At the end of June, the seventh town of Xue Sheng and the eighth town of Zhoukong went to Ganfu first, and on the fourth day of the seventh month, King Xian held a ceremony in the south of the city.

Different from the previous pomp, this time the battle is much more low-key, this time there is no guard of honor, King Xian did not arrive, but by the prince on behalf of King Xian to attend the ceremony, and then Zhao Xun, Bai Liyan, Lu Gao, Lu Tingxun and others with their children, led by the powerful private soldiers to put together more than 26,000 people, all the way to the road, not at all can see that this is an army that is about to fight with the tiger wolf.

The next day, the "army" arrived at the royal family, absorbing more than 5,000 private soldiers from all walks of life, so far most of the powerful private soldiers from all over the country are concentrated here, only the private soldiers of Luhou, Xuanting, and Guangxin are still on the road.

On the sixth and seventh days of July, they arrived at Yongxing and Xuanyun successively, and Jiang Jie and 4,000 people from the armed battalion were incorporated into the brigade and crossed the river through the Ruitian ferry. In view of the necessity of military secrecy, the armed battalions were all issued with cold weapons, and the guns, ammunition and equipment were handed over to the Xue Sheng Zhen Army, and they were arranged separately after arriving in Ganfu County.

On July 11, the army went to Tailai, Zhongxing, Longsheng and other places, and the sixth town army of Fang Liang and Tian Peng merged into the army.

Fang Liang and Tian Peng's town army has a total of 20,000 people, most of whom are citizens of the newly attached Central Plains, and more importantly, the Sixth Town Army does not have a general, there is no metropolitan governor, Fang Liang and Tian Peng are both overseers, one level lower than the metropolitan governor.

The reason for this situation is, in the final analysis, xenophobia. The deep-rooted xenophobia of the people in the newly attached plains could not convince them of the appointment of an official governor, but the promotion of an outsider to the post of military commander was not tolerated by the current system, so there was a peculiar landscape in which there were neither generals nor governors, and the overseers led more than 10,000 troops.

On the fifteenth of July, the horses were driven into the capital through Ganfu and through Qiunan, and the army was able to rush to the front on horseback, and tens of thousands of reservists joined the ranks along the way, and by the beginning of August, when they arrived in Ganfu, the initial number of more than 30,000 increased to 250,000.

On the twenty-second day of July, Bai Liyan rushed to Wanchuan ahead of the brigade to inspect the development of industries in various places.

Since 648, 157 factories have been built in various parts of Wanchuan, 45 of which have not yet been completed, and 63 basic industries such as beer, brewing, flour, cotton yarn, textile, dyeing, pharmaceutical, cement, food, leather, quilting, depots, and ironware workshops have been set up one after another, two middle school halls, one Yicaotang branch, and one comprehensive epidemic prevention station.

At the same time, it is planned to start in the second half of next year, and successively install a number of advanced variable speed machine tools and equipment to Wanchuan Transportation, and prepare to build core industries such as machining, thread production, instrumentation, and precision machining.

At the same time, around July 18, the news of Xianguo's dispatch of troops arrived in Pingtang, the capital of the Jin Kingdom, and the doubts of Xihuan and Ji Jinsheng also became the puzzle of King Jin and Fan Tao at this moment.

"This Baili Yan is stupid, the eldest grandson has not promised to give up the land, the Xianjun and the defense of the country are fighting, what benefits can they get!"

"The king, Baili Yan has always been deviant, and the minister thinks that what Ji Jinsheng said has some truth, with Bai Li Yan's temperament, he will definitely not suffer, and there must be extraordinary means to benefit. Therefore, the minister thought that our northern army in Qiguo should also be transferred to combat as soon as possible, and contact the four countries of the West Sea to join forces after the defeat of the defense army. ”

"But what if the Xianguo is defeated!"

King Jin said worriedly, and at this time, Gao Ji, a student of Fan Tao, stepped forward and said

"If the Xian army is defeated, our country might as well fall into the well, at least get back the Lingshan silver mine. If Wei Guo wants to send troops against Xian Guo, our country can take advantage of the weakness to enter Yongxing and occupy the capital county and Dong County in the name of assisting in defense, so that Wei Guo will not get anything. ”

When King Jin heard the news, he was a little moved, so he asked Fan Tao

"Fan Xiang, how is this discussion?"

"The minister thinks it is feasible, our country still has 50,000 garrisons in the year, and there are still 50,000 in the north, so it is easy to reach the Yongxing River before the defense of the country. At the same time, it is also possible to conscript conscripts and recruit civilian troops to participate in the war, and there is absolutely no problem in gathering four or five hundred thousand men within three months. ”

There must be a teacher and an apprentice, Uncle Kuo went to extremes, and brought out a student Fan Tao to go to extremes, and now Gao Ji has learned from the same and also gone to extremes, which can really be said to be in the same vein.

On the ninth day of the eighth month, Bailiyan arrived in Ganfu and did not wait for the heat, but received the news that Mooney personally carried the goods into the Central Plains for trading. Bai Liyan thought about the future of Mooney last year, and suddenly came back this year, which was a little unusual, so she asked Xiao Gongyi to send someone to further inquire about the news.

At the same time, at the head of the east gate of Jiangquan City, Dekang County, across the river in Ganfu County, the commander of the Wei Army, the son of Du Zhen, the former general of Weiguo Zhennan, and now the general of the Eastern Expedition, Du Ruixun, stood at the head of the city and held an eight-fold telescope to look at the Xian army on the east bank, and he was very worried, and he said to Wang Xie, the protector general next to him

"General Wang, can you find out the strength of the Xian army?"

"Qi Qi Du Shuai, the Xian army is closely inspected in various places, and there are secret sentinel secret spy operations in each other, it is difficult for our country to get close to the place where the Xian army passes, and the Xian army does not march through the town at all, so our army cannot find clues from its foothold."

"Then have you ever found out about the transportation of heavy grain and grass in the Xian army?"

"Yes, but it is strange to say that the baggage transfer of the Xian army is divided into land and waterway, and the water transportation is all ordinary military materials, and the grain and grass transferred by land are very small, all of them are some wooden boxes and sundries, and it is completely impossible to see how many troops the Xian army has gathered. However, the Xian army moved back 400,000 horses from the southern horse farms.

According to the calculation of Bailiyan's tactics, it must have at least 150,000 cavalry or infantry horses, one person and three horses to attack alternately, and the infantry should have 400,000 to 500,000. But judging from the news sent by Chenling, Xianguo is raising the strength of the whole country this time, and if it is calculated in this way, his subordinates really can't imagine how many soldiers and horses the Xian army can gather. ”

"yes...... The Xian army is menacing, but it can't be discerned, but it can still faintly detect the murderous aura across the river, which is by no means a good thing. ”

Du Ruixun faintly felt that the situation was not good, it was noon, the river was open, and the opposite bank was in full view, not to mention the telescope, but Jiangquan City was so important to rush, but there was no movement of the Xian army on the other side.

According to common sense, the two armies must set up heavy military handles when facing each other, and now all countries have artillery, which can be hit across the river, and there is no reason why the Xian army should not station heavy troops on the other side of the river and set up artillery positions, but the main force of the Xian army has entered Ganfu for several days, and there has been no movement on the other side of the river for a long time, which inevitably makes Du Ruixun feel unusual.

In mid-August, the main force of the Xian army arrived, and the reserve army increased to 600,000. Du Ruixun not only stopped continuing to attack northward, but after noticing the abnormality of the Xian army, he quickly withdrew more than 200,000 people from the main force that attacked Fangling, consolidated the defense of Dekang, and asked for help from King Wei.

The Xian army camped in the city of Yangdu by the river, which is ten miles away from the river in the west and thirty miles away from the Quanhe River in the north, which is an important hub for controlling the inland rivers of Ganfu.

It stands to reason that such a pivotal place should be built close to the confluence of the Quanhe River and the Sishui River, and the confluence of the Quanhe River and the Sishui River in the northwest of Ranyangdu is a tidal flat, full of silt, due to the perennial flooding, the place where the two rivers intersect will be submerged every flood season.

After the Xianguo took over Ganfu, he vigorously dredged the river and built embankments, and this flooded land has now become a veritable fertile land, and it is one of the few good fields under the rule of Ganfu County that can reach more than four stones.

However, the Xianguo built a levee on the east bank, and Dekang County on the west bank was much more unlucky, due to the poverty and luxury of the country and the lack of way to govern the country, after taking over Dekang, not only did not build water, but also accelerated the local ecological destruction.

A large number of lakes are reclaimed, and even along the inland river, so that before the flood season, the river water is blocked by the embankment on the east bank, and can only pour to the west, so that the west bank is often a piece of Zeguo, so that the widest part of the river in the flood season actually reaches six miles.

It is midsummer at the moment, and the end of summer and the beginning of autumn are the high autumn flood season, and Bailiyan pondered that the patriots were also waiting for the autumn flood, in a vain attempt to block the Xian army from crossing the river with the autumn flood.

Yangdu Marshal's Mansion, Baili Yan just returned to the city from the army and replied to Zhao Xun. Although Zhao Xun is still the coach, it is actually Bai Liyan who is overstepping his authority. One is that Zhao Xun is a little powerless, and the other is that Zhao Xun is actually a little out of order, he has never seen so many advanced artillery, so many guns, and when the hot and cold weapons alternate, he is a little at a loss.

Third, Zhao Xun is a very self-aware person, and he also knows that the structure of the army has undergone earth-shaking changes compared to ten years ago, and it has exceeded the limit of his own ability, so he has no intention of commanding the army here, and he wants to know how Bailiyan is going to fight.

"Deputy Marshal Baili came back just in time, and the old man is asking you something."

Baili Yanjing sat down and took a sip of water and said

"Zhao Shuai, please speak."

"The old man heard that there is a refining furnace south of Tongxiang, and the guards have artillery on the opposite bank, do you know this."

"Oh, I have always known about this matter, there are 240 artillery pieces of various types of guards on the opposite bank, and I have transferred 10 mortars, 40 24-pound guns, and 15 36-pound cannons to secretly deploy artillery positions, and on the day of the battle, I can destroy all the guards artillery as soon as possible."

"The refining furnace was put into operation last year, and the deputy marshal of Baili knew that he was at war with the country this year, why did he place the refining furnace by the river in the first place, was it not intentional?"

"Hehe, Zhao Shuai Mingjian, this pig iron workshop is indeed intentional, the purpose is to draw out the patriotic artillery, so as to annihilate one by one."

Zhao Xun twisted his white beard and nodded lightly and said

"This method is not bad, but it is a bit risky, in case there is a mistake, but it is a big loss."

"Zhao Shuai rest assured, with my country's current technical strength and national strength, even if it is easy to build another twenty or thirty pig iron plants of this scale."

Wei Guo accumulated a certain amount of experience in the use of artillery, which can be seen from the artillery positions deployed on the opposite bank of the pig iron plant.

Due to the lack of casting accuracy and gunpowder power cognition of the early breech guns, as well as the constraints of observation and sighting methods, the shooting accuracy of the breech guns was unsatisfactory, and the use of solid projectiles made the hit rate actually very low.

In most cases, ricochets are used to kill, which not only makes the projectile cut at a certain angle when it hits the ground, but then bounces on the ground, as if it were a splash. The more this number of projectiles bounce on the ground, the longer the distance, the greater the range of damage.

Although Wei Guo had not yet mastered this principle, in order to make up for the shortcomings in the shooting accuracy of the breech gun, he could only rely on the density of the projectile to make up for it, so he made up an "artillery array".

()

。