Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 43. Bad News Arrives in Sichuan

Cao Pi deposed Emperor Xian of Han and made him Duke of Shanyang, who was not allowed to enter the capital without being summoned. He also felt that the palace in Xuchang was too gloomy, so he decided to move to Luoyang and build a large palace.

It took several days for the news to spread before scouts rushed back to Sichuan.

That day, Liu Bei was reading the memorials carefully. It was already spring, and he had a lot of farming and other chores to do. Suddenly, the eunuch came to report that General Zhaode Jian Yong had something important to report.

Jian Yong was a fellow countryman of Liu Bei and had followed Liu Bei since he was the Prime Minister of Pingyuan. Before Zhuge Liang came, he and Sun Qian, Mi Zhu and others made many suggestions to Liu Bei. Although his talent was not outstanding, he was eloquent and could be appointed as an envoy.

After Liu Bei named himself the King of Hanzhong, he also rewarded these old brothers who had no merit but worked hard, and appointed Jian Yong as the General Zhaode and Mi Zhu as the General Anhan. Both of these generals were miscellaneous generals, which were actually empty titles, so that the two old brothers would not be embarrassed.

Now that he heard that Jian Yong had important matters, Liu Bei also became interested and asked the guards to quickly invite Jian Yong in to have a chat.

"Xianhe is so anxious, what's the important matter?"

Seeing Jian Yong's anxious expression, Liu Bei couldn't help but tease him. But Jian Yong's next words stopped him from laughing.

Jian Yong knelt down, tears seemed to flash in the corners of his eyes. After bowing his head, he sobbed and reported to Liu Bei.

"Your Majesty, a letter came from Xudu, saying that the ministers forced Your Majesty to give up the throne to Cao Cao's son Cao Pi. Your Majesty could not bear their coercion and had no choice but to give up the throne to Cao Pi. After Cao Pi declined three times, he has agreed. He will ascend the throne soon, change the country's name to Wei, and change the year name to Huangchu."

After Jian Yong finished speaking, he looked at Liu Bei with tears in his eyes.

Liu Bei carefully analyzed what Jian Yong had just said, stood up hesitantly, took two steps like a stiff puppet, and asked Jian Yong with a somewhat uncertain tone.

"Xianhe, this is true. If you follow your words, doesn't it mean..."

Liu Bei's pupils were unfocused and his body was extremely stiff, for fear of hearing Jian Yong's affirmative answer.

"My lord, our four-hundred-year-old Han dynasty is dead!"

As Jian Yong cried, Liu Bei's eyes rolled back and he fainted, causing the guards nearby to panic.

The news of Cao Pi's usurpation of the Han Dynasty spread like wildfire throughout the city. Some loyal ministers wept at home; some who feared chaos in the world secretly rejoiced; some ambitious people were ready to take action... No matter how people in the world reacted, the chapter of history had turned over this page.

Feng Xi didn't know about this for the time being. He was still training his Shenwu Camp with the new "Shenbi Crossbow" and "Liannu".

Huang Yueying got inspiration from Feng Xi's mechanism and trigger for the crossbow. She placed the arrow box on top and had a rod at the back to act as a trigger. With a push and a pull, an arrow would be shot out and placed back on the slide. It was extremely labor-saving and had a very fast firing rate.

Of course, the disadvantages are also very obvious, that is, the crossbow arrows are consumed very quickly, and the design of the pull rod leads to a very short range, probably only a little over a hundred steps. Compared with ordinary crossbows, it is almost less than one-third of them.

Of course, the advantages are also very obvious. Even though the range is quite short, hundreds of crossbows can still shoot out an "arrow wall" composed of crossbow arrows in just a few seconds, which is difficult to break through.

The "Shenbi Crossbow" was the blueprint given by Feng Xi himself, but he was too lazy to name it, so he just came up with it. This version of the Shenbi Crossbow has a small baffle in the slide as a crossbow string buckle, and when the trigger is pulled, the baffle will also come to the end of the slide. Just pull an external handle on the side of the crossbow to pull the baffle back to its original position, and just put the crossbow arrow on the slide to shoot again.

Although the firing rate of the Shenbi crossbow is obviously not as fast as that of the crossbow, even so, its firing rate is far higher than that of ordinary crossbows. Generally, bows and arrows have a "three arrows before the battle", which means that there is only time to shoot three arrows from the time when the enemy cavalry enters the effective range to the time when they rush in front of you. However, after testing, Feng Xi found that as long as his Shenbi crossbow is loaded skillfully, it can shoot six to seven arrows at this effective killing distance. Firstly, after all, pressing the trigger is not difficult, and the soldier only needs to take the crossbow arrows from the quiver and put them on the slide. Secondly, the range of the Shenbi crossbow is also longer than that of the Dahuang bow used by ordinary soldiers.

After all, not all soldiers can use a bow of two or even three stones, but the Shenbi Crossbow is different. A rough estimate shows that the Shenbi Crossbow is more than ten stones, and its range is up to more than four hundred steps. Not only is its range much longer than the current "strong bows and crossbows", but its reloading speed is faster. It can be regarded as a terrifying killing weapon.

Feng Xi even proposed an idea to Huang Yueying, asking her to slowly study it, which was a combo crossbow similar to the Gatling revolver structure. However, Feng Xi had no idea how to make this thing, so he could only provide Huang Yueying with the idea of ​​a revolver and a Gatling and let her think about it herself.

"Xiu Yuan! Xiu Yuan! Stop fiddling with your crossbows! Something big has happened!"

Fu Xun ran in hurriedly from outside the camp, attracting the attention of the soldiers.

"Wang Ji, Li Chong, you two continue to train the Shenwu Battalion. Sharpshooters are trained! Let them manage the shooting. If they can hit the target every time, they will be promoted to officers of the Shenji Battalion."

Feng Xi waved his hand and asked his men to continue supervising the soldiers' training. After having strong bows and sharp crossbows, Feng Xi also decided to set up a branch camp mainly for bows and crossbows, and named it "Shenji Camp".

Feng Xi looked at the anxious Fu Rong and pulled him into the big tent. Seeing Zhang Nan who was still studying a few war cases he had casually mentioned, he kicked him.

"Don't look at it, Yizhong has something urgent to say."

Feng Xi sat down in the main seat, picked up the teacup and took a sip.

"Yizhong, tell me, is there something wrong with the guy in Xudu?"

Fu Zhu's originally anxious face suddenly turned into a state of shock. He originally thought that this was breaking news, but why did his good friend have an expression that said "just as I expected"?

Zhang Nan was also horrified when he heard Feng Xi's words. He was uneasy about the possibility, but also amazed at Feng Xi's terrifying ability to deduce the overall situation.

"Uh... yes, there is news from Xudu that Cao Pi has forced Your Majesty to abdicate and change the Han Dynasty to the Wei Dynasty."

Fu Zhun hesitated for a moment and told Feng Xi the news. Seeing that Feng Xi was still as relaxed and at ease as ever, Zhang Nan looked at Feng Xi with a hint of fear.

"Uh...what are you two doing? Why are you reacting like that?"

Seeing that his message did not bring the expected effect, Fu Rong began to doubt whether it was their problem or his own.

Zhang Nan shook his head, looked at Feng Xi, then back at Fu Rong, and spoke with some uncertainty.

"Yi...Yi Zhong, Xiu Yuan had speculated about this several months ago, but I didn't believe it at the time..."

When Fu Zhun heard Zhang Nan's words, he looked at Feng Xi in surprise, and the three of them looked at each other in silence for a moment.

(End of this chapter)