In the eleventh formation, both sides were instructed to use crossbows. They could use them, but they could not actually use them. Crossbows were extremely powerful and could easily cause death or injury.

Li Mengxi stipulated that no matter the attacker or the defender, the missing arrow head must be removed to avoid accidentally injuring someone. It is not enough to just remove the head of the crossbow. At close range, the headless wooden arrow shaft can be penetrated through clothing with the same strength.

meat, so a safe distance should be set.

At a distance of fifty steps, this distance is far enough. At this distance, after the headless arrows fired by both sides miss and fly a distance of fifty steps, their power is no longer enough to hurt people and they are safe enough.

The battle began. At the fifty-step position, the offensive and defensive sides began to shoot at each other.

On the attacking side, the Julu Army's crossbowmen were arranged in a tight combat formation, while on the defensive side, the defensive crossbowmen stood in a long row along the wooden wall.

Judging from the number of people, both sides had similar numbers. Li Mengxi intuitively felt that the attacker might lose because the defender had the advantage of fortifications after all.

At the beginning of the battle, the two sides showed huge differences in fighting modes.

On the defender side, the village soldiers stood on the wall and fired freely. The frequency of attacks was continuous, and the attacks were messy and fast.

On the attacking side, the attacking pace of the attacking side seemed much slower. In front of the attacking side's crossbow array, the centurion held a vermilion spear in his hand, pointing the spear at the defense line, "Ready -"

The preparation order was issued, and the sound of the crossbowmen pulling the bow strings made a rattling sound.

"put!"

Peng!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

A dense rain of arrows flew straight towards the defense line.

Moments after the confrontation began, both sides suffered "casualties" from each other.

On the attacking side, a soldier was shot by a stray soldier. After being shot, the man consciously put away his bow and left the team.

On the defender side, under a round of arrows from the attackers, a certain section of the wall fell completely within the range of the arrows. When the wave came down, the defenders lost five people.

The shooting continued, with arrows coming and going frequently from both sides. People on both sides kept being shot, and people on both sides kept being eliminated.

Li Mengxi's attention was mainly on the attacking side. He saw that the attacking side's tight array of crossbows was missing one here and one there, and the array was becoming increasingly sparse. Li Mengxi thought that his judgment was right. The defending side had a stronghold wall.

, the wall can not only cover up, but also has the advantage of height, so how can the attacker gain an advantage in the exchange of fire?

However, when Li Mengxi accidentally looked aside, he saw that the wall was empty. (Holy shit, where are the people?) Li Mengxi was surprised.

The next moment, Li Mengxi saw a large group of eliminated rural soldiers under the wall.

Li Mengxi felt confused and puzzled for a moment, (What went wrong? Why is it different from what was expected...)

The result of the battle was completely contrary to Li Mengxi's previous experience, which puzzled Li Mengxi.

One result can't explain anything. In order to verify whether this was a coincidence, Li Mengxi started it again after a while.

In the twelfth formation, both sides still had the same number of people and were still fifty steps apart. The attackers formed a tight formation and the defenders lined up along the wall.

The battle process was the same as before. The soldiers on the wall fired freely, while the attackers fired volleys to attack.

There was another burst of arrows, and when it was over, I saw that the wall was almost empty, but fifty steps away, at least half of the attacker's troops were still in the crossbow position.

Li Mengxi still felt that there was a possibility of error, so he immediately started the thirteenth formation.

As a result, there was not much difference in the 13th formation, and the defender was still at a disadvantage.

Three formations in a row had the same result, so it was unlikely to be an error. Li Mengxi then realized that it might be due to [Concentrated Fire Shooting]. Concentrated fire shooting has a high killing efficiency, which may be one of the reasons for the huge gap between the offensive and defensive sides.

In order to verify whether this was the case, Li Mengxi divided the Julu Army's crossbowmen into two troops of the same number, one guarding the wall and the other forming an array fifty steps away.

Both sides are Julu troops, both are proficient in salvo tactics, and can also perform concentrated fire attacks.

On the attacking side, the centurion raised his hand and ordered, "Ready--" The crossbowmen opened their bowstrings with a creak, and the crossbows raised as the centurion pointed.

Defender, at the top of the wall, Li Mengxi ordered, "Prepare -"

brush!

The crossbowmen on the wall raised their crossbows in unison, and pointed them at the opponent fifty steps away.

"Let go!" the centurion ordered in a deep voice.

"Let it go!" Li Mengxi ordered almost simultaneously on the wall.

Whoosh whoosh!

Whoosh whoosh!

Both sides attacked almost at the same time, and the two arrows flew towards each other at extremely fast speeds.

The arrows that had lost their arrows banged against the wooden wall, the ground, and the soldiers' armors. In an instant, many people on both sides were hit by arrows. Soldiers who were hit by arrows immediately jumped out of the queue and were automatically eliminated.

A truth has been verified again, the salvo attack is really very efficient in killing people.

The two sides fired volleys at each other, and it took only half the time to decide the winner.

This time, they were all volleys, there was no difference in tactics, but the result was still the same, the defender was still at a disadvantage.

In order to avoid error interference, the same method was tried three times. Without exception, the defender lost every time.

This made Li Mengxi extremely puzzled. The defender obviously had the advantage of cover and height. If he shot from a high altitude, the arrow speed would be faster and more accurate. But why would the defender with the advantage lose?

Li Mengxi frowned and looked at the attacking crossbow formation fifty steps away. He looked back and looked to the left and right. There was no difference between the attacking and defending sides. They were all soldiers of the same level, with the same number of soldiers. They were all the same.

If there is any difference between the salvo tactics, the only difference is the shape. The attacker is a dense phalanx of bows and crossbows, and the defender is a long row. But, what is the connection between the shape and the killing efficiency...

Suddenly, Li Mengxi was startled. He looked at the dense attack formation in the distance, and he vaguely realized that it seemed that... it was not so much the shape that affected the killing efficiency, but the [density] that affected the killing efficiency.

Li Mengxi thought of muskets and queuing to shoot. In the era of queuing to shoot, the accuracy of muskets was not high at that time. Only dense arrangement could ensure the killing effect. The dense formation was also the optimal solution to musket tactics.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The same is true for muskets. If the accuracy of muskets is insufficient, the accuracy of crossbows is also insufficient. Among models with the same lack of accuracy, the best of muskets is

The optimal solution is dense formation, so similarly, dense formation may also be the optimal solution for crossbow tactics.

Li Mengxi felt that he had vaguely found another core principle of crossbow combat, but the data was not enough at the moment and needed to be verified afterwards.

One problem has been solved, but there is still a problem. If it is a siege, the defender has a huge advantage. One archer on the defender can suppress ten archers in the city. But why is the defender completely defeated this time?

After thinking carefully, Li Mengxi had an answer. Although the city wall and the wooden village wall are both walls, there is a huge difference between the two. The city wall can be several feet high. At such a height, if you shoot an arrow from a high position, the arrow will fall under the influence of gravity.

The speed has become very fast, and the accuracy, range and strength have more than doubled; and what about the wooden wall? The wooden wall does have the advantage of height, and it does have the advantage of concealment, but the wooden wall is only over two or three feet high. This height advantage is not good for

The increase in shooting is not large, and wooden walls do have the advantage of covering up. However, wooden walls are really simple and not as large as the covering area of ​​battlements. The space on wooden walls is narrow, and it is not as easy to dodge as on the city wall.

Therefore, the wooden wall does have the advantage of being a [wall], but this advantage is not large enough to offset the disadvantages caused by the dispersion of troops. The troops on the top of the wall are mostly a long snake formation, and the troops are extremely scattered.

Based on previous speculations, it may be that the density affects the killing efficiency, but the wooden wall is already full of people. With the number of people standing on the wall, when shooting against the enemy outside the wall, the enemy can't be shot. This is as expected. The top of the wall

The station is already full of people, and no matter how disadvantaged it is, there is no way to add any more manpower. Therefore, if we want to level the decline, we can only resort to other methods.

Method one, Li Mengxi thought, could build a roof on top of the wall to shield the rain of arrows from above.

Li Mengxi immediately set out to improve the fortifications. The improvements that needed to be made were very simple. They only needed to use wooden boards to scaffold the walls.

The village soldiers took wooden sticks and ropes, randomly placed the wooden sticks on the wall, and propped up the wooden boards. The crooked and scrawled roof was erected in a moment.

The twentieth formation.

The offensive and defensive sides began to fight again.

Li Mengxi thought that the roof of the shed would definitely be useful. It could at least block the rain of arrows coming from above his head, but he was unprepared for the danger that came, which he did not expect.

Li Mengxi was already standing very far away, and a missed arrow hit his head with a whoosh. If Li Mengxi hadn't reacted quickly and dodged in time, the consequences would have been disastrous.

Li Mengxi no longer dared to stand at the top of the city. His personal trial just now made him realize that arrows coming from the front were also dangerous.

After getting off the wall, Li Mengxi asked people to prepare materials and prepare to modify the fortifications.

At this time, there was already a roof on the wall. Using crude materials and the crudest method, the village soldiers directly put up another wooden board vertically. The method was as simple as it could be, but Li Mengxi felt that something was not quite right.

The roof of the shed was already low enough, almost touching the heads of the rural soldiers. The added wooden board hung down, blocking the view, which was not conducive to actual combat.

Judging from my experience just now, frontal shielding is extremely necessary. The best way to shield the frontal is undoubtedly the battlement style. But for wooden walls, the cost performance of such complex things as battlements is really low, and it is most suitable for the reinforcement of wooden walls.

The method is to still only use wooden boards.

In view of the fact that the way the wooden boards hang down vertically will block the line of sight, but not blocking it is not possible, so a method that can block the line of sight without affecting the line of sight should be adopted.

The method Li Mengxi considered was to make the baffle a little more inclined, which would not only avoid the line of sight, but also effectively block the rain of arrows coming diagonally from above.

The key is this - diagonally above.

If the distance is far, if the enemy wants to miss the arrow, he must throw it, and when the thrown arrow comes, its direction must be diagonally upward.

To deal with missed arrows coming from diagonally above, the baffle is also tilted upward to cover the largest area. It can be said that after the baffle is tilted, it not only does not block the line of sight, but also greatly increases the defense efficiency.

Later, Li Mengxi asked the village soldiers to use this method to modify the scaffolding. After the modification was completed, the scaffolding had a roof and a sloping baffle in front. When viewed as a whole, it looked like an eaves.

In the 21st team, the offensive and defensive sides faced off again.

The attackers and defenders have the same number of people and the same tactics. The difference is that the defenders have additional roof defenses.

The battle started, and both sides fired arrows at each other. Soon, the winner was decided, and the battle situation finally reversed, and the winner was the defending side.

There was just an extra eave-like roof on top of the wall. Such a simple roof instantly wiped out several arrows from the attackers, and the situation was reversed.

The anti-arrow effect of the shed roof was so obvious that Li Mengxi thought that since the shed roof was simple and easy to operate, the same method could be used not only for defense but also for attack.

Then, Li Mengxi realized that he had used a similar method for a long time. There were shield crossbowmen in the army. The shield crossbowmen carried a large shield as high as a person. When winding the crossbow, they turned their backs and used the shield behind them to straighten the crossbow.
To be continued...