"Liu Dayong of the Beacon Mercenary Regiment led three thousand warriors to request registration, and the owner is the Four Seas Commercial Bank!" A stout man held an exaggerated plate axe and shouted at the top of his voice, and behind him, in a fairly neat square, the mercenaries shouted in unison: "Beacon fire!" ”

Yang Duwei glanced at Liu Dayong, counted the number of people under his subordinates, and then threw a token to Liu Dayong, saying: "Three miles to the left of the east gate, the camp doctrine workshop No. 6 to No. 341, the next one." Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Liu Dayong took the token and yelled at his subordinates behind him with great momentum: "Beacon mercenaries, defend the family and the country!" ”

"Beacon mercenaries, defend the homeland and defend the country!" The three thousand mercenaries shouted in unison, very imposing.

Zhao Qing and Xiong Ye crowded among the onlookers, looking at this rare scene of ordering soldiers with interest. After the banquet that day, the Weibian Forbidden Army began to withdraw, and 25,000 soldiers silently evacuated Ningjiang Prefecture, leaving only 5,000 for Yang Zaixing to deploy. However, the military strength in the city was soon filled with a large number of mercenaries who appeared out of nowhere, and several mercenary groups with some names in Liaodong appeared in the city of Ningjiang Prefecture within three days, among which the Beacon Fire Mercenary Group, the Battle Cry Mercenary Group, the Wild Lion Mercenary Group, and the Yunhai Mercenary Group were all large mercenary groups with more than three thousand people, each well-equipped and well-trained, at least on the surface, it seemed that the combat power was no less than that of the Liaodong Forbidden Army.

There are more than a dozen large and small mercenary groups, the quality of these mercenary groups is uneven, and some of the equipment is even better than the four big mercenary groups, such as the wolf soul mercenary group with some mysterious colors, each with a mask of face, a chain mail knife glowing with a cold light, at first glance, it is a high-end product, and each member gives people a cold temperament, no one will doubt the combat power of such a mercenary, but the number is really less, only two hundred. However, when these two hundred people appeared, even Captain Yang Duwei's face was much more solemn, and he didn't directly announce the defense, but politely invited the mercenary leader to be a guest in the city lord's mansion.

There are also some mercenary groups that are really miserable, all dressed in a mess, and there are also those who use hoes and sickles as weapons, and there are not a few such mercenaries.

There were forty or fifty thousand mercenaries who poured into Ningjiang Prefecture City all at once, of course, these were all orthodox mercenaries on record, Ye Luzi couldn't enter the city gate at all, and the entire Ningjiang Prefecture City was very lively. The soldiers lasted from early morning to sunset, and after dark, the merchants and tycoons held banquets to entertain their mercenaries and began their own mobilization meetings.

Zhao Qing received countless invitations, but he declined, although those merchants tempted this Guigumen man with a heavy appearance fee, but Zhao Qing had no interest in making this kind of money.

"Hehe, these mercenaries are called jubilant now, but I don't know that when the Jurchen Khitan soldiers came to the city, a few of them were really willing to do their best." Xiong Ye looked at the crowd and said with a sneer, he had also organized mercenaries before, and he knew the urine nature of mercenaries.

"Lord Chai's hand is still wonderful, these mercenaries can't fight in the field, but if they defend the city, they may not be impossible. Arranging them to defend the city is to tie them to the fate of Ningjiang Prefecture, there are no eggs under the nest, there is no room for retreat, every battle is a battle against the water, and they will try their best to defend the city for their own lives. Zhao analyzed lightly, but when he turned around, he saw a big man with a beard, who was Wei Long.

Wei Long looked like a panda with two big dark circles under his eyes, it seemed that he hadn't slept well in the past few days, Zhao Qing had heard people in the city setting off fireworks from time to time in the past few days, and there were a few movements that made some people think that the Jurchens had called.

"Lord Wei, it seems that your ordnance supervisor has been very busy these days, and I hear you firing guns to celebrate from time to time, how can you have time to hang out?" Although Wei Long and Zhao Qing stared at each other with thick necks that day, Zhao Qing still had a good impression of this big man and felt that he had the true temperament of a person in the gate.

When Wei Long heard the word celebration, he pulled the corners of his mouth: "That gunpowder formula is worthy of the secret recipe of Guigu, and the gunpowder in the proportion provided by Zhao Gongzi is really amazing, especially after rubbing egg whites into granules, it is really powerful." But those explosions were not celebrations, the two colleagues encountered an accident, Wei Long once almost died, if it wasn't for a craftsman desperately pushing me away, it is likely that Wei Long would never see Zhao Gongzi again. He sighed.

"The sacrifice of the Armoryman will be remembered." Zhao Qing was in awe and mourned in silence for the sacrificed heroes.

Wei Long was obviously sad, and now he seemed very calm, and said: "The power of this gunpowder is beyond Wei Mou's imagination, but it can't be used for a while, the original firearm hardware configuration can't withstand this kind of power, the earth dragon thunder and thunderbolt shells are okay, but the artillery is completely unusable, and if you use it, you will explode the chamber, and my two colleagues died when testing the artillery." Wei came to find Zhao Gongzi to ask Zhao Gongzi for help, which was related to the defense of Ningjiang Prefecture, and he hoped that Zhao Gongzi would not hide it. ”

Zhao raised his eyebrows and said, "No problem, please ask Master Wei to guide the way." After speaking, he said goodbye to Xiong Ye, and then followed Wei Long to the east gate city wall.

The east gate is still in the hands of the forbidden army, and through the forbidden army outpost all the way, Zhao Qing finally saw the miserable cannon barrel on the city wall.

Zhao Qing finally knew why the barrel of the cannon would be blown up by black powder, this is a copper cannon that is only about two meters long, but looking at the thickness of the barrel, it is only two fingers thick, and it has been blown up by gunpowder and cracked several holes, and the weight of the entire gun body will not exceed two thousand catties.

"The artillery used in Ningjiang Prefecture City for city defense is all this kind of garbage?" Zhao Qing frowned and asked.

Wei Long's face turned dark, but he lowered his head, and several officials in military uniforms around him heard Zhao Qing's arrogant tone, all of them showed annoyance but couldn't attack, after all, the reality is so, Zhao Qing provided a gunpowder formula that multiplied the power, and they didn't have the capital to exert the power of this gunpowder, if not, Wei Long would not have asked Zhao Qing for help.

"It's just a two-finger thick barrel, it's strange if you don't blow up the barrel, I think it's just lucky not to blow up the barrel, this cannon head can't be fixed at all under the huge momentum of gunpowder, and it will fall directly backwards, I'm afraid that your two colleagues were not killed by the aftermath of gunpowder, but by the inverted cannon head." Zhao Qing analyzed lightly, but several officials of the Ordnance Supervision gradually paid attention to Zhao Qing, the other party's analysis was not bad at all, the background of the Ghost Valley was really unfathomable, after Shen Wansan brought the firearms technology to the Great Zhou, the technology of the two sides was still at the same level, and it was also a two-hundred-year development, but the firearms technology of the Ghost Valley was already so much ahead of the Great Zhou.

"So, isn't this heavyweight artillery enough for new gunpowder?" Wei Long was secretly frightened, this was already the largest heavyweight artillery in the Great Zhou.

"Of course, if you want to be equipped with this kind of gunpowder, the gun body must be at least four thousand catties, and the barrel must be one palm thick, is there that kind of heavyweight artillery in Ningjiang Prefecture."

"Four thousand pounds! Da Zhou has never had that kind of heavyweight artillery! "Everyone in the ordnance supervisor gasped, Zhao Qing's minimum requirements are twice the maximum heavyweight artillery of Da Zhou, the two thousand catties of artillery is already extraordinary, how powerful is the four thousand catties of artillery!

Seeing the reaction of the ordnance supervisor, Zhao Qing couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle, no longer holding out hope, the four thousand catties of black powder and copper cannons can make these dirt buns shocked and unbelievable, so what would be their reaction if they saw the missile tank.

"Then you should give up using new gunpowder on this artillery."

Zhao Qing began to look at the structure of this artillery, but the more he looked at it, the more disappointed he became, this gun actually did not even have the function of raising and lowering the gun head, it was always only an angle of 20 degrees, and if he wanted to change the shell point, he had to move the position of the gun body and the direction of the gun head, I really don't know how these gunners operated during the battle. However, these can't be changed in a short time, and he really can't make any suggestions for improving these guns.

"Is there such artillery in the city defense of Ningjiang Prefecture, is there a bed crossbow or the like?" Zhao Qing had some ideas for the use of new gunpowder, and asked Wei Long, who was very interested in the famous crossbow of the Great Song Dynasty.

"Bed crossbow? There are more than ten aircraft in the inner city, how could Zhao Gongzi ask about these backward utensils? Wei Long was a little puzzled. The bed crossbow was still prosperous in the Great Zhou military for a while, but it has gradually been replaced by more powerful artillery.

"Aren't you struggling to use new gunpowder on artillery, if you have a crossbow like a bed crossbow, and you can use it as artillery if you tie your thunderbolts and other explosives with a delayed explosion function to the crossbow arrows?" Zhao Qing has a black line, this kind of Song people use rotten skills, these Great Zhou Weapons Supervisors will not never have thought of it.

Sure enough, several ordnance supervisors were all dazzled, as if they had discovered a new world, yes, the penetration and range of the bed crossbow far exceeded that of artillery, but the destructive power was far from enough, but if a thunderbolt was tied to it, it would be a perfect combination of the advantages of the two sharp weapons of artillery and bed crossbow. Why didn't you think of such a simple method?

In fact, it was Shen Wansan who prematurely left a template for the development of firearms in the Great Zhou Dynasty, so that those who developed firearms had preconceived notions, thinking that the direction of the development of long-range firearms was artillery and firearms, which overlooked the wonderful use of many gunpowders.

"Zhao Gongzi woke up the dreamer with a word, this method is absolutely feasible, Wei replaced the Ningjiang Prefecture Forbidden Army and thanked Zhao Gongzi here." Wei Long's face could not hide the excitement, every time there was a new breakthrough in the development of firearms, he would be very excited, and immediately arranged for someone to take out the bed crossbow from the inner city and arrange it on the outer city, ready to study.

Zhao Qing was politely invited out by the two soldiers.

"Let's see if I'm going to die." Zhao muttered softly, but still honestly followed the two soldiers out of the east gate. Although the ordnance supervisor adopted Zhao Qing's new formula and several suggestions, it had no intention of accommodating Zhao Qing at all, which made Zhao Qing very resentful.

That night, Ningjiang Prefecture set off fireworks for another night, and the people who were noisy with the roar were upset.