Great Wei Overlord

Chapter 970
Chapter 976

Therefore, the children of ordinary farmers do not have the opportunity to study in county schools, and students who can enter county schools are at least from well-off families.The children of these meritorious soldiers entered the county school, not only did not have to pay tuition fees, but also enjoyed state financial subsidies. Although each person only had a mere [-] yuan a year, which was barely enough to eat, but after careful consideration, the expenditure was not small.

Of course, this made those soldiers feel the value of meritorious deeds even more. This gave them a great gift and gave them a chance to change their lives.

The county school was also formulated by Ran Ming following the example of later middle schools. It can also be said to be a university preparatory school. The knowledge taught is more advanced knowledge. All schools of thought are allowed to select good seedlings with good qualifications in the county school for key training.

Today's Chang'an is already the starting point of Wei State's Silk Road. There are a large number of factories and various people here. Just when these convoys transporting meritorious soldiers were about to cross the river, there was a commotion in front of them.It turned out that this was a caravan delivering goods. A Lite businessman in Hanfu said in fluent Chinese: "The goods have arrived. According to the cooperation agreement between us, here are a hundred girls, all of whom are between 15 and [-] years old." Year-old virgin, you can inspect the goods first!"

As he spoke, he tore open the curtain of a carriage, an extended version of the four-wheeled carriage, fully loaded with ten Hu women.These women traveled through the long Silk Road, eating and sleeping all the way, and all of them seemed malnourished.A fat Han businessman waved his hand, and several women hurried forward to inspect the goods.

The fat Han merchant pointed at the Lite merchant: "All the goods you want are over there. If you ship two thousand pieces of high-quality silk back, you will make more than ten times the profit!"

As a large number of merchants traveled to and from the Silk Road, the output of silk was still in short supply. Unlike the difficult land Silk Road, the Maritime Silk Road not only carried a large amount of cargo, but also made good profits.Wei's silk is concentrated in the Central Plains or the South, but Chang'an's supply is limited, which forced most merchants to reluctantly raise the purchase price, but this still could not meet their needs.Nowadays, Hu merchants and Han merchants usually barter, so they can find their next home in advance.

"Yes, yes, they are all high-grade goods!" Greedy eyes flashed in the eyes of Lite businessman.

The fat man said: "I heard that you are fighting there?"

"Yeah, I don't know what they're doing!" Lite businessman showed a heartbroken expression: "This time the shipment almost had a big accident. In order to clear the checkpoint, it cost a full [-]% more."

"In this way, there should be quite a few prisoners of war in your place!" The fat man said, "The prisoners of war are almost all young and strong laborers. Now Wei is short of slaves. In the future, I will not only want orchids, but also young and strong slaves! Next time you You can bring some young and strong slaves here, and the price is guaranteed to satisfy you!" As he spoke, the fat Han merchant pointed out a finger.

"You want a hundred slaves?"

"One hundred" fat Han merchants showed contempt: "Too petty, I want a thousand slaves!"

Lite businessman opened a few more boxes, which were densely packed with precious stones and jade, colorful and dazzling in the sun, making people unable to open their eyes. "These goods are not bad, how are they?"

The Han businessman said disdainfully: "It's really not good. If you bring these things over next time, I can guarantee that you will lose everything!"

"Why?" Lite merchant asked in confusion, "Don't nobles dislike gems and jade?"

"It's not that I don't like it, it's just that there are too many of these things, and you know that if there are too many things, they are worthless!" Han merchant said: "The kind of goods you bring can be said to be everywhere in Nanyang, and those sea merchants are all the same. Do you think it will sell for a good price when the whole ship is shipped in?"

The Lite businessman showed a disappointed expression. In business, there are always profits and losses, but these one hundred bearded women have made a lot of money.These are not ordinary cheap goods, but the ladies of the local defeated nobles. They have received elite education since they were young, and they have also received special Chinese training along the way. Each of them is good at singing and dancing, although they are not proficient in everything. , but she is also the kind of beauty who can go out of the hall and into the kitchen.

The price of two thousand bolts of high-quality silk is not low.You know that silk was a hard currency in ancient times, and a good horse was equal to nine pieces of silk, which was only inferior silk.Only six or seven of the best silk can be exchanged for a Xiji horse. In Chang'an, a Xiji horse can be sold for millions of dollars. It can also be said that the price of each beard girl is equivalent to more than 300 yuan. ten thousand dollars.

"Boom!" A stone bomb from a heavy-duty trebuchet landed on the mine field, and the stone bomb weighing three hundred catties directly hit a mine. With the explosion of the mine, the huge stone bomb continued to roll forward. , until three or four mines were detonated, the kinetic energy was exhausted, and it stopped on the ground.

Land mines are a good way to stop the enemy, but this is not an unsolvable problem.Outside the west gate of Chengdu City, Xie Ai ordered to dig a mountain of earth, and using tens of thousands of people to work day and night, finally piled up a mountain of more than 24 feet of earth in three days and three nights.When the earth mountain was piled up, Xie Ai ordered people to move the prepared heavy-duty trebuchets to the earth mountain. In one day, 24 heavy-duty trebuchets had been transported to the earth mountain.These [-] catapults fired stone bombs from the earth hills to the west city of Chengdu.

The stone bombs fired by heavy trebuchets are much heavier than ballistas. Although the accuracy is limited, it is obviously enough to detonate the earth mines outside the city of Chengdu.Although the condescending heavy trebuchet can only throw stone bombs weighing [-] jin within a distance of [-] steps, only relying on the huge kinetic energy of the stone bombs, as long as there are landmines, all of them will be detonated.In just one day, Xie Ai used the trebuchet to clear the mines outside the west gate.

With the mines cleared, Xie Ai threw five vehicles into Jinglan, a kind of climbing and siege tool invented by the working people of the Han nationality in ancient times.It is speculated that it was invented by Mozi in the Warring States Period, but later the King of Chu used Jinglan to attack the State of Song.Mozi used fire to defend against the attack of Jinglan, which was very slow and often easily destroyed. Jinglan was a mobile archery tower, a siege weapon that could attack enemy troops on the city wall.With it on the shelf, any arms can shoot from a long distance.Generally, it is built up to three and a half floors, with pulleys installed underneath, and it moves and shoots condescendingly.Features: wide range, strong dynamic strike power; Weaknesses: slow movement, no close combat capability.

At this time, the Jinglan car built by Xie Ai is different from the ones in history. First of all, as the state of Wei exploited a large number of mines, in order to facilitate transportation, the state of Wei has invented the rail car at this time. The use of rails can increase the transportation volume and transportation. efficiency.Therefore, these five well rails all adopt the way of track advancement.And the bigger change is that the arrow tower above is bigger, not only an eight-ox crossbow and a ballista are arranged.

With the use of these five Jinglan vehicles, the Chengdu defenders felt great pressure.Finally, the west gate of Chengdu was opened, and about [-] defenders left the city to attack.Needless to say, the target was five heavy Jinglan vehicles.It's just that Xie Ai had already expected that the Chengdu defenders would not stand still, so he had already dispatched [-] light cavalry to protect Jinglan.

As soon as the defenders left the city, nearly half of them were shot and killed by the light cavalry who had already been waiting in battle, and the rest fled back to the city in a panic.

Xie Ai moved his eyes away from the binoculars, and said helplessly: "We are still not good at dealing with this kind of fortified city. The casualties of soldiers remain high, and the consumption of materials is more than that of mobile warfare."

Wei's army has never been used to this kind of battle that relies on human life to piling up. It prefers a wide-ranging encirclement and annihilation battle, and is more suitable for the kind of rapid advance to cut the enemy's position, and then tens of thousands of tens of thousands of prisoners. fighting.There is no way that the Wei army formed by Ran Min took Hu Qi as its combat target. After forming an army, it basically regarded Hu Qi as its primary target, so they are better at field battles and like head-to-head battles in the wild.As for the offensive and defensive battles in a bloody city, even though Wei's army has experienced many times, they still cannot effectively adapt to this kind of battle.

In fact, it's not that they don't adapt, it's just that whether it's Ran Min or Ran Ming, they can't ignore life.To put it bluntly, the ancient city offensive and defensive battles were simply a struggle of will and consumption.It was almost always a life-for-life style of play. No matter how good or brave the soldiers were, no matter how well equipped they were, a log or a pot of fire oil could easily kill them.

"According to the deduction of the staff department, if our army seizes the city of Chengdu without internal support, at least [-] soldiers will die!"

Hearing this, Xie Ai couldn't help but let out a long sigh.Ten thousand soldiers were killed, so according to the casualty ratio, the number of wounded soldiers would be as many as 5 to [-], which means that at least fifteen battalions lost their combat effectiveness.Xie Ai's Zhenxi army was weakened by nearly one-third.In ancient times, the casualties of soldiers were undefeated, and they were considered strong. Although the Wei army could guarantee about [-]% of the casualties and continue to fight, but since then, Xie Ai has little power to take the area south of Chengdu.

At this time, the city of Chengdu has become a hedgehog, with various defensive weapons emerging one after another.In order to prevent the Wei army's ballista or trebuchet from damaging the city wall, the Chengdu defenders tied moso bamboo on the city wall. This kind of moso bamboo has strong toughness and can offset most of the kinetic energy of stone bullets, although it cannot completely resist stone bullets. Kinetic energy, but it can minimize the power of the stone bullet.

As for the strategy of attacking with fire, it is actually useless.Although moso bamboo is extremely flammable, almost all the houses in Chengdu near the city wall have been dismantled into empty frames, or directly knocked down. Since the incendiary bombs were thrown into the city, there was no fire starter, and the plan of attacking with fire had no choice but to end. .Although the moso bamboo on the city wall is extremely flammable, the city does not know how much of this kind of moso bamboo has been stored in advance. Anyway, after continuous attacks, the moso bamboo on the city wall has changed almost four rounds, but it still does not weaken.

In fact, even without the blockage of these moso bamboos, depending on the power of ballistas and catapults of this era, it would take at least a month of continuous bombardment. For this kind of bluestone city wall building, even the artillery of later generations, the artillery with a caliber of less than 150 mm is also Powerless.

It seems that attacking the city with ants is the only way.Only take life to fill.But as a nation that is traditionally good at defending the city.The Han people are too proficient in the law of defending the city.There are ash bottles on the city walls. Once this kind of quicklime gets into the eyes of soldiers, it can almost destroy the eyes of soldiers.Besides, Ran Ming has no way to equip every soldier in the army with goggles.In fact, Wei Jun, a commonly used method of defending the city, can also endure it.It's just that the most unbearable thing is the golden juice.

The so-called golden juice is to use human or animal feces and urine to boil in a pot, which can not only scald the enemy, but also because the feces contain a lot of bacteria and viruses, the wound is very difficult to heal.Even if there is a little bit of it on the body, it will become a large area of ​​festering within a few days. Not only will the wound ooze pus and stink, but it will also greatly affect morale.Now nearly 300 people in the wounded barracks were scalded by the golden juice on the city wall of Chengdu. There were originally more than 500 casualties, but more than 100 people died in just half a month.

Because the wounds of the more than 300 wounded gave off a strong stench, the entire wounded barracks became stinky, and even the doctors almost fainted from the smoke. In desperation, Xie Ai had to place the more than 300 wounded in a special place. Near the northwest corner of the supply camp.

In this half-month offensive and defensive battle, Xie Ai was also disheartened.More than 5000 soldiers were killed and almost [-] were injured.It is not clear who is in charge of defense, the method of defending the city can be called vicious.In addition to the traditional stone beating, rolling wood, gray bottle, and golden juice, there are many new inventions.The Chengdu defenders tied moso bamboo as thick as a bowl to the city wall, and then bent it with manpower. The other end was also tied to the city wall and bent into a bow shape. Use a knife and ax to cut off the ropes tied to the moso bamboos, and those moso bamboos are like arrows that leave the string. No matter how brave the soldiers are, they will be smashed down the city wall by such moso bamboos.With the height of the city wall in Chengdu, basically falling off the city wall is a narrow escape.

In addition to this moso bamboo, there are also mace poles and rakes.Yes, you are not mistaken, it is a kind of agricultural tool used in the semi-mechanized period in the countryside. After plowing the field, the soil turned out has a large shell. The plots in the ground shattered.This kind of rake weighing more than 200 kilograms would be thrown onto the ladder by the defenders. As a result, the soldiers of the Wei army who climbed the city wall and the ladder would be smashed down.In front of this rake, the shields and armor of the Wei army could not protect the lives of soldiers at all.

Xie Ai thought about almost all the methods that Xie Ai could use, but without exception, all of them ended in failure.

"It seems that the only thing left is to take risks!" Although Xie Ai won more battles than lost, in fact he did not have anything special. Assassinate the enemy general, and the enemy army has no leader, so that Xie Ai won the victory without any effort.

The use of this kind of dead soldiers is actually similar to the beheading tactics of special operations in later generations, and the core concept is the same.It's just that after Xie Ai surrendered to Wei State, in order to avoid Ran Min's embarrassment, Xie Ai did not keep Liangguo's intelligence organization "Blue Eyes", and the number of dead soldiers was also reduced.Now Xie Ai has only about [-] dead soldiers like him around him.

In fact, these dead soldiers are not first-class in martial arts, but they are worse than ordinary soldiers, and even inferior to second-rate generals. They have specially studied the art of assassins, so they are relatively good at assassination. Submerged by a sea of ​​people.These dead men were used by Xie Ai to stay by his side to save his life, and he didn't dare to use them lightly unless it was absolutely necessary.

It's just that before Xie Ai had time to throw these dead men into Chengdu, things changed again.

Zhang Zhong, who worked in Qianwei County of the Shu State, joined forces with Zhang Yu, Yang Guang and more than [-] people to stage an uprising. They successfully expelled the prefect and soldiers appointed by Huan Wen, and occupied Bodao (an ancient county name, roughly in the southwest of Yibin, Sichuan today, Throat of Ancient Tea Horse Road), along with Zhang Zhong, Zhang Yu, Yang Guang and others, divided into three groups to seize Yuanyangqi (northwest of Shuangliu Town today, northeast bank of Minjiang River), Wuyang and Pengmo (southeast of Pengshan Mountain in present Sichuan, east bank of the Minjiang River).

Following the Zhang Chong Uprising, Zizhong and Yeguan (now Wangyang Township in the southeast of Renshou County (formerly known as Wang'anchang)) under the jurisdiction of Qianwei County opened a journal (or Kaibang County. It was established in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Now Xiluoba Township in Hongya County). All twelve counties announced uprisings and surrendered to Wei State.

In this way, Huan Wen's Chengdu was cut off from Huan Shiqian Huan's army of suppressing evil, that is to say, with the uprising of Qianwei County at this time, Chengdu became a city without source.

Zhang Chong sent his confidants to Xie Ai's barracks, asking Xie Ai to send troops to take over the twelve cities. Xie Ai agreed with great joy, and wrote to Ran Ming to ask for credit for Zhang Zhong, Zhang Yu, Yang Guang and others.As Chengdu City became a helpless city, Xie Ai's mood also improved.

At this time, the city of Chengdu also became undercurrents. It was located in an inconspicuous small courtyard near the south gate, and a dozen or so well-armored generals of the Shu army gathered together for a secret meeting.It's just that no one took a look at the few people lying in the pool of blood at this time. One of the generals was stabbed several times and was already dying. Slave, if it weren’t for the King of Shu’s grace, how would you be here today? You have forgotten the oath you swore in front of the King of Shu, you will suffer retribution, and you will all die!”

(End of this chapter)