readx;? The news that Ma Guoqiang came back immediately attracted the attention of the Imperial Cabinet. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In fact, this is a critical moment, any news in Yunzhou, especially about the grain transportation team, affects the hearts of the entire imperial cabinet almost every second, even if it is stable, it is enough for them to be uneasy, not to mention, there may be something wrong right now.

"Your Majesty, the enemy's purpose is already obvious, and they clearly want to delay time, so that we cannot deliver the grain and grass in time. It seems that the previous speculation has indeed come true, burning the granary of Shucheng is not the only trick of the enemy, and they really have a follow-up plan. Eli frowned and said solemnly.

"Eli, what do you think?" Yi Xingchen asked.

"Your Majesty, forgive the ministers for being stupid, and the ministers have no good plan for a while. Eli said, his face showed a little helplessness and anxiety, the situation ahead was imminent, he didn't have a good plan to deal with it at this time, how could he not be anxious?

But he still racked his brains, trying to say the general thoughts in his heart first, and said: "Yichen is foolish, first, first send a telegram to the Shucheng authorities to inform them of the trouble encountered by the imperial grain transportation team, so that the army in Shucheng can strengthen defense and monitoring to guard against the enemy's secret moves; second, increase the strength to encircle and suppress the bandits in Yunzhou." ”

After hearing this, Yi Xingchen thought about it, frowned, and said: "Although these methods are effective, they are all too slow to work, and it is too late for time. If you have any ideas, you can mention them, and we will discuss them. ”

This is a tricky question, so Yi Xingchen will not only put the pressure on Eli to solve the problem, but instead ask the other cabinet ministers present, hoping that everyone can do their best to brainstorm and finally gather everyone's strengths to discuss a good idea.

Unfortunately, good ideas are not easy to discuss, especially when it comes to discussing the most appropriate countermeasures for Yunzhou's predicament, it is even more necessary to be cautious.

It was precisely because of the weight of the responsibility that the cabinet ministers present were suspicious, and every time a minister proposed a solution, another minister would soon raise the possibility of inadequacy, and the discussion was delayed in reaching a conclusion.

"Our mass base in Yunzhou is not bad, otherwise, we can mobilize the power of the masses and go all out to arrest the members of the Black Dragon Society. "No, one of the ministers has just made a suggestion.

After only a short while, another minister present raised doubts: "Some enemies are professionals, and they cannot be dealt with by ordinary people. ”

"Indeed, it is not appropriate to put the people in danger and let them be left defenseless to arrest armed criminals unless they have to do so. ”

……

These opposing ministers did not intend to embarrass their colleagues, but were afraid that any one of them could make the tension worse.

The minister's concerns and hesitations, Yi Xingchen looked at them one by one.

Synthesizing the various suggestions put forward by the ministers, Yi Xingchen chose the best and followed, and after a little rough extraction of the ideas he already had in his heart, he probably had a preliminary countermeasure, and said: "Since the ordinary people are not strong enough to capture the enemy, they can consider handing over this capture task to the bounty hunters." Instead, the police department took the initiative to contact some free-roaming professionals, and in the form of bounty tasks, on the basis of guaranteeing their basic living expenses, they were granted bounty hunter certificates, and at the same time allowed them to legally possess weapons so that they could operate. In addition, any unofficial bounty hunters are welcome to accept this bounty quest with the same reward. The Xinghua Chamber of Commerce can also sell weapons to bounty hunters, providing short guns and bullets for a fee......"

Yi Xingchen's perspective is not complicated. The more complicated and difficult to start the dilemma, the more we look for some unorganized and strange ways, the faster we can cut through the mess.

It is obviously inappropriate to use the army, because the enemy must have kept a close eye on all the forces of the Xinghua army, and if there is any movement, they must easily know that it is not suitable to deal with the enemy's situation in the dark. More importantly, the war between the Xinghua Empire and the Xia Kingdom is imminent, and the use of the army will inevitably have the possibility of losing troops, which is naturally not the best choice;

On the other hand, just as the ministers are worried, if they rely on ordinary people to solve the problem alone, it will also show the incompetence of the Xinghua government, and may even cause panic among the people.

Therefore, bounty hunters and freelancers are the best choices.

Eli and other cabinet ministers, after Yi Xingchen proposed this plan, no one immediately questioned his proposal. However, this is not because this proposal was put forward by the emperor himself, and the ministers did not dare to disagree because of the difference between the monarch and the minister, in fact, it was just because for a while, everyone agreed with the feasibility of this proposal to varying degrees.

Of course, although the emperor's proposal is not difficult to implement operationally, it is still somewhat difficult to completely solve the current problems encountered by the empire, and it is not a perfect solution.

In this regard, Yi Xingchen is of course also measured.

Yi Xingchen sighed and said, "This war is related to the rise and fall of the empire, and it cannot be ignored. We all know that Xia is not an ordinary country, it is a strong and prosperous country, its comprehensive national strength is stronger than ours, its population is larger than ours, and there are many alchemy weapons. Or to put it this way, if we want to compete for national strength, in fact, we are in a weak position. Of course, we are not without advantages, and to emphasize the strength of the enemy is only to underestimate ourselves. The advantage we can count on is that we have a great war potential. There are many standard weapons that ordinary people can master with a little training. Now, where we have to compete, that is, the military strength and military reserve strength of both sides. Once a war starts, attrition is visible, and whoever can't support it first is doomed to lose the advantage of the war...... I decided to go to Yunzhou in person. ”

In the end, Yi Xingchen became more and more uneasy, and decided to take the initiative and decide to go on a personal expedition.

Hearing this, all the cabinet ministers present immediately looked at each other, and their faces were shocked.

Eli tried to speak out to stop His Majesty the Emperor. Although the problem of Yunzhou is indeed thorny, if His Majesty the Emperor is put in danger because of this, it will inevitably be a big loss.

Therefore, Eli immediately spoke: "Your Majesty, please believe us, we will definitely be able to hold Yunzhou." ”

Hearing Eli's words, Yi Xingchen shook his head and said, "I believe in you, but I don't want to see the people of my empire suffer heavy casualties, and I don't want the army to suffer too much damage. Moreover, although the situation is unknown, my trip to Yunzhou will still be of great help to our army, because I can take the portable space passage with me. As long as the space channel is used, the twists and turns in the middle can be avoided, and the grain can be directly transported from Blue Mercury to Yunzhou, which can not only save a lot of manpower and material resources, but also make the power of the empire quickly concentrated, so that the victory rate of the war can be greatly increased. ”

Yi Xingchen's insistence was not unreasonable, and his decision was not out of impulsive considerations, every sentence was reasonable, so several cabinet ministers saw that Yi Xingchen had made up his mind, and they didn't know how to stop it.

In desperation, Prime Minister Eli could only say: "Your Majesty, please be extremely careful!"

"Don't worry, if there is danger, I will enter the space passage in time to escape. In addition, the Royal Guards also need a stage to show the world the demeanor of their imperial army. "Yi Xingchen is looking at the wind and clouds. Compared to the danger he might face, Yi Xingchen didn't have any concerns, but because he finally found a suitable way, it was very likely that he could relieve Yunzhou's predicament and relax.

"This is a critical time for the Empire, and I cannot sit back and watch the Empire fall. ”

The meaning of Yi Xingchen's words is already very clear - the matter has come to this, and other things are not as important as the development of the empire.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Eli said.

The Emperor's decision cannot be changed. Moreover, Eli and other cabinet ministers also racked their brains, and they couldn't think of a better way, so they could only follow the emperor's orders.

With a clear solution, things are much easier. Next, the cabinet has to do something, which is to cooperate with the emperor and deal with the big war.

After Eli and other cabinet ministers left, Yi Xingchen ordered Yan En to gather troops in the capital area and prepare to go to the front at any time. Not only that, Yi Xingchen also has plans to hire mercenaries in Blue Mercury and go to Yunzhou to fight.

Of course, choosing mercenaries is just Yi Xingchen's alternative.

Time was pressing, Yi Xingchen said to Liu Yiyi, and then quickly set off, under the protection of a thousand royal guards, the whole army rode fast horses, left Xinghua City, and headed for Yunzhou.

Yunzhou, Jianguan, the sound of the enemy outside the city shouting and killing has always been heard.

Bang bang bang......

Fierce gunfire resumed.

Bang bang bang......

The sound of violent explosions was incessant.

The walls of Jianguan were again attacked by enemy artillery fire.

"The enemy is coming, fire!" Wei Changhai couldn't remember how many times he had ordered the defending army of Jianguan to counter the enemy's attack, and he almost forgot when he had been forced to hide in this corner where he was now, holding a walkie-talkie, and directing the army to fight.

The flames of war seemed to ignite in an instant, and then it continued, and even now, there was no sign of a pause from the enemy on the other side. Wei Changhai was worried, the enemy seemed to want to knock them down in one go.

Moreover, the strength of the Xia Kingdom's army was completely beyond the expectations of the defenders of Sword Pass! Because of this, they felt extremely intense pressure. If the Xia army does not stop attacking, or if the defenders of Jianguan cannot get any timely support, I am afraid it will be difficult for them to hold on.

The enemy's offensive was really strong and unabated, especially at the beginning of the third day of Xia Guo's attack on Jianguan, Xia Guo carried a weapon called "Shenwu Cannon" and launched an attack on Jianguan.

The alchemy weapon "Shenwu Cannon", whose attack power is no less than that of a mortar, caused huge damage to the defenders of Jianguan.

The defenders of Jianguan had a critical situation and were almost overtaken by the enemy.

Wei Changhai found that they were hiding on the city wall to defend, and they were easy to become the target of the enemy's Shenwu small artillery, and the defensive effect was also very poor. In this regard, Wei Changhai decided to advance the defense line by twenty meters. One night, when the defenders of Xinghua Army Sword Pass went out of the city gate, they dug a trench under the city, built a machine gun defense line, and established a three-dimensional defense system.

When the Xia army's Shenwu small artillery attacked the defenders on the wall of Jianguan and sent the army to attack, the Xinghua army in the trench under the city could also shoot to intercept the Xia army's attacking troops.

The two sides were suddenly in such a narrow position, engaged in a desperate battle.

For several days, there were a large number of casualties on both sides, and the consumption was huge.

According to Wei Changhai's understanding, there were no less than 3,000 casualties in Jianguan, and the soldiers could no longer go to the battlefield. Wei Changhai's estimate is that the Xia army lost no more than 10,000.

However, Wei Changhai was not proud at all, and he was not happy at all.

The Xia army had hundreds of thousands of horses, and they lost 10,000 soldiers, which was only a small part of the soldiers. The casualties of 3,000 soldiers at Jianguan were equivalent to the loss of 30% of the defenders. If it weren't for the reinforcements from Shucheng, Jianguan wouldn't know how long it would be able to defend it?

"Sniper gunners, officers who aim at the enemy, or professionals who aim at the enemy, simply eliminate them neatly......" Wei Changhai gave the sniper order to the snipers of the defenders.

As long as the enemy has no officers, the morale of the Xia army will be scattered. As long as the enemy's professional dies, the threat to the Xinghua Army will be greatly reduced.

Then, seeing a large wave of enemies, they rushed to the defense line of the Xinghua army.

Wei Changhai immediately ordered the guards, took out the grenades, and threw them out in a concentrated manner.

Boom Boom Boom ......

The enemy's offensive was stunned, and the Xia soldiers who were at the forefront of the charge were blown over, and the momentum of the charge was also shattered.

The guns of the Xinghua defenders rang out again, and the Xia army's charge completely failed, becoming the unjust soul of the Xinghua soldiers.

A large number of Xia soldiers, their lives were harvested.

Seeing that there was nothing to do, the generals of the Xia army had to sound the horn of the withdrawal of the army.

In the camp of the Xia army in the distance of Jianguan, Bai Qi, the commander of the Xia army, saw that the attack was frustrated, and said with a disappointed face: "Jianguan, it is indeed one of the best Xiongguan in the world. The terrain is narrow, and it is not the number of troops that can take advantage. Without Yunzhou's internal support, it would be difficult to capture the sword pass at one time. ”

"Marshal Qiyu, our army's Shenwu small cannon has been prepared again. A general reported to Bai Qi.

"Open fire, and respond to the retreat of our troops. Bai Qi said.

After a while, the Shenwu small cannon, the cannon shelled the Sword Pass, and the explosions sounded everywhere in the Sword Pass.

Many Xinghua soldiers had to hide from the shelling.

The remnants of the Xia army, given the opportunity, quickly retreated.

"Count how many people we've lost. Bai Qi said.

A quarter of an hour later, the generals of the Xia army reported that the Xia army had lost more than 2,600 men.

Bai Qi nodded, couldn't say whether he was happy or sad, and turned to leave the battlefield.

The summer army camp is referred to as the forward camp. Bai Qi never stayed overnight in the forward camp, and after the battle, he also returned to Huguan to explore the gains and losses of the battlefield and study tactics. Because Bai Qi knew that the forward battalion was within the range of the Xinghua Army's shelling, it was not safe for him. (To be continued.) )