The Imperial Guard Ambush Crossbow Battalion is equipped with six heavy front-loading smoothbore guns and twelve light front-loading smoothbore guns per battalion.

Heavy front-loading smoothbore artillery, one zhang long, weighing more than 5,000 catties, and a range of 3,000 steps when loaded with solid projectiles; The light front-loading smoothbore artillery is six feet long and weighs more than 2,000 catties, and the range of solid ammunition can reach 1,600 paces that will make the generals of the world jaw-dropping.

In addition to solid shells, Luoyang College has also developed two special shells, grape shells and chain shells, which are used to kill the enemy at close range from three to five hundred steps, but these two shells have higher requirements for the gunner's operation; The flowering bomb is still in the experimental stage, and the technology has not yet matured enough to be used in actual combat.

After the Luoyang Academy successfully trial-produced artillery that could be put into actual combat, with the production capacity of the Luoyang Ordnance Institute, it was not a problem to cast 3,500 light and heavy artillery pieces in the past year, but the training of skilled gunners became the biggest obstacle to the expansion of the armed forces of the ambush fire crossbow battalion in the early stage.

As an epoch-making armament and combat weapon, how to cooperate with the traditional infantry cavalry after artillery is put into the battlefield is also a completely new topic for Luoyang Military Academy.

A year ago, the Military Academy secretly opened relevant professional courses, and selected people from the army and the students of the Luoyang Military Academy for special training and drills, and a total of eight battalions of ambush fire crossbows have been formed; Moreover, they all formed an ambush fire crossbow battalion under the sequence of the imperial guards, and then allocated them to the armies as needed.

In addition to the four battalions of ambush fire crossbows that have been transferred, the Imperial Guard has only newly formed four fire ambush crossbow battalions.

In order to observe the actual combat use of artillery at close range, Li Zhihe and Tian Cheng, after discussing with Tian Cheng, decided to merge the four ambush fire crossbow battalions to form a brand-new artillery brigade, so that Chen Kun was also the commander of the brigade, and led this artillery brigade to Jinnan to participate in the battle with a staff combat group composed of more than a dozen military academy superintendents and instructors.

Including auxiliaries, gunners, and sword and shield guards, an ambush battalion of the Imperial Guard was fully composed of 300 men; The full strength of the artillery brigade was 1,200 men, which was comparable to a normal cavalry, and it was mixed with the logistics troops transporting grain and straw to rush to the front line in southern Jinnan.

The guns were towed by heavy wagons, and the barrels were wrapped in a thick linoleum cloth, making it look like accessories for heavy cyclone guns.

However, the steel hub rubber wheels left deep ruts on the post road, and each towing gun cart was towed by two to six healthy horses, which could also make the enemy scouts lurking along the post road see something unusual.

However, even if the enemy troops lurking in the vicinity see some abnormalities, or even directly see the true face of the cast iron cannon barrel, who can imagine what effect this black cast iron pipe will play when it is put on the battlefield?

Feng Yi and Han Jianji stayed in Luoyang to deal with the affairs of the newly established Honglu Division, and Wen Ruilin accompanied Sima De and Shu envoy Cao Zhe and his entourage, together with the artillery brigade and the logistics troops transporting a new round of supplies, rushed to Zezhou to watch the battle.

Cao Zhe is the son of Cao Gan, from the Yuzhou period, his father Cao Gan followed the side of the Shu lord Wang Yong, and was one of the six commanders of the forbidden army compiled by Shu. In addition to congratulating the Liang army on the victory of the Fanchuan River and further promoting the Liang-Shu alliance, we can also fully understand how strong the Liang army's current combat effectiveness is and where it is.

When Sima De, who died of illness in Bianliang nine years ago, in order to avoid the suspicion of his uncle Sima Tan, he relieved himself of all military and political affairs in Xuzhou, and also cut off contacts with Xuzhou generals, specializing in poetry, calligraphy and painting.

Sima De still has some sense of belonging to Daliang psychologically.

After the battle of Fan Chuanhe, seeing that the Chuzhou army was so vulnerable, Xuzhou was naturally panicked, and the secret envoy sent to Chuzhou to make peace with Yang Yuanyan, the king of letters, was recalled in a hurry, and pushed him to Luoyang, but Sima De was also complacent.

Of course, Xu Sijun's secret envoys, in addition to Sima De, the two deputy envoys were close associates of his uncle Sima Tan.

Although the battle of Fanchuan River directly killed Xu Si and the people to join the Chu State, and the invincible Mongolian army that trampled on the Central Plains with iron hooves in the past was beaten to a crest moment, Zhu Rang and Liang Ren were difficult to become angry after Liang Shixiong and Wei Bo's elite soldiers were destroyed in Xingyang, Xu Mingzhen was bedridden, and his son Xu Sizhao may not be able to suppress the generals of the Shouzhou army, which determined that Xu Si and everyone had the idea of turning to the arms of Liang.

However, in the end, how to rejoin the arms of the beam, Xu Si still has a lot of ideas in his heart.

It's a pity that they went to Luoyang for a few days, not to mention meeting Han Qian, the lord of the Great Liang State, even Gu Qian, Feng Yi, Li Zhihe, Tian Cheng, Han Daoming and other first-class ministers of the Great Liang, they didn't have a chance to meet, and in the end Wen Ruilin came forward to invite them to go to Jinnan to watch the battle.

They also traveled with logistics soldiers and artillery brigades.

They are naturally no strangers to Chen Kun's name, and they are also full of curiosity about the logistics transportation of soldiers and horses that went north this time, and this special army directly led by Chen Kun.

However, even when they were camping, they could see the soldiers of the girder carefully polishing and maintaining the cast iron barrels stained with rain and snow, and they had no idea what kind of new weapon it was.

Of course, they don't despise it, they all think in their hearts, in the past three or four years, the Liang army has put the spring arm weapon into the battlefield, and it has already made everyone suffer, and if this new type of weapon can be stronger by a few points, this battle will probably make the main force of the Mongolian army return home.

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Crossing the Yu River from the Mianchi Mausoleum, going north to Jiangxian County through Yiguan, and then to Qinshui County at the southern foot of Taiyue Mountain, the post roads along the road have been carefully renovated and widened, and the artillery brigade and the logistics troops and horses that transported the supplies this time traveled very fast.

At the end of November, it entered Jinnan, which was already a cold season when water turned into ice.

After entering the territory of Zezhou, after the logistics transport troops and horses passed through Qinshui County, they did not stop in Yangcheng County, nor did they go to Jincheng to meet the main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Kong Xirong, but directly went north to advance to Gaoping County.

The condition of the post road in Zezhou is not bad, and the snow has been cleaned by the local township department, but the snow on both sides of the road has not been cleared for the past two days, and it is almost two feet thick.

This is a rare heavy snow in the past 30 years, when the Northland has obviously entered the cold age.

The logistics troops and horses rushed to the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain, which is located in the north of Gaoping County and at the border with Huguan County in Luzhou, and dispersed to the various camps at the southern foothills, with Sima De and Cao Zhe accompanying Chen Kun and Wen Ruilin

and others rushed directly to the main tooth tent.

Along the way, you can see thousands of soldiers and civilians, braving the wind and snow, building camps and winding the way to climb the mountain.

The Jinnan Basin between Taiyue Mountain and Taihang Mountain, within a radius of more than 100,000 square miles, although the terrain is dominated by relatively open low mountains and hills, but at the junction of Zezhou and Luzhou, there are still two mountain ranges of Danzhuling and Jinquan Mountain, the main peak is as high as three or four hundred zhang, and the soldiers and horses are insurmountable, separating Zezhou and Luzhou.

From Jinquan Mountain to the east to the capital ridge in Lingchuan County, there is an open gap of about 134 miles in the middle, the main passage of Zelu and Zelu, which is also the only way for the Mongolian army to reinforce from Luzhou to the south or the Mengwu army and people in Jincheng to retreat north from Zezhou.

The situation is obvious, to prevent the hundreds of thousands of Mongol soldiers and civilians in Jincheng from fleeing north, and to block the main force of the Mongol army from going south for reinforcements, the east of Jinquan Mountain is the best interception point.

After entering October, the main force of the Taiyue camp army, which had shrunk to the territory of Gaoping County, mainly relied on the mountains at the eastern foot of Jinquan Mountain to build a barracks and military forts.

The Mongol army also knew very well that if they wanted to receive the hundreds of thousands of Mongol soldiers and civilians in Jincheng to retreat north, they would need to defeat the Liang army stationed at the western foot of Jinquan Mountain in order to open the passage between the north and the south.

In mid-to-late November, the Mongol army in Taiyuan continued to assemble in Luzhou City and Huguan City in the south, and its forward line also advanced to the northeast foot of Jinquan Mountain, and the situation also determined that the next large-scale battle between the two sides was destined to break out around the terrain of various key passes at the eastern foot of Jinquan Mountain.

In the midst of the ice and snow, thousands of local recruits braved the cold and built and widened the narrow mountain road in the south to facilitate the passage of soldiers, horses and vehicles.

Sima De and Cao Zhe can see from their accents and costumes that these folk husbands are all recruited from the local area, but looking at their expressions, they are not forced to be unwilling and resistant, and the faces of most of the folk husbands are still full of specific expectations and enthusiasm.

Wen Ruilin accompanied him all the way, and he did not hesitate to introduce the many work done by the soldiers and horses of Daliang before and after the advance into Jinnan, in addition to military operations.

In fact, all this in front of us is closely related to the infiltration work done as early as three or four years ago.

After the victory of Yiguan, although Tian Weiye was not reused, he still received a very high service arrangement after being annexed, which greatly reduced the hostility of the captured generals in Jinnan to a considerable extent.

At this grassroots level, the General Staff Office naturalized the prisoners from various counties in southern Jinnan, especially focusing on cultivating those who came from poor backgrounds and suffered from the oppression of local forces, and at the same time were captured and forcibly conscripted into the Luzhou army.

The Taiyue marching army and the 1st and 2nd central marching armies entered the southern Jinnan region in late July, and these attached captives played a huge role in establishing the ruling order in Zezhou, which was rapidly established in the Great Liang.

At present, in addition to Jincheng, other areas of Zezhou, including Yangcheng, Gaoping, Lingchuan and other counties, not only set up county-level government offices, but even in Lingchuan County, the Zezhou government office was prepared.

The Taiyue camp army and the first and second camp armies entered Jinnan to fight, not only to collect tens of thousands of brave men from the local area to build the roads and bridges of the camp and the military fort, but also to directly purchase large quantities of grain from the local government through cotton cloth, table salt, iron tools and copper and silver coins issued by the girders.

This greatly reduces the logistical pressure.

Coupled with the large-scale use of heavy-duty carriages, nearly 100,000 main elites of the Liang army entered Jinnan to fight, but only 20,000 logistics personnel were needed to travel between Luoyang and Jinnan, which could already meet the material supply needs of the front line.

Sima De, Cao Zhe and others entered a valley at the southeast foot of Jinquan Mountain, Li Xiu's main general tooth tent was set up in the valley, there were only more than 2,000 garrisons in the valley, but it was the core center of the Jinquan Mountain defense line, in the tooth tent Sima De, Cao Zhe saw Li Xiu, Su Lie, Chen Yuanchen, Wen Yuan, Li Yan and other generals of the Taiyue camping army.

The generals of the Taiyue Xingying Army, Li Xiu and Su Lie are older, but they are also just over forty years old, Chen Yuanchen and Wen Yuan are only thirty-three or four years old, and Li Yan and others are younger.

Seeing this scene, and thinking that when Zhao Wuji led his troops to kill the Fanchuan River, there were few young and strong generals in the Chuzhou army who rushed into battle, and in the end, it was Yang Yuanyan, the king of letters, who was over fifty years old, who personally led the silver halberd guard to take the head of the enemy general Zhao Wuji in the army, Sima De couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion in his heart.

Judging from the age of middle and high-ranking generals, Chu Ting was already twilight at this time after the glorious era of Emperor Tianyou had passed.

Entering Li Xiu's tooth tent, Sima De also knew at this time that even if it was blocked by the heavy snow, the main reinforcements of the Mongolian army had basically entered Huguan City at this time, including the soldiers and horses reinforced from Taiyuan and the garrison assembled in Luzhou City in the early days.

The Mongol army reinforced the main force, with more than 50,000 cavalry, and more than 60,000 foot soldiers mainly from the Han army of Yanyun and Liaodong (Bohai), plus its soldiers and horses trapped in Jincheng, the total strength of the Mongol army into the Jinnan Basin exceeded 150,000.

At this time, the Mongolian army reinforced the vanguard of soldiers and horses, and more than 10,000 cavalry even approached the front line at the northern foot of Jinquan Mountain, and it was possible to send troops to attack several of their defensive villages at the northern foot of Jinquan Mountain at any time.

In addition to the main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army under the leadership of Kong Xirong, the Liang army had 60,000 horses and horses to surround Jincheng from the east and west wings, in addition to Li Xiu and other generals led 30,000 Taiyue marching camp troops, mainly stationed on the first line of Jinquan Mountain.

For Li Xiu, there are two options, the first is to go north to reinforce the first central camp army, block the front of Jinquan Mountain with the Taiyue camp army, and directly snipe and hit the main reinforcement of the Mongolian army; The second Taiyue camp army shrank to the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain, first gave way to the passage east of Jinquan Mountain, and waited until the main reinforcement of the Mongolian army entered the territory of Zezhou, and then the Taiyue camp army attacked the rear army, recaptured the passage east of Jinquan Mountain, and blocked the main reinforcement force of the Mongolian army and the defenders of Jincheng in the territory of Zecheng for total annihilation.

If the artillery brigade cannot be transferred to Jinquan Mountain in time, the Northern Expeditionary Army will undoubtedly adopt the first strategy to block the main reinforcement force of the Mongolian army north of Jinquan Mountain and ensure that all the defenders of Jincheng are eaten, but Kong Xirong, Li Xiu, and Han Donghu hope to set up the artillery brigade in Jinnan and put it into actual combat, so they naturally see the possibility of completely annihilating the main force of the Mongolian army.

Now, of course, he did not hesitate to withdraw all the soldiers and horses on the periphery, shrink to the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain, give way to the passage east of Jinquan Mountain, and wait for the main force of the Mongolian army to reinforce him.

Cao Ba and Sima De were invited to watch the battle,

After entering the camp, the entry and exit of them and a small number of entourages will be strictly controlled, but there is no need to keep them secret from a large number of battle plans, and even Wen Ruilin accompanied them to visit the camp of the Taiyue camp army near Jinquan Mountain.

Knowing Liang Jun's battle plan, Cao Ba and Sima De's inner shock can be described as shocked.

Even if it would be relatively difficult for scouts to reconnoiter the military situation in the ice and snow, it was impossible to hide the combat intentions of both sides with such a large-scale movement of troops and horses.

The Liang army intends to invite the king into the urn, of course, the Mongolian army can also be calculated, the main force first from the southeast of Jinquan Mountain, leaving a small number of reserve soldiers and horses near Jinquan Mountain, but when the Taiyue camp army from the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain to the east, the main force of the Mongolian army can kill a back horse gun, and the reserve soldiers and horses can attack back and forth, and eat the Taiyue camp army first.

In addition to the 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers and horses sent north to sniper the first and second central camping armies of Daliang in the north of Kaijincheng, the Mongolian army can mobilize 80,000 to 90,000 elite soldiers and horses in Jinquan Mountain and Gaoping County, which will be three times that of the Taiyue marching camp army in terms of strength, and there is no possibility of being broken by the Taiyue marching army.

What self-confidence did the Taiyue Xingying army have, between the low mountains and hills south and east of Jinquan Mountain, which were extremely suitable for the main force of the Mongolian cavalry, to fight with one enemy and three?

Of course, they had no right to dictate the battle plan of the Liang army, and even if they had strong concerns, they could only express a thing or two to Wen Ruilin, who said that they could send them to the safer Qinshui or Yangcheng in advance.

No matter how timid Sima De and Cao Zhe were, they had to stay and watch the battle for the sake of face.

Cao Zhe has no worries about his personal safety, as an envoy of Shu, even if he falls into the hands of the Mongolian army, his life will not be in danger.

Sima De was about to be much more worried.

Xu Si secretly sent him to Luoyang, which is still a shady matter.

If he fell into the hands of the Mongol army, the Sima clan would not admit his existence; If Meng Jun didn't want to tear his face with Sima for the time being, he could probably only act as if he didn't exist.

Whereas the dead are best treated as non-existent.

Of course, before the battle of Fan Chuanhe, who would have thought that the Chuzhou army would be so vulnerable, and Sima De could not just think that the Liang army would definitely be planted in Jinquan Mountain with one enemy and three enemies.

They first stayed in the camp, and at dusk and early the next morning, they could faintly hear the rumbling thunder from the nearby valley, even at night, which made them not sleep soundly at night—on a cold day, the thunder was far away and sometimes near, rolling against the surface, and it was really surprising enough, was this normal thunder?

They didn't know that it was an artillery brigade that dragged the artillery to various camps to test the artillery.

As an epoch-making new weapon, artillery was unknown to the vast majority of the Liang army's generals.

If there is no certain degree of contact and adaptation before the war, and the artillery is directly thrown into the battlefield during the engagement, and the loud noise when it is fired, it will be really difficult to cry and laugh when it is fired and first worry the soldiers and horses in the array on your side.

As for what the enemy scouts lurking in Jinquan Mountain might notice, and the Mongolian army should be vigilant in advance, that is also a necessary choice.

Of course, a lot of information from the inside can confirm that the Mongolian army was completely unaware of the existence of artillery in the Liang army before, even if Wu Su Dashi heard the scout's description of the artillery test firing, I believe it is difficult for him to make a correct judgment, and it is even possible to think that the Liang army intends to set up a suspicious formation, so as to hesitate and shake their determination to go south.

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"Thunder and purple fireworks?"

Hongjiaoling is a remnant vein at the western foot of Taihang Mountain, which is very inconspicuous in Huguan County, looking at Jinquan Mountain and Ducheng Ridge in the south, it is the only way to enter Zezhou from Hushan County in Luzhou, under the snow, the rock color of the ridge on the slope is like burnt red clay, so it is called Hongjiaoling, and it is also the garrison of the Mengwu forward soldiers and horses at this time.

Wusu Dashi organized 50,000 soldiers and horses from Taiyuan to personally aid Jinnan, at this time he was with the forward soldiers and horses, people were in the depths of Hongjiaoling, watching the enemy situation of the Liang army, Xiao Yiqing also sneaked over from Jinnan, and met with Wusu Dashi.

Wusu Dashi attached great importance to the reconnaissance of the enemy's situation, and the scouts who infiltrated the depths of Jinquan Mountain not only brought the news of the Liang army's contraction to the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain, but also brought back the information of a special weapon in the Liang army's camp.

"In the early years of the previous dynasty, there was Taoist alchemy, combining sulfur, saltpeter, realgar and honey to refine it, the fire burst out, the purple smoke rose and rushed out of the house, the explosion was like thunder, the face and hands in the house were destroyed, and later generations called the lead pill - the thing used by the Liang army, and the lead pill is quite compatible," Xiao Yiqing read the ancient and modern, listened to the scouts, and quickly thought of the situation recorded in the miscellaneous books he read when he was young, "It's just that the power is not as good as the new weapons used by the Liang army, maybe the Liang army has made a breakthrough on the basis of the lead pill?" ”

Liang Guo used Luoyang and Liyang Colleges to gather thousands of students to deduce new mathematical techniques, and from time to time there were whimsical methods that came out, prompting the Liang army to often have wonderful tactics that were different from ordinary people's imagination for actual combat, and the Mongolian army suffered a big loss in this.

In the Battle of Yiguan, all indications indicate that the Liang army had anticipated the fog that night before the decisive battle, which should also be an achievement of Xinxue.

Although Xiao Yiqing has also persuaded Wusu Dashi to recruit students in Taiyuan in recent years to study new studies, the gap between Liang Guo is still too far in terms of scale and progress.

The Liang army near Jinquan Mountain was shrinking to the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain at this time, Xiao Yiqing was not afraid of any conspiracy and tricks of the Liang army, and he was afraid that the Liang army would have a new major breakthrough in the war weapon, so that they would suffer on the battlefield and would be caught off guard.

"Liang Jun knew that our army scouts would inevitably infiltrate Jinquan Mountain to get a glimpse of it, and they frequently practiced new weapons in various camps, and a certain general thought that they were setting up a suspicious formation to deter us from going south!" In front of the hall, a general named Na Heyan Zhen stood up and said nonchalantly.

Seeing Wusu Dashi looking at him, Xiao Yiqing felt bitter in his heart, if the Liang army was not very sure, he could gather troops and horses and intercept them north of Jinquan Mountain, why do you need to play any empty city tricks?

However, Chu and Shu were all shocked by the Liang army, if they retreated in fear of difficulties at this time, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Jincheng would die; Comparatively speaking, this was the last favorable opportunity for them to fight with the Liang army.

Once missed, especially the ten thousand soldiers and civilians in Jincheng are not in the hands of the Liang army, the morale and morale of the Mengwu soldiers and civilians are destined to decay day by day, and it will not be long before they are completely expelled from the Central Plains.

Thinking of this, Xiao Yiqing no longer said anything discouraged, and immediately discussed the battle plan for sending troops south with Wu Su Dashi and the generals......