When the reinforcements sent by Hongji entered the Fuwang Mansion, something happened in the courtyard of a large family on the northern outskirts of the capital.

On the official road, a group of people came around the city from the south of the capital, holding torches in their hands, towards two fire dragons, and were heading north. The sound of neat footsteps makes people feel the discipline of this army. At the front of the procession, there were three or two carriages, hanging kerosene lamps, driving unhurriedly, and in front of the first carriage sat Wu Yiheng, who had turned from Tianjin.

Sitting leisurely in front of the carriage, Wu Yiheng did not relax his vigilance, looking around from time to time, paying attention to special circumstances. After a while, a night of non-collection came from the front, that is, a scout, to report the situation ahead to Wu Yiheng. "My lord, the thieves have now discovered the traces of our army and have begun to defend the courtyard wall." Wu Yiheng nodded, not surprised.

Wu Yiheng looked back at the soldiers who had been jogging at a pace, and his face showed a look of satisfaction. The soldiers were divided into four rows, two of which held torches on the outside, and two of which marched together on the inside. After receiving the news from the camp, these soldiers were assembled within ten minutes, you must know that most of these people are new recruits, they have been in the army for no more than four months, and they have run more than 20 miles with full armament tonight, but no one has been left behind, and Wu Yiheng is of course satisfied with this.

After a while, the carriage stopped, and the troops behind followed suit, and rested in place with the order of the commander. At this time, the team had already arrived at Liu's Mansion.

This Liu Mansion is the courtyard of a foreign businessman surnamed Liu, but now the people living in it are not surnamed Liu, but Liu, Liu Xuan.

Less than five hundred meters away from Liu's mansion, Wu Yiheng asked people to go and spread the word. Someone on the wall of Liu's Mansion asked who was coming and what he was doing. Wu Yiheng's side is very simple, saying that the master Liu Xuan, who lives here, is related to the rebellion case, and he wants to go to the yamen, now open the door first, and let them go in and arrest people. Liu's mansion is still asking who asked you to come, what documents do you have, and now that the city gate is closed, what's the matter. Wu Yiheng didn't talk nonsense here, he took out the holy decree directly from his arms and read it.

After reading it, Wu Yiheng directly asked his soldiers to form a team, ready to attack at any time. Suddenly, a scout came over and reported that from the backyard of Liu's mansion, there were more than a dozen horsemen and horses heading north. Wu Yiheng was not in a hurry, not only did they have land and water battalions in this operation, but Jinyiwei also participated, and they had already laid a net of heaven and earth, waiting for the enemy to enter the trap.

The people in Liu's Mansion were silent, it seemed that they were going to fight the trapped beasts or delay time, Wu Yiheng immediately shouted, "Attack." ”

The thousand soldiers brought by him were immediately divided into several groups, with cold weapons in their hands, escorted by the rattan players in the front row, close to Liu's mansion. Three trolleys were also launched in the team, with a cannon mounted on them, which had already lit the firing line at this time, and the muzzle of the cannon was facing the gate of Liu's mansion.

The artillery was finally deployed into the amphibious battalion, and as soon as it entered the barracks, it was immediately welcomed by all personnel. The power of artillery will not only bring great damage to the enemy, but also give your soldiers a great sense of psychological security.

The artillery brought this time was the smallest in size and power, and Zhu Houwei named it the Tiger Squat Cannon, which was the same name as the artillery that the Qi family army carried forward decades later. This is a kind of field artillery, strong mobility, when time is pressing, you can even do without a gun car, directly fix the gun with a big iron nail to fire, it is very convenient, because there is an iron bracket in front of the gun, you can put it on the ground to fire, it does look like a squatting tiger from a distance, hence the name.

The tiger squat cannon is made of all-iron, one meter long, the diameter of the muzzle is 8.5 centimeters, the whole artillery weighs sixty-three pounds, two people can carry it, and the elevation angle is very large, suitable for various terrains. When firing solid bullets, the accurate range can reach 500 meters, and the maximum range is 1,300 meters, which is not much higher than the previous Ming Dynasty bronze gun. When loading loose bombs, 150 small lead or small stones weighing five coins can be placed, and the firing range can also reach more than 200 meters, which is far from being comparable to the later tiger squat cannons. Qi Jiajun's tiger squat cannon shots can only hit the enemy about 30 meters, which is still too close.

Another point is that whether it is the tiger squat cannon made by Zhu Houwei or the tiger squat cannon of Qi Jiajun, it is not a specification. Now this tiger squat cannon is the smallest in the water and land battalion, but Zhu Houwei is still ordering people to develop a smaller tiger squat cannon, and after reducing the weight, it is very likely to become a single weapon that one person can carry. The quality of iron and the development of artillery-making technology can make a lot of impossible possible.

The line of fire burned very quickly, and only a loud "bang" was heard almost at the same time, and the tiger squatted and the cannon was powerful. This time it was loaded with solid shells, and the target of the attack was the gate of Liufu, which was 200 meters away, and only one of the three shells hit the vermilion gate, breaking a hole, and even scattering more than half of the things piled up behind the door. The other two hit the thick courtyard wall three or four meters away. By the light of the fire, you can see that the courtyard wall is almost about to be pierced by a hole, and now it has undergone a huge transformation. Many of the people in Liu's mansion were frightened stupidly, such a powerful and thunderous noise was unheard of, but Wu Yiheng was very dissatisfied, and turned back to the gunner who was brushing his chamber and preparing for the second shot, "Why are you eating, such a close distance, such a big door can't be aimated." Did the land and water camp spend a lot of money to let you come in for the elderly? If you can't go back again, you will carry me back with a cannon and a gun mount. ”

The new artillery soldiers in the battalion were made by Zhu Houwei with a lot of effort, this belongs to the technically demanding arms, not strong and strong can be competent, for mathematics to be proficient, but also to have good eyesight, can measure, simply put, to be able to understand the shooting of artillery, this contains a lot of knowledge, these gunners are selected from the people of Chaoyang Academy, are in their early twenties, excellent learners. The veterans of the land and water battalion are three taels of silver a month, but they are five taels, and the extra is called technical subsidies, and the income of the water and land battalions is transparent.

Now the three guns, the usual maintenance, training or something are these nine people, the money spent on training alone is not a small number, and now this kind of performance is much worse than when training, no wonder Wu Yiheng is angry. However, although these people are new soldiers, their psychological quality is very good, and they did not lose their cool under Wu Yiheng's loud scolding, and after the second round of rapid reloading, all three guns hit the gate, directly clearing the obstacles on the way of the land and water battalion. Of course, it may also have something to do with the cotton stuffed in their ears. The sound of the artillery was too loud, and they had to stuff cotton with the closest to the artillery, otherwise they might fight a battle, and not to mention the results, these people would become deaf first.

At this time, the attacking soldiers of the land and water battalion also approached the courtyard wall, and first fired a round with the enemy on the wall, but as a result, there were no casualties themselves, and the enemy directly fell more than 20 people. Dozens of thieves were also killed from the bare gates, but under the blows of the two teams, within five minutes the enemy was lying full of enemy corpses, and the land and water battalion wounded six people. Long-range weapons are also one-sided, although there are guards on the courtyard wall, but if you want to shoot, you have to expose your body outside the wall, and as a result, you become a target, and at a distance of about 30 meters, even a recruit musketeer can maintain a hit rate of more than 70.

Soon, the water and land battalion rushed into Liu's mansion and arrested all the people who could still breathe inside, but Liu Xuan was not found. Jinyiwei also sent a letter saying that there was no Liu Xuan among the dozen or so people who escaped through the back door. Wu Yiheng wondered, where did he go?