Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 222
Chapter 228
Qu'a, the camp of the Chu army.

Xiang Tuo inspected the weapons workshop surrounded by dozens of generals.

After the last court meeting was over, Xiang Zhuang personally raised 5 elite soldiers to leave Wuzhong, took a small road and went straight to Fanyi, while Xiang Tuo brought his troops to Qu'aza and set down the camp. The county suddenly gathered strong men to help Qu'a camp. Up to now, the number of Chu troops gathered in Qu'a has exceeded [-].

Among the 5 people, [-] are from Xiang Tuo's headquarters, [-] are from Xiang Guan's remnant soldiers, and the remaining [-] are from Wuzhong County. A little farther away, it will take at least half a month to arrive one after another.

The weapon workshop is located in the valley near the Qu'a camp.

Thousands of huts were built along the stream in the valley. Thousands of blacksmiths were bare-chested and bare-backed, and they were tinkling in the huts to forge weapons, mainly ring-headed knives, triangular arrow clusters, and flying spears. Behind the hut, hundreds of clay blast furnaces were built along the mountain. Thousands of strong men were sweating profusely, and they were desperately agitating the bellows to blow the clay blast furnaces.

Beside the blast furnace, there were piles of ring knife rough embryos. These were just cast, and before they had time to be sent to the blacksmith shop for forging, Xiang Tuo picked up two rough embryos from them and hit each other fiercely. There was a bang, and the two rough knives of the ring head knife were intact. Xiang Tuo couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and he praised: "Good iron!"

The accompanying bus lane: "General, this is the best refined iron!"

Since the appearance of the bellows, the furnace temperature of the iron smelting furnace has been greatly improved, and the improvement of the furnace temperature has also led to an essential improvement in the quality of the iron. In the past, brittle and hard pig iron was smelted from the furnace. It has to go through dozens or even hundreds of times of refurbishment before it can be forged, but now, what comes out of the furnace is directly refined iron, which can be forged directly.

Xiang Tuo nodded, and when he turned around, he saw a strange blast furnace. Other blast furnaces were built against the mountain and were higher than the ground, but this blast furnace was buried underground, and the top was open. There was also a shelf on the top of the blast furnace, and four strong men with bare chests and backs were standing on the shelf, stirring a long iron rod with all their strength.

"Mr. Gongshu, what kind of stove is this?" Xiang Tuo asked curiously.

"This is a steel frying furnace." Gongshuche said quite complacently, "In Lu State, I once saw a famous master blacksmith use this kind of steel frying furnace to stir-fry extremely fine steel, whose hardness is far beyond Better than ordinary refined iron." After saying this, Gongshuche said with some regret, "However, I haven't been able to fry refined steel for the time being."

Xiang Tuo reached out and patted the back of Gongshu Che, and said: "Mr. Gongshu is a Mohist giant, and a famous master craftsman in the world. I believe that you will succeed in frying high-quality fine steel one day. , Mister must make a fine steel horizontal knife for this general that cuts iron like mud!"

The bus waved his hand and said, "I will do my best."

As they said that, everyone came to the bow workshop again, and saw piles of old mulberries piled up on the open space in front of the bow workshop, and there were still strong men carrying old mulberry trees that were decades or even hundreds of years old. In the bow workshop, hundreds of carpenters are working day and night to make single-piece longbows. Although composite angle bows have better performance, single-piece longbows are simpler to craft and suitable for a large number of equipment.

Xiang Tuo walked into the workshop, took a longbow that had already been made from a craftsman, and tried to pull it. The pulling force was about one stone, and an adult man could easily pull it away. He took another heavy bow. The arrow tried the shooting range, and it could shoot more than 45 steps away when projected at a 100-degree angle, and the heavy arrow that fell could easily penetrate a layer of iron armor.

But if you use a mulberry longbow for precise shooting, it will not work. If you are twenty steps away, you will basically miss nine out of ten shots.

This is actually reasonable. These mulberry longbows are actually as simple as cutting the mulberry strips and tying the hemp rope. The bow making skills are not as complicated as those of later generations. The hand's arrow rain suppression has always been won by quantity, so accuracy is not so important.

Xiang Tuo put back the longbow, then turned to ask the arsenal order accompanying him, "How many longbows like this can be made in a month?"

The arsenal order replied: "There are a lot of mulberry trees nearby, and there is also enough hemp storage. If there are enough people, at least [-] such longbows can be made in a month!"

Xiang Tuo immediately turned his head and shouted: "Alpaca, send another [-] men to the bow workshop!"

"Here!" The alpaca who was following behind Xiang Tuo suddenly agreed, and immediately took the order.

Xiang Tuo said again: "Then, how many ring-shoulders, flying spears and spiked heavy arrows can be made in a month?"

The arsenal order said: "After casting, the spiked heavy arrows only need to be simple and easy to make, so it is not a problem to make more than [-] pieces a month. However, it is extremely difficult to make ring-shoulders and flying spears. blacksmiths, ordinary blacksmiths and ordinary strong men simply can't get involved, so there are not many of them..."

Xiang Tuo frowned and said, "How much is the quantity?"

Wu Kuling sighed, and said, "Huan Shou Dao is five hundred per month, and Flying Spears are two thousand."

"So few?" Xiang Tuo couldn't help frowning. There are only 6 ring-shou knives a month, and only [-] a year. It takes almost ten years to equip [-] people. The counties recruited a large number of blacksmiths to come to Qu'awai, and they had to make a large number of bamboo knives and wooden halberds for emergency, otherwise, the Chu army could only use their fists to fight the enemy.

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In the southern suburbs of Guangling, the Huainan army camp.

As early as more than half a month ago, Yingbu personally brought [-] elite soldiers to Guangling, and set up a big camp on the outskirts of the city. The distance between Guangling and Wujiang River was even less than a hundred miles. Crossing the Wujiang River in the inner south, it only takes five days at most to march quickly, and the Huainan army will be able to kill Wuzhong City.

Amidst the sound of light footsteps, Kuai Cheshi suddenly came to Yingbu's walk.

Before entering, a general of the Huainan Army, who was busy with travel and dust, had already come to the nearby courtyard. Seeing Kuai Che, the general of the Huainan Army hurriedly bowed his hands and paid respects.

Kuai Che returned the salute, and said calmly, "Is there any news from Jiang Zuo?"

The general didn't dare to neglect, and replied: "Report to the Prime Minister, about ten days ago, King Xiangzhuang of Chu personally sent [-] troops to Qu'a, and more strong men came to Qu'a from the counties and counties in the east of the Yangtze River. Ah Jiji, right now the Qu'a camp is making iron and steel furnaces and building weapons, and it seems that they are obviously targeting our Huainan army."

Kuai Che nodded and said, "Understood, you should hurry back to the other side."

"Here!" The general promised loudly, turned around and left, for a little scout general like him, it didn't make any difference to report the news to the king or the prime minister.

Watching the figure of the scout general go away, a faint smile suddenly appeared on the corner of Kuai Che's mouth.

Xiang Zhuang personally mentioned that [-] troops should be stationed in Qu'a?The mere tricks of deceiving the world also want to deceive him from the Huainan army?Are you really deceiving me that there is no one in Huainan?If there is no accident, Xiang Zhuang has already personally raised the army to take the small road to attack Fanyi. As for Qu'a, at most it is just Xiang Tuo or Gao Chu's bluffing there.

While he was thinking, there was a sound of footsteps behind him. When Kuai Che looked back, he saw that Ying Bu had strode out from the Xingyuan hall, and Kuai Che hurriedly saluted.

Ying Bu waved his hand and said, "Minister Guo, it seems that the scout general came back just now?"

Kuai Che nodded, and said: "Exactly, the scout general also brought back news that Xiang Zhuang had personally sent [-] troops to Qu'a, and more strong men were coming to Qu'a from the counties and counties in the east of the Yangtze River. Qu'a is assembled, judging from this posture, Xiang Zhuang obviously regards our Huainan army as the number one enemy."

Ying Bu couldn't help shaking his head and smiling wryly when he heard the words, feeling a little complacent and a little annoyed.

Being regarded as the number one enemy by Xiang Zhuang made Yingbo very proud, but Xiang Zhuang personally raised the army to go out to Qu'e, and it would be difficult for Yingbo to get any more bargains. In this way, wouldn't it be In vain, Zhou Yin, Jin She, Li Zuoche, Si Wuzhu, Si Luoyao, and Mei Yun and others were taken advantage of?

Kuai Che's eyes flickered, and said: "Your Majesty, for the present plan, let's wait and see what happens."

Ying Bu sighed, and said: "As of now, this is the only way to go, let's wait and see what happens."

Kuai Che smiled slightly and said: "Emperor Yi ordered in the past that the king who entered Guanzhong first, but Liu Bang who entered Guanzhong first did not become the king of Guanzhong in the end. This time, the person who entered Jiangdong first may not be the king of Jiangdong." king!"

Yingbo's eyes lit up when he heard the words. Kuaiche's meaning was already clear yesterday. Even if others captured Jiangdong first, they may not be able to become the king of Jiangdong, because whoever is allowed to be the king of Jiangdong has to use strength. In terms of speaking, he Yingbo is like Xiang Yu back then. Although he entered Guanzhong later, Xiang Yu has the final say on who will be the king of Guanzhong.

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In Yixian County, [-] fine cavalry of the Chu army were rushing westward along the path.

In order to hide their traces and achieve the effect of crossing the sea from the sky, the Chu army did not take the long road, but marched on remote roads. From Wuzhong to Yixian County, the 700-mile mountain road traveled for ten days. , can be said to be an unprecedented marching speed, of course, it is the slowest marching speed.

It must be admitted that Jiangnan is indeed not suitable for cavalry combat.

Among the high mountains, it is very difficult for the cavalry to even find a road suitable for marching, let alone carry out a large-scale group charge. Fortunately, Xiangzhuang did not intend to use cavalry to fight in this expedition. The [-] horses conscripted , are also the most inferior short-footed horses, which are only used for transportation to save the soldiers' physical strength as much as possible.

On the big rock by the side of the road, there was a marching map, Xiang Zhuang, Gao Chu, Xiao Kai, Tian Heng and other generals were crowding around the map, Bai Lixian pointed to the map, and said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, Cong Yi Less than fifty miles to the west of the county is the boundary of Lujiang County, and four hundred miles to the west is Fanyi, which can be reached by infantry in two days' quick march!"

Xiang Zhuang nodded, then turned his head and told Jin Xiang: "Here's an order, the whole army abandons their horses and walks!"

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PS: This chapter has been slightly revised.

(End of this chapter)