Pawn Crossing the River

Soon, Wang Zicheng, the local county magistrate and Mr. Qian rushed over together.

Along with them came a large number of government officials, police officers, men in black, and Qingluan Guards. It can be said that almost all the manpower of the local government was mobilized, nearly a thousand people.

Qian Zong's full name is "Ying Qian Zong", he is the sixth rank, the same rank as the Qingluan Guard Baihu, and two ranks higher than the county magistrate of the seventh rank, and is not subject to the control of the county magistrate.

This dynasty was aware of the shortcomings of the previous dynasty that emphasized civility and suppressed military affairs. From the beginning of the founding of the country, both civil and military forces were used. The power of military attachés in the court was not weaker than that of civilian officials. There is no very clear and insurmountable boundary between civil and military officials. Many cabinet ministers are generals and prime ministers. Therefore, the status of military attachés in the Daxuan court is not low. There will not be the situation in the previous dynasty where high-ranking military attaches were subjected to low-ranking civil servants. moderation situation.

According to the Daxuan military system, General Qian leads 500 troops, including 200 elite regular soldiers and 300 auxiliary soldiers. The "men in black" in the world's population mainly refers to regular soldiers, also called combat soldiers. On weekdays, they are not He specializes in production and training. As the name suggests, auxiliary soldiers assist the soldiers, such as transporting grain and grass, building fortifications, cooking and feeding horses, maintaining firearms, etc.

The local general Qian, surnamed Zhao, brought 150 regular soldiers and 200 auxiliary soldiers this time. The regular soldiers were all equipped with firearms and armor. They were not the hand blunderbuss commonly used by Taoists, but long blunderbuss, which had a longer range and Multiple projectiles can be stored in the magazine and can be fired continuously. The auxiliary troops mainly brought four artillery pieces from the battalion.

When front-loading artillery was used in the early days, the size of the artillery was distinguished by the weight of the shells. At that time, the army most commonly used four kinds of artillery, heavy artillery with sixty kilograms of shells, general artillery with thirty kilograms or twenty kilograms, and small cannons with ten kilograms. gun. Among them, heavy artillery can only be equipped on large sea ships and fixed forts, and cannot be moved.

However, as artillery technology continues to update and iterate, the artillery equipped in the military has gradually changed to breech-loading rifled artillery. It does not make much sense to judge the size of the artillery by the weight of the shells, so the caliber of the artillery is used to distinguish the size of the artillery.

Today, the army is equipped with D-class artillery ranging from 1 to 2.3 inches, C-class artillery ranging from 3-inch to 3-6. A first-class heavy artillery of over six inches. Among them, heavy artillery is divided into subdivisions. Some heavy artillery can only be fixed on forts or equipped on ironclad ships. This has nothing to do with local armies.

This time, Zhao Qianzong brought four C-class artillery pieces with a diameter of three inches and one minute to three and six inches. They may not be powerful enough to attack a city, but they can be used to attack a mansion. It is more than enough.

In addition to the men in black who act as frontal assaults, there are also a large number of yamen and police officers. In this regard, it is similar to Tiangangtang. A police officer has two deputies, and each deputy has a helper. Including the three squads of government officials, there are more than 200 people. They are mainly responsible for clearing the streets, enforcing martial law, dispersing spectators, and preventing accidental injuries to ordinary people.

In addition, hundreds of local Qingluan Guards mobilized to assist the men in black.

Although the Qingluan Guard is the emperor's personal army and mainly focuses on criminal investigation and case handling, after all, among the ranks of the men in black, many high-ranking officials of the men in black enter the court. In addition to joining the Ministry of War, they will also be transferred to the Qingluan Guard. Through the Qingluan Guard, he was transferred to the Ministry of Justice, Dali Temple and other yamen, and finally entered the ranks of civil servants. Therefore, there are many people in the Qingluan Guard who were born in black, so it is not difficult for both parties to cooperate.

When Zhang Yuelu and Qi Xuansu arrived outside Xia Chang's Mansion, they saw that the place was completely surrounded.

Although the ranks of the Taoist sect and the imperial court are not the same, Taiping Daozhen, one of the three deputy masters of the Taoist sect, is also the national master of the imperial court, so he erected a ruler between the Taoist sect and the imperial court, and there may be a correspondence.

There is no doubt that the local county magistrate, Qian Zong, and Qingluan Guards are all inferior to Zhang Yuelu, a fourth-grade wine-sacrifice Taoist priest. Only Wang Zicheng is equal to Zhang Yuelu, so it is decided by Wang Zicheng and Zhang Yuelu through discussion.

Wang Zicheng asked in a deep voice: "Are the Xia family still unwilling to come out and surrender?"

Mr. Zhao Qian replied: "Reporting to the superior, I have asked the brothers to shout three times. As long as they are willing to open the door and surrender, only the first culprit will be killed. If they persist in their stubbornness, they will both be destroyed and it will be too late to regret. But there is no movement inside. Please come on. Please tell me.”

Wang Zicheng glanced at Zhang Yuelu and asked, "I wonder what Master Zhang means?"

Zhang Yuelu said: "If a normal gentry family saw such a battle outside the door, they would have opened the door to explain the situation a long time ago. Now no one has responded, which shows that they are guilty of being a thief and did not invite it. Then there is no need to be polite and directly blast open the door and courtyard wall with artillery. , storm in."

Wang Zicheng nodded and said: "According to Master Zhang's words, Mr. Zhao Qian, aim for me."

General Zhao Qian, who was wearing black armor, took the order and came to a place about a hundred feet away from the gate of Xia Mansion. He could only barely move two artillery pieces, and the other two artillery pieces were placed on the two wings.

Qi Xuansu observed the artillery with great interest. It is said that this kind of artillery was developed and designed by Daomen Tianji Hall, and then jointly produced by the Ministry of Industry and Shenji Battalion. It adopts a multi-layer composite gun body structure. The whole gun is composed of a composite multi-layer gun body composed of large and small double tubes. The small tubes are engraved with rifling, changing from front-loading bullets to rear-loading bullets, and the loading time is shorter. Overall, it was lighter in weight and had a longer range than the previous front-loading smoothbore artillery of the Wei Dynasty. The shells were not solid bullets, but exploded shells containing violent gunpowder, which could cause violent explosions after landing.

Then I saw Mr. Zhao Qian raising his right hand high: "Reload with one shot."

The four artillery pieces moved at the same time. The well-trained gunners quickly opened the wooden box. The two men lifted a metal-cased cone-shaped cannonball and loaded it into the barrel from the rear of the artillery piece.

Then the gunner shouted: "Loading is complete."

Mr. Zhao Qian suddenly waved his palm down: "Let go!"

Qi Xuansu only felt a hot wave of air blowing towards his face, and at the same time, the ground beneath his feet shook, as if shaking.

Then the gate tower of Xia Mansion had completely disappeared, and a section of the courtyard wall had completely collapsed. There were still a few traces of fire left on the ruins.

Mr. Zhao Qian raised his right hand again: "Adjust the angle and load the second shot."

Then the gunners started to use terms such as direction and angle, and then the gunners could rotate the gun body and aim in other directions. The gunners then cleared the barrel and reloaded the gun.

"Loaded."

"Loaded."

"Loaded."

The gunner's voice sounded continuously.

Mr. Zhao Qian waved his hand again: "Let go!"

The four C-class artillery roared again, spitting out a red flame that was more than a foot long from the muzzle, and the huge air wave escaping from the rear of the gun rolled up a cloud of smoke.

There was a whistling and buzzing sound in the air, and four cannonballs drew a curve that was invisible to the naked eye in mid-air and fell into Xia Mansion.

The shell exploded, and the huge air wave and the explosive fire formed clouds of smoke. These smoke clouds connected together in an instant, and the shattered soil, stones, trees, and house debris were thrown directly into the air by the air wave.

Qi Xuansu felt the ground beneath his feet shaking, and his ears were filled with the sound of wind and thunder.

With the power of this kind of artillery, even an innate person cannot defeat it from the front.

After two rounds of volleys, Xia Mansion was completely devastated. Even if there was any formation, it should be almost destroyed.

When the prince was established, he ordered the troops to attack the palace.

Qi Xuansu, Zhang Yuelu, Wang Zicheng and others walked at the end, while the county magistrate stayed outside and was responsible for maintaining order in the city.

After crossing the ruins of the courtyard wall and entering the mansion, you can still smell the smell of gunpowder smoke.

Zhang Yuelu stretched out his hand to fan the smoke and said softly to Qi Xuansu: "I remember an anecdote about Xuansheng and Donghuang. After Donghuang encountered the incident at Da Baoen Temple, he almost died. When he met Xuansheng, he was killed by Xuansheng. Rebuke. The original text is: Xuan Sheng rebuked Donghuang for relying on his brother's relatives, receiving the weight of the feudal territory, relying on his power to cultivate, without any scruples, using the sword without fear, being arrogant, not listening to other people's advice, being arbitrary and dictatorial. OK, taking risks alone will lead to today's disaster. In vernacular, Xuan Sheng said that Donghuang was arrogant because of his background, realm, and power, and he underestimated the power of everyone and exaggerated his personal role, so he suffered such a big loss. Damn. I don’t know if this rumor is true or not, but from now on, when the Taoist sect is wiping out the ancient immortals, we will never do it alone if we can use our own strength."

Not long after, news came from the black-clothed and Qingluan guards one after another that some servants were found in the backyard. They were all dead, not from artillery, but from some kind of poison, as if they had been murdered, and The rest were nowhere to be seen.

Wang Zicheng became more and more certain that this place was the demon's stronghold and lair, and ordered a strict search, not leaving any place untouched.

In this regard, Qingluan Guard is professional.

Luo Xiao personally led a search and soon found the entrance to the underground palace in a rockery.

Wang Zicheng was not polite and sent people to blow up the rockery with explosives, revealing the entrance to the underground palace below.

The opening of the underground palace is quite wide, allowing four people to walk side by side, sloping all the way down. There are not only steps, but also tracks to push cars up and down.

Mr. Zhao Qian shouted: "Shield soldiers."

More than a dozen men in black, fully armored and holding large shields, walked side by side into the entrance of the underground palace.

Although these shield soldiers are only in the cultivation stage of acquired people, they are extremely powerful and strong. They are covered with "prisoner ox armor", which is composed of 360 armor leaves. Each armor leaf is only the size of a baby's hand, only Only slightly thicker than cardboard. It is specially designed to deal with the Qi-control injuries caused by martial arts masters, and it also has a certain resistance to various spells. It is covered with a piece of cotton armor, which has been specially processed, soaked in water and then dried in the sun. It is very tough, lined with iron leaves on the inside, and fixed with copper nails on the outside.

After the emergence of firearms, traditional iron armor became somewhat outdated, and the heavy armor improved by Daomen was too expensive to be distributed to ordinary soldiers. So starting from the Jin Dynasty, cloth-faced armor with a cloth exterior and iron pieces inside appeared, which was the predecessor of cotton armor. Today, cotton armor has been further developed, and special face armor has been added to resist miasma poisonous gases.

Finally, there is the large shield, called the "Steel Hyena Shield", which can block half of the body. It can not only withstand fire blunderbuss shots, but also withstand infuriating energy and some spells.

Behind the shield soldiers are men in black holding long guns, which can shoot through the gaps between the shields.

With this advancement, ordinary demons are no match.