Nanming Engineer

Chapter 211 Chen Qiyu Goes to Kuizhou
Wang Yingxiong's urgent letter was sent out of Changsha City by his personal guards overnight. From Changsha to Kuizhou, it was no longer feasible to follow the most convenient Wuchang Road. All the major cities on this road had fallen into the hands of the Qing army. If you wanted to get there safely, , the only way to avoid the Qing army's fortified territory was to climb Wuling Mountain and go around Dalou Mountain. This took a lot of time. It was not until a month later that the letter was delivered to Kuizhou. When the tired messenger was exhausted When he was connected to the Yamen of the prefect of Kuizhou, the time had come to February [-]th, the first year of Longwu.

Xu Tiezhu, the prefect of Kuizhou, briefly asked the messenger and knew something was wrong. He quickly showed the letter and looked at it. His face turned pale with shock. Because he had Huguang at his back and friendly troops behind him, Kuizhou was not the main direction of Wang Huan's defense. In Kuizhou, there are very few armed forces. Xu Tiezhu only has a regiment of 1000 people. In addition, each county has a hundred Martin infantry, which are used to suppress bandits. Although they train every day, regardless of military quality or military Equipment and equipment are different from regular white-robed soldiers.

However, this difference is mainly reflected in the battle experience. Compared with the white-robed soldiers, the regiments that have only been entangled with bandits and thieves have fewer chances to see blood, and the largest battles fought are only thousands of people. , but not bad.

The armored weapons captured by Wang Huan in previous battles were basically given to the three magistrates except for Bird Tong, and they were asked to develop regiment training. Therefore, the regiment training soldiers in Xu Tiezhu's hands are all wearing iron armor. There are half-length waist armors, and even a few people even have a full set of armor. The defense of individual soldiers is comparable to that of white-robed soldiers wearing rattan armor and Huohuan burqa.The weapons in their hands are basically the standard swords and guns of the Ming army, long spears, halberds, shields, waist knives, and none of them fall. Even the iron helmets that white-robed soldiers generally do not have, many people in the regiment training have them.

Even so, the news in the letter that He Tengjiao was planning to enter Kuizhou still made Xu Tiezhu break out in a cold sweat. He Tengjiao won tens of thousands of peasant troops for nothing, and [-] soldiers. He only needs to use [-]% of his troops to attack Xu Tiezhu in Kuizhou, and it will be too much.

So without further ado, Xu Tiezhu sealed the envelope as it was, sent it to Longquan Mountain quickly, copied another copy, and sent it to Shizhu Qin Liangyu. He Handao stepped up the establishment of Shuiguan Stone City and prepared for war.

Xu Tiezhu was making intensive preparations here, while Wang Huan and Li Dingguo over there had spent more than half a month in Longquan Mountain.

Over the past few days, Li Dingguo's fighting spirit has been worn down to almost nothingness. From the initial attack once a day to once every three days, in the last few days, he has not shown himself for seven days.

At the foot of Longquan Mountain, the corpses lay all over the place. The generals and soldiers of the Great Western Army kept their appearances in a disorderly manner when they died in battle. No one cleaned them up. Fortunately, the weather was still cold, and under the cold spring, the corpses were exposed to the field and rotted like this, so there would be no immediate outbreak of disease. .

Li Dingguo has already paid a high price. His miscellaneous barracks and battle barracks took turns to go into battle. He exhausted all kinds of means, and even dug tunnels secretly, trying to blow open the city gate by conquering Kaifeng. Unexpectedly, Wang Huan was on guard. With his hands, the bottom of Longquan Mountain is full of solid rocks. It is impossible to dig under the city wall for a year with the backward methods of this era. He used his life to attack the city and was beaten back again and again. He was hit red several times. After a while, he finally touched the city wall, and was blown back by that mysterious bamboo tube.

Speaking of the bamboo tube, Li Dingguo was going crazy, it was so powerful, once a bamboo tube the size of an arm exploded, no one would be able to live within a radius of five feet, those with armor within ten feet would be seriously injured, and those without armor would survive two or three out of ten. The flying iron nails and gravel can easily reap human lives, and its lethality is comparable to that of a red cannon.

He wanted to get the bamboo tube too much, so he changed his plan, spent a lot of time nailing it under Longquan Mountain, and paid nearly ten thousand lives without paying any attention to it. When he suddenly realized that he had suffered a huge loss.

There are more than 3000 people left in the team of [-] people. Looking at the soldiers with low morale, Li Dingguo was shaken. For the first time since joining the army, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness. This feeling was being chased by Zuo Liangyu Not when he was ambushed by Yang Sichang, but when he was facing the immovable Ming army on Longquan Mountain.

There is nothing to do, Li Dingguo understands that if the consumption continues, the Ming army in the city will probably not be so honest anymore, and when the number of the two sides is not much different, the offense and defense of the two sides will be reversed.

Li Dingguo is not afraid of the Ming army attacking. The Daxi army is benefiting from the cavalry. The cavalry ratio in his battalion is very high. The three thousand soldiers battalion has one man and two horses, galloping like the wind. Jin can't catch up, but in this way, it completely deviates from his original intention.The original plan to quickly wipe out the Longquanshan Ming army fell through.

Li Dingguo at the foot of the mountain was annoyed and suffering, while Wang Huan at the top of the mountain also had a big head.

Wang Huan was very happy at first. Seeing Li Dingguo leaving a large number of corpses under the city every day and nailing them to Shehong like an idiot, he was in a happy mood. As long as there is no Li Dingguo to troublesome things, it will be much easier to deal with Ma Yuanli, the governor of Daxi Baoning Mansion.

But I never expected that He Tengjiao would dare to take up the idea of ​​​​Kuizhou Silver Mine. According to normal historical development, after the defeat of Jingzhou, it should be the Zhongzhen Battalion headed by Li Guo who entered the Three Gorges and approached Kuimen. Wang Huan foreshadowed it. When Li Guo came out of Kui, the drama Wang Huan performed left a deep impact on Li Guo. Wang Huan was very sure to get this new force in his pocket, but history turned out to be a twist. After turning a corner, Li Guo was taken to Changde by Du Yinxi, and now it was He Tengjiao who wanted to enter Kuimen.

This is no longer fun. He Tengjiao has made it clear that he wants to occupy the silver mine, which is Wang Huan's lifeblood. Whoever makes it up to him will never end with him. How can the governor of Huguang be allowed to do whatever he wants?But now the main force of the Kuizhou army is divided into two, and I am staring at Li Dingguo, and Ma Xintian is far away in Baoning Mansion, and now I am afraid that he is approaching the Jiange, and they can't separate themselves, what should I do?

So when Xu Tiezhu's letter from Wang Yingxiong arrived, Wang Huan became worried.He didn't even want to read the second letter from Shizhu that followed.

Frowning and thinking for a while, Wang Huan felt that his head was as big as a bucket, and he couldn't make an army without soldiers. He shook his head, and reluctantly picked up the letter from the stone pillar on the table.

He originally thought that this letter was an urgent letter from Qin Liangyu, because Fengjie, the prefecture of Kuizhou, was very close to Shizhu. When Xu Tiezhu's news reached Shizhu, Qin Liangyu wrote another letter and sent it here, which is similar to sending a letter directly from Fengjie to Longquan Mountain.

Unexpectedly, upon seeing Zhan Xin, Wang Huan clapped his hands and stood up, holding the letter paper excitedly and shouting: "Okay, Li Huaien is a talent! In such a short time, he was able to figure out the charge of the yellow gunpowder fired by the bird system. Talent!"

It turned out that this letter was written by Li Huai'en. It stated in the letter that he had undergone long-term experiments in the Longevity City of Shizhu, which cost a lot of money. With the help of [-] blacksmiths sent by Wang Yingxiong from Yunnan and Guizhou, they built a set of equipment and equipment, and began to design and manufacture qualified bird systems for the Kuizhou Army. Li Huai'en was rigorous and careful, experienced The bird system he made in his hands is much better than that of the Daming Military Bureau. As long as it is operated strictly according to the regulations, at least it will not explode.

The letter came with a hundred brand-new bird tubes. Wang Huan picked one up casually and looked back and forth. He saw that the wall of the tube was thick, tightly riveted, carefully selected with iron, and made of high-quality materials. The front sights have been strictly calibrated, and the body is in accordance with the regulations of the Ming Dynasty. The name of the craftsman and the year of manufacture are engraved in incised. The whole body of the bird exudes the smell of refined iron and emits a faint dim light.

Wang joyfully laughed, the troubles in his heart were relieved for a while, rubbing his body, a thought suddenly popped up in his mind, if you want to say that the expert in using the bird system, Chen Qiyu is the second in the Ming Dynasty, who else would dare to use it? called the first?

There are many generals in the Kuizhou army, but unfortunately there are too few who can stand alone. Now is the time to employ people, and the direction of northern Sichuan is really hard to escape. Xu Tiezhu in Kuizhou doesn't know about military affairs and lacks a general in charge. Why don't you invite Chen Qiyu Go out of the mountain and serve as the chief general of the Kuizhou army.

Wang Huan originally wanted to go to Hezhou in person, but Li Dingguo didn't leave for a long time, and he didn't dare to leave without authorization, so he had to write a letter with earnest words, explaining the seriousness of the current situation. It will be beyond redemption, please Chen Qiyu to help.Let people send it to Hezhou quickly.

Chen Qiyu read Wang Huan's letter while sitting on a chair with a charcoal stove in the backyard of the magistrate's office in Hezhou. He sighed and handed the letter to Chen Kun who stood by with his arms tied.

Chen Kun looked at it hastily, and blurted out: "My lord, your bones can't stand such torture!"

Chen Qiyu squinted his eyes and answered irrelevant questions: "He Tengjiao, when I was governor of the five provinces, he was still a county magistrate. I didn't expect that he would become a high official in frontiers now. He is really a hero made by the times."

Chen Kun was impatient, and said anxiously: "My lord, Mr. Wang invited you to come out of the mountain, but your body..."

Chen Qiyu glared at him: "Then you go?"

Chen Kun's face turned pale, he waved his hands awkwardly and said, "My lord is just joking, I don't know anything about military affairs."

Chen Qiyu narrowed his eyes again, and said to himself: "He Tengjiao's actions are too domineering. Sichuan has nothing to do with his Huguang Governor's jurisdiction, so he is greedy for huge profits in silver mines. Now there are powerful enemies outside and thugs inside. He is still fighting with each other, is he crazy?"

He took a break and continued: "Wang Huan does things for people. Although he is disrespectful to the court, he is kind to the common people. Under his rule, is it much better than Chen Shiqi and Zeng Ying?"

Chen Kun next to him thought about it, and answered honestly: "Yes, at least this winter, no one in the three prefectures in eastern Sichuan died of freezing and starvation. I heard that a large part of his silver mine harvest was also used to help people's livelihood. , not to mention the good governance of tax exemption for three years and tax exemption for one year, and now there are still people outside who want to build a shrine for him."

Chen Qiyu closed his eyes and remained silent for a while before slowly saying: "The old man was half buried in the ground, but he also got angry when he was chatted by this kid, that's all, for the sake of the people in eastern Sichuan, I'll just take this trip, so that's the next day If you go to the underworld, you can also win a yin virtue."

When he opened his eyes, his eyes were shining brightly. He seemed to be several years younger. His thin body suddenly stood up and shouted sternly: "Take my armor and prepare the boat. I want to meet He Tengjiao for a while!"

(End of this chapter)