"Dong—"
Accompanying Han Shizhong's curses, the city gate under their feet resounded with another deafening thud.
"Bastards!"
Han Shizhong clearly felt the city walls trembling.
This was not good news. If this continued, the city gate might not withstand a few more impacts.
"Smash! Smash them!"
Following Han Shizhong's furious roar, the soldiers on the city walls began to smash down the pre-prepared stones without regard for cost.
Although the rebel soldiers were protected by shields, they were still battered and bruised by these stones, each at least the size of a human head.
However, what was even more terrifying was yet to come. To quickly clear the city gate, under Han Shizhong's command, the Song soldiers on the city walls directly hurled the oil jars at the vicinity of the city gate.
"Light it!"
When the rebel soldiers below were scurrying for cover, Han Shizhong directly ordered them to set it ablaze.
With just a few fire arrows, the thick, viscous fire oil on the ground was completely ignited.
The rebels, who had just held the upper hand, were instantly thrown into a completely passive situation.
As the flames soared into the sky, hundreds of rebel soldiers were completely engulfed in fire.
This fire oil was specially processed, with red phosphorus mixed in, allowing it to continue burning even in water once ignited.
In almost an instant, the wails of the rebels spread throughout the entire vicinity of the South Gate.
"Let them retreat for now!"
Seeing the raging fire at the city gate, Lü Shinang finally relented.
These soldiers were new recruits, completely unaccustomed to such a gruesome scene. Forcing them to continue at this moment would likely yield no results and instead cause their morale to collapse.
"Sound the gong to retreat!"
Seeing that Lü Shinang had finally relented, Qiu Rixin quickly ordered a retreat.
Although this was merely a probing action by both sides, in just this short period, the casualties among the soldiers on and below the city walls had exceeded three thousand.
When the smoke temporarily cleared, the horrific battlefield was something that both sides' soldiers could barely bear to look at.
"Have the brothers tidy up, treat the wounded, and burn that thing down there!"
Looking at the ram, which resembled a monstrous beast, Han Shizhong felt a chill down his spine.
Although they had destroyed this ram, in this short period, nearly a third of their stored fire oil had been consumed.
While this item was powerful, it was also genuinely expensive.
More importantly, this item could not be produced locally in Mingzhou.
It was a case of using one less one. With such a significant consumption at the very beginning of contact, even though they still had the Xianzhen Battalion as a trump card, seeing the busy craftsmen in the rebel ranks made Han Shizhong feel a headache.
"My lord, the shouts from the city walls seem to have stopped!"
Hearing that the soldiers' war cries on the city walls had finally ceased, Jiang Yan excitedly shouted to Han Mo.
"This is just the first probing action!"
Although Han Mo said this, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief internally.
Wasn't the most dangerous part just the first encounter?
With this experience, dealing with it next time would undoubtedly be much simpler for these soldiers.
After all, in such a battlefield, what was most devastating was the fear of the enemy.
"Yes!"
"Let's go and see how the trebuchets are doing?"
Compared to the ram, Han Mo was most concerned about the trebuchets.
After all, no one knew how perfunctory the previous repairs to the Mingzhou city walls had been.
"Yes!"
When Han Mo and his men arrived beside Li Erniu and the others again, a large trebuchet was undergoing its final adjustments.
"My lord!"
Seeing Han Mo arrive, Li Erniu quickly stepped forward to pay his respects.
"Don't mind me, you all continue!"
Seeing that their preparations were almost complete, Han Mo immediately urged them to continue their work.
"My lord, rest assured, it will take at most another quarter of an hour, and it should be about done!"
"Good! Once this is completed, everyone will be heavily rewarded!"
"Thank you, my lord!"
Under generous rewards, there must be brave men.
A quarter of an hour later, a brand-new trebuchet finally appeared before Han Mo.
Although its appearance was indeed rougher compared to the original trebuchets.
However, at this moment, Han Mo had no time to concern himself with whether this thing looked good or not.
"Adjust the direction and let me test its power!"
After circling around the trebuchet, Han Mo's interest was immediately piqued.
"Yes!"
Hearing Han Mo's words, the craftsmen also became excited.
The launch of this thing didn't require much technical skill.
Because of its crude design, accuracy was not considered at all.
After all, the targets for these trebuchets were generally city walls, and as long as its range was sufficient, everything else was unimportant.
"Launch!"
At Han Mo's command, a stone weighing nearly a hundred pounds flew overhead with a whistling sound.
"Boom—"
A moment later, with a loud bang, several carts, which the craftsmen had set up as targets, were smashed to pieces.
After smashing the carts, the massive stone continued to bounce on the ground several times before finally coming to a stop.
Upon seeing this, Han Mo was stunned.
Even he hadn't expected such immense power from such a seemingly simple machine.
While this contraption couldn't compare to the cannons of later generations, if dozens or hundreds of such stones bombarded the Mingzhou city walls simultaneously, who knew how long the walls could withstand it.
At the thought of this, Han Mo gritted his teeth. If it weren't for the fact that these corrupt officials still had some use, he would have loved to have them all executed by being burned alive at this very moment.
The Fang La rebellion had been raging for so long, and they had actually failed to consider repairing the city walls.
However, as things stood, Han Mo could only endure it for now, no matter how unwilling he was.
After several continuous attempts, Han Mo finally felt somewhat relieved. Although the power of this thing was indeed considerable, its drawbacks were also very obvious.
The range of these trebuchets, even when firing the smallest size of rubble, was less than 200 paces.
If it were the larger stones used for attacking city walls, the power would be halved again.