On the afternoon of November 12, the fourth year of the Han Dynasty, Cai Mao, the new deputy governor of the Xiliang Water Division, was ordered by the Great Han Taishi to return to Xiangyang City with a letter written by Dong Taishi and Liu Cousin, the assassin of Jingzhou, to persuade Liu Biao to surrender. Before Cai Mao's departure, Dong Zhuojun's civil and military generals all expressed doubts about Cai Mao's loyalty, worried that Cai Mao would never return, and Dong Zhuo's army did not have the ability to block the water surface of the Xiangjiang River.

In the face of the doubts of the civil and military forces, the bright and upright Han Taishi Dong fully embodied the broad-mindedness of employing people, and personally sent Cai Mao out of the camp against public opinion, and held Cai Mao's hand and cried: "The prime minister does not live up to the Qing, and the Wangqing is not the same." Of course, Cai Mao cried and swore in public that he would never betray Dong Taishi, and Dong Taishi's henchman Wenhua Hou Huatuo also personally gave Cai Mao a glass of wine, wishing Cai Deputy Du Ma success, Cai Mao was moved, and naturally drank the wine, and then said goodbye to Dong Taishi in tears.

Out of Dong Zhuo's army camp, Cai Mao galloped like a bird out of the cage, laughing at Dong Zhuo's stupidity in his heart, to be honest, Cai Mao did not really surrender to Dong Boss, no matter how good Dong Boss treats the generals, it is far less than the benefits brought by Cai Mao's position above 10,000 people under Liu Biao, only just now in order to save his life, Cai Mao temporarily bowed his head to Dong Boss, but I didn't expect Dong Lao to be stupid enough to let him go back to the city to recruit Liu Biao, for Cai Mao, it is tantamount to great news.

"Dong Thief's grain and grass is already less than ten days, as long as he holds on for another five to six days, Dong Thief will have to retreat, and at that time, Jingzhou is not my final say?" Cai Mao said happily on the horse: "It's just that Ma Liang's kid has stolen a lot of limelight this time, and I have to win him over after the war, lest he become a stumbling block ...... me." ”

"Cai Dudu, please stay." Cai Mao suddenly heard a cry with a Liangzhou accent behind him, Cai Mao was shocked, could it be that Dong Zhuo repented? Looking back again, Cai Mao suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, there was only one person and one rider who came, and it was only one of Dong Zhuo's personal soldiers.

That Dong Zhuo's personal soldiers ran to Cai Mao, hugged his fists and said: "Cai Dudu, the villain is the captain of the Taishi's personal soldiers, and he conveyed the Taishi's decree to the governor on the order of the Taishi, after Cai Dudu entered the city, if Liu Biao is unwilling to surrender, please Cai Dudu within ten days, be sure to try to prevent Liu Biao's attempt to escape through the Xiangjiang River, there must be no mistake." ”

Cai Mao smiled secretly in her heart, and replied: "Lord Book, please return to the Taishi, even if the general kidnaps Liu Biao, he will definitely not let Liu Biao escape, please rest assured." ”

"Okay, the villain must have conveyed it and said goodbye." After that, the book asked to go back to the horse, Cai Mao snickered and was about to continue to hurry, the book suddenly turned his head and said: "Cai Dudu, the villain almost forgot a trivial matter, Wenhua Hou asked the villain to tell the governor, just now when the Marquis of Wenhua was toasting the governor, he accidentally spilled a poison called rotten bones and broken intestines into the wine, but please rest assured that Cai Dudu, although the poison will make people break their muscles and bones, liver and intestine colic for 7749 days and die, but fortunately, it is a chronic poison, and it will never attack within ten days, and Xiangyang City will be broken within ten days, Wenhuahou gave Cai Dudu the antidote and made amends. ”

Dong Boss's personal soldier captain Book asked and left, but Cai Mao opened his mouth wide in a daze, until the figure of Book Wen disappeared from vision, Cai Mao woke up like a dream, scolded in the direction he left, and greeted Dong Boss and Hua Tuo's female dependents in a series of dirty language, and scolded for half an hour before stopping. Scolding and scolding, life is always in the first place, Cai Mao finished venting, and finally returned to Xiangyang obediently, but the mood at this moment is naturally completely different from just now.

Two flowers bloomed, one for each, Kang Peng sent Cai Mao away, and immediately took Huang Yue Yingyue and Gan Wenwu to the military workshop to check the manufacturing progress of explosives, the crystal potassium nitrate crystals were refined out of more than ten catties, Kang Peng took a group of craftsmen to personally operate the last step of explosives manufacturing, the three raw materials of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal were weighed respectively, mixed according to the ratio of potassium nitrate 75%, sulfur 10% and charcoal 15%, bad students have always had little hope for their own slim future in modern times, in order to prevent accidents, I have always kept in mind the ideal proportion of this black powder, but I don't want to play a role in this era.

Kang Peng ordered the craftsman to spray a little water on the black powder, press it into a thin cake shape with a small mill, and then grind it into particles of different sizes with a toothed copper rod, and use a sieve to sift out the substandard particles, and finally remove the edges and corners of the particles with light medicine, so that the surface is smooth and can be fully burned, and finally put the first batch of black powder made into a thin iron bucket to leave a lead.

The five unlucky goats became the first experimental items of Dong Zhuojun's gunpowder weapon, tied to a brick wall together with the powder keg, and the bad students who were afraid of death naturally hid far away with a group of Dong Zhuojun civilians who were also afraid of death. Completely ready, Kang Peng handed the torch to Huang Yueying, who was still with a straight face, and said with a smile: "Don't be angry, Benxiang will hand over to you the glory of detonating the first explosives bag of the Xiliang Army." ”

Huang Yueying, who had been itching for a long time, burst into tears, quickly grabbed the torch, and lit the fuse with a few strokes, and the lead coated with nitrate powder immediately emitted a puff of green smoke, which quickly spread in the direction of the explosive barrel, and Kang Peng hurriedly shouted: "All blindfolded." And immediately the fat hand put the fat ears in check, and all the people did the same, and they all covered their ears.

"Boom!" There was a loud bang, the smoke was billowing, the half-human-high brick wall flew into the air, and the stirred up debris rained down on the heads of Kang Peng and others, waiting for the dust to settle down a little, without waiting for Kang Peng's command, Dong Zhuojun Wenwu and Huang Yueying had already run over quickly, especially because Wei Yan, who was assigned to the dirty and smelly task, ran the fastest, but ran in front of the original brick wall, Dong Zhuojun was suddenly silent, the brick wall was naturally long gone, and the five goats were shaken into flesh and blood by the huge explosive force, and there was a large pit with a diameter of three feet at the scene.

"Master, is this really what we collected from those toilets?" Wei Yan stammered and asked.

"That's called nitrate." Kang Peng said triumphantly: "Because of the role of nitrifying bacteria, the toilet soil containing a large amount of putrefactive organic matter will harvest nitric acid, and the nitric acid will be combined with magnesium, potassium, calcium, etc. in the soil to produce potassium nitrate and calcium magnesium nitrate, and the potassium carbonate in the plant ash is used to convert calcium and magnesium nitrate into insoluble calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, and only soluble potassium nitrate is left in the water, and then after distillation, the phase will make potassium nitrate crystals with a purity of up to ninety to five." ”

Even Huang Yueying couldn't understand the chemical knowledge that Kang Peng said, not to mention Dong Zhuojun's gang of fierce generals who could only go into battle to kill the enemy, but the power of explosives had been shown in front of them, and everyone knelt down and shouted at the moment, "Taishi is really a celestial man." Lu Bu smiled even more, and said when he met people, "Taishi is my father-in-law, and my father-in-law is a man of God." ”

The next day, news came from Xiangyang, Liu Biao refused to surrender, Cai Mao also stayed in the city and did not come back, but the confident Kang Peng did not care, just commanded the soldiers to make explosives, five days later, Dong Zhuojun had prepared more than 6,000 catties of high-quality black powder, and the bad students made explosives bags according to the configuration of 20 catties of packs, and they were still despicable and shameless in the explosives packaging a large number of iron nails and iron horns - just like the power of the explosives package was not enough, until everything was ready, Kang Peng ordered the whole army to go out to find Liu Biao's bad luck.

On November 17 of the fourth year of the Han Dynasty, the wind and the sun were beautiful, the zodiac was auspicious, everything was auspicious, at noon, Dong Zhuo's army rose up from the camp, surrounded Xiangyang City from three sides, Wei Yan surrounded the north gate, Pang De surrounded the west gate, Kang Peng took Lu Bu and Wu Ban to attack the south gate, and even Dong Zhuo's army symbolically set out to set up a position on the outside of the Xiangjiang River in the east of Xiangyang, making a full-scale attack.

Dong Zhuojun's actions have already been reported to Liu Biao, Liu Biao was shocked, and urgently recruited Huang Zu, Ma Liang and Cai Mao and others to discuss, Liu Biao said: "Dong Thief has been attacking Xiangyang for five days, and today suddenly the whole army is dispatched, why is this?" ”

Huang Zu replied: "Back to the lord, according to our calculations, Dong thief's grain and grass can only support five days, and if you can't break through Xiangyang today, there will be only one way to retreat tomorrow, presumably this is Dong Thief's dying blow, our army only needs to survive today, and tomorrow you can sit back and relax." ”

Ma Liang also agreed with Huang Zu's opinion, after returning to the city, relying on the protection of his sister, and boasting about how brave and unyielding he was in front of Dong Boss, Cai Mao, who was only demoted by Liu Biaoguan, also took the opportunity to say: "Lord, when the last general is in Dong Thief's army, he sees that the food in Dong Thief's army is only enough to last for ten days, according to calculations, they can't break Xiangyang today, they can only retreat, and the lord should come to the city to boost morale, just resist this day, Jingzhou can be preserved." ”

Liu Biao nodded and agreed, as for the Jingzhou Shilin who had advised him to surrender, Liu Biao didn't even want to look at it, but the two brothers of Yi and Kuai saw that the victory of the Jingzhou army was in sight, and they came up to write poems and essays to pat Liu Biao's ass, but unfortunately Liu Biao also saw through the hypocrisy of these scholars, and did not appreciate it, and took Huang Zu, Ma Liang and Cai Mao away, ignoring those scholars, only Hua Xin, who proposed to surrender at the beginning, sneered and refused to go up to Liu Biao to pat the horse.

"Huaziyu, Mr. Huada." After Liu Biao left, Kuai Yue and other Jingzhou Shilin sneered at Hua Xin and said, "Why didn't Mr. Hua Da abandon his official position and run away again?" Do you have to wait for the lord to return victoriously and drive away the gentleman? ”

"Mrs. Dong will definitely lose?" Hua Xin ridiculed and sneered: "Dong Taishi's use of soldiers has always been a matter of planning and then acting, and he is not sure of things, when did Dong Taishi do it?" After that, Hua Xin raised his legs and left, and said as he walked: "I'll go back first to prepare for the incense case Caiguo that Dong Taishi entered the city, for the sake of my colleagues, remind you, since Dong Taishi is attacking the city today, he must have his certainty, if you still want to save your life, don't fight the idea of helping Liu Tingshi, it's useless to help, and you gave your life in vain." ”

Hua Xin did not have a chance to get out of Liu Biao's official hall, Liu Biao, who was in sight of victory, remembered that he had persuaded himself to surrender, and sent someone to arrest Hua Xin in prison after going out, and waited for victory to come back to him to settle accounts.

In front of the south gate of Xiangyang, Kang Peng took Lu Bu and Wu Ban out of battle, and shouted to Liu Biao in the city: "Liu Biao, the prime minister gives you the last chance to surrender, if you are obsessed again, after the city is broken, Hugh blames the prime minister for being ruthless." ”

Dong Zhuojun has been attacking the city for many days, Liu Biao is full of confidence in sticking to today, and he also shouted and replied: "Dong thief, you hurt the heavens and reason, deceive the king, you are really a traitor in troubled times, and this assassin will never surrender to the national thief." ”

Kang Peng sneered and shook his head at Lu Bu, who immediately shouted at the city: "The Great Han Taishi has an order, Xiangyang City is broken, the soldiers and civilians in the city only need to lay down their weapons, and the Taishi can spare the lives of Er and others, except for Liu Biao, never kill one more!" Lu Bu's Zhongqi is much more than Kang Peng's, and many people in the city can hear the sound of shouting.

Kang Peng, Lu Bu, and Wu Ban slowly retreated after shouting, and the only twenty catapults also rumbled from the formation, and Ma Lianghu, the Jingzhou military division in the city, said suspiciously: "Dong Thief seems to be full of confidence in breaking through Xiangyang City, does he have any new tricks?" ”

"Afraid of what?" Huang Zu laughed and said: "Our army has 100,000 military horses in the city, if you want to break through Xiangyang, Dong Thief has to use at least 200,000 infantry, but the infantry in his hands is only 10,000, how to attack the city?" ”

Ma Liang shook his head, noncommittal, and shouted to everyone: "Erect a long shield to protect the lord, the enemy's catapult is about to attack." ”

From the perspective of Xiangyang City, Dong Zhuojun's twenty catapults threw scoops down one by one, with the banner unfurled, the catapults threw scoops up, and twenty black objects flew out, and when the Jingzhou army saw clearly that the object was only a wooden barrel with a diameter of only two feet, they all laughed, in front of the long shield of the Jingzhou army, even if it was a solid wooden block, it could not play any role, not to mention that there were only twenty pieces.

"Why is the barrel still smoking?" Ma Liang exclaimed, at this time, the Jingzhou army also saw the strangeness of the barrel, but it was too late, eighteen of the twenty wooden barrels smashed against the wall, and the other two smashed directly in the city, when the Jingzhou army looked again, the wooden barrel made a deafening explosion sound, almost like thunder, the nearby Jingzhou soldiers were blown into flesh and blood, and countless small iron nails and horns flew around, I don't know how many soldiers' lives were taken away. The pungent smoke dissipated, and there were already more than a dozen gaps in the Jingzhou city wall, and the city was even more full of flesh and blood.

"Wha......." Lu Bu laughed frantically and said: "Vote, keep voting for Lao Tzu, and blow them all up!" The soldiers of Dong Zhuojun, who mastered the catapult, sang a promise in unison, mixed the scoop with their hands and feet, put the powder keg, lit the fuse, and then threw it into the city.

The city kept throwing gunpowder packets, the poor Jingzhou army was in a mess, the crying father and screams and screams even exceeded the sound of the gunpowder bag exploding, several rounds of throwing down, the city was already shrouded in a gunpowder smoke, from time to time there were panicked Jingzhou soldiers cornered, falling from the city, rubble flying, cannon rumbling, almost let the future Kang Peng doubt that he was back in the modern era.

"Vote, vote." Lu Bu was shouting, suddenly someone patted him on the shoulder, looked back, it was his father-in-law, Kang Peng smiled: "Fengxian, we don't have many gunpowder bags, blow up the city gate first, it's important to break the city." Lu Bu slapped his head, smirked, and hurriedly instructed the catapult to aim at the city gate and throw.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! It took five rounds of throwing to blow up the gunpowder bag of Xiangyang, and the suspension bridge was also blown up, Kang Peng took the opportunity to order to stop throwing, and with a wave of his fat hand, Lu Bu took the lead, and Xiliang Tie rode wildly and went straight into the city.

The city is broken, in the close combat, there is no suspense about the victory of Dong Zhuojun with Xiliang Iron Cavalry, Kang Peng is more concerned about whether he can catch or kill Liu Biao at the moment, and when the city gate was blown up, Liu Biao also understood that the general trend had gone, crying and wanting to commit suicide in the city, and was hugged by Ma Liang and Huang Zu, Ma Liang cried: "The lord must not give up, our army still has troops in Fancheng, Changsha and Guiyang, if the lord commits suicide, they will become a plate of loose sand, can only be broken by Dong thieves, at the moment our naval army is still dominant, the lord please hurry up on the warship, Go to Changsha to regroup. ”

After Ma Liang's persuasion, Liu Biao woke up like a dream, and fled to Dongcheng under the protection of Huang Zu and Cai Mao, and at this moment, many Dong Zhuojun had poured into Xiangyang City, and there were tears everywhere, Liu Biao and the others did not go far, and they were targeted by Dong Zhuojun's general Wu Ban, Wu Ban shouted, "Where is Liu Biao?" The horse rushed over, and the spear stabbed, Huang Zu hurriedly caught it, and shouted: "The lord will go first, and Rong will break off with you." ”

At this moment, Liu Biao couldn't care about his friendship with Huang Zu for many years, and immediately rode horses with Cai Mao and Ma Liang, no matter whether Huang Zu lived or died, Wu Ban and Huang Zu fought for twenty or thirty times, and still didn't know whether they won or lost. Wu Ban replied: "Go to the east gate, Wen Hou chase after it." ”

Lu Bu didn't say a word, patted the horse and rushed to the east gate, all the way like a tiger, invincible, to be killed to the east gate, but saw Ma Liang fall next to the city gate and did not know whether to live or die, and Cai Mao upside down with a sword to hold Liu Biao aside, seeing Lu Bu arrived, Cai Mao immediately laughed and said: "Wen Hou, the villain has been ordered by the Taishi to capture Liu Biaosheng." ”

The north gate and the west gate were broken one after another, Pang De and Wei Yan entered the city separately, the Jingzhou army was leaderless, and was frightened by the gunpowder bag, most of them chose to surrender, and a small number of stubborn ones were also broken by Dong Zhuojun, Cai Mao recruited the Jingzhou naval army, and at dusk, Dong Zhuojun basically controlled Xiangyang City.

When Kang Peng entered the city, Jingzhou Shilin, led by the Kui family brothers, had already placed incense cases and wine candles on both sides of the street, warmly welcoming Dong Taishi to stay in Xiangyang City, Kang Peng ignored their flattery at all, but asked with a split face: "I heard that Hua Xin Hua Ziyu is also in the city, where is he?" Bring him to see him for what he is! ”