As the commander of the city guard, Tang Mingzhe naturally has his own group of relationships and connections in Zhongzhou. After helping to speak in the court meeting, he also passed on the results of Qian Minghao's disposition as soon as possible, and his speed was even faster than that of the envoy carrying the holy decree.

Knowing that the saint did not reproach or remove him, and several important ministers also helped him speak, Tang Mingzhe was relieved to bear the consequences of this unauthorized action. Although he knew that the battle of Xudu was very likely to be his last chance, after taking the initiative to retreat for hundreds of miles, he had strong confidence in holding on to this place.

Even, if the general of the Yanyun Army made any mistake in a hurry, the city guards could even take the opportunity to counterattack and fight the battle line back, and it was not impossible to go further!

With this in mind, he began to carefully prepare for the defensive battle of Xudu.

But before that, he first needed to visit those famous families entrenched in Xudu. With their support, it will undoubtedly be much easier to keep Xudu!

………

Yanyun County.

When the news of the Tongshan Pass was broken, the overjoyed Qian Mingde immediately ordered someone to spread the news. In a short period of time, the entire palace inside and outside, including the Song family, was full of joy. In the previous situation when the Southern Route Army was in an unfavorable situation and the central front was also stalemate for a long time, it was really important to suddenly win such a big victory.

Everyone knows what the capture of Tongshan Pass means, and at least half of Anqing County will fall into their hands.

You must know that originally the whole of Anqing was the territory of Zhongzhou Qianminghao. Now under the elimination of the other's strengths, it can be indirectly regarded as opening up the gap between a county!

That's not a small amount.

There are only twenty counties in the empire, not to mention that four counties were forcibly divided by the Songjiang army. In addition to the four southeastern counties, which were nominally unified but actually divided, the remaining two emperors were only divided into sixteen counties. Such a victory does not need to be much, as long as it is two or three more, I am afraid that it will be enough to turn the existing balance of power into an advantage, and it is still a big advantage!

For a while, all Yanyun forces were congratulating Qian Mingde, and sycophants poured in. For Song Wuji, the general of the unified army, everyone also changed their previous dissatisfaction and accusations against the stalemate of the war, and began to pat the general's sycophants, as if they had the momentum of promoting him as a generation of famous generals and contemporary military gods.

All kinds of rhetoric, even Song Wujian himself was afraid that he would be ashamed and blush when he heard it.

However, when Qian Mingde was in a good mood, he didn't put these things in his mood at all. can help him open up the situation and prove that the general did not look at the wrong person at that time. I heard that the remnants of the city guards had withdrawn to Xudu, and the Yanyun army was trying to pursue. If he can strangle the fleeing city guards, and then take Xudu by chance, then the situation of the middle route army will be completely opened, and the entire Anqing will fall into his hands.

For a short time, Qian Mingde even imagined the situation of the Middle Route Army winning consecutive battles and fighting all the way to the outside of the imperial capital Zhongzhou.

It's a pity that this dream is just a pillow of yellow sorghum after all.

Just two or three days later, the bad news followed. The Yanyun cavalry, who was in charge of the pursuit, went deep alone, and was lured into the ambush point without knowing it. The treacherous city guards completed the arrangement overnight, using the hidden troops to surround the Yanyun cavalry division, and suffered heavy losses in the first battle, with countless casualties.

The number of cavalry that can escape back is not even a brigade!

This news was so bad and so abrupt that Yan Yun's forces, who were still immersed in the joy of breaking through Tongshan Pass, had not come back to their senses, and in the blink of an eye, they found that the situation was different. Not only did the idea of chasing down the remnants of the city guards completely failed, but the cavalry divisions that had spent countless manpower and material resources were severely damaged. The advantages brought by the breakthrough of Tongshan Pass, along with this discordant news, disappeared overnight.

As the besieging party, the losses of the Yanyun army were already greater than those of the city guards, and if it weren't for the counterweight stone throwing machine of the Songjiang army, I am afraid that the losses would be even more amazing. If this cavalry division is counted, Yan Yun can be said to have not achieved a decent advantage in this battle, but because of the elongation of the battle line, it has added a bit of worry to his subsequent battles, Qian Minghao can see it clearly, and of course Qian Mingde knows it, but as the main attacking side, he has no choice.

Although he was very depressed and once mad enough to want to cut people, Qian Mingde finally suppressed his anger and only sent an official letter to Song Wujian to reprimand and appease, and then asked the troops to continue to advance westward.

He hoped that after a rash defeat, Song Wujian would be able to be ashamed and brave, and bring him a second victory comparable to Tongshan Pass, capture Xudu, and sweep the whole county of Anqing!

For this reason, Qian Mingde did not hesitate to pay a price.

………

Dengzhou.

The middle line war at Tongshan Pass was directly related to the trend of the imperial civil war. Although the Songjiang Army was in a state of lazy paddling in it, it was still very concerned about the battle itself. All important news will be sent to Chen Wu's desk as soon as possible.

Needless to say, the Tongshan Pass was broken before, and Dian Yong personally wrote a report and handed it over. But soon after, the news that the cavalry of the Yanyun Legion had been ambushed really surprised Chen Wu.

I have to say that the city guards did a better job than he expected.

He originally thought that after the city guards took the initiative to abandon Tongshan Pass, it would be very good to be able to get rid of the pursuing troops and retreat to Xudu. Unexpectedly, the city guards not only did this, but also set up a trap for Yan Yunjun with their backhand. In this way, the difficulty and pressure on the Yanyun Legion to take down Xu Du will be greatly increased.

Perhaps, Yan Yunjun really wants to return under the city of Xudu and lose his troops.

But that's okay, after the defeat of the Yanyun army in the middle lane, the importance of the Songjiang army will undoubtedly become more prominent. Chen Wu will not be satisfied with just occupying the four southeastern counties and northern Luzon, he wants a lot!

Of course, with the current strength of the Songjiang Army, it is still a little reluctant to participate in the battle for world domination. But the vision and knowledge beyond the times made it possible for him to catch up with or even surpass the gap in strength. As early as 673, when he took charge of Songjiang, he had a set of plans of his own, and the subsequent administrative reform was the creation of one of the eight departments, the Ministry of Industry.

One of the most important aspects of research is to improve and manufacture high-performance explosives and artillery!

If it is a research from scratch, it may be very time-consuming, and it may take ten or twenty years to produce results. However, if improvements are made under existing circumstances, and even Chen Wu, a traverser, helps guide the general direction, and does not hesitate to invest a lot of money, it is not impossible to greatly speed up this process.

As early as a year ago, when the royal capital of Luzon was attacked, the first batch of trial-produced black powder had been put into actual combat, and the effect was quite good.

After subsequent trials and improvements, it also proved the terrible power of this kind of eastern continent that was once used to make zuò festival fireworks.

After the development of explosives was born to this point, his limited knowledge could no longer continue to help, so he could only maintain a steady investment of funds and continue to let the scientific researchers led by Zeng Siwu research and improve on their own. The main focus of the Ministry of Engineering was then on the research and development of artillery.

In the past few years, a large number of blacksmiths gathered by Chen Wu finally came up with a barely usable result.

Perhaps because they felt that they had finally achieved something and could be worthy of Chen Wu's investment for several years, after the new artillery was cast, the blacksmiths immediately invited the above, hoping that Chen Wu could visit the test site of the secret camp outside Dengzhou City to watch the test firing of the new artillery.

Chen Wu was naturally pleased with this invitation.

There is no one in this world who knows the power of artillery better than him. If there is an artillery that can be used in real combat, it will inevitably lead to epoch-making reforms. The traditional feudal army was greatly reduced in the face of artillery. Fortunately, the cavalry was still a threat to the artillery positions due to the lack of accuracy, range and rate of fire of the early artillery, and the infantry and fixed cities were completely targeted!

Chen Wu's current 200,000 troops, whether they are elite armies or divisions in the East China Sea and Ninghai Sea, if they can each be equipped with hundreds of cannons, it will be enough to easily deal with the enemy forces far outnumbered by themselves.

Because of this, he is full of expectations for this viewing.

The guards around him and a group of senior officers accompanying him were a little puzzled by Chen Wu's expectations. Two of the officers, who had returned from rotation in Northern Luzon, had seen Manila, the royal capital, collapse in the explosion, and had first-hand knowledge of the power of explosives. The other officers, having never known the true power of explosives and artillery, were naturally somewhat unimpressed.

What new weapons are stronger than heavy cavalry and bed crossbows?

The limitations of the times have limited the horizons of these traditional officers. Listening to their whispered discussions, Chen Wu only smiled on his face, noncommittal to questions and speculations. He believed that after seeing the power of artillery with his own eyes, these excellent soldiers would naturally understand its future.

All the way out of the city, the group entered the test firing range of artillery under the strict protection of the cavalry and the blockade of information.

It used to be a noble manor, but unfortunately it was stubborn in the process of the Songjiang army entering Dengzhou, and it was eventually copied for other purposes. After several years of successive expansion and rectification, this place has become a large manor with a radius of four or five miles, with three layers of defense and sentry posts inside and outside, and more than a company of soldiers firmly guarding this place.

It is to prevent possible attacks and enemy infiltration and spying, and it is also to prevent the craftsmen inside from escaping or divulging secrets.

"How well guarded is this?"

Those who can follow Chen Wu here are naturally absolutely guaranteed by loyalty and ability. They may have heard of such a place, but this is the first time they have come in person. Seeing the three layers of defense outside, not a single fly dared to fly in, and everyone couldn't help but be taken aback.

Only then did they realize that what was in the test range was probably more important than they thought.

After verifying their identities and completing their registration, the group was cleared by the guards and entered the artillery test firing range.