My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 619 Ballista as a Lure
Unlike the Left Guard Army, Cao Cao's army was not wealthy enough to equip its troops with large quantities of iron armor. Although they had captured a great deal of iron armor after defeating Li Jue and Guo Si in Guanzhong a few years earlier, they had obtained tens of thousands of pieces of iron armor alone.

These iron armors did not belong to the Liangzhou army alone, but were a legacy of the entire Eastern Han Empire.

When Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, he incorporated the three central armies in Luoyang: the Northern Army, the Southern Army, and the Western Garden Army.

The Northern and Southern Armies were the lifeblood of the Liu family, the most loyal troops since the Han Dynasty. Their luxurious equipment, superior weaponry, and sturdy armor were second to none. Moreover, in addition to serving as the emperor's personal guard during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Armies also had an additional function: serving as an officer corps.

In the event of a major battle, elite troops were drawn from the Northern and Southern armies as the backbone and junior officers, and then the army was expanded by the Liangjiazi of Sanhe to meet the enemy. If that was still not enough, temporary troops were recruited from various counties and kingdoms to supplement the army.

Therefore, almost everyone in the Northern and Southern armies of the Eastern Han Dynasty wore armor, and it was all iron armor.

Although the Western Garden Army did not have the long history of the Northern and Southern Armies, it was a personal army personally formed by Emperor Ling to deal with General He Jin. For this army, the stingy Emperor Ling of Han did not hesitate to open the treasury and use his own private funds as the army's expenses. At the same time, he also opened the armory in Luoyang to supply the Western Garden Army with all his might.

Therefore, the equipment of the Xiyuan Army was also excellent, with a very high rate of armor-wearing, even to the point that one person wore two types of armor (leather armor and iron armor).

After Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, he annexed all three armies, greatly increasing his strength, and this is the reason why.

However, since Dong Zhuo, the military strength of the Liangzhou group has been constantly eroded. Military equipment and armor have been only being exported and not imported. Due to the lack of iron ingots, financial resources and materials from various places, Luoyang and Chang'an have a large number of blacksmith workshops, but they have little production.

Therefore, it is not surprising that after Cao Cao eliminated the Liangzhou army, he only obtained more than 10,000 sets of iron armor, most of which still needed to be repaired before they could be used.

Even so, Cao Cao's strength increased significantly as a result. In addition, the warhorses captured from Liangzhou gave Cao Cao the material foundation to start building his elite army and improve the weaponry of his elite troops.

However, most of the captured armor and warhorses were collected by Cao Cao and supplied to his elite troops, with only a small number allocated to various elite units as their most prized possessions.

Nowadays, most of Cao Cao's army mainly uses leather armor, which is naturally as fragile as paper in the face of iron-feathered arrows.

Immediately afterward, before Cao's army could react, two more beams of cold light shot out from the opposite side. After piercing through the archer formation, they went straight into Cao's camp, causing nearly ten more casualties.

In just two short volleys, Cao Cao's army suffered nearly forty or fifty casualties. This number may not seem large, but at this point, the two armies had not even clashed, and they hadn't even clearly seen the enemy's faces. The loss of a small squad had already dealt a significant blow to the morale of Cao Cao's army.

Most importantly, Cao Cao's army, from top to bottom, had no idea what weapons the enemy was using.

It looks like a large crossbow bolt; Cao Cao's army also possessed this weapon.

However, Cao Cao's large crossbow bolts had a much shorter range and were far less lethal. The arrows used by Cao Cao's large crossbow bolts were only about one-third larger than those of ordinary crossbowmen, and their range was only between two and three hundred meters.

In fact, there were no true crossbows in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The large crossbows of that era were more like enlarged or sophisticated versions of crossbows.

Taking the large yellow crossbow as an example, it was only 20-30% larger than a regular crossbow, and its power was greater. The Mozi repeating crossbow was also just a repeating crossbow, and its power and arrow size were completely incomparable to the ballista.

The two volleys of crossbows fired by the Left Army exceeded one thousand meters.

The same thing happened on the left and right flanks, with Cao Ren's and Pang Xi's troops both being attacked by the left flank's ballistae.

Fortunately, no third salvo occurred after the second salvo, which made Cao's army realize that this type of ballista was likely not capable of continuous firing.

The enemy simply divided their existing ballistae into two batches to create the illusion of two volleys.

Realizing this, Shi Huan quickly sent someone to consult Cao Ang while simultaneously reorganizing the ranks and boosting morale.

Fortunately, Cao Ang, reminded by Sima Yi, realized the seriousness of the situation and, without waiting for Shi Huan's instructions, directly ordered the vanguard to advance.

This order was exactly what Shi Huan wanted, and Cao Cao's vanguard immediately sprang into action.

The Cao army archers at the forefront began to disperse, even more widely than before, while the Cao army soldiers behind them pushed out shield carts and pressed towards the vanguard of the left flank army from behind.

Just as Sima Yi had guessed, stringing the ballista was quite complicated and laborious. Under normal circumstances, it would require at least twenty strong men to operate it at the same time. Sixteen of them would use multiple winches and pulley systems to concentrate the strength of many people on the bowstring to complete the winch stringing step. Then, two strong men would be needed to install the iron-feathered arrow. Next, several people would be needed to aim. Finally, a strongman would use a sledgehammer to strike the trigger, causing the teeth to retract and achieving the firing effect.

This set of actions takes at least five minutes, and as the soldiers lose strength, the time will increase.

Even if each ballista is equipped with twenty soldiers who take turns cocking it and resting, this is unavoidable. Moreover, the ballista has tremendous elasticity, which places extremely high demands on the bowstring, because even a single piece of sinew is not enough to provide such strong elasticity; composite materials must be used.

Even so, the bowstring of a ballista has a rather limited number of uses, lasting thirty to fifty times under excellent maintenance. However, this is a cumulative number. If used continuously in a single battle, the bowstring will begin to loosen due to heat after more than ten uses, thus greatly reducing the shooting power and range.

Therefore, although the ballista is extremely powerful and has a very long range, it is also extremely expensive.

Not to mention that each crossbow requires a team of twenty people to maintain, operate, and use, the bowstring is also easily damaged, and the cost of each bowstring is between eight and fifteen thousand coins. This amount of money is enough to make five to eight crossbows.

Moreover, it's not just the bowstring that's expensive; the arrows aren't cheap either.

Each Iron Feather Arrow weighs a full ten kilograms, forged entirely from refined iron—that's a substantial weight. To put it simply, one Iron Feather Arrow is equivalent to the material consumption of an iron suit of armor, and two Iron Feather Arrows are equivalent to a set of iron armor.

Today's barrage of fire was equivalent to destroying nearly a hundred suits of armor. If these iron-feathered arrows weren't recyclable after the battle, even the most extravagant and ruthless Liu Feng wouldn't have dared to use them.

It is precisely for these reasons that Liu Feng has brought out dozens of ballistae for his decisive battle against Cao Ang.

It wasn't that Liu Feng was unwilling to produce more, but rather that he simply couldn't afford to use them all.

However, although the cost of ballistae is very high, their effectiveness is outstanding.

With just two volleys of fire, Cao Cao's army, which had been sitting back and thinking that the Left Army would take the initiative to attack since they were eager to challenge them, could no longer sit still and was forced to become the one to take the initiative to attack.

A mile isn't a long distance; an ordinary person could run it in a minute or two. But for fully armed soldiers, it would take a full five minutes. Soldiers could choose to jog, but that would be extremely taxing, and officers would never choose that unless absolutely necessary.

**
"Shield up—!"

With a roar from a military commander, the armored infantrymen in the front ranks of Cao's army simultaneously lowered their bodies, slamming their large leather shields into the earth to form a solid wall.

The Left Guard Army on the opposite side was in the same situation, except that their shields were more sophisticated and sturdier.

The shield walls of both sides suddenly accelerated when they were thirty paces apart.

"boom--!!!"

The deafening roar of hundreds of massive shields colliding was so loud it hurt people's eardrums.

At the moment the shields collided, wood chips flew everywhere, the leather dented, and the armored warrior holding the shield suffered a split in his hand, yet he held on tightly.

From the gap, spears pierced out like venomous snakes.

"Pfft!"

A spear thrust through the gap in the shield, piercing the throat of the armored soldier opposite. Blood splattered on the shield, and the soldier's eyes widened, yet he stubbornly held on to the shield until a second spear pierced his breastplate.

The moment the shield formation shattered, the armored soldiers from both sides crashed into the enemy ranks.

A bearded veteran of the Left Guard Army swung his battle axe, the blade striking an enemy soldier's shoulder armor and penetrating an inch into his flesh.

The enemy soldier, in pain, knelt down. The veteran kicked him over, ignoring the spears thrusting from both sides, and cleaved the enemy's face with an axe, instantly splattering his brains. The two spears, however, pierced the veteran's body, but he deflected them with the help of his armor, leaving only a trail of sparks.

Beside him, a young soldier from the Left Army was struck in the chest by an enemy hammer, his plate armor dented. Blood and foam poured from his mouth, yet he clung tightly to the enemy soldier's leg. Immediately, a comrade behind him thrust a spear through the enemy general's throat before being pulled away by his comrades.

Amidst the blood mist, severed limbs and shattered armor flew everywhere. Although the Left Army was outnumbered, they were not at a disadvantage. Relying on their superior weaponry and armor, they achieved a remarkable casualty ratio.

Shi Huan looked rather grim. The training, experience, and equipment of the soldiers on both sides were a level below each other, which meant that despite Cao Cao's superior forces, they were at a disadvantage.

After a moment's thought, Shi Huan ordered the flanks to extend and use the gaps between the enemy's main formation to encircle them, maximizing their numerical advantage. At the same time, he ordered the spearmen to gradually replace the swordsmen and shieldmen in the center.

The enemy was made of armored soldiers, while our side was made of leather armor. Although we had armor-piercing weapons, they were only used by a few elite soldiers and lower-ranking officers. Most of the soldiers were still using swords and shields.

Under Shi Huan's adjustments, Cao Cao's flanks began to slowly extend, like a crane slowly spreading its wings. At the same time, the spearmen of the central army stepped forward, replacing the swordsmen and shieldmen whose casualties had exceeded 20%.

As soon as the swordsmen and shieldmen left the front line, the auxiliary soldiers immediately stepped forward to help them remove their armor, replenish their water and restore their strength, while carrying the seriously wounded back for emergency treatment, and bandaging the lightly wounded on the spot.

In a mere fifteen minutes, Cao Cao's army, under Shi Huan's command, successfully completed this transformation. While Shi Huan's skillful command and the soldiers' excellent training certainly contributed, the greater reason was that Lü Meng's side also seized the opportunity to change formation.

After discovering that Shi Huan had made adjustments, Lü Meng decisively began to change his formation.

In the central lane, spearmen replaced the heavily armored soldiers who were fighting fiercely. These heavily armored soldiers wore iron armor and used heavy weapons. Although their casualties were less than half, and most of them were only slightly injured, their energy was greatly depleted.

Continuing the fight might not yield any results; on the contrary, it could lead to unnecessary casualties due to fatigue.

After retreating, these armored soldiers, with the help of their auxiliary troops, removed their armor.

It was early spring, a time of fluctuating temperatures, yet these armored soldiers were enveloped in wisps of smoke, looking as if they had been pulled from the water.

The auxiliary soldiers, disregarding the dirt, immediately draped the bedding over the armored soldiers to ensure they wouldn't get cold.

At the same time, warm water with added sugar and salt was delivered to the armored soldiers. This warm water was all boiled in the camp, then stored in large vats, wrapped in blankets to keep it warm, and delivered by oxcart following behind the formation.

Lu Meng ordered the armored soldiers to rest and recuperate, awaiting further orders.

Then, he divided the archer team into two groups of two hundred men each, and placed them on the flanks of the formation to prevent the Cao army under Shi Huan's command from flanking the left-hand army by extending their formation.

The situation was similar for the troops under Wen Ping and Lü Dai on either side of Lü Meng; they had all recalled the first wave of armored soldiers who had made the greatest contribution.

Because the armored soldiers retreated to rest and regroup, the disparity in weaponry between Cao Cao and Liu Bei narrowed considerably. Furthermore, Cao Cao's numerical superiority offset the gap in training and experience, resulting in a more evenly matched contest. Especially in spear combat, casualties were minimal as long as formations remained intact, and the battle seemed to have reached a stalemate for a time.

Cao Ang suddenly noticed Sima Yi's solemn expression and furrowed brows, and couldn't help but ask, "Zhongda, what is troubling you?"

Sima Yi pondered for a while, then cupped his hands and replied, "My lord is wise. The elite armored soldiers of the Left Guard Army have retreated to the rear, clearly preparing to unleash their power. If they are allowed to rest and regroup before charging again, I fear that Shi Huan's troops, with their weak formation, will be unable to withstand them."

Cao Ang was greatly alarmed upon hearing this and quickly looked into the distance. He saw that Shi Huan and his generals were trying to encircle the enemy's formation, but they were blocked by the enemy's archers and crossbows, causing their formation to gradually become scattered. The central army was thinned out due to overextending, while the two flanks were blocked and unable to advance.

Cao Ang asked urgently, "Does Zhongda have a good plan?"

Sima Yi stroked his beard and said, "There are two strategies: the best strategy is to order the second vanguard to move forward and replace the front line, strictly instructing them to maintain a solid formation and not to divide their troops without authorization; the worst strategy is to send elite cavalry to flank the enemy formation. If successful, it may turn the tide of the battle and even break their vanguard."

Cao Ang said in surprise, "The vanguard is where our army's elite troops are located. How can we move them lightly? Moreover, the war has just begun. Isn't it too hasty to transfer their troops now? It seems more appropriate to use the cavalry flanking maneuver."

After speaking, he looked at Sima Yi, waiting for him to explain in detail.

(End of this chapter)