Chapter 61: Preparations for Attack Respond calmly

As soon as Zhang Zhimu finished speaking, Li Yunhe came over and said, "Mr. Zhang, this distilled coal tar thing should have been done earlier." If you can get the oil out, you can solve the big problem now. The hydraulic oil on the buffer on the mortar can also be replaced, and our gearbox can be cooled with oil. Besides, it is very convenient to switch to hydraulic oil without using water for those hydraulic equipment, at least it will not rust. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Okay! If you have time now, come with me to Yaogang Academy. Let's go to Qingfengzi together and ask him to organize people to quickly fractionate this coal tar. I'm afraid he won't have enough people. It's very difficult for them to synthesize ammonia. ”

Li Yunhe said: "No, we are also involved in many people who are engaged in machinery, and the equipment they need is required to withstand high temperature and high pressure, which is very difficult to get and too demanding." ”

"Synthetic ammoniation has to be done with as much effort as it takes. After this breakthrough, we have a lot of things to do. Zhang Zhimu said.

When Zhang Zhimu came to Qingfengzi's laboratory, he saw that the laboratory was already very tidy and everything was placed in an orderly manner, and it seemed that he accepted Zhang Zhimu's opinion. Qingfengzi saw Zhang Zhimu and Li Yunhe coming together, and knew that something was wrong again.

Qingfengzi said: "Mr. Zhang, we are a bit eyebrow-raising in the photography business, but we still have a lot of things to do." The progress of synthetic ammonia is not going well, and some things have to be redone, which is too difficult. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "The two things you are grasping now are not difficult. I'm going to get you a little bit more difficult today. ”

Qingfengzi said: "Mr. Zhang's matter, there is no difficulty. Tell me about it. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "You have seen that our smelter has stored a lot of coal tar. I want you to build an oil refinery at the smelter and fractionate the coal tar into gasoline, kerosene, diesel, engine oil, and finally the asphalt. ”

Qingfengzi said, "What are your requirements?" ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "In fact, the composition of coal tar is very complex, so we fractionate them into these oils at different temperatures. We can now simply separate the coal tar by distillation. In fact, in the future, we can also use the method of hydrogenation and pressure to crack kerosene into gasoline, and produce as much gasoline as possible. In short, this oil refining business requires a group of people to engage in this work for life, and this will be a big industry in the future. This industry is going to have a very big impact on us as human beings. Don't look at the limited amount of coal tar in our smelter, after they will not be enough in the future, we will have to find fierce fire oil to replace them. ”

Qingfengzi said: "Now that there is a war outside, we can't go through the smelter." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Now you need to make preparations for the construction of the factory, and I will ask Mr. Lu to help you with the planning and design of the factory." When the battle is over, you will build a factory. Without diesel gasoline, Li Yunhe's engine could not be tested. However, you need to develop the equipment for oil refining. So you need to do a lot of experiments to fully test the parameters of oil refining. I can only give you the approximate fractionation parameters of these oils. ”

Qingfengzi said: "Alas! I'm just short of people. Again, this is no small matter. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "How is it? Yunhe, I just said that Master Qingfengzi will definitely lack people here. Let me sue you, there seems to be no shortage of people in our kiln gang. Therefore, if you study chemistry in college, you must train it well. ”

Several people were discussing things when suddenly, the explosion of heavy mortar shells was heard outside the window. Zhang Zhimu hurriedly called the command center, and Chen Yufeng said: "Fang is Li Wei They found that between our kiln and the fort, there was a group of thieves who seemed to want to camp there, Li Wei said that he wanted to bomb them, and I let them fight." I told him to fight as long as he could see it, and to keep the bunnies away from us. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Yes, as long as you show your head, you will be beaten." We can't let them swagger in front of us, there are no rules. ”

Li Zicheng's Dashun army implemented a large encirclement tactic against Yaogang and Xiurong, that is, to encircle Xiurong and Yaogang together. They originally wanted to divide and surround it, but the kiln was too close to Xiurong, especially when a fort was built between the kiln and Xiurong, and there was no way to divide it.

However, after Yuan Zongdi and they brought people up, they felt that it was not possible to keep in touch with Yaogang and Xiurong, and they should be separated. They didn't know the depth, so they sent a team of people to pull the wooden tents in carts, trying to build a stockade between the fort and the kiln. This may not be a problem in other places, because the opponent is surrounded by a group, and there is a stockade a mile or two away from them, and the opponent is helpless.

But they forgot to ask why Liu Zongmin didn't do this. But the final answer was what Li Wei told them with their heavy mortars. Since the positions around the artillery positions are calibrated, the firing elements of the artillery do not need to be checked.

Li Wei's order was to fire two shots from each of the five heavy mortars, and as a result, Yuan Zongdi and the others only knew the power of the heavy artillery this time. After the explosion of ten shells, all the wagons, tents and personnel flew together. Fortunately, not many of their men and horses came at once, but more than 100 people were killed and wounded at once.

Li Zicheng had already followed the old battalion to the front, and he also heard the explosion of heavy artillery, and asked: "The people of Yaogang will not send heavy artillery for no reason, see what's going on?" ”

After the others came back to report that Yuan Zongdi's people had been bombed, Li Zicheng smiled bitterly and said, "Hmph! They couldn't listen to it anyway, but this time the sound of the cannon could be understood. If you don't suffer a little loss, you won't grow. ”

Niu Jinxing said: "Your Majesty, you can't blame them all, how many battles we have fought along the way, and we have never fought such a battle." We haven't found a way to defeat the enemy so far, and I think the emperor will also prepare for the worst. If we just can't enter the kiln, will we adopt the method of besieging the city and trapping it? No matter how powerful they are, there will be times when the food will run out and the ammunition will run out. ”

Li Zicheng shook his head and said, "We can't afford to be reliable with them here. I have thought that we are more angry with the people of Yaogang, our goal should be Beijing, we should not delay too much time here, we bypassed Yaogang and went directly to Guguan Jingjing, entered Zhongshu Province in Beijing, took Beijing, and the north of the Yellow River can be determined. Then just go back and clean up this kiln. ”

Song Xiance said: "The people of Yaogang have not attacked, do they just want to rely on us." But they don't do any good like this, they are a small place after all, they have been surrounded for a long time, and the Ming Dynasty can't and can't come out to rescue them. What kind of tricks they played, I couldn't figure it out. ”

Li Zicheng said: "No matter what their purpose is, one thing is clear, they are using their advantages to consume our personnel, and we have not done anything, and tens of thousands of people have been killed and wounded." If the battle continues like this, our people will all be consumed here. When we destroy the Yaogang people, we may have to withdraw our troops, and we won't have many people left. ”

Niu Jinxing said: "The emperor doesn't have to be too pessimistic, our battle against Yaogang this time must not be a refueling tactic, and we must concentrate all our strength to fight a battle." ”

"Strategist, tell me what you think." Li Zicheng said.

Song Xiance said: "We have 400,000 people in the team that came to Yaogang this time, but there are at most 200,000 people in front. This time, our idea was to concentrate 150,000 men and launch a simultaneous attack on two wide fronts to the south and west of the kiln hill. The northern and western parts of Yaogang are mountainous areas, and the large army cannot be spread at all, but we must also send troops to carry out a diversionary attack. In addition, in order to relieve the worries of the attacking troops, we also have to send people to carry out a containment attack on Xiurong and the battery at the same time. A part of the people will also be sent to monitor their smelting yard and Lingshui wharf. The vanguard of the attack must carry a large amount of firewood and grass, and the firewood and grass must be constantly transported forward, and as long as the attack does not stop, the fireworks cannot be extinguished. I found that both sides of the road from Xiurong to Yaogang were very flat, and the Yaogang people also arranged three layers of barbed wire and three trenches, and I wanted to send 5,000 cavalry to attack from here when the battle started, and if we could break through here, our brigade could follow up from here. ”

Li Zicheng asked: "The cavalry attack we thought of, the Yaogang people would not have imagined?" In addition to barbed wire, they will have things like horse stakes**. ”

Niu Jinxing said: "Your Majesty, there will definitely be great casualties in this attack, but the five thousand cavalry are all dead, and it is worth it to be able to defeat the kiln." ”

Li Zicheng said: "Behind the 5,000 cavalry, prepare another 5,000, the first batch is dead and can't rush in, and the second batch will go up." ”

That night, suddenly an arrow rang out and hit the position of the kiln. Soon the letter that rang in from the arrow was sent to the command center, and because the situation was already tense, Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He did not leave the command center twenty-four hours a day. Ouyang He took the letter and opened it, but he couldn't understand it, it was all a secret letter. Watch tightly and call Li Zhi to come over. As soon as Li Zhi saw the letter, he was usually unremarkable, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Took the letter and left.

When Li Zhi returned after a while, he took out a translated piece of information, which provided the main attack plan of the Dashun army. Li Zhi was even happier that **was still active, and he couldn't contact his family before, but this time he followed Li Zicheng's camp to the periphery of the kiln gang, and he risked his risk to shoot the information in with a ringing arrow.

After reading the information, Ouyang He handed the information to Chen Yufeng and said: "Li Zicheng's military advisors, I don't think there is anything outstanding, and their tricks are nothing more than that. We are better prepared than they are. ”

Chen Yufeng said while looking at the intelligence: "They have only been preparing for a few days, how long will we study." It seems that the day after tomorrow will start the gong. ”

Hearing Li Zhi say: "**There is news, Zhang Zhimu is also very happy." During this period of time, there was no ** news, which made Zhang Zhimu very anxious. ”

At dawn, in view of the fact that the Dashun army was going to attack tomorrow, the leaders of Yaogang held a meeting together.

At the meeting, after Ouyang He introduced the current situation, Yan Boju couldn't help but say: "Okay, finally Li Zicheng is here, they come early, and finish the fight early." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "For tomorrow's battle, we don't need to hold today's meeting, but since we predicted Li Zicheng's attack in advance, we still called everyone together and said hello to everyone." Like all of you, I hope this battle is over as soon as possible. But I would like to remind you that the battle that begins tomorrow will not end anytime soon. We just want to drag Li Zicheng here, let them know that they can't bite them, and then go to fight somewhere else. When they've finished fighting for us, we'll fight back. So you have to have a long time to prepare. ”

Zhang Bengui, the god hand, said: "Don't worry, Zhimu." The person who is responsible for rescuing the wounded behind us is ready, and the red wound medicine is guaranteed to be enough, and the beds are also sufficient. You just have to fight a good battle, and you don't have to worry about the rest of the matter. ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "If Li Zicheng is willing, let them surround outside, even if we surround for a year or two, we will not have to worry about eating and drinking." ”

Zhang Zhimu smiled and said, "We don't have time to play with them for so long, even if they have time, we won't accompany them." It's already March, and when spring begins, we can't afford to delay the farming season, and I promise to drive them away before then, so that they don't bother us here. ”

After listening to Zhang Zhimu's words, everyone was more relaxed.

Lu Chengxiang said: "Actually, I also know that Mr. Chen and Mr. Ouyang have been preparing for this war for a long time, and I don't have to worry about it." I see a few of them here, so let's look into something. In the past two days, I went to Lu Qi's textile factory to have a look, and their workshop was too crowded. I wanted to talk to him about expanding production, but it was impossible to see that there was no place for it. We researched it and wanted to build a large textile mill again, and build all the spinning and weaving workshops together. I asked, and our two-megawatt motor will be generating electricity soon, and there will be enough electricity. I took a good look at the area to the west of the college, where we can build a factory, and I also calculated that if this factory arrives in three shifts, it can arrange 10,000 female workers. The income of our factory can feed our entire kiln gang people without worrying about eating and drinking. ”

Zhang Zhimu, like the big guy at the meeting, immediately changed the topic to making money when he saw Lu Chengxiang, it seems that he really didn't take the war seriously.

Zhang Zhimu said: "Mr. Lu, it is a good thing to build a factory to expand production, and I approve of it. The larger the scale of our industrial production, the better the efficiency. But you can't build a factory there in that place. Because after the war, our Yaogang Association will be the economic and cultural center of the whole Shanxi, and our Yaogang College will also expand its enrollment and the scale of the college, so the place west of the college will be set aside. There is another question, our production scale has expanded, do we have enough cotton raw materials? ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "It seems that I didn't think about it. Let's choose another place for our factory. Mr. Zhang, please rest assured that you are talking about cotton raw materials. We have channels to purchase cotton from Zhongshu Province and Qinping Plains, and our Shanxi Jinnan is also a place rich in grain and cotton, which is enough for us. In the future, if we expand the scale of production, Henan Huguang produces cotton, so there is no need to worry. ”

After the meeting had all gone, Ouyang He said: "We still have another regiment that has all been reloaded with rifles, and they have been practicing at Li Yunhe's shooting range for a few days. I'll let them stand by there. We now have two fully reequipped rifle regiments. Let's just leave a rifle regiment as our Fangcheng guard. Another rifle regiment, as a maneuver, where there is a situation to turn the tide of the battlefield. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Such a regiment should have no problem dealing with tens of thousands of people. If they can't handle broadswords and spears with rifles, we won't fight. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Actually, these two rifle regiments can be used as reserves, and the matter of the Fangcheng guards can be handed over to Yang Yulin's female soldiers." There are more than 500 of them. There is no way, Yang Yulin is now equipping their female soldiers with rifles and pistols. They don't get more bullets. I see that the guards in charge of Fang Cheng are fine. ”

Chen Yufeng laughed and said, "Except for Li Jing's equipment, Yulin and them are the best. I look at it like this, and let Yang Yulin and them take over tonight. Replace that rifle regiment. ”

Yang Yulin was on the phone and was overjoyed when she heard that their female soldiers were asked to take over the post and be in charge of the guards in Fangcheng. She immediately went to the women's barracks for mobilization, and the female soldiers were of course happy to receive the task. Although they did not have the task of going directly to the battlefield, letting them be independently responsible for the guards of Fangcheng in Yaogang showed that the leaders of Yaogang had recognized their existence. The female soldiers said one after another that they were absolutely careless and would never let the last sneak attack by the thieves happen again.

For tomorrow's attack, Li Zicheng's military meeting was not as easy as that of the Yaogang people.

Before the war began, Yuan Zongdi's men had killed and injured more than 100 people, and he also felt very unlucky. But it is also necessary to make him a little clear-headed, knowing that General Liu Zongmin and Hao Shaoqi will not be defeated so badly for no reason.

Li Zicheng said with a serious face: "Brothers, the specific tasks of each of you have also been assigned to you by the military advisors, and I won't say more. This battle is very important for us to regain our morale, and I will personally come to the front tomorrow to show you the enemy's formation and watch you lead the charge. When I rush into the kiln, I want to give you a celebratory wine there. ”

Liu Zongmin said: "Master, you are waiting for our good news in the big tent!" ”

The others also persuaded: "No, the artillery fire of the kiln gang people is too dangerous." ”

Niu Venus also said: "So be it! Tomorrow, I will go to the front enemy with my military advisor, and the emperor will not be in danger. ”

Li Zicheng slapped the table and said: "There is no need to discuss this matter. If you fight well, I'll be fine, if you can't beat the kiln, let the cannon of the kiln gang kill me, and then you guys will break up! ”

In this way, everyone can't be persuaded either.

But in the evening, Li Zicheng suddenly asked to go to see what the kiln gang was like, and everyone hurriedly invited the military advisor and the prime minister. Li Zicheng saw the two of them and said, "You guys came just in time, go with me to see what the kiln is like." ”

Niu Jinxing said: "Your Majesty, it's dangerous, don't go." ”

Li Zicheng said: "You say that there is danger during the day, but I see that they can't see us at night, so let's go and see if it's okay." ”

Seeing that Li Zicheng insisted on going, Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance had no choice but to follow. When they came close to the kiln, they extinguished the lantern, and on a small hill southeast of the kiln, Li Zicheng and others looked at the kiln.

Li Zicheng asked, "What day is today?" Why is the kiln lit everywhere? ”

Song Xiance said: "Your Majesty, there is nothing special today. The kiln people light the lamp like this every night. You can see that their lights are still very bright, and it is said that they are their street lights. On their main roads, at night, they are lit with these street lamps, saying that they are for the convenience of pedestrians. There are also those who use street lamps to do some small business. ”

Li Zicheng sighed and said, "Alas! I really wanted to look there and see what they were doing. ”

Song Xiance said: "Tomorrow we will lay down the kiln gang, and the emperor can look at it whatever he wants." ”

Li Zicheng snorted and said, "Hmph! We can't do this with the kiln people! I think there should be kiln people in this world, and they will do a better job than us. If it weren't for the war, I really wanted to have a good chat with this Zhang Zhimu, no wonder, some people are looking to Zhang Zhimu, I'm a little tempted. ”

Li Zicheng looked at Yaogang for a long time, and Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance didn't dare to persuade him to go back.

Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance don't know today, there will be a big battle tomorrow, what kind of emotion does Li Zicheng have here.

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Paragliding, rubber model airplanes, piano making, and building an air force. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".