Li Mengxi didn't know how quickly the soldiers' physical strength was exhausted when fighting, and how often it was best to rotate the soldiers defending the city. Liu Bei also didn't know.

Li Mengxi entrusted this matter, and Liu Bei thought that he would pay more attention to it in the future.

After they separated, Liu Xuande continued to go down below to command the people to attack the city, while Li Mengxi was studying bows and crossbows on the city.

The crossbowmen also brought the crossbow. Now, the crossbow can be added to the drill.

Long-range weapons are important weapons for defending the city. Bows and crossbows are both long-range weapons, but they are quite different.

A skilled archer can fire arrows in succession, and the average shooting speed is much faster than that of a crossbow.

The difference in the rate of fire and operation of the two weapons naturally requires different tactical arrangements.

Li Mengxi still ordered the crossbowmen to simulate shooting downwards against the battlements, and then observed.

The four crossbowmen stood in the same position as the archers before, two of them stood behind each battlement, and then started training in an orderly manner according to the alternating shooting tactics required by Li Mengxi.

Before the crossbowmen could fire a few rounds of arrows, Li Mengxi frowned.

Something seemed wrong. The light crossbow arrows were only about twenty centimeters long and the shooting speed was very fast. But Li Mengxi was not satisfied with the power of the light crossbow.

No matter how fast the light crossbow fires, the three crossbows can't hurt a single siege soldier, so what's the use no matter how fast they fire.

The arm-opening crossbow, as well as the more lethal ones that require stepping on the ring of the crossbow head with your feet and using both hands to pull it apart, are more suitable for defending the city.

Although the heavy crossbow is slow, it is more efficient than the light crossbow.

However, the firing frequency of the heavy crossbow is too slow, only half that of a bow and arrow.

An important reason that affects the shooting speed of heavy crossbows is that it takes too much time to open the crossbow.

What would happen if the person in the back row loaded the crossbow and handed it to the person in front?

If two people are responsible for passing the crossbow to one person, the shooting efficiency will be doubled. If three people are responsible for passing the crossbow to one person, the shooting speed will be three times. With four people, the shooting speed will be four times.

The classic tactics from the era of queuing to kill have no reference value for the crossbow phalanx in the field. I don’t know, because the loading of crossbows is much simpler and faster than that of matchlocks.

But on a narrow city wall, a battlement can accommodate at most two crossbowmen to guard and attack downwards, and people behind cannot squeeze in. Therefore, it was popular in the era of queuing to shoot, and the tactic of handing loaded muskets to the front row in the back row was popular.

It has some reference value.

There is not enough space on the city wall, so the crossbowmen have to move around and change their positions to shoot. Firstly, it is easy to cause confusion, and secondly, it will increase physical consumption.

After shooting the crossbow arrows, take two steps back. When it is critical to defend the city, taking a thousand steps back a day will consume an extra half a bowl of rice energy.

After Li Mengxi matured his thinking, he called four crossbowmen, one of whom was responsible for shooting, and the remaining three were responsible for passing the crossbow with good arrows behind.

As soon as the crossbow-passing tactic began, unexpected problems arose.

Four people, four crossbows, which means that at every point in time, everyone has a crossbow in their hands.

Holding a crossbow in his hand, whether he is passing the crossbow forward or receiving the crossbow backward, one person has to take care of two crossbows at the same time, which makes him busy.

It's just a simple coordination issue. Four people passing four crossbows won't work. If we subtract one crossbow and four people pass three crossbows, the problem will be solved.

Li Mengxi arranged for the crossbowmen to practice this temporary crossbow tactic, and found that it worked surprisingly well.

The four people handed three crossbows, and the people behind kept handing the crossbows to the man blocking the city wall. First, they no longer had to move around, which reduced the chaos at the top of the city. But, it also increased the shooting frequency by three times.

Under the triple firing frequency of the crossbow tactic, the shooting continuity performance of the heavy crossbow reaches a level close to that of a bow and arrow, but only close.

As mentioned before, it takes about six seconds for an archer to take an arrow, bend the bow to hook the arrow, and then search for the enemy to shoot the arrow.

And when shooting at close range and rapidly, it can achieve the terrifying speed of one arrow in two seconds.

Bows and crossbows are all long-range weapons.

So which of the two weapons, bows and crossbows, is more suitable for defending the city? Or if both are suitable, then how to form a formation?

When defending a city, are archers or crossbowmen more efficient?

Or do bows and crossbows each have their own strengths and one cannot exist without the other?

Li Mengxi frowned and fell into deep thought.

He seriously considered this possibility.

Based on Li Mengxi's understanding of bows and crossbows, he finally believed that the best strategy was for archers and crossbowmen to better match each other.

There is a gap in the battlement, with one crossbowman and one archer on the left and right.

The heavy crossbow is responsible for more powerful output. The heavy crossbow can shoot through a light wooden shield within a distance of four to five meters; the bow, with its dexterous shooting and fast shooting speed, can quickly shoot out a series of arrows to provide suppression.

That should be it, heavy crossbowmen and archers should be mixed together to increase the fault tolerance rate.

The bow's reaction speed is fast, and the crossbow's lethality is stronger.

Just as he was thinking, "Stop!" Li Mengxi suddenly stopped.

"Don't move!" Li Mengxi pointed at a crossbowman, his voice a little nervous.

The crossbowman didn't know why.

Li Mengxi stepped forward in two steps and carefully grabbed the opponent's crossbow with his hands. The crossbow was very heavy. When he took the crossbow, Li Mengxi almost couldn't hold it.

"Let me tell you, when handing a crossbow, you are not allowed to put your fingers on the crossbow machine. What if it goes off? What if you touch it and hurt someone?" Li Mengxi scolded him with spitting foam on his face. If it weren't for his lack of height,

He jumped up and hit the guy on the head with his fist.

As he said that, in order to strengthen his persuasion, Li Mengxi imitated the careless crossbowman's look, put his hand on the trigger, and then made the motion of passing the crossbow, and then gestured to pass the crossbow to other crossbowmen, the person who was to be handed the crossbow.

But he is not stupid, and he is determined not to stand in the direction where the crossbow arrow is pointing.

Li Mengxi then faced the city wall and pulled the crossbow hard.

The crossbow string exploded with a bang, and the crossbow arrow, which had lost its arrowhead, hit the battlement with a loud thud, and the arrow was split on the spot.

When the crossbowmen saw this scene, they all clicked their tongues.

"Look, if you move your hand and touch the crossbow, you will lose your life. If you accidentally injure others and harm other people's lives, the military law will chop off your head and waste your own life. Do you understand?" Li Mengxi said seriously.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! It is a matter of life and death, and the crossbowmen feel awe-inspiring.

When passing the crossbow, do not put your hand on the crossbow machine.

The city is a grand building, and defending the city is a huge project. Li Mengxi, who had no experience in defending the city, had no precedent to learn from, so he could only explore it on his own, start with the details, and study it carefully.

When an hour or half an hour passed, Li Mengxi roughly figured out how to use crossbowmen when defending the city, and knew how to arrange them and what the tactical details were.

Next, the long-range soldiers are over, and it should be melee soldiers.

At this time, aside.

In the enemy tower, the warriors guarding the city pushed the siege ladder built on the city with their hands, while the people below the city tried their best to hold the siege ladder steady.

The two sides are confronting and wrestling, and the training will achieve its intended goals in the confrontation.

Li Mengxi led his crossbowmen to the enemy tower. He saw that some of the country warriors pushed the siege ladder with their hands, some pushed it sideways, and some used sticks to poke it.

After seeing the six siege ladders that built the city, there were six ways for the warriors who defended the city to push the siege ladder.

Since the methods are not unified, there must be advantages and disadvantages. Since there are advantages and disadvantages, it means that the best way to counter the siege ladder has not been found.

Li Mengxi watched for a while, then turned to ask the crossbowmen following him, "What do you think is the best way to push the ladder?"

The crossbowmen each held their own opinions. Some said to use two hands to push, some said to use feet to kick, and some said that it is convenient to push with more people.

Well, everything you say makes sense.

The force of pushing with two hands is definitely greater than that of one push; as the saying goes, arms can't twist the thigh, the power of the feet is greater than the strength of the arms, and it is easier to knock down the siege ladder with kicking; if multiple people push the siege ladder together,

It's naturally easier than pushing alone.

The crossbowmen only saw one aspect, but failed to think more comprehensively.

The siege ladder is placed on the gap in the battlements. The gap is just that big. One person can push it, or two people can stand in front of it. One person can stand upright and use two hands to push the siege ladder, or two people can push it.

They all turned sideways and pushed together, still with two hands.

Due to space problems, there was no manpower at the top of the city, but everyone could not join in pushing the siege ladder together.

Pushing with bare hands doesn't seem to work.

Not long ago, when Li Mengxi was studying formation strategies, he discovered that up to three sword and shield soldiers could attack one person together, while three or four spear soldiers could easily stab one person.

The spearmen are good for combined attacks because of the length of the spear and the attack method, while the shield soldiers have to surround and kill people. When two or three people surround an enemy, there will be no room for the fourth person.

Since the battle was like this, Li Mengxi looked at the siege ladder that was a short distance beyond the top of the city, and the same should be true for pushing the siege ladder.

Human hands are too short for combined strikes.

When pushing the siege ladder...you should use tools. Tools are like extending your arms. Seven or eight people hold long poles and push the siege ladder together. It is much more efficient than pushing with hands and kicking.

This is what is called by analogy.

If he hadn't discovered that spearmen were more conducive to the coordinated attack of soldiers when he was studying formation strategies not long ago, Li Mengxi wouldn't have been able to see the problem so quickly during today's troop training.

If you think about it more carefully, there were many siege equipment in ancient times. In addition to large-scale equipment, there were also many small equipment used by soldiers, such as forks that were specially designed to push siege ladders.

The fork pole is exactly the same as the pole used to dry clothes. It is a long-handled instrument, just like a spear. It can be attacked by multiple people. Seven, eight or even ten people hold the long fork pole and push the ladder together. The only ones who attack the city are

Three or four people were supporting him, and the contrast in strength was huge.

Li Mengxi could already picture the enemy's simple ladders being toppled one by one by the forks, and a malicious smile appeared on Li Mengxi's face.
Chapter completed!