Zhao Weiwang in the Warring States Period

"No, we can't go on like this." Li Mu shook his head, and said to the master Zhao Guo beside him, "Are you ready? If you are, then you can start now."

Master Zhao Guo replied very respectfully, then hurriedly ran down the platform and walked towards the trebuchet position hundreds of steps away.

After several days of test firing with stone bullets of comparable weight, Zhao Jun's craftsmen have initially mastered the distance, angle and landing time.

And today, it is time for Zhao Jun's trebuchet troops to try to baptize Gaowan City with gunpowder for the first time.

Among the hundreds of catapults lined up, ten catapults are the most conspicuous.

The reason for this is that the ten trebuchets are at least a hundred steps away from the other trebuchets, and each of these trebuchets is separated by about thirty steps.

In addition, the people responsible for projecting and loading these catapults were all prisoners of Zhao State, not Zhao State craftsmen and infantry.

This is of course out of safety needs. After all, a hundred prisoners died, and in Li Mu's heart, the death of a soldier was not more important.

Although Li Mu is not a believer in Legalism, he quite agrees with the philosophy of Legalism.

These prisoners have been throwing very hard in the past few days. Although they don't know why they don't throw those huge boulders weighing hundreds of catties but only throw some "small stones" weighing only ten to twenty catties, they are still very strong. He conscientiously obeyed the orders of the craftsmen of Zhao State, and tried hard to express himself.

This is because Li Mu had already promised in advance that once the test firing was successful this time, all of these prisoners would be able to get the first level of credit for beheading.

This credit will help these prisoners get rid of their crimes and let them become civilians of Zhao State again!

For these prisoners, this is definitely a dream and a great thing for the world.

You must know that if these prisoners cannot get rid of their crimes by virtue of this war, then their results will be very sad, and it is almost doomed to serve hard labor for a lifetime until death.

Before that, the worst hard labor was undoubtedly sent to repair the Great Wall, but not anymore.

Because now everyone knows that the Monan Grassland has been completely included in the sphere of influence of the Zhao State and has become the territory of the Zhao State. If this is the case, it becomes unnecessary to continue building the Great Wall.

But the cessation of the construction of the Great Wall does not mean that these convicts are at ease. On the contrary, the direction of migration of all convicts in Zhao State has changed from the Great Wall in the north to the Hexi Corridor in the west and the land of Hehuang!

Hexi, it is a place mixed with mountains, grasslands, hills, deserts, Gobi, etc. almost all the terrain you can think of, and the land of Hehuang is full of barbaric Qiang and Hu people.

Moreover, these two places are at least several thousand miles away from the Central Plains of Zhao State, which is farther and farther than the Great Wall to the north of Zhao State!

Compared with these two places, going thousands of miles away to build the Great Wall suddenly seemed less cruel.

Therefore, if they do not want to be dispatched thousands of miles away to the northwest to be with the Qiang and Hu people, these prisoners must show themselves well, and try to exonerate themselves from guilt through their own performance, and start a new life!

Beside the ten catapults, ten dark pots have been placed, inconspicuous beside a pile of stones.

These jars are all sealed, but if you look closely, you can still find that there seems to be a layer of black, mud-like residue near the mouth of the jar.

In addition, there is a long fuze protruding from the jar. This is a new type of weapon made by Zhao's artisans accompanying the army at the request of Li Mu. It is a "gunpowder bomb" for throwing. .

The master inspected the ten trebuchets carefully, and then checked the ten gunpowder canisters on one side. After everything was confirmed, he nodded and pointed at a man he had chosen to use as the commander of these trebuchets. The prisoner general said: "After a while, you will listen to my order and start immediately. Do you understand?"

The prisoner nodded vigorously, and said with a smile: "Please rest assured, master, we will save everything."

"Be careful, if the explosion explodes, your lives will be in danger!" the master gave a warning, and then left quickly.

This is Li Mu's order. After seeing the power of these explosives, Li Mu has already regarded these craftsmen who can manipulate the Thunderbolt as treasures, and completely does not allow them to take any risks.

The master returned to a trench that had just been dug a few days away fifty steps away, stuck his head out and said to the prisoners in front of him: "Count down to three, start!"

"Three, two, one!" The hundred prisoners counted down loudly, and then began to wave a small red flag in their hands.

Thirty prisoners were standing beside the ten catapults. Hearing this, they immediately hurriedly put the gunpowder cans into the basket carefully.

"Light the fuze! Count down to ten, ten, nine, two, one, launch!"

Under the order of the prisoner generals, the Zhao country prisoners next to the ten catapults ignited the fuze with all their hands and hands, and then slammed the trigger hard when the penultimate sound fell.

After ten consecutive intensive machine sounds, ten burning gunpowder jars were thrown towards the distant Gaowan city.

Li Mu stared at these gunpowder jars, his eyes full of anticipation.

Chapter 9 What the hell is this? (first update)

Gaowan city head.

Zhou Fen, the head coach of the Qi Army, was conducting a routine inspection of the front of the city, accompanied by his deputy, Kuang Liang.

"How's Zhao Jun's offensive today?" Zhou Fen was obviously used to this rhythm, and asked Kuang Liang beside him as he walked.

Kuang Liang was not as calm as Zhou Fen. The deputy general of Qi State looked a little worried, and looked up at Zhao Jun's trebuchet positions from time to time.

Apparently, he was worried that a huge boulder would come flying from somewhere, smashing Zhou Fen, the general of the Qi army who had rashly climbed to the top of the wall, to death, and by the way, even Kuang Liang was also trapped.

This is really not impossible, after all, everything can happen on the battlefield.

Zhou Fen clearly saw Kuang Liang's worry, smiled and patted Kuang Liang's shoulder, and said, "Don't worry, my great Qi is protected by the heavens. Although Zhao Guo is strong, how is he better than Tai Yishen? This battle, Da Qi Qi must win!"

Kuang Liang was shocked when he heard the words, with an expression of reverence on his face, he said: "It's really a great fortune for me, and a blessing for the soldiers, that Zhou Qing can come to the battlefield in person with the honor of Xiangbang!"

Both of them deliberately raised their voices when they were speaking. Even on the battlefield full of killing sounds, many soldiers of Qi State heard what they said and turned their heads to see these two people.

The Lord General came to the front line in person, which is a great encouragement to the soldiers of the front line city leaders at any time, so the Qi army in this area suddenly seemed to be beaten with chicken blood, screaming and throwing bows, arrows and stones towards the front line. Zhao Jun soldiers under the city wall threw it down.

After seeing this scene, Zhou Fen nodded in relief, exchanged a smile with Kuang Liang, and then continued to walk along the city wall towards the next city front.

Next, something interesting happened.

After walking about a hundred steps, Zhou Fen suddenly turned his head and glanced at Kuang Liang, then reached out and patted Kuang Liang's shoulder, and said loudly: "Don't worry, my great Qi is blessed by the heavens, even though Zhao Guo is strong , but what about Bitai Yishen? In this battle, Daqi will surely win!"

Kuang Liang was shocked when he heard the words, his face showed reverence again, and he said loudly: "It's really a blessing for me, the generals, for Zhou Qing to come to the battlefield in person as the honor of Xiangbang!"

So again and again.

It has to be said that acting is also a very tiring thing, especially walking around Gaowan City, which is more than ten miles in circumference, is an out-and-out physical work.

In fact, Zhou Fen has to do such physical work every few days.

There is no way to do this, after all, it is to boost morale.

But in any case, this walk is so many miles, and physical exhaustion is a real thing.

So when Zhou Fen and Kuang Liang walked to the last section of the city wall, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

This is the west side of Gaowan City, and it is also the place where Zhao Jun attacked the city most fiercely.

From the top of the city here, one can see Zhao Jun's camp outside the city. There are countless tents in this camp, like a long hill spreading continuously in people's sight. There is no end, giving people a great sense of oppression.

Zhou Fen let out a long breath, looked at Zhao Jun's camp in front of him worriedly, and said softly: "General Kuangliang, tell me, Qin State is thousands of miles away, and Chu State has already established itself. Civil strife, do we have no reinforcements?"

Zhao Jun implemented the strategy of encircling Gaowan City and missing one, and Gaowan City's external communication channels were not completely cut off, so Zhou Fen was still able to get news from outside.