wall. They all felt much more relaxed, thinking that this thing looked scary at first, but it was actually nothing to be afraid of! It's good for scaring people, but it's actually useless!

  The people inside the village were much more at ease, and some of the bowmen and gunners immediately began firing outwards in an attempt to stop the poles from continuing to threaten the village with this broken toy.

  However, the counterattack by Zhuang Ding was also ineffective. Most of the musket balls and arrows were shot onto the large shields, so they didn't pose a threat to the people outside. Instead, the sound of "ping ping pang pang" was very lively.

  For such a result, Xiao Tianjian was naturally dissatisfied, but he didn't give up. He immediately let the three catapults adjust their angles and prepare to launch again.