A war between two great powers is not achieved through a single battle. After the outbreak www.biquge.info of the full-scale war, except for Jingzhou, the border between the two sides was a little calmer, and the rest of the places were full of gunsmoke and real killings. It can be said that in this battle, which has been prepared for many years, whether it is Cao Wei's side or Li Tang's side, the strength that broke out in the war makes others feel terrified.

The war broke out in July of the sixth year of China, and the entire battlefield unfolded on two fronts at the same time, as Cao Ren feared: in the north, the 100,000-strong army led by Zhao Yun formed a cavalry corps to carry out the task of attacking Hebei; To the west, the troops composed of 100,000 Liangzhou troops and 100,000 Hanzhong troops were led by Li Sheng himself to attack Guanzhong.

Although Li Sheng is currently taking CD as his national capital, in everyone's minds, in the minds of the entire CD court officials, CD is not the national capital of the entire Tang Dynasty. Because of a "young" and ambitious monarch like Li Sheng, the entire Li Tang is full of vigor and expansion, and they are not at all like the Shu Kingdom in history, there are always some people who want to be safe, and there are always some people who think that as long as they keep their foundation. For Guanzhong, they have long had the intention of taking it, and in their opinion, only Guanzhong's Chang'an is the best place for the entire Tang Dynasty. "We must take Guanzhong and Chang'an!" It's no secret that this kind of discourse is on CD.

Because Li Sheng is so naked about Guanzhong and does not hide his ambitions, Cao Wei's attention to Guanzhong's defense has never been relaxed. Although after the death of Xiahou Yuan, the task of defending the entire pass fell on the head of a literati like Zhong Xuan, the commander of the Yongzhou Pastoral Commander, as a literati who knew the soldiers, Zhong Xuan may not be able to attack the enemy as well as a general who kills the enemy, but in defense, he completely wrinkles his own unique place. He integrated the powerful forces in Guanzhong, took advantage of their dissatisfaction with the system of "fighting local tyrants and dividing land and property" implemented by Li Sheng, mobilized them, and set up dock forts all over the land of Guanzhong, trying to resist Li Sheng's possible attack by relying on these large and small purely militarized forts. This method was thought out by Zhong Xuan a few years ago and began to do it, because Li Sheng's strategy for Cao Wei was postponed again and again because of one reason or another. So much so that now after Li Sheng officially launched his strategy against Guanzhong, what was shown in front of Li Shengjun was the county fortified city that was constantly thickened and the dock fort that I didn't know how many hundreds or thousands of things were made.

“…… Genius! This Zhong Xuan, Zhong Yuan Chang Mo is also a character who travels through? actually used the base-defying tactics that originally appeared in Sichuan at the end of the Song Dynasty here, which is really hundreds of years ahead of the times. After seeing the 800-mile Qinchuan defense map that his white clothes had painstakingly obtained from Zhong Xuan, Li Sheng couldn't help but sigh secretly when there was no one else. He felt that the wisdom of this ancient man was no worse than that of a modern man like himself, and in the case of using his "prophetic" ability to apply some of the achievements of later generations here, the guys on the other side could even think of a way to curb their own development, "Zhong Xuan must have thought that if I captured Guanzhong, the main force must be the cavalry from Liangzhou...... That's why he laid such a dense fort in an attempt to use the combination of fortifications and bed crossbows to stop the attack of our cavalry! That's an excellent defense. Terrible! Terrible! ”

However, Li Sheng is Li Sheng, although he has a strong breath in his mouth, he has no doubts about whether he can capture Guanzhong. In his opinion, although Zhong Xuan's method was very effective in defending against his cavalry attacks, after he possessed a sharp weapon for long-range strikes, such an effect would become useless as the artillery advanced.

“…… What walls could withstand artillery attacks? Except for the Tang Kingdom, can those walls belonging to Wu and Wei hold back our cannonballs? I'm afraid it won't work. Li Sheng shook off his hole cards at the military meeting where the battle was decided.

"That's right. However, our artillery is still much heavier after all, and it is not suitable to cross the Qinling Mountains, Xiegu, Qishan and other places over the mountains and mountains. The staff officer in charge of military affairs ordered Xu Shu to raise his own question: "Our original plan was to send cavalry from Liangzhou and infantry from Hanzhong. Artillery is generally counted among the infantry, but if they follow the infantry along the mountain road, I am afraid that they will not be able to reach Guanzhong in half a year. ”

"Haha! You don't have to worry about that. In fact, I had already asked Kong Ming to prepare for this matter. Do you remember three years ago when I ordered the troops in Liangzhou and the steppe to be equipped with baggage wagon battalions? At that time, the baggage battalion was equipped with 20 battalions, but in fact we actually formed 25 battalions. The five extra battalions were all secretly formed artillery and chariot battalions. At present, Ma Dai and Zhao Yun are being equipped according to the scale of three battalions in Liangzhou and two battalions in the grassland. There is no need to worry about artillery anymore. Li Sheng was very confident and showed his other hole card. Because Li Sheng used overseas funds to order Kong Ming directly from the artillery factory without going through the cabinet and court, the military commander in charge of military affairs and politics, this was the first time that everyone in the court had heard about this matter.

"Uh...... I wonder what the configuration of this artillery battalion is? Could the number of three battalions be too small? Xu Shu was slightly stunned when he heard this, and then understood why Li Sheng didn't make it public directly, but did it secretly. Xu Shu didn't have any annoyance about things bypassing him, as Li Sheng's senior brother and the longest-serving strategist, Xu Shu worked hard for Li Sheng wholeheartedly.

"Too little? I'm just afraid of too much. To tell the truth, the standard allocation of an artillery battalion is calculated based on the number of standard artillery units, and the base number of a standard artillery unit is eight people and one artillery, and according to the standard establishment of 4,000 people at the battalion level of our army, the number of an artillery battalion is 500 guns, which is staggering enough. Of course, according to the needs of actual operations, the combination of large and small artillery makes the number of artillery pieces not as many as the standard ones for several years, but the total number of artillery pieces of the three battalions is nearly 1,000, which is enough for combat use. Li Sheng said with a smile, and then asked Kong Ming, who knew more about this matter, to explain: "I don't understand the specific preparation for several years. These are all handled by Kong Ming, so let him explain everything. ”

"According to the existing tactical requirements of our army, the artillery arrangement of the artillery battalion is as follows: an artillery battalion is equipped with 50 siege guns of 2,000 catties, equipped with two base shells, and one base is 100 rounds of ammunition; At the same time, it is equipped with 100 heavy artillery pieces of 1,000 pounds, with two base shells, one base of 100 rounds of ammunition; It is equipped with 150 light guns of 800 catties, with three base ammunition, one base of ammunition is 100 rounds; The column is equipped with 200 small-caliber revoltains of 200 catties, with two base ammunition, one base of 500 rounds. Seeing that His Majesty asked his majesty to come forward to announce the establishment, Kong Ming smiled slightly, flicked his sleeves lightly, and calmly reported the establishment that was almost surprising when he heard it: "According to the plan, a full artillery battalion has 400 large and small artillery pieces, but due to the lack of artillery equipment in our army at present, and the army's qualified artillery is insufficient. Therefore, all five artillery battalions of our army are artillery battalions that are not fully organized, of which the first artillery battalion is equipped under Zhao Yun, with 25 siege guns of 2,000 catties, 60 field guns of 1,000 catties, 100 light artillery pieces of 800 catties, 100 renaissant guns of 200 catties, and 272 artillery pieces; The second artillery battalion was deployed under the command of Zhao Yun, with 15 2,000-jin siege guns, 70 1,000-pound field guns, 500 80-pound light artillery, 200 200-pound rotary guns, and 335 combined artillery; The 3rd, 4th, and 5th Battalions of artillery were all equipped with Liangzhou Corps, all of which were equipped with 40 2,000-jin siege guns, 50 1,000-pound field guns, 50 800-pound light artillery, 100 200-pound retaining guns, and 240 combined artillery. That is to say, in this battle, we equipped Zhao Yun with 607 artillery pieces, and Liangzhou with 720 artillery pieces. ”

"There are six or seven hundred guns on each side, which is not a small number in terms of numbers alone. But will our army's ammunition supply keep up? I heard Kong Ming just read that there doesn't seem to be a special supply establishment in the establishment. This seems to be different from the usual practice in our army. Xu Shu is also a shrewd person, as soon as he heard Kong Ming explain in detail the various arrangements of his artillery, he quickly grasped two issues from it, one is supply, and the other is: "...... Moreover, why not equip the army with more large-caliber artillery, I remember that Your Majesty once said that the larger the caliber of this artillery, although the weight also increases, the more powerful it is. ”

"The first question, Your Majesty considers in this way, is the introduction of an almost complete system of separation of supply and operations in the artillery battalions. Artillery battalions also have their own vehicles for transporting ammunition, but the ammunition transported by these vehicles is generally kept below the standard base. It can only support the artillery units for one or two major battles, and the more supplies are made up of our standard baggage battalions. According to His Majesty's expectations, three battalions of baggage wagons were used to supply one artillery battalion. Since the three battalions of baggage wagons had about 1,500 wagons, there was no problem in supplying the artillery battalions. In response to Xu Shu's question, Kong Ming quickly answered: "As for the question of not equipping the army with large-caliber artillery, it is the result of consideration in several aspects: first, the weight of large-caliber artillery is still too large, even if we have developed an artillery car, but the speed of travel is still too slow except for flat ground, which is not conducive to the action of the entire army; Secondly, the rate of fire of large-caliber artillery is much lower than that of small-caliber light artillery, and because of its heavy weight, it is difficult to adjust the angle of the artillery in battle, etc., but it is not very suitable for rapidly changing operations; Third, the power of large-caliber artillery is great, but in addition to being more suitable for attacking cities, it is not very suitable for field warfare, considering that the enemy may carry out surprise attacks, as well as the battlefield duel to the enemy's vital forces and other problems, but it is more suitable for small-caliber artillery with a higher rate of fire and lighter weight. Moreover, the flowering shells of the 200-kilogram revolver cannon are much easier to produce than the flowering shells used in the 2,000-kilogram siege artillery, which can better solve our supply pressure. ”

"Well, that's a good thing to say. But a total of less than a hundred heavy artillery pieces can be ...... Chang'an City? Xu Shu had doubts about whether the power of these cannons could shake Chang'an City: "Chang'an City is one of the most fortified cities in the world. ”

"That's perfectly fine. Although Chang'an is a strong city, it is still far from our CD. You must know that our CD is made of fine bluestone mixed with cooked glutinous rice juice, not to mention a two-thousand-pound cannon, and even a five-thousand-pound fortress cannon has no way to take it. If you want to say that the artillery that can completely destroy the CD city wall, I am afraid that the 10,000-pound fortress cannon being developed by the Navy Ordnance Institute can do it. Kong Ming is very confident in the power of his artillery, because after serving as a military commander for a long time, he knows a lot about artillery and other novel weapons. He was sure that as long as his own artillery was sent into battle, there were few cities that could withstand artillery attacks.

"If so, then it will be fine." Seeing that Kong Ming said so confidently, Xu Shu had always understood that Kong Ming was a cautious person, and he was used to not telling lies, so he was relieved, and he no longer had any doubts.

Seeing that Xu Shu, a "professional" talent, the people around Li Sheng did not have any further doubts about the establishment and power of the artillery battalion, they naturally did not continue to entangle. The matter was passed, and then it turned into a series of orders sent to all parts of the front line.

In the ninth year of China, Li Sheng swore in Hanzhong to go to the Northern Expedition to the Ming Dynasty with a large army out of the military capital, and went to Qishan, thinking that he should respond to the situation of the Liangzhou Army, but secretly tried to attack Chencang from the Suiyang Trail as an opportunity to smuggle in. This is an obvious plagiarism of Han Xin's strategy of secretly crossing Chen Cang in the early Han Dynasty, and it was naturally seen through by Wang Shuang, the general of the Wei army who defended Chen Cang - in fact, it was not a breakthrough, but such an important place as Chen Cang, Cao Wei would naturally send powerful generals to defend, and the 30,000 soldiers who rushed out of the Suiyang Trail just happened to collide with Wang Shuang's defense that had never slackened.

So Qishan suspicious soldiers, Chen Cang fierce battle, after everyone thought that Li Sheng's army could not be, the sneak attack on Chen Cang changed to a strong attack, Li Sheng personally led an army of 50,000 to attack the Dasan Pass, with the help of the artillery and muskets of the pro-guard army, it only took two days to win this and Chen Cang is almost as important as the level. The prestige of the "Shenji Battalion" in this battle spread all over the world, and it was only at this time that people learned about Li Sheng's so-called most mysterious soldiers and horses in the four battalions of the Son of Heaven -- the Shenji Battalion.

The Fourth Battalion of the Son of Heaven was a unit personally commanded and trained by Li Sheng, and its predecessor was Li Sheng's Guards Cavalry Battalion. After taking Jiaozhou, Li Sheng expanded the original 500 men of the Guards Cavalry Battalion to 2,000 men, raising its establishment to a scale comparable to that of an ordinary cavalry battalion. After capturing Yizhou, Li Sheng was equipped with a strong bow and crossbow in addition to the Guards Cavalry Battalion, making it an infantry unit with strong combat power in Li Sheng's hands. As for the guard battalion, it was after Li Sheng ascended the throne and became the king, because the monarch and the ministers had been divided at that time, and the rank between each other had been determined, everyone suggested that Li Sheng set up a guard force composed of technical masters to protect Li Sheng's safety. After Li Sheng ascended the throne as emperor and established the Tang Empire, due to the emergence of artillery technology and musket technology, Li Sheng set out to form this pure firearms unit "Shenji Battalion". Although the "Shenji Battalion" is called a battalion, it is different from other battalions in that it is not a single branch of the military: it is a unit composed of a mixture of three branches of the armed forces: firearms cavalry, firearms infantry, and artillery, and its establishment is also larger than that of ordinary battalions, with the number reaching the scale of 4,500 people, of whom 1,500 are cavalry, 1,500 are infantry, and 1,500 are artillery. Because it was a team formed by Emperor Li Sheng himself, and it was formed with the goal of a pure firearms unit, this unit was generally not stationed in CD but directly stationed in Guangzhou, stationed in the mountains behind the naval ordnance station, and assumed another responsibility of its own: the testing of new firearms and the study of firearms tactics. Since all this was done in secret, and the troops' salaries, ordnance, and supplies were all directly supplied from overseas, the entire team was not known to too many people. Even most of Li Sheng's cronies knew that his lord's guard was four battalions instead of three, and they didn't quite understand where the fourth battalion was.

It wasn't until Li Sheng officially swore in Hanzhong that they really saw the figure of the most mysterious "Shenji Battalion". At that time, they looked at it from a distance, and they only thought that it was a little strange that this unit, which was all lightly armored and armed with strange weapons, and at the same time had infantry artillery, and did not think that they really had any great combat power. And when it came time to attack Sanguan, they really understood the power of this army after seeing how these people in the Shenji Battalion used the weapons in their hands and understood what kind of power these weapons had.

"Such a strong Guan Qiang actually collapsed in a few huge roars, this army is really strong, it is simply specially designed to attack the fortifications." Legend has it that after the capture of Sanguan, rumors spread among the army, and some soldiers with a little literacy level said.

"It's not just about tackling tough problems. Didn't you look at the long sticks in their hands? With just a finger, the defenders at the head of the city fell. Is this something that can be done by man? If you want me to say, these people are all heavenly soldiers and generals who have learned from those immortals, and they all have Taoism. Those ordinary soldiers said this, their cultural level is not too high, and most of them are superstitious about ghosts and gods from the mountains in the countryside, and occasionally they have heard that Li Sheng once vigorously hired Taoist priests to "practice", so they are very sure that the people in this divine machine camp are those cultivators who know the Tao. "If only we could learn these ways sometime." They looked enviously at the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion.

"Hehe, do you still expect to enter the Divine Machine Camp? Don't look at your bear? That's it, can you get in? The other thought he was a little whimsical. He said sarcastically.

"My bear ......? I also killed five enemies in this battle. The soldier who had spoken shouted dissatisfied, and he had also made a lot of efforts in this battle, so he naturally didn't want to be called bad.

"Cut, anyone will fight this tailwind!" The other person was still next to him and said coolly.

"You ......" The original speaker became annoyed, and went to argue with him, and for a while, it was chaos again.

Not to mention what these soldiers under Li Sheng were making trouble in private because they saw the strength of the "Shenji Battalion", but only that these generals who followed Li Sheng's Northern Expedition, after seeing all kinds of Shenji Battalion, were very bold and gathered in Li Sheng's tent and asked to see Li Sheng: "Your Majesty, these equipment of the Shenji Battalion are good things, I don't know when Your Majesty will be able to equip our team as well?" These generals naturally knew that Li Sheng had equipped the Shenji Battalion with weapons, and they were envious of the Shenji Battalion for having such weapons, so they asked Li Sheng one after another.

"You guys are monkeys! I saw the benefits of these equipment at once. However, these equipment are not so easy to obtain. It's impossible for me to equip all of your teams because of the lack of production, and while that's ultimately a trend, it's not possible right now. If you want to get these things and lead such a force, you have to show your skills to make a great contribution in battle. Li Sheng laughed treacherously, and hung their hearts with words: "I have a musket battalion and a firearms sound shooting battalion on my side, and it depends on you which of you can get it." To be honest, muskets are hard to come by. I opened a musket factory in Guangzhou, and the 3,000 workers there could only produce the equipment of this battalion after a year's work, so ...... Hey! ”

"Your Majesty is wise!" Hearing Li Sheng say this, everyone didn't want to argue about anything, so they all went down and prepared not to mention it. Most of the generals refused to admit defeat, and naturally they were unwilling to give such good things as firearms to others. For a while, they all breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts, and indeed no one refused to admit defeat in this matter. They all thought, "I need to work harder on this." ”

Seeing the generals go out of their big tents, a trace of an inexplicable smile appeared on the corner of Li Sheng's mouth: "This time they finally realized the power of firearms." ”

"Your Majesty is very optimistic about firearms?" Xu Shu, the military advisor who was following Li Sheng, asked at this time. As the staff officer of Datang, he led the entire staff province to act with Li Sheng. The military division that ordinary people refer to, that is, the military division general Zhuge Liang, because of his status as a military commander, stayed in the rear to be responsible for the overall planning of the entire war, and did not follow the army. It can be said that the current Xu Shu is exercising the duties of a military advisor as a staff officer, and in the entire Northern Expeditionary Army, he is Li Sheng's military advisor.

"Yuan Zhi, don't you think that firearms are very powerful and have a long range? They can wipe out their enemies out of range of their bows and arrows. Li Sheng said with a smile: "I think it will be a trend for gunpowder weapons to become the protagonists of war." When the time comes, no matter how strong your kung fu is Lu Bu, you won't be able to stop such a small projectile. ”

"The power and range of firearms are indeed incomparable to ordinary weapons. But to say that they can completely replace bows, arrows, knives and guns, I think it's a bit whimsical. Those generals only saw the advantages of firearms at the moment, which is why they were so excited. Once they calm down, I don't believe they don't see the greatest weakness of firearms: firearms are too expensive to build; The radio frequency of firearms is too long. If the first problem of cost can be tolerated to a certain extent, then the second problem of radio frequency can become the fatal point of firearms. Firearms are good for long-range attacks, but timid for close combat. I fear that in the event of such a firearms unit being attacked by the enemy, the muskets we are armed with are not even as good as a stick picked on the side of the road. ”

"Haha, your eyes are much sharper than theirs." Li Sheng laughed for a while, but suddenly put away his smile: "You only see the present, but you don't think about the future." To be honest, this musket is considered to be the second generation in our armory, and its firing rate has been greatly improved compared to the first generation. The musket is a mechanism, and unlike the bow and arrow, its strength is determined not by the size of the manpower, but by the mechanism itself. Since it is a trap, it has the characteristics of a trap: it can be improved, it can improve its performance, and this is where its greatest potential lies. We can only develop such a musket now, and we can only let a good craftsman work for more than ten days to carefully build one, which is our inconvenience now, but the inconvenience of the present cannot determine the future, in the future, I think we should be able to have a special tool for the production of muskets, and the musket produced by this tool will have a radio frequency far greater than that of a bow and arrow. In this way, do you still think that muskets cannot replace all the weapons now? And the problem that muskets can't be melee can be solved by equipping the muzzle of muskets with a suitable dagger! ”

"This ...... I don't know! I have reservations on this matter. Xu Shu shook his head slightly, he felt that what His Majesty said was too long ago, it was unimaginable, "The rate of fire of the musket will exceed that of the bow and arrow?" This...... How could it be! ”

"Hehe, it won't work in ten years, but it's okay in a hundred years. A hundred years will not work, I will wait for two hundred years. I'm sure that as long as I support the development of these technologies, future generations will eventually see this. Li Sheng said with a smile, he saw that Xu Shu opened his mouth and seemed to want to say something, but he waved his hand lightly: "Don't talk about this matter for the time being." I know what you're trying to say, but I can't convince you on this matter, and you can't convince me, so instead of continuing to argue about this here, let's put it aside for a while and discuss some formal issues. Li Sheng said and directly spread out the map on the case: "We received it six days ago, and the battle report from Ma Dai's guy said that they had already raised troops and mixed all the way to attack Nan'an, I don't know what their current situation is?" ”

"They? According to the information they received yesterday, they have already hit the foot of Bird and Mouse Mountain, but they are not far from Shouyang. Xu Shu quickly asked for information about Ma Dai's Liangzhou Army from the case file, "Ma Dai divided his army of 200,000 into two parts, one part was attacked south by Commander Pang De along Taoshui, divided the old pass, Di Dao, and reached Angu County. The county magistrate of Angu County was a coward who abandoned the city and fled, so that Pang De's men and horses could smoothly join the soldiers and horses commanded by Ma Dai himself at Bird and Mouse Mountain. Now it is said that 200,000 people on two roads are divided into two large battalions in the north and south, and they will confront Wei General on the line between Bird and Mouse Mountain and Gaochengling, and it seems that a head-on decisive battle will soon be held. ”

"Head-to-head? This guy also has a bit of a brave ability. But is he the most popular with Ma Dai and Pound? I'm a little skeptical. A mocking smile appeared on Li Sheng's face: "No matter, this west will be left to Ma Dai and Pang De to make trouble for the time being." We must move east as soon as possible to cooperate with Zhou Li on the East Road to take Chencang, only by taking Chencang, we can be regarded as able to get a foothold in Guanzhong. ”

"I understand......" Xu Shu nodded lightly and then drew on the map: "My plan is to carry out the plan of the suspicious soldiers again after a day of rest in the pass, and use the lord to personally lead a team to attack Chen Cang with great fanfare, and the other road is hidden, with Ma Chao as the commander, and the cavalry and a part of the artillery will attack Yongxian." Once Yongxian is breached, then there is no need to defend Chencang, which Wang Shuang defended. After Chencang, Yongxian County has always existed as the second line of defense and material distribution center of Chencang. Wang Shuang's stubborn defense of Chen Cang was just to wait for our people to run out of food and grass and retreat. But our acquisition of Yongxian County can alleviate the problem of grain and grass by itself. ”

"Hmm...... That's a good idea. Just do it. Li Sheng thought about it and felt that this plan was very good, and immediately agreed, "Meng Qi's strength has been accumulated sufficiently. I think his power will shock everyone in the world. Hey......! ”