The high-ranking Thunderbolt Army who followed Ouyang Xuan to Diaoyu City was only Huang Dagen - there were too many affairs under his rule at the moment. He was accompanied by Li Shuang's distant nephew Li Kaipeng, who was promoted for his outstanding performance in the business process of Arrow Furnace with Boss Qian and became a middle-level manager in the Ministry of Commerce and Trade. This time, he did not accompany him on a foreign visit, but after arriving in Chongqing on the same ship, he took the opportunity to lead a team to Lin'an to inquire about the DPRK and China. Due to the extremely lagging news of the blockade of Shudi, and the fact that Yu Xing and others deliberately blocked the news from the Thunderbolt Army, the top leaders of the Thunderbolt Army did not know the current situation outside Sichuan at all.

Li Kaipeng's mission in Lin'an was twofold: First, he used business as a cover to collect intelligence and information, and took the opportunity to make good friends with the ministers of the DPRK and China. On this trip, they brought a large amount of money and property, as well as Ouyang Xuan's jacket and empty drink bottles, which were priceless treasures in the late Southern Song Dynasty; Second, if the time is ripe, they will set up trading posts on the islands off the southeast coast, collect political, military, and economic information while doing business, and even establish armed guards. Regarding the requirements for the construction of the base, Ouyang Xuan talked a lot with Li Kaipeng, not only introducing him to the location of several large islands, but also focusing on explaining to him the direction of development and other related matters. The task Li Kaipeng received was extremely difficult, and the return date was uncertain due to the long distance, so Ouyang Xuan ordered Zhu Xuanzi to equip him with twenty nimble assistants, and drew a platoon of elite guards from the armed caravan to accompany him. Of course, this manpower is far from enough to achieve a career, so Ouyang Xuan authorized him to recruit businessmen and guards.

In addition to Li Kaipeng's team, there were also several firearms technicians accompanying him this time, who would disembark at Jiading Mansion and instruct Yu Xing's craftsmen to cast cannons. In fact, some time ago, the Thunderbolt Army had sent artillery casting technicians to Jiading Mansion, but Yu Xing actually didn't want technology at all, he only wanted ready-made artillery and ammunition. In his expectation, Ouyang Xuan should bring a large number of finished firearms instead of sending a few craftsmen to perfunctory him. In particular, I heard that in order to forge artillery, it was necessary to rebuild iron-making furnaces and tools, and the quality of iron and carbon required was extremely high, which was a lot of money. In fact, iron and money were needed to forge artillery and make ammunition, but it was not too difficult for the financial resources of Jiading Province. You must know that in the Song army in Sichuan, the wealth of Jiading Mansion is second only to Chongqing Mansion. It's just that Jiading Mansion has long been regarded as private by Yu Xing, and he is a miser, and he is willing to spend money there. Therefore, the quality control of the cannon cast by the Thunderbolt Army has become a dead letter when it arrives in Jiading Mansion.

According to Yu Xing's requirements, the casting cannons in Jiading Mansion are provincial, everything is simple, and the tools and raw materials of the blacksmith shop in the army are used as much as possible. What's even worse is that Yu Xing regarded the cannon casting craftsmen as slaves as lowly, which formed a strong contrast with the Thunderbolt Army's great respect for technical talents, and the craftsmen naturally refused to work hard. Therefore, although 20 guns were made, the quality was extremely worrisome, not only the inner wall of the gun chamber was uneven, but even uneven thickness, and this kind of cannon needed to be recast in the Thunderbolt Army. In fact, the technicians sent by the Thunderbolt Army also suggested this many times, but Yu Xing listened to it. The money spent on casting these cannons has made him extremely painful, and he wants to scrap and recast? No way!

Yu Xing forcibly loaded the cannon into the army despite the dissuasion, but unexpectedly the first test of the cannon blew up, and several people were killed and wounded, which made him very annoyed. On the one hand, he wrote a letter to reprimand Ouyang Xuan for his ineffective handling and demanded that he compensate for the losses of Jiading Mansion; On the other hand, he ordered the Thunderbolt Army to bring in finished artillery to atone for his crimes. Ouyang Xuan prevaricated because there were no finished artillery, and the cargo fleet could not pass through Pengshan City, which was occupied by the Mongol army. Yu Xing was extremely unhappy but helpless, so he had to ask for a re-sent of skilled craftsmen. In his opinion, the reason why the artillery exploded was not the reason for Jiading, but the poor level of craftsmen sent by the Thunderbolt Army.

The escort was an elite company of a naval brigade, which was equipped with two light gunboats and four escort boats, in addition to auxiliary vessels such as sentinel ships and transport ships. According to the meaning of Li Shuang Lude and others, Ouyang Xuan should not risk his life at all. In their view, the battle of the Mahu River proved that the Mongol navy was no longer what it used to be, and it was really dangerous to follow Niu Ling along the river to Chongqing. It's just that Ouyang Xuan has made up his mind, and they have to explain Huang Dagen's selection of ships and personnel, in short, the ship must be good and new, and the personnel can not only be at the helm and operate the cannon, but also be able to fight in close combat and jump gangs. In addition, they asked Dong Hu to send the most elite platoon from the special battalion to accompany him, asking for close protection for Ouyang Xuan. Although Ouyang Xuan was very busy, he never relaxed his training, and even often trained with soldiers, whether it was long-distance marching, survival training or fighting, he was no worse than special forces, and he was especially familiar with water. It's just that Li Shuang and Lu Dezhi, as veterans, know best how important Ouyang Xuan is to the Thunderbolt Army, and in their opinion, any protective measures are not exaggerated.

When passing through Pengshan, the sailors of the Mongolian army in the city did not dare to act at all, and they did not even have the intention of moving, but they were still bombarded by the gunboats commanded by Liao Loach, who accompanied the escort. In order to ensure the smooth passage of Ouyang Xuan's fleet through Pengshan, Liao Loach dispatched all the gunboats in Xinjin City this time, including ten powerful heavy artillery ships. With this artillery, he not only sank most of the ships in the Pengshan City Water Village, but also re-blocked the inlet and outlet channels that the Mongolian army had managed to dredge, and the wharf, ship repair yard, water village fence and other facilities were also bombarded. It seems that there are not a few months left, and the water army in Pengshan City is not slowing down.

When the ship arrived at Jiading Mansion, Ouyang Xuan ordered a escort ship to wait, while Li Kaipeng took the rest of the ships straight downstream, and he went to visit Yu Xing, who pretended to be Huang Dagen's entourage. Huang Dagen has come many times as an envoy of the Thunderbolt Army, and Yu Xing has accepted the property he brought many times, so he naturally recognizes it. Although Yu Xing knew that the person in charge of the Thunderbolt Army was Ouyang Xuan and the commander of Yongkang County, he had not seen him. In the days before, Yu Xing had written many times to ask Ouyang Xuan to come to Jiading to report on his work, but Ouyang Xuan prevaricated with the urgency of the war. It only takes two or three days for Chongqing Mansion to descend from the river to Jiading Mansion, but the high-level leaders of the Thunderbolt Army strongly oppose Ouyang Xuan's going, mainly because they are afraid that Yu will rise up evil intentions and take the opportunity to detain or harm Ouyang Xuan, and then annex the Thunderbolt Army.

It is not uncommon to use Hongmen banquets to seize the power of subordinates in troubled times, and Wang Kui, the prefect of Jiading before Yu Xing, was booby-trapped by Yu Jue. This Wang Kui was strong and brutal, cruelly abusing the people to loot money, and the people of Shu complained about it, calling him "Wang Yasha". After Yu Jue entered Sichuan, Wang Kui never took Yu Kui in his eyes and did not listen to moderation at all, and later Yu Kui killed Wang Kui in the name of summoning his deliberations. After Wang Kui's death, Yu Xing took over as the prefect of Jiading, and he later did the same, killing several state and county officials who did not listen to the dispatch. It's just that the people killed by Yu Jue were all brutal military leaders, and Yu Xing killed people only to annex territory and be greedy for money. This is also the reason why Ouyang Xuan asked the rest of the ships to wait downstream, the artillery on these ships and the property carried by Li Kaipeng are worth a lot of money, and more importantly, there are also two heavy fortress guns and supporting ammunition for Diaoyu City on the accompanying transport ship, if Yu Xing finds out, where will it be spared?

According to Su San'er, who has become the leader of Yu Xing's personal army, Yu Xing often instructed his subordinates to arbitrarily confiscate and detain the property of past business travelers in the name of "tax inspection". This Su San'er was captured by the Mongols in the Battle of Chengdu, but was fortunately rescued by the Thunderbolt Army scouts. After he returned to Jiading Mansion with Yu Xing, he was selected into Yu Xing's personal army because of his strong combat strength. After the Perak army occupied Xinjin City, Dong Hu set up an intelligence network in the direction of Meizhou and Jiadingfu. On the one hand, Su San'er was grateful for the life-saving grace of the Thunderbolt Army, and on the other hand, he also hated the greed of Yu Xing's father and son, so when Cheng She, the commander of the internal guard battalion who rescued him, came to him, he became an intelligence officer of the Thunderbolt Army without thinking. Now there are more than 40 people in the intelligence network under his command, covering various groups in Jiading Prefecture and Meizhou.