There are 60,000 border troops stationed in the Linchuan fortress in the southeast of the Great Wei Dynasty, which is like a barrier at the foot of the Liuqing Mountain, and has become the national gate for the south to the north.

On this day, Captain Chang Shikuan, as usual, led a team of soldiers to the woods southwest of the fortress to cut wood in the cold wind.

A cold wind blew, and Chang Shikuan shivered.

"Hey, this thief, why did it suddenly become so cold, hey, hurry up, cut enough firewood to make a fire, go back quickly, I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up with lunch if I'm late!"

Chang Shikuan greeted his soldiers, who were already hungry after a busy morning, and when they mentioned lunch, many people's stomachs were rumbling, and the movements of their hands were also sharper.

At this moment, a soldier beside Chang Shikuan suddenly stopped what he was doing, frowned, and looked back in a daze like a groundhog.

When Chang Shikuan saw him like this, he was suddenly furious in his heart, and scolded: "Why are you lazy to steal this killing? Don't want to eat anymore? ”

The little soldier came back to his senses and hurriedly said, "Chang Tou, I seem, as if I heard something!" ”

Chang Shikuan said angrily: "This forest is full of movement, do you want to leave you here to listen to enough?" ”

"No!"

Xiao Bing shook his head and pointed to the tree trunk next to him and said, "There is really movement, look!" ”

Chang Shikuan looked in the direction of his finger, and saw that the treetops were rising and falling strangely, but the cold wind had just stopped, and even if there was wind, it should be swaying from side to side.

He was stunned, suddenly thought of a possibility, and was suddenly shocked, and quickly turned around and rushed out of the woods.

The soldiers didn't know why, and they looked at each other, and Mi Ming followed him wonderfully.

As soon as he rushed out of the woods, Chang Shikuan heard a "boom" sound, raised his eyes to look south, and was suddenly frightened.

Just a few miles to the south, a black line suddenly appeared, and Chang Shikuan knew that it was a large army, and the scale was at least hundreds of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands.

What's even more terrifying is that the speed of this army is very fast, and in the blink of an eye, it has changed from a black line to a black wave, and there is only one army that will appear in this direction, and that is the army of King Wuling of the Southern Dynasty!

"Get on the horse...... Launched...... Get on board! The people of the Southern Dynasty are coming, the people of the Southern Dynasty are coming again, go back quickly! ”

Chang Shikuan came back to his senses and shouted in panic, and the rest of the soldiers were also so frightened that their faces turned pale and hurriedly ran towards the war horse.

In November of the eighteenth year of Hongwei, the beacon fire rose again, and the wolf smoke instantly filled the entire northern country along the beacon tower.

In the early morning of the seventh day of the first month of November, three fast horses with an eight-hundred-mile rush on their backs opened the city gate that had not yet been opened, and galloped in, one of them rushed to the military headquarters, one ran into the cabinet, and the last one went straight to the Great Wei Imperial Palace.

Xu Rui has been a little uneasy in the past few days, and he has a premonition that something big will happen, and he will be more careful when he goes out, but even so, he still waited for this bad news.

Xu Rui, who was half an hour late, had just walked into the signing room, when a team of non-commissioned officers rushed in, led by a group of non-commissioned officers who raised their hands above their heads for an emergency military situation.

Xu Rui's eyelids jumped, and he took a look at the letter, only to see a line of scribbled words written on it: "In November of the eighteenth year of Hongwei, the 400,000 troops of the Southern Dynasty crossed the Liuqing Mountains and raided our country!" ”

After reading these words, Xu Rui's eyelids jumped, and he ordered: "Take my big coat and enter the palace immediately!" ”

As soon as the words fell, Hu Miao walked in anxiously with a few eunuchs.

Xu Rui was stunned: "Grandpa Hu, why did you come in person?" ”

Hu Miao's face was a little bad: "Something is wrong, the saint has recruited the marquis into the palace, let's talk about it after you have anything to say." ”

Xu Rui nodded: "Ben Hou is also preparing to enter the palace, and his father-in-law is tired of leading the way." ”

The two of them were speechless all the way, and entered the palace as quickly as possible, and when they came to the Zhenwu Palace, it was already full of people, not only the twelve guards and commanders were all there, but Liu Yi, Xiao Jinwu and other military bigwigs were also not left behind.

Emperor Hongwei stood motionless in front of the map with his back to the generals, not knowing whether he was in a daze or thinking about something.

Seeing Xu Rui enter the door, the generals hurriedly whispered hello to him.

Xu Rui returned the salute one by one, rubbed to Liu Yi's side and said to Liu Yi with a gloomy face: "Committing a border matter for the Southern Dynasty? ”

Liu Yi nodded, and said in a low voice: "Depending on the situation, the Southern Dynasty is menacing this time, it is very likely to be a decisive battle, you can analyze and analyze it for a while, but pay more attention to the tone when speaking, even if the situation is bad, don't stimulate the saint anymore." ”

Xu Rui nodded, took the detailed battle report handed by Xiao Jinwu and read it carefully, frowned and said: "It's strange, the army of the Southern Dynasty quietly crossed the Liuqing Mountains this time, and there was no trick at all, and directly attacked more than ten border fortresses of our army!" ”

Xiao Jinwu nodded and said: "This posture is worrying, there is no trick, it is likely that King Wuling has lost patience because of this civil strife in the Southern Dynasty and wants to fight a war to destroy the country." ”

Xu Rui nodded when he heard this, and shook his head again, it is said that Xiao Jinwu's judgment should be accurate, but for some reason, he always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what was wrong for a while.

"And bad news!"

Without waiting for Xu Rui to react, Li Kuang, who had been promoted to the commander of the Jinyi Guard, suddenly leaned over and interjected: "Gu Qianqian probed the Malay newspaper and found a large number of repeating crossbows among the army of the Southern Dynasties!" ”

"What?"

The generals were shocked when they heard this.

Li Kuang's face was gloomy, and he said: "It's not just a continuous crossbow, someone found that the Southern Dynasty army secretly transported a secret weapon, the level of secrecy is very high, ordinary generals are not allowed to approach, and the fire prevention measures are extremely strict, Jin Yiwei deduced that it may be artillery!" ”

"How is that possible?"

This time, everyone was even more surprised, and they all turned their heads to look at Xu Rui.

Although Xu Rui had expected it, he was still surprised that the continuous fire of crossbows and artillery flowed into the Southern Dynasty so quickly.

"Dark chess is really pervasive......"

Xu Rui sighed with a pale face, and everyone immediately understood what he meant, it was impossible to develop artillery in such a short period of time, and the only explanation was that the Southern Dynasty directly used dark chess to steal the artillery technology of the Great Wei.

Liu Yi said: "When you go back, you will immediately investigate the military department!" ”

Xu Rui shook his head: "Now the investigation is not of much use, the dark chess hands and feet will not leave any clues soon, but the production of artillery requires a large number of machinery, even if the dark chess can steal the technology, but it can't steal the industrial base."

I am sure that the artillery they produce is only a façade, and at least at the present stage, the quality, quantity, crosshair, and power are absolutely incomparable with the artillery of our dynasty.

In addition, our dynasty has been equipped with a new generation of Vulcan cannons, city-breaking guns, and mortars that have just been developed, etc., and the firepower advantage is still very obvious! ”

After listening to Xu Rui's words, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, most of the people here had experienced the Great War between the North and the South a year ago, and they were deeply dormant by the power of artillery.

"Xu Rui!"

At this moment, Emperor Hongwei finally spoke, he didn't call anyone, and directly called Xu Rui's name.

"The minister is here!"

Xu Rui hurriedly stood up and saluted the emperor.

Emperor Hongwei turned around, waved his hand to signal that he didn't need to be polite, and then said with a gloomy face: "This time, the army of the Southern Dynasty put on a posture, as if they were going to fight to the death with our dynasty, but I always feel that this style of play is contrary to the consistent style of Wuling Xiao'er, what do you think?" ”

Xu Rui pondered for a moment and said: "The minister and His Majesty have the same feelings, but it cannot be ruled out that King Wuling deliberately wants us to hesitate, and in fact, he has long planned to launch a tough battle." ”

"Oh? What do you think? ”

Emperor Hongwei asked in surprise.

Xu Rui sighed: "To be honest, the ministers are not very sure, it is said that the Southern Dynasty army acted like this, it is very likely that it is a false shot, fully mobilize the main force of our army, and then quickly kill the Northern Qi and take them by surprise."

However, the army of the Southern Dynasty only attacked the Northern Qi last year, and the Northern Qi was small and widowed, the land was barren, and the products were not abundant, and the ministers really couldn't figure out what could attract the King of Wuling to spend a huge amount of money and raise a large army to attack for two consecutive years.

In the final analysis, the war is still a competition of hard power, and it is not ruled out that King Wuling will feel that the situation will become more and more unfavorable to them if it drags on, so he really made up his mind and wanted to fight a tough battle with us. ”

"Are you not even sure about it this time?"

Emperor Hongwei's eyes narrowed slightly when he heard this, and he looked at the huge map on the wall again, and a thick look of worry appeared on his face.