Chapter 81: The Beginning of the Northern Expedition

As mentioned last time, Liu Hou asked Zhang Xingcai if he wanted to set off fireworks, Zhang Xingcai looked at the thick caliber mortars in the field, shook his head and said:

"Forget it, what's the difference between this and firing a cannon, the sound is loud, and the smoke is billowing out, and if you are not careful, you will be burned and injured, even if you are not injured, you are likely to be smoked all over your face."

Liu Hou thought about it, it was originally a very romantic and fun thing to take a girl to set off fireworks, but that refers to small fireworks, especially safe fireworks that can be set off by hand, which is suitable for girls to play.

Large-scale fireworks like Liu Hou, like cannons, really respond to the sentence: "You can watch from a distance and not blasphemous." "Setting off such a large fireworks is definitely a chore, and it has nothing to do with romance and fun.

Liu Hou didn't say much, and waved his hand to let the artillerymen start setting off fireworks. The first row of three mortar guns ignited first, only to hear the sound of "boom boom" three times, three clouds of smoke rose up, three projectiles were ejected into the air, and then exploded into three brilliant green giant flowers in the air.

Then, the second row ignited, and three yellow flowers burst out of the air, and the third row, three blue flowers.

"Copper sulfate, sodium nitrate, cobalt salt." Zhang Xingcai muttered. Fireworks with a beautiful and romantic atmosphere are all kinds of chemicals in her eyes. Liu Hou suddenly had a feeling of playing the piano with a cow.

When the mortar cannon was fired, there was a loud roar, and the people surrounding it were startled. The people, who had just been unable to get out of the way of the guards, were now scrambling back, almost causing a stampede. Later, when they saw the colorful fireworks exploding in the air, they all raised their heads, looked at the huge flowers in the air, and let out "Wow!" Wow! Exclamations.

Zhou Xue looked at the beautiful fireworks, and a rare smile appeared on her face, and the colorful colors reflected on her delicate face, which was quite a bit of a complement. This once again made Liu Hou feel a little bit for Bo Hongyan and did not hesitate to do anything.

After the three platoons of nine mortars were discharged, the well-trained artillerymen quickly cleared the chambers and reloaded the ammunition. Soon the first platoon was re-fired, which was actually a three-stage array, with the three rows of guns firing in turn, causing the fireworks to explode in the air almost without intervals.

Red, "calcium salt", white light, "aluminum and magnesium", every time a color bursts out of the sky, Zhang Xingcai bursts out the name of a chemical in his mouth.

"Hey, there are two colors?" Zhang Xingcai's surprised voice sounded, and at this time, what exploded in the air was a two-color firework, the inner layer was a green stamen, and the outer layer was yellow petals, such a firework was undoubtedly much better than the monochrome fireworks just now. However, the words from Zhang Xingcai's mouth were:

"Well, the inner layer is made of copper-containing material, and the outer layer is made of absorb-containing material. There are a total of five colors, two of them are taken out and combined each time, according to the permutation and combination formula, there are a total of 20 combinations, which can transmit 20 more signals, plus five monochrome signals, and now a total of 25 signals can be transmitted. ”

Liu Hou almost stumbled when he heard this, this woman has completely become a science madman. In the future, if you want to have any interest in life between husband and wife, it is estimated that there is no hope, maybe in her eyes, everything will become a chemical principle, a mathematical formula, which is really sad.

Fortunately, there was still hope, Liu Hou couldn't help but look at Zhou Xue on the other side, only to see that her face, which was smiling like a flower just now, had now become strict. Looking at Zhou Xue's uncertain face, Liu Hou guessed that she might think of the firearms of the Shu army attacking the city from these fireworks.

They Dongwu people are victims of these firearms, so it is estimated that she must not have a good impression of firearms, and then it is very likely that she will not like fireworks.

Alas, there is no hope for this, Liu Hou couldn't help but shake his head and sighed in his heart.

This New Year, Liu Hou had no taste, although this is the most idle New Year in the past three years, although there are two beauties close at hand this New Year, but Liu Hou did not live the imaginary life of traveling with the United States, or even hugging left and right.

Liu Hou, who was holding back the fire in his belly, was ready to sprinkle all the fire on the people of Dongwu. Just after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Liu Hou issued an order for the whole army to mobilize the Northern Expedition. On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, just two days after the Lantern Festival, the Shu army swore to the Northern Expedition.

Liu Hou completely ignored whether there was a taboo to start a war in the first month, whether it was inconvenient to march in winter, and whether the sword soldiers would be damaged by the upcoming spring ploughing so early, and brazenly sent troops north.

According to the original plan, Liu Hou left Fei Yi as the agent of Jiaozhou, in addition, he also left Gao Ding and his 20,000 fish belly troops, and handed over 10,000 Dongwu prisoners to him, so that he had a total of 30,000 horses on hand.

These 30,000 horses will be his weapon to completely control Lingnan. Lingnan now controls less than one-third of the counties in the hands of the Shu army, and at present, only the counties and the provincial capital city Panyu City, which the Shu army has passed through, are firmly controlled by the Shu army.

The attitude of other counties is still unclear, especially in the south. This old fox has been against the Shu army before, and he is a big clan in Jiaozhou, a powerful local force, and it is not easy to deal with him.

Therefore, Liu Hou must leave more people for Fei Yi, otherwise, I am afraid that he will not be able to control the scene. In addition to 30,000 horses, Liu Hou also left him some gunpowder and 500 old muskets. This is the old guns eliminated by Liu Hou's regular troops, these guns have been used for a long time, although the accuracy is a little worse, but there is not much damage, and they can basically be used.

In this way, Fei Yi can form a musket team of 500# people, and Liu Hou believes that with these 500 musketeers and 30,000 horses, it is enough for Fei Yi to control Lingnan.

Liu Hou's troops this time were still 80,000 regular troops: 10,000 musketeers were the first division; The 30,000 Tengjia Army was the second and third divisions; Zhu Bao originally had 20,000 people as the fourth division; Later, the captured Eastern Wu soldiers, Liu Hou selected 20,000 elite points to form a new corps, which was the fifth division.

Liu Hou, commander of the 1st Division, Wu Tugu, commander of the 2nd Division, E Huan, commander of the 3rd Division, Zhu Bao, commander of the 4th Division, Guan Suo, commander of the 5th Division, and Bu Qi, deputy commander of the 5th Division.

The commander of the Hong Army is Liu Hou, the deputy commander Zhao Yun, the chief of staff or the marching Sima Guo Yuzhi, and Bu Qi also holds the position of deputy chief of staff.

Guan Suo was originally the commander of the 4th Regiment of the Musketeers, but now Liu Hou promoted him to the commander of the 5th Division, because of his high martial arts skills, which made him suitable for commanding this kind of cold weapon troops. Although his position was promoted, the combat effectiveness of a division under his command was not comparable to that of the musketeers of the original regiment.

Liu Hou also picked up the three musketeers who were holding a shooting competition outside Guangxin County because they wanted to shoot free battle cards, and made them the commanders of the fourth, fifth, and sixth regiments of the musketeers respectively.

Their names were Zhang Bai, Zhong Tong, and Liu Fei, and the sixth regiment had 2,000 men, and there was no musket equipment at present, and they were still used as reserve soldiers for other regiments, and they had to guard other musketeers with cold weapons when necessary.

And the other three marksmen (archery) who were excellent in that shooting competition, after this period of observation, showed that they were excellent in all aspects, and there was no problem in terms of loyalty, so Liu Hou also promoted them and appointed them as middle-level officers of the Fujijia Army.