Min Shaoqing was talking about the cylindrical object pulled by a horse-drawn cart that was transported with Chai Jin's reinforcements, which was lighter than an ordinary catapult, but because the whole body was metal, it was still very inconvenient to transport. If you find four or five wrestlers, you may not be able to move.

On the nineteenth day of the winter month, the third day of the Huai army's fierce siege of the city, Min Shaoqing heard a news in the morning, saying that Qu Zhu and Chai Jin were organizing the cavalry of the Royal Forest Army to go out of the city to launch a counterattack. If you don't have experience to kill people, it's good to be able to hold the city wall at this time, and to launch a counterattack is to find death. It is likely that because the cavalry will not be able to return, the Huai army will seize the city gate, causing the city of Xuzhou to fall.

Min Shaoqing asked again, and learned that Ma Feng had already gone to negotiate with Chai Jin and Qu Zhu, and he also hurried to the north city gate.

Before he reached the city wall, he saw a group of cavalry preparing there, and one of them, who seemed to be the small leader of the Imperial Forest Army, shouted in a thick northwest accent: "Yesterday Huai Pimple came from the north to attack the city, today let those Wang Bapimple take a good look at our family!" ”

Although many of these Imperial Forest Soldiers are just soldiers, their official positions are not low, and Min Shaoqing knows that he can't move these arrogant palace gate guards with his inability. He still went directly to meet the rebel generalissimo Chai Jin.

Chai Jin was on the first day of guarding the city in shifts, wearing a military uniform in high spirits, and was directing people to transport the cylindrical object to the city tower with Qu Zhu.

"Move up the walls, don't touch it." Chai Jin seems to care a lot about those things.

"General Chai, you ......"

As soon as Min Shaoqing started, Chai Jin turned around and said happily: "Brother Min woke up?" It's good, it's good. ”

A wave of anger surged in Min Shaoqing's heart, good for your mother! The Huai army was about to attack the city. You are a rebellious generalissimo who does not do his job. To open the city gate and send the cavalry out of the city to counterattack?

It's a pity that Min Shaoqing hasn't vented this anger yet. Ma Feng on the side came over and pulled Min Shaoqing's sleeve, meaning not to let him speak, it seems that he had been persuaded before and it was ineffective.

Qu Zhu came over and said: "If Min Taishou persuades Chai and Ma to give up today's military deployment, or to avoid opening his mouth, this counterattack is not only the meaning of Chai and Ma, but also the emperor's special decree." ”

Min Shaoqing thought he had misheard and asked, "The emperor will specially issue a royal decree." Let the defenders launch a counterattack? ”

"Exactly."

Qu Zhu took out the holy decree and showed it to Min Shaoqing, Min Shaoqing smiled bitterly after reading it, what happened to the new emperor, he suddenly cared about the defense of Xuzhou City, and the first imperial decree was to open the city to meet the attack, such a clumsy strategy must have been fooled out by Qu Zhu, with Chai Jin's stupidity and timidity, he would not have come up with such a greedy and reckless way.

"In short, today, death can't open the city gate!" Min Shaoqing stopped in the direction of the city gate, with one arm. Shouted.

Qu Zhu glanced at him and said, "I didn't say that it would be opened immediately, which door is in a hurry that Mrs. Min is guarding?" If you like it, you can block it at this gate. Go through the history of spurs and go up the city wall together! ”

Min Shaoqing watched in surprise as Qu Zhu and Chai Jin went up to the city tower under the escort of Ma Feng's three steps and one turn, although the Huai army had not yet launched an attack on the city, but it was the first time that the generalissimo and the commander of the Imperial Forest Army had personally gone to the front line. With these two bigwigs, more Guards climbed the city walls.

Yu Yong, the warden of Xuzhou, trotted all the way down from the city tower to Min Shaoqing's side and said, "Min Taishou, General Chai asked you to go up!" ”

"Tell them that this gate is Ben Taishou's position today, and no one wants me to move a step!"

That being said, he really wanted to go upstairs to see what these two bigwigs and those Imperial Guards soldiers were doing.

"Boom!"

I don't know where there was a muffled sound, Min Shaoqing was stunned at first, and instinctively thought that it should be the Huai army's catapult that attacked. In such an urgent situation, Min Shaoqing probably knew that it was impossible for Lu Dao to go out of the city to fight back, and it was useless to have more Huai cavalry against the tide, not to mention that all the cavalry in Xuzhou City added up to less than 1,000 cavalry.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ……”

There was a continuous muffled sound, as if it were coming from the castle tower and from outside the city. Min Shaoqing first hid under the city gate for a while, and did not see falling rocks, so he ran out and looked up at it, and the soldiers near the back edge of the city wall did not find cover, indicating that it was not the catapult of the Huai army attacking the city.

A sergeant who hid under the door hole at the same time and was responsible for holding the city gate said: "Taishou, if you are in a hurry, why don't you go up and have a look?" ”

"You are also in charge of Ben Taishou's affairs?" On weekdays, Min Shaoqing treats the sergeant like a brother, but today he was tortured by Chai Jin and Qu Zhu a lot, and his tone was heavier. A bunch of soldiers were looking out through the crack in the door, and after looking at it, they all rushed to look at it, as if they had seen something strange.

"If you don't stick to your post, what will you see?"

Min Shaoqing was a little annoyed by the continuous muffled noise, and at this time he walked to the city gate to drive the soldiers away, and he himself couldn't help but look out through the crack in the door, this look didn't matter, and almost made him sit on the ground in shock.

Where is the Huai army attacking the city, it is clearly retreating in a hurry. Bursts of smoke and fireballs continued to fall in the Huai army camp three miles away in the distance, and the fires were everywhere. In such a situation, the Huai army even abandoned the fortifications that had just been built, and the camp was hastily pulled out and was fleeing.

"What the hell is going on?"

Min Shaoqing muttered to himself, and ran quickly to the city tower, the muffled sound became clearer and clearer, and even a little deafening. When he was about to reach the city tower, he happened to meet Qu Zhu who hurriedly went down the city wall, Qu Zhu didn't have time to pay attention to him, and he didn't even say hello and passed.

"Commander Qu, where are you going?"

Qu Zhu realized that it was Min Shaoqing who had just passed by, and pouted: "You don't block your city gate?" Ben Commander went and led the cavalry in pursuit! ”

Min Shaoqing sighed helplessly, it seems that he is too conceited, these bigwigs are not as he imagined that they will only talk on paper, at least in the matter of defending the city, he feels that he must be humble in the future, and he must not be infected by Ma Feng's quick temper.

When you get to the city wall, everything is clear.

The metal objects are condescending, firing fire bombs again and again, and the range is several times higher than that of the catapult, the average catapult can fire two or three hundred steps is the limit, but this fire bomb can be fired thousands of steps away. As the firebombs fell in the Huai army camp, either causing a burst of smoke and fire, or an explosion made a muffled sound, and many outpost camps that the Huai army had suppressed more than a mile outside the city had been completely flattened.

"From the high, you can hit far."

At this time, Chai Jin was covering his ears with his hands and talking to himself, like a child who had found something new, with a happy smile on his face.

As the gates opened, the cavalry, led by the soldiers of the Imperial Foresters, rushed out, and the roar on the castle tower finally stopped. The power of this big killing weapon is huge, and the impact is not small, and the city wall has been broken out one by one, and some walls have been damaged. What's more, because of the explosion of some mass killing weapons, the surrounding soldiers responsible for igniting the fire were killed or wounded.

In general, the deterrent effect of this round is obvious, the Huai army is like a frightened bird, chased and slashed by the cavalry led by Qu Zhu himself, Qu Zhu did not dare to advance too much, and retreated before the Huai army gathered the deserters and launched a counterattack. Although it was too difficult to turn the tide of the battle, it was enough to lift the spirits of the defenders.

"General Chai, this weapon ...... I don't know what it is? Min Shaoqing walked over and asked Chai Jin, who was watching the battle under the city wall.

"Fame? I don't know about Lu Dao, this is all Brother Liu asked me to bring it with the army, saying that it is called artillery, and there are still some in Tongguan, and the follow-up Chang'an City will also be transported over, so I don't know the specific Lu Dao. ”

Min Shaoqing was shocked in his heart, these weapons appeared on the battlefield for the first time, and he had seen the power of them, with this thing, the originally defeated game also took a slight turn. If the imperial army has this weapon, at least it will not suffer too much in the battles with the Huai army from all sides, and the arrival of reinforcements will be just around the corner.

"Brother Liu in General Chai's mouth, but General Liu Wenyan Liu?"

"Yes, it's him, but it's a pity he's not there." Chai Jin said with a disappointed face.

Min Shaoqing finally knew why the new emperor of Lu Dao relied on Liu Wenyan so much, not only in terms of wisdom and strategy, but also in terms of military affairs, the new emperor also relied on Liu Wenyan, although I don't know if Lu Dao was developed by Liu Wenyan, but it depends on the fact that the court can develop such a powerful weapon in a short period of time, and Liu Wenyan, who took over military affairs, is indispensable.

As Qu Zhu returned to the city with the cavalry, the Huai army did not dare to rush too forward, the black iron bucket on the city wall was enough to make the Huai army frightened, it seemed that the next round of siege by the Huai army would have to be postponed a little longer, and make new preparations again.

There was jubilation in the city, and even the people learned that the defenders had won a battle against the trend, and they brought their own food and goods to comfort the defenders.

In the temporary command post, Qu Zhu was full of spirits, this was also the first time he went to the battlefield to kill the enemy, the general's sense of honor, and an indisputable victory, all made him a little fluttery. He was almost about to reward the three armies on behalf of the Son of Heaven, but fortunately, he remembered that there was nothing in the city now, and this sentence began, and there was no follow-up.

Min Shaoqing put away his contempt and arrogance, and asked, "General Chai, Commander Qu, I don't know how long this weapon can be used?" ”

"How long?" Chai Jin thought for a while, "I can use it until it is bad, but there are so many cannons, and there are a few cannonballs." ”

It was the first time Min Shaoqing had heard the term "cannonball", so he pondered for a moment before asking, "The bullet...... How many? ”

"I used almost half of it today, so let's do it again."

Hearing Chai Jin's words, Min Shaoqing and Ma Feng almost jumped up from the chairs they were resting on, and exclaimed at the same time: "Half? ”

Originally, they were all relieved, and said in their hearts that the imperial court had such a powerful killing weapon, why didn't they sacrifice it earlier, and they only used it now, and with this thing in the future, it will be seen if the Huai army dares to attack the city. Who knows that it has only been a morning, and half of the "cannonballs" of the big killing weapon have been squandered, even if there is still half left, the Huai army will be cautious in the future, and it will definitely pick a section of the city wall that is not equipped with a big killing weapon to attack.

After all, this big killer is just an ornament! (To be continued......)