Iron Dynasty

On the city wall, the cold wind from the north is blowing, which indicates that the next winter is coming.

Selecting this time period can seriously attack the logistics of the barbarians while the green and yellow are not picked up.

Having made a plan to harass the barbarians this time, Niu Ben and Lu Fei took 2,000 cavalry to attack the grassland in two ways, while Luo Xin stayed in Cangzhou City to deal with the barbarian cavalry who might come to harass and prevent the construction of the new city wall.

Watching the figures of Niu Ben and others disappear into the sky, Xiao Ming looked complicated. This is the time when Niu Ben and Lu Fei will be tested. Whether these soldiers will come back this time is also unknown.

Zhan Xingchang, start digging trenches. Xiao Ming ordered.

In Xiao Ming's plan, this time it is divided into two parts. The first part is to send cavalry to fight guerrillas on the grasslands, so that the barbarian cavalry is exhausted and has no time to take care of Cangzhou City.

The second is to dig trenches outside Xinchengqiang, and arrange slings to throw powder cans to prevent barbarian harassment.

This time, Zhan Xingchang brought more than 10,000 professional slaves responsible for the construction. He also invested a lot of money to hire local people. Now there are 30,000 people participating in the construction of the new city wall.

Slaves who are professionally responsible for construction will be responsible for the construction of the city walls, while these commoners are responsible for transporting materials and digging trenches on the periphery, these unskilled folks.

When the order was issued, Zhan Xingchang immediately directed the people to leave the city and dug a deep, coherent trench within 500 meters of the new city wall.

As for the Cangzhou army, the 200 catapults in the city were placed on the platform reserved in the trench, and then the gunpowder cans were thrown at the brutes who rushed into the trench.

Now Cangzhou City's powder tanks are well-prepared, and there are artillery support at the top of the city. If the barbarians want to break through this barrier, they must pay a great price.

The people in the city carried hoes, shovels and other tools out of the city, Zhan Xingchang followed suit, while Xiao Ming took slave craftsmen to dig the foundation of the new city wall.

Like the old city wall, the new city wall has a total length of 500 meters, and more than 10,000 craftsmen are distributed in the position of 500 meters. Almost 20 craftsmen can be allocated per meter.

Without modern machinery, Xiao Ming can only make up for it with manpower.

The renovation of the city wall is 20 meters high and 8 meters wide. Within a range of 500 meters, there will be a fort protruding six meters forward every ten meters. Each fort is large enough to install six artillery pieces on it. , The six artillery can not only shoot the outside enemy, but also can shoot the enemy climbing the city wall.

In this way, only the artillery installed on the fort can hold three hundred artillery pieces, and this does not include the artillery between the battlements and the artillery in the mezzanine of the city wall.

If this fortress-style city wall is built, it is basically equivalent to a huge sailing warship lying between two mountains.

Dig!

A loud trumpet sounded, and the slave craftsmen immediately started digging in groups of twenty people. This time, the foundation of the city wall was only five meters deep. If the barbarians wanted to blow up the city wall, they had to dig hard.

Tens of thousands of people were busy, and Xiao Ming did not take time off. He shuttled among the slave craftsmen, carefully checking the excavation of the foundation.

Unlike modern times, an excavator can excavate a five-meter deep trench in half an hour. Twenty people are responsible for a one-meter-wide foundation. From morning to night, this one-meter-wide, eight-meter-long, and five-meter-deep foundation is completed. .

When the sun went down in the evening, tens of thousands of people stopped work and retreated to the city. At this time, the excavation of the trenches outside was also completed.

At this time, Xiao Ming couldn't help but sighed that in the ancient times without modern machinery, it was true that people were more powerful, and this population would always be the first resource.

His Royal Highness, according to the experience of the lower officials these days, the barbarian cavalry usually arrives on the third day. Zhan Xingchang climbed up the city wall with worry in his eyes.

The frequent harassment of the barbarians seriously affected his plans, much to his annoyance.

It is precisely because of this that Xiao Ming personally arrived in Cangzhou this time, and he was also determined to continue to advance this plan even if he fought with the barbarians again.

The black night gradually enveloped the grassland, Xiao Ming said, I only hope that Niu Ben and Lu Fei will not disappoint this king.

Zhan Xingchang nodded when he heard the words. This time, Niu Ben and Lu Fei were dispatched to catch the barbarians by surprise and disrupt the barbarians' harassment plan.

...

In the vast grassland, there were only a few cold stars in the sky, and there was no moonlight. Since he and Niuben split up, Lu Fei took his cavalry to search for barbarian tribes on the grassland.

His hard work paid off. When night fell, he saw a bonfire not far away from the telescope.

Come with me, let's see how many people there are in this tribe? Lu Fei said.

The soldier who was named responded, and followed Lu Fei to grope around the bonfire.

Although the land of Youzhou was settled by the blood wolf tribe, according to the customs of the barbarians, the blood wolf tribe was formed by many small tribes, and these small tribes would get their own pastures for grazing.

At this time, the grassland was dark, and no one could be seen outside the bonfire.

When Lu Fei approached the barbarian tribe with his soldiers, no one noticed.

Around the bonfire, these barbarians are roasting cattle and sheep, laughing and drinking and eating meat.

Damn, these barbarians have a really good life. Eating meat and drinking wine every day makes him much happier than Lao Tzu. Lu Fei twitched his nose, and the smell of meat made him drool a little.

Xiaowei, look at this pack, there are more than 500. It seems that this is a small tribe with only a thousand people in it. What are you waiting for, just grab the meat and eat it.

The soldier behind Lu Fei said that his name was Lei Ming, and it was the Youzhou soldier who asked Xiao Ming when Xiao Ming mentioned the Guanning Iron Cavalry in the last battle of Cangzhou.

After that, he was incorporated into the cavalry. All the soldiers Lu Fei brought were from Youzhou, and it was the Guanning Cavalry that Xiao Ming wanted to build.

Hey, this is to my taste, let's go, go back, since His Highness asked us to fight guerrilla warfare, let's give him a night attack. Lu Fei said.

Thunder nodded bloodthirsty. This used to be their hometown. No one understood the pain of their hometown being occupied by foreign enemies better than them, so they hated the barbarians more than anyone else.

Taking the soldiers to find out the situation, Lu Fei and others turned back secretly.

Lieutenant, are you going to attack now? someone asked.

Shoot a fart, of course, we have to wait until midnight when they all fall asleep before attacking. Remember, this time we are not riding a horse, but sneaking past. When the time comes, kill me when we enter the tent, and leave none of them. Lu Fei said.

Yes. The soldiers said in a suppressed voice.

Lu Fei glanced at the bonfire in the distance again, and lightly touched the telescope on his body. This time he was able to discover this tribe in advance, and it was all thanks to the telescope that he was not discovered by this tribe.