"I expected him to be ambushed, but I didn't expect him to be here!" Sima Fa rushed to the rear, and the beam transport truck was already blazing, "What are you still doing in a daze? Fight the fire! Hurry up and put out the fire!"

I don't care about chasing Ning Ze, the most important thing is the military rations!

Despite all his efforts, 200,000 stone of military rations were burned, and only 80,000 stone were rescued, which made people's hearts ache.

Sima Fa blamed himself very much, obviously he was vigilant all the way, and he was tricked here. Sure enough, Ning Ze always likes to be unexpected, and behaviors that are completely inconsistent with the art of war will also appear.

If you think about it carefully, the other party relies on the strength of the spell, even if the terrain is not so suitable, it can learn from each other's strengths.

Or underestimate him!

200,000 stone of military rations were burned, and nearly 1,000 soldiers were killed or wounded, which was simply a heavy loss.

His army moved so fast that it was like a ghost. The former army immediately turned back when they got the news, but it was still too late.

Maybe the cavalry can catch up, after all, the Futu army belongs to the infantry and does not have mounts.

But the most important thing is the military rations, Sima Fa can't let it go, let the cavalry chase first.

Even if you catch up, what should you do if the other party has other arrangements?

The Futu saber is invulnerable, only the long-hooked soldiers can fight, and after the cavalry catches up, they also have no way to take the other side. Even if you directly trample a few with your mounts, you can lose a large number of excellent knights and mounts on your side if you counterattack.

The most important thing is that as long as you don't trample someone to death on the spot, Ning Ze can recover the wounded through spells.

How could there be such a difficult enemy? could not do anything but find another warlock who was proficient in spells and more powerful than him?

Sima Fa was quite depressed after suffering a heavy blow, and Ning Ze returned victoriously with the Futu army, and took the lead in returning to the vicinity of Hongshui County to join Hua Erniang after a long journey.

The two joined forces and rushed directly to Ouyang Chun's side.

Knowing that Ning Ze burned Sima Fa's army rations, the generals were overjoyed.

Even if his own troops were withdrawn, Sima Fa, who had been burned with grain and grass, would not be able to pursue. After all, military rations are the basis for ensuring the army's operations, and without food, how can the army be discouraged?

After several days of attacking and defending with Lei He in Hongshui County, Sima Fa's army finally arrived and quickly lined up.

Lei He was relieved to see the reinforcements arriving.

The long-term intense attack consumes a lot of money. If the reinforcements don't come, I don't know how long they can hold out.

Sima Fa's military rations were recovered, and he could still hold on. In terms of troops, it has an advantage over Ning Ze's side.

The two sides fought against each other outside Hongshui County for half a month, and Ning Ze's army ran out of food first, so they slowly retreated and left from Mizhou.

Sima Fa did not chase after him, but breathed a sigh of relief.

In this case, I am most afraid that Ning Zejun will have reserve military rations delivered, and it will be too late for me to dispatch it.

With winter approaching, the parties are making a truce.

Leaving part of the troops to guard Hongshui County, Sima Fa led the army to retreat to Yunzhou.

Ning Ze returned with victory, and Liu Yuanxiang led hundreds of civil and military officials out of the city for ten miles to greet him.

Although Hexi County was recaptured by the Liang State, the land of the two counties of Xizhou has been recovered, and a large number of Hexi County talents and more than 500,000 people have arrived, and Sima Fa's army food has been burned, which is enough. What's more, the southward forced Ma Jian back, making the border peaceful again.

Back in the city, all the officials who participated in the war were rewarded for their merits, except for Ning Ze and Wang Tong, who were stand-ins.

Ning Ze is already a very popular minister, and there is no reward. As for Wang Tong, because he is Ning Ze's stand-in, it is impossible to expose it to the public. also privately rewarded some gold and silver treasures, and released the autumn cicada out of the palace to reunite with him.

Liu Yuanxiang sent someone to report to Ning Ze the losses suffered by Tang Niu when Huajun was attacked, including a series of valuable weapons such as explosive crossbows, phosphorus fire canisters, mines, and bombs that were consumed.

This battle caused a gap in some of the materials of the secret research institute.

One is phosphate rock and the other is saltpeter ore for making gunpowder.

There are only a few minerals in Huaguo, and some phosphate and saltpeter mines are produced every month and sent to Huajun. Most of them are purchased through the Chamber of Commerce and other forces.

Among them, the largest producer of phosphate rock is Bian Zhou, that is, the Tang Niu force.

Saltpeter ore is more in Yunzhou.

The various forces are constantly fighting, but the Chamber of Commerce is not forbidden to trade. Because Tang Niu, Lu Cong, and Ma Jian also need to obtain various materials from Huaguo through the Chamber of Commerce, including paper.

Of course, there are restrictions on the trade of materials between various forces, although I don't know that phosphate ore and saltpeter ore are used by Ning Ze to make phosphorus fire pots and gunpowder, which are suitable for all kinds of new weapons, and there is also an upper limit for each transaction, according to the current amount, it is also difficult to make up for the consumption caused by the recent large number of uses.

What Ning Ze can do is to let the Chamber of Commerce persuade Tang Niu and Lu Cong's forces to relax the restrictions on phosphate and saltpeter mines and import more minerals for weapons production. The second is to find their own rich minerals, so that they will not be controlled by others.

So he contacted the Chamber of Commerce, held a secret meeting to discuss the matter, and persuaded the members of the Chamber of Commerce to operate for themselves and try to buy more minerals from Tang Niu and Lu Cong's forces. For this reason, you can take out a variety of newly produced glass products in exchange for precious glass.

As for looking for their own rich minerals, this has always been done, but there are not many phosphate and saltpeter mines in China, which is determined by the geographical environment. If you want to change this situation, you can't do it unless you capture Zhou and Liang.

During the winter, all parties were dealing with the problems caused by the war, privately through chambers of commerce or diplomacy.

Xihua 6 years, spring.

Major earthquakes occurred in many county towns such as Dongcheng, Daiyun, and Mengchu in Bianzhou, causing huge casualties.

The people were terrified, and rumors spread for a while, all saying that Tang Niu, as the emperor, disregarded the people's livelihood and was too belligerent, and all of them were punished by heaven.

The people in the Zhou State were unstable, and there were many seeds of unrest.

Although they are allies, in such a situation, Lu Cong and Ma Jian cheered on the surface and gave funding, but secretly supported the turmoil.

If the other party's allies are still like this, Huaguo, as a hostile force, will naturally intervene.

Tang Niu was overwhelmed and had a special headache from the earthquake disaster and civil unrest. In order to solve the problem, Mei Xu suggested that he issue an edict to first suppress the public opinion of the people, and then mobilize the whole country to concentrate on disaster relief. As for some seeds that may cause civil unrest, monitor them for the time being, pay attention to each other's every move, and do both.

Tang Niu had no other way, so according to what Mei Xu said, he asked him to help write down the edict of his own crimes, and cover it with a jade seal and publish it to the public.

The public opinion of the people was really suppressed, and Tang Niu ordered the mobilization of the whole country to hit the disaster relief, on the one hand, to monitor some people who secretly acted in the shadows.

Schadenfreude often doesn't end well.

Sure enough, when Lu Cong and Ma Jian were overwhelmed by the earthquake because Tang Niu was overjoyed, there was also a disaster in their own country.

In the territory of Yunzhou, Liang Guo, Lu Cong, landslides and mudslides occurred in many places, which are inferred to be related to the earthquake in Bianzhou, causing considerable losses and casualties.

In Nancheng, because of the sudden typhoon, many county towns such as Dajing, Jinping, Chongwen, Minjiang, and Loushan were flooded, and hundreds of people's homes were destroyed and displaced. There are many dead, injured and missing people.

Nancheng is close to the sea, and there are huge losses caused by typhoons almost every year, but I am a little used to it.

In recent years, under the governance of Ningze, Huaguo has been paying attention to disaster prevention construction in various places. Although there are also different disasters in many places, they are not so serious compared to Zhou, Liang and Nancheng.

Under the disaster, the grain output of the Zhou, Liang, and Nancheng forces was also affected, and there was no other way than to buy from Huaguo.

Therefore, the envoys of the three countries rushed to Huajun one after another, first, in the name of peace talks, to seek assistance from Huaguo to the people in the disaster areas of their own forces. This is a good opportunity to brush up on the reputation and prestige of benevolence, even if it is a hostile force, for the sake of Liu Yuanxiang, Ning Ze will definitely agree; the second is to discuss the relaxation of restrictions on the trade of grain and other daily necessities, so that all forces can buy more materials through the Chamber of Commerce to survive this disaster.

The progress of Huaguo's hybrid crops was very smooth, and it also blocked the destruction of the three forces, and now it is gradually spreading, the harvest is doubling more than before, and the treasury is more abundant, so there is no shortage of food.

Ning Ze just needed the other party to open a variety of ore trading restrictions, and he sent the Chamber of Commerce over before, but the reply he got was not satisfactory. This time, the other party took the initiative to come and asked for himself. It is a good time to take advantage of this opportunity to demand the opening of restrictions on mineral trading.

Zhou, Liang, and Nan Cheng all agreed to open restrictions to each other in consideration of their own situation. China has opened restrictions on the trade of grain and various essential materials, allowing them to purchase or barter goods on a large scale to cope with the disaster. They opened up different resource restrictions, so that China could expand its purchases.

All parties got the results they wanted, and at least this time the negotiations were successful.

In the 7th year of Xihua, the impact of the disaster was finally eliminated. The forces of all parties gradually recovered and stabilized slightly.

Ning Ze's side has obtained a large number of resources and minerals through trading, and the progress of the secret research laboratory is considerable.

After several years of research, the precision of the barrel and a variety of musket parts finally reached the standard, and they were successively sent to Ning Ze.

Research on generators and telegraphs has also been successful, but it will take at least one year or so to make them.

The musket parts were sent to Ning Ze, and the wives were very curious and came over to ask.

Ning Ze sold a pass, so that they should not be in a hurry and start assembling directly.

When the body of the gun was assembled, it was exactly the same as his sketch, and there were no flaws to be seen, so he poured gunpowder and bullets into it, and went to the courtyard to order someone to get the target.

The wives gathered behind him and watched curiously, Ning Ze carefully checked the flint trigger and the gun safety, including the barrel of the gun, which was also tested many times, and after confirming that it was correct, he aimed at the target in front of them and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!" a tongue of fire erupted from the muzzle of the gun, hitting the target of the arrow, making a large blackened hole.

The deafening sound made Liu Yuanxiang, Chu Meiren, Mi Yan, Fluttershy, and Hua Erniang's ears buzz. At the same time, I was amazed by the hole left by the target.

The musket was far more powerful than the crossbow bolt, a sign of a real entry into the era of thermal weapons.

To Ning Ze's surprise, in his attribute interface, there was an extra musketeer in the class suitability column, with a level of A.

Could it be that it is because he made the first musket in this world, so he activates the adaptability of the new class? The question is, this world musket was first made by himself, how can it be A? It should be S!