Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 21 The whole country comes to attack
As for building water conservancy and promoting farming, thirty teams of officials from various states near the capital have recruited a total of one million people to build water conservancy facilities.

The imperial court changed the corvee system of levying civilian labor since the Tang Dynasty to the employment system established by Emperor Chai Zongxun, with a monthly salary of 600 Wenqian.

This has become a good place for the people of Zhou Dynasty to make a living after decades of war and poor livelihood.

Civil servants from thirty states were all recruited within three days, and almost all the applicants were young and strong.

Under the planning of officials from the Ministry of Industry, thirty prefectures near Bianjing began to build water conservancy facilities in full swing.

Since the beginning of the year, he wanted to reorganize an elite army that was absolutely loyal to him. For more than a month, Chai Zongxun had considered several times what kind of "super weapons" he would develop to equip this army.

The first thing that came to Chai Zongxun's mind was naturally firearms. If rifles similar to those in his previous life could be developed, it would only require training an army of tens of thousands, which would be enough to conquer China and the world.

However, after asking several workers from the War Bureau of the Ministry of War, Chai Zongxun realized that according to the production technology of this era, even if he told the most skilled craftsmen of this era the entire production process in detail, he would not be able to make a rifle. of.

It is impossible to make a tight barrel that is one-piece. At best, you can only create a few sections of barrel and weld them manually. In this way, the range is only about a hundred meters, and the power on the battlefield is not as good as that of a bow and arrow.

Secondly, Chai Zongxun considered the compound bow that he had used at the shooting range in his previous life.

This kind of bow is effortless to pull, can be pulled by ordinary people, has a range of 5 or 6 meters, and is powerful enough to penetrate iron armor.

However, Chai Zongxun found some master craftsmen from the imperial palace and the War Bureau to try to make a composite bow according to his own design, but the materials of this era could not pass the test.

The feasible and powerful weapon that Chai Zongxun finally thought of was the divine arm bow.

In Chai Zongxun's previous life, the divine arm bow was invented by Li Hong in 1068 and presented to Song Shenzong. (It is recorded as Li Ding in Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan")
The history of the Song Dynasty records: "The History of the Song Dynasty says this: Take the bow as the body, the sandalwood as the bow, the iron as the head of the spear, the copper as the hair of the horse's face and teeth, and the hemp rope tied with silk as the string. The body of the bow is three feet long. Two inches, the string is two feet long and there are five inches, the arrow's feathers are several inches long, it shoots more than three hundred and forty steps, and it penetrates half of the elm wood."

In the Song Dynasty, one step was about 1.2-1.5 meters. The maximum range of the divine arm bow could reach 400 meters to 500 meters, and its power could penetrate two layers of iron armor.

Since the Divine Arm Bow was created in 1068, less than a hundred years ago by Chai Zongxun, with Chai Zongxun's intervention, it should have been invented in advance.

Having made up his mind, Chai Zongxun summoned dozens of master craftsmen from the Royal Palace Craftsman's Office and the Military Warfare Bureau on January 26, the first year of Kaixi's reign, and told them in detail the design concept and general structure of the Divine Arm Bow. , let them start to pool their wisdom to develop it. After success, everyone will be rewarded.

On the afternoon of February 3rd, when Chai Zongxun was discussing with the craftsmen in the palace craftsman's office the making of divine arm bows and improved iron smelting technology, Tang Qi, the eunuch chief eunuch in front of the palace, rushed into the palace and saluted Chai Zongxun and said:
"Your Majesty, the Tianwu Army Jiedu Envoy and King Fu Yanqing of Wei have reported urgent military information:
Emperor Liu Jun of the Northern Han Dynasty sent an army of 100,000 infantry and cavalry, with Wei Rong supervising the army. Lu Zan was the marshal of troops and horses, and he led 22 generals. On February 1st, they invaded Xingzhou, the famous mansion of Zhou Dynasty!
The Queen Mother pleases Your Majesty to go to the Bao Ci Hall to discuss this matter! "

When Chai Zongxun heard this, he immediately stood up and thought:
"Finally here! Liu Jun of the Northern Han Dynasty is not Guan Jian. I just wonder how many troops the Khitans sent?"

Surrounded by Han Hui, Zhang Yong and other imperial guards as well as eunuchs and maids of honor, Chai Zongxun drove from the outside of the palace to the inner court.

After practicing martial arts every day for more than a month, Chai Zongxun was able to walk quickly and easily over this long distance.

Chai Zongxun thought to himself: "My insistence on practicing martial arts is indeed useful. I remember in those days when I first came to this time and space, I was weak and had to ride in a sedan chair to go to court."

When Chai Zongxun entered Baoci Hall, Queen Mother Fu was already sitting in the hall waiting.

Seeing Chai Zongxun enter the palace, Empress Dowager Fu seemed to have seen the backbone of her family. She called her hands and said:
"Your Majesty, sit down quickly.

Just now, your grandfather, the King of Wei, sent an envoy eight hundred miles away to tell you that the Han army has invaded our Daming Mansion! "

Chai Zongxun walked quickly to Queen Mother Fu, bowed, and sat down in the chair. Empress Dowager Fu nodded slightly, and the eunuch chief Li Fu, who was standing behind her, took out a letter from his sleeve and began to read it in a measured tone:

The Northern Han Dynasty's 100,000-strong army, including 80,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry, invaded Xingzhou, the border between the Daming Mansion of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the Northern Han Dynasty, on the first day of February. They killed and plundered the people along the way, and in the evening, they surrounded the city of Xingzhou.

Fu Yanqing had already made preparations. Liu Siyu, the general who stayed behind in Xingzhou, defended the city with 10,000 troops and sufficient ordnance.

In one day and one night, they repelled dozens of attacks by the Northern Han army.

After Fu Yanqing received the report, he immediately sent out 20,000 Tianxiong troops on the 2nd and personally led them from Daming Mansion to Xingzhou to support them.

Chai Zongxun knew that Queen Mother Fu was worried that she could not read all the words on Fu Yanqing's urgent document because she asked the eunuch chief Li Fu to read it out.

After all, since Chai Zongxun was three years old, his father, Emperor Shizong, arranged for Taifu Wang Zhu and other great Confucian scholars to receive enlightenment. He had one class every two days, and the words he could recognize were limited.

After hearing this, Chai Zongxun asked:

"Mother, is there any news about Li Chongjin who returned to the German army?"

Before the New Year in December of the sixth year of Xiande, Li Chongjin had obeyed the imperial court's dispatch and led 60,000 German troops to deploy defenses in the three states of Mo, Ying, and Yi, which shared borders with the Northern Han and Liao Kingdoms.

Queen Mother Fu said happily:

“Your Majesty’s previous arrangements were very good, with heavy troops guarding the northern border.

Li Chongjin, who returned to the German Army, also presented a memorial today.

After hearing that the Han Dynasty's 100,000-strong army had invaded, Li Chongjin had begun to step up preparations for war in the three states of Mo, Ying, and Yi to prevent the Liao Kingdom from invading.

At the same time, General Li Gu was sent with 10,000 infantry troops to Xingzhou to provide support. "

After hearing this, Chai Zongxun pondered for a long time and said:
"Don't worry, mother. My grandfather, King Wei, and Marquis of Huaizhou, Li Chongjin, are here, and they are well prepared. The Han Kingdom in Xingzhou cannot attack easily.

The current concern lies in the movements of the Khitan people in the Liao Kingdom.

The key to this battle is whether we, the Great Zhou Dynasty, can quickly defeat the Han army!
If the Han army is defeated quickly, the Liao Kingdom will return without success, and it will even be too late to send troops to invade our border with the Zhou Dynasty.

Grandfather Wei Wang Tianxiong's army only had 30,000 troops, so he could defend the city, but it was difficult to quickly defeat Liu Jun's 100,000-strong army, which he devoted all his country's strength to attack.

After his mother's death, his son decided to send Zhang Yongde to immediately lead 60,000 elite guards of the imperial army to Xingzhou, Daming Prefecture, to defeat the Han army in one fell swoop.

If Han Tong is left to lead the front division of the palace to guard the capital, he will be safe. "

There are more than 120,000 people in the imperial army of the Great Zhou Dynasty and 60,000 in the German army. The total strength of the military governors in various places is more than 100,000. Among them, the two strongest military governors are Tianxiong military governors Fu Yanqing and Zhaoyi military governors. Li Jun's troops were each about 30,000.

(End of this chapter)