Due to various reasons, since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, China's military technology has gradually lagged behind Western European countries, but this does not mean that China's soldiers do not understand the reason that the dead angle of the city defense shooting is eliminated by side-fired firepower, and the killing effect of side-fired firepower is greater than that of frontal fire. At the latest, during the Warring States period, the soldiers of that time knew that they would build protruding piers on the city walls to eliminate shooting blind spots and attack the besieging enemy from three sides. This point is recorded in "Mozi", which is called Xingcheng, and because its appearance is as narrow as a horse's face, it is also called a horse face; There are also ruins found in Miyagi, the lower capital of Tsubame. Chen Gui, a famous military master in the Song Dynasty, recorded in his "Record of Defending the City" that ""horse face, the old system of sixty steps to stand one, jump out of the city, do not reduce two zhang, wide and narrow with the location is uncertain, both sides look directly at the corner of the city, there are buildings on it. "Obviously, the spacing of the horse faces was designed according to the range of the bows and crossbows of the time, so as to ensure that the enemy troops who landed in the city were in the middle of the fire from the horses on both sides. Obviously, the reason why ancient China did not preemptively develop such a complex fortress system as the West is not because the ancient Chinese soldiers were stupider than their counterparts in Western Europe, but because ancient China was in a remote corner, far away from the center of ancient civilization, and the technical exchange was far less convenient than that of Western Europe, and the military technology represented by firearms gradually lagged behind from the 14th century. Without a sufficiently powerful thermal weapon, naturally the horse face, pier, and shooting tower cannot develop into a fortress system. (By the way, after absorbing the advanced firearms technology of the West, many elements of the fortress defense system appeared in the military architecture of the Qing Dynasty, such as many Qing Dynasty forts, tulou, gunlou, and fort cities left over from Fujian to the present day, which can be seen in interested book lovers.) ）

"If that's the case, your fortress has merit, but it's no joke about the military, and it's not great to raise the city walls, so you should prepare more movable baffles, and when you defend the city, you can also block the arrows of the tartars."

At this time, Thomas also heard Du Guoying's tone softened a lot, obviously this was already a concession: "It's okay, I'll let the craftsmen hurry up, there should be no problem before the Tatars arrive!" ”

Ningxia City, the General Military Mansion.

"What about Min Min Begi? What about Sen General? What about the Living Buddha of Chesang? Where have they gone? Lu Boqi's face was pale, like rotten milk, and the little old man, who was usually idle and gentle, straightened his body, and the green tendons on both temples were exposed, as if he would be burst by sticky blood in the next second. The party that was questioned, Zhao Wende, the secretary in charge of the shogunate after Liu Cheng's expedition, was still the same, he did not immediately answer Lu Boqi's question, but first bowed respectfully to the other party, and then turned his head to the servant at the door and shouted: "Master Lu is here, why don't you have good tea, there are really no rules at all!" ”

"Oh, my old man Zhao, what kind of tea are you drinking at this time, the Dongyu have all hit the Yellow River!" Lu Boqi paused angrily and said: "General Liu is not here, Deputy General Wang is not here, Minmin and a few of them are not here, just leave you a Zhao Jiansheng, what rules do you have with me, Zhao Jiansheng, Zhao Jiansheng, no matter how I say that I Lu Boqi is also the person appointed by the imperial court to supervise the military affairs of Ningxia, the Tartars called, but none of the people below can be found, is there such a rule?" ”

"The old man taught me a lesson!" Zhao Wende respectfully owed his body: "Actually, the boss doesn't have to worry, the chief soldier has already left a countermeasure for the Dongyu when he left, and Mrs. and Counselor Du are now carrying out the execution step by step." “

"Countermeasure, what countermeasure?" Lu Boqi's eyes widened with curiosity: "I don't know at all!" ”

"Huh! The chief soldier had already expected that the Donglu would march westward, so he had already told his wife, me, Chesang Living Buddha and General Du about the strategy before he left Mobei, in fact, as soon as the Dongyu's army crossed the Liao River, we knew. Zhao Wende snorted, but avoided answering Lu Boqi's second question.

"Then what is Mr. Liu's countermeasure?" Lu Boqi was attracted by Zhao Wende's answer, and he didn't notice that the other party didn't answer his second question.

"Madame led the two divisions of Chahar and Tumut to move westward, and at the same time set fire to the wasteland to block the pursuers of the eastern captives; The collection of books and monks of the Jokhang Temple also moved west to Ningxia, Du Shen will guard the new naturalized city, Bai Wang will be in charge of the water division to transport supplies, and Du Ruhu will lead the department from Chaoyi to the north, guard the border wall, and his nephew will form a corner, with the strength of the old Dongyu, and wait until the general soldier returns from Mobei, and then make a counterattack. ”

"I see!" Lu Boqi heard that Liu Cheng had left a strategy to deal with before he set off, and the heart that was hanging in mid-air finally fell back into his stomach, and then he remembered Liu Cheng's war in Mobei, and asked urgently: "Is there any news in Mobei?" ”

"Already!" Zhao Wende picked up a piece of letterhead from the desk and said with a smile: "Yesterday afternoon, I received a message from Mobei, fifteen days ago, the General Soldier and Chechen Taiji broke ground in Zhaomoduo and joined forces with the Chechen Department in Zhaomoduo, beheaded more than 14,000 people, and captured livestock, equipment, and raw mouths, which is really a great victory that my Ming Dynasty has not won in two hundred years!" If you are not mistaken, you should already be on your way back to the teacher by now. ”

"Seriously!" Lu Boqi snatched the letterhead from Zhao Wende's hand, read it three times from beginning to end, and only read half of it, and finally saw Liu Cheng's hand-to-foot signature before he did it, two lines of old tears immediately flowed down, he put the letterhead on his chest, and muttered to himself: "The second ancestor blesses, I have a hero like Liu Zongbing, and I have made such a miracle!" Speaking of this, he suddenly shouted: "Zhao Zhangshu, immediately pass on this matter, let the soldiers and civilians of Ningxia be happy, and the Jinwu in the city can't help but write to the court for three days, and the official will personally write to the court to ask for merit for General Liu!" ”

Lu Boqi's abrupt shout startled Zhao Wende, he hurriedly ran to the door, saw that there was no one nearby, and then carefully closed the door, and said to Lu Boqi: "Boss, be quiet, the chief soldier has told me in the letter, this matter is forbidden to spread, if there is a violation of the order, they will be beheaded!" ”

Lu Boqi asked in surprise: "Why is it forbidden to spread the word?" At present, the people of Ningxia are panicking, and announcing this news can also calm people's hearts! ”

"If the people know, then the Eastern Tartars will also know!" Zhao Wende took back the letter from Lu Boqi's hand, and said in a low voice: "At present, the Dongyu thinks that the adults are going to Mobei, maybe they will go deeper, and the lady has already led the troops to return to the west, and set fire to the wasteland along the way; The New Naturalization City was built by Mr. Thomas in accordance with the Western-style construction method, and it was difficult for the Eastern Captives to take it in a short period of time. There is nothing to plunder, there is a strong city behind, and I don't know that the adults have returned to the division, maybe I will suffer a big loss this time! ”

"Well, if that's the case, then it's better not to publish it!" Lu Boqi nodded with some pity: "Then I'll go back and write a letter and tell the court the news of the big victory!" ”

"My lord, if it is according to the meaning of the following, it is best to postpone the concert, and wait until this battle is over, and then report to the court together!"

"Even the imperial court has to hide it? That's not good! Lu Boqi looked embarrassed.

"It's not a secret, but it's just a matter of delaying for a while, after all, the less one person knows about this matter, there is less risk of leaking out. If you tell the court now, the master in the palace and the post stations along the way may be leaked, and our Ming Dynasty has not suffered a lot in terms of meticulous work! ”

Zhao Wende's last sentence touched Lu Boqi, from the beginning of Salhu, the Ming army and the Houjin have been fighting for seventeen years, during which the Ming army has suffered countless losses of leaked information, although Lu Boqi has not been an official in Liaodong, but the letters of colleagues, the articles in the Tang newspaper mentioned these things, but countless. He sighed and said, "It's okay, then I'll take it easy." Mr. Zhao, why do you keep hiding these things from me? I and your chief soldier can be regarded as poor friends, what has happened to him in the past few years? ”

Hearing Lu Boqi's complaint with a hint of reproach, Zhao Wende was also a little embarrassed, and he smiled bitterly: "Boss, you can't blame Lord General for this, he is also good for you." After all, you are the official of the imperial court, controlling the Ningxia army, and we are all his subordinates, if you know in advance, I am afraid that he will not be allowed to go out of Mobei! ”

Hearing this, Lu Boqi couldn't help sighing, Zhao Wende's answer made him speechless, indeed if he knew that Dongyu was about to go west, he would never allow Liu Cheng to send troops to Mobei, leaving an empty nest. But isn't that what the Ming system was meant to be? Governors, governors control all roads of soldiers and horses, the general soldiers, deputy soldiers, staff generals are just ordered to act, since the battle of Tumubao with Emperor Yingzong personally recruited the warriors and nobles were almost wiped out, the superintendent of the army has always been the civil official messenger, like Liu Cheng to support a civil official as his own nominal boss, the civil and military messengers to take care of their own affairs, the Ming Dynasty is still the first one in three hundred years. Considering that he is not a noble of this dynasty, nor a clan, and there is no strong support in the court, if it were not for the great power of the East and the rampant rogue, the court would have been in a hurry, I am afraid that he would have been deprived of military power a long time ago, and if he met a benevolent monarch, he would be a rich idler, and if he met a mean and eloquent master, he was afraid that he would be thrown into prison and taste the torture of the three law divisions.

"Mr. Zhao, do you think you adults are lucky?"

"Huh?" Zhao Wende glanced at Lu Boqi in surprise, wondering why the other party suddenly asked such a question.

"If it weren't for the Donglu Liukou, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to live like this, right?" Lu Boqi smiled bitterly: "When Emperor Xianzong was emperor, there was Qi Nantang in the south and Li Ruqi in the north (Li Chengliang, Ruqi is his word), and they were all good generals, and Wu Luo was not lost to Liu Cheng, but unfortunately the end was not very good. You tell Liu Cheng on my behalf, things in the world are like the moon, and when the moon is full, it is better to leave a way out in advance! Speaking of this, he arched his hand to Zhao Wende and turned straight away. Zhao Wende hurriedly grabbed a few steps to send him off, but was waved away by Lu Boqi. Looking at the back of Lu Boqi leaving in a hurry, Zhao Wende smiled and said: "Although Qi Nantang and Li Ruqi are both temporary choices, how can they be compared with adults?" Lu Boqi, Lu Boqi, if you compare the two of them with the adults of my family, it can only be said that your pair of tricks are in vain, and you can't recognize the real dragon when you get along day and night! ”

The iron hooves of the horses trampled over the charred ground, splashing dust all over the sky, and the smell of wildfire filled the air. Ai Xin Jueluo. Haug sneezed, jumped off his horse, loosened his trouser belt, pulled out the words, and urinated on his face, his urine rushing into the gray-black ash of the ground, revealing the brown, fertile soil below. Finally, Haug had finally exhausted his "stock", and with a hearty moan, he shook off the remaining urine, lifted his trousers, and asked his companion, "How far are you from those Chahar Tartars?" ”

The companion jumped off the horse, looked around, squatted down again, picked up a handful of grass and wood ashes, carefully examined it, and replied in a very affirmative tone: "Big Belle, it should have been two days ago, at least three days ago!" ”

"Three days?" Hauge spat fiercely, looked into the distance and sneered: "They have a lot of livestock, that is, a day and a night, the order goes down, everyone gets off the horse and eats something first, feeds the horse some horse feed, rests for an hour, and then gets on the horse together, you must hold this group of barbarians, I heard that Liu Zongbing's wife is in this group of people, and she is still a princess of the Jungger people, Lao Tzu wants to see what it looks like!" With that, he found a clean place, took out the food and water from his backpack, and swallowed it heavily. As the eldest son of Huang Taiji, Aixin Jueluo. Hauge possessed many of the good qualities shared by the Jurchen aristocracy of the time, and it is recorded in the history books that he was "superior in strength and skillful in bows and horses." This can also be confirmed from the history of his personal killing of the leaders of the Zalut Department on the battlefield, Ezhaitu and Zhang Xianzhong, but perhaps because he grew up under the wing of his father Huang Taiji since childhood, Haoge did not inherit Huang Taiji's political talent, he has a rough personality, treats people generously, and is quite respected by the soldiers under his command, but he does not have his father's sensitive, calm and even ruthless character, which is also for the history of Huang Taiji's sudden death, as the eldest son of the outstanding military achievements, in the good situation of being supported by the two yellow flags and the blue flag, failed to ascend the throne, and finally ended up in prison and died.

However, at this time, Haoge naturally could not predict the tragic end of his history, before this expedition, he had just been given the population of eight Niu Lu by Huang Taiji, and it was rumored that the position of the owner of the Zhenglan Banner vacated after the death of Mang Gurtai would allow him to succeed him, becoming the Heshuo Belle of the Zhenglan Banner, the Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, except for the two banners led by Huang Taiji himself, the remaining six banners were held by six Heshuo Beile, which marked that he had stepped into the highest power level of the Houjin Empire. This made Hauge overjoyed, and he was determined to use this big victory to make everyone have nothing to say about his holding of the blue flag. (To be continued.) )