Day Three: The True Assault
While Luo He spent the third morning exactly as he had promised his Wifey, on a woman's bed, Jin Mulan faced a far harsher reality.
The previous day's attack had merely tested the mansion's defenses. Every experienced commander understood the rhythm of a siege. The first assault measured the defender's strength.
Revealing hidden weapons and exposing weaknesses. The second assault was the real battle. By sunrise, Duke Lu's army was fully prepared.
Rows of massive trebuchets and heavy ballistae rolled into position nearly four hundred and fifty meters from the walls.
Engineers hurried to assemble them while thousands of soldiers formed protective shield walls around the siege engines.
Soon the first boulders rose into the sky.
Several crashed into the mansion's courtyards, shaking the ancient estate and scattering fragments of stone.
The attackers believed the bombardment had finally begun. Jin Mulan simply watched. She refused to return fire immediately.
Only after every trebuchet had been assembled, loaded, and committed to the bombardment did she quietly raise her hand. "Now."
Thirty heavy Scorpion ballistae rotated almost simultaneously. For nearly three weeks, their crews had practiced nothing except hitting distant siege engines.
Luo He's designs made the weapons extraordinarily accurate, and every crew knew its assigned target. The first volley consisted of ordinary steel bolts.
Several trebuchets exploded into showers of timber before they could launch another stone. Others survived the initial impact but remained pinned by the massive projectiles.
Their frames shattered and unable to move. The second volley followed almost instantly. This time, incendiary bolts screamed across the battlefield.
Brilliant explosions erupted among the siege engines as fire engulfed the damaged frames. Dry timber burned rapidly, ammunition ignited, and crews abandoned their machines in panic.
Not a single trebuchet survived long enough to launch a third stone. Some fired only once. Others managed two shots before disappearing beneath fire and splintered wood.
Even the enemy's heavy ballistae fared little better. Those that lucky ones that were not immediately destroyed were quickly dismantled and withdrawn before they too became targets.
Within minutes, Duke Lu's long-range bombardment had collapsed. The thick stone walls of the Jin Mansion, nearly twelve meters high and about two meters thick, stood firm.
Built from carefully cut stone blocks laid generations earlier, they showed little sign of yielding to the ultimately brief bombardment.
Most ancient siege engines were far less accurate than people actually imagined.
Trebuchets, despite their enormous size, were never precision weapons. Their true purpose was psychological rather than destructive.
A boulder crashing into a courtyard, smashing rooftops, or simply thundering against the ground was often enough to spread fear among defenders.
After hours of bombardment, even inaccurate shots became terrifying. Soldiers would instinctively duck whenever they heard the unmistakable whistle of another stone overhead.
The opening volleys, however, rarely struck anything important. Most rocks landed somewhere inside the walls, or sometimes missed the fortress entirely.
Ballistae were considerably more accurate than trebuchets, but even they were far from precision weapons.
A standard ballista could threaten anyone standing atop the walls and force defenders to keep their heads down.
Yet hitting a specific siege engine or a single target at several hundred meters remained largely a matter of chance. Luo He's designs however were entirely different from others.
Instead of relying on traditional wooden frames, he constructed his heavy Scorpion ballistae around reinforced steel components. This Greatly reduced flex during firing.
And dramatically improving consistency. More importantly, he redesigned the aiming system itself.
Both the horizontal rotation and vertical elevation were engraved with permanent angle markings. Rather than estimating by eye, crews adjusted the weapon using measured angles calculated beforehand.
Accuracy no longer depended solely on experience. It became a repeatable process.
For nearly three weeks before the siege, Luo He drilled every crew relentlessly. They fired hundreds of practice shots at fixed targets placed at varying distances, recording the correct elevation and rotation for each range.
Wind, terrain, and projectile weight were all documented, gradually building reference tables the crews could rely upon during battle.
Each heavy ballista required four men to operate efficiently.
One served as the range calculator, determining the correct firing solution based on distance, elevation, and wind.
And made sure the weapon is adjusted precisely to those calculated angles using the engraved markings.
The second, the gunner, made the final corrections. Mathematics could predict a shot, but experience accounted for the countless small variables calculations could never fully capture. His judgment determined the final aim before release.
The third crewman supplied the physical strength, rotating the heavy weapon into position. Loading the enormous iron bolt, and preparing it for firing after all the calculations.
The fourth crewman acted as the loader, carrying the heavy bolts from the ammunition stockpile to the ballista and preparing the next round, ensuring the weapon could maintain a steady rate of fire throughout the battle.
Only when all four worked in perfect harmony did the weapon achieve the remarkable accuracy that had astonished the Wu Kingdom's generals.
To the enemy, it appeared almost supernatural.
To Luo He, it was simply the result of engineering, disciplined training, and careful preparation. Seeing his siege engines destroyed, Duke Lu immediately shifted tactics. "Fill the moat!"
Thousands of soldiers rushed forward carrying heavy sandbags beneath enormous shield formations.
Layer after layer of wooden shields overlapped above their heads, creating moving fortresses that slowly advanced toward the walls.
The defenders answered immediately.
The great ballistae targeted the shield formations first.
Whenever one shattered beneath a steel bolt, the formation opened for only a heartbeat, but that heartbeat was more than enough.
Crossbowmen waiting along the battlements unleashed disciplined volleys into the exposed ranks. Armored soldiers fell one after another, pierced cleanly by Luo He's heavy iron bolts.
Still, the attackers kept advancing. They had nearly six times the defenders' numbers and could afford terrible losses if it meant reaching the walls.
Gradually, the shield formations improved. Fresh soldiers replaced the fallen, and the advancing lines became more organized.
The moat was far shallower than the attackers had expected. After throwing in only a few sandbags, they quickly realized it was barely two feet deep.
Instead of wasting time trying to fill it completely, the assault troops carried the remaining sandbags with them, waded through the water, and reached the base of the wall.
There, they piled the bags against the stonework to form crude ramps and footholds, allowing ladders and assault parties to climb the walls more easily under the defenders' relentless fire.
The twelve foot wide waterway still slowed every advance a little bit, forcing soldiers to struggle through mud, water, and unstable footing before reaching the opposite bank.
That hesitation proved fatal. Every second spent climbing through the moat became another opportunity for Jin Mulan's crossbowmen to fire.
Bodies accumulated faster than the crossings could be completed. Even so, sheer numbers slowly overcame the obstacles.
By the time the first assault waves finally reached the base of the walls, more than three thousand Wu soldiers had already fallen.
Throughout the battle, Gin Mulan remained calm atop the battlements, issuing orders with unwavering precision.
Every volley was timed. Every target was chosen carefully. Under her command, the mansion's defenders transformed the ancient fortress into a killing ground.
Where Luo He's inventions proved deadlier than anyone on the battlefield had imagined.
Duke Lu reined in his horse at the base of the Jin Mansion's walls, his gaze slowly sweeping across the battlefield. The morning's assault had been far costlier than expected.
Yesterday's probing attack had already claimed nearly 1,600 of his men. Today's main assault had taken close to another 3,000 before his soldiers had even managed to reach the walls.
Altogether, his losses were approaching five thousand men. And all of this, against barely five thousand defenders.
His expression darkened.
By all conventional logic, such a fortress should have collapsed beneath overwhelming numbers. Instead, every step toward the walls had been paid for in large amounts of blood.
The shallow moat, though only two feet deep, had slowed the assault just enough for the defenders' terrifying crossbows to butcher entire formations.
The ballistas had shattered every trebuchet he deployed before they could establish sustained bombardment, leaving his infantry to advance without proper siege support.
Yet they had reached the walls. The first stage of the assault was over. Now the true siege could begin.