Huohuan cloth is what we now call asbestos cloth, which was a famous luxury before the Song Dynasty.

At the earliest, the fire and silk cloth were all tributes, and tributes from foreign countries would only reach the Central Plains.

In the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a joke about fighting for wealth, the emperor got the Huohuan cloth, deliberately wore the clothes made of Huohuan cloth, and went to the house of Shi Chong, the richest man at the time, to show off, he thought that only tribute was available, Shi Chong must be surprised.

Unexpectedly, after Shi Chong found out, he asked fifty servants in the family to greet him in clothes made of Huohuan cloth, which immediately made the emperor very depressed.

Shi Chong of the Western Jin Dynasty likes to fight with others to show off his wealth, and there are many historical stories about him, but this is a bit awesome, which shocked the emperor.

By the time of the Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty carried out trade with Arab countries, and exchanged for some fire raccoon cloth during the Song Dynasty, which caused a lot of turmoil after these fireproof fire cloth arrived in the Song Dynasty, which was a hundred times more precious than gold.

Because they didn't have much knowledge at the time, they were quite shocked when they saw a cloth that could prevent fire.

So the Song Dynasty began to pay attention to the origin and development of Huohuan cloth, and in the Song Huizong period, craftsmen finally discovered that Huohuan cloth was not woven from the legendary animal hair, and the raw material was just a mineral.

After that, the Song Dynasty began to arrange for artisans to mine, mass-produce Huohuan cloth, and make daily necessities such as towels, bedding, and dresses. At this time, the price of Huohuan cloth also plummeted.

Although Huohuan cloth can be produced, it is subject to mining and use, and the price is not something that ordinary people can consume, it is too stiff to make clothes, uncomfortable to wear, and the same is true for others, so it is still not very useful, and the price is not low.

In fact, the most suitable place for this fire cloth is in the military.

However, in ancient Chinese history, there are few historical records of the use of fire cloth in wars, and Zhu Gaoxu should have been the first to think of large-scale use.

A few days later, at the beginning of December, Zhu Gaoxu returned to the city of Beiping with this Tusi army and horses.

At this time, Beiping City had been attacked by the official army for about ten consecutive days, and the city wall was in ruins everywhere, and the official army was also exhausted.

The weather was getting colder and colder, and Zhu Gaoxu wanted to end the battle as soon as possible.

The location where Zhu Gaoxu came was a wall east of Beiping, where no trebuchet had thrown stones in the past few days.

Because after throwing stones, there will be stones left on the city wall, and the strong rebels can still pick them up and throw them down, which is equivalent to helping them provide ammunition.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu's trebuchet threw a small amount of fire oil bombs and fewer boulders in the past few days, mainly to confuse the defenders of Beiping.

A section of the 300-step city wall here has not been stoned, and it is also the direction he chose to attack.

On the morning of the same day, Zhu Gaoxu ordered the whole army to attack the city, the momentum was huge, the head of the city was well defended, and the bloody battle was desperate, but it still failed to reach the wall.

The people Zhu Di brought back to Beijing were all veterans of Jingnan, the elite of the Northern Army, and all of them were his own henchmen back then, and they were very hardworking.

In addition, when Zhu Gaoxu attacked the city before, there were many arrows, and the secrets of the trebuchet were all mastered by them, so all kinds of precautions were done quite well.

The officers and troops attacked with great fanfare for a day, and by about five or six o'clock in the afternoon, they were already showing fatigue, and at this time in the past, the officers and troops would attack again, and then rest and cease fighting, and come back tomorrow.

Zhu Di's henchman Wang Cong, who was stationed here, was signaling around the city at this time: "Defend one more wave, and the rebels will retreat after another wave." ”

The surrounding sergeants were also noncommittal, seeing that it was getting late, and the people under the city would soon retreat, right?

Zhu Gaoxu lined up behind him, forty teams of people, of which twenty teams were Tusi soldiers who really attacked the city, and everyone was ready to fight.

"Prepare to throw fire bombs, throw two waves, and the second wave will be when the ladder is about to arrive."

"Whoa."

With Zhu Gaoxu's order.

After a while, bang one by one the weight boxes fell hard.

The few remaining oil bombs whizzed towards the city.

Because the weight and distance of the siege in the previous days have been determined, the error will not be very large.

Bang, some of the fire oil bombs will hit the outer walls, and some will be thrown on the city walls.

Wang Cong's side was also prepared, and hurriedly waved his hand, a large group of rebels rushed over with sand and soil on their backs, pouring it to the place where the oil was splashed, and the other group of rebels carried a basin of water to scatter around.

"Rush." The shouts of killing under the city rushed to the sky, and Zhu Gaoxu rushed forward with forty teams of men and horses, each team of 100 people, carrying the ladder.

At this time, the sky was dark, and the sight was not as good as the day, and the people at the head of the city looked at the Tusi soldiers who were sandwiched in the ordinary Ming army, although they were a little different, and they didn't care.

Only Wang Cong took a few more looks, and felt that this wave of Ming Army was a little different from Cong.

"Be careful, everyone, the people down there seem to be a little weird."

As soon as he finished speaking, a third oil bomb came up, and then under the city, swish, and rockets shot at the head of the city.

The head of the city was in a panic again, that is, it was necessary to face the people who would attack the city in the future, and it was necessary to extinguish the fire first.

But they have experience, and it will take a while for the besiegers to climb up, and it is important to extinguish the fire first.

There were also people at the head of the city who shot arrows and threw things below, and from time to time some officers and soldiers would fall to the ground.

Horn, the Tusi soldiers carried the ladder to the corner of the city, and then took the ladder to the battlement.

Their ladders are also specially made, the wood is so heavy that it cannot be easily pushed away, and the exterior is covered with a layer of fire cloth.

As soon as the ladder was pressed against the wall, a toast soldier was already flying up like a monkey.

Someone below stood on either side of the ladder and kept shouting, "Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry—"

The successor Tusi soldiers continued to climb up one after another, not daring to hesitate and pause.

"The rebels are coming." Someone in the city began to scream.

Then their heads were revealed, and someone raised their bow and shot it downward.

Pounce, pounce, from time to time there are toast soldiers hit arrows. But they were wearing double armor and there was a fire cloth outside, so they didn't have anything to do at all.

Asbestos cloth is not only fireproof, but also resistant to knives and arrows.

Zhu Gaoxu entered Beijing in September, and only with the strength of the Beijing division did he transform about 2,000 sets.

This is still on the premise of using the armor to transform the iron armor, which is relatively fast.

The rebels at the head of the city were stunned to see the Tusi soldiers climbing up as if they were invulnerable, and after many arrows were shot, they fell off directly and fell to the ground.

"Look at it, go on." Some of the generals shouted frantically.

A soldier ran to the ladder with a basin of hot oil, and poured it down.

By this time, the toast soldier had climbed to less than two meters away from him.

This basin of hot oil was poured on the head of the toast soldier, and then spread to the whole body of the toast soldier.

Tusi Bing lowered his head and closed his eyes, desperately climbing up.

There was almost no reaction from top to bottom.

"Mother's." The Ming army was stunned.

"Come up, come up, get out of the way." Another general shouted.

A sergeant rushed out of the side, throwing a large stone in his hand, raising it violently and roaring wildly.

"Roll"

When the toast soldier heard the voice, he looked up and looked at it, and quickly leaned his body up the ladder and raised his shield sideways.

Boom, the boulder landed on the left shield of the first Tusi soldier.

His whole body trembled and he almost fell, but fortunately he was prepared and tried his best to lie on the ladder, so that he felt a huge pain in his left arm.

But he didn't snort and climbed up frantically.

His Majesty said that the first one to go to the city will be rewarded with 10,000 taels of silver, two beautiful concubines, a mansion in Beijing, and an official promotion to the third level.

"Kill." The Tusi soldiers didn't want to go back to the mountains of Yunnan, so they roared hard, and continued to climb up in the eyes of the Ming army at the head of the city.

In the blink of an eye, he stood on the battlement of the city wall.

Whoosh, he pulled out his axe from his shield and shook his hand.

On the other side, a Ming army with a spear just wanted to rush up, but he felt a sharp pain on his face.

Plopped, the native soldier jumped off the wall and drew his short sword behind him.

"Kill." Several Ming soldiers rushed up, and several spears stabbed at him.

His shield and sword blocked left and right, but it was still useless, pounced, and was stabbed twice in the chest.

But the other party didn't poke it in.

In fact, just with the quality of the current Huohuan cloth, it can still be raged if you poke it hard.

But the point is that he is wearing two layers of armor, which is a bit disgusting.

"Ahh

The Ming army turned around and shot, the Tusi soldier blocked with his shield, bullied forward, and stabbed him in the chest with a sword.

Pounced, he was hit by two arrows in the back at this time, his body shook, and he felt that this time he was shot at close range, as if it had broken his fire cloth and double armor, which had already injured him, but the injury was not serious, and he turned around.

When, another arrow was shot at his head from the opposite side, but it was blocked by the helmet.

The Ming army at the head of the city was frightened, it was a humanoid machine, and it was invulnerable.

At this moment, the second toast followed up the wall, and this man still had a blow arrow in his mouth, and just appeared, pounced, and blew hard.

Ah, there are people on the back who are covering their faces in the county.

Phew, he spit out his blow arrow, drew his sword and jumped down, standing side by side with those who came up in front of him, guarding the battlement.

Zhu Gaoxu's wave of strange soldiers has a very good effect.

He first attacked the defenders with ordinary soldiers and horses for a day, and then attacked in a wave when it was dark, before the troops were about to be closed.

The attackers used fire oil bombs to disrupt the city's defenses.

Within these 300 steps, 40 teams of men and horses, not only these Tusi soldiers attacked, but also ordinary officers and soldiers went up to the wall one after another.

Of course, some officers and soldiers were still beheaded or thrown down after they went up, but it was not easy to get these Tusi soldiers who were armed to the teeth.

At this time, Wang Cong also found that something was wrong, behind this wave of siege soldiers and horses, a large number of officers and troops were gathered, and it was obvious that the official army was going to attack the section he was defending.

Wang Cong looked up at the sky, the sky was already very dark, and the official army launched a general attack at this time, which was really incredible.

"It's not good, the rebels are going to storm our side, ask for reinforcements." He hurriedly ordered his subordinates to transfer troops elsewhere.

It also caused the reserves under the city to rush upward.

Just a moment after he dispatched his troops, a large number of Tusi soldiers appeared at the head of the city.

"Quick, quick, quick." At this time, a toast soldier bent down at the battlement, shouting at the bottom.

The people below are carrying a large bamboo frame on their backs, struggling to climb up.

This thing is really not carried by the Ming army, but the Tusi soldiers often carry this thing in their hometown, and they are more proficient.

The things in the bamboo frame should be relatively heavy, and it took a lot of effort to go up to the city.

At this time, whew, a sudden flame rose to the sky in front.

It turned out that the defenders poured fire oil on the Tusi soldiers and shot arrows.

There was no fire cloth on the helmet of the toast soldier, and it was immediately ignited.

This goods is also brave, as if it can't feel the fire, and suddenly rushes up, and the Ming army on the opposite side has avoided it, for fear of being burned.

Suddenly, two arrows came at him in the calf.

"Ahh

The opponent uses a crossbow at close range, which is very powerful, and the weak point of the toast soldier's defense is on the leg.

Several Ming soldiers rushed up, some kicked away his sword, some stepped on his shield, and one of them picked up his spear, pounced, and stabbed it through the eye of his helmet, and then killed the Tusi soldier.

At this time, a large number of defenders gathered in the city and beyond.

There were less than twenty Tusi soldiers here, and they were pulling out in two teams, trying to increase the defense area.

"Shoot them in the legs, shoot them in the legs." At this time, a general pointed at the toast soldiers and shouted, knowing that this was the weakness of the toast soldiers.

But at this moment, a strange sound suddenly sounded on the opposite side.

I saw a toast soldier holding a cylindrical thing that was lit on fire and rolling to the ground.

Whoosh, and the thing rolls over.

"Get down." In the frantic shouting of a toast soldier, the toast soldiers on the wall fell to the ground in unison.

The defenders were unaware.

"Boom" The next moment there was a loud sound, earth-shattering.

In an uproar, the head of the city was like being blown by the wind, and the Ming army fell in an instant like rice that was poured down by the wind.

Boom, dozens of steps away from here, there was also an earth-shattering loud noise.

After the huge explosion, the Ming army at the head of the city suffered a large number of casualties, and screamed again and again.

More toast soldiers took advantage of the situation and rushed upward.

The guard Wang Cong was a little far away from the explosion, but he was also shocked by the aftermath of the explosion and almost fell to the ground.

When he stood firm, he found that there was a large empty area in front of him, which had been full of defenders.

Then, from the battlements, one by one, the officers and soldiers climbed the city wall.

And outside the city, the tide of officials and soldiers shouted and killed the sky, and everyone knew that the officers and soldiers here were on the wall, and the city was about to be destroyed.

"I'm afraid I can't hold it?" Wang Cong thought desperately in his heart.

(End of chapter)