Fenghou

Chapter 508
After returning from Pingliang Mansion, Chen Qing began preparations for the second Eastern Expedition. He originally hoped to cooperate with the Song Army at Dasan Pass and gradually seize Shaanxi Road, but Wu Jie wrote to him and told him that Lu Fasheng firmly opposed sending troops. Monk Yuan, preferring to keep the status quo, he could not convince Lu Fasheng, he could only apologize to Chen Qing.

Since he couldn't count on the cooperation of friendly forces, Chen Qing could only rely on himself.

Changing from defensive to offensive, Chen Qing is now thinking more about siege weapons. After returning to Chengji County, he immediately summoned the officials and master craftsmen of the Military Craftsmanship Office, discussed repeatedly, and finally finalized a few weapons that can defend against fire oil. New siege weapons.

The military craftsman's department is subordinate to Kaicao, and there are three institutions under Kaicao, the first is the military craftsman's department, the second is the firearms and oil department, and the third is the military ship department.

There are currently more than [-] people in the Military Craftsmanship Department, basically all kinds of military craftsmen, and the chief craftsman is Xie Changzhi.

This morning, Chen Qing brought more than a dozen generals to the military craftsman's office. In the wide backyard of the military craftsman's office, there was a newly made sample, which was a sample of the ladder.

The ladder is a means for the attacking army to transport soldiers to the city from a long distance without being close to the city wall. It has always been a traditional siege weapon. It has high technical content and high requirements for manufacturing technology, which is difficult for the grassland people to learn.

The ladder is like a crane. First of all, there is a platform, which weighs several thousand kilograms. It is usually made of strong wood and has six huge wheels.

When Chen Qing saw this ladder, his first reaction was that it was a huge carriage, three feet long and one foot high, and the wheels were taller than a person.

"Is this the carriage?"

Liu Cui said in surprise: "I always thought it was full of wood piled up inside, weighing ten thousand catties, but it turned out to be empty inside."

Xie Changzhi quickly explained: "It can be regarded as a large cart. It itself is pulled by five strong oxen and can accommodate more than [-] soldiers. It's just that it is special and cannot be used to transport people or supplies. The inside of it is made empty to facilitate transportation and walking, but in combat, it is not empty inside. There are ladders inside and soldiers in charge of manipulation.

The cloud ladder is composed of a bed, a main ladder and an auxiliary ladder. The auxiliary ladder is a city ladder, which is locked on the main ladder. It is usually folded with a rotating shaft and unfolded when in use. The entire auxiliary ladder is about three feet long. The main ladder will constantly change the location of the upper city. "

Zheng Ping spoke bluntly, he didn't care that this was the siege weapon Chen Qing was considering, he shook his head repeatedly and said, "It's too heavy, if a powder keg blows off the wheels, it will be useless?"

As soon as Zheng Ping opened his mouth, the generals also felt that it was not very practical. They originally hoped that it could avoid the raging fire, but now they suddenly found that it was actually more difficult to avoid the fierce fire. .

Yang Zaixing frowned and said, "We all made a common mistake. We always thought that the fire oil was burning under the city wall. The fact is that our soldiers are standing under the city wall. If we were standing outside the moat, the other party would use stones Just imagine, if it is filled with several large barrels of kerosene and then ignited, the entire ladder will be engulfed in thick smoke and flames."

Everyone looked at Chen Qing, and Chen Qing actually regretted it a bit. He only considered the advantages of the ladder, but did not keep pace with the times. The siege gradually developed towards miniaturization, simplification, and low cost, but he himself did the opposite.

There is a reason why ladders appeared less and less on the battlefields of the Song Dynasty, mainly because of the appearance of various firearms.

As long as this kind of bulky guy appears on the battlefield, he will definitely become the eyes of firearms. Although the firearms of the Song Dynasty are not powerful, they are more than enough to deal with this kind of ladder. It will be useless, especially its manufacturing cost is too high to support a large-scale war.

Chen Qing sighed and said: "Although it is scary to defend the city with fierce fire oil, not all cities will have such strategic materials as fierce fire oil. Like Pingliang City, we will no longer use the method of strong attack and hard attack, but replace it with other methods. way to attack the city."

Niu Gao laughed and said, "It's like taking Huangzhou City!"

To capture Huangzhou City was to buy off the Sun family. A large number of soldiers joined the team of general Sun Jian who defended the city. In the end, all the soldiers who guarded the city at night were the Song Army. Taking Huangzhou City would be a piece of cake.

Chen Qing nodded, "This is a way, or we can ambush hundreds of people and seize a section of the city at night. Unlike before, we had to seize the gate, and it is much easier to seize the city."

Xie Changzhi said with a bitter face: "Du Tong, does Yun Lai count as a veto?"

Chen Qing said with a smile: "It would be good to transform it into a transport cart, which is specially used to transport wounded soldiers, firearms and kerosene."

Everyone laughed, Xie Changzhi blushed and said, "I understand!"

Chen Qing laughed again: "However, for the siege ladder that can move horizontally, we need to carefully consider how to make it. It is simple and practical, and it is not easy to be damaged. Maybe its effect will be better than the ladder."

Several master craftsmen bowed and agreed, "Obey!"

Chen Qing walked out of the military craftsman's office, and a soldier rushed towards him. He rushed to Chen Qing, got off his horse and reported: "Report to Dutong, General Wu Jie is here!"

Wu Jie actually came, Chen Qing hurriedly asked, "Where is he?"

"It's in Jiedu Mansion!"

Chen Qing hastily urged his horse to run towards the Jiedu Mansion, and he arrived at the Jiedu Mansion in a short while. He saw a team of cavalry in front of the mansion gate, about a hundred of them, and the leader was Wu Jie. He was waiting for him at the gate, but did not go in.

Chen Qing hurriedly got off his horse, walked forward quickly, cupped his fists and said with a smile, "I didn't know General Wu was coming, so I'm sorry!"

Wu Jie smiled slightly: "I've always wanted to visit Qinzhou, but I never had the time. This time I finally have the opportunity to come and visit."

"Where does General Wu want to see? I will go with the general."

"Go and see the barracks first!"

The two got on their horses, and Chen Qing accompanied Wu Jie to the barracks.

"Chen Dutong, I'm sorry about the Pingliang Mansion."

Wu Jie found an opportunity to express his apology to Chen Qing.

Chen Qing smiled lightly: "This is not your problem, I believe you will definitely send troops to Monk Yuan!"

Wu Jie nodded, "This is actually because of the different defense concepts of the Xuan Fu envoys. Although Zhang Xuan Fu envoys defeated Fuping, he was not reconciled and wanted to regain Guanzhong. He had a strong sense of counterattack. According to his defense concepts, I put forward the plan of stationing troops and monk Yuan, and it was passed smoothly.

Zhu Shengfei will not mention it, he was transferred back before he was familiar with Sichuan and Shaanxi, and Lu Fasheng was the deputy envoy of Xuanfu, he was very familiar with Sichuan and Shaanxi, but he was too conservative and only hoped that war would not break out during his tenure. This kind of thinking is why he firmly opposes sending troops to Monk Yuan. He is afraid of offending Jin Bing and triggering Jin Bing's counterattack against Dasan Pass. This person is too cautious, really mediocre. "

Chen Qing couldn't help laughing and said, "This is the first time I've heard General Wu comment on his boss so frankly!"

"At the beginning of Wang Heng's Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, there were only [-] Jin soldiers in Fengxiang, and [-] puppet Qi troops in Jingzhao Mansion. You took this opportunity to recover Xihe Road, and I also wanted to use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take back Guanzhong, but Lu Fasheng I just refused to agree, and I wanted to kill him at that time, you can't understand my disappointment and anger at that time."

Speaking of this, Wu Jie had tears in his eyes, and Yang Tian let out a long breath: "Anyway, I'm leaving, I don't care, I dare to say what I have held in my heart for too long."

Chen Qing was startled, "General Wu wants to leave? Why?"

Wu Jie glanced at him, "It seems that you don't care about what happened in Lin'an. That's not okay. Didn't the imperial court ask Xihe Road to build a branch hall in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Jin Zou Hall? You can arrange for a confidant to sit in Lin'an , grasp the major events in Lin'an."

Chen Qing didn't want the Sichuan-Shaanxi Propaganda and Fusi to interfere with him, so he didn't build a branch in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Jin Zong Hall for a long time, and he didn't even want to build a Jin Zou Yuan.

But Wu Jie was right, he should arrange for a confidant to sit in Lin'an and keep abreast of all the major events that happened in Lin'an, Chen Qing thought of Zheng Ping's father, he is actually the most suitable.

But now Chen Qing wants to know why Wu Jie was transferred?That's the big deal right now.

"Why did you transfer General Wu?"

"The Jurchen's request was originally to transfer you together, but for some reason they put you down and appointed me to be transferred separately, so they were willing to sign the armistice agreement. The surprise attack of three thousand Jurchen cavalry frightened the officials, so they I agreed to Jin Guo's request, but the officials treated me well, and promoted me to a higher rank than Lu Fasheng."

Speaking of this, Wu Jie laughed again: "This time Lu Fasheng was also transferred to serve as the transfer envoy of Fujian Road, and Liu Guangshi took over as Xuanfu envoy of Sichuan and Shanxi. Empress Dowager Wei recommended it, which is unexpected!"

Chen Qing was speechless for a long while, he was really being targeted by the Empress Dowager Wei, Zhu Shengfei just went, and another Liu Guangshi came, both of them were his enemies.

(End of this chapter)