Before that, the flower grenade was lit with a powder twist, somewhat similar to the fuse on firecrackers in later generations, and its reliability was average. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

This time, according to the principle of isokinetic combustion of gunpowder, Ningzhong filled the gunpowder into a conical wooden tube, and after ignition, the gunpowder burned at a uniform speed in the wooden pipe, which not only reduced the possibility of the fuse going out during the throwing process, but also basically ensured that the time required for the fuse of a certain length to burn out was about the same.

In this way, when using the Suzhou gun to fire a grenade, you can first determine the time required for the grenade to land from launch, and then select the corresponding length of the fuse according to this time.

Strictly speaking, Ning Zhong did not completely solve the problem of fuzes, but after his improvements, the reliability of today's fuzes has been greatly improved.

In the actual experiment with the Suzhou gun, more than 80 out of 100 launches were successfully detonated, and the time of detonation was relatively good, and it generally exploded within one to two seconds after touching the ground.

This is already a remarkable improvement, and in fact the reliability of the fuses of the bombs made in the industrial era of later generations cannot be guaranteed to be 100 percent, let alone in this era.

However, this kind of fuze is a bit troublesome to manufacture, and it has only recently been invented, so it takes a certain amount of time to manufacture and stockpile.

Therefore, Yang Wu stayed in Guangling for a few more days, and in order to harass and confuse the Liang army, he sent a small number of troops to reinforce Luzhou, but tried to avoid direct engagement, in case the Liang army saw through the truth.

It was only after the middle of October that the fuses and grenades were fully stocked, and Yang Wu led an army of 60,000 to set out from Guangling, carrying more than 1,000 new-style flowering shells that had just been produced and 30 special Suzhou cannons.

As for the affairs of Guangling, they can only be handed over to Yang Xingmi, who has lived in seclusion for many days.

Outside the city of Haozhou.

Unlike the two armies on the Gwangju side that have been facing each other and have not engaged in battles, and unlike Zhu Quanzhong's headquarters army, which was busy looting everywhere, the Liang army on the Haozhou side really fought several tough battles with the Huainan army.

In terms of troops, it was naturally the Liang army that had the advantage, but although the Huainan army had few troops, it did not fall behind in the actual battle.

This is because although Zhang Xun, the commander of the Huainan Army, the commander of the Youwu Army, is over 50 years old, he is still brave in battle.

Ten days ago, when Kang Huaizhen led his army to Haozhou, Zhang Xun summoned his generals and said that the enemy army was attacking on a large scale, and it was necessary to first defeat its sharp spirit before it could hold on.

So on the same day, he led the army out of the city to fight a big battle with Kang Huaizhen, Zhang Xun personally led 3,000 elite soldiers to launch a fierce attack on the Liang army, and the Liang army was almost unable to parry.

However, Kang Huaizhen is a famous general of the Liang army after all, and the strength of the Liang army is superior, so after a major battle between the two sides, the Liang army finally suffered a small loss.

After this battle, as Zhang Xun expected, the Liang army was frustrated, so it retreated ten miles, chose a place that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and set up two camps in the east and west to form a corner, and at the same time divided a part of the troops to guard the ferry to ensure the safety of the retreat.

After that, the two armies fought many times, sometimes the Huainan army took the initiative to challenge, and sometimes the Liang army went to the outside of Haozhou to curse, but most of the battles ended in a draw; Only once did Zhang Xun set up an ambush to lure the Liang army to attack, and when the Liang army arrived, the ambush was exhausted and the Liang army was defeated.

In the end, when the Liang army returned to the camp, it lost nearly 2,000 men, and as a result, the Liang army was demoralized and began to hold the camp and not engage the Huainan army.

Of course, the small-scale fighting between the two sides has never stopped, and although Kang Huaizhen no longer fights with the Huainan army, he will not easily give up harassing the Huainan army with small-scale troops, and at the same time ensure that his contact with Zhu Quanzhong's headquarters will not be cut off.

In the camp of the Liang army, Kang Huaizhen couldn't help but feel a headache when he looked at the military order sent from Zhu Quanzhong.

This time he went south to attack Huainan, and he was not very optimistic at the beginning, because the strong defensive line set up by Huainan along the Huai River has been in operation for ten years, not only the defensive forces are sufficient, but also the people in Huainan are stable, and it is not at all that many generals are dissatisfied with Yang Wu as Li Zhen said.

When the army was first dispatched, Li Zhen said that Huainan was in the middle of Yang Xingmi's death, and when Yang Wu had just taken over, people must be panicked, and taking the opportunity to attack at this time will definitely be successful.

However, not long after heading south, before crossing the Huai River, new news came that Yang Xingmi had recently made a public appearance at a banquet in Guangling; Since Yang Xingmi is not dead, it is naturally impossible for the generals in Huainan to be unstable as Li Zhen said, or secretly dissatisfied with Yang Wu.

However, at that time, the army had already arrived at the edge of the Huai River, and it was naturally impossible to retreat because of such a news, so the Liang army still crossed the river according to the plan.

However, not long after crossing the river, Kang Huaizhen felt very bad, because the Huainan navy did not interfere with their river crossing operation at all.

The water flow situation on this side of Haozhou is different from the place where Zhu Quanzhong crossed the river, the place where Zhu Quanzhong crossed the river is located in the upper reaches of the Huai River, where the water flow is shallow, which is not conducive to the play of the Huainan naval army, and even the infantry in many places can directly wade across the river; On the other hand, the Yingshui flows into the Huai River in Shouzhou, making the flow of the Huai River much larger than that of the upstream, not only the river surface is wider, but also the river water is deeper.

Therefore, it is not only impossible to wade across the river on the Haozhou side, but it is also very convenient for the Huainan Army's naval army to play; At the beginning, Kang Huaizhen opposed crossing the river here, not only when crossing the river, it was easy to be taken advantage of by the enemy's navy, but also easy to be cut off by the Huainan army after crossing the river.

However, Li Zhen thought that there was no problem with crossing the river by three routes, even if the Huainan army cut off the back road on the Haozhou side, they could go to Shouzhou to join Zhu Quanzhong's main force, and from there they crossed the river to the north.

Kang Huaizhen had no choice but to order the river crossing, but Huainan did not appear at any time, neither stopped them from crossing the river, nor did he use the army to attack their logistics line after that.

After crossing the Huai River easily, the generals said that the Huainan army must be timid and afraid of war, so they did not send a naval army to intercept them, but Kang Huaizhen did not think so in his heart.

He had served as the assassin of Suzhou for many years, and had a lot of dealings with the Huainan army, he didn't think that this was because the Huainan army was afraid of war, and the enemy army let them cross the river easily, and he must have the confidence to defeat or even destroy them south of the Huai River!

As a result, the next battle confirmed this, like that Zhang Xun, who is in his fifties, is still so brave in battle, and even personally led the troops to rush to kill, does this look like he is afraid of the enemy and cowardly?

The war was unfavorable, Kang Huaizhen soon sent someone to send a letter to Zhu Quanzhong, requesting that the southern expedition be ended as soon as possible, and that the main force of Huainan should be retreated before it came.

However, what he didn't expect was that Yang Wu used a small number of suspicious soldiers to harass and confuse Zhu Quanzhong, so that Zhu Quanzhong ordered the army to be ready to fight with the main force of Huainan; When he figured out that the Huainan Army was still in Guangling at that time, Zhu Quanzhong was completely enraged.

Thinking that he personally led an army of more than 100,000 people, he was actually "frightened" by Yang Wu's simple suspicious tactics to gather the army in Huoqiu, if the main force of Huainan has not arrived next, he will lead the army to withdraw, if this spreads, he will not be laughed at to death, even his reputation may be damaged.

So Zhu Quanzhong refused Kang Huaizhen's request to withdraw his troops without thinking about it, and reprimanded him in his reply, saying whether he was afraid or not, and ordered him to continue to attack Haozhou.

At the same time, Zhu Quanzhong's headquarters also changed the previous policy of dividing troops and plundering, began to build siege equipment, and planned to forcibly attack Shouzhou City.

After receiving such a reply, Kang Huaizhen could only smile bitterly, the current situation is obviously useless to stay longer, but unfortunately Zhu Quanzhong has a strict order, and he can only continue to stay.

However, Zhu Quanzhong's order for him to continue to attack the city was directly ignored by him, and now that the Huainan army is in full swing, he doesn't want to fight hard with the Huainan army.

Therefore, on the one hand, Kang Huaizhen strengthened the defense and sent many scouts to guard against surprise attacks, and on the other hand, he delayed Zhu Quanzhong's envoy's order to attack the city on the grounds that it would take time to build siege equipment.

"The king has changed, not only has he become more impatient and irritable than before, but he no longer trusts his generals as much as before!" Kang Huaizhen sighed in her heart.

If it was Zhu Quanzhong in the past, he would definitely not be easily angry because of Yang Wu's little tricks, let alone write to reprimand him without knowing the situation he is facing now.

Especially last year's act of forcing the two of them to commit suicide, which made him feel even more chilled.

Of course, the current Liang army is still the strongest domain in the world, and Zhu Quanzhong is also a person who may ascend to the supreme position at any time; And he is Zhu Quanzhong's trusted general, with a high and powerful position, if Zhu Quanzhong is the emperor in the future, he will be the founder of the country, and naturally he has no intention of betraying Zhu Quanzhong.

In this way, Kang Huaizhen led the army to stay for a few more days more than 20 miles away from Haozhou.

On this day, he was shocked by the news that came from the crossing of the Huai River: the Huainan naval army, which had not appeared all this time, suddenly launched an attack the night before, burning a large number of ships of the Liang army on the south bank, and their way back to the north had been cut off!