Chapter 274: Crossbow Bombing the Building |
"Damn it, no one told me their ship was this big." Li Zecheng's eyes flashed with intense apprehension. "Fortunately, I'm on the twenty-fourth floor. They'll have to fight their way through the twenty-three floors below first if they want to get up here."
Thinking this, Li Zecheng relaxed a little.
But immediately, his heart tightened again. What if they actually did fight their way up?
Considering this possibility, Li Zecheng's heart hung in mid-air.
He pulled open the door and stepped out into the corridor.
Looking down from the atrium, he saw many people in the stairwells and passageways below moving barricades and setting up obstacles along the way.
The layout of the Red Cauldron Tower, with its staggered floors and stairs, made it easy to defend and hard to attack.
Anyone trying to fight their way up would face a bloody path.
"We're all just trying to survive. There's no blood feud. They probably won't go crazy and insist on fighting their way up here, right?" Li Zecheng muttered to himself, as if comforting himself and soothing his own heart.
The opposing force was also made up of many people; they couldn't be completely united. If enough of them died, they'd retreat on their own.
In ancient times, an army suffering over fifteen percent casualties was considered severely damaged.
If casualties exceeded twenty percent, most armies would begin to rout.
Those that could withstand over thirty percent casualties without collapsing were famous legions recorded in history.
"We have over two thousand people in our building, plus the advantage of terrain. Even if they attack, they probably won't reach the twenty-fourth floor."
Footsteps approached from outside the stairwell.
Several Floor Heads from the lower floors arrived together. "Li Zecheng, you people on the twenty-fourth floor can't just watch the show. You need to send people down to help fight too."
Li Zecheng asked, "Why?"
The Fourth Floor Head said, "We're all on the same side."
"That's not enough."
The Third Floor Head sneered, "Then we'll just surrender, hide in our rooms, and let them pass through unobstructed right up the building. Let's see what you people upstairs do then."
Li Zecheng fell silent. Looking at the four determined men before him, he finally nodded. "Fine. I can send ten people down to support you. But it's just support. If you try to use them as cannon fodder, they can leave on their own."
"Of course." The four lower-floor Building Heads smiled.
Their objective achieved, they continued upstairs, planning to persuade other Floor Heads to send more reinforcements down to the lower floors.
Without reinforcements, the lower few floors simply couldn't be defended.
"CRASH! BANG!"
Several consecutive loud booms echoed through the atrium.
Following closely was the sound of shattering glass.
Li Zecheng staggered, quickly grabbing the nearby railing.
Panicked shouts filled the atrium.
"What's happening?" Li Zecheng's expression changed drastically.
Then came the second, the third... the fourteenth sound!
"CRASH! SMASH! BANG! SHATTER!!!"
Each impact felt like a heavy hammer slamming into his chest.
The most recent one was almost right next to him, separated by just a single wall.
Li Zecheng whirled around, looking behind him.
He hesitated for a moment, then opened the door.
The room behind him was in complete disarray.
The window facing the balcony had a huge hole blown through it. The wooden boards were shattered, revealing a large gap.
The room was a mess.
On the wall next to the door, a thick crossbow bolt was embedded several inches deep, with large cracks radiating outward from the edges.
The sound he heard earlier must have come from here.
"A crossbow bolt? A giant crossbow?" Li Zecheng's expression turned grim.
He had heard at least a dozen similar sounds. If he wasn't mistaken, these were probably fired from that overseas ship. Were they treating them like primitive savages?
.......
On the deck, Qin Ziwen looked at the fourteen large holes blasted into the surface of the Red Cauldron Tower in the distance, his expression unchanged.
All the vehicle-mounted crossbows originally stored in the Home had been moved onto the ship.
Heavy crossbows on board, opening a second front.
Qin Ziwu shouted, "Keep firing! They dared to ambush us. Give these bastards a lesson!"
Du Yu stood beside Qin Ziwen and spoke up. "Master, vehicle-mounted crossbows aren't very suitable for attacking buildings. If we had catapults, it might be more effective."
"Right. We'll need to make a batch of catapults later." Qin Ziwen nodded. As for making catapults, it shouldn't be too difficult. Compared to vehicle-mounted crossbows, catapults are actually simpler.
It's just that catapult accuracy is hard to control. If used for long-range bombardment, it's basically all luck.
On the sea, the vehicle-mounted crossbows fired one after another.
The massive crossbow bolts transformed into blurred black shadows, crossing hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye, accurately striking the Red Cauldron Tower.
Where they hit, the glass curtain walls exploded into shards, falling like waterfalls.
Fourteen new black holes were added to the building's exterior walls.
Under the series of tremendous impacts,
the entire island fell silent.
Birds took flight in alarm. A deathly hush descended.
Even in the nearby urban village, some groups that had organized and were planning to resist fell into silence after seeing those "heavy crossbow" bolts flying overhead.
"Brother Long, what should we do?" Someone looked toward Yang Long at the center of the group.
Yang Long was silent for a moment, then said, "If we bring out those two big weapons, could we take down their ship?"
These two great weapons were the ballistae they had painstakingly crafted. But due to technical limitations, manpower, and building level restrictions, they had only managed to build three so far. One had been destroyed by fire not long ago.
Someone said, "Two against fourteen? That might be difficult. And we'd probably only get one chance to fire. After shooting, we'd likely be targeted by concentrated fire from their heavy crossbows."
Yang Long's eyes flickered as he calculated the gains and losses.
If they won in the end, what would they gain?
If they lost, what would the consequences be?
After thinking it over, Yang Long felt that an all-out decisive battle with the other side just wasn't worth it.
He wasn't like those maniacs in the tower; he was a normal person.
At worst, he could just stay on this island.
At least he'd still be alive.
If he died, he'd lose everything.
At this point, the people in the tower still hadn't come out, which meant they weren't planning to fight in the open.
They intended to keep holding out inside the building.
Put another way, they had "sold out" his group.
Because their urban village was closer to the beach.
"Tell the brothers below not to take action. Everyone hide inside the houses. Wait for the other side to come over. If they really leave us no way out, then we can fight them. It won't be too late then." Yang Long finally made his choice.
Hearing they didn't have to fight, many people secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Outside, the sound of crossbow bolts pounding the tower continued unabated.
Finally, when the sounds ceased, someone gathered their courage and peeked out.
The originally sturdy tower now looked riddled with holes.
It had become like a beehive.
Its surface was densely covered with black holes.
Someone shrank their neck back.
If those things were used to bombard their urban village, their houses probably weren't as sturdy as the tower's. A few volleys might collapse their homes.
......
.......