"Am I right? In this era there were muskets with a range of more than a hundred paces? Wu Yuanming rubbed his eyes, and repeatedly confirmed the distance between the grass where the girl was hiding and himself - Wu Yuanming was not mistaken, his location was at least ninety steps away from the grass, which was definitely only a lot more, and Wu Yuanming, who had been the captain of the traffic police for a day, still had this ability. And Li Xiongfei, who was beside Wu Yuanming, had already raised a shield to protect Wu Yuanming to prevent the girl in the grass from plotting again, and at the same time, the Luoma Lake bandits who saw the movement over there also rushed over with their weapons, and kept shouting: "Protect Brother Wu, someone is hitting Brother Wu with a musket, protect Brother Wu quickly!" ”

"Don't come here, I'll shoot if I come again!" The girl in the grass shouted nervously. Wu Yuanming's eyes were sharp, and he found a faint fire shaking in the dark grass, and guessed that the girl was holding an arquebus in her hand, so he waved his hand to stop the Luoma Lake bandits who were charging over, and laughed: "Little sister, your musket is very powerful, it can shoot a hundred steps, a good gun, it is really a good gun!" ”

"Hmph, now you know it's amazing, right?" The girl seemed to like other people's compliments, and said with a triumphant smile: "If you are interested, let your people get out of the way and let us go, otherwise my next shot will not hit you in the leg." ”

"Hehe, little sister, you are just sitting in a well and watching the sky." Wu Yuanming smiled and drew his flintlock musket, just about to show the girl the power of the advanced musket. Over there, Zheng Xin pulled Zheng Xue and rushed over, shouting angrily: "Who? Who would dare to hit me with a musket, Brother Wu? He called me alone...... Eat the leopard's gall, come out to the old lady! Hearing this, Wu Yuanming rolled his eyes and muttered in his heart: "Old lady? This girl must be returned to Chen Jinnan as soon as possible, otherwise let her continue to follow me, or she will be a little girl with a foul mouth in a few days. ”

"Stand up, stand up." When Wu Yuanming was lamenting the power of his example, Zheng Xin had already rushed in front of Wu Yuanming with murderous energy, Wu Yuanming was startled and hurriedly shouted: "Xinxin, stop, her musket has a range ...... farther than ours." ”

Wu Yuanming's reminder was too late, when Zheng Xin rushed to Wu Yuanming five or six steps in front of him, the girl in the grass felt the danger and had pulled the trigger, and the copper cover of the flight was opened, and the fire rope fell, igniting the ignition powder, igniting the propellant through the ignition hole, and the lead bullet in the musket shot out with a "bang". Zheng Xin, who rushed to the front, heard the gunshots and dodged too late, only to feel that his face was hot, so he screamed and covered his face and squatted, and his hair was scattered.

"Xinxin, be careful." Wu Yuanming, who was shocked, rushed up to support Zheng Xin, and Zhang Huang shouted: "Don't shoot, don't shoot, we are not attacking, no one is allowed to come!" Cher, especially you, don't come here! Zheng Xue knew that Wu Yuanming was worried about scaring the girl with the musket again, and at the same time worried about her safety, so she stopped hatefully. But Zheng Xue held back, but Zheng Xin cried in Wu Yuanming's arms, "My face was injured, I was disfigured, I have no face to see people." ”

"It's okay, it's okay, it just hit you in the hair, not in your face." Wu Yuan comforted Zheng Xin after taking a closer look. Zheng Xin covered his face and asked in fear, "Really?" I really didn't get hit in the face? Wu Yuanming smiled: "Of course, you are still my beautiful but unlovely sister." Zheng Xin was in the mood to care about Wu Yuanming's words at the moment, rubbed his face with trembling hands, looked at his hands again, and saw that there was no blood on his hands only tears, and when he touched his hair again, he touched a large handful of broken hair, and a heart that mentioned his throat was put back into his stomach, and he quickly shrank behind Wu Yuanming's back, grabbed Wu Yuanming's back shirt and shouted: "Brother Wu, that stinky girl dares to hit me with a musket, kill her and avenge me!" ”

"Don't come here, my musket doesn't recognize people!" The girl cried out in horror. Wu Yuanming saw that the girl was actually unintentional or incapable of hurting anyone, so he turned around and patted Zheng Xin's little face, and said in a low voice: "Don't be afraid, the eldest brother will give you anger." As he spoke, Wu Yuanming pulled out the flintlock musket from Zheng Xin's waist, turned around and shouted: "That little sister in the grass, we really don't want to hurt you, I'm just very interested in your musket and want to make a deal with you." ”

"What deal?" The girl asked rhetorically with a shudder. Wu Yuanming raised the flintlock musket sideways for the girl to see the side, and shouted, "Little sister, have you seen it?" I don't have an arquebus in this musket, but I can shoot without ignition. ”

"Bragging! Is there a musket in the world that doesn't need to be ignited? The girl's answer made Wu Yuanming dispel her doubts that she was also a crosser, and affirmed that this girl was a person who loved advanced technology. Wu Yuanming shouted again: "Okay, I'll shoot for you, if I can shoot without ignition, then how about you exchange your musket that can shoot a hundred paces with my musket?" ”

"Okay, okay, no problem." The girl said without a word. Wu Yuanming smiled and pulled the trigger, and with a loud "bang", the muzzle of the musket in Wu Yuanming's hand spewed flames, and the projectile flew far away - of course, far from the girl's musket (Note: 1). Without waiting for Wu Yuanming to speak again, the girl had already stood up in the grass and exclaimed, "There is really no need to light a fire!" Is there such a musket in the world? ”

"Then you can't change it?" Wu Yuanming smiled and shouted to the girl. The girl didn't say a word, but ran over with a jump, shouting as she ran, "Change, change!" I'll change! No repentance! At the same time, a dozen or so people stood up behind her, shouting: "Miss, danger, they are bandits!" But the girl was obviously a super scientomaniac, deaf to the servant's kind shouts, ran to Wu Yuanming's side in a puff of smoke, panted and stuffed a musket in her hand into Wu Yuanming's hand, and snatched the flintlock musket in Wu Yuanming's hand, and couldn't put it down.

"Another naughty and rude woman, how did I meet a woman like this?" Just looking at the girl's running movements, Wu Yuanming dared to judge that this girl was the same as Zheng Xin and Hui'er. But Wu Yuanming didn't bother to pay attention to what the girl looked like at the moment, just looked down at the musket that the girl exchanged with himself, with the faint light of the waning moon, Wu Yuanming found that the barrel of this new musket was obviously longer than the flintlock musket, Wu Yuanming knew that the barrel length had the effect of stabilizing the ray, and the negative effect was that the firing range was short, which contradicted its ultra-long range, so he focused his attention mainly on the powder compartment of this long-barreled musket. It's a pity that before Wu Yuanming could take a closer look, Zheng Xin behind him was already thunderous, "Stinky big brother, you said you would help me take revenge, so why didn't you kill this stinky girl?" And exchanged my musket with her? ”

"She didn't hit you in the face anyway, and it's okay to break a few hairs, forget it." Wu Yuanming replied without raising his head. Not only did Zheng Xin's nose almost crooked, but Zheng Xue, who came quickly, was also so angry that she screamed. "What's it to break a few hairs? What if she hits my sister in the face? ”

"It's okay, if it really hits her in the face, I will raise her for the rest of my life." Wu Yuanming replied casually, then raised the long-barreled musket and asked the girl, "Little sister, what is the name of your musket?" Its powder magazine is narrower than that of a normal musket, so that although it can increase the charge, it is not easy for the gunpowder to burn at the same time, how did you solve this problem? And it's easy to blow up the gun, how do you solve it? Could it be that the steel of this gun is special? ”

"You're an expert, too." The girl looked Wu Yuanming up and down in surprise, but Wu Yuanming's handsome face, which was very convenient for seducing a girl from a good family, was obviously not attractive to her, she just shouted happily: "Great, I finally found someone who can study weapons with me, where do you live?" I also have a lot of new weapons, I can show you them one by one, my gun is called a long-shot musket, and I can tell you all about your problems. ”

"Okay, I'm living in Llama Lake now, let's go back and talk slowly." Wu Yuanming and the girl hit it off when they said it sounded good, and if it was ugly, it smelled like each other, in short, the two of them immediately turned enemies into friends, turned back side by side and walked back. The Zheng family sisters were so angry that one of them was pale, the other was gritting their teeth, and the girl's servant was trembling and shouting, "Miss, they are bandits!" Bandits of Llama Lake! And the Luoma Lake team that rushed to rescue Wu Yuanming was dumbfounded, saying that there are still such dog men and women in the world?

When Wu Yuanming took the initiative to take the girl's hand, Zheng Xin couldn't bear it anymore, jumped up and grabbed Wu Yuanming's ears and shouted: "Stinky thief, did you forget me immediately when you saw that this dead fox spirit was beautiful?" Kill her with my own hands right now, or ...... Otherwise I want you to look good! Zheng Xin was angry and almost took Wu Yuanming's gold medal out to intimidate, but fortunately, the little girl still had a trace of reason, so she just grabbed Wu Yuanming's ears and continued to shout, "Avenge me!" Avenge me! Let go of this vixen and don't pull her hand! ”

"Is she pretty?" Wu Yuanming didn't think of looking at the girl's appearance until now, and found that she was really beautiful - nonsense, of course, this girl was the Dai Yan who was rejected for offering a thunderbolt fireboat to Weng Wotu. However, Wu Yuanming, who has the main consciousness in the 21st century, has never had any sexual interest in such a stinky little girl - mainly because the relationship between civil servants and underage girls has too much influence, and Wu Yuanming, who has a great desire for power, does not want to abandon his future. So Wu Yuanming just glanced at the girl lightly, then turned back to Zheng Xin and said, "Don't worry, she is not as beautiful as you, let alone your sister, I just like her musket." ”

"Really? Am I prettier than her? Zheng Xin turned his anger into joy, let go of Wu Yuanming's hand and asked. Wu Yuanming's eyes were still fixed on the long-shot musket, nodded and said casually: "Of course, you are much prettier than her, my little fairy." ”

"Hmph, that's pretty much it." It was the first time that Zheng Xin was praised by Wu Yuanming so much, and he was overjoyed to look at his rival in love, but unfortunately Dai Yan didn't feel Wu Yuanming's words, and his eyes were also fixed on the flintlock musket, as if he hadn't heard such words, which made Zheng Xin quite disappointed. The others were all looking at each other, because they all thought that Wu Yuanming was unwilling to hurt Dai Yan because he fell in love with Dai Yan's beauty. Only Liu Haozi, who has always hated beautiful women, gave Wu Yuanming a thumbs up and praised: "Brother Wu is good." ”

When Wu Yuanming led the girl to the dock, the Luoma Lake team was already starting to carry the war materials of the Qing army's land camp, and the casualty reports of both sides were also counted, the combined forces of Luoma Lake and Tiandihui had killed more than 380 Qing troops in total, but this was only the number of corpses found, and many Qing army corpses that fell into the water had already flowed down the river, and it was estimated that the total number of Qing troops eliminated was more than 500 people; At the same time, the Qing army seized countless weapons, grain and grass, medicines, gunpowder and other materials, more than 80 muskets, 16 large ships that could carry 100 people, 45 fast boats, and the rest of the ships were all burned. But after learning of the captured musket gunpowder, Wu Yuanming couldn't help but stick out his tongue and scolded: "Grandma's, fortunately, the Lao Tzu attacked by surprise and killed the Tartars by surprise, so that they would not have time to use the musket, otherwise our casualties would definitely be greater." ”

"Even this is not a small number of casualties." Hong Dashan said with a sad face: "The enemy is too tenacious, and the battle on land is a tough battle, we have killed ninety-two people in Luoma Lake, and hundreds of people have been seriously injured and lightly injured, and more than 30 people have been killed and more than 40 injured on the side of Lord Cai Xiang. When the army of the Tartars comes, how will the rest of us defend against the enemy? ”

"The casualties are heavier." Wu Yuanming was a little weak-hearted, there were more than 500 troops in Luomahu in total, and he smashed nearly one-fifth of them at once, no matter how big the battle was, he would not have the face to face Liu Haozi. However, Li Xiongfei said unconvinced: "Our battle loss ratio is one to three, such a record is already remarkable!" Don't forget, in the Battle of Sarhu, our Ming army lost more than 45,000 before killing and wounding no more than 5,000 Tartars! If such a record is changed to that time, our emperor of the Ming Dynasty will have to at least give my cousin a third-level promotion! ”

"I know it's a brilliant result, but it's also a pyrrhic victory." Hong Dashan sighed, looked at the Luoma Lake bandits who were crying and lost their companions, brothers, fathers and sons, and muttered miserably: "There is no way, we have to organize the fishermen near Luoma Lake, otherwise what will we do to resist the Tartar army that comes one after another?" ”

"Second Brother Hong, don't be sad, there are always dead people in war, not to mention that we have opened up the waterway connecting Hongze Lake, so we can retreat if we can't do it." Li Xiongfei patted Hong Dashan on the shoulder and persuaded. Hong Dashan nodded gloomily and said in a low voice: "It's just like this, let's retreat to Luoma Lake first." On the other side, Liu Haozi had already cried about the good brother he had lost in the battle, Wu Yuanming looked at Hong Dashan with shame, and then at Liu Haozi, and said in a low voice: "Brother Liu, this is the price of your showmanship." ”

After the fourth watch, after the Qing army's land and water camps and the grain that could not be moved away, the fleet of Luoma Lake set sail full of food, military supplies, the joy of victory and the pain of losing relatives, and slowly sailed to Luoma Lake in the night. On the way back, Wu Yuanming didn't study the long-shot musket, but stood on the deck, thinking hard against the night wind, "What should I do next?" Withdraw or fight? If you fight, how to exchange the least price for the biggest victory? ”

……

When the fleet returned to Guanchang Island, it was the morning of the fifth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of Kangxi, the sky was cloudy after a few days of clearing, and the fleet had just docked on Guanchang Island, and the sky was raining. Dai Yan and his entourage were arranged by Hong Dashan to rest in two houses, Zheng Xue was also slightly injured in the battle, and the two sisters had already hid to the side to bandage their wounds, leaving Wu Yuanming calm and alone for a while.

I don't know how long it took, Hong Dashan and his entourage came in one after another, and Hong Dashan said to Wu Yuanming, who was sitting in the middle of the hall: "Brother Wu, all the trophies have been brought ashore, our wounded have been settled, and some housing has been vacated to prepare to welcome the helmsman Chen, what should I do next, you can get an idea." Almost overnight, Wu Yuanming faintly became the new owner of Luoma Lake, and Hong Dashan and others also spoke to Wu Yuanming in the tone of reporting from subordinates to superiors - this is not that Wu Yuanming took the initiative to seize power, but that Wu Yuanming's command in the battle of Suqian was really good, although the casualties were heavy but the results were brilliant, even the veterans of the battlefield, Hong Dashan and Li Xiongfei and others, asked themselves if they couldn't be so beautiful, so they admired Wu Yuanming so much. As for Liu Haozi, please forget his existence, the previous large-scale battles were actually commanded by Hong Dashan, and Hong Dashan was convinced, what qualifications did he have to oppose?

"Time is too tight." Wu Yuanming came up with a sentence that made Hong Dashan, Li Xiongfei and the others confused, and Li Xiongfei asked curiously: "Cousin, what are you saying that the time is too tight?" ”

"I mean, we don't have time to build a replica of a new musket, or we'd have a better chance of winning." Wu Yuanming said lightly with the flintlock musket and the long-shot musket. After pondering for a moment, Wu Yuanming said in a low voice: "Brother Liu, Second Brother Hong, I'm sorry, your brothers have suffered heavy casualties. Liu Haozi and Hong Dashan were gloomy for a while, and after a long time, Hong Dashan raised his head and said: "It's okay, our brothers died to destroy the Tartars, and they sacrificed honorably, and they will be blind under the Nine Springs." ”

"Yes, when I was hugging Calf Lan, almost all of Uncle Hei's thousands of troops were killed, and in comparison, our casualties yesterday were already very light." Liu Haozi also couldn't help but feel distressed and said. Wu Yuanming sighed, and said: "Brother Liu, Second Brother Hong, although we have successfully burned the ships in Suqian, our future situation cannot be optimistic, if my guess is right, the Tatars should forcibly requisition the merchant and fishing boats to serve as combat ships, maybe the ships will not be very sufficient, but we still have to be prepared to withdraw to Hongze Lake." And one more thing, even if we defeat the attack of the Tartars again, you will never have peace in the future, because the Tartars will never allow an anti-Qing army capable of breaking through the river defense camp to threaten their food lifeline, the canal! ”

"This Brother Wu can rest assured, we are often surrounded and suppressed by the Tartars, and the preparations for relocation have always been sufficient, and the men, women, and children of Guanchang Island can withdraw to any island of Luoma Lake at any time, including Hongze Lake." Hong Dashan said with his chest straight. Wu Yuanming just wanted to nod, but suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly asked, "Second Brother Hong, what did you just say?" Please say it again. ”

"It's ......." Hong Dashan was very strange why Wu Yuanming wanted him to do this, but after a little hesitation, he said: "I said, we are often surrounded and suppressed by the Tartar army, and the preparations for transfer have always been sufficient, and everyone on the island can withdraw to any island of Luoma Lake at any time, including Hongze Lake. At the end, Hong Dashan asked again: "Brother Wu, is there anything wrong with this?" Do you want to repeat it again? ”

"No need." Wu Yuanming shook his head and looked up at the architectural structure of the council hall on Guanchang Island, the island was scarce in bricks and stones, but the production of wood was very abundant, so this council hall was built of wood like other houses. Seeing this, Wu Yuanming rushed out of the meeting hall to watch the sky again, and saw that it was drizzling, not like it would stop soon, but Wu Yuanming was still not at ease, and turned his head and asked: "Brother Liu, Second Brother Hong, you should be very familiar with the climate of Luoma Lake, how many days do you say this rain will rain?" ”

"It's the beginning of August, and it's the time of the rain that is abundant, and if nothing else, it should rain for three or four days." Hong Dashan replied strangely. Liu Haozi said with a grin: "It's hard to say, maybe it will be ten days and half a month, anyway, it always rains at this time of year, so I have been here for more than 20 years, and I haven't even seen the moon on August 15 a few times." ”

"Really? The Tartar army will surely learn this from the locals as well...... We won't be so wary of that, and whether we can succeed or not depends on whether God will bless us. Wu Yuanming looked at the rain curtain and said slowly. At the same time, a bold and vicious plan gradually took shape in Wu Yuanming's mind......

……

Note 1: Sweating, the pure wolf made another low-level mistake in the last chapter, the maximum range of the musket in the 17th century should be about 80 meters, not the 80 steps mentioned above - that is more than doubled! It is hereby corrected. In addition: The long-shot musket that the protagonist obtained that can shoot 100 steps is not fiction, and there was indeed a musket that can shoot 100 steps in China at that time, which will be introduced in detail later, but it is a pity that such a musket was strangled by the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who was wise and wise, Shenwu, Hetian, Hongyun, Wenwu, Ruizhe, frugal and generous, filial piety, integrity, merit, and great merit, and made it lost.