After reading his son's letter and the holy decree of the Emperor of Shu, Cao Hong became more anxious, pacing faster in the room, he was faced with a very difficult choice, whether to be a loyal minister and accompany the Wei State to the funeral? Or is it burdened with eternal infamy, continue to enjoy his glory and wealth, and still retain his huge wealth?

At the same time, on the eastern front there was not as calm as on the northern front, and the fighting on this side was going on vigorously, indeed, because both sides were constantly shelling each other, and the rumbling shelling sounded day and night, resounding in the sky.

On the side of the Hong army, the Katyusha, a weapon of mass destruction with the longest range, was used to carry out a long-range attack on the Tiger Pass, and it was very surprising that the Wei State assumed ten large-caliber guns ~ cannons on the city wall to counterattack the Hong army.

The ten guns of the Wei army ~ have a very large caliber, and they are not cast according to the standards of Shu at all, but blindly pursue large caliber and long range. It is estimated that Wei suffered enough in the past wars that the range of weapons was not long enough, so he learned a lesson and made these war monsters.

The caliber of the Wei fire ~ cannon is about the size of a basin, and the range is also very amazing, almost comparable to the range of Keqiu killing, it is conceivable that Cao Pi should have learned from the pain, collected the copper of the whole country, and spent a lot of money to cast these ten super fire ~ cannons.

Because the fire~cannons of Wei are all cast of pure copper, the cost is very amazing, and these ten fire~cannons almost emptied the treasury of Wei. However, their power is also amazing, and in the past few days, the Hong Army's Keqiu killing troops have suffered a lot of losses.

At the beginning, the Keqiu killing troops did not expect that the enemy would have weapons with such a long range, they lined up in a phalanx outside the city, fired rockets at the city wall, and were caught off guard, and were condescendingly smashed down by the huge cannonballs, and many people were smashed together with people and cannons. Moreover, due to the ricochet, those giant shells will bounce up and kill several people in the back. The person who was smashed broke his tendons and fractures, and his death was very miserable.

After suffering a loss, the Keqiu killing troops quickly retreated, but soon they found that the range of the opponent's artillery was about the same as their own Keqiu killing range, so they had no way to retreat, unless they withdrew from the range of both sides, although the enemy could not attack themselves, but they could not attack the enemy, if that was the case, this battle would not have to be fought.

Later, the Keqiu killing troops had to disperse into a loose formation, so that even if they were hit by enemy shells, they would not be stoned to death at once~ a piece. Fortunately, Wei used live ammunition instead of flowering ammunition, otherwise their losses would have been greater.

Not only did the Wei side have super cannons, but they even cast a turret for each cannon to protect the cannons. The so-called turret is a semicircular structure made of granite stone, which looks like a burial mound from a distance.

An opening was made in the front of the "grave bag", and the cannon protruded from this opening. Although the Wei State did not have cement, which was a building material, it did not mean that they could not build strong fortifications. Granite is hard enough to be used to build the main body of the turret, and the Hong's rockets explode on the turret and can't hurt it in the slightest.

And the paste between these granite stones, they use the traditional recipe - glutinous rice slurry mixed with lime. Don't underestimate this traditional recipe, the Great Wall is glued together with this kind of thing.

The Great Wall made of this kind of thing is strong and durable, not to mention that it will not fall for thousands of years, at least for hundreds of years. Of course, the turret built in this way is also quite strong, but the cost is naturally not low.

Granite has to be quarried out of the mountains, and then transported here from a long distance and hoisted up to the city tower, and the manpower and material resources spent are simply astronomical. You must know that Wei Guoke did not have any machinery, except for animal power and manpower, there was no other power to use.

Moreover, animal power can only be borrowed in the process of transportation, and in the process of quarrying, it can only be chiseled completely by manpower. In order to ensure adequate protection, each stone must be thick and large enough, which also increases the difficulty of collecting and transporting.

Each turret is made of countless large stone barriers, and it is conceivable how much manpower and material resources Cao Pi spent on these ten turrets. However, they requisitioned the people almost without any money, as long as they ordered the levy of conscription, if the officials who executed it were a little black-hearted, they would not even cover food.

As for the public resentment caused by this, they probably don't care too much. The ten turrets and ten cannons that Cao Pi had spent a lot of money on were finally in full swing at this moment, roaring and spitting fire and iron bullets, and even resisted the attacks of dozens of Ketyusha.

Liu Hou, who was far away in Xuchang, soon received the news from the front line, and he was so angry that he smashed a few ceramic ornaments, fortunately, these are not precious antiques, just modern handicrafts, although they are also exquisite, but they are not valuable.

Liu Hou said with hatred: "Xu Jing and Wu Yi, two bastards, I can't wait to peel them off and pull their bones." ”

At the beginning, Xu Jing and Wu Yi made a rebellion and leaked the firearms technology of Shu, which led to the current evil results, if it were not for Liu Hou to lead the troops to the rapid northern expedition, over time, the firearms troops of Wei and Wu developed, and it would be even more difficult to deal with them at that time.

Even now, it has brought a lot of trouble to the Hong army, so it can be seen that this firearm is a Pandora's box, once it is released, it is really difficult to say whether it is a curse or a blessing.

"Your Majesty wants to peel Xu Jing's skin and bones, I'm afraid it won't work, because Xu Jing is dead." Guo Youzhi.

"Oh? Tell me how this old thief died. Wu Yi was killed by Liu Hou's special forces during the Chengdu Rebellion, and then he sent Xu Jing, Empress Dowager Wu, and two younger brothers to Ri Nam County (present-day Dong Ha City, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam). After that, he didn't pay attention to them anymore, after all, the war in the Central Plains was in full swing, and he didn't have the heart to care about some insignificant things and ignore some insignificant people.

Now that Liu Hou heard Guo Youzhi mention it, he asked more. Guo Youzhidao: "I heard that this Xu Jing was quite peaceful after he arrived in Rinan County, and he didn't have too much contact with the two princes and the queen mother, but concentrated on doing a good job in political affairs."

It took him only one year to establish a number of plantations there, and with the help of Gao Ding's campaigns, he captured countless foreign slaves, and cultivated a large amount of land there, growing grain and some other cash crops.

The climate there is warm and humid ~ moist, abundant rain, very suitable for the growth of crops, rice is three crops a year, and a large amount of grain can be harvested every year. Our army fought continuously, and the amount of military rations required was huge, and in addition to some of the small countries around Jiaozhou, these plantations built by Xu Jing also played a great role. ”

With Guo Youzhi's account, Liu Hou knew that Xu Jing, a criminal minister, had made great contributions when he went to a wild place such as Rinan. The Hong army has been fighting continuously for several years, and the team is getting bigger and bigger, and the amount of grain and grass needed is amazing.

And when Liu Hou was generous, he also helped those refugees from time to time, and the food spent was immeasurable, such a huge amount of food, in addition to the fact that every time they captured a place, they took the grain of the official warehouse as their own, there was also a very important source from the Shu State to the development of Lingnan and Jiaozhou.