Although these smaller stones can also hit the target, their killing power is relatively weak, and it often takes several consecutive hits to destroy a Greek fire.
Archimedes felt quite regretful about this, and felt that the counterweight trebuchet's debut battle was not perfect!
However, a few days later, when the Greek coalition forces captured the Byzantine city and Archimedes personally walked onto that section of the city wall, he suddenly became excited.
He discovered that the smaller stones released in the final rounds of the counterweight trebuchet were actually more destructive than the larger stones that came before it.
The huge rock in front just cleared away the Greek fire at a specific point.
The artillery shells would throw out more than ten or twenty stones at a time. When the shells landed on the city wall, they no longer formed a point attack, but covered a large area.
Although those stones were relatively small, they were thrown from such a distance that their lethality was far beyond the reach of shields and armor.
Therefore, the last few rounds of stone throwing were actually the key to breaking the defenders' fighting will!
A large number of defenders were frightened by the overwhelming amount of stones!
So later when the Greek fleet passed by the city, they did not dare to stop it.
You have to remember that the Byzantine walls facing the strait were a hundred meters high. Even without Greek fire, the defenders, relying only on bows and heavy objects, still had a certain fighting capacity and could have managed to stop the Greek fleet!
They didn't do anything. The fundamental reason was that they were stunned by the rain of stones!
After realizing this, the troops were busy setting up defense lines in the past few days, and Archimedes was also busy.
He had people build several counterweight catapults on land, and found various stones of different sizes to test the size and density of the stones. He found that the large-area killing effect after being thrown was the best.
By now, Archimedes had mastered the detailed data. He came to the king, hoping that the king would support his new idea so that it could be effective in positional warfare.
"Okay, I'll send you 10,000 people to try to install some behind the third line of defense. However, whether to use it or not is entirely up to me!" Xia Zhe hesitated for a moment and answered casually.
Archimedes is the trump card in his hand, and Xia Zhe certainly doesn't want him to feel frustrated and unable to stay.
But Xia Zhe is actually not optimistic about this "new invention".
In a positional battle, the battle lines of both sides are constantly moving. How could the enemy just stand there and let you hit them with stones?
What's more, it is our own side that is being defended now, not the Persians.
Can something this rigid really work?
In order not to dampen Archimedes' enthusiasm, Xia Zhe had to let him go behind the third line of defense, just for fun.
Xia Zhe felt that this thing would most likely not be used.
Because Antigonus and Hector were so confident. If the Persians wanted to break through the first two lines of defense, it would take at least ten days or half a month.
Time is on our side!
By the time the 30 million Persian main forces commanded by Xerxes arrived, the enemy’s food would probably be almost gone!
By then, even if the Persian army was defeated and retreated by sea, it would still be severely damaged.
There is absolutely no possibility of another westward invasion in the short term!
"Thank you, my king!"
Hearing that Xia Zhe agreed to his request, Archimedes thanked him for the first time, and then hurriedly pulled Lillian to call for help.
Not taking this matter to heart, Xia Zhe happily went back to his room to sleep, and did not get up until noon the next day.
I had just finished breakfast and lunch and hadn't had time to say anything when a guard rushed in anxiously.
"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened! The Persian army has broken through two of our defense lines. Lord Antigonus and his men have been forced to retreat to the third line. General Hector, I request that Your Majesty rush to the city wall to boost morale and stabilize the army!" said the personal soldier.
What?
Our army lost two lines of defense in just one morning?
How is this possible?
Didn't this defensive battle only last until the second day? Could Antigonus and Hector, who were so confident, be so incompetent?
Xia Zhe was stunned when he heard this, and he didn't believe it at all.
Without further ado, he took Lillian out and quickly rushed to the west wall of Troy.
Looking into the distance, Xia Zhe felt a pang in his heart.
The current battle situation is indeed very passive for our side!
At the front of the Persian line were strange regiments in splendid armor, each armed with a large bow, the arc of which was almost as tall as the Persian archers.
Following the command of drums and bugles, these archers holding huge bows raised their heads 45 degrees to the sky and launched a volley of shots.
Those arrows flew out for seven or eight hundred meters with a huge whistling sound before falling down.
The farthest shot can even exceed a thousand meters!
This terrifying range is far beyond that of the Cretan skirmishers.
The best Cretan archers on our side can shoot five or six hundred meters, which is already their limit.
As a result, the Greek coalition forces, which had originally wanted to suppress the Persians with archers, were instead suppressed by the Persian archers.
The Greek soldiers stationed on the first mound could not withstand the enemy's unilateral arrow attack and were forced to retreat.
Next, the Persian army repeated the same trick and captured the second line of defense.
Half of the day has just passed.
Without stopping to rest, the terrifying Persian longbowmen rushed towards the third line of defense of the Greek coalition forces.
"The enemy has a range advantage, so retreating step by step is not a solution! I think the enemy's Persian guard archers have a long range, but their numbers are not too large. Our army is best to launch a charge, even if they shoot tens of thousands of people, and get close. If we can get close, we won't be as passive as we are now!"
Seeing the king appear on the city wall, Hector, who had been frowning in thought, expressed his opinion.
"Not appropriate! The enemy has more troops than us, and they have heavy infantry and heavy cavalry that dare to fight head-on, and their number is twice that of ours! They are eager for us to rush out to fight, so that they can win quickly! I think it is better to retreat directly to Troy and Byzantium, and rely on the city defense to fight a war of attrition! Although we lose land, we save people. We can oppress the enemy, but we must ensure that they dare not rebuild the pontoon bridge!" Antigonus objected.
"We finally recovered the lost territory, but now we give it to the Persians without even fighting? How can this be possible!" Hector said angrily.
"Why not? You Trojans should have a big picture view! As long as we can delay and prevent Persia from opening up the logistics supply line, what does the temporary gain and loss matter?" Antigonus also raised his voice.
…
Neither of them gave in, and both felt that their own approach was the only viable path.
For a moment, the generals and messengers on the city wall, who were commanded by the two men, were all confused and didn't know what to do.
If the two cannot quickly determine the winner, this third line of defense will probably be lost soon.
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