Three Kingdoms: Fusion of Entries, Change of Destiny

Chapter 210 Improved Catapult: Letting the Stones Fly a Little Longer
After this brief encounter with Liu Bei, Cao Cao and his entourage continued eastward and arrived at Pei County.

Ji Ling set up a large camp ten miles outside Xiaopei City, forming a pincer movement with Xiaopei City.

However, when Ji Ling learned that Cao Cao's army was about to arrive, he decisively ordered the camp gates and city gates to be closed.

No matter how much Cao Cao's vanguard Zhao Yun and Xiahou Lan provoked and challenged him outside the city, using all sorts of methods to provoke him, Ji Ling remained unmoved and resolutely refused to come out to fight.

Ji Ling's mission was simply to block and delay Cao Cao's eastward advance.

He knew perfectly well that as long as he could firmly defend Xiaopei, this important gateway to the east, he would succeed.
Once Yuan Shu successfully captures Xiapi and defeats Lü Bu, the entire territory of Xuzhou will be his for the taking.

When Yuan Shu leads an army of 100,000 to provide support, even Cao Cao will have to consider whether he can achieve a victory with fewer troops as he did at Puyang.

But what Ji Ling probably never expected was that...

Lü Bu actually defeated Yuan Shu's army of 100,000 with only a few thousand men and a secret letter.

Even more absurdly, Ji Ling's nearly 80,000-strong army received not a single piece of news about Yuan Shu's defeat.

have to say,

The court controlled by Yuan Shu,
It's just a huge makeshift operation.

After Cao Cao's army arrived in Pei County, they did not immediately besiege the city.

After all, Ji Ling had 80,000 men under his command, while Cao Cao himself only had a little over 40,000.

Cao Cao ordered his army to set up camp thirty li outside Xiaopei City.

At this moment, Cao Ang was methodically directing his soldiers to set up the camp, and the entire camp was already taking shape.

In the most heavily guarded core area of ​​the camp, a hundred craftsmen were working on various parts.

After the parts were processed one by one, the soldiers of the Mandarin Duck Army helped the craftsmen assemble them one by one.

These one hundred craftsmen were skilled machine makers whom Cao Yan had specially selected from the workshop before setting off.

The earliest trebuchet can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, but by the end of the Han Dynasty, the trebuchet could only "launch stones weighing twelve catties, which were then fired by a mechanism and traveled two hundred paces."

Moreover, it requires dozens to hundreds of people to pull the ropes simultaneously, making operation and coordination difficult, with low precision and no mobility.

The power of these catapults was primarily focused on killing enemy personnel or destroying wooden fortifications.

Against relatively sturdy city walls, the stones fired by catapults are unlikely to cause substantial damage.

Therefore, its application in actual warfare is not widespread.

It wasn't until Liu Ye invented the trebuchet, adding a chassis and wheels to the catapult, that its performance was improved to some extent, expanding its application range.

After Ma Jun arrived in Chenliu, Cao Yan gave him a task—to improve the catapult.

Adding wheels and such is secondary; what Cao Yan wants is to increase its lethality!

The counterweight catapult, invented during the Northern Song Dynasty, left a very deep impression on Cao Yan when he saw it on television.

This counterweight catapult uses a unique design that suspends boulders or iron blocks as counterweights.

At launch, the downward force of the counterweight causes the breech to quickly eject the stone projectile.

This design greatly reduces the number of people required for operation, from dozens or hundreds to just a few.

Moreover, it can launch stone projectiles weighing 150 jin (75 catties) with a range of over 500 meters. When the stone projectiles land, they can even penetrate seven feet into the ground.

Compared to modern trebuchets, it represented a qualitative leap in both power and precision. Historically,
This counterweight catapult played a crucial role in the Jin Dynasty's conquest of Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Overnight, the Jin army set up more than 5000 catapults outside the city.

Outside the 50-mile-long city wall of Bianjing, numerous catapults simultaneously launched a concentric attack, firing countless stone projectiles.

As a result, no stones could be found in the outskirts of Bianjing anymore!
During the siege, the Jin army first filled in the moat, then fired thousands of cannons at once, supplemented by a large number of powerful crossbows.

With their superior firepower, they decisively defeated the Song army's defending forces.

Just imagine how spectacular that scene would be.

However, the counterweight catapult invented in the Northern Song Dynasty was ultimately used by the enemy to destroy itself, which is truly a great tragedy.

Cao Yan gave Ma Jun a general description of the appearance and components of the counterweight catapult, and then let Ma Jun lead his craftsmen to tinker with it themselves.

Ma Jun lived up to his reputation as a genius in mechanical engineering; in less than three months, he and his craftsmen successfully developed it.

Previously, there had been no opportunity for actual combat. Now, facing Yuan Shu and Lü Bu, Cao Cao's army will inevitably face many positional battles and siege battles in the upcoming battles, and this new catapult will finally have the opportunity to show its prowess.

While Cao Ang was busy setting up camp,
Zhao Yun led 5,000 cavalrymen to the southeast of Pei County.

His orders were to cut off Ji Ling's connection with Yuan Shu's army and to sever Yuan Shu's supply of provisions to Ji Ling.

Xiahou Lan led the remaining 5,000 cavalry to patrol the area around the main camp, acting as eyes and ears for the army.

Three days later, early morning.

The atmosphere inside Ji Ling's camp, particularly in the central command tent, was quite somber.

At this time, only Ji Ling, Chen Ji, Lei Bo, and the grain official's private quarters were in the main tent.

The grain officer, his face full of worry, reported the latest news to Ji Ling and the others: "General, according to the original plan, our grain should have arrived the day before yesterday."

However, to this day, there is still no sign of supplies, and no news has been received.

After reporting, the grain official tentatively asked, "General, do you think there might be a problem with the transport of grain?"

Chen Ji and Lei Bo also stared at Ji Ling.

Ji Ling pondered for a long time, and after about ten breaths, he slowly said, "Wait two more days. If no grain has been delivered after two days, immediately send someone south to investigate what is going on."

"Yes, sir!" Upon hearing the order, the grain officer respectfully responded and then withdrew from the main tent.

Chen Ji suddenly asked, "General, we haven't heard from the lord for a long time... Should we send someone to investigate?"

Lei Bo comforted him, saying, "You're overthinking it. Our lord has 100,000 troops. What problems could possibly arise when dealing with Lu Bu's mere few thousand men? I believe we'll hear good news soon."

Just then, a messenger rushed into the tent and reported to Ji Ling: "Reporting to the General, Cao's army is challenging us outside the camp again!"

Ji Ling didn't even look up, and said in a calm tone, "Ignore them."

The messenger responded with a "Yes, sir," and was about to leave the tent when a huge whooshing sound suddenly came from outside!
"Whoosh~~~~~~~!"

The whistling sound grew clearer and clearer as it approached.

Immediately afterwards, a stone projectile, about the size of a watermelon, fell from the sky without warning!

(End of this chapter)