In Youzhou, just as Li Cunqiao was anxiously waiting for the feudal towns to send troops, Shi Jingjiao, the envoy of Lu Longjiedu, who had just killed the prison army and completely controlled the power, was making his own small calculations.

"Marshal, although Your Majesty has the idea of weakening the feudal town, after all, the righteousness of the monarch and the minister is still there; Now that the Xingtang Mansion is besieged, and Your Majesty is in deep danger, should we just sit idly by? The person who opened his mouth to ask was Liu Zhiyuan.

This Liu Zhiyuan fought bravely, followed Shi Jingjiao every time he fought, and saved his life many times, so he was appreciated by Shi Jingjian.

Now that Shi Jingjiao is the official residence of Lu Longjie, Liu Zhiyuan is naturally reused.

"It's not that we sit idly by, but it's not yet time to send troops, and our Youzhou is shouldering the heavy responsibility of resisting the Khitans, and the army can't leave easily. If you want to rescue Xingtang Mansion, it is best to let other marshals go. Shi Jingjiao shook his head.

"But if everybody thinks so, no one wants to send troops. Once the Xingtang Mansion falls because there are no foreign reinforcements, then the imperial court will be completely finished. At that time, with our strength, I am afraid that we will not be able to support it for long. Liu Zhiyuan continued to persuade.

Shi Jingjiao shook his head with a smile and said: "You are too worried, the city of Xingtang Mansion is extremely strong, and the grain and grass reserves are enough to defend the city for a long time, plus there are many troops defending the city, it is impossible for the Wu army to break the city in a short time." ”

"What is the idea of the section commander?"

"What else? His Majesty feels that we heroes threaten his authority, so he wants to kick us away, and although I have no intention of rebelling, I cannot sit idly by. This time, the Wu army attacked in a big way, just to weaken the strength of the imperial court with the help of the Wu army. When the time comes, Your Majesty will naturally rely on us again. Shi Jingjiao said in a deep voice.

In fact, what he didn't say was that in the past, he was satisfied just thinking about being the envoy of the festival, but after he really became the envoy of the Lulong festival, his ambition swelled dramatically.

For him now, he first weakened Li Cunqiao with the help of the Wu army, but sending troops to help Li Cunqiao repel the Wu army and maintain the division of Hebei, so as to divide Youzhou and stand on his own, this is his real purpose.

It's just that he hasn't been in charge of Youzhou for a long time, and his foundation is not yet stable, so he still needs to hide his true purpose, and even henchmen like Liu Zhiyuan can't tell him.

Of course, accidents can happen in everything, and Shi Jingjiao also knew that he had to leave a way out for himself, and the retreat he prepared was very simple, that is, to make friends with the Khitans.

If the situation is not good in the future, it is a big deal to take refuge in the Khitans, and with the strength of the Khitans, it will be enough to protect themselves.

What Liu Zhiyuan didn't know was that Yelu Abaoji, the Khitan lord at this time, had died of illness half a month ago.

Last year, Yelu Abaoji led the army to attack the Bohai Kingdom, and finally wiped out the Bohai Kingdom some time ago, but on the way back to China, Yelu Abaoji suddenly fell ill and died, and he didn't even leave a will.

In today's Khitan State, the power is actually in the hands of Queen Shu Luping.

Although Yelu Abaoji's eldest son, Yelu Bei, was nominally the most orthodox heir to the Khitan Kingdom, Shu Luping preferred to let her second son Yelu Deguang succeed him.

Therefore, in the next period of time, the Khitans will be at a critical moment of the replacement of the old and the new, but I am afraid that they may not have enough strength to interfere in the affairs of the Central Plains.

……

At the same time, Fu Xi, the envoy of the Henghai Festival, was also making the same plan.

Fu Xi used to be a general under the command of Wang Rong, the king of Zhao, and when Zhenzhou was in turmoil, he happened to lead the troops to serve under Li Cunqing; Later, the Jin army sent troops to attack Zhenzhou, and Fu Xi served as the vanguard of the army.

After pacifying Zhenzhou, Fu Xi was promoted because of his merits.

After the First Battle of Pingyin, the Jin army was defeated, and even Li Siyuan was lost in Yunzhou, which made the Jin State lack of generals for a while, so generals like Fu Xi who were born in Zhenzhou were also reused, and finally became the envoy of Henghai Jiedu.

Some time ago, Li Cunmiao's move to weaken the feudal town also made him dissatisfied, so after seeing the opportunity, Fu Xi immediately beheaded the prison army and completely controlled the power of the feudal town.

It's just that unlike Shi Jingjiao, although he also has the idea of expanding the power in his hands, he has no idea of being independent.

However, as Shi Jingjiao said, with the strength of Xingtang Mansion and the grain and grass reserves in the city, it is not difficult to hold out for a period of time.

This time, the Wu army attacked in a big way, with a strength of 300,000 troops, and the momentum was violent, if it rashly sent troops to engage in battle, I was afraid that it would be difficult to win, let alone break the siege; Therefore, the best way is to use the fortified city of Xingtang Mansion to resist the Wu army first, and wait until the Wu army's momentum weakens, and then send troops to relieve the siege.

Therefore, Fu Xi's final decision was the same as Shi Jingjiao's, that is, not to rush to send troops for the time being, and to wait for a period of time before sending troops after the momentum of the Wu army declined.

There are many people who have the same plan as Fu Xi, such as the Yiwu Army Festival to make Wang Du, and the Anyi Festival to stay after Kong Xun is like this.

The only one who really sent troops to rescue at the first time, except for Li Jiqi, the king of Wei, who stayed in Taiyuan, was the only one who stayed in Zhending Mansion to stay in Renyuan.

It's a pity that there are not many troops that can be mobilized in these two places, and the total is less than 30,000 people.

Eventually, when reinforcements moved south to Bezhou, they had to stop and wait for the planes.

……

On the city wall south of Weizhou City, many defenders looked at the artillery lined up in front of the enemy army outside the city, and they were all shocked.

"What the hell is that long pipe? What did Wu Jun want to do by pushing these things into the front of the formation? ”

"In the past, every time the Wu army attacked the city, it would make a large number of Suzhou cannons to bombard the city wall, why didn't you see it this time?"

"The enemy can't be trying to cast a magic spell, right?"

At the thought of the word "demon law", the defenders suddenly shuddered.

Wu's Suzhou cannon was a rare siege weapon, which was used in every siege battle; At present, the enemy army did not build Suzhou artillery, but dragged hundreds of strange "long pipes" to the front of the formation with horse-drawn carts and lined them up.

This anomaly soon aroused the alarm of the defenders.

Recalling that when Wu Jun first put gunpowder into the military, it once caused panic among the defenders, and even many people regarded it as a demon law.

It wasn't until people became familiar with it that the panic gradually subsided, and people realized that the power of this kind of thing was actually just that.

And this time, Wu Jun's abnormal behavior made Jin Jun think of the original scene again, could it be that Wu Jun was going to invest any new weapons?

Just when the defenders were in doubt, there was a change in front of the Wu army outside the city, and the Wu soldiers first used a long wooden pole to pass into the "long pipe" from the front to wipe it, and then stuffed a ball of paper bags and a black marble, and used the long wooden pole to push it into it.

Then, I saw the soldiers behind me operating on the "long pipe", the whole process was less than a minute, and when all the preparations were made, the soldiers with torches stepped forward one by one.

"Boom!" With the first roar, followed by hundreds of guns lined up in a row, a large puff of white smoke erupted one after another, and the scene was truly shocking, as if the ground was trembling.

The non-commissioned officers of the garrison had never seen such a scene of a hundred cannons firing at once, and when they heard the sound of cannons outside the city, they immediately shuddered, and many soldiers almost threw their guys to the ground.

Some of the soldiers were simply frightened stupid, they stood there in a daze, and they could suddenly see with the naked eye that black iron balls were whistling and flying over, smashing on the city wall, and suddenly hitting the gray stones on the city wall.

The defenders on the city wall could feel a slight tremor under their feet, and many of the soldiers suddenly turned pale with fright, and their morale could not help but be demoralized again.

On the city tower, Li Shaorong was also taken aback by this round of artillery bombardment by the Wu army, his body involuntarily shortened, hiding behind a thick arrow chop, and asked with a panicked face: "What's the matter?" What's going on? ”

"This ...... The enemy army is using demon magic! ”

"It's not a demon law, it's the wrath of the heavens!" Many of the soldiers replied tremblingly.

This is the case with ordinary people, who can keep their composure on familiar things, but are prone to demonizing things they have never understood.

Just as the Indians of later generations saw the artillery of Westerners and regarded it as the wrath of the gods, the defenders at this time also had this idea.

Although they had seen grenades thrown with Suzhou guns before, that kind of thing still needed the help of Suzhou guns after all, and Suzhou guns were no strangers to the defenders, so they didn't feel too afraid.

But now it is different, the enemy army did not use Suzhou artillery at all, directly used a "long pipe", and then tinkered there, and then the shells could be fired, this scene was completely beyond their understanding.

What's more, the huge roar of the artillery, the fire, and the white smoke that spewed out of the artillery were all the more mysterious and unpredictable for the defenders.

Looking at the panicked scene of the guards on the city wall, Wu Jun's side was suddenly extremely excited.

Since the artillery was officially incorporated into the army last year, the Wu army has been vigorously training qualified gunners, and now there are barely enough gunners.

This time to attack Xingtang Mansion, the Wu army did not plan to besiege the city for a long time, but was ready to take it in a short time, and of course they relied on artillery, a siege weapon.

Unfortunately, judging by the first round of shelling, it was not so easy to bring down the walls.

"It seems that if the six-pound cannon is used to siege the city, the power is still a little worse." Zhou Ben thought in his heart.

"Pass the order, concentrate your fire on the enemy's city gate, and blast the city gate open for Ben!" He then ordered loudly.

It may be a bit reluctant to bombard the city wall with a six-pound cannon, but it is enough to bombard the city gate.

If the city gate can be blasted open, then the Wu army will be able to win this battle.