Xiao Yiqing rushed to the southeast of Heishiao overnight, the night was dark, the four fields were covered with snow, and the snow was diffused, but he could barely distinguish the dark shadow of the Liang army's eastward movement in the distance.

In addition to the terrifying artillery, the Taiyue camp army is also equipped with a large number of bed crossbows, scorpion crossbows and various chariots - even if the same size of troops are used in field battles, the combat effectiveness of the Taiyue camp army must be superior, not to mention that before nightfall, east of Elephant Trunk Ridge, the Queen Mother's marching camp army has an absolute advantage in terms of strength.

Usu Zongshu watched the camp fall of the Black Stone Pass, but instead of leading the remnants to flee north, nearly 4,000 cavalry gathered in an unnamed village southeast of the Black Stone Pass to stand by.

The Liang army's new type of warfare called the "Fuhuo crossbow", although the power is terrifying, but in the end the number is limited, Wu Su Zongshu does not believe it, and when their main force retreats from the south, the Taiyue camp army, which is at an absolute disadvantage, can really be like an iron wall, across the open area east of Elephant Trunk Mountain, without moving.

Xiao Yiqing rushed over, and also joined Wusu Zongshu first, and the garrison in the southwest of Savage Peak and Changyuan Mountain, they had regrouped 20,000 soldiers and horses on the northern front at night.

However, in the face of the new weapons that the Liang army newly put into the battlefield, the generals lacked the necessary understanding, and the war horses were easily frightened away by the thunderous explosions, so they launched a surprise attack at night, which really did not have much chance of winning.

"This is the lead pill refined and sacrificed by the alchemist Qing Xuzi of the previous dynasty......"

A few days ago, Xiao Yiqing speculated that the new type of war weapon that the Liang army was stationed in the camp to try, and there was a thunder and purple flame spewing out from the mouth of the cast iron pipe, so he guessed that the iron pipe was filled with explosives similar to lead pills.

Lead pill is made of saltpeter, sulfur, realgar and nectar and other substances, in the world is regarded as a great tonic stone medicine, many pharmacopoeias have recorded prescriptions, some pharmacopoeias also record its ignition after ignition, purple flame soaring phenomenon.

Saltpeter, sulfur, and realgar are all relatively common medicinal materials, as long as it is not the amount of thousands of catties, it is still more than enough to collect and refine dozens of finger-sized lead pills in Luzhou City.

In just a few days, Wang Jingrong ordered people to make lead pills according to the pharmacopoeia.

Wanting to imitate Liang Jun's new war equipment, iron pipes are difficult to cast, Wang Jingrong also specially made a few small copper pipes sealed at one end, and showed them to Xiao Yiqing, saying: "The lead pill is crushed into powder, loaded into the tube and ignited, in addition to the thunder and flames, but also the air flow is sprayed out - I guess that the new weapon made by Liang Jun is the lead pill ignited and erupts the air flow, pushing the projectile out to hurt people and animals, but it is unimaginable that the power is terrifying......

Xiao Yiqing has been secretly staring at Luoyang's every move over the years, especially in the development of new learning, infiltrating and buying everything, but Luoyang has done a lot of new learning and new techniques, and it seems that there are many tricks they can think of, but when they really want to imitate it, there are many places that are paradoxical, or they are far from being wrong and wrong.

The structure of the spring-arm bed crossbow is not complicated, mainly made of multi-layer fine iron bars to make a crossbow arm with strong tension and toughness, but for more than two years, the spring-arm bed crossbow imitated by the Taiyuan Institute of Engineering can barely reach 250 steps, and the Liang army is too far away, so it is difficult to use it on the battlefield to compete with the Liang army.

Listening to the description of the scout, Wang Jingrong had tried to pour the powdered lead pill into the copper pipe and ignite it before, and at this time, he took out the copper pipe, and in front of Xiao Yiqing, Zong Shu, Na He Yanzhen, etc., he would demonstrate, load the medicine, cotton thread and ignite the stone pill, a dull sound passed, and in a burst of blue smoke, the stone pill was also sprayed more than ten steps away.

Seeing this scene, Xiao Yiqing guessed that the fire crossbow built by Liang Jun may be here, but the gap between squirting a small stone pellet more than ten steps away and blasting an iron pellet weighing more than twenty or thirty pounds out two thousand steps away, can also tear apart heavy armor and pierce through the wall, how amazing the gap is!

He didn't know when Luoyang secretly developed such a terrifying weapon, and he didn't know what kind of mentality Han Qian had to take it out until this moment.

There is no shortage of talented people on both sides, and the brutal war is the most direct and efficient catalyst for the development of military technology.

On the basis of hundreds of years of experience in the subduing of gold and stone medicine and the refining of lead pills, there is no obstacle to the emergence of fire control and artillery prototypes, and even in the last years of the previous dynasty, some people used lead pills to crush and then load tubes to launch flame arrows.

Although in the early years when he first arrived in Tangyi, Han Qian made the Institute of Engineers develop the prototype of artillery and powder guns, but the power of the first generation of artillery and powder guns was too limited.

The artillery was loaded with stone shells, and the range was no more than 300 paces; And the power of the gunpowder gun is not even as powerful as the arm crossbow before the improvement. Of course, there is also a very fatal problem, that is, the preparation of saltpeter is extremely backward, and the production scale is extremely limited; Even saltpeter is often confused with the more common miscanthus salt, making it extremely difficult to identify.

Putting artillery and powder guns that are not technologically mature and not very powerful into the battlefield too early is of little significance except for causing hostile forces to scramble to imitate them. Therefore, until artillery technology is advanced enough to ensure that it is difficult for hostile forces to successfully imitate it in a short period of time, only a very limited number of people inside will know about the existence of this technology, let alone put it into actual combat early.

Of course, using the research and development system established on the basis of Xinxue, the gunpowder and gun technology have been continuously improved for more than ten years, and the progress in this is unimaginable to Xiao Yiqing and others.

If it weren't for the primary chemical system that Luoyang has formed over the years, the identification, refining and purification of saltpeter alone may require hundreds of years of experience.

The gunpowder that Luoyang put into actual combat at this time, in terms of physical characteristics, was almost close to the limit of black powder, and the explosive power was almost ten times that of the lead pill after it was simply crushed into powder, so it was possible to increase the range of the heavy smoothbore cannon with a long gun body to a terrifying distance of 3,000 steps.

In addition to the performance of gunpowder, the power of guns is also directly related to the casting level and accuracy of guns.

The casting of heavy smoothbore guns is a microcosm of Han Qian's achievements in promoting the development of smelting and casting for more than 20 years.

Of course, at this juncture, Xiao Yiqing and Wang Jingrong and the engineer demonstrated the lead pill powder shooting stone in public, not to deduce the principle of the fire crossbow at this time, his main purpose was to see that the new weapons used by the Liang army were not some ghosts and gods, and there was no need to be afraid in their hearts.

If the generals can't overcome the internal fear, this battle will really be impossible to fight, let alone successfully break through to the north from the interception of the Taiyue Xingying army.

It was destined to be a sleepless night.

Wang Jingrong led the engineers to the various temporary camps to demonstrate to the generals and military attaches the lead pill powder to launch stone pills, and at the same time, new soldiers and horses were constantly withdrawn from the south overnight; At dawn, Wusu Dashi, surrounded by more than a thousand horsemen, rushed over to meet Xiao Yiqing.

Outside Yangwuyu, after the trail west of the enemy village in Heishiao was opened, thousands of Liang troops also continued to pass through Heishiao this night and extend to the wilderness east of Elephant Trunk Ridge.

Between the Elephant Trunk Ridge and the Capital Ridge, the relatively flat gap is about 17 miles wide.

In addition to Wen Yuan's headquarters shrinking to the west of Yangwuyu and taking into account the east entrance of Yangwuyu, Li Xiu also deployed more than 20,000 soldiers, more than 10,000 sturdy people, and 5,000 heavy soldiers and horses to the four heights east of Elephant Trunk Ridge and their vicinity overnight.

The so-called high ground is also limited, ranging from a few zhang to a dozen zhang, with a radius of more than 100 steps to the left, more like a small mound, but it can be used as an artillery position for combat deployment.

The four highlands are staggered, but the distance between each two is no more than six miles.

Considering that the Liang army would not completely retreat to the vicinity of the high ground and could rely on the high ground camp to fight on both flanks at any time, and at the same time, there were intermittent dense forests in this area, and the branches and leaves withered after winter were still difficult for people and horses to walk, in fact, the Liang army had initially completed the "closing of the door and sealing the mouth" on the north side.

The Liang army relied on temporary highland camps and dense forests, digging trenches and building fences in the two flanks overnight - Xiao Yiqing knew that the breakthrough was a bit hasty at this time, but the time left for them was running out, and he did not give them enough time to prepare at all, and suggested that Wusu Dashi put all the troops that could be gathered on the northern front into the battlefield before noon, and launched an attack at all costs.

Even if you only need to successfully capture one of the Liang army's high ground positions, you can ensure that the vitality of the Mugyu clan will not be interrupted in this battle!

Although between Jincheng and Jinquan Mountain, they had 130,000 cavalry, but the Liang army had 60,000 or 70,000 elites in the south, and they still had to leave enough soldiers and horses in the southern front. Even so, they were able to put a total of more than 80,000 elite soldiers and horses into the northern front to break through the battle.

It's just that 80,000 elite soldiers and horses will definitely be able to tear through the blockade of the Taiyue marching army?

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Heavy smoothbore guns, cast iron barrels weigh more than 5,000 pounds, plus gun racks, even if they are pulled by four to six horses, it is quite inconvenient to move on the rough battlefield.

Fortunately, the range of the heavy smoothbore gun is long enough, and even if it is fixed and deployed on a small high ground at the core of the defensive formation, it can provide strong fire support for the infantry and cavalry fighting more than 2,000 steps away.

The 48-bottle light smoothbore guns that entered the battlefield directly with the infantry and carried out mobile interception operations on both flanks were divided into eight combat groups.

I have to say that the Mughal cavalry is extremely experienced in combat and is experienced enough.

In the afternoon, the Mongol cavalry launched an offensive, when the distance was long, slowly advancing northward in a loose formation, and even if the solid bullets fired at ultra-long distances frequently triggered ricochet, there would not be a single cannon that would go down and erode a piece of the tragic situation; When the distance is shortened, the Mongolian cavalry will quickly lift the horses up, and at the same time gather in the process of rapid assault and carry out a concentrated assault towards a certain place of the Liang army.

In this process, the firing direction of the Liang Army artillery will also be bypassed as much as possible.

However, when they got closer, they were greeted by chain bullets and shotguns that had not appeared yesterday.

Compared with solid bullets, the range of chain bullets is shorter, but the two solid bullets are connected together with iron chains, and after being fired, they rotate at high speed and fall into the enemy formation, and the coverage is by no means comparable to that of a single solid bullet.

Although chain shells are complex in construction and fire more slowly, they are much more effective against scattered enemy soldiers than solid bullets.

The range of shotguns is shorter, and they are mainly used to shoot enemy troops within 300 paces, but light smoothbore guns contain 200 small projectiles in one shotgun, and four to six smoothbore guns are fired together, forming in an instant

The fan-shaped barrage is enough to make the enemy troops who are currently charging over eroded.

The bombardment power of the six-bottle light smoothbore gun at close range is comparable to that of thousands of super crossbows, how can this battle be fought?

Of course, the most important thing is that the elite of the Great Liang has forged a steel-like will after fighting in the south and north over the years, and even with the original combat weapons, they are completely unafraid of being frontally attacked by the Mughal cavalry in the field.

Even if the Mengwu cavalry can avoid the firing angle of the artillery, the elite of the Great Liang Hundred Battles will face it without fear, entangled with the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, and then call the artillery troops to calmly look for opportunities to fire in the entanglement battle......

After fighting for a long time, watching the tired soldiers covered with scars retreat to the temporary camp in the south one after another at night, watching these generals with such anxiety and despair on their faces, and even whipped their beloved war horses under their crotches, Xiao Yiqing's heart was cold.

In just half a day, more than 7,000 generals threw their bodies among the ice and snow of the wilderness, and they couldn't even defeat any of the interception arrays that the Liang army extended from the high ground to the periphery.

The first and second central marching armies of the Liang army not only completely occupied Jincheng today, but also advanced more than ten miles north from Jincheng, so that the space for their activities between Jincheng and Jinquan Mountain was compressed to a depth of less than seventy miles.

The scouts who infiltrated the territory of Mengzhou and Jiangzhou also rushed back to report that the Liang army had carried out a comprehensive mobilization in Mengzhou, Jiangzhou, Hejin, Pingyang and other places three days earlier, and almost 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers and horses were entering Jinnan from Taihang and Qinshui River Valleys.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Xiao Yiqing turned around and saw Usu Dashi walking over accompanied by Jebe.

"We're going to prepare for the worst......" Xiao Yiqing said in a low voice.

If 200,000 soldiers and civilians were wiped out here, not to mention that Huguan and Luzhou in the north would be impossible to hold, and even Taiyuan Mansion and even the three towns of Heshuo and Yanyun Prefectures in the north would fall, it would be a matter of time sooner or later.

The worst-case scenario was that Wusu Dashi and some of the core generals, under the protection of a small group of elite soldiers and horses, crossed the steep mountains of Taiyue Mountain and rushed back to Taiyuan City to organize the largest and most complete retreat since the southern invasion.

Not only will Taiyuan, Zelu and Heshuo be abandoned, Yanyun and even Liaodong and other places will be given up to protect the last tribes of the Mengwu to move into the depths of the desert to recuperate.

Unless one day the Mengwu master the smelting, casting, and ordnance casting techniques comparable to those of the Liang army, they should never be the enemy of the Liang army again.

"If you don't get to despair, you won't have the worst plan!" Wu Su Dashi categorically interrupted Xiao Yiqing's words and did not ask him to continue.

Looking at Wusu Dashi's cold face, Xiao Yiqing was stunned, knowing that Wusu Dashi may not really feel that there is still hope for a successful breakthrough at this time, maybe he thinks that even if he escapes back to Taiyuan, there is not much difference compared to dying here, right?

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The Mongols rested for a day, and it was only on the third day that the Liang army once again charged the defensive positions established east of the Nose Ridge, but it was more like a desperate struggle at the end.

After two or three rounds of charges, the morale of the infantry soldiers recruited from Yanyun and Liaodong was so low that they did everything possible to delay and not move, or after the sortie, they just received two or three shells in the array, and then they dispersed in a hurry, and re-entered the narrow starting area in front of the warlord.

Not wanting to cause an uncontrollable mutiny, Wusu Dashi did not dare to supervise the battle too quickly, at this time, it was more to use the cavalry of his own clan to rush into battle, but everything was in vain.

Since the Liang army on the southern front was also equipped with a certain amount of artillery, the soldiers and horses of the Mongolian army could not effectively intercept the Liang army on the southern front.

The Liang army on the southern front was still advancing northward at a rate of ten to twenty miles a day.

On the fifth day, except for the soldiers and civilians who were defeated or fled in a hurry, Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing could not resist the northern and southern attacks of the Liang army, so they could only lead the last 80,000 remnants of the army and were forced to withdraw to a valley at the eastern foot of Changyuan Mountain.

The Liang army, which was constantly recruiting reinforcements from Mengzhou, Jiangzhou, Pingyang and others, had gathered 130,000 powerful soldiers and horses east of Changyuan Mountain at this time.

Prior to this, not only were 100,000 women and children evacuated from Jincheng dispersed, and I don't know how many died of hunger and cold in the ice and snow, but there were always 70,000 soldiers in the Mongolian army, either killed or captured or escaped to the deep mountains and old forests......

In addition to opening a narrow passage and accepting the surrender of the Han army of Yanyun, Liaodong, Jindi, and Heshuo, Kong Xirong commanded the army to surround the remnants of the Mongolian army from three sides, and carried out artillery bombardments from time to time every day, constantly pressing the remnants of the Mongolian army into the depths of the valley.

On the last day of the seventh year of Taihe, all the troops sent their elites into the enemy formation, completely crushing the last remaining resistance of the Mongolian army.

Sima De and Cao Zhe, accompanied by Wen Ruilin, walked into the enemy camp that could not bear to see, and saw Xiao Siqing, Zhebei and other enemy generals finally died in front of a big tent.

Sima De, Cao Zhe and Wen Ruilin walked into the big tent, and in addition to seeing the coffin containing the body of Wusu Dashi, they also saw Xiao Yiqing, who had died of poison......