Jiulian Mountain stretches for more than 70 miles from east to west, to be precise, only the middle section of 30 miles is called a mountain, and the rest of the mountain is at best a large mound or stone bag.

The black iron factory is located in the middle of this section, in a mountain nest, according to Wu Chenglong, this is a 10,000-person iron factory, Yang Hao doesn't know how he calculated, in short, the iron factory does not look large, not the imaginary ten-mile steel city, not even a few tall iron-making furnaces, Yang Hao wants to know how much iron such an iron factory can produce in a year, his entourage includes the Ordnance Department, the Military Administration Department and the three iron-making experts of the Armament Academy,

Yang Hao asked them this question, and the figures visually measured by the experts of the Ordnance Department were 200,000 catties, the figures of the Military and Political Department were not less than 500,000, and the figures of the Armament Academy were 350,000 catties.

The attack on the iron factory is simpler than imagined, the tiger battalion from the west and north directions, and the broken battalion from the east and south directions, forming a four-sided encirclement, but the focus is only on the west and south two directions, the reconnaissance team of the two battalions carried out detailed tactical reconnaissance in advance, drew a detailed map of the factory area, and the broken battalion took the lead in attacking the factory, and did not encounter the expected stubborn resistance, and the iron factory guards abandoned their weapons and surrendered after a little resistance.

Yang Hao remembered the situation when he and Meng Bochang attacked the Meishan Coal Mine a year ago, in that battle, Tiande's right army lasted half an hour, and one hundred and thirty people were killed and wounded, this time, the two battalions took nearly an hour, but there were zero casualties, the owner of the black iron factory has fled without a trace, not only the factory owner, but also the bookkeeper, supervisor, guard captain, technician and other relevant management personnel are also gone,

3,500 slave laborers were locked in the cellar, for three days and two nights, lack of water and food and air circulation, hundreds of deaths, Yang Hao arranged to rescue the wounded, while ordering people to block all iron-making equipment, according to three experts, most of the iron-making equipment is intact, and a small number of destroyed ones can be used with a little repair,

100,000 catties of iron ingots were found in the warehouse of the iron factory, and a large number of semi-finished products, Yang Hao asked three experts to carefully calculate the actual output of the iron factory, the three people this time the view is roughly the same: 350,000 catties, the error will not exceed 10,000 taels, a senior foreman told Yang Hao that the output of the iron plant last year was 348,000 catties, which was very close to the first prediction of the young teacher Zhan Tian of the Wubei Academy, Yang Hao immediately appointed Zhan Tian as the leader of the preparatory group of Yongfeng Iron Plant, responsible for using the existing site and equipment of the black iron plant to prepare for the Yongfeng Iron Plant,

Most of the 3,500 slave laborers survived, and their identities were inquired about, most of them were exiles from Guannai who had been abducted by horse bandits, and a small number were Uighur and Tibetan prisoners of war, who sold Uighur prisoners of war to iron works, and Uighurs who also sold Tibetan prisoners of war to iron works.

Before the war, Yang Hao did not have time to do the liberation of slaves, so he sent two battalions of trainees from the teaching brigade to the slave laborers, found out the composition and structure of the slave laborers, and relied on the original foremen to organize the slave workers to protect the equipment and guard the factory area, so as to prepare for the early resumption of production.

Solve the problem of the ironworks, and all that remains is to deal with that strange heavy cavalry regiment,

Because the management of the iron factory fled in large numbers, and the slaves knew nothing about this cavalry regiment, Yang Hao could only arrange the battle against the enemy according to his own judgment, and he set up the main battlefield outside the north gate of the iron factory and in a vacant land south of Jiulian Mountain, which was the best position to send troops from Jiulian Mountain to attack the iron factory.

The cavalry of the tiger battalion and the broken battalion were concentrated and handed over to the command of Suo, Suo Er divided it into two teams, east and west, ambushed in a small forest in the northwest corner of the iron factory, and stood by to attack, the infantry army was handed over to the command of Wang Qun, the commander of the tiger battalion, divided into three parts, camped in a V-shaped formation, the right wing camped on a dirt bag on the east side of the north gate, dug a trench around the camp for cover, the inner side of the trench was filled with sharpened wooden piles, the left wing was close to the north wall of the iron factory, and the trench was also dug outside the camp, and the wooden piles were laid, and the Chinese army set up the camp outside the north gate of the iron factory, and faced the battle head-on, Each battalion dug a pit in front of the position, laid a triphorse rope, in order to block and weaken the strength and speed of the knights' charge, the archers of each battalion were deployed in the form of echelons, divided into high and low long-term combinations, so that they could form a concentrated fire zone that did not affect each other, in addition, each battalion was equipped with a group of hoplites armed with hook and sickle guns, and the hoplites could launch a counterattack as soon as the hoplites broke through the trenches and horse rejection formations,

Yang Hao judged that the number of skeleton knights would not be very large, after all, Jiulian Mountain was such a large place, it could not accommodate too many people, after the arrangement, Yang Hao took a group of staff officers and entourage to the north gate of the iron factory on the city tower, which could not only observe the battlefield situation from a high position but also facilitate the command of the battalions to fight.

Just after noon, the Skeleton Knights sent scouts, which made Yang Hao feel a little excited, the armor worn by the knights is indeed very similar to the outfits of medieval European hoplites, as for why they appeared in the Tang Dynasty, Yang Hao is not interested in researching, Wang Qun and Suo E's tactical command ability is by no means below him, with them in command, Yang Hao is very relieved, Yang Hao is full of confidence in victory, he is now thinking about how to use this heavy knight of unknown origin in the future,

"Knights, heavily armored knights, how can you convince people that they are invincible."

Guan Suo suddenly heard Yang Hao's mouth with words,

"What did you say, my lord?"

"Oh, nothing." Yang Hao's thoughts were suddenly disrupted, and his expression was a little unnatural,

"I have an idea in my heart, forget it, let's talk about it after this battle, I can't say a word." Yang Hao paused, "Has the spies sent out have heard back?" ”

"Found an ancient castle in the hinterland of Jiulian Mountain, surrounded by reclaimed fields, orchards and breeding farms, the style of the ancient castle is very strange, it should not be owned by Middle-earth, I asked them to verify it again, and there will be images back soon." Able to sketch and draw some important reconnaissance targets, this is Yang Hao's request to the intelligence room, after training, most of the spies in the intelligence room have mastered the skills of drawing with toner, although the lines are a little rough, but more direct than the pure text description,

"After verification, come and report to me immediately." Yang Hao's face was full of red light, and Guan Suo's description of the situation around the ancient castle confirmed his prior conjecture, they were indeed from the far west.

",, General, the Skeleton Regiment is out." The soldier in charge of the lookout spotted the signal sent back by the flag in front of him,

Yang Hao hurriedly looked north, a soldier wearing colorful clothes came out of the woods at the southern foot of Jiulian Mountain, and there were drummers in the queue, Yang Hao was far away, and he didn't think it was weird, but the soldiers of the right battalion could see it clearly, and they were all shocked, Wang Qun was in command in the right battalion, and he saw that the soldiers were frightened and inexplicable, but he smiled slightly, and said to the herald next to him: "Call the longbow team to give them a meeting lottery." ”

The longbow team of the tiger battalion was modeled after the longbow formation of the Hedong Army, with only more than 50 people, and the formation time was too short, and the soldiers still lacked training, far from reaching the combat power of the Hedong Army, but it was more than enough to deal with this group of infantry troops without armor protection.

"Prepare the longbow, take the head, shoot."

A hundred zhang away, a rain of arrows flew out of the right battalion, covering the strange colorful infantry team, the biggest advantage of the longbow is the long range, it can kill and injure the enemy from a distance, the biggest weakness is the poor accuracy, this weakness is not prominent when there are many people, and it is exposed when there are few people,

The soldiers in colorful clothes were hit by many arrows, but few were injured, and they still danced strange dances, dancing dazzling colored flags, and charging forward with small tin drums.

Wang Qun shook his head, and used a longbow to remind you, and he didn't know the difficulty and retreated, there is a road in heaven that you don't go, and there is no door in hell You insist on breaking through, don't blame me for not being merciful,

"Change the short bow." The longbow team of the Xining army and the ordinary archers are two in one, picking up the longbow is the longbow team, and changing the short bow is an ordinary archer, the longbow is too difficult to operate, and it is not familiar with it for a while, but the short bow has already been played.

"Ready, head, put."

The rain of arrows was in the shape of a round cover when the hood fell, and the soldiers in colorful clothes did not have the good luck of last time this time, and for a time they screamed and suffered heavy casualties, poured the flag, lost the drum, and fell into a desperate situation.

The second wave of arrows was ready again, and the banner officer looked at Wang Qun, waiting for the order, but Wang Qun did not raise his hand again: "Don't move yet, wait for the cavalry." ”

Seeing those colorful soldiers calmly retreating under their noses, the soldiers were puzzled: why did the general let them go?

Wang Qun naturally didn't need to explain to them, what he did was actually what Yang Hao meant: try to hurt as few lives as possible, these people will still be useful in the future, and these infantry who don't even have armor are not a threat at all, and it's really not worth wasting bows and arrows for them.

The long-awaited Skeleton Knights finally appeared, and more than 300 people launched a charge in a sharp formation, and the heavy iron armor made a clanging noise when charging, which shocked the earth, and the infantry hiding behind the trench did not feel terrified.

"Ready, head, put."

"Ready, head, put."

"Ready, parallel, put."

……

I don't know if it's because the soldiers' hands on the bowstrings tremble and lose their heads, or the knights' iron armor can't be pierced, in short, the dense arrows like raindrops don't hurt the charging knights at all, and the blood-colored skeletons drawn on the knights' breastplates follow the running of the war horses, swaying and jumping as if they are alive, hundreds of blood skeletons grinning and rushing up, the kind of momentum is enough to make the timid soldiers cry bitterly,

Although he had already prepared in his heart, when Yang Hao saw the Heavy Rider Group charging, he still felt very shocked in his heart, especially the hundreds of beating blood holes, which had an indescribable wonderful use, Guan Suo, Feng Yi and the others couldn't help but let out a frightened cry at the same time,

Yang Hao coughed heavily, he was very dissatisfied with everyone's performance, as the old saying goes, for the general Mount Tai collapsed in front, and his face did not change, just a few skeleton cavalry scared you like this, how can you expect you to give advice on the ever-changing battlefield in the future, everyone heard Yang Hao's dissatisfaction, and they all put away the horror on their faces, but the shock in their hearts was still not reduced at all,

After confirming that the opponent's bow and arrows did not inflict fatal damage to their heavy armor, the Knights began to charge the right battalion in formation,

Wang Qun ordered the hook and sickle gunners to line up to meet the enemy, Yang Hao told him that the biggest weakness of the heavy cavalry is the four exposed horse legs, as long as the horse legs are injured, the knights on the horse will become a pile of scrap metal that cannot be moved.

"Kill." The hook scythemen and the heavy cavalry had the first frontal collision,