A month later, Huang Zide once again stood on the tower of Taiyuan City without a fight. The local garrison, as soon as he heard that his army was approaching, took the initiative to contact him to surrender. Moreover, Bai Guangen told Huang Zide that before that, the letters of surrender he had been ordered to send to the generals he was familiar with had also been rewarded. These generals said one after another that as soon as Marshal Huang's army arrived, they would immediately do it. Receiving these news, Huang Zide was both happy and a little worried.

Naturally, the concern is the issue of supplies. Jingxiang is in his own hands, but Huguang has not been completely pacified. In addition, his own supply system has not yet had time to be established, so even if Jingxiang has food, it can't be sent over thousands of miles. And with so many surrendered troops here, they can't all be sent back to Jingxiang. Taiyuan is a big city, and there is still some food in the city, but this can't stand the fact that there are too many soldiers under Huang Zide now.

When he went out to fight Sun Baigu, Huang Zide only brought more than 20,000 people, and later added Sun Baigu's side to surrender, there were almost 40,000 people, Huang Zide sent most of these people to Jingxiang, and the number of troops was reduced to 30,000, but when he arrived in Xi'an, because there were too many officers and soldiers who surrendered, the number of troops swelled to 60,000 or 70,000. Huang Zide tried hard to send some back to Jingxiang, but there were almost 50,000 people left. After taking Taiyuan, the number of the army swelled again, reaching nearly 100,000 at once. Feeding such an army has become a big problem.

Of course, there are also joyful things. For example, some scholars took the initiative to defect to Huang Zide. And this scholar is not like Niu Juming, just a person-raising figure, but a famous minister Hui Yuanru who was famous all over the world and once entered the cabinet of Emperor Chongde. Hui Yuanru was almost eighty years old at this time, and it was said that he should honestly eat at home and wait for death. But I don't know if it's because I just didn't be able to be the first assistant in this life, and I was unwilling, so now that I look at the world, it seems that there will be a big change immediately, regardless of my age, after Huang Zide conquered Xi'an, I rushed to Huang Zide's military camp in person to meet Huang Zide.

After Huang Zide heard about it, he hurriedly went out to greet him, invited Hui Yuanru into the military tent, and talked with him for a long time. Hui Yuanru believes that Huang Zide is the destiny of heaven and should be in the position as soon as possible to conform to the will of heaven and the hearts of the people. And said to Huang Zide: "The old minister lived for more than eighty years, and I don't know until today that the old minister was born to assist a holy monarch like Your Majesty." ”

Hui Yuanru is a famous "gentleman" in the world, and his admiration naturally makes Huang complacent, and he also began to consider whether the time to seize the world is ripe.

As for Hui Yuanru, he is already in his eighties, and he doesn't know how long he can live. He naturally hoped very much that Huang Zide could seize the capital as soon as possible and become emperor as soon as possible. Then he can also get a position of Shousuke before he dies. Hui Yuanru felt that in terms of qualifications and influence alone, if Huang Zide was the emperor, no one else would be qualified to compete with him for the position of first assistant except him.

Huang Zide informed Niu Juming and Xuanyi of Hui Yuanru's opinion in the form of a Pegasus message, and asked for their opinions. As soon as Niu Juming heard that Hui Yuanru had defected to Huang Zide, he couldn't stay in Xiangyang for a while. So he reported on the flying, expressing his support for Hui Yuanru's opinion, and at the same time he suggested that Xuanyi Daoist be transferred back to Jingxiang to preside over Jingxiang's work, while he rushed to Xi'an, first, to send some supplies to Huang Zide, and secondly, to cooperate with Hui Yuanru to preside over Huang Zide's major event of establishing the infrastructure.

After sending the letter, Niu Juming did not wait for Huang Zide's reply, so he immediately sent someone to send the letter to Sichuan, pretending to be Huang Zide's order, so that Xuanyi Daoist immediately rushed to Jingxiang to take over his work. As for himself, he temporarily entrusted Jing Xiang to Shang Xiuying and Shang Yigong, and under the pretext of sending supplies to Huang Zide, he personally led a team of people to Xi'an.

When Niu Juming arrived in Xi'an, Xuan Yi also received letters from Huang Zide and Niu Juming. Xuan Yi read the letter, sighed, and then began to draft a reply.

In a reply to Huang Zide, Xuan Yi advised Huang Zide not to rush to become emperor, and it was better to claim the title of king first. And it's better not to march any further, but to find a way to go back. Especially don't go to Jingshi for a while. Of course, although Xuan Yi objected, his tone was not strong. In the letter to Niu Juming, Xuan Yi's tone was a little more eager, but he also suggested that Niu Juming rush to Huang Zide's side, but he hoped that Niu Juming could persuade Huang Zide to be calmer and more conservative.

Seal the letters, give them to your men, and let them send them away on fast horses. Then Xuan Yi began to prepare to return to Jingxiang out of Sichuan. He knew that the two letters he sent out wouldn't do much, at least not for now. These two letters are just a show of foresight and preparation for what lies ahead.

Xuan Yi had actually prepared for himself to go out of Sichuan for a long time, and at this time in Sichuan, the revolutionary army basically didn't have too many opponents. In the past few months, the basic civil rules have also been set. Xuan Yi followed Niu Juming's example, entrusted all kinds of affairs to He Zhangqi, and he left Chengdu with more than 2,000 soldiers and returned to Jingxiang.

Because the road is smooth, it is much faster to get out of the river than into the river. Starting from Chengdu, it flows down the Min River, enters the Yangtze River in Yibin, and then goes east along the Yangtze River, passing through Chongqing, to the Three Gorges. At the Three Gorges, the current becomes more turbulent, increasing the risk to the ship but also speeding it up. In the "Notes on the Book of Water", he said: "Or the king's order is urgently announced, sometimes the white emperor is sent to the court, and the twilight reaches Jiangling, during the period of 1,200 miles, although he takes the wind, he does not take the disease." However, Xuan Yi didn't go so fast, in order to avoid danger, the sun rose high before leaving, and the boat stopped and went ashore a little later. So I arrived in Gangneung at noon the next day. Then the boat landed and headed north in the direction of Xiangyang, and the road was all smooth.

rushed to Xiangyang, and before he had time to look at the city gate of Xiangyang, he first met Shang Yigong, who came to greet him. At this time, Niu Juming had been gone for several days, and Shang Xiuying had just given birth to a child not long ago, so naturally she couldn't take care of anything. Shang Yigong had not been involved in civil affairs before, and he was so busy during this time that he was about to become Sakyamuni. As soon as he saw Xuan Yi at this time, he hurriedly came up, grabbed Xuan Yi's hand and said, "Dao Chief, you are back." You don't know, that guy Niu Juming, who threw me the whole Jingxiang matter, where will I care about these things? It's really a few laps of the head. I look forward to the stars and the moon every day, and I look forward to you coming soon. If you don't come again, tomorrow morning, I will have to go to the Han River and jump into the river...... Hahahaha. ”

The two of them talked and laughed as they went to Xiangyang. After entering the city, he first went to meet Shang Xiuying with Shang Yigong. Shang Xiuying took out the newborn child and showed it to Xuanyi. Xuan Yi took the child, looked at it, and said with a smile: "This child is a person with great luck and great blessings." Then he said some more gossip, and Xuan Yi took his leave.

After saying goodbye, Xuan Yi went to the prefect's yamen in Xiangyang, where he took over the affairs in Gao Yigong's hands one by one. I studied it carefully. To say that Niu Juming was still very attentive when he presided over the civil affairs in the Jingxiang area, but Niu Juming did not put too much effort into strengthening Jingxiang's defense. This is also a natural thing, firstly, Niu Juming himself is not particularly familiar with military affairs, and secondly, because Huang Zide is now winning all the way, Jing Xiang does not clearly feel any threat at present. So the matter of strengthening the defense is naturally not an important matter. Even now, Xuan Yi has taken over all this, and if he wants to overhaul the defense openly, it is also difficult to convince Shang Xiuying and Monk Yigong. Shang Yigong is fine, but Shang Xiuying is very smart, and it is not easy to find a reason to deceive her.

Of course, the reason or something, Xuan Yi has already thought about it. It was carried out in the name of preparing for the future exit and the fight against the Tartars. The first of these matters was the creation of their own cannons and muskets.

In previous battles, the revolutionary army also captured some artillery officers and even craftsmen who made artillery and muskets. However, most of these craftsmen only have experience making small artillery, such as the Tiger Squat Cannon. But in Xuanyi's heart, in order to defend Xiangyang and keep his roots in the future, he must have enough artillery in his hands to fight against the Hongyi cannon of the Tartars.

Before entering Sichuan, the Xuanyi Taoists had sent people to Quanzhou and other places to contact Jesuit missionaries, allowing them to preach in Jingxiang as bait in exchange for technical guidance on cannon casting. But now, the people sent have not returned, although Xuan Yi feels that Yawei, who has been trying to infiltrate Middle-earth, will not let go of this opportunity easily, but the result is still unknown. Of course, contacting the Society of Jesus is not only for the cannon, but also for the future, after turning against Heaven, there will be more power that can be borrowed.

Nowadays, there is no shadow of Western artillery technicians, but time waits for no one, and Xuan Yi decided to start the research of heavy artillery immediately. He brought back tens of thousands of catties of high-grade gunpowder and thousands of catties of copper from Sichuan. Before that, Huang Zide also bought a lot of copper. So Xuanyi Daoist decided to rely on these things and began to try to make heavy artillery.

In addition to artillery, Xuan Yi also planned to renovate the walls of Xiangyang City. Although the walls of Yangyang Castle are tall and thick, they are relatively upright old-fashioned walls. Such walls, under heavy artillery fire, can easily collapse. In fact, in later generations, with the rise of artillery, the walls of Europe began to become low, and the slopes became relatively larger. Although this made it easier for enemy troops to climb to a certain extent, it also greatly reduced the possibility of the walls collapsing under artillery fire.

Of course, completely demolishing the walls and rebuilding them is too big a project, and it is not necessary today. But in key areas, it is perfectly fine to add some low, thick bastion corners to the outside of the walls. These things can also be done in the name of military training. Xuan Yi felt that if he had done all these things before the Tartars came. Relying on Xiangyang, he could withstand the siege of more than 100,000 enemy troops almost indefinitely.