The world of counterfeit magistrates competes in the world

Chapter 459 Yanzhou Qi Rui
In mid-October, Ning Feng led Wanqi to Yanzhou. Without waiting for repairs, he led his army southward, bypassing Cao Jun's forward, and went straight to the rear.

A few days later, Qingyang City, where Cao Jun hoarded grain and grass, was breached by cavalry. Hengshan cavalry entered the city, wiped out thousands of enemies, and burned a large amount of Cao Jun's supplies in one fell swoop.Cao Ziyan, commander-in-chief of the Cao army in front, was shocked when he heard the words, and hurriedly dispatched [-] troops to help.

In just a few days, the counties and counties that had already been occupied were reported to be hostile, and many counties were attacked by cavalry almost at the same time, and their supplies were burned.Cao Ziyan had to dispatch a large number of reinforcements from the front to rescue the rear, but facing the flexible and changeable cavalry, most of Cao's troops were infantry, unable to pursue the enemy at all, and could only watch the Hengshan cavalry go away.And the few thousands of cavalry were strangled by the powerful Hengshan cavalry, and there were not many left.

Faced with this situation, Cao Ziyan was having a headache, even though he had repeatedly reminded the defenders stationed in counties and counties to be vigilant and prepare for battle.But the Hengshan cavalry didn't need to attack the wall at all, they only needed to pile up the gunpowder at the gate of the city. After a loud roar, the gate of the city was broken and the defense was announced to be broken.Today, only the county towns have enough troops to prevent the Hengshan cavalry from attacking the city easily, while the county towns around the country are unable to resist the offensive because of insufficient defenses, and they have fallen one after another.

Faced with such a situation, Cao Ziyan had no choice but to order the defenders of the county to stand firm and not let the enemy break through. As for the rest of the counties, they had no choice but to let the enemy run wild.As long as the supplies in the county are kept, the army will not be greatly affected.The plan for now is to defeat the Yanzhou army as soon as possible, as long as they capture Yancheng, they can mobilize all the troops and go south to encircle and suppress the Hengshan army.

And at this moment in Yan City, Qi Rui, the lord of Yan State, was stroking his three-inch beard and laughing uncontrollably.

"Zi Ming, you have done a good job, I must reward you well." Qi Rui blushed, and kept patting him on the shoulder.

Liu Ziming endured the heavy weight on his shoulders in pain, and smiled wryly, "My lord, for this recipe, we paid 500 million taels abruptly."

"Hehe, if we can get the gunpowder formula, 500 million taels is nothing." Qi Rui sneered, "As long as we have gunpowder and repel Cao Jun, we will be able to surpass Hengshan in one fell swoop with our Yanzhou background. , I want them to spit out everything that ate us."

Liu Ziming still smiled wryly. This trip to Hengshan made him feel a lot in his heart. It might be very difficult for Yanzhou to surpass Hengshan with gunpowder.However, he didn't dare to hit the lord's self-confidence, so he kept his mouth shut.

Qi Rui didn't notice Liu Ziming's expression, he turned around and shouted to the guards outside: "Please come here quickly."

After a while, a thin middle-aged man hurried over, glanced at Qi Rui, bowed and said, "Zhang Zhongliang pays his respects to the lord."

"Military master, no courtesy." Qi Rui was in a good mood, and when he saw the military master, he immediately said excitedly, "Military master, there is a happy event to be told to the military master."

"Oh?" Zhang Zhongliang's eyes flashed, "Is it the gunpowder formula that we got?"

"Haha, yes, thanks to Ziming, I got it from Hengshan." Qi Rui was slightly startled, then laughed.

Seeing the military advisor looking at him, Liu Ziming quickly said, "I'm ashamed, I don't dare to take credit for it. Military advisor, Hengshan wants us to buy this formula for 500 million taels, and my subordinate has already waited for the lord's consent."

Zhang Zhongliang stroked his long beard lightly, nodded slightly and said, "If you can really get the gunpowder formula, 500 million taels is really worth it. Now that Yanzhou is in a crisis of survival, if you can borrow gunpowder to retreat from the enemy, it will be 1000 million taels." What's more? What's more, what we got this time is the formula, and we can make gunpowder independently in the future without being controlled by others. Ziming made a decisive decision, and he made a great contribution to Yanzhou."

"Thank you for your praise from the military advisor, Ziming is terrified." Liu Ziming said modestly, but felt relieved in his heart.

"By the way, my lord, military adviser." Liu Ziming suddenly remembered something at this moment, and said quickly, "Hengshan has dispatched [-] cavalry to support our Yanzhou. At present, they have taken the lead in going south to harass the rear of Cao's army. There is another army carrying gunpowder. On the way here, Hengshan will sell the support gunpowder to us at half price, and the subordinates have made the decision without authorization, and have already agreed."

"Haha, good, good." Qi Rui was overjoyed when he heard the words, and he felt more fond of Hengshan in his heart, "With this ten thousand cavalry, Cao's army may be attacked by the enemy and contain a large number of Cao's troops. The batch of gunpowder purchased by Ziming is for Our army has solved the urgent need, which is not bad.”

"Ziming, how much is this batch of gunpowder?" Zhang Zhongliang's eyes lit up, and he asked hastily.

"This time, Hengshan only agreed to sell us 50 catties at a price of [-] taels."

"Hiss!" Both of them gasped when they heard the words, "It's so expensive, five taels of silver for a catty?"

"This, this is still half price. If you want to buy it again, it will be ten taels a catty." Liu Ziming said helplessly.

"Oh, luckily I bought the formula, otherwise..." Qi Rui was afraid for a while.

"Buy this batch first, and make the rest by ourselves." Zhang Zhongliang nodded slightly, "Ziming, when will the formula be delivered?"

"The formula is among the men who deliver the gunpowder. Only when we have all the money and handed it over to them will we hand over the formula."

"Hmph, it's more cautious." Qi Rui's face suddenly became angry when he heard this, "Military Master, when the time comes, will we..."

"It's absolutely impossible." Zhang Zhongliang looked at Qi Rui sternly, and said in a deep voice, "My lord, you must not offend Hengshan at this time."

Qi Rui also realized that he had made a slip of the tongue, and couldn't help but smile awkwardly.

In the next few days, Qi Rui went around to raise money, and finally got together 550 million taels.And the information from the south began to come in one after another. As Liu Ziming said, the Hengshan cavalry entered the rear of Cao's army and broke through more than a dozen cities.Now, the remaining Yanzhou army in the south began to gather together. With the support of the Hengshan cavalry, they recovered several cities and gradually grew stronger.

Qi Rui couldn't help being overjoyed when he got this information. After discussing with Zhang Zhongliang immediately, he decided to send his trusted generals to the south to gather remnants from all walks of life, cooperate with the Hengshan cavalry, destroy the supply line behind Cao's army, and force most of Cao's army to retreat.

A few more days later, the gunpowder transporters finally arrived in Yancheng.The leader of the team this time is Wei Zhong, the commander of the Shenji Battalion. He is here not only to escort the gunpowder, but also to assist the Yanzhou Army in training the use of gunpowder.Otherwise, if you are not careful, not only will you not be able to kill an enemy, but you will take your own life instead.

When Wei Zhong explained his purpose, Qi Rui immediately regarded him as a guest of honor.Therefore, after receiving 550 million taels, Wei Zhong asked his brigade to escort the money back, and dozens of them from the Shenji Battalion stayed to guide the Yanzhou Army.

In the next period of time, Wei Zhong taught the method of using gunpowder and precautions.But this is only to inform the Yanzhou Army of the primary use of gunpowder, and it will not disclose heavy weapons such as swarms and artillery.

When Qi Rui got the gunpowder formula, he immediately summoned craftsmen to collect the materials on the formula to make it.Because of the guidance of the recipe, the gunpowder was quickly made.When he learned that the method of making gunpowder was so simple, he was so angry that he almost spit out old blood.He never expected that the method of making this gunpowder is so simple, and the cost of making a catty of gunpowder is less than one tael. If the formula is worth 500 million taels, then the gunpowder sent this time is not worth much at all money.According to the current production speed, there is no need to purchase this emergency batch at all.That is to say, he, Qi Rui, was cheated out of 50 taels by Hengshan.

(End of this chapter)