Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 136 Accident
The new navy camp was placed on the banks of the Bianshui River outside the city. The Third Division acted swiftly, and quickly settled the supplies and distributed them to the army. It must be said that there are quite a few capable people in the upper echelons of the Zhou Kingdom. With Wei Renpu, Li Gu, Wang Pu, Wang Pu and others present, most things will not be delayed. This is also an advantage of the Great Zhou over neighboring countries.

Like the Southern Tang Dynasty, not to mention their will to resist, Li Gu besieged Shouzhou for almost three months, and the rescue army came late. As a result, the second wave of reinforcements arrived in the next week, and they fought a big battle. defeat.

If they had stronger organizational skills and moved faster, Shouzhou was besieged in the twelfth lunar month, and a large army could be assembled for rescue in a month, then Li Gu would have been forced to retreat to Huaibei, and the pontoon bridge in Zhengyang would have been destroyed. Forcibly cross the Huai River.

However, the Southern Tang court waited slowly for three months before gathering an army to go north. As a result, they bumped into the reinforcements of Shi Congyun, Li Chongjin, and Shi Yanchao in Zhengyang.

Guo Rong was going to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty, but Li Gu's army was ready to go at any time before the Shu army returned, which shows the gap in execution between the two countries.

After going through battles on the front line, although he won successive battles, Shi Congyun felt more and more that the Southern Tang Dynasty was a big country capable of competing with the Great Zhou, because the troops, manpower, and material resources they continuously invested in the battlefield had far exceeded his expectations. .

Bianshui is the "Tongji Canal" dug by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, connecting the Huaihe River and the Yellow River, starting from Bianliang to Sizhou.

After the end of the Tang Dynasty, the world fell apart, and the south was separated for a long time, so that the river was suspended for a long time. It was not until last year that the officials started to recruit a large number of civilians to dredge the river and widen the riverbed.

However, in Shi Congyun's view, the officials did not intend to use the Bian River to march at the beginning. They mainly wanted to use it as an important logistics transportation channel to ensure the battle against the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Shi Congyun's navy was stationed on the banks of the Daliang section of Bianshui River, and the shipyard for shipbuilding was upstream, under the responsibility of the Third Division and the Ministry of Industry.

There are many flags everywhere in the military port, and there is a large circle of bridges built in shallow water on the outer net of the water village, and wooden piles are erected around the periphery to prevent outsiders from breaking in.

A large number of people go back and forth at the ferry, most of them are boatmen and trackers.

The camp of the army is closer to the north, on a flat ground under a small hillside, so that it can avoid the sun for half a day.

Shi Congyun has seen those ships, and they can be roughly divided into four types.

One is a small boat that can only carry about a dozen people. It is mainly used for patrolling in the water village and for the round trip between large boats. It is also nicknamed Chimazhou.

Si Chao told him that if the water battle is unfavorable, it will be difficult for the big ships to escape in time, because they move slowly and it is difficult to change their course. At this time, they must rely on these small boats to escape.

Shi Congyun firmly remembered that he hoped that he would never use this function, but the world is impermanent, who knows for sure.

Then there are ordinary ships. These ships are mostly used to transport supplies. The army’s food, grass and supplies are transported behind them. Unlike other ships, many of these ships are requisitioned merchant ships and civilian ships. Take over by the auxiliary soldiers.

Then there is the building boat. The building boat belongs to the large army of the army. It is as high as four decks and can carry more than 400 people. Of course, including the boatman, it can carry about [-] combat personnel.

It looks like a giant in the river. It is called a ship or a building ship, and there are not many of them.

However, Shi Congyun was not shocked, because he had personally calculated that the full-load displacement of this thing is about [-] tons, which is already considered a very advanced level in this era, but the ships, aircraft carriers and the like of later generations will be tens of thousands of tons at every turn. Tons of counting, no surprises.

The craftsmanship of the girder is really high. He has been on the boat. The main structure of such a big guy is mainly wood, and it needs a very high level to withstand the wind and waves without disintegration.

These boats are also designed with a square bottom, because they are mainly sailing in inland rivers, which is more stable, but this structure is not suitable for strong winds and waves at sea.

It is probably because China's inland land is already too vast, and very few can conquer it all, so that the rulers are not so interested in the sea. Although the shipbuilding technology is exquisite, most of the ships are made for inland river navigation and inland sea navigation.

If you ask him to say, in the future, if you want to attack Youzhou, you will go directly by land and water, and the fleet will sail from the sea along the Bohai Bay to Tianjin, and then go to Beijing (Youzhou).

Of course, he just had a moment in his mind. Those things are far away. The Southern Tang Dynasty has not yet been settled. Forget about Khitan.

The last type is the most common and largest number of warships in the fleet. According to his visual inspection, the length is about 20 meters, and it can carry [-] to [-] soldiers, depending on the level of armor.

The bow of this kind of ship has a collision angle, which can directly collide with the opponent's ship, and will also attack with long-range weapons and melee weapons when it gets close.

It is more of a long-range attack. Apart from the crossbows of the soldiers, there are also large bed crossbows on both sides of the ship.

The crossbow is not as powerful as the trebuchet, but the accuracy is much more reliable.

In Shouzhou City, Li Jixun used a trebuchet for nearly half a year, throwing stones the size of a millstone every day, why can't he just take Shouzhou?The main thing is that the catapult hits all depends on fate.

Shi Congyun personally saw it outside Shouzhou City, and the trebuchet was so casual, even if it could throw an error within 50 meters, even if it couldn't break the stone after throwing it for half a year, it could fill a path.

So the crossbow is easy to use on a shaking boat.

However, among the supplies commonly used by the navy that were taken over from the third division, there was something that really surprised Shi Congyun, and that was gunpowder!

When Si Chao demonstrated the water battle for him, the soldiers wrapped a package of things in oiled paper, tied it to the arrowhead of the bed crossbow, and fired it out. Afterwards, a fire was slowly ignited on the other side, igniting the dry autumn grass on the other side. very big.

Afterwards, Si Chao asked the soldiers to open the tarpaulin to explain the principle to him, and the inside was actually gunpowder and turpentine!The fire wire at the tail is ignited, and after the crossbow bolt is shot out, the gunpowder will completely ignite the turpentine when it burns.

Shi Congyun was taken aback, and even found a torch to test the properties of gunpowder.

He found that these gunpowders were different from the later generations of gunpowder he knew. They burned less intensely and quickly, and their power did not look scary. The color was gray-black and denser.

However, it has already had some effects, such as quickly igniting the rosin and grease inside to cause a flame.

He asked Si Chao curiously, "Where are these things made?"

Si Chao shook his head, "A certain person also took over the luggage from the third division, maybe you don't know as much about Daliang as Brother Yun."

On the other hand, Pan Mei said: "I know about this matter. There is a gunpowder factory in the north of Daliang City, which seems to be managed by the Ministry of War, but the court didn't pay much attention to it. This kind of thing can be used to ignite fire, but the consumables are more expensive. It is not worth the loss to use it. .

That is to say, water warfare, which is used only when there is no other way, and the court does not often intervene on weekdays. This time, it happens that the government wants to form a navy, so it is used.The gunpowder is estimated to be grateful to us, if there is no military cost, it will be closed there. "

Shi Congyun hurriedly asked: "Which official of the Ministry of War is responsible for the gunpowder production?"

Pan Mei looked at him with some puzzlement, probably not understanding why he cared so much about such a trivial matter, so she thought for a while and shook her head: "I can't remember either, how could anyone care about such a trivial matter."

Shi Congyun was not forgiving, and patted Pan Mei on the shoulder: "Brother Pan, help me inquire about this matter, and tell me the result as soon as possible, don't procrastinate, which official of the Ministry of War is in charge of the gunpowder production, when the time comes I treat you to a drink."

After thinking about it again, he said, "Forget it, anyway, it's impossible to be so fast. Brother Pan, take your time and ask, I want a letter."

Not only Pan Mei, but Si Chao and the others next to him were a little surprised, and said with a puzzled smile: "Hahaha, why is Brother Yun so interested in this thing? I think your mind should be thinking about major events in the world, think about the coming year How to fight, it’s a waste to think about it.”

"You don't understand. When I was young, I fought with my father. I never played with firecrackers. Now I think about it and regret it. I want to relive my childhood."

Shi Congyun has been formulating the training outline, which resulted in a relatively slow training progress. The government has sent someone to urge him once, and he said it with the reason that "sharpening a knife is not a mistake in chopping firewood".

He knew why the officials were so anxious. At this time, the officials must be anxious, because he just left, and something happened in Huainan.

When the news reached Daliang, Shi Congyun happened to go to the Privy Council to hand over the matter of the navy, and he heard about it first in Wei Renpu.

First, the Shouzhou Jiedu envoy Liu Renshan guarded the lonely city alone. Thousands of people faced the dilemma of being surrounded by tens of thousands of troops and being isolated and helpless.

Li Jixun led tens of thousands of elite soldiers from Hujie's right wing, the elite soldiers of the Forbidden Army who followed Guo Wei all the way.

As a result, Liu Renshan took advantage of the chaos and defeated him, killing hundreds of people and injuring nothing. The key point is that most of the siege equipment outside the city was burned by Liu Renshan, which led to frustration in the subsequent siege and low morale of the soldiers. He proposed to withdraw the troops, but felt that Shouzhou could not be defeated, and Liu Renshan was too difficult to deal with.

Then the Southern Tang Dynasty sent General Zhu Yuan across the Yangtze River to recover Shuzhou and Hezhou.

Luo Yanhuan, who was ordered by Shi to be stationed in Shuzhou, retreated to the prosperous Tang Dynasty to join forces with Li Chongjin to resist the continued northward offensive of the Southern Tang army.

Moreover, the advantages of the powerful naval forces of the Southern Tang Dynasty were soon revealed. Qi Wang Li Jingda quickly led his army to supplement Haozhou by water, and a steady stream of troops and supplies arrived in Haozhou.

Southern Tang stationed more than [-] troops in Haozhou!
Haozhou is also on the bank of the Huaihe River, about the position of Fengyang in later generations. It is only about 160 miles away from Shouzhou. In the east of Shouzhou, according to the report from the scouts of Li Chongjin in Shouzhou, Haozhou has sent troops to slowly move from the south bank of the Huaihe River. Advancing, and advancing both land and water, the intention to rescue Shouzhou is very obvious.

That's why the officials were so anxious, he was anxious to use this army to rescue the siege.

However, Shi Congyun had his own ideas. This time he was selfish. He wanted to train an army of his own, so he brought some private goods with him.

In the small hall on the east side of the Long Live Hall, there are pictures of mountains and rivers hanging on the wall, as well as a lot of pen and ink. It does not seem to be a masterpiece by a famous artist, but it is all the words of a monarch who is praised by people.

For example, "Water can carry a boat or overturn it", "It is necessary to make the barbarians of the four directions not dare to underestimate China, and the rebellious officials and thieves dare not peep at the magic weapon" "Any warriors guard the four directions".
Guo Rong would take a look at these things most of the time to warn himself, and of course he would forget all of them because of his temper.

At the beginning, he had great ambitions, and things went smoothly in the battle of Gaoping and the war against Shu, and it was the same at the beginning of the Southern Tang Dynasty, but gradually more and more things went wrong, and he was inevitably a little irritable. For many things, he thinks that the sooner the better, he can finish his work as soon as possible.

But slowly, he was getting more and more out of his control. At this time, he needed to read what those monarchs said, and think about their tolerance and helplessness, so that he could calm down slowly.

Li Jixun's defeat outside Shouzhou City made him very angry. If he hadn't realized that he had really worked hard and made great achievements, and was dissuaded by his officials, he would have thought of severely punishing him.

But even so, the commander of the infantry guards couldn't keep him.

Before he promoted Shi Congyun to the deputy commander of the guards, he had already considered that father and son should not be together, otherwise it would be difficult to control.

Although in Zhengyang before, it was because Shi Congyun was able to mobilize his father's army that he won the battle, but as the emperor, he didn't think so. I feel wrong and unhappy.

So after much deliberation, Guo Rong decided to transfer Shi Yanchao from the Dianqian Division to the Guard Division to serve as the commander of the guards and Ma Jundu.

Just as he was thinking, the eunuch came in to report to him, and Wei Renpu from the Privy Council came.

After Wei Renpu came in, he saluted first.

Guo Rong didn't wait for him to finish: "Excuse me, I have something to ask you, has Shi Congyun's navy started to drill? Last time I sent someone to urge him to say that sharpening a knife is not a mistake in chopping firewood. He will still be sharpening his knife!"

Wei Renpu said: "Reporting to the officials, the practice has already started, and the training on the Bianhe River is in full swing these two days."

Guo Rong nodded in satisfaction: "Tell him, the matter is urgent now, and the navy army in his place should be used as soon as possible, so he should not procrastinate. Before this year, I went to inspect the army by the Bianshui River to see what kind of troops he has. Two catties.

Don't sharpen the knife for so long, if you still can't figure out why, then I won't be able to forgive him, and I will ask him for his crime. "

Wei Renpu nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, the official, I must warn him that Shi Congyun is quick in his work."

"Well, then you go down."

Coming out of the Chuigong Hall and slowly pacing in the corridor, Wei Renpu frowned slightly. Did the officials treat Shi Congyun a little harshly?

I don't know why, but he has this inexplicable feeling.

For Shi Congyun, the younger generation, he likes him. First of all, he is able to fight, and he has literary talents. .

Li Gu, Wang Pu and others spoke well of him when they talked about it. Every time he went to the Privy Council, the boy was very polite and polite to him, and sometimes he would take the initiative to help him with things.

It's hard to get bored of such a junior, so let's remind him that the officials may have a lot of expectations for him, so they should be stricter.

Speaking of Shi Congyun's military training, he also went to the edge of Bianshui to watch it once because of business, which really puzzled him.

(End of this chapter)