On May 23, forty miles west of Xuzhou, at the foot of the mountains north of Xiao County.

The sky was clear, the air was quiet and dreary, and eagles flew in the sky.

The rugged mountain road spreads and disappears far into the dense forest at the foot of the mountain, and the sound of human breathing gathers between the slopes in front of the mountain road.

The smell of gunpowder wafted through the crowd, and lead bullets were pressed into the chambers.

The black flags spread one by one, and the queue of nearly a thousand people was already lined up on the slope.

Luo Ye stood on the stone and looked at the eagle in the sky, and there was a faint trembling sound on the earth, the enemy was coming.

This is a corner of the entire battle situation of the Xuzhou retreat.

Since the Jurchens launched an attack to the south in the ninth year of Wu Jianshuo, as for the first half of the tenth year of Jianshuo, in the southern invasion of the Jurchen East and West armies, several vigorous large-scale resistance battles broke out in the Central Plains, and the entire Jin land was turned into a sea of fire, and the resistance of the Guangwu army of the Daimyo Mansion was also the most tragic. During this period, the resistance of Xuzhou was relatively stable, except for the siege of nearly a million hungry ghosts in winter, to the first half of the tenth year of Jianshuo, after Yan Zongfu and Zongbi launched the siege, Xuzhou was held for less than three months, and the evacuation began in mid-May.

Compared with the 50,000 troops of the Daimyo's Mansion, they resisted for half a year, and finally broke through and took more than 10,000 Huaxia troops who came to the rescue, but they survived the heroism of only a few thousand. The war in Xuzhou is not vigorous enough in the eyes of many nitpickers, at least for Li Anmao, the prefect of Xuzhou who originally invited the Huaxia Army to come over to defend the city, the 10,000 reinforcements of the Huaxia Army plus the tens of thousands of troops he pulled up in Xuzhou should at least defend the land of the four wars for half a year or even a year. If he can kill himself, it will also fulfill his loyalty to the Wu Dynasty.

However, Liu Chengzong and others did not plan to do so from the beginning.

Since this 10,000-strong Chinese army came to Xuzhou, it has been doing the work of retreating residents near Xuzhou to the south. Li Anmao had already decided to die, and he did not have much opinion on the evacuation of the people, but tried his best to cooperate a lot. Later, the hungry ghosts outside Xuzhou City dispersed, the Jurchens killed, and the remaining residents in the city took advantage of the spring to go south, and Liu Chengzong and nearly 50,000 Xuzhou defenders in the city carried out a stubborn defense.

More than 300,000 Jurchen East Route Army has been preparing for the siege since the beginning of winter last year, tens of thousands of people defended the city of Xuzhou for more than two months, and then Liu Chengzong and others stunned Li Anmao at a meeting, seized his military power, and announced the evacuation resolution of Xuzhou.

The number of soldiers hanging under Li Anmao's command is as high as 50,000, but the composition is complicated, some of them are Liu Yu's troops before anyway, and the other part is just scattered people who enlisted in the army for food. Li Anmao raised more than 50,000 people and wanted to drag the Huaxia army here, but these 50,000 people had no combat effectiveness. Now that the Huaxia Army said that it was leaving, there was no one in the Xuzhou garrison who was willing to listen to Li Anmao's order to defend to the death, and the incorporation of tens of thousands of people who had experienced the two-month war naturally turned into reality. At least in the process of retreating, no one dared not listen to the deployment of the Huaxia Army.

Xuzhou has been the land of four wars since ancient times, the city lives in the basin, surrounded by mountains and rivers with complex terrain, and the rugged terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack. In order to win quickly, Zongfu Zongbi's Eastern Route Army also chose a strategy of fiercely attacking the city rather than besieging the city to death, and the Jurchens surrounded three queyi, and the breakthrough of tens of thousands of troops was not difficult, and the subsequent evacuation process was fiercely pursued by the Jurchen army.

However, for the entire retreat plan, the Huaxia Army began to explore and deduce last year, and when the army left the city, Liu Chengzong divided the backbone of the Huaxia Army into several units, and chose the rugged terrain to block and retreat in an orderly manner, and tens of thousands of Jurchen pursuers in the rear poured in from different directions, but they were beaten in embarrassment. On the 23rd of May, the north of Xiao County became the front fulcrum of the entire retreat.

The Liaodong army, which exceeded 10,000, was coming from nearby, led by Liu Guangji, the general of the Han dynasty in Liaodong, and on the side of the Huaxia army was a special regiment of nearly 1,200 people led by Luo Ye. They were formed as an experimental branch of the Fifth Army of China, and the entire equipment had not experienced actual combat, but the entire special regiment was composed of veterans of the Chinese Army.

This special regiment behaved decently in the previous siege of Xuzhou, and did not use the new weapons they had on their full staff, as they did not work well in the siege. At this time, the defense was chosen at Chaoxian Ridge, firstly, because the terrain here is the most ideal, secondly, because after the retreat of nearby friendly forces, this mountain pass is located on the prominent point of the front line, and the pressure on the defense may be the greatest, and there is a third point that Luo Ye has not told too many people: according to the previous tactical deduction, this place is most likely to be patronized by the vanguard general of the enemy's army.

And the most powerful vanguard general in the Jurchen army is none other than the Jurchen "Four Princes", Jin Wushu, who almost dominated the offensive posture of the entire Eastern Route Army.

In Luo Ye's opinion, this is the most suitable place to let the new weapon shine.

If there is something to be done, he wants to take a head.

It's a pity that the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and it's not the vultures that come over.

This year's Jurchen Southern Expedition, more than ten years have passed since the first southward march, and the eastern and western armies have raised nearly 600,000 troops - although it has taken several years of cultivation, it is impossible for the Jurchen soldiers who have laid the prestige of "invincible" to expand to this number, in fact, the new Jurchen children who joined the army are actually difficult to reproduce the brave warriors who were killed from the white mountains and black waters.

So the whole army, there are many other ethnic groups to join, such as the Jurchen domestic second-class Bohai people, Khitans, Xi people, Han people, etc., although in later generations a Han does not speak two words, but in this year, the Liaodong Han people are looking down on the southerners, in their eyes, the brave Jurchens are naturally more worthy of follow, and it is also a very natural thing to follow the Jurchens in the process of the southern expedition to make a name for themselves.

The Han people of Liaodong did not have a high status in the Jin State at this time, and because of this, in order to improve their status, they could only work hard. Liu Guangji was a fierce general under Zong Bi, he had a violent temperament, and was known for his strict management of the army and fierce use of troops. In his barracks, at first, a Han slave was whipped to death every day to wake up the cowardly fate of many Liaodong soldiers: "Those who dare not shed blood will be slaves!" Later, Taizong made a decree not to kill Han slaves at will, Liu Guangji chopped off the hands and feet of a Han slave every day, if he was seriously injured to death, with his status, he only had to pay money and accept punishment - in fact, under the maintenance of Zongbi, even if the fine, Liu Guangji basically did not need to pay.

Before the two sides met, Hai Dongqing and the scouts sent a message, blocking the intersection in front of the road, about a thousand people of the Huaxia Army, because the terrain in front began to narrow, the battle was not good for the attacking side, and the Huaxia Army arrived first, the terrain was slightly higher and the artillery must have been arranged, and the first wave of the attack, their side will inevitably suffer huge losses.

The first time he brought the opponent's military formation into his sight, Liu Guangji also found the strange formation of the opponent in the clairhandly mirror. At this time, the infantry formation was mainly based on the phalanx, even if the appearance of artillery posed a huge threat to the phalanx, but it was still necessary to maintain the phalanx, otherwise the battlefield was easy to be chaotic, and it could not withstand the opponent's charge. But the array in front was only two or three rows of people, with flashy assault guns in their hands.

This kind of pyrotechnic weapon of the Wu Dynasty has been available for decades, but it basically has no big effect, the range is short, the power is poor, and it is easy to explode one's own eyes. Although since the rise of the Huaxia Army, all forces have become extremely important to gunpowder, but at least for this assault gun, for the time being, it has not played a role in any major battles.

Liu Guangji knew the prestige of the Huaxia Army, and when he saw a picture that he couldn't quite understand, he frowned, but behind him, there was not much room for turnaround. Under Zong Bi's orders, he had to quickly break through Chaoxianling and cut into the middle of the retreating Huaxia army.

Even if there is a cannon, it is the same ......

After skimming at the opponent's entire defensive line, Liu Guangji gritted his teeth, in such a shrinking terrain, if he wants to attack, the opponent's artillery is the weapon he is most afraid of. But there is no other way, in the past experience, the more fierce the artillery, the more fierce the attack, only by breaking through into the opponent's position in one breath, can the opponent's defensive strategy be broken. Fortunately, on my own side, there are enough manpower after all.

"Damn! People and dead birds ...... to the sky" Liu Guangji spat two mouthfuls of saliva into his palm, and then waved his long knife: "Blow the trumpet!" Sons, get ready for me—"

The mournful trumpet sounded in this mountain pass, and the various armies lined up, and Liu Guangji rode his horse, loudly boosting the morale in front of his own army. At the other end, Luo Ye's gaze was calm, he stepped down from the big stone he observed, came to the side of the formation, took the drumstick, and began to beat the big drum in front of him vigorously.

The drums roared and moved with their breathing, and the soldiers in the column raised their guns like a forest. The battlefield is fighting, one blow, two and two, and three is exhausted, and at this moment, both sides eager to quickly decide the battle have boosted their morale to the highest.

At three o'clock in the afternoon of this day, Liu Guangji's army launched a charge. The surrounding terrain was complicated, and the roundabout outflanking was already too far away, and it was impossible for him to wait. Driven by the military order, the advance of the army fanned into the slope of the mountain pass under the leadership of a light cavalry team, the sound of cannons rang out, and the military columns poured up like a tide, and the hysterical cry of this Liaodong army shot the first wave of arrows.

On the side of the Huaxia army, facing the arrows that were fired, the long queue stood motionless with guns raised. Due to the long and narrow queue, the hurried projectile did not cause many casualties, and a few of them were hit by arrows. The charge in front was surging, and the light cavalry team distanced itself from the soldiers in the rear, and the formation began to converge as the terrain contracted. Someone's hand was raised high in the air.

"Steady—"

"Steady—"

……

“……”

……

"Put!"

……

At the fan-shaped pass, the horse team was already surging, and a long line of muskets was fired. More than sixty feet did not look like a long array, three hundred gunshots, three hundred clusters of green smoke, and three hundred rounds of lead bullets crossed the ground, and at the same time extended forward, blood flowers bloomed in front of them.

After the musket was fired, the soldier quickly crouched down. With the sound of the changing drums, the three hundred muskets of the second team were already raised.

"Second Team Preparation—"

"-put!"

Green smoke rose in countless roars.

"Steady!"

"Third Team Prep—"

"-put!"

The shrinking slope turned into a giant mouth that swallowed life.

This was a corner of the retreat of Xuzhou, which did not stop the Jurchens from moving south, and at that time, it did not attract too many people's attention.

In the process of the entire retreat from Xuzhou, Liu Chengzong took advantage of the complex terrain to launch a counteroffensive, successively defeated tens of thousands of Jurchen pursuers who tried to seize the merits, and harvested thousands of heads of the Jurchen East Route Army. In the battle of Xianling on May 23, Luo Ye broke up Liu Guangji's crazy attack and launched a counterattack, killing Liu Guangji who led the charge because of the defeat in the battle, and then broke up the entire attack team.

In a series of battles between the Jurchens and the Huaxia Army, in the face of such martial arts as the Huaxia Army, the Jurchens gradually became more and more surprised.

****************

Lightning lit up in an instant, and thunder shook the sky.

Chengdu, thunderstorm.

In the room of the teahouse, Cheng Zhouhai stood by the window with a gloomy face, listening to the boiling voices coming from the streets and squares below. A public trial was coming to an end, and the crowd of shouts almost drowned out the thunder in the sky: "Kill that old thing—"

"None of them are good people—"

"Kill! Kill, kill, kill—"

This public trial meeting was held to judge the Confucian Chen Song and his henchmen who had previously prepared to break the embankment of the Minjiang River. These people were arrested on 27 April, and they were originally going to be tried in about 10 days, but in order to complete the whole matter and build the reputation and reputation of the Huaxia Military Court, the whole process was quite meticulous, and all the evidence, testimony, and arrest process were also made public through newspapers and storytelling. On this day, Chen Song was sentenced to death, and the decision of his henchmen to deal with it was announced one after another, although it suddenly rained heavily, the crowd of onlookers in Chengdu still blocked the road.

During the entire process of advancing the trial, Cheng Zhouhai, who came here, had been negotiating with Ning Yi, hoping to replace this unhesitating old Confucian in some compromise or exchange of interests, but Ning Yi never let go. At this time, the verdict was announced in public, and the whole matter had been settled, and Cheng Zhouhai's expression was obviously not happy. He is a person who is quite deep in the city, but on Ning Yi's side, he doesn't care about showing such emotions.

"Chen Song below, how is Qian Xiwen compared to back then? When the Jurchens killed Bianliang, whether you or the teacher, they all considered breaking the Yellow River, and you even made preliminary preparations in Xia Village! Why, he's the bad guy, you're the good guy!? ”

He knocked on the window with his hand and looked at Ning Yi, who was sitting in the room drinking tea. At this time, in addition to him and Ning Yi in the room, there were also Qin Shaoyu and Song Yongping, Song Yongping was brought by Cheng Zhouhai to talk about the "business" with Huaxia Army, he brought Song Yongping, and Ning Yi found Qin Shaoyu, who was in a wheelchair after Lin Xichan's leg was broken, to negotiate complex matters to balance the human relations in the business. At this time, Ning Yi put down the teacup and raised his eyes.

"When Qian Lao was martyred, he only implicated himself, and he definitely couldn't compare. The disaster of Bianliang is facing the Jurchens, if you really can't beat it, you can only die together, if you see the Huaxia Army as a foreign race like the Jurchens, then I and Lao Qin are indeed no different from this Chen Song. But at least I don't engage in massacres, it's better than the Jurchens. ”

"What is the difference between the death of the Taoist system and the death of the country?"

"It's really not that big if you want to raise the bar, but if I want to die, it's also after I realize that there is a problem with your Dao system, and you and I can't find a way to improve it. And it's not because I'm a child, if you accept my opinion and convince me, I'll correct it. If you don't want to raise the bar, Chen Song is a bastard, you and I are very clear, whether in terms of people's hearts or interests, I am justified in killing him. If you sit in my place, will you let a person who is ready to fight against me alive!? ”

In the past few days, it is not the first time that the two of them have raised the bar full of gunpowder, and Qin Shaoyu and Song Yongping can only stay out of the matter. In fact, Cheng Zhouhai came to cooperate with Ning Yi on behalf of the princess's mansion, and Ning Yi did not hide his secrets, these days, he took Cheng Zhouhai to visit many places, and even some of the weapons factories that were operating at this time, and some of the advanced concepts developed based on Gewuxue were revealed to Cheng Zhouhai one by one.

Ning Yi didn't care about Cheng Zhouhai's learning to go to the Huaxia Army, and even he was more like he was actively "polluting" Cheng Zhouhai's thinking. On this morning, they were originally visiting a newly built musket workshop in the city of Chengdu, but before they could see it thoroughly, they came here to visit the public trial. Cheng Zhouhai and Ning Yi argued for a moment, the matter had already settled, and he no longer insisted on it.

After both sides were silent for a moment, Cheng Zhouhai said: "I know that you have always been extremely keen on firearms, but the assault rifle was originally available in the Wu Dynasty, and you really plan to put it on the battlefield?" I know that this thing is cumbersome to use, easy to blow yourself up, and the range is not as good as a bow and arrow, have you solved these problems? ”

"Of course it didn't work." Ning Yi held the teacup, "But things will always be resolved slowly, the potential of the bow and arrow has come to an end, a good bow can be made, it will take two or three years, and the cultivation of a marksman will take more than ten years." The musket did have a lot of problems at the beginning, and now it is only slowly catching up with the range, but with the advancement of assembly line technology, it will slowly be made much faster than the bow and arrow, and the training of the shooter is also very simple, even if it is a woman holding a gun in the future, it can kill you. Manpower is poor, material resources are endless, and the study of things is far from the end. ”

"That'...... Sell me this thing? ”

"Yes." Ning Yi said with a smile.

Cheng Zhouhai's brows furrowed, and Song Yongping and Qin Shaoyu's brows on the side also wrinkled, Qin Shaoyu's eyes were relaxed, and Song Yongping was somewhat vigilant.

- There is a conspiracy.

Ning Yi sighed and stood up, but he didn't shy away from it: "I can sell you muskets, I can even sell you the entire concept of Gewuxue, if you can really learn and defeat the Jurchens, then of course it is the best." But you can't learn, when the enemy comes, you want something good, but the way of things is endless, there are always better things, how to ensure that you always see better things, then everyone has to open their minds, not be bound by some things that are taken for granted. Do you dare that the people will know it? Today, Junwu can promote Gewu, but because there is a war today, and after the war is over, it is better for the people to make it. “

"If I sell a musket to you, I will sell it to you, and I am not afraid that you will imitate it, and if you imitate it, I will have a better musket. And imitation may not be realistic, you are running out of time. Ning Yi smiled and tapped his fingers on the coffee table, "The urgent news from this morning......

He said: "The Western Route Army...... Xi Yin crossed the river with the vanguard. ”

The rain outside the window was still falling, and soon after, the news of a pipe surge near Dujiangyan came, and Ning Yi led people to rush back to the front line of rescue - everywhere has its own problems. At the end of May, Xi Yin led the vanguard of the Western Route Army to take the lead in crossing the Yellow River, trying to reach the Xiangyang front line as quickly as possible, and cooperate with the strategic intention of the Eastern Route Army to attack the Zhenjiang line.

Soon after crossing the river, Xi Yin received news from the battlefield on the front line in Xuzhou, and the appearance of the Chaoxianling musket aroused his vigilance. In fact, after the potential of firearms was discovered, the Huaxia Army, the Wu Dynasty, and the Jin Kingdom were all studying its application, and in the Dazao Institute in charge of Xi Yin, the assault rifle was also studied, but there was no decisive breakthrough.

On the day the news was received, the mighty army was gathering at the port on the south bank of the Yellow River, spreading like a forest. Xi Yin stood at the head of the city outside the port, and suddenly seemed to see the figure of the Chinese army in the southwest, the Han army that had been resisting for more than ten years. Now the Jurchen army still has the upper hand, and if it continues, the Jurchens will still have the upper hand, but ......

We must take advantage of the opportunity of this battle to determine the world.

He didn't think much about it, but reaffirmed in his mind what he had thought at the beginning of his journey south.

If he was still young, he might not be willing to cooperate with the offensive of Zongfu Zongbi's Western Route Army, but would prefer to sweep the entire Wu Dynasty on his own, and it would be best for Zongfu Zongbi and others to have more baskets like Huang Tiandang.

But at this moment, Xi Yin put away such thoughts.

Lin'an, June.

It was so hot that only the sound of cicadas could be heard.

In the study of the princess's mansion, the chilled lotus seed soup was placed on the table, it was no longer cool, and the room was not too windy. Messages from all over the world gathered on this desk. Zhou Pei raised her head from the case, there were beads of sweat on her forehead, but her face was slightly pale, she felt the air was suppressed, and put a hand on her left chest. Bang bang

In front of her, there was news from the southwest, and news from the north. Before the event comes, people can fantasize about all kinds of turnarounds or solutions, but at this moment, the situation is becoming clearer and more stable, and the preparation that can continue to advance from daily work has reached the limit of ability.

In the frontline areas north of the Yangtze River, preparations for war have been pushed to the limit of what can be promoted, and the transportation and distribution of military rations and ordnance, the clearing of spies, and the consolidation of the defense line have all been used to the limit. Killing people every day, and occasionally there will be rogues who are forced to rebel, but this is also necessary to maintain the whole battle. As for the information from the southwest, Cheng Zhouhai would write down all kinds of news and iron-blooded news on the letter every few days, and what Zhou Pei could see was also the gunpowder smoke and the tense heartstrings that filled the various news.

The aura made her feel palpitations, like a gambler waiting for the moment before the dice clock was opened, like a prisoner waiting for the verdict to be announced. The atmosphere of the entire Lin'an City was suppressed and silent, at this moment, there were no officials who contradicted the main battle faction, and in the palace, Zhou Yong had not been to the harem for several days......