As the days passed, the situation was as Wu Jie had predicted, and the Song court negotiated with Xia on the terms of borrowing troops, and at the same time sent envoys to Liao to negotiate peace, and the date of the Eastern Expedition was postponed again and again. Zhao Xingde couldn't do anything about it, he was very familiar with the formation and training of the firearms army, and all kinds of rules and regulations were ready-made. The newly built firearms battalion had forty four-inch guns and twenty three-inch guns. In order to facilitate the supply of baggage, except for the cavalry scouts, the guards of the firearms battalion were all musketeers. The firearms army in the entire Crusade Army actually consisted of thirteen battalions, two of which were artillery battalions, ten artillery battalions, plus one cavalry scout battalion. All the gunners are from the Firearms Division, and the gunners are from the elite of the regimental training army. Zhao Xingde concurrently served as the chief of the march and the chief of firearms, and the General's Mansion did not remove his rank of general.

Compared with the training artillery battalion a few years ago, the prestige of Metropolitan Supervisor Zhao Xingde is very different. He was the only Xia general who used artillery in a decisive battle of more than 100,000 men. In terms of actual combat experience, there is no one to compare with the officers of the firearms division. Wu Jie even asked the Firearms Department not to send veteran officers to participate in the Eastern Crusade, otherwise he would be treated with insufficient respect in the White Feather Army. In the face of the powerful Wu Jie, the Firearms Division humiliated and acquiesced to this condition, and also planned to borrow chickens to lay eggs, and equipped each gun with twice as many gunners. The firecrackers selected in the regimental training army were personally trained by Zhao Xingde, and the officers leading the troops were old subordinates of the original Longya Firearms Battalion, and they were handy in command. Although the time frame for the firearms army to cooperate with the training was very tight, everything went in an orderly manner. On the contrary, the day of sending troops to Kanto still seems to be far away.

Not long after the New Year, Li Ruoxue took her two children to Chang'an. Zhao Xingde returned home to live without incident. Under his instruction, Chun Yuyue hired craftsmen to hand-make some high-precision calipers, micrometers, gauges, bubble levels, precision balances, depth rulers, angle rulers, scribing rulers, manual roundness rulers, etc., in order to manufacture these precision measuring instruments, Zhao Xingde and craftsmen together to build a manual limit of the operating table and operating plane, after obtaining precision measuring instruments, and then rebuilt several more perfect manual operation platform. Waiting for the endless departure date, after returning home from the barracks, Zhao Xingde immersed himself in the trial production of these measuring tools, temporarily forgetting the anachronism.

In order to achieve the best measurement effect, Zhao Xingde stipulates the storage and use specifications of various measuring tools. Xia Guo originally measured the temperature by 100 equal parts of the temperature of freezing and boiling water, and the best measurement temperature was between 20 degrees and 5 degrees. He exchanged measurement methods with the master craftsmen invited by Chun Yu Iron Works, analyzed the source of errors together, and equipped the old craftsmen with bad eyes with a clear glass magnifying glass for the convenience of reading. In order to find out the composition of the raw materials and the metallographic aspects of the steel smelted, Zhao Xingde also bought an expensive microscope from the Academy, so that the craftsmen who had been working on iron all their lives never saw what they had smelted so clearly. With perfect tools, Zhao Xingde systematically explained to these veteran craftsmen how to control manufacturing errors by measuring in the process, and how to reasonably improve the structure of utensils, process procedures, etc., in order to find the shortest error accumulation chain. He showed the stern and resolute attitude of leading his troops to fight, and asked the craftsmen of the iron factory to use tolerance accumulation to control the accuracy from now on, and not blindly follow experience and feeling. In fact, many craftsmen have their own secrets, but they are not so systematic and clear, seeing that he does not hide his selfishness, many people are moved, and they also take out their own secrets to compare.

These things, Zhao Xingde was more out of interest, and occasionally did it, but it attracted the attention of the bachelor's house. During the reign of Qin Xiaogong, Shang Ying personally supervised the production of copper Fang Sheng, known as the Legalist heavy weapon. If when the Prime Minister's Mansion collects taxes, the sergeant says that the yamen's catties are not right, and Chun Yu is accurate in the iron factory, then it will be troublesome. Since the Qin Dynasty, the car has the same track, the book has the same text, and the rules are related to the location of Zhengshuo, and it has become the top priority. Therefore, when Chun Yu's trial production of measuring tools in the iron factory was quite successful, Ruan Changling, the deputy envoy of the Chang'an Bachelor's Mansion, immediately asked the Prime Minister's Mansion for a sum of money to purchase a complete set of measuring tools that were equally accurate.

On this day, Zhao Xingde had just seen the military report, and the Privy Council recruited the troublesome students into the Baoyi Army. Zhao Xingde saw that this was a plan to kill people with a knife, and he was even more indignant, but he could only sit in Guanxi and have nothing to do. The military newspaper also said that Li Ruobing was detained in the Liao camp, and the Song court sent Zhao Qi, the king of Jing, as the chief envoy and Deng Su as the deputy envoy to sue for peace. He was worried about the safety of Li Ruobing and Deng Su, but he had to hide it from Li Ruoxue, only saying that there was no news of the Li brothers in the Di Bao and the military newspaper.

............

Sitting in the swaying rattan basket, Deng Su's face sank like water, and there was no panic at all. Seeing that the rattan basket was about to fall to the ground, several soldiers hurriedly caught it. "Deng Shilang, you are tired." Several of the soldiers of the Crane Control Army were extremely respectful.

"It's okay," Deng Su stood up from the rattan basket, turned around and arched his hand, "Jingshi is safe, and I still have to work for everyone." ”

Not far away, King Jing Zhao Qi also climbed out of the rattan basket, he stepped out of the rattan basket with one foot, and the other foot was just about to come out, but he didn't expect the front foot to step on a void, one stumbled and almost fell to the ground, the surrounding forbidden army seemed to avoid the plague god, hiding far away, or Deng Su walked up to help him, Zhao Qi did not fall a dog to gnaw mud. He stood up in embarrassment, and held Deng Su's shoulders with palpitations, and said in a low voice, "Thank you, Lord Deng." ”

In the two years since Zhao Ke succeeded to the throne, King Jing Zhao Qi's morale has been extremely depressed, as if the king of the dead country lives in the capital of the enemy country, and he has not been able to avoid the errand of the envoy by pretending to be sick, and he is even more sure of death. He also had no intention of pursuing the offense of turning a blind eye to the forbidden army, so he reluctantly walked to the front of the mount, and turned around and asked, "Lord Deng, are there no other entourage guards on this trip?" ”

A trace of worry flashed in Deng Su's eyes, he nodded, and said in a deep voice: "Your Highness is in danger, and you bear the respect of my Great Song Dynasty. To humiliate His Highness is to humiliate the Great Song Dynasty. Su Shyness is the deputy envoy, even if the liver and brain are smeared, it will not let the Liao people succeed. He and Zhao Qi didn't have any friendship, but they were both messengers, and they were worried that Zhao Qi would do something degrading to the country under the fear, so he first encouraged him with generous words.

Zhao Qi was greatly moved, remembering that he could not inherit the throne, and the people who had been drilling around him had gone away one after another, avoiding them as if they were avoiding enemies, and even Cao Di, the father-in-law who Xijing relied on, did not dare to have much contact. Zhao Qi almost burst into tears, choked up, and said, "Lonely Hate didn't know Deng Shilang earlier." While sighing, they slowly climbed onto their horses, and the two slowly rode towards the Khitan cavalry not far away.

The New Year has passed, the weather is getting colder and colder day by day, the river has been completely covered with thick ice, and the iron barrel cannons of the Liao State are about to be transported across the river, but the royal account of Yelu Dashi is still stationed in Chenqiaoyi, it seems that the camp is delayed because of waiting for the discussion and peace, and it seems that the brigade of people and horses are gathering to cross the river and attack Bianliang in one go.

It was not the first time that the Song State had sent envoys to negotiate peace, and the Liao army's defenses were not as tight as the last time, and more than 300 Khitan cavalry monitored the two envoys heading north. After walking along the post road for more than an hour, Zhao Qi kept his head drooping, Deng Su looked ahead without squinting, and his bearing seemed to be a righteous envoy. The Khitan envoy was also very polite to him.

About four or five hundred horsemen marched slowly in front, and the banners and costumes were also Liao troops. Some Khitan cavalry also greeted the opposite side with a smile, and the two armies staggered on the post road, and suddenly, the opposite side of the men and horses shouted, and the cavalry drew their blades together, and cut and thorned the Khitan cavalry around them. The Khitan cavalry was caught off guard and suffered a big loss. Since the southern expedition, the Liao army has almost no service, after crossing the river, the Song army in various places is even more noisy, only strictly guarding the city, not daring to go out of the city to fight in the field, plus this trip to escort the Song envoy, the vigilance of the Liao army to the lowest point.

"Who are you?" The Khitan commander who commanded the army was shocked and angry, and shouted loudly, "Kill, kill." "The other Khitan cavalry scrambled to resist. The Khitan officer shouted loudly: "Your envoy of the Southern Dynasty that we are escorting!

The other party ignored it, from the beginning of drawing his knife to the present, he didn't say a word, only stabbed and slashed mercilessly. The sneak attackers not only have a large number of men and horses, a strong army, but also a martial arts extraordinary, in the face-to-face hand-to-hand combat, the Khitan cavalry is difficult to resist, not long after, more than 300 cavalry Liao army has fallen half, the rest can no longer support, desperately fighting horses to retreat to the north. Leaving the two Song envoys, who were stunned and had no idea what was happening, in place.

Zhao Qi has never seen such a bloody scene in his life. A general with a fierce face and a little blood on his body was riding his horse towards him, Zhao Qi's body had long since disobeyed the call, he was pale and froze on the horse, he couldn't even turn around and run away, and his whole body trembled like chaff.

Deng Su urged him to go immediately, blocked in front of Zhao Qi, and said in a deep voice: "The envoy of the Great Song Dynasty is here, who is coming?" ”

The general's face was slightly dark, and the shoulders of his leather jacket were cut open in the fight, revealing the black and shiny iron armor inside, he ignored Deng Su, and rode directly to Zhao Qi, and said in a deep voice: "Wang Huaimin, the left vanguard general of the Xijing battalion, see His Royal Highness King Jing." He paused for a moment, and only after Zhao Qi had come back to his senses did he continue, "The last general was ordered by Cao Jieshuai to escort His Highness to Xijing. Your Highness, what should you do with this person? He squinted at Deng Su, with a fierce light in his eyes, several cavalrymen were already waiting beside him, pressing their hands on the blades, as long as Zhao Qi nodded slightly, he would kill Deng Su.