In late August of the fourth year of Qingli, the 100,000 troops of the Western Xia Ti raided Qingtang.

Their vanguard also carried more than a dozen artillery pieces.

In the first year of Kangding, the artillery of the Song army appeared on the Song-Liao battlefield for the first time and shined.

After that, the Song Liao and Song Xia signed treaties one after another, and both the Liao and Western Xia began to spare no effort to get artillery and grenades.

Grenades are okay, whether it was a dud left on the battlefield in the first year of Kangding, or a later secretly purchased from the Song military, Liaoxia and Xia were able to get a lot.

But not artillery.

Because from the end of the war in the first year of Kangding to the two years before the second year of Qingli, the total number of artillery pieces in the Great Song Dynasty was only more than 200.

And they are all bronze cannons, each of which is expensive, and is only supplied to special elite troops, which are strictly controlled and almost impossible to sell secretly.

The turning point of things began in the second year of Qingli, when Zhao Jun built an iron and steel plant to make steel with converters, which greatly increased steel production. After the steel is applied, the cannon is manufactured in a blowout style.

In the second half of that year alone, the Great Song Dynasty built more than 400 steel cannons.

By the beginning of the fourth year of Qingli, almost the entire city on the border of Hebei Road and Shaanxi Road was filled with cannons, scaring people to death.

With such a large-scale manufacture of artillery, there are naturally loopholes to be exploited. At that time, Zhao Jun did not reorganize the army, so there were not a few cases of selling ordnance privately.

The Liao State and the Western Xia State got a lot of artillery from the Great Song Dynasty military at that time, but because they couldn't make steel, they could only make wrought iron cannons.

Fortunately, Liao has imitated black powder, grenades and cannons, and now it can be regarded as having a certain amount of firearm strength.

Western Xia was uncomfortable.

Lacking the raw material sulfur, the cannons in his hands at present, except for a few steel cannons secretly bought from the Great Song army, there are only more than 50 wrought iron cannons.

It is not that the Western Xia lacks iron, in fact, the smelting technology and forging technology of the Western Xia are not bad, otherwise there would be no record in history that in the war between the Great Song Dynasty and the Western Xia, the swords and guns of the Great Song Dynasty could not pierce the armor of the Western Xia people.

In fact, the black powder made from that bit of sulfur is not enough at all, and the inventory of grenades is only tens of thousands, so you can know how scarce the sulfur raw materials in Western Xia are.

That is, the Liao State made a bloody investment this time, not only took out a lot of money, but also gave a lot of sulfur, and Li Yuanhao did not necessarily dare to send troops.

However, the sulfur is indeed already on its way, and has not yet arrived. He was also worried that the Song State would finish rectifying the military as soon as possible, and Li Yuanhao also wanted to take advantage of the weakness of the Great Song army to immediately send troops and take Qingtang.

Li Yuanhao had already figured out the situation in Qingtang.

The Great Song Dynasty did not sell a single artillery piece to the Great Song Dynasty at all, not even a grenade, obviously to make the Song Dynasty dependent on the Great Song Dynasty and completely tie the Qingtang regime to the Great Song chariot.

On the side of Qinfeng Road, only Qinzhou, that is, Tianshui City in later generations, has more than 30 gates.

The rest of the cannons were either in the hands of Fan Zhongyan's firearms army, or they were arranged on the border cities of Hebei and Shaanxi Road, and it was impossible for Lanzhou City to have cannons.

That's why Li Yuanhao was relieved to boldly send troops.

In his opinion, it is not a problem to take Lanzhou City, and after taking Lanzhou, he will arrange a defensive line in Lanzhou, and then immediately attack Xining to the west.

If the Song army attacked, he could not resist it, so he immediately withdrew his troops.

Then, according to the original retreat, on the grounds that the Western Xia only signed a peace contract with the Great Song Dynasty, it was justified to send troops to Qingtang, and then accused the Great Song of taking the lead in breaking the treaty.

Thinking that Zhao Zhen is a person who wants to save face, there is probably nothing he can do.

If the Song army attacked, he not only resisted, but also defeated the Song army, then it would be interesting.

This shows that there is a big problem in the rectification of the Song army this time, and the combat effectiveness of the army is low, so Li Yuanhao can find out the reality of the Great Song Dynasty, and he can immediately unite with the Liao State and annex the Great Song Dynasty in the south.

It's a two-pronged solution.

It's just that what he never expected was that on Gaolan Mountain in the south of Lanzhou City, dozens of artillery pieces suddenly appeared.

Just looking at the emission frequency, Li Yuanhao judged that there must be at least thirty or more.

It took a big scare out of him.

At the end of the morning, after two days of traveling, the Xixia people first arrived north of Dongyuguan at noon yesterday.

Then it went east along the north bank of the Yellow River and crossed the river in the area of Xigu District of Lanzhou in later times.

An attack on Lanzhou began this morning.

However, the defenders of Lanzhou were stubborn, and there were also artillery, which beat his vanguard army to pieces.

If it weren't for the fact that Lanzhou Xicheng was a vast plain area with a spacious place, I am afraid that his front army and the middle might have been swept up by the vanguard army.

"What's going on? Why are there so many cannon sounds? ”

Located about ten miles outside the west city of Lanzhou, among the former army of Western Xia, Li Yuanhao suddenly heard many cannon shots and was shocked.

He naturally brought more than 50 cannons this time, but the problem was that the vanguard army only brought 12.

Just listening to the sound, I am afraid that there must be forty or fifty doors on the frontal battlefield.

What so many cannons?

"King!"

At this time, the scouts sent back by the generals at the front hurriedly reported: "The enemy has deployed thirty cannons on the mountain and caught us off guard!" ”

"It can't be!"

Li Yuanhao was stunned and said: "There are no cannons in Lanzhou City at all. ”

"They must have been placed on the mountain."

The subordinate general next to him said: "King, the cannon is most afraid of close combat, let's immediately bypass and raid!" ”

"Good!"

Li Yuanhao responded, and now he must also go to see the situation on the battlefield.

Now the army continues to advance.

As a result, he had only walked for more than ten minutes, seven or eight miles away from Lanzhou City, and about three or four miles away from his vanguard army, when he saw a series of explosions in front of him.

Immediately afterwards, the vanguard army finally could not parry and began to retreat.

At this time, he did not want to attack, he immediately ordered to intercept the defeated vanguard army and reorganize them into formation.

"Run!"

"Kamui is angry."

"This is the gods punishing us!"

Many soldiers of the small Uighur, Uighur, and Tatar tribes shouted in horror and galloped on horseback.

Not only them, but even the party officers who controlled them in the army could not bear it, and they followed them around in panic.

No way.

First, their cannons can't hit people's mountains.

Second, Wang Shiyun's small steel cannon could not compare the distance and power with others on the flat ground, but after the range was made up for on the mountain, the advantage in rate of fire was reflected.

In the past, whether it was a gun or a cannon, it was a breech design, and bullets and shells had to be stuffed inside from the barrel and stabbed into it with a milling pipe.

However, the cannon needs to increase its power and range, and the barrel is very long, so the reload rate is very slow.

It's good to be able to fire three to five rounds a minute.

The barrel of the small steel cannon is shorter than that of the large cannon, and if you stuff the shells into it, you can see the bottom at once, and the rate of fire is naturally much faster.

Under the constant bombardment, the Uighur, Uighur, and Tatar tribes, whose morale was already low, could not bear it at all. Not to mention the people, the horses all fled in all directions first, and it was difficult to parry.

Li Yuanhao was extremely anxious when he saw this, but it was useless to be anxious, he could only order his generals and officers to go and reorganize the troops immediately.

And he himself glanced around, and finally set his eyes on Gaolan Mountain in the distance.

The mountains are high and densely forested, and you can faintly see silver lights flashing on the edge of the cliffs halfway up the mountain, as if you can see some almost invisible black dots looking at this side.

The distance between the two sides is too far, at least more than ten miles, or even twenty miles, and even if the plain area has a wide field of vision and no telescopes, it is impossible to see what is there.

"King, I'll take people around and kill on that mountain, the last general doesn't believe how many soldiers and horses are hidden in that mountain."

Some generals also noticed it and immediately asked Li Yuanhao for his life.

Li Yuanhao did not agree immediately, his eyes showed deep thought, but at this time, the gate of Lanzhou City in the distance opened, and I don't know how many Tubo soldiers rushed out.

This makes the battlefield even more chaotic.

Seeing this, Li Yuanhao was worried that there was an ambush in the city, so he could only say: "Withdraw quickly!" ”

"Retreat!"

The surrounding generals also hurriedly shouted.

For a while, the two sides chased and fled, but they didn't fight much, and soon Li Yuanhao's army withdrew like a tide, and even the artillery brought by the vanguard army was captured.

The Western Xia army retreated for more than 30 miles, which was almost the distance from Xigu District of Lanzhou City to Chengguan District in later generations.

As night fell, tens of thousands of troops were forced to set up camp.

This time, Li Yuanhao brought 50,000 people, of which 20,000 of the 100,000 troops were stationed in Zhuo Luocheng as a reserve army, and the other 30,000 were at the mouth of the river, in case Lanzhou was not taken in a short time.

As a result, I never expected that according to the detailed report of infiltrating Lanzhou City disguised as a businessman, Lanzhou, which should have only 5,000 defenders, no firearms, and no artillery, actually had such powerful firepower.

And the enemy also dared to go out of the city to fight, which made the suspicious Li Yuanhao have to retreat, surprised.

At night, on the plains of the wilderness, tents are lined up.

In the big tent in the middle, Li Yuanhao held a military meeting with everyone.

Candles were lit in the tent, although the Western Xia was small and some resources were relatively lacking, but paraffin mines were available.

The Song Dynasty often used resin and paraffin wax to make candles, although the taste was a little unpleasant, but for them and other powerful people, it was not difficult to add some spices to the materials.

The candles in the room were dimming and dimming, so that Li Yuanhao's face with his head slightly lowered was also hidden in the darkness, which made people feel a trace of uneasiness and fear.

He was silent for a long time before suppressing his anger and saying, "Who can tell me what the hell is going on?" Didn't the scouts come to report that there were only five thousand defenders in the city, and there were no cannons? ”

"This"

The general, Fang Dangqiu Hu, hesitated: "But all the scouts who entered the city are like this, could it be that they bought cannons from the Song army during this time?" ”

"I don't think so, there must be fraud in this."

Another general, Fei Tinggu, said, "How did An Ziluo know that we were coming? How dare he go out of the city to fight? The last general is suspicious."

He said and looked at Zhang Yuandao, who had been silent next to him: "I suspect that there are fine works in the army." ”

Li Yuanhao suddenly looked at Zhang Yuan suspiciously.

Zhang Yuan smiled bitterly, and then said: "Great King, the minister thinks that there is no elaboration. ”

"Oh?"

Li Yuanhao said noncommittally: "You talk about it." ”

"If we had done it carefully, we would have been able to cross the river safely like this? They only need to set up their cannons at the mouth of the river and attack them halfway, and our army will suffer heavy losses. ”

Zhang Yuan patiently explained: "What's more, if the king defeats the enemy, he will also take advantage of the victory to pursue, so there is nothing wrong with An Ziluo going out of the city to fight fiercely, wanting to chase and kill us." ”

"And what is the explanation of this cannon?"

Li Yuanhao asked.

"Don't forget the Song army."

"You mean the Song army outside Lanzhou City?"

"Not bad."

Zhang Yuan said: "Before, we only had more than 2,000 people in the detailed investigation, and there were no cannons, but what if there were cannons sent after the detailed investigation? Nowadays, there are more than 1,000 artillery pieces in the Great Song Dynasty, and it is possible to make a few more this year and send them to the military village. ”

"Me"

Li Yuanhao was speechless for a while.

Think about it too.

His scouts did visit Wang Shiyun's department.

However, he did not dare to attack Song Jun directly.

Afraid of missing any of the Song army scouts, what was waiting for him was that the Song State accused him of tearing up the covenant, and then the main force of the army went directly to Western Xia.

Therefore, they can only attack Lanzhou.

Isn't it good to say that Wang Shiyun's ministry didn't have a cannon before, but now it's equipped again?

If that's the case, I don't know where to reason.

"Even if that's the case, then now that Lanzhou City also has artillery, what should we do?"

Fei Tinggu said in detail.

Zhang Yuanzheng said: "The king, the minister thinks that Lanzhou City actually has only 5,000 people, plus 2,000 Song troops at most. We attacked Qingtang, since the Song army took the initiative to attack us, it belonged to the Song State to tear up the contract, and in the future, the Song State will be questioned, and Li will also be on our side, so there is no need to worry. The most important thing now is to find a way to break the city. ”

"Do you have any ideas?"

Li Yuanhao asked.

"Chen took a look today, they are fighting west on the mountain south of Lanzhou City, and it is naturally within their range to attack from west to east, but what if we attack from north to south?"

Zhang Yuan said.

"Oh?"

Li Yuanhao thought about it for a while, and suddenly said with great joy: "The military division is still talented, but now that he is newly defeated and his morale is low, he will attack from Beicheng after a day of rest." ”

"Then why don't we attack the mountain and shoot down the cannons on the mountain?"

Someone asked.

Zhang Yuan patiently explained: "The mountain is steep, we attack the mountain retrograde, and people fire artillery down the mountain, we will suffer a big loss, so we only need to attack from the north to the south, and their artillery will be useless." ”

In ancient times, the city of Lanzhou was not on the side of the Yellow River, but at the foot of Gaolan Mountain, which was about ten miles away from the Yellow River, and the drinking water depended on the Agan River, which was the Leitan River in Lanzhou in later generations.

Therefore, if you attack from the north to the south, Lanzhou does not have the natural danger of the Yellow River, and the north is an endless plain area, which is very easy to fight.

The Western Xia army attacked from the west, and the Gaolan Mountain artillery in the south did not need to cross Lanzhou City, but flew directly over the wilderness in the northwest to hit their position.

However, if it is fired from north to south, then the shells will have to cross the sky over Lanzhou City, which may not only accidentally damage Lanzhou City, but also be farther away.

From Lanzhou to Gaolan Mountain, Lanzhou City is a few miles north and south, plus the Western Xia army must be running a few miles away.

All of them add up, I'm afraid it will have to be more than 20 miles.

No matter how powerful the artillery of the Song army is, it can't shoot more than 20 miles.

Therefore, it is indeed better to attack from the north to the south.

Everyone understood it, and Li Yuanhao decided to rest first, and then launch a general attack on Lanzhou the day after tomorrow.

And when the Western Xia Army was analyzing the situation, the Song Army was also analyzing.

In Lanzhou City, Wang Shiyun and An Ziluo discussed countermeasures.

"When will reinforcements arrive?"

An Ziluo asked anxiously.

"It is more than 200 miles from Lanzhou to the military village, but there are our beacon towers along the way, we have already lit the beacon fire, and we want to come to it the day after tomorrow at the latest."

Wang Shiyun replied.

During the period of Shenzong in history, he slowly annexed the Qingtang regime and built a large number of fortresses on the border.

But at this time, there is not, and the nearest is only Guwei Village, which is more than 300 miles away from Lanzhou.

However, Fan Zhongyan took Zhao Jun's suggestion and built a large number of beacon towers on the border to quickly deliver the news.

This thing is much faster than sending a message on horseback, and almost as soon as the war started here, Wang Shiyun let people light the beacon.

The terrain of Saibei is open, there are many hills and mountains, and the beacon tower is built on the hills, as long as it does not rain, the green smoke can be seen twenty or thirty miles away.

So almost an hour or so, relying on the beacon tower to send a message, the Guwei Zhai side had already learned the news, and the Guwei Zhai Department Governor would lead the people to help as soon as possible.

"I'm afraid that tomorrow the Western thieves will attack."

An Ziluo sighed.

The nearest reinforcement is the Song army, but there are not many people on the side of Guwei Village, just three armies, about 7,000 people, and one army is controlled by Wang Shiyun in Lanzhou.

And Qingtang, which is hundreds of miles away, is even more impossible to come to the aid at the first time, and now they are thousands of people trapped in the lonely city.

Wang Shiyun comforted: "Don't worry, the Western Thieves have been defeated miserably today, the army is disheartened, and Li Yuanhao should not be in a hurry to attack." The only thing to worry about now is that they are attacking from the North City, which will be dangerous. ”

"Why?"

An Ziluo was puzzled.

"I saw it on the mountain today, it is too far away from the northern city, if the western thieves still have cannons, our cannons cannot be deployed on the mountain, and it is easy to accidentally injure the city, if they are placed on the city wall, they will not be able to hit them either."

Wang Shiyun explained: "Their cannons can shoot more than ten miles, and our cannons can only shoot three or four miles, unless they continue to attack from Xicheng like today." ”

An Ziluo hurriedly said: "Today we captured their nine cannons, and there are many shells. ”

"Settle it in the city first, and then I'll think of a way."

Wang Shiyun fell into deep thought.

As night falls, the day will soon pass.

In the evening of the next day, the official road east of Lanzhou City was dusty.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Thousands of war horses galloped, and the leader was a sturdy bearded man, and this person was Sun Guangyi, the governor of the ancient Weizhai Department.

The defenders on Lanzhou City in the distance saw that it was the banner of the Song Army and did not open the door immediately.

It wasn't until Wang Shiyun saw Sun Guangyi at the head of the city that he immediately ordered the opening of the city, and a large group of soldiers poured in.

"General Sun."

Wang Shiyun and An Ziluo greeted them.

Sun Guangyi smiled: "It's not too late." ”

"Just in time."

Wang Shiyun smiled, and then puzzled: "General, you came so quickly, did you bring the cannon?" ”

He sent the message yesterday at noon, and by this afternoon, about fifteen hours, or almost thirty hours, had passed.

For a distance of 300 miles, if you keep hurrying day and night, it is normal for cavalry to come overnight, such as Cao Cao sent tigers and leopards to chase Liu Bei, more than 300 miles in a day and night.

The problem is that you have to bring the small steel cannon.

In this way, the speed will be much slower, so Wang Shiyun speculated that they will arrive tomorrow.

How do you know so fast.

"What cannon, do you know what I picked up on the road?"

Sun Guangyi said with a smile.

"What?"

Wang Shiyun wondered.

Sun Guangyi pointed to the two young officers behind him and said, "I picked them up." ”

The young officer arched his hand and said, "Zeng Yong, the commander of the third battalion of the Tokyo Firearms Battalion of the Dragon Fierce Legion, has seen the general!" ”

Another person also arched his hand and said: "Zhang Wenwu, the commander of the fourth battalion of the Tokyo Firearms Battalion of the Dragon Fierce Legion, has seen the general!" ”

Firearms battalion?

Even Wang Shiyun knew the reputation of the other party at the border.

In fact, Wang Shiyun and Sun Guangyi were only investigated by the envoys sent by Bianliang last month.

Neither of them was a traitor, nor was he in contact with the enemy, so the envoy was very satisfied, and not only did he have a pleasant face, but also told them a lot about Tokyo.

It is said that this firearms battalion was organized and built by Fan Xianggong and Zhang Xianggong last year, and 50,000 elite troops were dispatched from the army, divided into ten regiments, each with 5,000 people, and its combat effectiveness was strong.

In order to prevent the invasion of the Western Xia and Liao, the imperial court specially sent 35,000 firearms battalions to garrison the border. Among them, 20,000 are on Hebei Road and 15,000 are on Shaanxi Road.

I didn't expect to meet two battalions of 1,000 people this time.

Sun Guangyi introduced: "The two of them were ordered to go north to Huining to guard the town, passing by Guwei Village, and I happened to see the beacon fire you sent, so I immediately asked them to come to help." ”

"How many cannons did you bring?"

Wang Shiyun hurriedly asked.

Cannon?

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu glanced at each other and said with a smile: "There is no one." ”

"No cannons? That's how good it is. ”

Wang Shiyun said worriedly: "I don't know when the Western Thieves also made cannons, although they are not as good as our cannons, but their range is much farther than ours. ”

"It doesn't matter."

Zhang Wenwu took out a slender object from behind him, patted it and said, "We have a gun!" ”

"Guns?"

Wang Shiyun looked up and down: "This is also a gun?" ”

Although the musket was successfully made two years ago, it has always been a secret, and from the time it was manufactured to the official mass production, it has always been only available to the firearms battalion.

Zeng Yong said: "The general doesn't believe it, and when the West thieves come to attack, we will naturally let them know that it is powerful." ”

"Let's go ahead of the city."

An Ziluo hurriedly greeted them.

At that moment, Wang Shiyun took Sun Guangyi and others into the city first.

After entering the city, everyone gathered at the city lord's mansion.

They gave a brief account of the current situation to a few people.

The current force ratio is very different, even if Sun Guangyi and them come, the alliance between Qingtang and the Song State is more than 10,000 people, while the enemy has 100,000.

Therefore, Wang Shiyun suggested that the captured Western Xia cannons be installed on the mountains, so that the cannons could be fired at the enemy's positions with the range of the high mountains.

The only problem is that it is easy for them to carry a small cannon of more than 100 catties up the mountain, but it is difficult to carry a cannon of more than 2,000 catties.

The mountain road was rough and difficult, and it was difficult to carry this cannon.

However, Zhang Wenwu and Zeng Yong rejected their proposal, and they suggested that the cannons should be placed on the city wall to fight the enemy, and they would launch a surprise attack from the flanks after the battle.

Because it is more difficult to turn the artillery, not to mention that the opponent will definitely put the cannon in front of the formation and shoot it from a distance, as long as they attack from the side or rear, the flank and rear are the Western Xia army, and the enemy will not be able to hit them with artillery.

When the time comes, Zhang Wenwu and Zeng Yong will let the Western Xia army taste the power of muskets.

Wang Shiyun and An Ziluo both felt that they were a little blindly confident, which showed that they were full of confidence, and they felt that since the imperial court had built a firearms battalion, they would not be untargeted, and finally after discussion, it was decided to implement it according to their methods.

So the next day, the Qingtang and the Great Song Dynasty allied forces and began to wait solemnly.

(End of chapter)