After the Wagang Army's Eastern Expedition finally touched the core interests of the Great Sui Dynasty after taking Liang County, Yang Guang, the Son of Heaven, immediately ordered the troops to be divided into three routes, ordering the general Zhang Xutuo to lead an army of 30,000 to counterattack Liang County, and ordered Yang Qing, the king of Xun, who was stationed in Xingyang County, to lead 20,000 troops to attack the nest of the Wagang Army in Dongjun.

At the same time, Yang Guang stopped Pei Renji's plan to attack Langya County and ordered Pei Renji to lead the Flying Eagle Army to recover Jiyin County and Dongping County from the Eastern Front.

The three-way army counterattacked the Wagang army at the same time, but Zhang Xuan's army in Beihai County unexpectedly received an order to continue to attack Langya County and exterminate the two bandits in Langya County.

On the wharf of the Yellow River in Beihai County, thousands of temporarily recruited migrant workers are busy building the wharf with bluestone, and on both sides of the inlet in the distance are moored ten large ships that have just returned from transporting materials from the Beiping County Shipyard.

In addition, there are also five thousand-stone warships moored on the wharf, which are also five second-hand warships bought from the Beiping Shipyard at a very low price, and have just arrived at the Beihai County Wharf.

At this time, Zhang Xuan was inspecting the wharf, which was built by Sima Liu Ling, and the new naval captain Liu Guilin led a thousand newly recruited naval troops to be stationed on the wharf.

Liu Guilin turned out to be a lieutenant under the command of the commander of the Great Sui Navy Lai Hu'er, about 30 years old, a native of Beihai County, once led a 3,000-stone warship, participated in three Goguryeo wars, was retrenched in the capital last year, and rejoined Zhang Xuan's army three months ago, and was directly appointed by Zhang Xuan as a partial general of the naval army.

This time, Zhang Xuan came to the dock of Beihai County to inspect the five warships that had just been bought.

The rumor that Pei Renji was transferred to attack the Wagang Army has been confirmed, and Pei Renji will personally lead 10,000 troops to attack Jiyin County and no longer attack Langya County.

But this does not mean that the imperial court has let go of the two bandits in Langya County, although Zhang Xuan has not yet received official news, but Zhang Xuan understands it in his heart. Nine times out of ten, he still led the army to continue to attack the bandits in Langya County.

Leading 10,000 troops to attack the bandits in Langya County is very risky and stressful, but Zhang Xuan's real pressure is Wang Shichong in the north, Zhang Xuan knows that Wang Shichong hates himself, once Beihai County or Qi County is empty. Wang Shichong will definitely lead the army into Qingzhou again, especially Beihai County.

Zhang Xuan couldn't stop Wang Shichong's determination, but he was able to draw money from the bottom of the kettle so that Wang Shichong could not go south, the method was very simple, destroy all the tools that Wang Shichong's army could use to cross the river, and the arrival of these five warships could be said to be at the right time.

This kind of warship is also a kind of building ship, two feet high and five feet high, and about ten feet long. It can carry 100 soldiers, and the ships are only 50% new, and they can be used for a year and a half at most, and they will be sent back to the shipyard for overhaul, but Zhang Xuan just hopes that they can play a role for a few months, and can block the Yellow River when his army is not in Beihai County, and prevent Wang Shichong's army from going south.

Zhang Xuan stepped onto one of the big boats, and at a glance he saw a stone cannon on the bow of the ship, the so-called stone cannon is also called a stone machine. It is a ten-fold magnified crossbow, and its weapon is not a crossbow arrow. Rather, it is a cobblestone weighing about 20 pounds, with a range of 50 paces, which can penetrate the hull of the opponent's ship or destroy the opponent's tail rudder.

Jang Hyun stroked the stone cannon, made of hardwood and crouched like a tiger, his eyes full of interest. Liu Guilin, the lieutenant next to him, introduced Zhang Xuan: "General, this kind of stone cannon is mainly used to deal with the hull of a big ship, if you are lucky, you can directly penetrate a big hole and pour river water into it." The big ship had to turn back, otherwise it would slowly sink to the bottom of the river. ”

"Why be lucky?" Zhang Xuan asked with a puzzled smile.

"Generally, the hull of a large ship is very strong, and it is difficult for the stone cannon to penetrate it, but any ship has loopholes, which requires the experience and vision of the stone gunner, and the status of the stone gunner is often the highest on a warship."

Zhang Xuan nodded, and asked with a smile: "How many people do you need to operate a stone cannon?" ”

"Generally, two people are needed, often the stone cannon hand with an apprentice, and the apprentice is also called a winch hand."

Liu Guilin pointed to a winch next to him, the top was empty, he took out a thin iron rod and inserted it into the hole, twisted it hard, this huge bow and crossbow began to creak and string, he pointed to the slot hole on it and said: "Then put the stone here, pull the hanging knife on the side, and the stone will eject out, of course, this needs to be skilled, otherwise it is easy to hurt yourself." ”

At this moment, a cavalryman galloped from a distance on horseback and shouted from the embankment: "General! ”

Jang Hyun walked to the side of the ship and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

"The imperial envoy has arrived in Yidu County, saying that there is a holy decree to be read, and Wei Changshi asks the general to return to Yidu immediately!"

The envoy of the imperial court actually came directly to Beihai County to announce the decree, this is the first time, Liu Ling said to Zhang Xuan a little nervously: "General, I'm afraid there is something important in the imperial court." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, he understood in his heart what it meant that the imperial court's will came at this time, since he was nominally Pei Renji's subordinate, so generally speaking, the imperial court's will was given to Pei Renji, and then Pei Renji would deploy various orders for him.

But this time, the imperial court actually gave himself a will, to a certain extent, the imperial court has substantially separated him from the Flying Eagle Army, improving his status, but at the same time, it also shows the importance of this will.

Zhang Xuan did not continue to inspect the fleet, he immediately returned to the camp, turned on his horse, and ordered dozens of soldiers behind him: "Return to Yidu County!" ”

He galloped on horseback, and dozens of cavalry followed him at a gallop, and the yellow dust was rolling, galloping towards Yidu County

The next morning, Zhang Xuan returned to Yidu County, he ran directly to the county office, turned over and dismounted, Wei Yunqi hurriedly walked out of the county office, "But wait for the general to come back." ”

"What is the will?" Jang Hyun asked.

"As with our previous judgment, the imperial court intends to let the general attack Langya County alone."

"Is that the will? Nothing else to add? ”

Of course, Zhang Xuan guessed that this will was to let him fight Langya County, and it was not impossible for him to fight Langya County, the key was what the imperial court wanted to give him?

Proclaim the decree directly to him and raise his status? This is actually meaningless, he was originally a tiger general, and the court directly announced to him that there was nothing to improve the treatment, and he was not uncommon to this kind of vanity, what he wanted was practical benefits.

"There is a little other thing, the general is allowed to recruit up to 10,000 troops, and the military department allows the general to expand the size of the militia."

At present, Zhang Xuan's military quota is 5,000 people, and he has recruited 5,000 militia regiments on the grounds of preventing banditry, so that his actual strength has reached 10,000, and now the imperial court has allowed him to double the number of troops, and has also explicitly allowed him to expand the militia again, which is Zhang Xuan's desire for actual benefits, and his army can be expanded to at least 20,000 people.

When he was still satisfied with this condition, he smiled and asked, "Where is the messenger?" ”

"General, please come with me, he has been waiting for the general for many days!"

The messenger was called Zhong Shantong, a Lang Zhong of the military department, who came from Jiangdu with two retinues and waited for Zhang Xuan for three days.

Zhong Shantong was already waiting quite impatiently, he still had to go to Youzhou to issue an edict, he was dragged too long in Beihai County, but fortunately, Wei Yunqi entertained him very well, so that the dissatisfaction in his heart was also slightly compensated,

"Let Zhong Langzhong wait for a long time!"

At this time, Zhang Xuan, accompanied by Wei Yunqi, strode into the lobby, Zhong Shantong hurriedly got up and said with a dry laugh: "Hehe! General Zhang is finally here. ”

"I'm sorry, arrange defense in Linzi County, let Zhong Langzhong wait for a long time."

"Nothing, so let's get started!"

Wei Yunqi hurriedly asked people to bring the incense case and kneeling mat, Zhang Xuan knelt down in front of the incense case, Zhong Shantong brushed the ground to open the holy decree and read it out loud

Sending Zhong Shantong away, Zhang Xuan stood in front of the sand table with his hands and watched Langya County for a long time, he still had a lot of pressure in his heart, the imperial court gave him three months to exterminate Langya County, he could recruit troops again, but there was not much time for training, but what made him feel fortunate was that the five hundred heavy armored infantry were still in his hands, and Pei Renji did not have time to take them away.

Wei Yunqi seemed to understand Zhang Xuan's worries, and said with a smile on the side: "The general can take all the 10,000 troops away, and the 3,000 troops used by Qin, in fact, there are 13,000 troops, I think I should be able to fight with Sun Xuanya and Wang Bo." ”

"Sir, you mean that the newly recruited soldiers are used to guard Beihai County, right?"

"That's exactly what it means!"

Wei Yunqi nodded and said: "Actually, my idea is not only Beihai County, but even to assist in the defense of Qi County, although the Holy Lord warned Wang Shichong, but Wang Shichong may not be willing to listen, it is better to be careful." ”

Zhang Xuan groaned and said: "After I set out on the expedition, Mr. had better arrange for Liu Guilin to attack Qinghe County once to clear the ships in Wang Shichong's hands, I have already sent spies to the north before, and there should be news back in the next two days." ”

"Don't worry, general! I'll take care of that. (To be continued.) )