Become a feudal king from today

"Your Highness, Yanzhou is barren. These pirates have always ignored this place, but now they come here again and again. I'm afraid things are not simple. ReadМ" Chang Wei's eyes were full of murderous intent.

It was just that they were bullied by Beidi and Xiliang, but now a small group of pirates came to bite them.

Do you really think they are stubborn?

"It's indeed strange." Zhao Xu said.

He became suspicious last time when the pirates burned down the ship.

It's just that there were no core personnel from Wufeng Island among the captured pirates, so nothing came out of the interrogation.

The only information they got was the order from their island master.

This time the Japanese pirates came again and directly attacked Jinghai County, which confused him even more.

"Is it revenge?" Zhao Xu touched his chin. His purpose of hanging the pirate's body on a wooden pile on the coast was indeed to warn the pirates.

However, in his opinion, it was a bit foolish to launch a mass attack on Jinghai County in order to retaliate against the Fuxing Division.

After all, even if the pirates were lucky enough to escape back, they must have known that Yanzhou had artillery.

"Oops!" An idea suddenly popped up in Zhao Xu's mind, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.

He said to Chang Wei: "You immediately send 20,000 troops to Pingcheng and strictly guard the shipyard of the Ship Department. You must not let anything happen to the warships under construction."

Chang Wei suddenly came back to his senses and said, "Yes, General Mo will mobilize his troops right now."

Pingcheng is the center of Yanzhou Waterway.

Not only is there a canal leading to Jinling, but there is also a river called Haihe that runs eastward from Pingcheng and flows into the ocean.

King Yan built a shipyard in Pingcheng to facilitate warships going to sea.

But Yanzhou's ships can go to sea from there, and pirates can naturally enter the hinterland of Yanzhou from this river.

The target of the first pirate attack was the Ship Division.

This time it may not be the case. Attacking Jinghai County is not only revenge, but also a strategy to attack the east and attack the west.

"Your Highness, do you want to take these cannons with their bores cut?" Wang Ying pointed to a row of twelve cannons and said.

The conversation between King Yan and Chang Wei obviously meant that there was going to be another war.

"Well, that makes sense." Zhao Xu said, and he immediately ordered the artillerymen to pull these artillery pieces back to the barracks.

Today, he and Chang Wei were looking at the firing effects of the first batch of cut artillery pieces.

Before cutting, the effective range of these artillery is 1,500 meters, and the maximum range is three kilometers.

But now it has an effective range of two thousand meters and a maximum range of five kilometers.

This basically reached the peak range of the smoothbore cannon during the contemporary Opium War.

If you want to further improve it, in addition to designing the rifling, you also need to change to a more explosive gunpowder.

Instructed to take the improved artillery away, Zhao Xu turned around and returned to the palace.

He was planning to go to Jinghai County. This time the pirates made such a big noise, there must be some core figures among them.

If he could catch it, he might be able to interrogate something. From this, he could also understand the current situation outside of Dasong and prepare early.

"By the way, the improved artillery is very good. Next, we will cut all the artillery in the army." Zhao Xu said after getting on his horse.

Thinking of something, he added: "There are also chariots, so hurry up."

"Your Highness, please rest assured. The War Department is now dedicated to manufacturing armaments for the royal family's troops. There is no problem." Wang Ying said.

Among the people who came from Sizhou this time, there were many skilled craftsmen.

When the government sent these people to build roads and bridges, they also asked if they needed craftsmen.

He took the opportunity to select 5,000 more people to rush into the Military Division. The manpower was now more abundant than ever before.

Zhao Xu nodded and rode away.

He changed into military uniform at the palace, waited for an hour, and then followed Chang Wei to Pingcheng.

On the way, Chang Wei led 15,000 people to Pingcheng, while he led 5,000 people to Jinghai.

On the way to Jinghai, he was very calm.

Bai Shang is stationed in Jinghai, if he can't even deal with these pirates.

There is no need for this captain to do it.

…

Jinghai County.

The pirates abandoned eighty corpses and retreated again, and the battlefield fell into silence.

"Laixi, you lead three thousand people out from the south gate and outflank them to the north. Grand Ancestor, you lead three thousand people out from the north gate and outflank them all in the south. Then catch them all in one fell swoop." Bai Shang said to the general beside him.

"Yes, Lord Commander." The general left in response.

They fought all afternoon yesterday, but the pirates did not attack the city again in the evening.

Early this morning, the pirates continued their attack.

Now more than 900 pirates have died in Jinghai County.

But even after suffering such losses, the pirates still had no intention of retreating.

This surprised him.

Calculating the time, he felt that King Yan should know the news by now.

So I decided not to continue playing the city defense game with the pirates.

If King Yan were to come, he would have surrounded and suppressed the pirates before King Yan came, and dedicated their heads to King Yan.

"Li Cheng, kill the pirates' artillery!" Turning back from his thoughts, Bai Shang said to the artillery general beside him.

The pirate's artillery is quite powerful and can pose a considerable threat to his soldiers.

Although in his opinion, these clumsy heavy artillery were not as powerful as Yanzhou's city-defending heavy artillery.

"hateful."

While Bai Shang was dispatching his troops, Yamada Kazuo gritted his teeth as he looked at the crew members who retreated in embarrassment.

Yesterday, when his men rushed into Jinghai City, he originally thought they would face a group of soldiers wearing armor and holding swords.

But unexpectedly, after a burst of very familiar gunfire, the subordinates who rushed into the city never came back.

Only then did he know that Yanzhou's army also had muskets.

Next, he organized several more charges, but they were all defeated by the defenders in the city.

Now, he finally understood that Jinghai County was a tough nut to crack.

Their revenge is likely to fail.

"Master Yamada, what should we do now? Yanzhou's soldiers and horses seem to be different from other places. If we continue to fight like this, we will only increase casualties." A pirate asked, looking nervous.

Yamada Kazuno looked back at the warships on the sea.

At this time, there were only thirty warships out of the seventy-two on the sea, and forty-two more had disappeared.

This time they returned to Yanzhou and planned to kill two birds with one stone by attacking Jinghai County.

The first was to take revenge on King Yan, and the second was to sneak into Pingcheng from Haihe River at night and burn the warships under construction in Yanzhou.

For this matter, someone gave their island owner a heart-wrenching amount of money.

"Stay here, even if you can't take the city, you will continue to feign attack." Yamada Kazuo looked at Jinghai County with hatred.

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly saw the city wall burst into flames.

Then a huge roar sounded, and then he heard a scream from behind him.

Looking back, he found that the crewman in front of a cannon had been hit in the arm and the entire arm was broken.

Yamada Kazuno suddenly became nervous.

Dozens of shells fell near their artillery.

The soldiers of King Yan in the city were obviously firing their artillery.

A distance of three hundred meters is a reasonable distance for artillery placement.

Because it was too far away, the crew could not see the target clearly.

Most importantly, he underestimated the range of Yanzhou's artillery.

In his mind, it was impossible for Dasong to build more powerful artillery than their ship.

When attacking the city, the artillery on the city only fired at about 200 meters, which gave him an illusion.

But now, he feels cheated.