This winter is Chen Xiong's most peaceful winter.

The empire was peaceful, and the whole was busy with development and construction, and even the gentry and scribe families, who had lost their privileges, gradually transformed into commercial asset families.

The introduction of chemical fertilizers and the cultivation of high-quality rice seeds began to be planted on a large scale, resulting in a bumper harvest of food, but also reduced the profits generated by the land. With the rise of the commercial maritime trade, the value of its profits has snowballed.

In the past six months, Chen Zhong has rarely come to the palace, so as soon as Chen Zhong approached the palace, Chen Xiong began to wait in the study.

Without much of a big gift, Chen Zhong said: "My lord, maybe the Northern ** Kingdom will attack the Simon Kingdom on a large scale after the spring." Now Geldan is asking for enough to buy a large number of Chongzhen-style firearms to defend against the firearms army of Beimao! ”

Chen Xiong nodded: I see, this is not a trivial matter! "Although Simon is a sparse domain, it is also a land of Yanhuang blood, and the empire will never allow Northern Mao to destroy it."

"Rest assured, Simon also has hundreds of thousands of well-equipped iron horses, and he will not be easily destroyed! The military department also agreed to sell Chongzhen-style firearms, so that Simon would first defend the empire against the European army. "The military department has already made a decision, but this is not a trivial matter, and the emperor must nod his head.

The firearms of the European continent are quite powerful, otherwise it would not be possible to colonize the world.

"So be it! The military department helped Simon establish two firearms armies with a total of 100,000 people, and raised 20,000 heavy horses to sell to Simon. ”

The empire was going to have a truce for ten years, and Chen Xiong was trying his best to avoid a new war.

"Honorable Order!" Chen Zhong also did not want the Empire's order to change, and if Simon was defeated or even lost the country, then the Empire would not have to send troops in person.

Under the order, on the third day, 20,000 heavy horses and 60,000 guns began to set off, and the subsequent artillery was also loaded on the train and sent directly to the dock in Nanjing.

In five days, Gerdan, who was nearly 10,000 miles away, also received an order from the Imperial Military Department.

"Empire for eternity!" The little messenger, but also made King Simon have to bow first.

After sending the messenger away, Gurdan immediately opened the letter, and then his face became more and more nervous.

"Great Khan?" General Ramatai couldn't help but ask lightly.

Geldan shook his head and smiled: "I didn't expect the Great Emperor to be so bold!" In a month's time, we will also have two firearms armies, and even the Emperor has allocated Simon 20,000 of our vests. ”

Heavy riders have always been unstoppable, but their endurance and speed have been tough. But the heavy horses of the empire have far more speed and endurance than ordinary warriors.

"Haha good! In this way, look at how arrogant Bei Maozi is. Tholl couldn't help but laugh too.

Ramatai suddenly thought of something and immediately said, "The Great Khan has asked my tiger master to change his clothes and heavy horses."

The Tiger Division under the command of the general is Simon's strongest soldier, and Geldan agrees without much thought: "That's good! The Tiger Master changes his clothes and rides again! ”

It took only one month for 20,000 heavy horses to arrive at King Simon, and the following month, artillery transported by war oxen and hundreds of temporary commanders also arrived at King Simon.

As soon as spring passed, the 200,000 troops of the northern ** country also began to move south.

The territory of the northern ** country is not small, but the standing army of the northern ** country, which has a small population, is only 500,000.

The Southern Expeditionary Corps of Beimao consisted of 30,000 European iron canned heavy cavalry, 50,000 brave Cossack cavalry and 120,000 infantry.

120,000 infantry, of which 70,000 were musketeers and the remaining 40,000 were long robbers, and 120,000 formed six Spanish firearms arrays.

This square array of firearms, separated by 100 meters from each other, is a sharp weapon against cavalry in all directions.

The Simon Empire was a confederation of nomadic tribes with a total strength of 700,000. This time, Geldan also gathered an army of 300,000, of which 200,000 were cavalry and 100,000 were infantry. Most of the 200,000 cavalry were sword and bow cavalry, of which there were 20,000 heavy horse cavalry.

More than 100,000 infantry, 60,000 musketeers, 40,000 spear and shield armor, and 2,000 artillerymen.

The Europeans did not like small guns that wasted money on explosives, and their land guns were mostly of two types. One is a six-pounder cannon, the other is a ten-pounder cannon, and the small cannon belongs to the flowering shell, which is also very powerful.

The Chongzhen-type field artillery is a fortified artillery, but its firing range is farther than that of Beimao's artillery. However, the number of artillery in Simon is much smaller, especially the medium-range firepower is completely empty.

"Commander Zhu Xin, I'm tired of you this time!" Although there were 300,000 troops, Ramattai feared defeat! After all, their firearms army has only been training for a month.

Zhu Xin and hundreds of commanders and instructors were originally only used as staff officers to assist the Simon Army, but Simon had no experience in firearms warfare at all. Gu Geldan and others also decided: Let Zhu Xin, the commander of the three armies on the border, command.

Simon, as a vassal state, had no objection to Zhu Xin's commander commanding him.

"Mao Zi's 100 six-pounder guns are the most difficult, our field artillery has to bombard their 10-pounder guns first, this time is enough for Simon's army to suffer tens of thousands of casualties! If they are not successfully destroyed, it may affect morale. ”

In fact, Zhu Xin didn't have much confidence, except for some of the yellow people's strong fighting spirit, the rest of the nomadic soldiers were more concerned about their family's food!

Ramatai smiled bitterly and nodded: "Their artillery is all in the four-sided firearms array, and it is difficult for the cavalry to rush in and destroy them!" ”

Zhu Xin nodded and said, "They have a lot of cavalry, and they won't let us move!" However, for a while, these 100 guns will be handled by this seat. ”

Ramatai was stunned, this time the three armies did not send troops, and he didn't believe that this new commander Zhu could easily solve them.

"Knock dong ~ nail nail ~ choke ~ As soon as Maozi's drums sounded, the 200,000 southern army also began to move.

Firearms arrays were lined up, and their rear and left and right flanks were filled with cavalry.

"Drumming!" Zhu Xinyi waved his hand, and the war drums behind him began to roar.

Knock knock knock ~ like boom ~

The war drums immediately drowned out the beating of Mao Zijun's drums.

Zhu Xin didn't give the order to move forward, anyway, these firecrackers were all recruits.

"Okay, fire." Estimating the next distance, the commander of the artillery battalion of the border army also immediately gave the order.

Boom ~ The shaking of thirty field guns immediately startled a large area of earth.

Boom~boom~

The bell ~ the ten-pounder cannon that was hit by the iron ball flew up with sparks.

"Damn! Speed up! "Grand Duke Talev, I didn't expect that four or five kilometers away, the Han artillery could shoot several artillery, but fortunately, there were not many casualties in the live iron ball.

Even under the artillery bombardment, the distance between the two armies was getting closer and closer.

"Alright, let the artillery stop first!" Seeing Mao Zi's six-pounder cannon out of the firearms array, Zhu Xin also knew that they were about to open fire.

Just as the artillery stopped, the moving ten-pounder gun also stopped and began to prepare for the fire.

Ramatai was also very puzzled, only to see the special black horse waving towards the sky, and then Zhu Xin and other officers and staff officers also immediately looked up at the sky.

At this time, Ramatai and other generals were even more puzzled.

He could only look at the sky carefully, and soon saw a flock of big birds getting bigger and bigger.

"Hey, the big bird of the Han people!" Looking through the binoculars, Ramatai also saw thirty great birds swooping down.