Late Tang

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On the same day, Yanjing City.

Wangcheng, which was originally the Yacheng of Youzhou City, has now become the Wangcheng of Yanjing, which is equivalent to the imperial city of Chang'an, where all the central departments of the Qin Dynasty are concentrated, and guards are stationed there.In the yamen of the political affairs hall, a group of important ministers had arrived, and even many officials from other provinces and provinces in Beijing attended the meeting.

Li Jing looked at Cheng Dezhen's reply letter in his hand, the words on it were fierce, and he said no to him directly.He smiled faintly, with a hint of sarcasm at the corner of his mouth, and said to everyone in the hall: "Everyone, Chengde Town has officially responded to our ultimatum. They told us to die and refused to surrender."

Although being scolded by Cheng Dezhen, no one in the hall was angry, as if this had been expected.

"I had some expectations, thinking that Wang Rong would surrender." Wang Pu shook his head and smiled.

"Wang Bingbu, there is no need to talk nonsense. The one hundred beaulieu gold coins that you lose to me will be sent to my mansion later." It was Pei You, the newly-appointed right commander of the Central Army of the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion, who spoke with Wang Pu. They can be regarded as old friends in Duli Town, and their daughters are both Li Jing's women, and their relationship has become closer.He is the leading figure of the Lanling King faction that is gradually taking shape.Although Pei You had two daughters who married Li Jing, they ranked lower, and the sons they gave birth to were neither heirs nor eldest sons. Therefore, Pei You and his daughters finally united with Wang's father.

Nowadays, although the eldest son faction and the first son faction have gradually begun to form in the Qin Fan, they are not very tight, just a rough alliance, and there is no close connection of interests between them.This is why Li Jing didn't make any moves even though he knew they were starting to form a faction.First of all, this is just the prototype of a faction, and Li Jing has no suitable reason to make a move.Second, factions are everywhere. As long as they can be controlled properly, sometimes factions are an excellent tool for the superiors to balance and maintain their own interests.

At present, the two factions that have begun to be separated because of Li Deyu's birth, the eldest son faction, the main characters are Wang Pu, Wang Gai, Pei You and other people from Duli Town, among whom are some generals such as Guo Chengan, and the other is Li Dezhao's bachelor teachers, most of the bachelors are here.

Although Li Deyu is only a little over half a year old, he has many supporters. First of all, there are four sisters of the Yu family in the palace, and four brothers of the Yu family outside the palace. Kang Chenghui from Yicheng Town, Xin Yu from Xuanwu Town, and a large number of former court officials who joined Qin Fan halfway, such as Cui Anqian, Zhang Zimian, and Du Wei, most of them supported Li Deyu.

Li Jing shook his head lightly, putting aside those thoughts in his mind.He glanced at everyone and said: "Chengde will refuse to surrender, which is also expected. Now, three days have passed, and Chengdezhen has also publicly refused. Next, it is our turn to continue." Yes. If there is no objection to the original plan, please implement it as planned.”

Hejian City.

Located in the south of Yingzhou, Hejian City, between the Hutuo River, Zhangshui River, and the Canal, has been an important military fortress of the Qin Army in central Hebei since the Qin Fan entered Hebei.Earlier, when the Qin army had not captured Lulong Yanjing, it captured Yingzhou, and then built Hejian City with all its strength. In the central part of Hebei, a powerful fortress was established under the eyes of San Francisco in Hebei.For a long time, Li Jing once stationed [-] heavy troops in Hejian and Mozhou Sanguan to prevent and contain the San Francisco of Hebei.

In the ensuing series of battles in which the Qin army went south via Cangjing, fought with the feudal vassals in Hebei, and finally captured Lulong and Yiwu Town, the existence of the Hejian Fortress firmly restrained the Qin army from Chengde and Yiwu. Wei Bo has a large number of troops.In the early days, although Hejian was located in the hub of Hebei, it had the capital in the north, Qingji in the south, the water and land hubs, and the roads passed by.Since ancient times, there has never been anyone who did not first plan for Hejian when Youyan had something to do.There is no Hejian in the north, the disasters of Qinghai and Hebei are not severe, there is no Hejian in the south, and the danger of Youping is not deep. However, Hejian City was not big at that time.However, after the Qin army captured Hejian, it began to use this place as the hub of the entire Hebei Province, and continued to expand on the basis of the original Hejian City. After several years of continuous reinforcement and expansion, today's Hejian City has become a The real fortress city of the first city in south of Beijing.

Today's Hejian City is actually composed of four city groups.On both sides of the Hutuo River, four cities were built across the river. The original city was the South City, and later the East City on the east bank of the river, and the North City and West City on the west bank were newly built.The four cities are not far from each other, and are connected by walls in the middle. The four cities form a larger river fortress, and the section of the Lutuo River is also included in the city. Water gates have been established on the north and south sections of the river.

The four cities are all built with bricks and stones, which are extremely strong, and the height of the city is six feet, far exceeding most of the cities in Hebei. At that time, the extremely advanced mausoleum-shaped city walls and inclined walls and city surfaces were used in the construction.Connecting the four cities is an earth wall, which is three feet three feet high and made of rammed earth. There is a twenty-foot-wide moat outside the long wall in the entire river, which connects the Hutuo River, making the entire river The fortress is more like a huge island.

This fortress is not only an extremely strong military fortress, but even in times of peace, because of the transportation advantages of the Hutuo River and its proximity to the Zhangshui River and the canal, this extremely safe fortress even became a place where business travelers from far and near gather. , has become a commercial transit center in central Hebei, and it is extremely prosperous and prosperous.

The Qin Fan built hundreds of warehouses here, and many of the taxes and tributes paid by Hebei and many counties south of the Yellow River went north along the canal, first passing through Hejian, and then transported to Yanjing.Especially during the freezing period in winter, when sea transportation is impassable, Hejian has become the most important city on the way from south to north.Especially when Chengde and Weibo have not been captured, it is safe and convenient to transit here.

Hejian City has always been regarded as an important logistics transfer station by the Qin army. At one time, countless grains and ordnance were continuously sent into Hejian from the south.

From the perspective of Qin Fan officials, Hejian City is high and strong, and it is firmly nailed to the connecting channel of Qin Fan's two large lands outside the pass and south of the Yellow River. It is of great significance to guard Hejian, so there is no room for loss here. .

Moreover, as a military fortress, the four cities of Hejian City are linked together, and a large piece of fertile land is surrounded in the city. Plant food in the city and persist in long-term combat.

However, since the Qin army occupied Yanjing and took down Lulong and Yiwu towns successively, the situation of the Qin army in Hebei immediately changed drastically, from the original defense to the situation of pressing the north to the south.The status of Hejian has declined slightly, but it is still very important.

The Hebei feudal town also wanted to break through Hejian several times and take control of the first town in the east of central Hebei, but several attacks failed.This time Chengde Town refused to surrender, and some generals suggested to Wang Jingyin that it would be better to send troops to attack Hejian first.If the river can be broken, the situation in Chengde Town will be much safer.

However, this proposal was rejected by Wang Jingyin without hesitation.Hejian City is not a city that can be easily breached by force.In his opinion, apart from besieging a city like Hejian, or breaking it from the inside, it is impossible to attack it from the outside by force.

Wang Jingyin has been keeping a close eye on Hejian City. If the Qin army sends troops south, they will definitely come out of Hejian City.Because Hejian City is a huge logistics base, the logistics food, grass and equipment for the Qin army going south will only be sent from here.

Hejian City has not responded yet, and they have not dispatched a single soldier.

But the troops Wang Jingyin sent to Raoyang not far away will arrive soon, Wang Jingyin must teach these traitors a lesson, even though he has already decided to abandon Raoyang and other small towns in his plan, but giving up is giving up, surrendering to the enemy is not an option forgive.

The former county magistrate and regiment training envoy in Raoyang City originally thought that Chengdezhen's refusal to surrender this time was a stupid decision. In order to avoid sinking the ship with them, they decided to surrender to the Qin army.While sending people to surrender to Hejian City, they hurriedly raised the flag of the Qin army.Who knows, before the Qin army in Hejian came, the Chengde army had already arrived.

Originally thought that they could change to a big ship, and they would be safe.Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, they had already stepped on the ground and fell into the stormy sea water.

From the perspective of Wang Shiyuan, who was standing outside the city and commanding the siege, the destruction of Raoyang City was only a matter of time.

There was a roar in the ears, and the twenty "Shenwei Bravely Siege Invincible General Cannons" neatly arranged on the distant position roared one after another, and big stone bullets flew towards the head of Raoyang City, hitting the enemy. Above the battlements.Wang Shiyuan, who was dressed in silver armor, couldn't help showing a sneer.

Although Raoyang is a small city, the lion must fight the rabbit with all his strength.He is the eldest son of Wang Jingyin, and his father gave him only one order to lead the army this time.Hit, hit hard, use the most violent and fastest way to capture Raoyang City, and then use the most cruel means to directly slaughter the whole city.

This is to kill the chickens to warn the monkeys, and it is also to show the Qin army their force and determination, and at the same time restore the morale of the army caused by Rao Yang's defection to the enemy.

"Bring up the cannons of General Longxiang, Tiger Ben, Hongtianlei, and shoot a volley!" Wang Shizhen sneered.

A school lieutenant said in a low voice: "Yamei, we have brought a hundred cannons for the thunder, dragons, tigers, and generals. Each cannon is worth [-] catties of gunpowder, and a salvo can cost [-] catties. We only have five thousand catties of gunpowder in total. Yes. No, a salvo of ten cannons is enough?"

After the Qin army used firearms on the battlefield, and the effect was good, the feudal towns have already begun to study the gunpowder.Send spies to steal, send people to buy, develop by yourself, all kinds of methods are used, and basically every town has the gunpowder formula.In fact, the gunpowder formula cannot be obtained. Before the Qin army officially used gunpowder, Duli Town had already obtained a gunpowder formula from several Taoist priests, and it was the first to invest in the war with Qingni Town. Defeated the Qingni Town Army and knocked down Li Lingfu.Although the gunpowder formula that Qin Jun came up with later was stronger than that of Duli Town, it was not much stronger.

And last year in Daibei, the Qin army used thousands of artillery and more than 1000 flying thunder cannons to directly smash the charge of [-] Hu cavalry, which caused great shock in the towns.The research on gunpowder weapons has become even more popular. After countless money and manpower have been invested, it can be said that the slightly stronger towns now have their own firearms. At present, there is not much obstacle in the development of artillery.

For example, in Chengde Town, a kind of mighty and invincible siege general, which is about as powerful as Longwu Thunderbolt General Cannon, was developed, and it was also a large counterweight catapult.

And they also imitated a similar projectile cannon based on the Feilei Cannon, which is the General Longxiang Tiger Ben Hongtianlei Cannon. The name is more powerful than Qin Jun's, but the type is similar, the same twenty catties Gunpowder packs, but the range and accuracy, and the power of the explosion are far worse.

"Ten fucking cannons can also be called a volley? If you tell you to pull out a hundred cannons, you just pull them out obediently, don't pick them up, shit, it's not your gunpowder. Give Lao Tzu a volley, a hundred volleys, um, there are five thousand catties of gunpowder, just shoot them all out, don’t you plan to take them back?” Wang Shiyuan, as an envoy of the Chengde army, knows all about soldiers and horses. The task is very clear.This time they didn't really come to take back Raoyang City, they came just to show their strength, to kill chickens and monkeys, to restore the morale of Chengde's army, and to show their determination.

He worked so hard to bring in a hundred Thunderbolts, not just to show off at this time.Damn it, so tight, then what is he doing so hard to pull these iron guys over.

It's just iron cannons. Qin Jun's iron cannons and firearms have indeed become very prestigious in recent years.But the Qin army will not become the German army?In the final analysis, these ordnance are just a test of the craftsman's skill in a feudal town.When Li Jing started his family in Liaodong, he was able to produce firearms and cannons among those barbarians. Could it be that their hundred-year-old town like San Francisco in Hebei couldn't make mere firearms?If there is something that spreads the fastest, there is no doubt that it must be military equipment. As long as people are willing to invest manpower and financial resources, no matter how powerful equipment is, it can be imitated quickly.

In fact, catapults have always been called cannons, and they have always been powerful weapons in siege.It’s just that this kind of thing, in the past, was usually made by military craftsmen during sieges. No one has ever set up a college like Li Jing to teach how to make these equipment and how to increase the power of these equipment. Even finally came up with standard accessories, disassembled the giant trebuchet into parts, and then shipped them to the battlefield and assembled them in batches.

Even those cannons are actually nothing special. They are not much different from a catapult. They are smaller and their power is not much improved. There are advantages, but there are also many disadvantages. They are severely restricted by the weather. It is troublesome and consumes a lot of money. It is not as good as the stone bombs of the catapult, which can be taken locally and inexhaustibly.

No matter what era it is in, wars are fought not with the most advanced equipment, but with the cheapest and easiest-to-produce equipment.

For example, the super cavalry equipped with armored riding equipment, although extremely powerful, eventually withdrew from the battlefield due to the extremely high price.Only Li Jing, who is always different, will form a heavy cavalry, and even build more and more.

Li Jing is such a freak, he uses heavy cavalry instead of others.Others only use the simplest spears and long spears as weapons, but he insists on equipping the army with mo knives and prismatic guns.Most of the infantry of other people no longer ride horses, or even donkeys, but the infantry of the Qin army not only rides horses, but often rides with two horses.

Other feudal town troops pay attention to winning by quantity, with simple equipment, not much training, and little food and pay.Anyway, manpower is the cheapest, just recruit after death.Only Qin Jun wants to be a professional soldier and start training from an early age. Is that worth it?Before going to the battlefield, they have been trained for several years or even more than ten years, and spent countless money, food and equipment. When they finally go to the battlefield, they may die in the first battle.That would be too much of a loss!

But Wang Shiyuan sometimes has to admire Li Jing, although he is always so unique, but many times he is so different, the effect is really good.Li Jing's heavy cavalry showed their majesty again and again, defeating their opponents.Li Jing's soldiers and horses are elite, with high morale, and they can always defeat more with less.

Even the firearms he paid so much for, before the Battle of Baishuiluo, who would have thought that the huge consumption of artillery, when gathered together, would have such a great power?

In October, Chengde Army's Military Artisan Battalion once again delivered [-] newly cast cannons to the army, including [-] Shenwei Bravely Siege Invincible General Cannons that had just been put into battle, and one Hundreds of dragons, tigers, thunder, general cannon.

For more than a year, Chengde Town also began to make firearms, mine and refine medicine, and steel and cannon.Since the Qin army had cannons, they had to have them too.Since his father Wang Jingyin took control of Chengde Town, his attitude towards Qin Jun is no longer purely hostile, but he is hostile and at the same time earnestly learns from Qin Jun.For example, from the large army with little combat effectiveness, select the elite, equip them with the best armor and weapons, and train them in the strictest way, in order to train an elite army like the Qin army.For example, the Qin army was equipped with a large number of artillery, and even established separate artillery and engineering troops. Now the Chengde army has also secretly formed several engineering and artillery battalions.

Chengde Town is located in Hebei. Among the original three old towns in Hebei, Chengde Town occupies the center of Hebei, owns the most fertile plain, and connects Taiyuan, Hebei, north and south of Hebei, and is relatively wealthy.

Although Chengde Town has been in a bad situation in the past few years and is far less wealthy than the Qin army, if you really make up your mind to build hundreds of thousands of cannons, this kind of shocking thing in the eyes of many generals will be in the future. From Wang Shiyuan's point of view, he is fully capable of that.

Other towns are still hesitating whether to manufacture this kind of artillery that consumes too much and costs too much, but Wang Jingyin has already done a lot of information collection and research on the use of artillery.He is not afraid of the high consumption of artillery, but feels that there are too few craftsmen and it takes too long to train gunners.Facing the powerful neighbor in the north, Wang Jingyin always felt that there was a lot of crisis.If there are a large number of artillery, it is best to stand on the city to defend the city and use it to deal with the attacking Qin army.In the first battle of Yunzhou, didn't the Qin army rely on those firearms to fight against 1 Hu people with [-] people, and finally defended Yunzhou?

The scorched-earth tactics of fortifying the walls and clearing the fields, plus gathering troops and horses to retreat to important cities, and using artillery to deal with the artillery of the Qin people, Wang Jingyin thought that they could completely say nothing to the Qin people.Under the scorched earth tactics, the Qin army needed to transport a large amount of food and grass to support the battle when it marched south.According to the situation under his control, Qin Jun's biggest weakness now is the lack of food and grass.As long as the Qin army can't get food and grass in Chengde Town, if their soldiers go south to eat one stone of grain and grass, they may need to transport seven stones of grain and grass to the rear. Consume, lose, lose, etc.As long as the battle can enter a stalemate, Li Jing, who is still stuck in the battlefield outside the pass, will never be able to defeat them.

(Ask for monthly ticket support. If you don’t have a monthly ticket, you will be grateful for the recommendation ticket Muzi in your hand. The recommendation ticket is free! It would be even better if you can like it! Hehe!) (To be continued.)