Fenghou

As for the gunpowder barrel, that was Chen Qing's unique move at Jiandao Pass. He had tasted the sweetness, but unfortunately the quantity was too small.

This time, he specifically asked Wu Jie for these three weapons. Wu Jie was also very aware of the importance of his army, so he gave him [-]% of the [-] bed crossbows, and [-]% each for gunpowder and kerosene.

Chen Qing's last line of defense is the key to preventing the enemy from rushing out of the West Valley and cutting off the retreat of the Monk Yuan Song Army.

Watching barrels of kerosene and gunpowder being moved into the big tent, Chen Qing ordered a soldier, "Go and find Zheng Ping!"

Among all his subordinates, the person Chen Qing trusts the most is Zheng Ping. Although Zhao Xiaoyi is also loyal and reliable, Zhao Xiaoyi lacks experience, has not experienced too many hardships, and his outlook on life is not yet fully mature. Once he is exposed to temptation, can he be loyal to him? It's hard to say by myself.

Yang Yuanqing is smooth, his personality is too tough, not rigid enough, and his loyalty is still a little bit weak.

Yang Zaixing's time with him was too short, and Chen Qing still didn't understand him well. The Huyan brothers were loyal to the Huyan family, so there's no need to mention it. As for the other generals, they were more loyal to Wang Yan, there is no doubt about it.

Only Zheng Ping, who has been in the army for many years, has gone through ups and downs, has followed him since he was a scout, and even the sudden acquisition of the status of a foreign relative did not make him change the principles of life. , no one is as good as him.

Not long after, Zheng Ping ran over, "Commander, are you looking for me?"

A few days after Zheng Ping came back, he married Yang Liu in Hanzhong, and he was a bit reluctant to go back. He returned to the camp two days after the deadline. Due to the tense battle preparation, Chen Qing didn't bother to punish him.

"How many of your most trusted subordinates are there?" Chen Qing asked.

Zheng Ping scratched his head, "There are about a dozen of them!"

"You call them together, and I will teach your men the technique of making matchlocks."

Matchlock, a delayed detonation tool, is extremely important in the use of firearms. Chen Qing made a batch of matchlocks at Jiandaoguan, but he did not hand over this technology to the Song Army.

The reason is also very simple. This technology is a double-edged sword. The Song army can use it to deal with the Jin soldiers. In turn, the Jin soldiers can also use firearms to attack the Song Dynasty.

Once the fire rope is widely promoted in the Song army, it will soon spread to the Jin country, which is inevitable.

Zheng Ping quickly found a dozen of his confidant soldiers, and in the big tent, Chen Qing said to everyone: "From now on, I will give you a technique for making matchlocks.

What is a matchlock?Maybe you haven’t seen it before. Simply put, it’s a thing that detonates gunpowder. It replaces the oil paper we used before. The oil paper is too affected by the wind and is easy to extinguish. It is unreliable at critical moments. it's here.

And the matchlock is not affected by the wind. When we light the matchlock, we must run at least fifty steps before the gunpowder will explode, and we will make one or two mistakes at most in a hundred times.

This is a unique skill. I will teach it to you today. I hope everyone will keep it strictly confidential and never leak it. Otherwise, once Jin Bing obtains this skill, the Great Song Dynasty will perish. "

Chen Qing demonstrated by himself, cutting strips with fine linen paper, brushing a layer of egg white, then evenly sprinkled with gunpowder, and finally carefully rolled up.

Egg white is a good thing. It can condense the fine gunpowder particles into gunpowder blocks, and there are gaps between them, so that the gunpowder can burn rapidly and fully, thus forming an explosive power.

Later, artisans discovered that using syrup can achieve the same effect, and the detonation effect is better, but the cost of syrup is too high, and artisans still generally use egg whites to make gunpowder weapons.

Chen Qing said with a smile to everyone: "It's very simple, right! After it dries, it will be a matching match, and then we need to measure its burning speed to determine how long it should be cut."

A veteran raised his hand and asked, "Excuse me, Commander, if the spraying is uneven and the amount of medicine is different, wouldn't it be fast and slow?"

Chen Qing said happily: "This question is very good. One is the amount of charge and the other is the uniformity. The two are the key to the success of the matchlock. If we control it well enough, we can ensure that the gunpowder barrel will explode above the enemy's head."

Chen Qing smiled and asked the veteran who asked the question just now, "What's your name, any military position?"

"The humble job is called Xu Nian, and he is an escort!"

Chen Qing nodded, "From now on, you will be the head of the Firearms Department, and you will be in charge of these dozens of people. You have to come up with a good way, how to accurately control the amount and uniformity of the drug release?"

Xu Nian was overjoyed, and hurriedly knelt down on one knee, "I obey the order!"

……

Xianrenguan is the strategic pass for Qinzhou to enter Hanzhong. It is located in the northernmost mountains of Fengzhou. It is also the junction of Qinzhou and Fengzhou.

Xianren Pass and Yu Pass to the south are currently being guarded by Liu Ziyu's second son Liu Zan with [-] troops. This area is surrounded by wild mountains, narrow roads, and logistics transportation is very difficult. It is very inconvenient for the Jin soldiers who are mainly cavalry. Qinzhou, but there is no plan to enter Hanzhong from Immortals.

That afternoon, hundreds of old and weak women and children suddenly appeared in front of the Immortal Pass, demanding to pass.

This situation immediately alarmed the guard general Liu Zan. Liu Zan was also a very young general, only in his twenties. He joined the army at the age of 16. He followed his father Liu Ziyu to fight in the north and south. He has been in the army for eight years. Promoted to commander, like Chen Qing, he was one of the three young generals of the Western Army trained by Zhang Jun.

In addition to Chen Qing and Liu Zan, Liu Kai, the capital commander of the Jingyuan Army in his early 30s, was another key training target. He was the first to be promoted by Zhang Jun.

When Liu Zan rushed to Guancheng, he saw that the outside was mostly old people, women and children, and occasionally there were a few young and strong.

He frowned, Jin Bing didn't prepare troops in Qinzhou on a large scale, how could there be refugees?

"General, do the Jin soldiers want to attack Immortal Pass by surprise?" Wang Wei, the deputy next to him, asked in a low voice.

Liu Zan shook his head, "If you want to sneak attack, there will be no refugees. This is a bit strange. General Wang will go down and ask, what's going on?"

The closed door was not opened, and Wang Wei led a dozen brothers down the city by climbing the ladder.

After questioning some old people, Wang Wei ran back and shouted: "General, they are from nearby villages and towns. They said that there were golden soldiers arresting strong men, and the men ran away in fright. These old people, women and children came to take refuge in Xianrenguan because they were afraid of the revenge of the golden soldiers."

There is a Panjia Town in the north, and there are more than a dozen villages, so it is not a problem, but Liu Zan still feels a little strange, Jin Bing never comes to the vicinity of Xianrenguan to arrest strong men.

He took a closer look at the refugee team, and there were some young faces. His heart moved, and he ordered the left and right: "Old people, women and children can pass through, and all young and strong men are under control. They will be strictly questioned one by one. If there is any doubt, they will be arrested immediately."

Liu Zan suspected that there were spies from the Jinbing here, who came to find out the details of the Immortal Pass, and used this method to sneak into the pass.

When the gate was closed and opened, a group of elderly women and children walked into the pass, supporting each other. Hundreds of soldiers stood in the pass, vigilantly examining every commoner who passed through the pass. When they saw a younger man pulled out immediately, it immediately caused a commotion in the team. Many elderly women and children They all cried out.

Liu Zan saw it clearly, and ordered: "Let go of the man who is claimed by his family, and detain the man who is not claimed!"

The crying stopped, and the commotion stopped, and everyone entered the city gate one by one.

Deputy General Wang Wei came in from outside the city and found a duck cage at the gate of the city. There seemed to be more than a dozen ducks in it, but the owner was missing. He picked up the duck cage and shouted: "Whose duck cage is forgotten? "

The soldier behind laughed and said, "General, it should be a pigeon cage!"

Wang Wei was startled, and looked into the cage carefully, and there were indeed two pigeons mixed in there, with strong bodies and shiny feathers.

No, there are spies!

He rushed into the city and shouted, "General Liu, there are Jinbing spies in the crowd!"

The expressions of the two young men in the crowd changed, and they ran away. The soldiers next to them rushed up and threw them down.

Liu Zan snorted heavily, "I said how could there be refugees, it is clearly to create opportunities for spies to sneak into the pass!"

Chapter 123 Sneak Attack

The north wind is bitter, the weather is gloomy, and there is no sunshine all day long. After nightfall, the dark clouds hang down even lower, and the starlight and moonlight are completely covered. silhouette.

An army of more than a thousand people marched quickly in the dark. This army was a Khitan army, led by the commander of the thousand, Xiao Cong. Their task was to attack Liu Ziyu's camp at night.

This army is tall and tall, and the elite selected from the [-] Khitan army are all dressed in heavy armor, holding long swords, and their combat effectiveness is very sturdy.

Behind this team, there is an army of tens of thousands of people, led by Wanyan Alubu himself. The camp of the Jinbing West Route Army is still fifty miles away from Wang Jianpo. Of course, they can't walk all the way here. They first Ride a horse ten miles away, and then walk ten miles away to the vicinity of the Song Army camp.

At two o'clock, a thousand heavily armored soldiers arrived a hundred paces away from the barracks and hid in the grass.

At this time, in a forest seven miles west of Daying, several Song army patrols were also resting under the tree. On the tallest tree, a soldier on duty suppressed his sleepiness and looked around boredly.

At this time, the soldier suddenly felt something. He leaned forward and looked out of the woods dozens of steps away. He saw a huge black shadow moving a hundred steps away. Although the night was dark, the color of this moving black shadow was slightly lighter. A rough outline can be seen, but the black shadow is very long, and the head and tail cannot be seen.

The soldier was inexperienced, and he was terrified, "Could it be a snake demon?" '

The soldiers hurriedly climbed down the tree and woke the escort from sleep, "Boss, go and see, there is a snake demon!"

"Fart! Where did the snake demon come from?"

"It's really a snake demon. It's very long, at least a few miles long, and it's moving outside the woods."

The guard blinked, suddenly came to his senses, and slapped the soldier across the face, "It's useless, it's the army marching, not the snake demon!"

The detachment woke up all the soldiers and prepared to retreat. He grabbed the gunpowder arrow and climbed up the tree until he reached the top of the tree. He also saw a huge shadow.

The escort team was not as inexperienced as the little soldiers. He recognized at a glance that this was a mighty army, at least tens of thousands of people.

The guard made a decisive decision, immediately lit three gunpowder arrows, and shot them into the air. The gunpowder arrows gave off a bright red light, flitted across the air, and finally exploded with a bang. Enemy situation.

The patrols in the camp found the gunpowder arrows and immediately sounded the alarm, "Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!"

The rapid alarm bells echoed in the camp, and the soldiers of the Song Army who were sleeping were awakened one after another.

At the same time, Wanyan Alubu also saw the gunpowder arrows of the Song Army. He knew that his team had been spotted, and immediately shouted: "Go into the woods and catch them!"

Hundreds of Jurchen soldiers rushed into the woods, Wanyan Alubu didn't hesitate anymore, and immediately gave the order to attack.

Jin Bing's gunpowder arrows were also fired. Their gunpowder arrows had more powder, and the flames were more dazzling. The aperture was so large that they could be seen dozens of miles away, and there was no explosion sound.

Commander Xiao Cong shouted, "Kill—"

The heavily armored soldiers ambushing in the grass got up one after another, held up their shields and spears and charged towards the camp...

Liu Ziyu’s camp also had a ramp that was more than [-] feet long and about seven to eight feet wide. In the middle of the ramp, a stone road was built with stones. Soldiers and carts walked along the stone road. Of course, there is a special reason for this arrangement, that is, the ramp is covered with poisonous thorns.

Each general's defense has its own characteristics. For example, Chen Qing likes fire oil and gunpowder, while Liu Ziyu is good at using thorns.

How could a thousand heavily armored soldiers know this secret? They ran up the ramp, but after only a dozen steps, they fell down one after another. The sharp spikes pierced the soles of their boots, pierced into their skin, and the poison entered Inside, the feet soon began to go numb.

But the soldiers behind thought that the soldiers in front had been shot down by arrows, so they raised their shields and continued to charge. Except for more than 100 soldiers on the stone road, the soldiers on the ramps on both sides fell to the ground one after another.

A centurion came to report, "General, there are poisonous caltrops on the ramp, and we suffered heavy casualties!"

Xiao Cong said coldly: "Attack me, even if there are mountains of swords and seas of fire ahead!"

Liu Ziyu led thousands of people and finally rushed to the front of the camp. The gate had collapsed. Hundreds of soldiers of the Song Army were fighting fiercely with more than 200 heavily armored enemy troops. Shooting, a steady stream of enemy troops came from behind, the poisonous tribulus formation had been broken by the golden soldiers, and more than 300 dead soldiers fell on the hillside, becoming stepping stones for the soldiers behind.

Liu Ziyu is worthy of being an experienced veteran. He knows that the attack at the gate is just an appetizer, and there must be a large army attacking later, so it will not be limited to the gate. There can be no delay at the gate, and it must be resolved before the enemy's large-scale attack.

"Push out the bed crossbow!"

The soldiers rolled out a hundred bed crossbows, and Liu Ziyu shouted, 'Retreat! '

'when!when!when! As the bell rang, hundreds of Song troops who were fighting fiercely with the enemy retreated one after another, revealing the hundreds of bed crossbows behind them.

"shoot!"

The jackdaw arrows from the bed crossbow shot out like a storm. They were powerful and dense. Hundreds of heavily armored soldiers fell to the ground screaming. Their armor could not stop the bed crossbow from firing at close range. Standing soldiers, corpses piled up like a mountain in front of the gate.

Song Jun quickly cleaned up the corpses and piled sandbags in front of the gate to form a sandbag wall. Liu Ziyu immediately ordered, "Destroy all the tents and light the beacon fire!"

Liu Ziyu is well aware that night battles are afraid of fire. Once the big tent is ignited by enemy rockets, the consequences will be disastrous.

At the same time, he wanted to inform Chen Qing to be prepared in case he was attacked by the enemy.

The battle came to an end temporarily. After less than half an hour of fierce fighting, there were only about 300 heavily armored soldiers left. The powerful bed crossbows of the Song army made Xiao Cong hesitate a bit, and did not dare to push the remaining [-] soldiers up.

Wanyan Alupu had led an army of [-] soldiers to a distance of one mile. At this time, he received a report from Xiao Zong that the bed crossbows of the Song Army were too sharp, and nearly [-] heavy armored soldiers had died in battle, so they had to stop attacking temporarily.

This news made Wanyan Alupu extremely annoyed. He originally planned to launch an attack at the same time at the third watch. Launch the offensive in advance, thus destroying the connection between the two armies.

The head of Wanfu, Se Muda, stepped forward and suggested, "It's better to give the Song army a blow first, and blow their morale!"

Wanyan Alupu nodded, "Order the Fire Crow to shoot!"

The fire crow is a wooden bird. Its body is covered with flammable kerosene, and its abdomen is filled with gunpowder. After being ignited, it can be shot out with a crossbow. Excellent, it is a sharp weapon against enemy camps.

Following the order of the general, a thousand fire crows soared into the sky, sparkling in the air, which was very spectacular, and flew towards the Song Army camp on Wang Jianpo with fireworks...

Liu Ziyu has rich experience, and he will not leave the opportunity to the opponent. He has already dismantled all the big tents before the opponent's fire crows launch. One by one, the fire crows flew into the camp, fell to the ground and burned, and were quickly killed by the soldiers. Bury directly with soil.

Seeing that the fire crow had no effect, Han immediately stepped forward and said, "General Alupu, the opponent has already removed the big tent. Attacking the camp will not have any effect. We can attack the camp fence. Burning the camp fence will help us to attack aggressively."

Wanyan Alupu woke up immediately, and shouted: "The fire crow shoots at the barracks!"

Two thousand Khitan soldiers rushed out, one of them was holding a heavy crossbow, the two of them pulled the heavy crossbow together, installed the fire crow, one soldier lit the fire, the other pulled the hanging knife, and a thousand fire crows flew away into the air , Shooting towards the battalion fence on the cliff.

They carried [-] fire crows this time, enough to fire three times.

The soldiers had a very clear goal. One by one, the fire crows hit the camp fence and fell one after another, or got stuck on the camp fence. After a while, the flames of the camp fence to the west shot up into the sky, and the flames on the several-mile-long camp fence rose into the air, blazing The sky was red with flames.

Chapter 124

On a three-foot-high temporary viewing platform, Chen Qing and several generals watched the flames in the west. In fact, when Jin Bing first fired the gunpowder arrow, he was spotted by the sentry and immediately notified the chief general Chen Qing.

"Commander, tonight's attack by the golden soldiers should be regarded as a sneak attack!" Yang Yuanqing could not hide his worry in his eyes.

"Looking at the night, it should be a sneak attack, but Liu Dutong has rich experience, and there should be patrols on the periphery. It is not so easy to sneak attack him."

"Commander, that's a beacon fire!" Zheng Ping pointed to a cluster of flames behind him.

Chen Qing nodded, "It should be Liu Dutong reminding us to guard against enemy sneak attacks."

Zheng Ping hesitated for a moment and said, "Since Wang Jianpo has already lit the beacon, the golden soldiers will not attack us again, right?"

This is not only Zheng Ping's thinking, but almost all the soldiers think this way. The barracks in front have already warned, so it is meaningless for the enemy to attack again.

But if Chen Qing thought the same way, Wu Jie would not be so eager to get him back from Lin'an, nor would he be placed in such an important position.

Jin Bing's sneak attack was the cause, and the beacon fire was the result. How could the result change the cause? They all knew it was the beacon fire, but Jin Bing didn't know it.

Chen Qing calmly ordered: "Order the whole army to enter the state of combat readiness!"