It happened to be free, and it was still early, so Li Mengxi immediately went to prepare for the "trench car".

There were many vehicles in the army, so they randomly found some carts, and then ordered the soldiers to push the carts outside the city. There happened to be a very wide moat outside Julu City, so we could test the performance of the trench carts nearby.

On the edge of the moat, Li Mengxi looked at the many vehicles and was thinking about how to connect the carts together.

Li Mengxi thought that he could make some iron rings and hang them on the left and right sides of the carts. In this way, he could use long sticks to thread the carts together to connect the carts together.

When Li Mengxi told Guan Yu his idea, Guan Yu pondered for a moment, "It doesn't have to be so troublesome."

Guan Yu obviously had a more concise and practical method.

Guan Yu found many spears, long spears, and hemp ropes, and ordered his soldiers to line up the carts one by one, and then tied the spear poles in front of the carts to the back of the carts and the handlebars. In a short time, the soldiers tied up the long carts.

A car string.

Li Mengxi was surprised that he could connect the cars directly with a gun pole and a rope without using iron rings or wooden poles. It was so simple.

Recalling the trench-breaking tactics, vehicles were used to directly collapse the bridge, cross from one end to the other, and then build a bridge directly over the trench.

Li Mengxi ordered his soldiers to push the vehicles to the city moat and prepare to cross the ditch.

When the soldiers pushed the carts to the edge of the city moat, the first cart fell into the ditch and fell.

The test failed. When the vehicles are connected together, they are not a solid whole that can stand upright like a siege ladder, but resemble a giant caterpillar.

Li Mengxi couldn't help scratching his head and thinking.

Since a pallet truck cannot fly directly to the other side of the ditch like a gasoline-powered vehicle, there is no way to automatically build a bridge.

The next best thing is to modify the vehicle again.

But, how should we modify it so that the bridge can be built in one go?

Li Mengxi thought of siege equipment and the ladder. It seems that the siege equipment like the ladder is a movable ladder. The ladder has a short ladder that can be lowered and extended. This structure of the ladder that can be folded and lowered is not suitable for rapid speed.

When setting up a ladder to cross a trench?

You can make a special vehicle. This vehicle uses a ladder structure. There are two very long ladders installed on the vehicle. When needed, the soldiers push the vehicle to the edge of the ditch and then fold the ladder.

Let it go, the ladder stretches directly to the other side.

Li Mengxi suddenly remembered that there seemed to be such a vehicle-mounted ladder on the roof of the fire truck.

The problem was solved immediately.

Then, Li Mengxi thought again, it seems that the folding ladder cannot withstand the stepping of a large number of soldiers, and it may not be strong enough to use wood.

But if iron is used, the cost will be high, and the iron is heavy, so the ladder will not be very long. At most, it can have five or six pallets. The length of the car body can be at most three or four feet long, which is the limit.

If the trench were wider, the ladder would not be enough.

For ditches that are more than three feet wide, either a separate ladder must be made, or the vehicle must be pushed into the ditch to fill it up.

It is known that there are four ways to deal with the defensive trench when attacking a city. One is to build a trench bridge; the other is to make the siege ladder long enough to reach the top of the city from the trench side.

You can also cross the trench; thirdly, if the trench is not deep, you can directly send sword and shield warriors down to fill the trench with a shield array and use people as ladders; fourthly, the last method is to fill the trench with soil.

Now, in order to explore the methods of field engineering operations, Li Mengxi unexpectedly discovered that there is actually a fifth method for breaking trenches, which is to push the cart directly into the moat ditch.

You know, the size of the cart is not small. The volume of one cart is larger than fifty baskets of soil.

When attacking a city, manpower is required to carry baskets of soil down to the city. Fifty baskets of soil require fifty people to go back and forth from the city. Arrows are flying from the top of the city. During the fifty people's journey, ten people will be killed or injured.

And if you use a cart, you only need one or two people to push the cart into the moat ditch.

Using a pallet truck to fill ditches is extremely efficient, and the casualties are much higher than with earth filling. The only question is, is the pallet truck more important? Or the manpower?

It must be that manpower is important. Although carts are important military resources, without carts, logistics capacity will be reduced. But in fact, from the perspective of siege warfare, when the siege war is later, a lot of food and grass will be consumed, and there will definitely be a lot of carts.

Vacant.

Therefore, using a pallet truck to fill ditches is an excellent method.

In order to experiment, Li Mengxi ordered his soldiers to push all the carts into the ditch to see if the ditch could be filled.

The soldiers obeyed the order and pushed the carts into the ditch one after another.

In the end, after more than a dozen trucks fell into the ditch, the trucks successfully climbed out of the ditch.

The moat of Julu City was very deep and wide, but in a moment, the trench was filled up very quickly with carts.

Li Mengxi stood on the edge of the ditch. He looked at the mess of trucks piled up in the ditch. He thought thoughtfully, and it seemed that box trucks could be used to fill the ditch.

A boxcar is a pallet truck with a carriage. The boxcar is like a box. When the boxcar is pushed into the ditch, the second car is pushed down and they are stacked directly on top of each other. The height of the boxcar is higher than that of an ordinary boxcar.

Twice, this means that the volume of the box car is twice larger than that of the ordinary flatbed truck. If the trench is three feet deep, with ordinary flatbed trucks, ten flatbed trucks must be stacked together to fill the trench. If a boxcar is used, the boxcar will be filled in.

Only three cars are enough.

Moreover, the body of the van is as square as a box, which makes it more regular and flatter when stacked.

Furthermore, there were wooden boards on the top of the carriage. After the ditch was filled, there was no need to set up a ladder. The soldiers could just step on the roof of the carriage and walk on the ground.

At the same time, Li Mengxi also thought that during the siege war, the siege equipment was almost all made of wood and was very afraid of fire. Similarly, using vehicles to fill the trenches to protect the city would easily be burned by the enemy at the top of the city.

This problem is not difficult to solve. Since you are afraid of fire, you can use two methods at the same time. First, use vehicles to fill the trench. Then, after the trench is filled, people will carry soil and cover the vehicle.

As long as you cover it with a thin layer of soil, you won't be afraid of fire.

Li Mengxi told Guan Yu about the new trench breaking tactic. Guan Yu was full of admiration and nodded repeatedly.

One boxcar is equivalent to fifty baskets of soil. The efficiency of filling trenches with carts is fifty times that of filling with earth. The efficiency is increased fifty times. Therefore, filling trenches with boxcars is the only way to siege a city.

Two thousand fewer people died during the war.

After exploring this point, [Vehicle Mounted Ladder Method] and [Vehicle Truck Trench Filling Method], once these two methods are revealed, there will be no need to be afraid when encountering trenches dug by the enemy in the field.

There is no need to spend time rushing to make equipment, just transfer military vehicles and the trench can be filled in a moment.

It was only then that Guan Yu and Li Mengxi realized that the deep trenches that surrounded Huangfu Song's 30,000-strong army that day seemed dangerous and difficult to cross, but were actually more dangerous and less terrifying.

On that day, if Huangfu Song knew how to fill the trenches with wagons, even if Huangfu Song's 30,000-strong army would still be wiped out after Huangfu Song used the wagons to pave the way, Zhuozhou Army would have died thousands more because the trenches were broken.

people.

After all, field engineering operations are done in a hurry. Just like when the Zhuozhou Army surrounded Huangfusong, the trenches they dug overnight were only one person high and half a foot wide. Even if the trenches were dug for three to five days, the trenches would not be wide enough.

It's only three to five feet long, and it's far less dangerous than a real defensive trench.

Therefore, in field battles, it is enough for a vehicle-mounted ladder to have the ability to cross a trench of three feet. Most of the time, trenches dug hastily by the enemy are extremely difficult to be wider than three feet.

A trench that is three feet wide and one person deep needs to be dug for at least three days if there are sufficient manpower and tools. But since our army saw the enemy digging the trench, how could we wait for him to dig the trench? He must have rushed out directly.

Already.

The ability to attack trenches in the field is actually not very demanding. As long as you have a few vans and a few ladders, you won't be trapped by the enemy.

But think about it to the extreme, if under extreme circumstances, you are unable to escape due to various reasons, and you are surrounded by enemy troops digging trenches for several days, ten days, or even more than half a month, then the trench will not be only three to five feet tall.

Deep, it is a natural moat much deeper than a real city moat.

At this point, how should we break out?

You must know that trenching in the field is different from attacking a city. During the siege, there is enough wood and time to build equipment. During the field battle, you are surrounded in the wilderness with not a tree around. All the troops in the army can

The only materials for making large-scale equipment are vehicles and long guns.

As for carrying a large amount of wood with the army? It is too stupid and a waste of transportation capacity. Instead of carrying a large amount of wood, it is better to carry military rations.

So, when facing the enemy who has been digging trenches for a month, and the army only has vehicles and spears as attack equipment, how can we win in this desperate situation?

It would be wrong to say that the possibility of such a desperate situation happening is extremely slim.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army's chariot formation was surrounded by Huang Taiji for more than a month. Huang Taiji forcibly built a wall around the Ming army's chariot formation, trapping the Ming army to death.

When fighting in a war, you are afraid of what might happen. Therefore, if you plan for the future, you must figure out how to solve it.

Li Mengxi thought about it and dug a trench for a month in the face of the enemy. The army only had carts that could be cracked to make siege equipment, so he could only smash part of the carts to make siege ladders, and the remaining carts

They all pushed into the ditch and filled it.

Because the enemy had been digging the trench for a month, the trench must be deep and wide, and filling it would not be easy. Therefore, there was only one breakout direction, and the carts could only fill the trench in one direction.

Furthermore, fire prevention is still needed. In order to prevent the enemy from setting fire to all the carts, it is also necessary to cover them with earth. Therefore, before breaking out, in addition to mobilizing the fleet, we also need to collect baskets and dig a lot of earth to prepare them in advance.

Once you break through, you can directly carry the soil on your back to fill the trench, and you don't have to dig the soil slowly again.

Considering that the volume of boxcars is much larger than that of ordinary wagons, one boxcar can carry three ordinary wagons when it comes to trenching. It seems that if the army is equipped with more boxcars, it will be better when attacking cities and trenches.

The ability to cope is stronger.

However, as a means of transport such as a pallet truck, a van is different from a pallet truck. The van has a roof and has a very small carrying capacity, while an ordinary roofless pallet truck can haul materials high.

If all the vehicles in the army use vans, it will naturally be extremely convenient when attacking a city. However, the carrying capacity of vans is also insufficient, which weakens the logistics capacity.

After thinking about it, the main transportation vehicles in the army should be ordinary trucks. As for boxcars, they can be equipped in small quantities. Boxcars have roofs and can be weatherproof, but they can have special functions that ordinary trucks do not have.

On weekdays, the van can be loaded with medicines, paper and pens, lime, bows and arrows and other rain-resistant materials. At the same time, the van can also be used to carry seriously injured people.

When encountering a battle, if the battle situation is urgent, a small number of vans can be put into key places to quickly fill the trenches.

Taking into account the general capabilities of military equipment, Li Mengxi felt that the structure of the van itself was determined. The van seemed to be able to double as a pontoon for crossing water.

Suppose that the boxcar is made into a coffin shape, that is, the four bottoms are tightly joined, and the bottom plate is coated with tung oil and waterproofed, and the opening is on the top, and a cover is added to the top.
To be continued...