The sound of gold sounded again in the Qing Dynasty, and the infantry under the ironworks retreated like a tide, leaving behind a few blazing fires, javelins, hedgehog-like building carts and corpses all over the ground.

The young emperor's face had turned blue, and he was not willing to be defeated, and decided to fight again with his army. The weapons of the ironworks should be almost depleted.

"Shoot back closer, hit hard. Let the soldiers hurry up and find a way to get the infantry close to the city wall" The emperor ordered.

The Qing army was full of talent, and the solution was quickly figured out, allowing the elite archers to hide in carts carrying grain and grass, covered with dirt bags and soaked quilts, which could protect against bows and crossbows and fire javelins. Pushed under the city, the archers could shoot with precision and suppress the firing ports of the ironworks. In addition, small return artillery was sent to attack the drawbridge violently, regardless of casualties, so that the crash car, which was also covered with quilts and dirt bags, could crash through the city gates, and the cavalry could charge directly into the city.

The emperor thought that the method was feasible, and arranged for his generals to pass the order, it was already a little late, from morning to evening, there was no rest for a day, and he tried to take the iron factory before it was dark, and I wanted to spend the night in a heated house in the Southern Dynasty, the emperor thought.

I don't know when the snow has stopped, and the gloomy sky seems to be brewing the next heavy snowfall. The Emperor whispered and said to the guards, "Prepare wine for me, and I will see the city under the lamp." ”

The soldiers on both sides began to eat, the smoke was rising, and the corpse collection team of the Qing State took advantage of the truce time to pull the cart to clean up the corpses of the soldiers killed in the Qing Dynasty.

The battlefield was littered with corpses of men and horses, flags, weapons, chariots, and countless wounded soldiers wailing in despair.

Old man Peng set up a banquet and feasted Liu Ziguang, the hero who saved his daughter, and he listened to Peng Jingrong tell him everything in detail, including Liu Ziguang's origin, his previous contributions in the account room, etc. The old man who listened couldn't stop nodding.

There may be a siege outside, the banquet belongs to the level of a casual banquet, there are no too fancy dishes, soju, dumplings, braised pork, a few fish, a chicken, a few ordinary vegetarian dishes, the factory owner sits at the table, accompanied by two young ladies, Liu Ziguang sits on the guest of honor, Yu Xiaolong also calculated his strength, and also attended.

After some polite words, Old Man Peng asked tentatively: "Manager Liu, the fact that you were framed by the traitor has come to light, and the old man wants to appoint you as the prime minister of the iron factory and the deputy general of the Iron Guard, are you willing?" ”

Peng Jingrong next to her looked at Liu Ziguang with blank eyes, hoping that he would quickly nod in agreement.

Liu Ziguang ate a few bites of food, and replied absentmindedly: "I don't want to." The current Liu Ziguang is a bold man, he is not afraid of turning his face with anyone at all, and he is completely sure that he will subdue the old man before the guards at the door react, so he unceremoniously rejected the kind invitation of the factory owner.

"Why?" The old man wondered how good the conditions were for a man from a slave background. This kid didn't even think about it and refused.

Peng Jingrong's face turned white. Peng Jingwei also opened her mouth wide in shock, looking at Liu Ziguang for a while, and looking at her father for a while.

"No why, I don't want to work for slave owners right now, I hate slave owners." Liu Ziguang was expressionless and continued to eat. More than a year of slavery had made him uncomfortable, and it was time to get the account back.

"Oh, I see, so be it, as I said just now, your brothers are now free, and I don't care if you kill the three hundred guards, and the old man will compensate for all the hardships you have suffered over the years, and as for raising slaves, it will be a long story, and the old man cannot change it by himself. You see if that's satisfying. ”

The perennial slave life has developed Liu Ziguang's habit of eating very quickly, and others haven't moved their chopsticks much, he has finished eating, squatting on the chair to wipe his mouth with his sleeve, and picking off a hardwood thorn from the chair with his fingernails to pick his teeth. What kind of prime minister's deputy general, in other words, yesterday, he must be interested, but now it is different, not to mention the miraculous powers, and there are five hundred brothers, the temptation to go out and have a break is far greater than being a white-collar worker in an iron factory.

"Besides, you eat first, and I'll go out and have a look." Liu Ziguang patted his buttocks, left a room of people, and went out to the city tower to see the scenery.

Seeing Liu Ziguang behaving so unreasonably in front of his father, Peng Jingrong didn't dare to interject although she was in a hurry, and when she saw Liu Ziguang going out, her father was not angry, and she sat there thoughtfully, and the girl stabilized her mind a little.

Liu Ziguang wandered to the city wall, watching the Qing position in the distance, the 100,000 army has been encamped, is burying the pot to make rice, the soldiers are squatting on the ground, holding pancakes and green onions in one hand, holding a sea bowl in the other, there is a sauce bowl in front of several people, eating green onion dipping sauce, drinking hot noodle soup, the officers are hiding in the tent and don't know what good things to eat, the sky is gradually darkening, countless dead wind lamps float on the wilderness, pine oil torches and butter wax illuminate the Qing State camp like day.

The head of the city of the iron factory lit countless gas lamps, and the two competed to see who was brighter. After a while, the Qing soldiers had eaten their full meal and began to form a team, and a new round of attack was about to begin.

The large crash cars covered with wet quilts and sandbags began to move forward, each car could carry fifty soldiers, and twenty of these large crash cars were dispatched in this round of attack, and the soldiers with long shields formed a tortoise formation, except for the feet and backs, all the others were protected by rectangular iron shields, and from a distance, it was an iron array that could not see people moving.

In order to pursue a better strike effect, the position was moved forward slightly, and replaced with flame and iron bullets with stronger city-breaking efficiency, and the small return artillery also began to approach the city wall under the impetus of the artillery who was not afraid of death, ready to provide direct fire support for the infantry.

The owner of the factory went up to the city tower with a few men, and the two daughters were sent back to be responsible for the manufacture of the equipment for defending the city, and all the workshops of the iron factory were started, and all the finished products in the warehouse were transported to the north gate in order to defend the city. For the defenders to access at any time.

The iron factory has the three functions of a mine, a smelter, and an arsenal, and its war potential is almost the same as that of Leningrad, and the loss of weapons can hardly be considered, after all, it is the largest contractor who provides weapons and equipment for the imperial army! Now all this, under the command of the old factory owner with high prestige, is running with unprecedented efficiency, and the first kick of the Qing Southern Expedition army is kicked on the iron plate.

The owner asked his subordinates, "Is the cannon in place?" ”

"Back to my lord, the cannon has been connected to the steam pipe, and the pressure is enough, ready to fire at any time!"

Old man Peng nodded with satisfaction, and walked towards a huge barrel-shaped weapon on the city wall, Liu Ziguang was very curious, and also went over to watch.

This is a cannon, relying on the power of steam to launch the cannon, the steam is injected into the air chamber through the pipe, the pressure is constantly increasing, squeezing the piston, and the piston is blocked by the steel cast bolt, can not move, the pressure continues to rise, and when it rises to a critical point, the gunner suddenly releases the bolt, and the steam is held back to rapidly promote the piston movement, and the cannonball loaded in the barrel in advance is fired into the distance, the stroke is long, and the barrel is closed, the shell and the barrel are closely combined, so the range is extremely long, and the power is great.

Still waiting for the order to fire, the gunner nervously watched the pressure gauge, and whenever he reached a critical point, he released a little steam to relieve the pressure so as not to explode.

Old man Peng carefully checked the cannon, picked up the clairvoyant and looked at the return cannon in the distance, and ordered: "Test fire one shot and correct the trajectory." ”

The gunner and other pressure gauge pointers pointed to the red ** field, and suddenly pulled the gun rope, the steel bolt was pulled apart, with a loud bang, the muzzle of the gun spewed out of a thing, the muzzle velocity was extremely high, and ordinary people could hardly see clearly, and then saw a black shadow crossed, in the form of a parabola, fell into the position of the return gun, the landing point was slightly forward, smashed on a team of infantry, and suddenly the flames soared into the sky, and the infantry were burned in all directions and fled, rolling all over the ground.

"The muzzle of the gun is raised by half an inch, and the incendiary bombs are loaded." The old man observed the results of the battle and continued to order.

Several gunners pushed back the piston located at the front end of the muzzle, fortunately, there was no pressure, this action was not effortless, and then plugged in the bolt, injected steam, and a bombardier took a black iron ball, opened the iron cover above, shoveled up a few pieces of red-hot charcoal and put it in, then closed the lid, put the iron ball in front of the piston from the loading port, and then closed the loading port.

After a set of procedures was completed, the steam was almost injected, and the Qing side was unexpectedly hit from a threatening distance of the iron factory, and hurriedly launched the return cannon to counterattack.

A round of flame bombs pierced the dark night sky and smashed on the city wall, behind a long series of visual remnants of light and shadow, the fire blanket wrapped in stone was soaked in oil, and a few fire bombs caused casualties in the iron factory, and the damage control personnel quickly extinguished the flames with sandbags and carried the injured down the city.

An artillery battle began on both sides.

The steam-filled cannon was fired again, this time an accurate hit of a return cannon, the thick wooden beam of the return cannon was broken under the rapid impact of the iron ball, and then the iron ball shattered, and the fierce fire oil in the sphere was ignited by charcoal, poured on the wooden frame of the return cannon, and suddenly ignited a fire, and saw a return cannon scrapped like this.

The advancing tortoise formation and the crashing car successfully defended against the fire of the steam repeater, and as they were about to approach the city wall, the crossbowmen replaced it with another kind of arrow, the arrow was a fragile clay pot containing tinder, the body of the arrow was made of planed bamboo, the cavity was filled with fierce fire oil, and the outside was wrapped with lacquered cloth. A round of arrows fell, and the tortoise array was poured with fierce fire oil, and the fierce flames burned so that the infantry could not hold the hot iron shield, so they could only throw away the shield and expose themselves to the blow of the ordinary bow and crossbow of the iron factory. However, the crash was not afraid of this move, and the thick wet quilt and sandbags stopped the flames and arrows, and made steady progress.

"Raise the tail of the gun, change the armor-piercing shell, shoot the crash." The factory owner ordered.

The steam cannon was shaken up by the gunners, this time it was a direct shot, a pointed iron bullet cup was stuffed into the barrel, and with a loud bang, the pointed bullet pierced through the layers of armor on the crashing car, and opened a large hole in the roof of the car, and suddenly all kinds of arrows shot into the big hole, and there was a ghost crying wolf and black smoke from the car.

The battle was very fierce, Liu Ziguang was dumbfounded, it was completely different from what he had seen on TV before, there was no general heads-up, there was no rolling wood and stones, both sides used high-tech weapons with long range to shoot, especially the iron factory, first the Katyusha roaring in the sky, then the multi-turret Spitfire chariot, and now the powerful steam cannon. It's so powerful, such a war is really terrifying, and personal bravery seems so small in the face of huge weapons. He couldn't help but become interested in this old man who invented superweapons.