One hundred and ninety-five chapters

With the roar of artillery, hundreds of projectiles sprayed into the battlements of the ghost town. The fireproof mud layer on the outside blew up a puff of smoke and dust, and large swaths of mud fell, exposing the wooden planks behind. Sawdust and blood splattered, and a terrible howl erupted from the head of the ghost wall.

With the roar of artillery, hundreds of projectiles were sprayed at the cattle dragging the ghost town. Screams erupted, and the oxen killed by the iron pellet fell to the ground, while the injured jumped wildly in an attempt to break free from the thick rope that bound them, and then let out a final whimper in the next round of bullet rain...... All struggles are in vain, and their fate is already doomed, even for people and animals.

This is a Lu bus, but it is just that Yu Chongming has built it unprecedentedly huge. In his opinion, with the protection of the ancestral gods, this giant can completely destroy the will of the defenders as soon as it appears, as long as it can reach the city wall, dozens of shielding baffles are lowered at the same time, and thousands of warriors can continuously rush to the top of the Chengdu wall through the ladders behind, breaking the city in one fell swoop!

At the beginning, as expected, the largest siege vehicle in history did bring despair to the Chengdu defenders. However, Yu Chongming made a mistake, a fatal mistake - he ignored the existence of one person: Sun Jie!

A small flaw, a sharp arrow, completely turned the tide of the battle.

Today's offensive has been declared a complete failure: after two or three rounds of artillery bombardment, the dragged herd of cattle is dead and wounded, the siege vehicle is still more than ten feet away from the wall, and can no longer move forward - this distance, the artillery loaded with hundreds of iron and stone projectiles is the life harvester, every rain of bullets will take away a dozen or even dozens of lives, because it is too huge, the body of the car has blocked most of the passage that has been painstakingly filled at such a great price, and more than 20,000 Yi soldiers are blocked behind, and if you want to approach the city wall, you can only pass through the narrow gaps on both sides, The archers of the defenders on the wall had already aimed at this area, but in the time of the two pillars of incense, the corpses of the warriors who went forward and followed them were stacked on top of each other, and the warriors behind were still struggling to climb up, and then became part of it...... Besides, what about rushing over? I just wanted to go up to the city through the gangplank on the top of the siege engine, no one brought a ladder, and I was blindly beaten when I got under the wall. The roof of the siege vehicle was under constant shelling. Everyone in the Yi soldiers knew how to shoot arrows, and Yu Chongming selected more than 500 of the best archers to lie in ambush there, and all indications showed that most of them had died at this moment, and the other 500 brothers hiding in their stomachs were also in danger......

"Retreat, retreat!" Yu Chongming shouted hoarsely.

It's easy to say, but hard to do. Even if the road is smooth, the passage is sixty or seventy zhang wide, and twenty or thirty thousand people are too crowded, not to mention such a large wooden castle blocked there. It was planned that the large army would rush up from the ladder behind the car and then jump onto the city, but at this moment there were tens of thousands of people crowded behind the car, advancing and retreating, and the crowd who were at a loss in the panic was completely dead, only the people scattered on the wings and behind heard the sound of bamboo sticks and began to run back, and the situation had slipped out of control......

The extravagant guards rushed forward, shouting orders to retreat, while the defenders on the wall vented their fears and shame that almost crushed them with more vigorous firing. The so-called battle has become a one-sided slaughter, and the suppressive firepower of Yu Chongming is that the hundreds of archers on the Lu bus have been killed and injured under the bombardment of the shotgun at this moment, and every gun is spitting projectiles at full speed, and the small projectiles are replaced by large iron balls when they are exhausted, and under the continuous bombardment, many places of the car body have been smashed to pieces, and the blood splashed in the middle can be seen every time they fire, and the gunners are in a state of excitement, and every time they fire a shot, they will curse viciously for a few words, and then they will clear and reload like crazy... … A few bed crossbows refused to show weakness, such a distance did not need to aim, as long as the winding, the huge iron spear roared out of the air, hitting the crack near the body of the car will once again hit the thick planks and burst out, taking away several lives hidden behind, more broke through the wall, leaving a half-straight stunned insertion on the car, causing the invincible archers on the wall to burst into bursts of cheers......

"Command, stop shooting! Stop shooting now! Sun Jie was also yelling and giving orders. There were a few tiger squat cannons in Sun Jie's army, but they all stayed with Shen Gang, and the cannons on the wall and the gunners who operated the cannons were all from Chengdu Zhongwei. What he never expected was that these gunners would be so crazy! According to the military regulations of the Sun family, even if it is a small tiger squat cannon, the first three rounds of firing, each time it is fired, it must be cooled down with a wet cloth, if it is necessary to continue shooting, and then after each cast, it must be cooled with clean water and clean the pipe wall; The walls of Chengdu are all three feet five inches long, weighing 400 pounds of cannons, up to now, each cannon has been bombarded five or six rounds, the gunners still covered the cannon body with wet linen and continued to load! You can understand with your toes that this is just a little lower than the outside temperature of the thick iron wall, and the temperature inside the barrel will be frighteningly high, and the medicine is likely to explode suddenly - this is common sense! Doesn't anyone know?

At the same time as shouting the order, Sun Jie noticed in horror that a cannon under his feet had just been stuffed into the medicine bag, and an ominous wisp of yellow smoke came out of the muzzle...... Ignoring any etiquette, Sun Jie pushed Zhu Xieyuan, who was standing beside him, back and shouted, "Be careful, adults!" ”

"Boom"!

The cannon really blew up. A large piece of broken iron burst out in all directions, and the surrounding sergeants were shocked to lie down, and the miserable howl suddenly sounded, and when the people in the distance got up in a daze, there was already a mess within two or three feet nearby. Because Sun Jie ordered the artillery to be spaced three feet apart earlier, this explosion, the three surrounding artillery crews were killed and most of the archers were injured, and a large piece of broken iron was embedded in a cannon barrel next to it, which was obviously scrapped.

Zhu Xieyuan was pushed on his back by Sun Jie and fell, but fortunately, Sheng Degongli made a meat pad behind him, except for the official hat that fell off and looked a little embarrassed, it was not a big deal.

This loud bang was far more effective than Sun Jie's order, and the remaining cannons all stopped. The gunners finally woke up from their frenzy, and only then did they notice that the inner walls of the barrels of the guns had faintly glowed red. Sun Jie, who fell on Zhu Xieyuan, had just dragged the latter up, and the scene in front of him surprised him again: the surviving members of the artillery crew were all carrying large buckets of water and were about to splash it on the cannon body!

"No!"

Sun Jie roared angrily, but it was still too late.

There was a violent evaporation sound of "bang, bang", and everyone on the city tower clearly heard a few crackling sounds of "pop, pop" - needless to ask, some of the cannon barrels cracked. Sun Jie turned to Lao Shun angrily: "General Lao, have these gunners ever fired before?" ”

"Go back, go back to Sun Shuai. I've fought, I've beaten them all...... Still, well, only once or twice. Once a year, the lowly Chengdu Zhongwei was ordered, just, just a cannon and a live ammunition, and the other ...... It's all just a charge, listen to it, and make a ...... for a trumpet cannon," Lao Shun was already half stupid and stammered.

"The walls of the iron cannon are much thicker than the copper cannon tube, and a damp cloth is applied to the front, and after two or three cannons, it must be completely cooled down with water every time it is fired. If five or six cannons have been fired in a row, they must not use this method, but can only wait for it to cool down slowly, 'it must be re-checked whether it is hot and cold', 'the fire is forced to heat copper and iron, or it is suddenly cold and hot, it is difficult to ensure that it does not dry and scorching and explode', do they not know such common sense? Sun Jie asked.

"Back to Sun Shuai, don't say they don't know, it's the first time I've heard of it." Lao Shun hung his head and replied in a low voice.

"Well, that's it. The two armies fought, and casualties were inevitable, and General Lao did not have to blame himself too much. However, in the future, we should learn from this and train the soldiers diligently. Please General Lao go down and take a look, there are still a few that can be used, and then rearrange the artillery group. By the way, the bed crossbow is also counted. As he spoke, he looked up at the Lu bus not far away, where the protective layer of the soil was already scattered, and added, "Just find some powerful Ding Zhuang to throw oil tanks, and then shoot some rockets over, everyone can rest for a while." ”

"Order!" can be regarded as a chance to escape, Lao Shun hugged his fists and ran away.

"Guodong handled it very well, the old man was afraid that you would overdo it, and he wanted to say something to stop you. Well, you are so young, not only have a skill, but it is commendable that you know the weight, very good, very good. Zhu Xieyuan put on his official hat again, looked at Lao Shun's back and disappeared on the stairs of the gatehouse, and praised softly.

"Your Excellency praised it." Sun Jie's face flushed, and then he asked with concern, "Didn't the adult fall anywhere?" ”

"It's okay, it's okay, isn't there him on the line?" Zhu Xieyuan smiled and stretched out his hand to point at Sheng Degong, "You weren't crushed by the old man, right?" ”

Sheng Degong was taken aback, and hurriedly replied: "No, no! There are three or five more adults and villains who can stand it. ”

"Nonsense, shut up!" Sun Jie feigned anger and said, "Don't blame me, this guy is a rough man." ”

"Hahahaha, you saved the old man's life, how can the old man blame you?" Zhu Xieyuan laughed, "Guodong, in your opinion, we have won so many games in a row, so the extravagant thief should also be exhausted, right?" ”

Sun Jie looked back at the outside of the city, after the chaos on the wall, the Yi soldiers of Extravagant Chongming got a rare respite, and at this moment he could see a large number of thieves retreating, and there were not many figures in front of him. Sun Jie was about to speak, when he suddenly found that another group of two or three hundred Yi soldiers was running towards the wreckage of Lu's bus with something, running seven or eight zhang away, throwing the jars and jars in his arms, smashing them into the body, and the flames jumped up suddenly......

"My lord, there will be a fierce battle ahead. In these battles, we only hurt the luxury thief, and five or six thousand kills and injuries are only a little bit of a skin injury for hundreds of thousands of thieves, and he will not rest if he doesn't break the luxury thief's arm and hurt to the bones. Sun Jie replied in a deep voice.

"Oh? What are the thieves doing? Zhu Xieyuan asked, pointing to the new group of Yi soldiers.

"My lord, they're throwing gas cans into the car, too."

"Why is that?" Zhu Xieyuan was a little puzzled.

"The extravagant thief must have other killing tricks. The broken car was too big and blocked the road, and the thieves wanted to clear the passage as soon as possible. Sun Jie's tone was a little solemn.

"Report ......" Lao Shun panted and climbed the stairs, and hurriedly hugged his fists at Zhu and Sun with a panicked face, "Boss, Sun Shuai, I have just seen it, we have a total of seven cannons, only one of them was blown up, one was damaged, and three of the cannons were cracked...... Now we only have two cannons available......" The more he spoke, the quieter his voice became, and at the end he peeked at the two of them quickly, and swallowed something behind.

"What else, General Lao, but it doesn't hurt to talk about it." Sun Jie keenly captured Lao Shun's unnatural expression, and "chuckled" in his heart, but did not show it on his face.

"Fang Cai, Fang Cai's sons are fighting...... There are only a dozen or so of bed crossbows and bed crossbows left...... "Lao Shun muttered.

Zhu Xieyuan was shocked when he heard the news, and hurriedly said: "Go to the arsenal and see if there is anything left!" ”

"Back to the boss, I have sent someone to see it, and they are all here." Lao Shun's voice is as thin as a gnat (pronounced "sharp").

"Speaking of the arsenal, the old man suddenly remembered that when the extravagant thieves came, the old man had seen the account books of the arsenal, and there were a few small cannons in the Hongwu period, Guodong, can you use it?" Zhu Xieyuan looked at Sun Jie as if he was in a hurry to go to the doctor.

"Go back, go back to the boss, those cannons are useless." Lao Shun's head was lowered as if it was about to be buried in his chest.

"Why can't you use it?" Sun Jie was silent, and Zhu Xieyuan couldn't help but ask.

"Back to the old man, during the Wanli period, the lord of the court proposed to 'abolish the Si Jian Mansion *', and wanted to abolish the Sichuan Metropolitan Mansion, although it was not done later, but it is true that the military salaries of several guards in Chengdu have not been paid for several years. The sons and daughters almost made a fuss, and as a last resort, the commanders of the guards tried to find a way to talk about the arsenal, not only the central guard, but also the bronze cannons in several other places were turned into coins and sent down...... All these things are known to the government, and they did not happen in the lowly office, but the lowly office did know it. Lao Shun's answer was both ashamed and helpless.

"Huh? Turned the concoction into money! Zhu Xieyuan obviously heard for the first time that he had stolen the copper cannon from the arsenal and turned it into copper money, and he was stunned for a while.

"My lord, this matter is a long story, and there is no rush to deal with it, it is important to find a way to deal with the luxury thief first." The Sun family has been the role of the captain of the Ming Dynasty fire brigade for generations, and he knows all kinds of tricks of the military leaders of the guards, so the first thing he did when he entered the city was to send someone to check the artillery that could be used. It is also an indisputable fact that those comrades have been wantonly withheld from their salaries, so it is natural to sympathize with them out of understanding. As he spoke, he secretly thought in his heart that he would excuse Lao Shun later.

"Humph!" Hearing Sun Jie's liberation, Zhu Xieyuan, who had nothing to do, snorted heavily.

"General Lao, there are still enough arrows in the arsenal, right?" Sun Jie hurriedly diverted the topic - he went to the arsenal to see it himself, and Yu Arrow did have a lot of reserves.

"Back to Sun Shuai, there are a lot of arrows, and there are plenty of them." Lao Shun replied and cast a grateful glance at Sun Jie.

"That's fine. General Lao Lao organized some brothers, moved more and more, and then went to the granary and official warehouse, and carried all the grain buckets to the city. ”

"Sun Shuai wants it!" Lao Shun happily put his hands together with his big fingers, "Bed crossbow shoots bucket arrows!" ”

Sun Jie smiled: "Exactly." Also, concentrate all the iron spears on these two bed crossbows," he said, pointing to the two bed crossbows near the city gate, "to deal with the collision of the extravagant thieves." ”

"The last will obey." Lao Shun ran away relieved.

"Your Excellency." After Lao Shun left, Sun Jie whispered to Zhu Xieyuan. The latter waved his hand: "Guo Dong doesn't need to say much, the old man knows." This didn't happen to him in office, even if it was, what could the old man do? If the imperial court raises soldiers, they have to pay food and wages, and if they don't give money, will they all starve to death? Don't worry, the old man won't be embarrassed for him. Alas. ”

"My lord." Sun Jie answered in a whisper.

"You said you could break the luxury thief in a few days?" Zhu Xieyuan suddenly remembered what Sun Jie had said two days ago.

"Yes, sir. Three or four days at most. However, we still need another win......"

"Oh? What do you mean by Gordon? ”

"Adults are ......"

* The Ming Dynasty has always used civil power to control military affairs, but the situation in Sichuan is slightly different compared to other places, and the power of military attaches is greater than in other places. This is due to the unique geographical environment - Shu Road is difficult, and it borders Zhufan, and the large and small tribes are intertwined.

When the Hongwu period first began to pacify Sichuan (not today's Sichuan administrative region, which is much larger), the local grain production was not enough to maintain a huge force, and the consumption of long-distance transportation was too large, so it was stipulated in the Hongwu and Yongle years that the local "Duoding" families should be "divided into Chengdu and other Fuzhou counties", and "the land is farmed and the grain is paid, and the people are not only the people's errands, but also the military service". In other words, those who have many men in other places have to move some of them to the vicinity of Chengdu, and these laborers have to be "people" who pay food for the government, and they have to obey the orders of the military commander, or serve as military envoys, or serve as auxiliaries. This has buried the hidden danger of contradictions between civil and military. At the beginning of the civil rule, when the system had not yet been formed, and there were people who were engaged in chaos and looting, the civilian officials naturally did not say anything, but after a long period of peace, their own governance was plainly intervened by the military head, and their reaction can be imagined.

Of course, the commanders of the guard station are not innocent white swans, and they have not done anything less than forcing the people to withhold military salaries and colluding with people to rob merchants or something, so the civil officials thought, instead of doing this, it is better to find a way to abolish all these Qiu Ba, our own money, our own people, it is enough to organize and subdue those people, why bother to share your piece of the pie? So began to toss. The chickens and ducks of the imperial court were distressed, and when dealing with local unstable incidents, "the army kills them, and the crime is to kill them without permission; If you kill an army, you will be guilty of playing with Kou and lose the opportunity" - if you kill a robber, you will say that you have aroused national contradictions, and they will kill you, that is, you will raise tigers by yourself, and you will suffer yourself, in short, you deserve it......

But after tossing for a long time, in the end it was still not a child's play - it is not child's play to abolish the Sichuan Metropolitan Mansion, and the border passes rely heavily on the militia from all over the country, and Wanli can't do this no matter how bastard he is, let alone ...... It costs a lot of money to cut troops! As we all know, this master didn't think of asking you for money for a while, it was your auspicious star, looking for him for money? What do you think!

However, through this dispute, it is logical for the civilian clique to deduct money and grain from their hands.