On the afternoon of the sixth day of the third lunar month of the ninth year of Xiande (April 12, 962), a battle that was destined to be recorded in the history books and studied by later military historians began. The Later Zhou forbidden army, which was divided into two factions, launched a duel between the armies equipped with hot weapons for the first time in this time and space and this era under the Fengqiu Gate in the north of Kaifeng. Unlike the battlefield of the Youyun War, which was the first appearance of firearms in this time and space and this era nearly three years ago, showing the absolute superiority of hot weapons over cold weapons, the purely one-sided result is that the battle under the Fengqiu Gate not only shows the unique heat and heat of the battle between the hot weapon armies, but also shows the cruelty and tragedy of the battle between two elite divisions with the same quality and equipment and weapons of the same grade.

From Shen Shizheng (four o'clock in the afternoon) to the beginning of the Wushi (seven o'clock in the afternoon), for three hours, the cannons under the Fengqiu Gate roared, the guns burst out, and the shouts were killed. Because the siege heavy artillery battalion belonging to the left army of the "Shenji Army" under his command was left in the capital by the imperial court in the name of guarding against Li Chongjin before departure, Zhao Kuangyin could not adopt the usual tactics of destroying the city gate and collapsing the city wall with siege heavy artillery, and then attacking and seizing the breakthrough with foot soldiers, but could only launch a fierce attack on Fengqiu Gate and the city walls on both sides under the cover of his own thunderbolt and ballista fire and musketeer barrage, relying on the advantage of his own infantry and overwhelming numbers. Under the command of Xu Xinsheng, the Kaifeng defenders in the city gave full play to their superiority in the number of artillery and musketeers, and took advantage of the range advantage of the artillery erected on the top of the city compared with the artillery under the city to suppress the rebels besieging the city with intensive firepower and inflict heavy casualties on them. For a time, inside and outside the Fengqiu Gate in the north of Kaifeng City, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, the flames were everywhere, and the sound of cannons, gunshots, explosions, the shouts of the soldiers, and the screams of the soldiers rose one after another, which made people unbearable to see and unwilling to hear.

As the sky grew darker, the defenders took advantage of their advantage in the number of firearms, not only inflicting heavy casualties on their siege soldiers, but also posing a serious threat to their artillery and ballista positions by taking advantage of the range of their firearms at high places. In the siege of one and a half hours, he had already lost 2,000 foot soldiers, 300 musketeers, and nearly 10% of artillery and ballistas. Although it is very important to come out on top in the first contest between the two sides, to gain the upper hand in order to boost morale and confidence. However, considering that the loss of men and horses, especially firearms, is too large, it will not only affect the morale of the soldiers under his command, but also increase the difficulty of subsequent attacks, and it is also very unfavorable to camp after dark. Therefore, after the latest attack failed again, Zhao Kuangyin had to order to stop the siege and the whole army retreated to camp for five miles.

At the end of the sixth day of the third month of the lunar calendar of the ninth year of Xiande, in the big tent of the Chinese army in the camp of Zhao Kuangyin's army, in the face of Zhao Kuangyin's instructions to ask everyone to give their opinions on the law of breaking the city, all his henchmen and cronies frowned and were silent. Although everyone knew that they had no choice but to take the capital and kill the king and usurp the throne, they witnessed the fierce and brutal siege battle in the afternoon, and realized that the advantage of firearms, which was originally regarded as a "trump card" and a "means of victory" by their own side, had not only disappeared, but also become their own disadvantage, and everyone was now unable to adapt to the unfavorable situation of being suppressed by the opponent's firepower and having to use human lives to confront gunpowder and lead pellets, and for a while no one could come up with a way to defeat the enemy.

Seeing that all his subordinates were silent, Zhao Kuangyin couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. But just as he was about to vent his anger to everyone, Zhang Fei, who was sitting at the end of the table and didn't pay attention to it, suddenly got up and saluted: "Lord Taiwei, I have some ideas for my humble position, or it may help break the city." It's just that the lowly position is not a person who knows the soldiers, so this idea is somewhat not bright and fair, and I don't know whether to talk about it or not. Speaking of which, although Zhang Fei is not ignorant of military affairs, in the face of the current situation, it is really impossible for him to explain the strategy and tactics of the siege. The reason why he became this up-and-coming bird was mainly because he hoped to make contributions in the process of conquering the capital to offset his mistakes in the work of the Beiping Army, so that he could maintain and even improve his position in the Zhao group in the future.

Although he never thought that Zhang Fei, a secret spy leader who could only secretly engage in some shady deeds and knew almost nothing about military affairs, could say any good combat strategy, but when no one of the other confidants and cronies present answered, Zhao Kuangyin could only hold the mentality of "a dead horse should be a live horse doctor" to listen to the other party's so-called thoughts -- not to mention that the other party had already made it clear that the method he wanted to say was not above board, and it must not be a conventional tactic or tactic, and this way of taking the sword to the edge might really solve his current problem. Therefore, he immediately put on a serious expression and said, "I summoned everyone this time to discuss this strategy to break the city. Since Hall Master Zhang has a good plan, just say it and don't have to worry about it. ”

Zhang Fei, who was encouraged by Zhao Kuangyin, greatly increased his confidence, nodded emphatically, and then said: "Taiwei's military move this time is to respond to the people, take advantage of the general trend, and return to the public. It is only because the ** Queen Mother, the Concubine and the traitors in the court such as Han Tong, Wang Bo, and Fan Zhen who have caused trouble and interfered in the government are afraid that the Taiwei will liquidate his sins after entering Beijing, and in order to save his own life, glory and wealth, he took the civil and military officials and gentry in the capital as hostages, and coerced the generals and soldiers of the forbidden army in the city to resist stubbornly, and tried their best to prevent the Taiwei from entering Beijing. Among these traitors, the queen mother and the concubine are just women, so there is nothing to worry about. Those scholars are just a group of powerless scholars, and it may be okay for them to quote scriptures and dance texts, but they don't know anything about military warfare. The only one who is proficient in military affairs, swears allegiance to the Chai Zhou court, has the ability to compete with the Taiwei, and has the ability to control the forbidden army in the city, only the deputy commander of the guard's pro-army Ma Bujun is Han Tong. If there is no pillar of Han Tong, not only will the forbidden army in the city lose its commander, but the dragons will have no leader, and they will no longer have the morale of the army to be the enemy of the captain. Moreover, the soldiers in the forbidden army who supported the Taiwei would also respond in groups and attack the Chai Zhou court. Second, those traitorous ministers in the DPRK and China will also abandon the so-called 'backbone' because of the loss of military support, and turn to protect themselves wisely, see the wind and steer the rudder, and take the initiative to serve the captain. In this way, not only will the capital be broken in the near future, but also the Taiwei will be in the ninth five-year position, and it will be logical and easy to replace Zhou. ”

"Although there is some truth in what Hall Master Zhang said, but now that Han Tong is in the capital, what can we do about it before the city is broken?" Zhao Kuangyin's chief strategist Zhao Pu nodded slightly when he heard this, and then shook his head and asked.

"Although Han Tong is in the capital, it doesn't mean that he has no way to take him." Zhang Fei replied confidently, "At the moment, although our army has not yet broken the city, it does not mean that there is no Liliang in the city that can be used by itself. At the beginning, as the fundamental place, the strength of the Kaifeng branch of the 'Feiyan Hall' was the first of all the branches of the 'Feiyan Hall'. During this period, although Zhang Yongde's rebellion was slightly affected, his strength decreased slightly, but with the recent subjugation and rectification, it is now not inferior to Zhang Yongde's rebellion. Among the spies of the Kaifeng branch of the 'Feiyan Party', there are not a few people who are proficient in technical attack and assassination. In Xia Ke, he sent his strong martial arts and good at stealth to infiltrate the city and connect with the spies of the Kaifeng Branch, and ordered him to send a master to assassinate Han Tong, and be sure to take the life of this courtier thief. ”

Sending someone to assassinate Han Tong -- this strategy seems to be the simplest, most effective, and easiest way to take Kaifeng City and end this war to change the dynasty and subvert the society in today's situation. Therefore, although I feel that this is a bit unclear and not a big man's action, for the battle of Kaifeng, which is in a stalemate, it is a wonderful way to take the edge of the sword and defeat the enemy. Especially considering that this will cause minimal collateral losses to Kaifeng City, it is more conducive to the stability and recovery of the situation in the capital after he became the owner of Kaifeng. Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Zhao Kuangyin finally nodded and asked, "Then in the opinion of Hall Master Zhang, how sure is it that the 'Feiyan Hall' Kaifeng Branch will assassinate Han Tong, and how long will it take to prepare?" -- Due to his overconfidence in the bloodless entry into Kaifeng, the army under the command of Zhao Kuangyin brought limited grain and grass when he returned to Beijing from Lanzhou, and could only support 70,000 horses for 15 days at most. Therefore, Zhao Kuangyin had to express concern about the time required to carry out the assassination of Jihua.

Zhang Fei couldn't help but be overjoyed when he saw that his construction had been recognized by Zhao Kuangyin, and hurriedly replied: "Now that Han Tong is all about how to keep the Taiwei out of Kaifeng City, and I never imagined that the Taiwei would secretly send someone to assassinate him." The Kaifeng branch of the 'Feiyan Hall' is to attack the dark with the open, and to be prepared to fight the unprepared, and the probability of successful assassination should be more than ninety percent. As for the time of the assassination, it depends on the length of time it takes for the Kaifeng branch of the 'Feiyan Hall' to make various preparations. However, with his humble understanding of the Kaifeng Branch, it will not take more than five days at most from the beginning of the preparation to the completion of the assassination. ”

For Zhao Kuangyin's army, which only had fifteen days of food storage, although five days was not a short time, considering that the Kaifeng branch of the "Feiyan Hall" in the city needed to make various preparations for the assassination, especially to master the time and route of Han Tong's outing, choose the best assassination location, etc., such a time limit could still be accepted by Zhao Kuangyin. So, after carefully discussing with other confidants and cronies present and confirming that there were no obvious loopholes and deficiencies in the assassination of Jihua, Zhao Kuangyin finally made up his mind and ordered Zhang Fei to start the assassination operation against Han Tong, the supreme military commander of the capital.