Paper Maker: This is the end of the Ming Dynasty in Liaozhai

Chapter 169 This road is dead!Give me a bang!
Of course, it’s no big deal if you fail. At most, you’ll lose a few Hongyi cannons. For him now, a few Hongyi cannons are not a big loss, not to mention Jinan Mansion, Guangdongchang Mansion. There are four to five hundred craftsmen in the firearms workshop.

After half a year of experience accumulation, and most of the craftsmen are artisans handed down from generation to generation, now they can manufacture four or five Hongyi cannons every month, and a few Hongyi cannons are not a big loss.

However, even if Wang Congyi wanted to organize experts to destroy the Hongyi Cannon, he would definitely organize as many experts as possible. After all, it was extremely dangerous to climb the city wall, and to easily climb the city wall, at least a second-rate warrior was required.

People with this kind of strength are masters everywhere, even if they don't take risks, but hang around in the county town, they are still a rich landlord who stretches out his clothes and opens his mouth for food, and first-class warriors are even like ducks in water in Fucheng. In the army, at least one hundred or one thousand households started.

But to destroy the Hongyi cannon, it is not enough for three or five people, at least a dozen or twenty first-class warriors are needed. It is naturally not an easy task for so many masters to risk their lives, so Wang Congyi Only by mobilizing the masters in the entire army can everyone's mouths be blocked.

After all, people's mentality has always been not to worry about the few but the uneven, and they are all officials. Why should they risk their lives while others watch the show behind.

After thinking for a long time, Su Hao came back to his senses, asked about other details, and arranged for Zhao Xiaoer and Ding Zimo to go back to Jinan Mansion, and finally stayed in Dongchang Mansion.

...

As time passed, the silt in the canal became less and less. In order to prevent the rebels in Dongchang Mansion from making trouble at the last moment, Wang Congyi mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to cross the canal and set up a camp on the west bank.

Four days later, at the junction of the Tuhai River and the canal, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong appeared here with soldiers and horses. At this time, there was only a foot-wide sand and soil blocking the river, and there were hundreds of civilians in the river. Digging the last bit of sand left.

Whoa!Whoa!
A large amount of river water washed away the last bit of sand, rolling southward like a torrent.

"Success!"

Watching the rolling water flowing southward, Wang Congyi showed joy on his face. Now that the canal is opened, even if the rebels in Dongchang Mansion have any plots, it will be useless, because if they want to block the canal again, at least thousands of people will have to work hard for several days. God, he wouldn't just watch the other party block the canal again.

On the other side, on the city wall of Dongchang Mansion, Su Hao, Tang Xiangjin and the others also watched the river flowing south with mud and sand.

.........

Soon, half a month passed, and boats reappeared on the canal. For some courageous businessmen, as long as they have enough interests, any danger can be ignored. Now the price of grain in the capital has reached a price of one stone. The high price of two to five yuan, while the price of grain in Huguang is only four or five yuan a stone, and there is at least three to four hundred taels of profit in transporting a boatload of grain from Huguang to the capital. No businessman can refuse this kind of profit.

Dongchang Mansion, government office.

"Qianhu, according to the report from the spies, the Huai'an Prefecture Water Transport Office has begun to mobilize the official ships of the Yanhe Guards, and is preparing to start transporting the first batch of grain to the capital. Are we going to intercept this batch of grain?"

Tang Xiangjin clasped his hands and said, "According to the information obtained by the spies, 15 small and medium-sized ships were used for this batch of grain, and about [-] shi of grain were loaded."

15 shi grains!

Hearing Tang Xiangjin's words, Su Hao tapped on the handrail lightly. 15 shi is not a lot of food, but now the shortage of food in the capital is becoming more and more serious, 15 shi can already quench his thirst.

After thinking for a while, Su Hao asked: "How much grain has been hoarded in Jiangnan now?"

"For more than a month, a large number of ships have docked at Huai'an Prefecture. According to the spies' estimates, there should be nearly 200 million shi grains stored in Jiangnan."

Tang Xiangjin clapped his hands and replied.

"Don't do anything, let these ships enter Beijing."

After thinking for a while, Su Hao shook his head and said, "Probably the other party is also trying to test this time, otherwise it wouldn't be all small boats."

Although there are not many large ships on the canal, there are not many large ships in the section of the river from Jiangnan to Jining Prefecture with a large flow of water. This time, the other party only used small boats and only transported 15 shi of grain. It must be a test. If it is successfully passed this time, the other party may send more ships and deliver more grain.

...

On the other hand, as the fleet transporting grain was getting closer and closer to Dongchang Mansion, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong also became nervous, and they sent a large number of troops to block the east and south gates of Dongchang Mansion.

Glancing at the slow-moving fleet in the canal, Wang Congyi turned his gaze to Dongchangfu City not far away, with an extremely dignified expression. He attaches great importance to this time's grain transportation. The impression in the book, just look at this time.

Don't look at Zhu Youjian hasn't kicked him out yet, but that's only because Su Hao's rebellion made the imperial court's fear of eunuch officials soar, and the court is doing its best to deal with the eunuch officials left behind by Wei Zhongxian .

Now that the affairs of the court are almost done, if there is another accident in the canal, he can go back to his hometown to enjoy his old age.

To Wang Congyi's surprise, the rebels in Dongchang Mansion remained silent until the grain transport fleet disappeared from sight.

...

The first batch of grain came to Beijing smoothly, and Wang Congyi immediately ordered the Governor of Water Transport to continue transporting the grain. The shortage of grain in the capital was still very serious.

The reason why the capital is so short of food, besides the million stones of grain that Su Hao robbed and the canal being blocked, is another very important reason, that is, the rich and powerful in the capital are hoarding food and driving up the price of food. According to some gossip, some people took advantage of this food shortage and made four to five million taels of silver in less than half a year.

.........

Time passed little by little, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye. The second batch of grain was set sail from Huai'an Mansion. This time, the grain was 50 shi, and there were seven or eight hundred ships, large and small.

At this moment in Dongchang Mansion, all the craftsmen are intensively inspecting all the Hongyi cannons. Because of confidentiality, all the cast Hongyi cannons have not been tested, so Su Hao ordered the craftsmen who cast the cannons to be in charge of the Hongyi cannons. Cannon fire.

It’s just that for craftsmen, this is an extremely dangerous thing. Although firearms have been developed for hundreds of years, such things as bombing are very common. Yes, even casting is the first time, whether it will explode or not depends entirely on fate.

However, no one dared to refuse Su Hao's order. If you go to fire the cannon, your life or death is up to you. If you don't go, your life will be gone on the spot. Moreover, the reward that Su Hao offered is something that all craftsmen can't refuse. Every time you fire a cannon, Reward one tael of silver, hit the target, ten taels for one shot!
For the craftsmen, this price is enough to make them work hard. After all, their monthly salary is less than one tael, and one shot is worth more than a month of their hard work. If it hits the target, it is even more expensive than their It will take more than a year to work day and night. It is unknown whether the chamber will be blown up or not, but the white money is right in front of us.

As the Caoliang fleet got closer and closer to Dongchang Mansion, all 24 Hongyi cannons were also pushed onto the city wall, but they were not mounted on the cannons. The imperial army hundreds of feet away from the city wall did not find these big guys.

Walking up the city wall, Su Hao looked at the huge military camp on the other side of the canal, the corners of his mouth slightly raised. After this time, the imperial court probably won't have the energy to deal with him again. The chaos in the capital is enough for Zhu Youjian to have a headache.

After retracting his thoughts, Su Hao took out fourteen small paper figurines from his sleeves. They were the formation paper figurines he made, the formation of shadowless formation!
Mana was injected, eight of the paper figurines flew out, fell in the direction of the gossip, and then disappeared on the green bricks of the city wall, and then the remaining six paper figurines flew out, fell in six positions according to up, down, left, right, front, back, and five merged into After entering the city wall, the remaining one was integrated into a banner. Finally, Su Hao came to the middle of the formation, and his hands began to form a seal.

As Su Hao's hands continued to form magic seals, one after another mana entered into the fourteen paper figurines. Soon, piece after piece of magic patterns spread from the paper figurines, and gradually connected together. Finally, the light flashed , the hundred-foot-long city wall had an unreal feeling, but then this feeling disappeared, and the city wall once again returned to the ancient solemnity of the past.

Time passed little by little, when the sun came to the middle, it was the hottest time in summer, and the hot sun made all the soldiers sweat. At this time, at the bend of the river, boats carrying grain appeared.

Seeing the ship, Tang Xiangjin waved his hand, and all the craftsmen and gunners quickly pushed the 24 doors to the stomping mouth of the city wall, and began to align them. The shell of the Hongyi Cannon is a big iron ball weighing [-] catties. It is conceivable that such a heavy Under the action of gunpowder, the iron ball hit the wooden boat at an extremely fast speed, and its destructive power would be astonishing.

Not long after, the muzzles of the 24 Hongyi cannons were all aimed at the Tietasi wharf. Because the canal in this section of Dongchang Mansion was all dug by hand, the canal was not wide, only more than ten feet wide, about 40 meters wide. There is a big bend in front of the Tietasi Wharf. Ships must slow down here, and it is the most suitable place to stop.

Of course, the main reason is that the accuracy of the Hongyi cannon is too poor. The effective range is only [-] zhang at the farthest, and there is no accuracy at all. What can be shot depends on luck. Iron Pagoda Temple The wharf section is the closest to the city wall, only about two hundred feet away, within the optimum range of the Hongyi cannon.

Not long after, ships slowly approached the iron pagoda temple wharf.

On the other side, watching this scene, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong relaxed their nervousness a lot, because as long as they passed the Tieta Temple Wharf, the fleet would be far away from Dongchang Prefecture.

Looking at the slowing ships on the city wall, Tang Xiang waved his golden hand: "Boom!"

(End of this chapter)