Cui Yan's proposed strategy alternated feints with real attacks: besiege three walls to spread the defenders thin, then strengthen the attack on one wall when they were unprepared. It was more sophisticated than simply using Encircle Three Sides and Leave One Open.
"We don't have enough troops."
Liu Xie shook his head and sighed. "It isn't that I don't want to encircle Lecheng County, but our forces are roughly equal to Yuan Shao's. We also have only twenty-odd torsion catapults, not enough to distribute."
The first requirement for using Encircle Three Sides and Leave One Open was having enough troops.
But the problem was that there was little difference between the two armies' numbers. Using Encircle Three Sides and Leave One Open would instead weaken the intensity of their attacks.
If they had enough torsion catapults, attacking three walls at once would have been feasible, but unfortunately, they had only twenty.
"Then... why not build more torsion catapults?"
Somewhat puzzled, Cui Yan turned toward the Zhen Clan steward responsible for transporting and assembling the torsion catapults.
At his words, everyone else looked over as well.
The Zhen Clan was responsible for manufacturing the torsion catapults.
The torsion catapults were so effective that twenty were far too few. A hundred or more would have been more like it; they made besieging cities remarkably convenient.
It was only because Lecheng County's walls were so tall and thick. Had this been a smaller city, its walls might well have been smashed apart outright.
"There is something you don't know, Gentleman of the Household for Tiger Warriors."
The Zhen Clan steward sighed helplessly. "It isn't that our Zhen Clan doesn't want to. The cost of building these torsion catapults is simply too high."
"Too high?"
Cui Yan frowned. "They're nothing but wood, with hardly