At the end of September 890, Jing Xiang, a military advisor of the Xuanwu Army, was assassinated in the house of the Assassin Shi Mansion on the first night of his arrival in Chuzhou. After killing Jing Xiang and some of the guards, the murderer rushed out of the palace gate and started a fire fight with the patrol soldiers for half an hour, and finally withdrew from the city with the help of unknown people and disappeared into the night. When the news reached the Bianzhou base camp, Zhu Quanzhong smashed all the decorations in the meeting hall, and beat Zhu Zhen who came to persuade him in a fit of rage. And Xie Tong, who is known as Zhu Quanzhong's right-hand man, learned the bad news and a mouthful of blood spurted out and fainted to the ground. The whole of Bianzhou was in chaos because of Jing Xiang's death, and Zheng Fan's eyes were red and he sent the most elite manpower to investigate in Bianzhou.

After calming down a little, Zhu Quanzhong immediately ordered Wang Yanzhang to lead 50,000 troops to Fuzhou to support the front line, and ordered the Yanzi in front of the tent to strengthen the protection of Xie Tong and other important civil ministers, and forcibly stipulated that the military generals in the Xuanwu army with positions above the third rank were not allowed to go out without more than 50 personal followers, and sent people to kill all the family members of Jingxiang's guards.

Immediately afterwards, Zheng Fan was also called to Liang Wangfu and scolded, and Zhu Quanzhong, who was furious, gave Zheng Fan a month, and if he couldn't catch the murderer, he would kill Zheng Fan directly. But after Zheng Fan said the following words, Zhu Quanzhong fell silent.

"This incident should have been done by Li Xuanqing's subordinates." Zheng Fan directly said his suspected target, and further explained: "The intelligence in Luoyang should be a cover released by the other party, the purpose is to use the identity of the lord to divert our attention, so as to cover their attack on Chuzhou." ”

Just as Zheng Fan said these words, Xie Tong hurriedly broke in outside, and even the doorman couldn't stop him.

"My lord, this matter must be discussed carefully." Xie Tong didn't care about saluting and spoke directly.

Zhu Quanzhong was shocked by Xie Tong's words, according to his understanding, the relationship between Xie Tong and Jing Xiang should be Xie Tong who should advocate revenge the most at this moment.

The Xuanwu army was in chaos because of Jing Xiang's death, and when Xie Tong went to find Zhu Quanzhong, the general staff of the Tiance Army in Chang'an also received the news from Xuan Yingwei urgently.

"It seems that the dragon group has suffered a lot of losses this time." Yang Tiancheng was not there, and Xu Tianxiang's figure in the huge General Staff Office seemed relatively lonely, and after talking to himself for a while, he asked the staff officer who marked the latest battle situation on the sand table to start recording the order: "Let the Flying Eagle Brigade escort the remaining members of the Dragon Group back to the Chang'an headquarters for repairs, and forward the front-line news to the commander of Xuanyingwei and the above orders." In addition, the news sent by Xuan Yingwei was immediately forwarded to the Chief of Operations. ”

After the staff officer hurriedly walked out to issue an order, Xu Tianxiang pressed his forehead and began to write and draw on the map by himself, simulating Zhu Quanzhong's troop route, and began to do war games.

In fact, Xuan Yingwei also passed the news to Hu Xiaosi when he reported the news to the base camp, but Hu Xiaosi, who was far away in Tianjin, received the news and it had been five days since Jing Xiang's death, which was still transmitted all the way from the flying pigeon.

Li Xuanqing and Hu Xiaosi had just arrived in Tianjin at this time, and they were stopped by the news brought by Hu Xiaosi before they even entered the shipyard.

"It seems that your killer weapon has suffered a lot of losses this time, and Ryusan's character can tell you that there are casualties, which means that the backbone force is damaged, and it is possible that even the Flying Eagle Brigade will be killed or injured." After Li Xuanqing put down the information, he patted Hu Xiaosi and sighed.

"I'm sure Ryuzo will definitely form the dragon group again." A trace of sadness appeared on Hu Xiaosi's face, but then he began to be full of confidence, his subordinates knew that Long San had been trained by himself. The loss is so big this time, then I definitely won't swallow this breath.

"Okay, you can handle this matter on your own, the brothers who sacrificed wait until Long San returns to Chang'an to report to the General Staff, and they will all enjoy the treatment of martyrs, and the military department will issue medals to let the brothers go all the way." Li Xuanqing also sighed, and pulled Hu Xiaosi into the shipyard.

Today is the day when the first warship of the shipyard was launched, and by the time the two of them entered, Guo Chongtao had already gathered in front of this warship with all his own personnel and began to make various preparations.

Li Xuanqing glanced at it and nodded, the steel ship in front of him with a dark black luster had a little bit of the appearance of a ship in later generations, with a flying scissor shape, the bow was inclined upward, and the deck was also legendary straight, and according to Li Xuanqing's suggestion, all the propulsion systems were installed in the stern, as a group of dark wheels, which were linked to the power equipment through the rotating shaft.

Li Xuanqing looked at the ship and was about to speak, when Qiaoxi walked over and said with a smile: "Big brother, Brother Zhang has already calculated that the displacement of the entire ship exceeds five hundred tons, which is not small." ”

"Five hundred tons?" Li Xuanqing was stunned for a moment, then nodded and smiled: "It's not small, but isn't Zhang Qiang unwilling to use the metric system to calculate?" When did it change? ”

"No way, the non-metric numbers are too big for him to count." Qiao Xi smiled and said: "Brother Qin Yao has also come to the shipyard with the weapon system, and in the past few days, he has started sea trials while installing the weapon system. ”

Qin Yao is here? Li Xuanqing and Hu Xiaosi glanced at each other and said with a smile: "Could it be that his research has achieved results?" But Qiaoxi's ship doesn't seem to have taken into account his achievements, right? ”

"So Brother Qin plans to change it on the spot. Let's go, let's go up first" Qiaoxi took Li Xuanqing's hand and climbed up the gangway to the deck, which was almost six or seven meters above the water, and said with a smile: "I don't know if Zhang Tingshi's dock has been built, this warship needs a special dock." ”

"Let's make do with it first, the construction of this port is not a matter of a while, and it also needs to take into account civilian and land facilities." Li Xuanqing was not in a hurry, and after walking on the deck with Qiaoxi, he shook his head about the arrangement on it, Zhang Qiang considered that the existing port city around it did not have charcoal storage, so he still installed the mast and sails. So this is supposed to be a hybrid ship, in fact, all the ships that were built before, whether they were cargo ships or passenger ships, were hybrid ships, and even had oars.

"Brother Qin." Several people turned inside from the bridge, and after a cursory glance at the war room inside and the cabins below, they found Qin Yao and Zhang Qiang, who were preparing to rebuild a special warehouse behind the power cabin.

"My lord? Madam? Little four, are you all here? Qin Yao was comparing his ideas with Zhang Qiang and several technicians from the shipyard, and after hearing the voice, he turned his head and saw Li Xuanqing and the others, and called out in surprise.

"Qin Yao, your research has been successful?" Hu Xiaosi leaned over and looked at it, and suddenly smiled: "I heard the lord say that that thing is too difficult, and I didn't expect it, you won't really do it, right?" ”

"Nonsense, for the project proposed by the lord, our old man has rushed back to Ningzhou from the Institute of Technology, how dare I come if it can't be completed?" Qin Yao glanced at Hu Xiaosi and smiled: "The lord hasn't chosen a name yet?" What's our name? ”

"Let's call it artillery." Li Xuanqing directly applied the name of the later generations and said with a smile: "You guys hurry up and modify the cabin and install the sample, and then let's see if we can drive it out and try it." ”

"Please rest assured, give me three days, and I will guarantee that the installation will be completed within three days." Qin Yao was also very excited, "When the time comes, please take a look at the power." ”

"You can take a few technicians to continue, Zhang Qiang will accompany me for a walk, by the way, how about introducing your ship?" Li Xuanqing stopped Zhang Qiang as he walked out.

Several people walked to the power room, which was filled with two steam engine boilers that had been redesigned by the industrial group, as well as the power transmission equipment of the first generation boiler. Zhang Qiang pointed to the equipment in front of him and said with a smile: "This is still the latest product on Muchen's side, including this boiler, which is also newly developed, which can improve the combustion degree of charcoal and improve the utilization rate of steam." ”

Zhang Qiang said that Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi were more familiar than him, so he didn't care, but asked, "Where are your coal bunkers?" ”

"Placing it in the pressurized water tank and the watertight tank below can kill two birds with one stone, not only can the weight of the charcoal replace the seawater, but also increase the utilization rate of the ship's cabin." Zhang Qiang said with a smile.

Zhang Qiang's words reminded Li Xuanqing of one thing, and he began to nod and said: "Your design is good, the shipyard immediately added a department, called the ship design department, specializing in ship design, including the shape, internal cabin arrangement, including everything inside the ship must be designed and optimized on paper, and the model must be established for testing in the initial stage, and finally it can be moved to the slipway." ”

"Brother Zhang, what the eldest brother said must be implemented in the shipyard as quickly as possible, I have been busy forgetting this time, if there is no water test, it cannot be built directly, it is too dangerous." Qiaoxi's words made Zhang Qiang startled, and he hurriedly wrote it down.

"It's not to scare you, the iron-hulled ship doesn't want a wooden ship, the iron itself has no buoyancy, it can be turned into a ship's construction material, all by the internal space, if there is a problem with the design, it is very likely to capsize." Li Xuanqing didn't study ship design before, so he could only guide from a large level.

"Don't worry, the Duchess will immediately make arrangements to ensure that each ship has passed the design water test and passed before it is built. And I guarantee that there will be no errors in our design drawings and construction drawings. Zhang Qiang hurriedly assured.

Li Xuanqing nodded and suddenly asked, "You just said the watertight cabin?" How do you know about watertights? ”

"There have been shipbuilders before, wooden ships have existed, and watertight cabins have a history of more than 100 years." Zhang Qiang thought that Li Xuanqing had forgotten and explained.

But this sentence sounded like thunder in Li Xuanqing's ears, this watertight cabin has a history of more than 100 years in the late Tang Dynasty, so at least in the Tang Dynasty, the watertight cabin has actually matured.

"Big brother, I forgot to tell you, I checked the royal classics sent by Brother Hu before, and there are detailed records of the watertight cabin, and what Brother Zhang said is right, the watertight cabin technology is indeed very mature." Qiaoxi knew what Li Xuanqing was thinking, and said in a low voice.

"Looks like I've been busy lately and forgot a little bit about it." Li Xuanqing smiled awkwardly, clapped his hands and said, "Since you can even design and manufacture watertight cabins, then I am also relieved." Do you have your ship paint ready? ”

"It's ready, brush the bottom and paint it. Madame had ordered it to be painted in light gray. After Zhang Qiang answered Li Xuanqing's question, he smiled and said, "Don't worry, big brother, all the work has been done." Let's wait to go to sea the day after tomorrow. ”

"Okay, since you told Guo Chongtao to arrange a barbecue in the army, let's go to Leyile." Li Xuanqing nodded and smiled: "Let everyone relax and relieve the hard work during this time." After the news spread, the whole shipyard cheered, and the pace of work of those shipwrights unconsciously accelerated a lot.

When Li Xuanqing was relieved to prepare for a barbecue to reward the workers of the shipyard, Wang Houchun and Yang Tiancheng, who were on the eastern front, also met in Jingzhou, and the two began to discuss countermeasures after receiving Xu Tianxiang's urgent summons.

"Tiancheng, Xiao Si has stabbed a hornet's nest now, in case Zhu Quanzhong can't swallow this breath, we are estimated to have a war in the next two days." Wang Houchun put down the information that Yang Tiancheng handed him and smiled bitterly.

"That's no way, if Jing Xiang doesn't die, then Cheng Wei will be able to stop his means, the boss is still near Junzhou, and then Jingnan will be three, although Zhu Quanzhong, who ate Jingnan, will have scattered his forces in the short term, but if he can get Cheng Xiao's inheritance, then the boss may not be able to gain the upper hand. Moreover, according to the lord's plan, the gate of Shannan East Road must be closed, so that as soon as Xue Yang of the western front has time to clean up central Sichuan, the eastern front can also oppress Zhu Quanzhong and form an encirclement. ”

"In that case, we can't be slow. Before I came, I had already asked the Cangzhou Corps to assemble near Cangzhou. You should also let Chen Fan prepare, if the cavalry corps goes south, its deterrent power will inevitably make Zhu Quanzhong dare not act rashly. Wang Houchun said with a smile: "According to Xuan Yingwei's intelligence, Zhu Quanzhong's troops are less than 300,000 or 400,000 when they reach the sky, and there are 150,000 in Jingnan, and there are less than 250,000 people left in his own territory. Speaking of this, he suddenly pointed in the direction of Shaanzhou and said: "Tiancheng, what do you want to do with such a big gap here?" Anyway, Tianxiang is really sitting in Chang'an. ”

"You can see it yourself and ask me? If we don't leave a gap, in case Xie Tong gets nervous, we can also set up a trap for him. Yang Tiancheng said with a smile: "Besides, this is not some time ago for the western route of the canal trade, the lord withdrew his troops to the river." ”

"Okay, I don't know that bit about you? I remember that the battalion directly under the central government seems to have been stationed near Guanzhong all along, right? Li Feixue's kid sleeps with his eyes open. Wang Houchun pursed his lips and didn't bother to refute Yang Tiancheng's thoughts.

"Hey, that's not my idea, it's all arranged by the lord. Besides, the battalion directly under the command was originally under the direct command of the Lord, and our General Staff only assisted in the management of whether it was good or not. Yang Tiancheng unconsciously pushed this matter to Li Xuanqing, and said with a smile: "The lord seems to be preparing to test new weapons in the river recently, so the remaining troops of the artillery battalion have passed, and I heard that if the test results are okay, they will be directly equipped with troops." ”

"Report, urgent order from the General Staff." The two were about to talk about Li Xuanqing's recent test of a new weapon, when the hurried footsteps and reports of the guards came from outside the door.

"General Staff Urgent Order?" The two glanced at each other, and they both saw each other's thoughts.