stubborn thief

Chapter 158
In the evening, the besieged camp already smelled of broth.

The Zhan Fu soldiers who were digging trenches outside the city put down their shovels, wiped off their sweat and looked west.

The sergeants in the south of the city were lining up, and the surrounding auxiliary soldiers looked over with satisfaction.

People know that it is the artillery of Commander Cao.

It's time to shoot again.

On the east and west sides, more than [-] people formed two opposite small square formations, the front ones sat on the ground, and the back ones stood.

Standing in the middle, Cao Yao raised his hand and patted his precious red cannon: "Come on, it's time for the left team today, and the right one is watching from the side."

The auxiliary soldiers of the Liangshi Zhan couldn't hold back their excitement for a long time, and ran forward one from the left and one from the right.

Then he was reprimanded by Cao Yao: "Your grandma, how many times have you told me not to stand behind the cannon, and stay away from the barrel where the gunpowder is placed, and don't go up!"

Cao Yao especially likes to quarrel with soldiers.

It would give him a sense of reassuring satisfaction.

It's like going back to 12 years ago, when the sky didn't fall and the ground didn't sink, he was still the leader of the Beijing Army's firearms battalion.

As time passed, he also became an instructor teaching artillery.

"What are you afraid of? It's no different from a pearl cannon. Come on, charge it."

The medicine bag was Liu Chengzong's idea. The gunpowder particles, wooden horses and shells were wrapped in fabric in advance and stuffed directly into the gun barrel.

In a short period of time, this thing doesn't make much sense. The necessary condition for custom installation to realize its meaning is to set consistent specifications for artillery.

Now they only have more than [-] large and small cannons, but they are divided into four types: Yongzhu, Tiger Crouching, Buddha Wolf Machine, and Hongyi. These four types are divided into sixteen different calibers.

That is to say, their shells have been captured and mixed, otherwise they can discharge more than 30 kinds of gunpowder and shells.

Liu Chengzong thought about it, and it was completely nonsense to get the medicine loaded under such circumstances, and the side effects far outweighed the positive significance.

This is also his original intention to let the work post be in Shanxi to make a batch of artillery first, and to determine the specifications.

The caliber is unified, regardless of whether it is three types or four types, fixed charge packs can be used later to reduce the problems of gunpowder delivery and allow artillery to reload faster.

The fixed medicine that the artillery brought out this time was made of yellow gauze for the curtains of Mr. Huo's house, and the red cloth used for the shells.

The red cloth looked good when fired, but the cloth covering the shell would not burn out, so with a bang, the shell broke through the gunpowder smoke and shot out, and then the smoke gradually dispersed, and a piece of red cloth would fall from the air.

In fact, when Liu Chengzong designed this, he especially thought of Luo Rucai.

Luo Rucai loves to collect fabrics, and everything on that guy's body can wrap shells.

After catching Luo Ru, he pressed it next to the gunpowder barrel. After a while, the answer of what kind of fabric is most suitable came out.

The artillerymen successfully completed the process of inspecting the barrel, stuffed the yellow gauze powder into the barrel, and then punctured the powder with an awl at the fire door of the artillery.

The charge and the ignition are auxiliary soldiers, aiming at the soldiers.

Cao Yao said from the side: "This cannon is very good. The barrel is extremely flat and straight. You must memorize the cannon formulas taught to you carefully. If you don't memorize them, how will you know how far you can shoot?"

He knew a set of formulas for various firearms to adjust the projectile range by fixing the weight of the projectile and adjusting the projectile range at different angles and charges.

But recently he discovered that the set of formulas was outdated, because the red cannon is a long-barreled cannon now, and the cannon formulas he used to memorize in the Beijing camp were all short-barreled cannons.

After he mentioned this to Liu Chengzong, the two of them still decided to let the sergeant do the same, and then recalculate a set of artillery tactics when they have time and new artillery pieces.

Such a seemingly simple and simple thing, but for them, it requires a huge amount of manpower, material resources and energy.

But now it is very good, this post city has to be bombarded no matter what, and the distance is fixed at [-] paces, and the artillery is fired at an angle, which is very suitable for experiments with fixed charge kits.

The soldiers who were aiming had retreated to the side of the artillery, and with an order, the igniter ignited the gunpowder with a small sickle tied with a matchlock.

Immediately, the shell blasted out and hit the gate tower of the post city.

"Good fight!"

Cao Yao turned his head and praised, without even looking at the reaction on the city, when the gunpowder smoke cleared and the auxiliary soldiers finished cleaning the barrel, he looked at the debris hooked out of the barrel, and nodded secretly: "This is not bad, the price is as good as the brocade. Silk is about the same, not as expensive as Pingluo and Lu silk.”

In the past few days, he had tried many materials, such as silk satin, gauze and silk, and velvet brocade, and there was almost nothing they couldn't grab.

The best and most expensive is Lu silk, which is thin and dense, and most importantly, it is flammable.

Almost nothing will remain in the gun barrel when it burns, and even if there is a little bit left, it will come down like ashes as soon as you wipe it.

The cloth is cheap, but the cloth can't be burned out. If you accidentally clean the barrel, it will be in it. If you don't clean it properly, it will easily ignite the gunpowder when you charge it next time.

Raw silk is actually good, but it needs secondary processing.

But they don't have much of those things.

Of course, there are not many lu silks.

But Lu silk is silk made by Lu'an Mansion.

In Wanli, there was excess production capacity every year, and every family in Shanxi had Lu silk.

The place of origin is next door, so it's easy to make.

After the shooting was completed, Cao Yao began to give lessons to the artillerymen again, explaining his knowledge of firearms on the spot.

To put it simply, all firearms are the same, regardless of whether it is a Yongle firearm or a bird, a three-eye or a five-eye, a short or a long, a small or a cannon, they are all the same in his eyes.

It's just a tube that seals one side, the difference is only in size.

If the tube is long and straight, you can hit it accurately; if the tube is thick, you can hit it hard.

Never leave its origins.

On the west side of the siege camp, Liu Chengzong was holding a telescope and looking into the depths of the valley, where a team was marching eastward.

The first person wore a brave helmet, black satin narrow-leg cotton trousers, and an open sheepskin short jacket. The clean cloth was wrapped from the neck to the navel, and he walked arrogantly with a waist knife.

Judging from the walking posture and clothes, it is Luo Ru who is right.

This guy has such a high-spirited spirit that he couldn't see that he was chased like a rabbit a few days ago.

energetic.

The people behind him were all riding horses, and Liu Chengzong knew that there were Shangtian Hou, Zhang Tianlin and Song Shouzhen in there.

Zhuantianmao Academy has been open for half a year. Shanxi has gained too much, and there will be more in the future. People who are not educated really don't know.

So he asked Shangtianhou to go home and bring back the eighty thieves.

Zhang Tianlin led troops to protect them, as for Luo Rucai, Luo Rucai picked them up on the road.

This guy is also unlucky. He recruited more than 1000 new men, and when he went out without doing anything, he bumped into Ai Mu's army. The recruits all ran away when they saw the army.

There are only four hundred old thieves who are used to bandits, fighting and retreating all the way, and they are considered capable if they can escape.

When they approached the siege camp, Liu Chengzong went out to pick him up, and when he met Luo Rucai, he fell to the ground: "General Liu, thank you for avenging my little brother, this Ai Mu beat me so hard!"

Luo Rucai's obeisance was sincere. He was indeed bullied too hard. He had never experienced such a battle since the mobilization of the crowd.

Whether it's brutal or violent, no matter how you deal with it, there is no way to fight back.

No one has many people; no one has many soldiers; no one is good at fighting;

He was injured and was sent to a mountain village by his subordinates to recuperate, and he became the king of the mountain. When he heard that Liu Chengzong surrounded Ai Mu in Wen'an Station, he wanted to come over.

Liu Chengzong was also very curious about this matter, he helped Luo Rucai up and asked, "You are all riding horses, how did you come here?"

Luo Rucai was fine, got up slowly, turned around and patted his buttocks: "I was shot by an arrow from the officer, so I couldn't sit still."

Liu Chengzong smiled, bowed his hands to everyone, and then welcomed them into the besieged camp.

Zhang Tianlin followed into the camp, walked and looked to both sides, first at Liu Chengzong's camp, then at Ai Mu's besieged post city, secretly smacking her tongue.

Liu Chengzong's camp can't be said to be very subtle, it is quite satisfactory, but it is very imposing.

Surrounding Wen'an Station in the west, south, and east directions in the shape of a moon, the second trench is being dug, and a dirt mountain as high as the post city has been built. It actually wants to surround the official army.

Looking back at the post city, the soldiers at the top of the city were densely packed, neither shooting nor breaking out, which Zhang Tianlin couldn't understand.

He asked: "Lion, how many officers and soldiers are there in Wen'an Station?"

Liu Chengzong smiled and raised two fingers: "There were originally one thousand and two, but two days ago more than 600 people were let in."

"Put in 600 people?"

Liu Chengzong nodded and asked Zhong Bao to set up a camp for Zhang Tianlin's men, and then led several people to his Chinese army tent.

After entering the tent of the Chinese army, he explained in detail: "I didn't fight when I came here. Aimu has three sentries, all of them guarding the west. There are one sentry in the north and south mountains, and another sentry in the village on the west side of the city."

"I came quickly. I blocked the sentry in the village into the city, and surrounded the southern sentry. But by the time they attacked the northern side, they had already set up camp and it was not easy to break through. Let's surround this side first."

Speaking of this, he showed a smile: "Two days ago, the government army from the mountains in the north attacked, and we withdrew to the west. If they want to enter the city, they only cut off the luggage, and they don't care about anyone."

Zhang Tianlin asked, "You want to starve them to death?"

"It's not that ruthless, just surrender when you're hungry."

His understatement made Zhang Tianlin secretly speechless.

The tactics are very common, even a bit dull, that is, to surround and prevent people from running.

But in northern Shaanxi in these years, no one could sustain such a battle with the government and army.

"There are 2000 officers and soldiers. I think you have 4000, right? There are also mules, horses and livestock." Seeing his relaxed expression, Zhang Tianlin calculated, "You consume twice as much food as him every day."

"Walk around, where do you not eat food?"

Liu Chengzong's Lion Camp was greatly inspired by Zhang Tianlin. Up to now, the framework of the soldiers and auxiliary soldiers was learned from Zhang Tianlin.

But he is an enlarged version of Zhang Tianlin. Zhang Tianlin only has more than a hundred veterans of the Frontier Army, and he has 1000 veterans of the Multilateral Army.

Moreover, the biggest difference between Lion Camp and others is that there is a logistics sentry.

Speaking of food and grass, Liu Chengzong couldn't hide his pride, saying: "I fought a few battles in Shanxi and defeated 4000 officers and soldiers. They were all from Shanxi, and there were family members in the guards. Few of them were willing to follow me. It was a net profit. "

Isn't the mouth the most difficult thing to feed these days?

The flag troops of Fenzhou Wei and Pingyangwei all came with food and grass, and the food and grass were beaten and stayed, as well as dead horses and mules.

On the contrary, because people don't want to be with him, the number of mouths to eat has not increased.

"So although we didn't collect enough food, there is enough food for soldiers, enough to starve the people in the city to break through... that's right."

In the middle of speaking, Liu Chengzong raised his hand and quickly pointed in two directions north of the guide: "In fact, what I ate these few days was the food from the two sentries outside Ai Mu."

Ai Mu in the city would die of anger when he heard this.

When the 1 officers and soldiers in Huoshaogou called the door, Ai Mu had [-] people who didn't want to open the door.

Why are you here all right?

To be honest, he was stationed in Huoshaogou. Anyway, he had his own food and built a camp, so he couldn't break it for a while. If he really needed to break out of the siege and set fire to the sky, it would be fine.

It's good now, there are more than 600 more mouths, which makes the food and grass that are not rich even worse.

Zhang Tianlin laughed out loud when she heard it, and raised her hand to Liu Chengzong, "You have figured out how to play the thief."

He felt that Liu Chengzong was really a thief, and he was a more organized thief than anyone in northern Shaanxi.

The whole person jumps around to attract firepower, but the more he jumps, the fatter he becomes.

And under his wings, a large group of sitting bandits near Yan'an Mansion were cultivated.

Bandit leaders like them, who have hundreds of people, can't move their legs when they arrive in Yan'an Fucheng and become sitting bandits.

"How about Wangzhuang, is it time to harvest the wheat?" Liu Chengzong asked, "I saw a wheat field in Yanchuan, and it was very short."

Zhang Tianlin nodded and said: "Yes, next month's harvest, when the spring freezes, Xingzi River, Panlong River, and Yanhe River, this year's wheat doesn't need a sickle, it has to be plucked."

Pulling out the wheat, Liu Chengzong shook his head when he heard it.

As the saying goes, mother-in-laws are most afraid of raising children, and heroes are most afraid of pulling wheat.

There are two reasons for plucking wheat. One is that the wheat does not grow well, it is short, and it is difficult to harvest with a sickle; the other is that the wheat stalks can be used as firewood.

This is the most tiring thing.

"By the way, Lion, I have to tell you something. You and Chengzu were the first to fight at King Qin's Zhuangzi." Zhang Tianlin said, seeing Liu Chengzong nodding, she said, "I heard Chengzu said that the land over there is very good. Then take it, can you see it?"

"Why are you being polite? You can occupy the side of the Xichuan River, but see if the dam is still there. If the dam can be opened, it's better to open it. More people will survive...for another year."

Zhang Tianlin was very happy to hear that he didn't mind, and immediately asked, "What do you want to do next year?"

"In July and August, I built a bunker in Shanxi. The bunker was planted with corn, and when it grew, I took it back as seeds and tried planting some of that."

In Liu Chengzong's other memory, one acre of wheat can harvest seven to eight hundred catties, which is outrageous and scary. He wished that the person in his mind was a farmer.

It is normal for their wheat to fall and suffer disasters, and it is normal to harvest thirty to forty catties per mu.

Collecting eighty or ninety catties not only met expectations but also went well.

When it reaches two hundred catties, it can no longer be simply described as a good harvest.

That has to be called the ancestors' apparition.

Liu Chengzong scratched his neck. There was nothing he could do to worry about it. He knew that the production would be reduced, but he had to cultivate the land. There was nothing he could do.

He shook his head and stopped thinking about agriculture. The military is still the most important thing. If the military does not solve the problem, there will be no chance of farming.

Liu Chengzong took a deep breath: "I'm just taking a gamble to see if Ai Mu breaks out first, or Du Wenhuan's reinforcements come first."
-
Note:
In 1952, the average yield of wheat per mu in my country was 48.8 kg.

In 1950, the yield of wheat per mu in North China reached 250 jin, which was the highest among the high yields, and it was published in the People's Daily.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)