Late Tang

(Thanks to Lin Biao for giving another reward here, thank you!)

When the navy generals heard the news of the sinking of the First Fleet, they were already murderous and wanted to go to Yangzhou to find Gao Pian for revenge.Now that Li Jing has obtained the military order of revenge permission, naturally not one stays, and all get up to prepare for the battle.

Jin Jiasheng Jiejun knew that the soldiers and horse envoys, the champion general, the inspector Taibao, and Liu Xun, the Duke of Yingchuan County, followed behind Li Jing, hesitating to speak.Li Jing glanced at the increasingly calm big lady, and said with a light smile, "Just tell me what you have."

"There is a saying in the art of war that you should not use anger to command soldiers. Now all the generals in the navy are angry. Is it appropriate to let them send troops at this time?" Liu Xun thought for a while before opening his mouth, "Besides, our military strength is not strong at the moment, more than [-] People and horses must defend the long Huaihe River, and our army's strength lies in defense rather than offense."

Li Jing is still very satisfied with this great apprentice. Liu Xun has always been known as a wise general. In the past few years, he has led the army, and his experience has become more and more calm.Although he is still just 20 years old, Li Jing has already appointed him as the leader of the Shengjie Army, and asked the court for him to be the champion of the Grand Army, the inspector Taibao, and the official title of Yingchuan County Duke. At the age of 20, he held the most elite cavalry guards in Daxingtai, and he has become a solid third-rank military general, and he has been named a county prince. In Daxingtai, he can be said to be red and purple.Especially his status as the chief son of the King of Qin attracted the envy of many people.

However, Li Jing could see that this disciple was not proud of it, but became more and more calm.Even with Li Jing now, he seldom interjects proactively, being very measured.

What Liu Xun said may be what many generals wanted to say, but Li Jing sent the navy to send troops at this time, of course it was not just for revenge.

During this period of time, the Military Intelligence Bureau has been doing its best to investigate the military situation in the north. At present, more and more information has shown that not only Li Keyong and the four Hebei towns have joined forces, but even Khitan has joined forces with them.Now that Gao Pian has already made a move, the enemy in the north is also approaching.

Especially the Khitan sent back information that just this month, the Diel tribe had defeated the Khan of Khende, and the six tribes of Yelu had been defeated, killing more than [-] people, and the rest fled.Khan Hende did not know whether he was alive or dead, and Khitan's infighting finally ended with Khan Hende's failure. The Diela tribe had completely controlled the entire twenty Khitan tribes.Although the Diela tribe did not abolish the hereditary Khan position of the Yaoren tribe, it abolished the Khan position of Khende, and helped the Khan of Khende Khan's predecessor, the five-year-old grandson of Khan Bala, to hold the Chai Book Ceremony , became the new Khan of Khitan.

The Khitan, who had ended the internal strife, had already formed an alliance with Li Keyong, and turned around and moved eastward again.

Khitan then made a move. Although he didn't attack Liaoxi immediately, he pointed his sword directly at Xi.Just a few days ago, [-] Khitan cavalry raided Xi Wanghan's tent, killed Xi Wang Tu Dongsu, and then helped Dong Xi Wang Shise, who had previously left Khitan, as the new Xi Wang.

Originally, Se had been expelled after Xi returned to Li Jing, and King Xi had confirmed that Xi would succeed King Xi from Quzhu.

Right now, Zhuzheng is leading the soldiers of the Xi tribe in Hedong. He was originally ordered by the imperial court to join the Tang army to attack the Hebei rebels.After Li Keyong's rebellion, the imperial court pardoned Li Keyong and the Hebei rebels, but Zheng Congyu and others were worried about Li Keyong, and Xi and tens of thousands of Tatar tribal soldiers were on behalf of the North.

The timing of Khitan's attack was very precise, and the attack was very poisonous.

Khitan did not attack Liaoxi, which had been guarded against, but unexpectedly captured King Xi's Yazhang, and helped the Khitan son-in-law to be the new King Xi.Now there is information showing that the Khitans do not intend to stop there. They have continued to move southward to the southwest, and the next target is clearly aimed at the Yinshan Tatars.

Destroying the Xi first, and then the Tatars, the defeat of these two weaker tribes would not only save the threat from the south of the Khitan, but also be the final restoration of the Khitan that had just experienced civil strife.At the same time, both Xi and Tatar were Li Jing's allies, and they were also tribes attached to Tang Yan. Khitan defeated Xi and Tatar, and the situation in the entire Northeast changed immediately.

Li Jing's power weakened, Khitan's power increased, and at the same time, Li Keyong also lost one obstacle, which gave them a good start to deal with Li Jing in the next step.

It was not a good thing for Li Jing that Khitan ended the civil strife at this time and defeated Xi while Xi was empty.

The Battle of Hebei may be more severe than Li Jing predicted, and Li Jing has no time to continue to support Xu Si.He needed a quick battle. Originally, Hu Douzhou was defeated, so Li Jing planned to be more on the safe side.But now that Zhou Bao has taken action and wiped out Liang Yan's troops, this is also a huge threat to Gao Pian.

The Huai army on the opposite side has not made a move for a long time. Li Jing already estimated that the opponent is adjusting his plan. Originally, the two sides planned to fight quickly to seize Xu Hao first.But now Shi Pu is not willing to surrender, and both sides are not slow to attack, this battle will change from a fast break to a decisive battle.

The Huai army is constantly increasing its strength, but Li Jing has to shift his focus to Hebei at this time, unable to support two large-scale battlefields.

"Unprepared, unexpected." Li Jing said in a deep voice: "I now judge that the main force of the Huai army is secretly assembled in Sikou, and they are going to fight us in Sikou first. This is because they know that the Hebei war will start. Because of this, we really I can't afford it. In a battle like this, we are good for defense and not good for attack, but things are not absolute. If we attack at this time, the Huai army has not adjusted, and suddenly the attack and defense switch, and they will suffer the most. Besides, Gao Pian Shamelessly raided Hu Douzhou, killed [-] of my soldiers, the soldiers were angry, and the morale of the soldiers was available."

After listening to Li Jing's analysis, Liu Xun felt that this tactical change is not impossible.Hebei is already a huge gunpowder keg. Although the Qin army is constantly increasing troops there, the Qin army does not occupy a geographical advantage in Hebei, and there are not many dangerous pass towns. It is difficult to predict what will happen in the real fight.

A quick battle is very necessary.

However, Li Jing wanted to fight quickly, but there was one thing that made Li Jing's face ugly.

A batch of firearms just arrived from Qingzhou yesterday, and Li Jing also brought a batch of firearms from Songzhou to the south at the same time.

In several wars, the military's firearms were very tight.Originally, the firearms were very sharp, but Li Jing relied on them as his trump card in this battle of Xu Si.Unexpectedly, due to the heavy rain last night, the Tianwang Temple on the wharf where the firearms were temporarily stored leaked, and as a result, more than half of the firearms temporarily stored there were damaged.

At that time, these firearms were stored in the Tianwang Temple on the pier, because firearms were dangerous, and they were stored in the Tianwang Temple near the pier for safety reasons.But who would have imagined it, the result was that the rain was too heavy, and the Tianwang Temple by the river was flooded, causing a large number of firearms to be soaked.

Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt, as well as sea mines, landmines, explosives, etc., are almost useless once they are submerged in water.

Although it is said that these firearms are all folded, and then the fuse is replaced, and the gunpowder is re-dried and repacked, so that it can continue to be used.

But it will take time, and Li Jing has decided to launch a surprise attack on the Huai army on the other side tonight.

Don't wait for the weather to dry and reassemble right now, even if it is too late to re-ship a batch from Dengzhou.

Firearms such as thunderbolts, thunderbolts, land mines, and sea mines are not difficult to construct, but the effect is good.Now Li Jing has resorted to equipping these firearms in large numbers, and the effect is very obvious.On the Hebei battlefield, the Qin army used these firearms to defeat the four towns in Hebei.

In fact, these firearms are not classified, except that the technology of Greek fire, sea mines, and mines is a little more difficult, and they are still classified.For example, gunpowder kits, thunderbolts, thunderbolts, etc., the imperial court and some powerful vassals have already mastered them.The imperial court and several big feudal towns have even begun to manufacture equipment, but there is no large-scale equipment yet.The reason is not that they don't want to have a large amount of equipment like the Qin army. Guan Jian is still mining and smelting iron ore, nitrate, and sulfur minerals, making gunpowder, and firearms workshops.And their gunpowder formula and application are not as good as Qin Jun's, and firearms need a larger amount to exert their power.Because of this, limited by property, manpower, etc., their firearms and equipment have not reached a large scale, and the use of firearms is naturally not as large-scale as the Qin army.

On Qin Jun's side, several years have passed for the research and production of firearms, and the scale has already taken shape, and it is getting bigger and bigger, making it an industry.

However, although the Qin army has developed many types of firearms in recent years, after the equipment is used, it has gradually formed a view that the fewer types of firearms, the better.

It is precisely because of this that in today's Qin army, the firearms that began to be equipped on a large scale are Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt, which are actually one type, and they are all hand grenades.It's just that the Thunderbolt is one catty, and it is specially assembled for cavalry.And Zhentianlei is a two catty one with a handle, which is dedicated to the infantry.The navy is equipped with two types of mines and Greek fire.

In addition to these individual firearms, the Qin army is currently equipped with not many other firearms, such as the Feilei Cannon, which are still in the experimental stage.

Since the fifth year of Qianfu, all firearms factories in the Northeast have mainly produced two types of individual firearms, Zhentianlei and Thunderbolt, in order to equip every soldier with grenades.Facts have also proved that every soldier is equipped with grenades to the effect.

Charge and break through the formation, sometimes it can have an unstoppable effect.

However, these firearms produced with great effort and cost also have many weaknesses, first of all, they are expensive.The cost of a Thunderbolt is about the same as that of a Thunderbolt, five hundred coins each.As for an arrow, the standard infantry used a long stack arrow for ten yuan, a piercing arrow for twenty yuan, and a wolf-toothed three-edged arrow for fifty yuan.

Such a comparison, although the power of the grenade is greater, but the cost is higher.A soldier on the battlefield may shoot three or five arrows at a time, but as long as he throws a thunder, it counts as a few forty or fifty arrows.

Every time a mine is thrown, it is equivalent to throwing out three catties of copper coins.

In addition to the high cost, this firearm also has a great disadvantage. It cannot withstand rain, and even in wet seasons, even if it is not raining, sometimes the fuse must be replaced before the war.

Although the Ordnance Department has researched a bunch of methods to protect it from moisture and rain, in the actual operation process, when it rains, these gold bumps basically lose their effect.

These things are sharp and powerful, but they are also fragile, making Qin Jun both love and hate them.

Just like now, Li Jing is going to raid the Huai Army on the other side tonight. In the night raid, these Human Torch and Thunderbolt can naturally play the greatest role.But now, just before the battle, 80.00% of the firearms were damaged, which made Li Jing's face turn blue with anger.

Li Jing also knew very well that as long as the operation was canceled tonight, he would wait another ten and a half months. Even if the weather was not sunny and the batch of gunpowder could not be dried, a new batch of firearms could be shipped from Dengzhou and Qingzhou. There are even more.

But in fact, Li Jing couldn't wait so long, and the Huai army would increase a lot by waiting one more day.Li Jing also wanted to leave the Huai army behind and attack Xuzhou, but Xuzhou is an important town. Although Shi Pu had only 1 horses, there was Huang Chao general Ge Congzhou stationed in Haozhou opposite Xuzhou. Li Jing was worried about attacking Xuzhou at this time If it is not done well, Pu will vote for Ge Congzhou.

But if Li Jing can defeat the Huai army, and then go to fight Xuzhou, Shi Pu will have fewer choices.If he wanted to defect to Huang Chao again, he would have to think more about it.After all, since Shi Pu didn't want to vote for either the Qin army or the Huai army, this guy didn't intend to vote for either side.

However, this does not prevent him from using his strength to achieve the idea of ​​preserving Xuzhou when Qin, Huai, and Qi are wrestling.

And it was Hebei that made Li Jing not want to wait any longer. Although Li Jing was currently in Sizhou, his heart was already in Hebei.

Forget it, when the Qin army was not equipped with a large number of firearms, it was different to fight. In the end, Li Jing shook his head and sighed that he was becoming more and more dependent on these firearms, which was not a good thing. (To be continued.)