China has never lacked smart people since ancient times, and we must not underestimate the wisdom of the ancients, even after the emergence of many high-tech technologies in later generations, there are still many things created by the ancients that cannot be restored, let alone how they were made.

Gunpowder seems to be difficult to say, in fact, as long as there is a precedent, it can develop in this direction, especially after dozens of battles between the Xia Kingdom and the Northern Qi Dynasty, the number of gunpowder weapons that fell into the hands of the Northern Qi and did not explode is quite a lot, and some of the thunderbolts fell into the hands of the Taoist priests of the Northern Qi.

Under the research of experienced alchemists, after several years of research, these formulas were finally listed, and at first they felt that such a powerful weapon must have a lot of things added to it, so they added additives such as arsenic, heding red and other poisons to it.

However, the gunpowder weapons made in this way could only be used to set fire and smoke, and the power was very unsatisfactory, and when they later paid for their own research, because of their own lack of funds, many additional things were gradually reduced, but they found that the power of such gunpowder was actually increasing.

However, the power of this gunpowder was still not satisfactory, and it was not until one day that a young Taoist priest accidentally discovered the true formula of gunpowder, and they were surprised to find that it was possible to make explosive explosives with only saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal.

The explosives were finally manufactured, but after researching the formula, they did not present it to the Northern Qi royal family, but pretended to be low-key as if nothing happened, because they did not dare to present these explosive formulas to the Northern Qi.

At that time, it was the period when the contradictions between Hu and Han in the Northern Qi Dynasty were the most acute, and the struggle for power and profit between them could easily trap these Taoist priests, and at this time, the most respected religion in the Northern Qi Dynasty was Futu Sect, and relatively speaking, they liked the Xia Kingdom that advocated Taoism more.

Therefore, after the fall of the Northern Qi Dynasty, these Taoist priests were very calm and did not sacrifice the gunpowder weapon, otherwise if the Northern Qi had a powerful gunpowder weapon, I don't know whether the Northern Qi was destroyed by the Northern Zhou, or the Northern Zhou was defeated and destroyed.

When Emperor Wu of Zhou attacked the Northern Qi Dynasty and was ready to continue his campaign to exterminate Buddhism and Taoism in the territory of the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Taoist priests of the original Northern Qi finally couldn't calm down, although Taoism had always been inferior to the power of the Futu Sect in the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi, and the blow was relatively small.

But it is precisely because Taoism is less powerful than the Futu Sect, once it is attacked again this time, it will be many times more difficult to recover in the future than the Futu Sect, and they don't want to go on like this.

In order to escape this catastrophe, these Taoist priests finally decided to dedicate the gunpowder formula to Yuwen Yong after some discussion, which was able to escape the Northern Zhou Dynasty's act of destroying Buddha, which is why Yuwen Yong only destroyed Buddha in the territory of Northern Qi and did not destroy the Tao.

After Yu Wenyong got the explosives formula, he was first happy and then frightened, fortunately these Taoist priests did not dedicate the explosives formula to the Northern Qi, otherwise he would not only not be able to quickly defeat the Northern Qi, but he might even be defeated and killed during the attack.

After careful consideration, Yu Wenyong thought that this weapon was the most suitable for siege cities, not to mention that there were so many examples of battle given by Wang Yong and Wang Ze of Sanqi before, so he decided to start making gunpowder on a large scale.

After the start of manufacturing, Yuwenyong found a big problem, that is, there were no large number of sulfur mines and saltpeter mines available in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, especially the lack of sulfur made the cost of gunpowder made in the Northern Zhou Dynasty very high, and the main cost was that sulfur needed to be purchased from other countries in large quantities.

Saltpeter in the Northern Zhou Dynasty can also be obtained from the salt pond of Jiezhou (Yuncheng), and there are also a large number of natural alkali lakes on the grassland occupied by the Turks, which can produce a large amount of natural nitrate, and the acquisition of sulfur is much more difficult, after two years of preparation and accumulation, it is not easy to produce more than 20,000 catties of black powder.

These black powders seem to be a lot, but in fact, compared to the more than 2 million catties of gunpowder stored by the Xia Army in the East China Sea, they are not enough at all, Wang Ze relies on the rich sulfur mines in the East China Sea, and the cost of black powder produced is only less than 20% of the black powder of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Therefore, even if the Northern Zhou Dynasty has black powder, he can't squander the black powder in his hand like Wang Ze's loser, and good steel must be used on the blade.

However, in the hands of a soldier like Wei Chi Yuan, even if the amount of black powder is only a little bit, it can play a great role.

In ancient times, the morale of attacking and defending cities was the heaviest, as long as the main forces were concentrated to take down one or two major cities, then most of the other surrounding small cities would lose confidence in resistance, and Wei Chi Yuan took the method of breaking through the center and attacking Jeju City first.

When he attacked Jeju City, he secretly sent soldiers to dig tunnels under the city wall, and then blew up a gap in the city wall in one fell swoop, which caught the Xia army who was not psychologically prepared in the city by surprise.

In this defeat, the Xia army lost a total of 30,000 or 40,000 infantry troops and more than 10,000 cavalry, adding up to nearly 50,000 losses, so that the Sanqi Xia army was already wounded, and the Xia army north of the river was fighting fiercely with the Zhou army, and it was too late to support. The whole book

After defeating the resurgence of the Yan army (Zhang Wuyi army), Da Xi Chengxing led the army south to Bohai County in Cangzhou, so that the north of the river formed a situation in which Da Xi Chengxing, Yu Wenchun, and Wei Chi Boqin were attacked by 150,000 troops on three routes.

The Xia army had less than 100,000 people north of the river, among which Zhou Guang blocked Wei Chi Boqin in Pingyuan County, and Shi Haiguang under Zhou Duo and Cheng Chong blocked Yu Wenchun's way, and the two sides fought many times in Qinghe County, while Cheng Chong personally led his troops to fight with Daxi Chengxing.

Although Wang Yong was worried about the safety of Cheng Chong and others, he was also facing the approach of Wei Chi's 150,000 army at this time, because he could only helplessly wait for the arrival of reinforcements.

As early as after Wang Yong learned that the Northern Zhou had mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to attack him, he wrote a letter to Wang Ze and asked Wang Ze to send a large army to help in the war, so that he could not only defeat the Northern Zhou army but also continue to seize a large area of the Central Plains in the counteroffensive.

When Wang Ze retreated to Jinan City, it was already the first month, and in the face of successive defeats on the front line and another defeat in Jeju County, no one in Sanqi was in the mood to live this New Year well, and even the favorite braised pork in the past felt that there was no taste.

Finally waited until the eighth day of the first month, the army led by Wei Chi Hui had come to the southwest of Jinan City fifty or sixty miles away, Wang Yong was anxious at this time, at this time there were less than 100,000 troops in Jinan City, if it was approached by the Northern Zhou army, it was very likely that he could not hold the city.

In the past, only the Xia Kingdom had the existence of gunpowder, so Wang Yong has always been very calm and can hold on to the city, consume a lot of the enemy's living strength, and then attack violently to destroy the enemy, and then use gunpowder to counterattack the enemy's city.

Just when Wang Yong was anxious, a soldier suddenly said: "General, the reinforcements from the East China Sea are less than fifty miles away from our Jinan City!" ”

Wang Yong couldn't sit still anymore after hearing this, he jumped up and just wanted to yell at this time: "It's so fucking timely!" ”

Soon Wang Yong got a more detailed report, and the reinforcements sent by Wang Ze were the first, second, and third armies of the Xia Army in the East China Sea led by Jiang Chuan, Xu Ning, and Zheng Kui respectively, all of which were infantry troops, with a total of 90,000 people, which was already a very powerful force in the Central Plains.

Without waiting for the army to arrive, Wang Yong couldn't wait to come to the east of the city twenty miles to greet him, and soon saw the arrival of a large group of soldiers and horses on the avenue.

It turned out that after the three soldiers and horses landed in Jiaozhou Port, they galloped all the way along Jiaoji Avenue, all the baggage weapons were loaded on the four-wheeled carriage, all the soldiers were lightly armed, and as long as someone was not in good health, they would be pulled back on the car to rest for a while.

In this way, they hurried all the way, and they didn't even enter the city, and the road that should have been completed in ten days, they were stunned to finish it in only eight days, which also made Wang Yong feel a little surprised, and the three generals who led the troops this time were also Wang Yong's old troops and friends.

Whether it is Xu Ning or Jiang Chuan, they all grew up behind Wang Yong's ass in the past, and their relationship with Wang Yong is no worse than Wang Ze, and Zheng Kui is Wang Yong's best friend in his youth, and Wang Yong rescued Zheng Kui when he was imprisoned in the dungeon.

After Wang Yong saw everyone coming, he took the initiative to go up, and after not seeing Wang Ze, Wang Yong inevitably flashed a trace of disappointment in his eyes, but he was still enthusiastic about Zheng Kui, Xu Ning, Jiang Chuan and others.

Jiang Chuan, Xu Ning, Zheng Kui and others were busy following Wang Zedong to fight in the west for several years, and they hadn't seen Wang Yong for several years.

It wasn't until he returned to the county guard mansion that Wang Yong put on a reception banquet and asked Zheng Kui, who was sitting next to him, in a soft voice: "Brother Xian, why didn't Da Lang come in person this time?" Could it be that he had something more important? ”

In the past, when Wang Ze had just opened up the foundation of the East China Sea, Wang Yong would do his best to support him once he encountered any situation, and once Wang Yong encountered danger here, Wang Ze personally led his troops to help, which can be regarded as watching and helping each other, it can be said that Wang Yong almost gave all his family wealth to Wang Ze for Wang Ze's Xia Kingdom.

Now that Wang Ze is already the king of Xia Kingdom, when Wang Yong asked him for help again, he didn't personally lead his troops to come, how can this not make Wang Yong think more, can he not want his father when he becomes a king?

Zheng Kui was also a middle-aged man in his fifties, how could he not hear the resentment in Wang Yong's tone, but he knew the situation in the Xia Kingdom, but he had to say helplessly to Wang Yong: "Doesn't the eldest brother know that now Your Majesty is organizing a whole army to resist the all-out attack of the Turks?" ”