Three days later, the two armies met at the mouth of the Talon River at Lake Boglath, and then marched westward, attacking the Jinxuedi Water Village. When they arrived, the water village had burned down, and Jin Xuedi's water army received a message from Maxima and fled west in panic a day in advance.

Jiang Jie looked at the messy water surface and complained:

"My lord, the white-haired thief escaped so fast, he didn't leave anything behind!"

"This is the mastery of the enemy general, knowing that he is invincible, he quickly withdraws to preserve his strength, and waits for the opportunity. This person must have a deep understanding of the Central Plains strategy, otherwise he would not have withdrawn so quickly. ”

Sikong Nan asked at this time:

"Except for the warships, our army has very little grain and grass harvest this time, is it to continue to advance westward, or to return to Delangi?"

"To say that our army was not without defeat in this battle, the Jinshedi people blocked all the waterways upstream, and before the shipwreck rotted and collapsed, in a short time, there was only one western waterway left in Bograt. If our army continues to advance westward, it is better to retreat to Delangi first, and there is still a naval army of the Jinxuedi people on the Belen River, find a way to solve them first, and take the boat over. Ordered the ships to turn around and return to Dranky. ”

"No!"

The shipwreck blocked all the narrow east-west channels upstream of the tower, and Mooney was sure that Bailiyan would not dare to continue to attack from Bograt, lest the only access from Bogratt be cut off.

The fleet arrived at the lower reaches of the Bedmis River two days later, and plundered some baggage to replenish supplies along the way.

When he returned to Xishan three days later, there were countless floating corpses on the sunken ships on the river, and he asked Gongliangxiu to find out that the enemy ships entrenched in the Belon River three days ago took advantage of the departure of the upstream coalition naval forces, and the barbarian army on the west bank of the Xishan River section attempted to erect a pontoon bridge.

Unlike in the past, the pontoon bridge was erected as never before, and the self-floating leather and barrel were used, which was more buoyant and lighter than the use of logs alone. The rafts made of logs were pushed into the river by more than 20 people, and only five people could push them on a raft made of barrels and planks.

This is equivalent to 20 people doing four things at the same time, and in a short time hundreds of new pontoons can be pushed into the water and righted with the help of warships, which is five or six times more efficient than before, and the pontoon bridge, which originally took four or five days, now only takes one or two days.

If it hadn't been for the timely discovery of the Xishan coalition forces and the blockade on the east bank, tens of thousands of enemy soldiers would have already attacked the Xihe River before the upstream coalition warships returned to the Xishan River section.

Bai Liyan carefully looked at the seized skins and barrels, the skins were very peculiar, not made of sheepskin, they were elastic and warm.

A whole piece of velvet bark is used to make a leather bag, and after blowing, one end is tied tightly with a rope, so that it becomes a balloon. Since it sinks to the surface of the water, it is difficult for arrows and sharp objects to cause damage. Eight skins are grouped, and on the outside of the skins is a circle of wooden barrels, connected by wooden planks, to make a floating raft in the city, the weight is very light, and even a wrestler can easily lift it.

"Yan Gongzi, if this kind of new-style raft is built in the upstream and downstream at the same time, even if it does not have the assistance of the navy, it can be completed in one day. I thought that this was a plan by the enemy to exhaust me, and deliberately dragged our army and navy here, and could not be separated. Once the navy went west, it hurried to build pontoon bridges day and night at any cost, which posed a great threat to the section of the Drangisy River. ”

Gongliang Xiu hit the nail on the head and said, Bai Liyan agreed:

"Well, he suffered defeats in Tarun and Bertila, knowing that he was invincible to our navy, he wanted to build bridges with infantry troops, making it difficult for our navy to get out, and this plan was indeed extremely sinister. If the expectation is good, the main force of its naval army at this time must be to build a water village east of Lake Boglaat on a large scale, in order to seek to block our army layer by layer in the future. ”

The coalition forces, benefiting from the abundant water resources of Po Song Province, divided the Jinxuedi people of Derangi and Chubigon into several pieces to dilute their forces and force them to make a detour from further afield. The new fast boat bridge is not good news for the coalition forces. This will nail the navy firmly to the West River, and it will be impossible to raise food and grass.

Obviously, the Jinxuedi people have realized that the biggest problem of the coalition army is not the number of people, but the food and grass, and without enough food and grass, no matter how many people will starve to death.

The day after the fleet finished unloading, after replenishing the sailors, the fleet swam down the West River to check the water conditions of the Belél.

Previously, due to the lack of warships, the coalition forces did not dare to go deeper, in the past few months, the Jinxuedi people built a water village in the narrowest part of the Belon River, across the two banks, the west bank is a primeval forest, after cutting down the 40,000 or 50,000 infantry troops and nearly 20,000 sailors, the east bank of the water village is located at the foot of the northwest outer mountain of Khubigon, and the surrounding hills are occupied by it.

It has not been known why the Jinxuedi people have been entrenched in the lower reaches of the Belon River, because it has little strategic value. Opening the map, you can see that the tributaries of the lower reaches of the Belier River merge with other water systems and continue to penetrate hundreds of miles to the northeast. But it is inevitably a little redundant, because there is no food and grass.

In addition, according to the captives and the new vassals, Jin Xuedi visited the ruins of the new city a few years ago and found an open-pit iron mine in the forest one hundred and twenty miles downstream of the Belen River, which is probably the reason why the Jin Xuedi people stationed their land and water army here.

At this time, it was the end of July in 632, the battle of Qianyue Mountain was fierce, and the moon god king Brunduo suffered the biggest defeat since he succeeded to the throne, losing 250,000 soldiers, and successively lost Wang Lu, Bitian and the important town of Mingzhou, and the coalition army was advancing towards Boyang.

Thanks to the great power of Changsun artillery, shoulder-mounted firearms, and black powder, it provided great convenience for the siege of the city, reversed a series of unfavorable situations of the coalition forces, and made up for the lack of troops and logistical difficulties to a certain extent.

At the same time, the new policies of the Xian State have been effective, and the King of Xian is quite satisfied. With the support of Zhao Xun, Xianguo spared no effort to promote the new policy, and the policy set by Bailiyan was successfully implemented.

The rapid expansion of the scale of Yongxing City has far exceeded the planning of Bailiyan in that year, and the economy of the capital and administrative areas has developed rapidly.

Now that it's another year's pearl harvest season, there are tens of thousands of pearls of various colors in front of King Xian, but Jiang Hai can't be happy. Chang Shi Gaoxun stood on the side, handed over the national credentials of Changsun Guo, and said carefully:

"Great King, this is a letter of state forwarded by the envoy of the eldest grandson country, they will not give a penny to the price, if our country refuses to agree, they will immediately levy a sea path and a tax on the protection of merchants, and our country's trade to the West Sea will be difficult."

King Xian was furious when he heard the news, he didn't even look at it, threw the national letter on the ground, gritted his teeth and scolded:

"This group of villains, robbers, they are extorting widows!"

"Yes, the king's words are very true. The Eldest Sun Kingdom has always been like this, but at the moment, its black fire powder and earth-shattering fire are huge, seeing that the Jin Kingdom, the Liang Kingdom, the Sun Kingdom, and the Wei Kingdom are competing to buy it, if our country does not have it, after the black turban thieves are exterminated in the future, it will be extremely passive. The minister thought that it was better to buy some for the time being, and then pay a lot of money to order the master of the Ligong faction to imitate it, than nothing. ”

"The master of the Ligong faction has asked the Ordnance Department that the Ligong faction is not yet able to imitate the black fire powder, just buy the earth-shaking fire, there is no black fire powder, and it will be controlled by others in the future. For many years, buying its black fire powder is the same as sucking the blood of widows! ”

Since two years after the Tianchuan incident, Changsun Guo has developed a formula for black powder, and actively imitated various types of artillery and breech weapons, which are gradually coveted by various countries due to their great power and actual combat effect.

This Changsun Guo is a natural human spirit, and it is often said that capitalists will eventually sell the rope that hangs themselves for the sake of profit, which is not false at all on Changsun Guo.

After Changsun Guo gained the advantage of firearms, not only did he actively keep it secret, but also started an arms business to sell to the outside world. The first customer is none other than the ally Jin State, and in order to get firearms, Liang Guo also added the title of first-class king of the eldest grandson and was promoted to King Ping. After this opening, various countries competed to buy and successively equipped a small number of firearms.

As a neighbor of the Changsun State and a theoretical ally, the Xian King also had a lot of money, so he naturally wanted to buy a little arms to Zhenguo, so he personally met with the envoys of the Changsun State to discuss the purchase price.

Jiang Hai also asked the salt lord to inquire about the price privately through the channel in advance, but the offer given by the eldest grandson was really unacceptable to the king of Xian.

The opening price of a medium-sized artillery with a projectile of 11 catties is 200,000 silver, the price of a five-kilogram small cannon is 150,000, the shoulder-mounted small-caliber is 10,000, and a catty of black fire powder is sold for five inches of silver, which is almost five times the price sold to the Jin State and three times the price sold to other vassal states.

Even if you double the price increase, you don't know the formula for gunpowder, it's a consumable, you have to buy as much as you want, even if you know the formula, Xianguo doesn't produce sulfur, and you still have to import it from Changsun Country. A pound of gunpowder and five inches of silver are no different from Ming robbery.

The consumption of black powder in each battle on the Qianyue Mountain front line is calculated on 10000 catties and 10,000 catties, 10,000 catties is 50,000 inches of silver, if there are several big battles a year, the cost of gunpowder alone is as high as one million, that is, there is money in the pocket, it is also earned by a silver and a piece of silver, and the Changsun Kingdom only accepts spot and precious metals, and the Xianguo does not need to depreciate copper coins, and the barter transactions are all doubled.

In order to force Jiang Hai to comply, Changsun Guo strangled the maritime trade of the Xian State to the West Sea on the grounds of levying high sea transit and escort fees, which made the navy contain the Xian State in the inland river with no way out.

Gao Xun tried to rely on the strong manufacturing capacity of Yongxing City to buy a few cannons from Changsun Guo and imitate them himself, but how did he know that the cannons could be imitated so easily, not to mention that the cannons were easy to make, but the gunpowder was difficult to match.

Suppressing his anger, King Xian clenched his fists and said:

"Immediately sent a letter to tell Zhao Xun that after Shao Ping was defeated, he would rectify on the spot and stop fighting. I don't give the blood of my salty man to his eldest grandson. ”

"What about the black fire powder and the earth-shattering fire?"

"The eldest grandson country only had a tie with the black scarf thief with this thing, if there was no such thing, the eldest grandson army would be a group of rabble. The widow was planning for them on the Eastern Front, hoping to be able to say good things, but he didn't want to be so malicious, it was just chilling!

The soldiers of the widow shed blood and worked the eastern front, and they were good, but they did not know how to fall into the well and blackmail the widow. The widows want to see how they are rampant on the northern front without the help of our salty army. The widow can hear that this black and black fire powder is not a panacea, it will not work when it encounters water, and it is now the rainy season, and they have good fruits to eat. ”

While talking to Gao Xun, Jiang Hao, the chief of the secret agent, hurriedly entered the hall:

"Jiang Hao, see the king."

"What's the matter?" King Xian said in a deep voice, his voice unpleasant.

Jiang Hao approached King Xian and whispered:

"I got a report just now that Xu Han, the right governor of the Southern Expeditionary Army, suddenly returned to Shanling and secretly went to Baili Mansion."

"Isn't Xu Han Jiang Min's general, he hasn't died yet?"

"Exactly, after the destruction of Yesui City, only Xu Han waited for less than a thousand people to escape, and he has been galloping for the past two years."

"Do you know why he came back this time?"

"It's not clear. However, news has just come that the coalition forces have won several battles on the front line, which may have something to do with it. ”

While Jiang Hao was speaking, the eunuchs outside the palace entered the palace to report:

"Cavalry King, Princess Lan Yuan has arrived outside the park."

King Xian frowned:

"Why is she here? Do you know what it is? ”

"I don't know. The princess has gone outside the Imperial Garden. ”

After retiring from the palace, King Xian said:

"Jiang Hao, quickly find out about Xu Han's secret meeting with Jiang Rong when he returns to the capital."

"No!"

"You two stand down."

"No!"

(End of chapter)