In the twenty-third year of Chongzhen, autumn, heavy rain, the attack was blocked.

The rainy weather hindered the offensive of the Ming ground forces, and the hot air balloon troops did not dare to take off in this heavy rain - taking off meant facing the risk of being struck by lightning......

The surface forces have also stopped, and the range of naval guns has always been limited, and the naval guns that can cause devastating damage to the port still seem to be more than capable when facing inland cities.

Zhang Shize and Shen Zhenjiang, who were in charge of ground command, finally let out a bad breath.

Don't look at the ground attack is not going well, it is also due to the weather, not because of the problems of the English defenders, those old finches flying in the sky and the sea turtles in the sea are not as good as the turtles on our ground!

Zhang Shize grabbed the dry and hard beef jerky in his hand and tore off a small strip, stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it slowly, relying on saliva to slowly soften the beef jerky, and the taste of air-dried beef filled his mouth in a very short time.

After smoothing down the beef jerky with tea, Zhang Shize said hatefully: "Now the regulations of the military government are getting more and more tricky, even if you can't drink alcohol on the battlefield, now that there is obviously no war, you can't drink it, this beef is blind!" ”

Shen Zhenjiang nodded approvingly and said: "What the little grandfather said is very true, such a delicious beef jerky should be paired with a few taels of melon roast, and the taste is called a full!" ”

While discussing what kind of dish to go with and what kind of wine to go with, the two of them ate all the beef jerky in their hands - the time to eat on the battlefield is always precious, and there is no waste of it, and after eating, they have to hurry up and sleep for a while.

Zhang Shize, who had just finished wiping his hands, was about to squint for a while, but saw Liu Xiaoyao walking over with a solemn face: "Little grandfather, I'm afraid you don't have much time to rest." ”

Zhang Shize sighed and said, "What's wrong?" ”

Liu Xiaoyao said: "Two news. One was sent back by the brothers lurking in England, and the barbarians of England planned to take advantage of the rainy weather in the past few days to launch an attack on us. ”

Zhang Shize nodded and said, "What about the other one?" ”

Liu Xiaoyao said with a straight face: "Another news is that Your Majesty and all the people from the military government are already on their way here, and they are expected to arrive here tomorrow." ”

Zhang Shize, who was originally calm, couldn't calm down.

It is not uncommon for the barbarians in England to choose to take advantage of the rainy weather to attack, and Zhang Shize himself will do the same.

England's arms were bought through the East India Company and Liu Wenbing, and they did not have the production capacity themselves - the production of guns and bullets was a very troublesome project, even the Ming Dynasty now belonged to the groping stage of training with the barbarians, and the production system was not mature, let alone England.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has officially started fighting with England, the arms deal with the East India Company and Liu Wenbing naturally has no possibility of continuing.

Although the Dutch authorities had always hoped that the East India Company would increase arms exports to England, for the seventeen gentlemen of the East India Company, it was obviously more important to get the household registration of the Ming Dynasty than to earn a few silver, selling arms? Inexistent!

After the British lost the source of arms, they could only save and save as much as possible on the arms they had saved, for fear that they would run out of them one day, and at the same time increased their investment in arms research and development.

But this kind of thing is more troublesome than giving birth to a child - giving birth to a child is better than knowing that it can be born in ten months, even if it is a matter of three years, but arms research and development can not even be seen, even if there are ready-made examples of the Ming Dynasty, it is not possible to do these things in half a day.

First of all, it is necessary to solve the problem of steel quality and output, secondly, to solve the problem of machine tools, and thirdly, to solve the problem of gunpowder quality.

There are three problems in front of the English people's arms research and development, the Ming Dynasty relied on the experience of the ancestors from generation to generation and the opening of Emperor Chongzhen, and it took more than 20 years to solve it, as for England, it can only be solved.

Since there is no source of arms, and it is not possible to develop it by oneself for a while, the English naturally have to think of other ways to deal with the attack of the Ming Dynasty.

You can't sit still, can you?

Taking advantage of the rain to counterattack is actually a very good idea.

The Ming Dynasty's munitions are indeed very awesome, both in terms of munitions quality and firepower output, it is enough to be called a work of conscience - Emperor Chongzhen, who is not saved in the late stage of firepower syndrome, likes the shell washing mode.

However, no matter how conscientious the arms are, they also need to pay attention to rainy days, at least the Ming artillery has not yet reached the level where it can be used in rainy days, and the same is true for muskets.

Therefore, Zhang Shize and Shen Zhenjiang have long been mentally prepared for the fact that the English will take advantage of the rainy weather to carry out a counterattack, and the arrangements for all kinds of soldiers and horses have also been put in place - the Ming Dynasty's guards have never put down the training of cold weapons and killing.

The reason why Zhang Shize is not calm is still Emperor Chongzhen.

If you talk about understanding Emperor Chongzhen, there may not be anyone in the world who knows more about the concubines in the harem than Empress Zhou and Concubine Yi, and then Wang Chengen and Wang Guoxing.

But when it comes to the understanding of Emperor Chongzhen among the civil and military ministers of the court and the military government, Zhang Zhiji may really be in the first place.

Following Emperor Chongzhen's southern and northern wars, Zhang Zhiji, who has experienced countless large and small battles, naturally knows what kind of character Emperor Chongzhen is - don't look at Emperor Chongzhen This time he just came to inspect before the army, but who can guarantee that this master will not go to the front line as soon as his brain is hot?

has long heard countless "wise deeds" about Emperor Chongzhen by Zhang Zhiji's side, and Zhang Shize naturally knows what kind of character his future father-in-law is.

Getting up and going to the table, Zhang Shize stretched out his hand and drew on the map for a long time before he spoke: "Your Majesty will arrive tomorrow, we still have one day to prepare."

The big question now is the English barbarians, are they going to launch a counterattack against us tonight or tomorrow? ”

Liu Xiaoyao spoke: "Yinshi, to be precise, at four o'clock in the morning, they will launch a night attack on us. ”

Zhang Shize hummed and said: "Yinshi is the time when people are most sleepy, and it rains for another day today, and the guns can't be counted on, and the barbarians will pick the time." ”

Shen Zhenjiang said: "What about us?" Retreat or go toe-to-toe with them? ”

Zhang Shize said: "It is impossible to retreat, we are now in Wincanton, if we retreat, we will lose the momentum of echoing with the direction of Kingswood and Twyford, and it will be too late to send someone to inform them temporarily." ”

After finishing speaking, Zhang Shize turned his head to Liu Xiaoyao and said, "How is the news on both sides of them?" ”

Liu Xiaoyao said: "It's basically the same as our journey, the ammunition is sufficient, and the soldiers are full of momentum, the only problem is that there are too many rainy days, which affects the performance." ”

After nodding, Zhang Shize said: "Barbarians are not stupid, no matter how stupid the barbarians are, after so many battles, it is time to discover the weakness of firearms." ”

After hehe sneered, Zhang Shize continued: "However, those barbarians probably couldn't imagine that my Ming army can't compare with swords, right?" ”

Liu Xiaoyao said: "I can't say that. The news that came back this time mentioned the manpower prepared by the English barbarians, but I am afraid that they are not as simple as the enemies we have faced in the past. ”

Zhang Shize suddenly became curious: "Could it be that these barbarians are more difficult than that Mongolian horseman?" ”

Liu Xiaoyao shook his head and said, "It's hard to say. The difficulty of the Mongol Ten Thousand Cavalry lies in their speed, once they are allowed to raise their speed, the strength of the Ten Thousand Cavalry impact is indeed terrifying, and their Mangu tactics are indeed disgusting.

However, according to the news fed back from the Mongolian Wanqi, their elite may not be able to be stronger than these English longbowmen in archery.

First of all, these longbowmen do not use horn bows, but purple shirt wooden bows, the bow body is long, the range is long, and the best shooters among them can achieve a rate of fire of ten rounds per minute, and the range is also a full 200 meters away, which is stronger than our early firearms. ”

After finishing speaking, Liu Xiaoyao licked his somewhat dry lips again, and continued: "If it weren't for the fact that the fire guns that those English barbarians bought from my Daming now have a faster rate of fire than the longbow's rate of fire and a longer range, I'm afraid they will continue to vigorously develop longbowmen."

Of course, the training of longbowmen is not simple, at least many people's bodies are somewhat deformed, and with the popularity of muskets, there are now fewer and fewer English longbowmen. ”

Zhang Shize said curiously: "So what about this time?" How many longbowmen did they get this time? ”

Liu Xiaoyao said: "Three thousand, this is all the longbowmen they can make up at the moment." ”

Zhang Zhiji suddenly put his mind at ease: "I'm scared to death, if you want to say that they got together one or two thousand longbowmen, that's really a problem." If they smash pots and sell iron, they will make up 3,000 people, then bury them here at once! ”

Shen Zhenjiang nodded and said: "Three thousand people, each person can send ten arrows per minute, one minute is 30,000 feather arrows, plus their range, it is indeed much stronger than ten thousand horses."

If they have 10,000 or 20,000 people, it will really be enough for us to have a headache, but if there are only 3,000 people, there is no way to form a rain of arrows to cover it, and it doesn't matter. ”

Zhang Shize simply ordered: "Order, the spies are twenty miles away, and they will sleep tonight, and order all the big shields to be ready, and the eight bull crossbows and the divine arm bow will also be pulled out for Lao Tzu to prepare!" ”

Shen Zhenjiang hesitated: "Eight bull crossbows, we didn't bring much, right?" It's just a little bit of an eight-bull crossbow, can it be used? ”

Zhang Shize sneered: "Four eight-bull crossbows, enough for them to be refreshed, plus those divine arm bows, even if we shoot with them, we won't suffer!" ”

Of course, it will not suffer, the range of the Eight Bull Crossbow is 1,500 meters, and the range of the Divine Arm Bow is 400 meters, compared with the range of the English longbow of 200 meters, it is simply a bully!

And unlike the crossbow arrows used in the Divine Arm Bow, which are relatively small, the arrows used in the Eight Ox Crossbow can't be called arrows at all, and it's almost the same as a wooden pole, and it's not very likely that this thing will string people together, but there is no problem with splitting the enemies in front of you into two parts......

Zhang Shize continued: "Then again, since these barbarians have the courage to play night raids, do we have to give them a gift in return?" Zi said, come and go, it is rude. ”

Zi said that it was used at this time?

"The little grandfather is really knowledgeable!" After praising it, Shen Zhenjiang continued: "When the barbarians' formation is messed up, let's follow them back and see if we can catch a few more big fish." ”

Zhang Shize shook his head and said, "I guess it's enough." The barbarians are not all fools, how can there be big fish running to the front line at this time, even if you can catch a few on the formation, don't think about how big the fish will be behind them, it is estimated that they are all in front of the formation. ”

Liu Xiaoyao said: "By the way, what is Cromwell, there is no need to exist now, right?" If not, I'll have someone carry his head tomorrow. ”

Zhang Shize shook his head and said: "No, that Cromwell is still useful now, and the whole of England now depends on Cromwell and Charles I."

If Cromwell is killed now, the barbarians of England will be scattered, and if they don't do well, they will be completely in chaos, and it will be very difficult to gather them together like this.

If you can't be idle, just pick some middle-level or low-level officials to kill, and keep Cromwell and those high-ranking officials to let them win the hearts and minds of the people. ”

Liu Xiaoyao nodded and said, "Okay, I know." ”

……

The speed at which Emperor Chongzhen came over was much earlier than Liu Xiaoyao and Zhang Shize expected, and before they could finish studying the specific battle plan, Emperor Chongzhen had already come with a large army.

After a courtesy of the monarch and ministers, he leaned on the couch and took a sip of the ginger soup that Wang Chengen had just prepared, and Emperor Chongzhen smiled: "What's the matter?" Haven't you finished discussing it yet? Am I bothering you? ”

Zhang Shize bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, the ministers have almost discussed, and now they are just waiting for Yin." ”

Emperor Chongzhen said: "You have already discussed the battle plan, and I will not change it for you, and I will not care about your plan, just implement it as usual."

It's all this time now, if you're sleepy, go and rest early, there's still a battle to fight tomorrow, if you're not sleepy, I'll order someone to bake something to eat, let's wait for Yin Shi together, how about it? ”

After finishing speaking, Emperor Chongzhen did not wait for Zhang Shize to answer, so he directly instructed Wang Chengen: "Order someone to roast the sheep I brought over and distribute them to the soldiers to eat, sprinkle more chili peppers, and now the weather is wet and cold, just use chili peppers to drive away the cold." ”

As soon as he heard Emperor Chongzhen's order, Zhang Zhiji, who had just come with Emperor Chongzhen, chuckled in his heart and said tentatively: "What does Your Majesty mean?" ”