After August, the Ming armies marching on Shanxi made rapid progress.

Zhao Dangshi, Guo Ruke and Guang Wenlu were armies, and Zhao Dangshi's army first crossed the Yellow River from Fengling to Puzhou, Shanxi. The Shun army shrank its troops to Taiyuan Fucheng, the southwest of Jin was in vain, and all over the country were well-dressed and well-dressed to welcome the surrender like a cloud, only Pingyang Mansion had the Shun army general Dang Shousu recruited scattered soldiers and nearly 10,000 people to garrison - Dang Shousu was in Shaanxi because of the aid of Yulinwei, and Gao Yigong was defeated by Sun Chuanting, and also fled to Shanxi, Li Zicheng ordered him to make meritorious service to clean up the place.

Zhao Dangshi took 2,000 people from the front camp of Qin Jin Xiao Fengyi as the vanguard, and within three days, he successively defeated the Shun army in many places such as Jiaojiazhuang, Taipingguan, and Sanpei Mountain in the south of Pingyang Fucheng, and cleared the Shun army of the defensive field. Qin Jinxiao's first words when he came back to see Zhao Dangshi were "The courage of the thieves has been exhausted, although there are soldiers, but the morale is completely gone, and our army will attack them, such as destroying the withering and decaying, and moving forward."

The importance of the army lies in the spirit of the army. After the defeat of many key decisive battles in Beijing, Zhending, Yumendu, etc., the spirit accumulated by the Shun army in several years of conquest is gone, everyone hears that the enemy is coming, and there is no longer the momentum of waiting for the tiger to fight. A soldier is a breath away, and on the battlefield where you can't live or die, it's no different from the walking dead.

Guo Ruke's army crossed into Jin from Yumen at the same time, and met with Zhao Dangshi's army outside Pingyang City, and more than 50,000 troops surrounded Pingyang Mansion City and immediately launched an offensive.

In the siege of Pingyang Fucheng, Zhao Dangshi deliberately tried to use a large number of artillery to siege the city. In recent years, Zhaoying's firearms workshop has spread out in Huguang, and the scale has become more and more growing. Under the painstaking management of professionals such as Lu Puyi and He Dahua, a large number of skilled craftsmen who can skillfully manufacture a variety of standard artillery, including the No. 1 Hongyi cannon, the No. 2 Hongyi cannon and the Da Folang machine gun, have been trained. And in the manufacturing process, all kinds of data that need to be followed when casting, such as the proportion of copper and iron materials used for casting, the length of the barrel, the thickness of the pipe wall, etc., are all standards, and the firearms workshops around the country must be meticulous in accordance with the established standards when casting the corresponding guns, which is the "modulus".

The existence of the module ensures the safe fit of the parts of the artillery casting and is interchangeable. In order to improve the casting efficiency, after He Dahua and He Kewei discussed, the Chengxuan Zhizheng Yuan carried out the highest level of co-ordination, reformed the work content of the firearms workshop, and changed the original way of casting the entire artillery in the firearms workshops in various places to a place that was responsible for the production of one or several artillery accessories. For example, the firearms workshop in Wuchang Province specializes in the production of cannon barrels, the firearms workshop in Jiangling Province specializes in the production of cannon ears, and the firearms workshop in Chengtian Province specializes in the production of gun wheel hubs, and so on. As a result, the scope of work required by the craftsmen of the firearms workshops in various regions has been greatly reduced, which has not only increased professional proficiency, but also greatly increased the speed of casting.

Starting from the unification of the standard of modulus, the training cost for gunners is also greatly reduced. Most of the time, even if there is no actual gun for drilling, the gunner can be familiar with the relevant process and artillery-related data in advance, and the knowledge about the ratio of artillery charges, the use of milling rulers and gun tables can be learned in advance.

He Dahua later added some content to the gunner drill. First of all, it is stipulated that the new gunners introduced in the future must be children of good families who can read drawings and read words. As a result, these new gunners will be able to learn more thoroughly and quickly in the use of rulers, gun tables, and the understanding of ballistics. As a result, gunners are paid more than ordinary soldiers, because the skills they need to master are more complex and more expensive to learn. On this basis, He Dahua cooperated with Lao Chonghan in translating a number of Western artillery books, and even introduced the three shooting methods of the Western army when operating artillery, namely, upside, flat, and inverted, strictly standardized the use of gun tables, further trained the gunners, and significantly reduced the miss-target rate on the exercise ground.

In the latest test artillery exercise, the best gunners were even able to accurately bombard targets on a gentle slope nearly two miles away within three artillery pieces, an achievement that the Ming army had never heard of before. So much so that the Ming army who witnessed it issued a sigh of "the advantage of the cannon is far better than the bird's gun, and now the quasi-head will not lose, and where will the bird's gun be placed". Of course, the importance of the bird gun is absolutely impossible to be replaced by artillery at present, but it can be glimpsed that Zhao Ying, who is constantly pursuing progress, is handy in the use of artillery.

Such a systematic and efficient process integrating artillery casting and gunner training enabled Zhao Ying to produce a large number of artillery guns and train many reliable gunners in just a few years.

Zhao Dangshi set up nearly 100 No. 1 Hongyi cannons dedicated to attacking and defending the city outside the city of Pingyang Prefecture, in addition, the No. 2 Hongyi cannon and the big Buddha cannon were used as supplementary firepower during the scattered period, and there was a new firearms workshop recently developed and launched a "flowering shell", which was named a kind of mortar cannon named the big tiger squat cannon. Although with the current level of productivity and technology, it is not yet possible to overcome the two difficulties in the development of flowering shells, fuse design and artillery shell strength, but this is not difficult for Zhao Ying Firearms Workshop. If it is not possible to achieve a flowering bomb that can be detonated, then it will be a roundabout way forward, changing it to a "flowering bomb" that is filled with explosives, explosives packets, etc., and then using follow-up methods such as rocket ignition to form damage. It's troublesome, but it's still powerful.

At that time, the Shun army dug heavy trenches and erected strong walls outside the city of Pingyang Mansion to hinder the advance of the Ming army. Hundreds of artillery pieces of the Ming army were arranged on the positions one or two miles outside the city, or set up on the slope, or densely covered with plains, looking up and down, like a city wall that can be moved.

With the wave of Zhao Dangshi's Chinese army, in just half an hour, Qin Jinxiao's position fired artillery from outside the west of the city, Li Yanlang's position from outside the east of the city, and Wang Guangen's position from outside the south of the city.

The gunner, who was in charge of watching the bombardment at the far end with the telescope, kept shaking the pennant in his hand and issuing orders.

"Milling broom—"

The gunner began to clean the inner chamber of the barrel that was still emitting white gas from the high temperature.

"Sharp Photos—"

The gunner used objects such as fire folds to illuminate the chamber and check the specific situation.

"Spinner—"

When illuminating, there are special gunners who use scrapers and scrapers to scrape off rust and spin the inner chamber.

"Medicine Spin—"

Pressed gunpowder was loaded into the chamber.

"Drug Crash—"

The gunners pressed the gunpowder more tightly to facilitate ignition and explosion.

"Gun pad—"

The gunners called again, and the gunners used the milling ruler and gun table to pad the authoritarian pads on the tail of the gun to adjust and correct the pitch angle according to the specific situation fed back from the shelling, in an effort to make the next shelling more accurate.

“......”

Although the subdivided operation steps seem a lot more cumbersome at first glance, the well-trained gunners are flying like a fly, and there is no delay at all. Because of their duties, each gunner was so skilled in his or her own duties that he actually handled the gun more than twice as fast as before. In addition, the reliability of artillery in use has been greatly enhanced, and since the beginning of a few years ago, the explosion of Zhaoying's artillery has begun to plummet. Slow work out of fine work, after the fine work is skilled, the benefits brought by it is a qualitative leap.

Yesterday, the artillery bombardment of the city, until noon today, there are Tang soldiers to return to the main formation, reported that "the west city collapsed more than 20 zhang, our soldiers entered the city from the collapse", and then reported that "Qin commanded the thick armor to take the lead, and more than ten warriors led into the city, although the thieves and soldiers were numerous, they could not be their front".

Guo Ruke was on the side, and said with a smile: "Since entering Shanxi, Lao Qin Ke has worked hard, as if he was rejuvenated overnight." ”

Zhao Dangshi shook his head and said: "It is indeed rejuvenation, I heard that he had a hot fight with the daughter of He Dahua, a monk in the firearms workshop." You see, a man who used to sneer at firearms, now commands the means of firearms, which one in the army is more like? ”

Guo Ruke said with a haha: "The pillow wind, the secret scriptures, are really powerful." ”

Pang Jinming, the commander of the special service command envoy, also accompanied the army to Shanxi this time, and said: "Two days ago, I passed by Lao Qin's tent and listened to him chatter in the tent and didn't know what scriptures to read. I think he got close to He Dahua's gang of people, so he shouldn't believe in the God of Na Laoshizi, right? ”

Zhao Dangshi said: "Xintian is mainly looking for a monk to be baptized, and there is no monk in the army at that time, he may just prepare in advance." However, if he and He Dahua's daughter really get married, I am afraid that God will not be able to escape. ”

Guo Ruke said thoughtfully: "It is said that God persuades people to be good, and Lao Qin believes in God, and it is good that the anger of the past can be collected." ”

Pang Jinming looked at the crumbling Pingyang Mansion City from afar, and sighed: "Firearms are really artifacts, so powerful, even if Li Chuang can't shrink in Taiyuan Mansion City, and the cannons are bombarded, how can he hide?" ”

Everyone was talking, and the Hutang soldiers came to report and said: "Our army entered the city on three sides, the thieves and soldiers scattered the birds and beasts, and the thieves captured the party Shousu and the party Meng'an for the Qin system, please ask the prince to send it!" ”

Zhao Dangshi turned to Guo Ruke, Pang Jinming, and Zhou Wenhe who was further behind: "Lao Guo, Lao Pang, Lao Zhou, do you remember that when we went to the camp for the first time, the first person to answer us was this party Shousu? ”

Guo Ruke grinned and said: "Why don't you remember, the brothers in this party are not bad, down-to-earth, unlike other nouveau riche people who broke into the camp." Then he sighed, "The world is impermanent, ten years have passed, in the past, we were guests of honor in the camp, but today the party has become our prisoner." ”

Zhao Dangshi smiled heartily and instructed the Tang soldiers: "Inform Qin Tong, settle the party and keep the vegetarian, don't hurt the slightest." ”

Tang Bing took the order and left, Guo Ruke sighed: "People have to do good deeds, you see, the party Shousu was polite to us at the beginning, but I never expected that what I got back now is a life." ”

Pang Jinming looked at the banners of the Shun Army in Pingyang Mansion falling one after another, and the banners of the Ming Dynasty gradually replaced them, and asked: "Lord, forgive your subordinates for saying more, you will not be thin in the camp, except for Liu Zongmin and others who died on the battlefield, it seems that Tian Jianxiu, Wu Ruyi, Xin Sizhong and even Wang Wenyao, Ren Guangrong, Ye Yunlin, and Feng Xiong before were all raised in a good manner, once Li Zicheng was caught, what should I do?" Can't you give him up? ”

When Zhao Dangshi heard this, his face, which was still smiling, suddenly fell, and he was silent for a long time, and said: "Li Zicheng will die." ”

Pang Jinming swallowed his saliva and said: "Speaking of favors, Dang Shousu can ask for his life with a little favor, Li Zicheng helped our army at the beginning, and our army can grow from a small age, and his great kindness is indispensable." If he surrenders and asks for kindness, will he not be able to survive? ”

Zhao Dangshi sighed: "Li Zicheng is kind to me, don't I know." To tell the truth, every time I think about the past, I still admire and thank Li Zicheng more. However, this is my personal relationship with him, focusing on the world, Li Zicheng must not stay in the world. In other words, from the moment he became emperor, if he couldn't destroy me, he would be doomed. ”

At that moment, Guo Ruke, Pang Jinming, Zhou Wenhe and others were all awe-inspiring, and they all leaned over and saluted Zhao Dangshi: "My subordinates know." But when he peeked in, he saw that the corners of Zhao Dangshi's mouth trembled slightly.

North Zhili Xuanfu Town Huai'anwei, heavy rain rested.

Hou Dagui sent a guest out of the door, returned to the hall, and said to Min Yiqi, the commander of the battalion: "I don't think this Wu Guogui can be trusted." ”

"How so?" Hou Dagui sat down on the chair and stroked his chin lightly, "He said that he wanted to save Sun Chuanting." ”

Half a day ago, a famous Wu nobleman claimed to be entrusted by Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, to have a secret conversation with Hou Dagui. Hou Dagui learned from him that Wu Sangui was currently stationed in Xuanfu Town, and he had the intention of returning to Ming anyway, so he came to seek cooperation. One of the key points of cooperation is to join forces to rescue Sun Chuanting's army, which is trapped in Chaigou Fort.

Min Yiqi replied: "My subordinates can't say why, but their hearts are beating tightly." ”

Hou Dagui glanced at him and said, "Are you leading soldiers or fortune tellers, how did you learn the magic stick?" Instead, he said, "I don't bother to listen to what he said, but the matter of rescuing Sun Chuanting, if Wu Sangui responds, it will be greatly beneficial." ”

Zheng Shixin, the commander of Jinghe Central Battalion, was in the same hall, and also said: "This is a major matter related to the safety of thousands of people in our army, and it is indeed not enough to rely on Wu Guogui's mouth. The subordinates thought that the rain was still urgent, and Chaigou Fort could hold out for some more time, so it was better to wait for the follow-up reinforcements to arrive in Xuanfu and then make plans. Now he is dealing with Wu Sangui and acting at the opportunity. ”

Hou Dagui groaned: "That's it." ”

On the other side, Wu Guogui went out of Huai'anwei and hurried back to Xuanfu Town, but he didn't want to bump into Gao Dajie, who was in a hurry to go back halfway.

"Brother Ang, what are you ......" Gao Dajie put away the knife and asked Zhuma.

"The prince asked me to come, first stabilize Hou Dagui, so that the follow-up arrangements can be made." Wu Guogui looked at Gao Dajie's abnormal complexion, then looked at his empty back, frowned, and said, "How are you doing?" ”

Gao Dajie shook his head and said, "Alas, I ran back overnight." If things change, you have to inform the prince as soon as possible. ”

Seeing this situation, Wu Guogui roughly understood, turned his head to look at the Huai'an Acropolis in the rain, gritted his teeth and hit the horse's buttocks with a heavy whip, and shouted: "Let's go!" ”