Chapter 63: Expansion

The village of Songling in late autumn is like a fickle woman, the sky is cloudy and sunny, the village that has just had a heavy rain, suddenly sprinkled cold sunshine, the wind carries a warm chill, and even the smell of the earth is cold.

An Yi stood on the edge of the school yard, watching Lin Muzhi and his soldiers renovate the houses that were burned under the fire little by little.

He stepped on the already soft mud on the ground with his toes, and then looked at the wet wooden piles piled up on the side of the school yard that had been beaten by the autumn rain, sighed and said to himself: "This is really a house leak that happened to rain overnight." ”

"Brother An got up early in the morning and sighed here."

Listening to the voice, he knew that it was Jiang Ruyue, he turned around and looked at Jiang Ruyue who was walking towards him,

"Even I'm here with a scene where the building is about to collapse!"

An Yi smiled bitterly twice and said to Jiang Ruyue,

"By the way, Brother An came back from Chengdu a few days ago, saying that he had something to tell me, and he forgot about his busyness at this time, I don't know what happened?" Jiang Ruyue remembered what she wanted to say to herself before she remembered An Yi, but was later interrupted by Jin Mingyin looking for him to talk about starting a firearm, so she asked him,

An Yi patted his head, and then remembered, "Oh, I almost forgot about this, I want to tell you that when I went to the palace, the king of Shu came with news from the front line, and disaster happened!" You know what? ”

Jiang Ruyue thought for a while and said: "The disaster from the King of Shu must be related to the Northwest War situation, what's the matter?" The general soldier Wang Chengguang was defeated? ”

Although the miscalculation of "Jiang Xiucai" made An Yi feel a little proud, he still told him the heavy bad news quickly.

"Gansu Town and Lintao Mansion, all lost!"

"Lost all!?"

As expected, after Jiang Ruyue got the news, her eyes widened and she looked at him with the most incredulous gaze.

Although I didn't want to, I still had to nod heavily at him. Then he told him about Concubine Hui's delay in the army's trip and the negotiation with the Liao.

After hearing this, Jiang Ruyue immediately asked: "Brother An, do you know how many soldiers and horses the King of Shu brought from Sichuan to the northwest?" ”

"As far as I know, the King of Shu sent an edict to the northwest front and took almost all the soldiers and horses except for the garrisons of the provinces, with a small number of 50,000 people." An Yi replied,

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a thought flash through his mind.

When An Yi was in the palace before, he had always been very puzzled by the Liao people's land cession, and Jiang Ruyue's mention of Sichuan made him suddenly realize. Lintao Mansion is located on the border between Shaanxi and the Liao Dynasty, and the south of Lintao Mansion is bordered, isn't that Long'an Mansion in Sichuan?

"You mean it's the idea of the Liao people to fight Sichuan?" An Yi looked at Jiang Ruyue, who was groaning, and hurriedly asked,

Jiang Ruyue touched his chin and nodded, shook his head again, he squatted down, picked up a branch from the ground on the side, and drew it on the soft muddy ground that was beaten by the rain.

"Brother An, look, this is Lanzhou, this is Lintao Mansion, and this is Sichuan. According to the king of Shu, now that the army has been assembled in Lanzhou, I think the Liao people will not enter Sichuan until they deal with Lanzhou, which is high and deep in the city. ”

An Yi also squatted down, looked at this somewhat abstract sketch drawn by Jiang Ruyue, and said in a deep voice: "Well, what you said is true, Lanzhou is stuck in the easternmost part of Lintao Mansion, and behind it is Tongguan." Without worries, even if the Liao people took the entire territory of Lintao Mansion, they did not dare to touch Sichuan at will. Once the hundreds of thousands of troops in Lanzhou take advantage of their entry into Sichuan and cut off their back roads, it will be a catastrophe for them. ”

Jiang Ruyue inserted this small wooden stick into the place of "Lanzhou", and said in a letter: "If Lanzhou is not lost, Sichuan will not be lost, Sichuan will not be chaotic, even if the Liao people want to fight Lanzhou, they must divide their minds to guard against Sichuan." ”

An Yi looked at the sketch on the ground, and said intently: "Judging from the conditions put forward by the Liao people, they have no sincerity to negotiate peace at all. And..... And Sichuan is probably written on their menu a long time ago. According to what you said, this Lanzhou, I'm afraid the Liao people are bound to win it at all! ”

An Yi's words were a little larger, so that Jiang Ruyue didn't react for a while, he was stunned for a moment, and then responded: "Yes, I'm afraid that the Liao people have long been ready to attack Lanzhou." If that's the case, then Lanzhou won't be their ultimate goal. ”

Listening to his words, An Yi inadvertently frowned, and then asked Jiang Ruyue: "In case Lanzhou is lost, where else can the imperial court defend against the enemy?" ”

Jiang Ruyue looked at him, then pulled up the small stick that had just been inserted in "Lanzhou", and drew a zigzag line along his simple drawing, he moved his steps to extend the lines under the branches, and at the same time chattered to An Yinian: "If Lanzhou is lost, and the imperial court does not smash all the troops into it, there will be Tongguan, Xi'an, Taiyuan Mansion, Zhili, and finally ............"

Speaking of which, he drew a big circle on this long line of tail,

"In the end, it's.... Wang Jing! ”

An Yi looked at the line he drew and asked, "That means that we still have these four important places to stop the footsteps of the Liao people?" ”

After hearing this, Jiang Ruyue shook her head with a smile and replied, "With all due respect, with the combat strength of the Great Xia Army, I'm afraid Xi'an is already the place for the final decisive battle." If even Xi'an is lost, it is estimated that even if the imperial army at that time is not lost, it will no longer have the strength to fight, so the occupation of Sichuan and Wangjing is just a matter of time for the Liao. ”

Although Jiang Ruyue gave a very low evaluation of the nearly 500,000 Great Xia troops, An Yi knew in his heart that what he said was not unreasonable. It's just that there is no chance to understand the situation of the Liao army yet, so it is not very good to come to a definite conclusion.

After Jiang Ruyue finished speaking, she threw the small branch to the side, sighed and said: "At that time, the splendid mountains and rivers of the Great Xia Dynasty for more than 400 years are afraid that the dynasty will be changed." ”

What he said scared An Yi, although he didn't have too high expectations for the current situation of the Great Xia Army, but he should not die at the hands of the Liao. Even if King Kyoto is lost in the end, isn't there Jiangnan? In the end, the river was drawn and ruled, and it would not be enough for the Liao people to set foot in the land of Kyushu with hundreds of thousands of iron horses.

However, after talking so far from Jiang Ruyue, it is all some predictions about things that have not happened in the future, so it is good to have a preparation in my heart. There was something in front of him, An Yi felt that it was time to do it, he stood up and asked, "Ruyue, how much money did you ask for from the treasury in Chengdu this time?" ”

Jiang Ruyue also hurriedly stood up when she heard him ask about the silver, stretched out five fingers at him with a smile, and said excitedly: "Brother An, guess how much they gave?" That's 500,000 quintals! 200,000 taels of silver! ”

"So much?"

The number reported by Jiang Ruyue made An Yi smile brightly. Not to mention the regimental training of more than 1,000 people, even if it is given to tens of thousands of troops in several border towns in Great Xia, it is enough for them to support for a year.

"I know you're going to gain a lot this time, but I didn't expect them to be so willing to give?" An Yi said with a smile,

Jiang Ruyue looked down mysteriously and whispered to An Yi: "Brother An, what kind of kind people are you thinking of them?" The garrison general Xia Ang died, and these people in the green camp of the Chengdu Prefecture garrison all put their eyes on this position one by one, and even the soldiers in the treasury below also wanted the people above to climb up, and they also followed along, and they still had the heart to manage the treasury. I instructed Ming Yin to stuff them with a few silver tickets, no, half of the treasury let me move back. ”

An Yixi slapped Jiang Ruyue's shoulder with a smile, slapped Jiang Ruyue, a weak scholar, and grinned, and then praised him with flying eyebrows: "Ruyue, you are such a wonderful person!" Hahaha. In this way, not only do we no longer have to worry about food and wages, but we can even consider expanding the army. ”

"That's right, I thought about it, we might as well start with Jiangning Village and Shuangliu Village, which are deeply affected by the Five Grain Sect." Jiang Ruyue gently rubbed the shoulder that was patted by An Yi, and replied,

An Yi nodded, "Yes, you are the same as I thought, as long as we have enough men in our hands, no matter who his new garrison general is, if you have some crooked thoughts, you will have to weigh our weight." ”

"Also, I think we have some things to prepare in advance, such as... Kim Myung Yoon's firearms battalion! ”

These words came out of Jiang Ruyue's mouth, which made An Yi a little surprised, although he did not have a special rejection of firearms, but when he mentioned it before, he was also very interested. This time, I took the initiative to talk to the Anyi Firearms Battalion, I think it was because I saw the power of Jin Mingyin's new gun last time.

An Yi smiled and continued, "Not only that, but I also want to form a cavalry unit of my own. There were some horses in the camp, which Brother Lin brought down from Jiulong Mountain at that time. It's just that what is missing now is a cavalry general, I don't know if you have any suggestions? ”

After Jiang Ruyue listened to An Yi's words, she closed her eyes and lowered her head to think carefully.

Suddenly, a figure entered his mind, he hurriedly opened his eyes, and said almost in unison with An Yi:

"Meng Qi!"

For Jiang Ruyue's heart, An Yi was very pleased and praised: "I really know me like the moon." ”

"Then let's start with Jiangning Village, I'll go and tell Lin Muzhi that we'll set off early tomorrow morning!"

After listening to his words, An Yi shook his head and said to him: "Time is pressing, let's go our separate ways!" Tomorrow morning, you and Lin Muzhi will go to Shuangliu Village, and I will take Mingyin and Xin'er to Jiangning Village, and we will meet in the camp in the evening. ”

"Good!"

Jiang Ruyue responded.

After leaving the school grounds, An Yi walked to the back camp.

Jiang Ruyue didn't mention the matter of the firearms battalion, and An Yi might not be able to remember Jin Mingyin, who suffered the most losses this time. actually said, not only is the * that he stored to make new firebolt projectiles gone, but most of the old firecrackers have been burned out, which is estimated to be painful for him for a long time.

As soon as An Yi turned into the back camp, he saw Jin Mingyin and a few soldiers fiddling with something in the open space.

When he got closer, he saw that the one surrounded by several people was actually a large firecracker. It's just that unlike the usual firecracker, this firearm is fixed to a triangular bracket, and the breech of the original firecracker has been turned into a disc-like thing, and there is a rocker crooked next to it.

"What is this?"

An Yi couldn't bear to disturb Jin Mingyin, who was concentrating on fiddling with objects, but prompted by curiosity, he still opened his mouth.

"Brother Yi, you're here."

Jin Mingyin turned his head in response, and saw An Yizheng staring at the "fire gun" next to him with a puzzled expression, and hurriedly explained: "I named this 'rotir cannon', but it is still a semi-finished product and cannot be used for the time being." The initial idea for it was to be able to achieve a rapid firing of the firebolt, which could reach ..... at the earliest. Probably..... Half a cup of tea can shoot twenty projectiles. ”

The general old-fashioned firearm of the Great Xia Dynasty had the slowest rate of fire, even reloading the projectile plus * tamping, and in aiming and shooting, half a cup of tea could only shoot two or three shots. And the kind of breech-loaded new gun made by Kim Myung-yin can make five to seven rounds in the same time, and specially trained sergeants can even do ten rounds.

However, just now Jin Mingyin said that the "revolver" he newly concocted can actually shoot as many as 20 projectiles in the same time, which has accelerated the rate of fire to eight to ten times for a conventional firearm.

"Twenty rounds? So fast? ”