Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 68 Learning the Sword and Turning Itself (2)

Zhao Xingde followed closely behind Wang Yan, accepting the soldier's respect rather ashamedly.He looked at Wang Yan's back as calm as a mountain, and recalled that just a few hours ago, when he saw Tong Guan's letter, Wang Yan was as shocked and disappointed as he was.But just a few hours later, he not only regained his strength, but also used his own actions to drive tens of thousands of people to wake up from self-destruction and minimize the adverse effects of the coach's escape.

"Maybe it's the difference between leaders and ordinary people." Zhao Xingde immediately thought, "Can I become such a person?"

At this time, a soldier stepped forward and said in a low voice: "My lord, for some reason, Eunuch Tong's official ship is still staying at sea and has not gone far."

Wang Yan took the binoculars, looked towards the mouth of the Yellow River, and saw the tall ship masts.

"Hmph," his face darkened, "Your Majesty Tong is very thoughtful, and you can't rest assured. You need to see the result of the soldiers and civilians in the city of Hejian before you can set sail and escape with peace of mind!" He handed the binoculars to In Zhao Xingde's hand, he ordered: "This matter is announced to all the troops, so Master Tong will watch the battle for us at sea."

"This..." Zhao Xingde murmured, he was worried that the generals would repeat themselves when they heard that Tong Guan had not gone away.

"Justice is in the heart." Wang Yan saw Xingde's worry and said slowly.He turned his head and said to the soldiers: "Those who leave the city without incident will be punished for colluding with Liao thieves, and they will be killed immediately without pardon!" The soldiers immediately took orders to go down.

Wang Yan led Zhao Xingde down the tower and came to a camp near the city wall.

Stepping inside, Zhao Xingde felt his eyes dimmed, only then did he realize that this camp was not only low and remote, but even the windows were tightly closed, only a faint light came in.After his pupils got used to it, Zhao Xingde looked around and couldn't help being startled. He saw more than 50 people standing in the room. They were old and young, most of them were middle-aged, and they were neither military nor civilian. The words "Oath to Shouhejian" have been tattooed on it, so it must be Wang Yan's confidant.

"My prince is incompetent for the sake of the people in the city, the Hebei country of the Great Song Dynasty, I'm sorry brothers." Wang Yan cupped his hands and said.

"Wang Tongzhi, why did you say that? I'm going to have a break with the Liao people, so what's the regret of dying!" A man who looked like a butcher rubbed his hands and said, Zhao Xingde even saw that there were oil stains on his cuffs.

Following Wang Yan's conversation with them, Zhao Xingde was shocked to hear that this group of people was really going to die violently.

In order to boost morale and break the predicament of the giant cannon attacking the city, Wang Yan decided to send troops to attack, even if he couldn't destroy the giant cannon, he would also dampen the spirit of the Liao people.The cavalry of the Liao Kingdom were originally sturdy and swift, attacking like a gust of wind and fire, but also concealed an iron wall with strong armor, which was as strong as a copper wall and an iron wall.Even with Han Shizhong's bravery, he retreated in defeat.Wang Yan considered that the only way to defeat the enemy is to throw Zhentianlei into the Iron Wall Battalion.It's just that the big one weighs two to three hundred catties, and the small one weighs more than a hundred catties. It's impossible to shoot with a bow or crossbow. Only dead soldiers are selected, carrying Zhentian with the fuse lit on their backs. Lei, fit into the Liao army's iron-walled camp, burned everything, blasting a path for the Song army's infantry.

The dead men of Jinyan Mansion had different origins, some of their whole families were slaughtered by the Liao people and came to the Song Dynasty, some were poor and lowly, degraded to work for their lives, and some were outlaws who took their own lives for nothing.But more than 50 people gathered here, and when facing life and death, they still talked and laughed freely, without any pretentiousness, Zhao Xingde couldn't help being deeply moved by these people, he clutched the waist card of Jinyan Mansion in his sleeve pocket, secretly Ashamed, he said: "Zhao Yuanzhi, you are hesitant when things happen, you are greedy for life and afraid of death, can you be worthy of respecting you as your boss with these heroes who ignore death?"

After some encouragement, Wang Yan asked the two officials of Jinyan Mansion accompanying him to explain the specific affairs, except for the gate of the barracks, his thoughts surfaced on his face: "There are only more than a hundred dead soldiers in Jinyan Mansion in the city, and ordinary soldiers are embarrassed. It is difficult to say that we will win the battle against the Liao people's iron-walled battalion."

The giant cannons of the Liao people outside the city blasted twice again, and the stone bullets hit the city wall, even the bricks and stones on the inside of the wall shook, and the rammed earth mixed with sand was scattered everywhere.Many soldiers carrying arrows and rocks fell to the ground in fright.Some people even covered their heads and hid in the corner.Although this kind of giant cannon may not have knocked down the city wall two or three times, psychologically, it has a huge deterrent effect on Hejian's soldiers and civilians.

Following Wang Yan walked a few places, Zhao Xingde groaned for a while, deliberated over and over again, and finally mustered up the courage to say: "My lord, I can penetrate heavy armor with firecrackers, and I don't rely on the strength of soldiers to fight. There are more than [-] rods in Hejian's arsenal, why not use firecrackers to deal with the Tiebi camp!"

"Fire gun?" Wang Yan was a little stunned. The Hebei Army had a very bad opinion of this new gadget. After dozens of guns were blown up during training and dozens of people were killed or injured, all of them were sealed up in the military warehouse. , This is also the reason why the Hejian camp collapsed, but the firearms did not lose much.

Wang Yan himself was not familiar with firecrackers, but he trusted Zhao Xingde, so he asked, "Really?"

"In late life, I once heard someone from Neibazuo say that if the firecracker uses double doses of 'powder', it will have no problem penetrating heavy armor within a few tens of steps." Zhao Xingde has a good memory, and he did not mistake the firecracker for later generations. The firearms, only quoted the words of She Lu, the firearms operator of Neibazuo.

Wang Yan groaned slightly, nodded and said, "Then let's try." In Hejian City, whether it is a firecracker or the soldiers who can 'operate' a firecracker, they are far more dead than Zhentianlei and Jinyan Mansion. Scholars are rich.

However, with a "boom", on the shooting range in Hejian City, two firecrackers exploded again in front of Wang Yan and Zhao Xingde.The soldier with blood on his face was carried down, while the others looked at Wang Yan with fear.

"This is the power of firecrackers?" Wang Yan said rather annoyed. There were many incidents of chamber explosions in Hebei earlier. He heard Zhao Xingde swear by the benefits of firecrackers, so he tried it on the spot, but who knew it was the same result.

Afterwards, Wang Yan took his entourage to check the stock of Zhentianlei in the city, leaving only Zhao Xingde on the shooting range in a daze.

"What's going on here?" Although Zhao Xingde didn't have much confidence in the reliability of the firecracker, he didn't expect that two shots would blow up after two shots.Zhao Xingde turned the blasted firecracker out to see, on the thick wall of the firecracker, there were countless trachoma, as small as a cow's hair, as big as a soybean, and the largest hole was as big as a little finger , such a low-quality product full of trachoma, it's no wonder if it doesn't explode, even Zhao Xingde himself dare not use it.

"This is the practice of the eight works." Zhao Xingde was so depressed that night that he went to drink with Han Shizhong, and Han Shizhong comforted him.

Seeing Zhao Xingde's bewildered face, Su Wenyu, who was accompanying him, explained: "For the things in the workshop, a batch of good ones are always produced first for inspection by the superiors. The imperial court lowers the price every year. In order to earn money so as not to lose money, they began to cut corners. It's just that when it comes to inspection and inspection, the knives and guns are polished to be extra bright. If it is a firearm, the weight of the "powder" is reduced. "

"The workshop is also specially equipped with smoke 'drugs' and light bullets made for proofreading." Han Shizhong smiled mockingly, "Even if the knife and gun are close, they can always kill people. Firearms cannot be filled with 'powder' to fire bullets, even sticks are not as good. , who dares to use it? It’s best to pack it up.”

"This..." Zhao Xingde didn't expect this, and he was still puzzled, "In a government-run workshop, the income and expenditure are all public, so how can there be any talk of losing money and making money?"

Han Shizhong and Su Wenyu glanced at each other, but they looked at Xingde with puzzled eyes: "Is there any reason why the government-run workshops don't make money?" Su Wenyu said, "In order to make money, I I heard that even scrap copper and rotten iron are used to make iron barrel cannons."

Han Shizhong added: "Didn't you see that the soldiers on the top of the city dare not put enough gunpowder? What is he afraid of? As long as the gunpowder is enough, I'm afraid the cannon exploded on the spot."

Zhao Xingde suddenly realized, he let out a long sigh, and remained silent.

Drunkenness is not allowed during the war, and the three of them drank a few cups of sweet wine that was almost tasteless. Su Wenyu said hesitantly: "The young general came here today because he has doubts and wants to ask the two adults to teach him."

"Say something quickly," Han Shizhong thumped his cup on the table, Zhao Xingde looked at Su Wenyu with some embarrassment, he was not much older than this young man, and still felt a little uncomfortable being respected as an adult just because of his official rank.

Su Wenyu felt a little embarrassed, looked at the candlelight and said, "Master Wang Yan personally tattooed words on his forehead in order to motivate the soldiers and civilians in the city. The general admires him very much. Now the soldiers in the city are following the example of Master Zhu, and the general also wants to..."

"Then you go get stabbed!" Han Shizhong said roughly, his hand stroked his temples unconsciously, there was an inconspicuous scar there, it was a tattoo when he was a soldier, and it was removed after he became an officer Yes, the scars left behind were slightly covered up with sideburns.He is determined not to tattoo his face again.

"The last general's family is in Bianjing, and he's not yet married. It's no better than the two adults." Hearing Su Wenyu's stammering words, Zhao Xingde laughed. It turned out that this guy was worried that with the tattoo on his face, no good woman would marry him again. However, this is also true.

"Hmph!" Han Shizhong put his hand down and scolded: "A man can do it if he wants to, and don't do it if he doesn't want to. Mother-in-law, how happy it is!"

Seeing that Su Wenyu was scolded by him, Zhao Xingde only nodded in agreement, and said with a smile: "It is not necessary to have the tattoo on the forehead, in my opinion, it is also good to have the tattoo on the back, and it can be bigger. The general can also see clearly."

He was joking, but Su Wenyu's eyes lit up, and he said, "Master Zhao!" After speaking, he gave Han Shizhong a fearful look, Han Shizhong ignored him, and poured himself a glass of wine.Su Wenyu then continued: "In Mr. Zhao's opinion, what kind of words should be tattooed on the back, 'Sworn to guard Hejian', if the general has another assignment after returning to Bianjing, I'm afraid it's not right."

"Then tattoo 'Jing Loyalty to Serve the Country'," Zhao Xingde stopped drinking and suddenly remembered another person with the tattoo on his back.Regardless of whether he is still in this era that has become somewhat different, that kind of spirit should be passed down forever.