"Kill!"

"Shoot the arrows!"

"Catapult ready, launch!"

"Stop, push the ladder down for me, not a single Mengyuan dog soldier can let them climb up."

Xiahou Tai roared with a hideous face, his voice was almost hoarse, and his voice was like a broken gong. With a vicious slash, he slashed down a Meng Yuan soldier who had climbed the city wall, and then kicked hard and pushed down a ladder that came up.

Since three days ago, Meng Yuanjun didn't know what medicine he had taken wrong, and began to go crazy and continuously launched an offensive against Tanggu County for twelve hours.

First, he drove the captured people to be cannon fodder, and after seeing that Zhonggang was unmoved, he began to let those prisoners of war dig and pile up high earth forts, so that the Meng Yuan army could condescendingly shoot at the defenders of Tanggu County.

"Bang!"

A huge fireball fell from the sky and smashed into Xiahoutai's side, scorching his head a lot. Xiahoutai picked up a spear from the hands of the soldiers who died on the ground, shook his hands, picked up the fireball and threw it out.

The fireball fell under the city walls, but instead of being extinguished immediately, it burned more violently. Xiahoutai was no stranger to this, he had been fighting with the Mengyuan army for more than ten years, and he was no longer familiar with their siege routines.

However, old routines do not mean that they are easy to deal with. On the contrary, the older the routine, the better it is, and the bad routine has long been eliminated.

"Special mother, those Mengyuan dog mongrels, how many people did it take to refine corpse oil to make the city walls burn?" Rao is Xiahou Tai has been in battle for a long time, but he still doesn't smell the pungent disgusting smell of the corpse oil burning.

Although Tanggu County is a large county, most of the city walls it built are framed with wood and glutinous rice juice used to bind them, and once they are surrounded by raging fires and burned for several days in a row, the city walls and gates will be burned down or burned. The Meng Yuan army will take the opportunity to attack the city.

Zhong Tsunade stood at the head of the city, coldly watching the battle in front of him, constantly thinking about how to retreat from the enemy. Next to him was Hao Chengze, the magistrate of Tanggu County, who was constantly spinning and jumping urgently.

"Xiliang Gong, now the hearts of the people in the city have begun to be unstable, and some people are spreading rumors in the city, although a group of people have been arrested, but they still can't be completely exterminated. Moreover, the river upstream has been cut off, and the wells in the city alone may not last long. ”

"There are even wells that have been polluted by thieves, either poured poison or thrown several corpses into them, and such wells are no longer drinkable."

Hearing this, Zhong Gang glanced at him coldly, and said indifferently: "In such an important place, didn't you arrange for the officials to guard it?" ”

Hao Chengze complained bitterly, "Xiliang Gong, of course the lower officials have arrangements." However, there were not enough manpower, and the arrangements were few, and the officials on duty were even assassinated and abandoned at the bottom of the well; There are more people arranged, and there is no one near the warehouse, so that is the most important thing. ”

"Three days ago, tens of thousands of displaced people were accepted into the city, and at present, food consumption has increased sharply, if Xiliang Gong doesn't want to come up with a good way, I'm afraid Tanggu County won't be able to support it for long."

Zhong Gang said in a deep voice: "Now the Mengyuan army is attacking very fiercely, and it is impossible to organize a counteroffensive for a while, now it depends on who can hold out to the end." Hao Zhi County, if you arrange it, the food will no longer be distributed free of charge, and those who want to eat will come to assist in defending the city. ”

"At present, a lot of rolling stones and sassalwood have been consumed, and the number of arrows is almost not keeping up. I sent some people to tear down all the idle houses in the city, and sent the bricks and wood to the city walls. Whoever does not want to work, and who dares to make trouble, will be expelled from the city. ”

Troubled times with heavy canons!

Zhong Gang had already guessed that the Meng Yuan army was so crazy and risked his life to attack the city, on the one hand, he wanted to completely wipe out the Xiliang army and the Zhongjia army in Tanggu County, and prevent himself from returning to defend Xining City; Another important reason is that their military rations are beginning to be unable to support the hundreds of thousands of people who eat horses.

Although the number of troops in Liangzhou was weaker than that of the Mengyuan army, they occupied the advantage of geography and people, even if they could not counterattack the Mengyuan army out of Liangzhou in a very short period of time, and support the Great Xia court to send reinforcements, it should be no problem.

Hao Chengze nodded haggardly, bowed and saluted: "Then the lower official will retire first, and go down to arrange everything!" ”

……

……

In the palace of Meng Yuanzhong's army, the face of the Great Khan Meng Ke was also very bad.

He had heard before that Zhonggang had made great achievements in the war and was very difficult to deal with. This trip really fought with him, and I realized that this was true. He besieged him with more than five times his military strength, and he could not take much advantage.

Three days ago, Meng Ke sent Timur to lead an army of 30,000 to sweep up, but he was defeated and returned with an ambush by Zhong Qinghan's crow army on the way, which made him feel a little uneasy in his heart.

Meng Ke didn't know what kind of force was still hidden in Liangzhou, which could easily repel his 30,000 cavalry? Will they have any unintended consequences for the war they have started this time?

Three days have passed in the blink of an eye, and the news from her imperial sister Princess Yong'an has come that although she has surrounded Xining City, she has never been able to make further progress.

The raid has turned into a storm, so the point of raiding is gone. With the high walls of Xining City, only 50,000 cavalry could not take it at all.

What Meng Ke has to do now is how to quickly capture Tanggu County, and then wave his troops to Xining, and round with Bo Yalun, and seize Xining City before the reinforcements of the Great Xia Imperial Court arrive, so that there is hope of sweeping the territory of Liangzhou.

"Come on, call all the commanders and commanders to come to the camp for a meeting, and we must find a way to take Tanggu County within three days!"

……

……

In a secret workshop in Xining City, Su Ziheng and Danyangzi Wang Boyang and other craftsmen in Sujiazhuang were with the craftsmen of the Zhong family, teaching them how to make pottery grenades.

In addition, Zhong Qinghan also transferred a lot of craftsmen from the manufacturing bureau of Xining Prefecture, these are craftsmen from the imperial court, and their ancestors have been working for the imperial court and the government. Artisan households are not allowed to leave their nationality at will, and must be passed down from generation to generation and undertake designated labor. The government also pays wages for daily livelihoods.

One of the advantages of such craftsmen is that they don't have to worry about them leaking secrets.

Su Ziheng couldn't stop shaking his head when he glanced at the gunpowder made by the firearms workshop of the Manufacturing Bureau. How can this shoddy gunpowder, many of which have been clumped and congealed, be used in war?

It's no wonder that gunpowder produced in the Bureau of Manufacture's Firearms Workshop can only be used to make fireworks, not weapons.

Su Ziheng pondered for a moment, and said to Zhong Xinde, the steward in charge of the secret workshop: "Uncle Zhong, this is not the first time we have dealt with each other, to tell you the truth, these gunpowders are not good at all, and they are not very powerful when used to make grenades. ”

Zhong Xinde was shocked and said, "Young Master Su, how can that be?" Miss has repeatedly explained that a sufficient number of grenades must be produced, and now the offensive of the Mengyuan army is very fierce, and our defenders have suffered heavy casualties. ”

Su Ziheng sighed, "These gunpowders have been mixed together, and it is difficult to reuse. Otherwise, make it into a large explosive, and you can rearrange the people to produce new gunpowder. I'll arrange for a craftsman to help with the checks. ”

Su Ziheng naturally wouldn't tell them the specific secret recipe of granular black powder, but he could also help them optimize it on the basis of their existing gunpowder recipe, so that its power could be increased a lot.