Chapter 41: The Bloody Battle Begins

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  The bed crossbow is a large-scale bow installed on a frame, with a winch to tighten the bowstring and load arrows. It uses multiple bows to fire arrows in unison, striking enemies with great force. The characteristics of the bed crossbow include its immense power, long range, and effective shooting distance of around 300-400 paces (approximately 500-600 meters). However, its accuracy is not sufficient, so it is often used for large-scale volley firing, which can cause significant casualties to densely packed enemy formations.

  In the era of cold weapons, the bed crossbow was the weapon with the greatest lethality and longest range, but it was complex to manufacture and had high maintenance costs, so its production was limited, and it was not convenient to move, making it unsuitable for field battles. However, during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the imperial court did not lack money, and this expensive and highly lethal weapon was produced in large quantities, with every city equipped with them.

  Han Tongguan City has 20 crossbow beds, which are respectively arranged at the East Gate and South Gate, with 10 frames for each gate. Sui Tongguan City is equipped with more.

  The rebels will arrive soon, and first of all, they will be greeted with such a powerful weapon.

  Li Fude ordered the soldiers operating the bed crossbows to start firing as soon as the rebels entered their range. Pang Zhong also gave the order for the bed crossbowmen at another gate to begin attacking. With the two generals' orders, several soldiers operating the bed crossbows pulled back the bowstrings with great force, and with a loud "release" sound, dozens of thick crossbow bolts flew out from the bowstrings, shooting straight into the distant rebel army formations.

  As soon as crossbow arrows shot out from the top of the city wall, the rebel army below immediately reacted.

  The rebel commander also knew that the Tang army on the city gate would first use the bed crossbow to attack them, and before that, many soldiers had died under the great lethality of the bed crossbow. When they were about to arrive at the foot of Hantang Pass, almost within the range of the bed crossbow, the leading Zhonglang general immediately ordered the soldiers to disperse, so as not to have more soldiers shot and killed by the bed crossbow.

  However, whether it was the Han Tongguan City or the Sui Tongguan City, the terrain outside the city was relatively narrow, with little room for maneuver. When dense troops advanced quickly, they could not disperse quickly, and they did not know when the Tang army's arrows would be shot out. They only dodged in an emergency after seeing the crossbow arrows shot out. But by then it was too late. No matter how fast people and horses moved, they couldn't compare to the speed of the crossbow arrows flying through the air and falling from a downward trajectory. In the blink of an eye, those long arrows fell into the ranks of the panicked rebel army.

  The crossbow's arrow was extremely large, measuring between one to one and a half meters in length, or even longer. The body and head of the arrow were several times thicker than ordinary arrows, and carried enormous kinetic energy, so that soldiers who were hit by them could only consider themselves unlucky.

  "Ah……” A rebel soldier, who was a bit slow and misjudged the trajectory of the crossbow bolt, was hit right in the middle by an incoming bolt. The long bolt pierced his abdomen, passing through his entire abdominal cavity, and exited from the other side, causing a massive amount of blood to gush out from both wounds, instantly dyeing half of his body and the ground below red. It was clear he wouldn't survive.

  Through this soldier's body, the bolt also penetrated the leg of another nearby soldier, very deeply. This soldier let out a blood-curdling scream before falling to the ground, following the first soldier who had died. Several panicked soldiers, without any regard for their fallen comrade, trampled over his body, causing a series of anguished screams to echo through the air.

  Another soldier who had not yet dismounted was hit in the leg by a flying crossbow bolt, but the long arrow with great kinetic energy did not stop there, instead it continued to move forward, passing through the soldier's leg and into the horse's abdomen, piercing very deeply.

  The horse with the arrow in its body let out a mournful cry and fell to the ground, throwing the soldier on its back off. The poor soldier's head was pressed down by the horse's weight, and he soon died. He wasn't killed by the crossbow bolt, but rather crushed under his own warhorse's massive body - what terrible luck!

  As the arrows fell, successive wails rose from the rebel ranks. The soldiers whose bodies were pierced by the arrows almost all died instantly as the arrows passed through them. Some unfortunate warhorses that were hit by the large crossbow bolts also could not escape being killed. Some of the arrows even penetrated the body of a person or horse and then shot into another person or horse.

  The bed crossbow has great power, but the shooting accuracy is not very high. Some crossbow arrows are shot out and deviated far away, even hitting the nearby rocks. The arrow with huge kinetic energy even directly split some rocks and inserted into the stone.

  "Speed up the advance, scatter and open! As long as we reach under Tongguan City, the Tang army's crossbow will not be able to do anything to us!" The middle-aged general who was commanding the vanguard cavalry waved his battle knife and shouted loudly at the panicked soldiers beside him.

  He had led the army to attack Tongguan City several times and had experienced the lethality of the bed crossbow. There was no way to avoid it, so he could only order the soldiers to disperse and continue advancing, preparing to take advantage of their numerical superiority to force their way into Tongguan City and counterattack with arrows!

  As long as they can form a crossfire with the defenders on the city wall, the situation can slowly change. If they cannot advance at such a distance, the huge lethality of the bed crossbow is enough to make the soldiers frightened and even lead to the collapse of morale, and the soldiers will flee in defeat.

  It's okay, there are only a limited number of crossbow bolts, and each time they shoot out a small number of bolts. If you're careful, you can still avoid them!

  Under the command of Lang Jun, the rebel army crouched down, dodging the occasional flying crossbow arrows and quickly moving towards the bottom of Hantangguan City. However, there were still many unlucky soldiers who were shot by the crossbows and fell far away from the broken city wall of Hantangguan, never to get up again.

  The casualties caused by the bed crossbow and the reaction of the rebels fell into the eyes of Li Fude and Pang Zhong, who were watching from the city head. They also knew that relying solely on the sparse shooting of the bed crossbow would not be able to inflict a great blow on the rebels, and more rebels would definitely attack under the city wall.

  The most effective way to kill enemies is still with ordinary bows and crossbows, it's time for the archers to shine.

  There are twenty bed crossbows on the city head of Hantanguan, each with 8 to 12 arrows per shot. At most two hundred arrows can be fired at one time, while two thousand soldiers firing in turn is two thousand arrows. In comparison, the bows and arrows in the hands of the soldiers cause greater damage to the enemy.

  The bed crossbow can be said to be a long-range striking weapon, with a psychological deterrent effect, but the real solution still relies on ordinary short ones. The bed crossbow continued to fire, but more and more rebel soldiers dodged the bed crossbow's attack and approached Tongguan City.

  "Archers, prepare to fire!"

  On the eastern and southern gate towers, Li Fude and Pang Zhong almost simultaneously gave orders.