Tibet

Wang Shen and his party stayed at the largest Gaosheng Inn in the city. The innkeeper and the waiters were extremely enthusiastic. The war was chaotic and there were almost no guests coming to stay. The few businessmen who came rarely became their honored guests.

"Shopkeeper, why is there no one in the city?" Wang Shen asked.

The shopkeeper sighed, "Where are there people now! Half of the residents in the city have ran away. If it weren't for the elderly in our family, we would all have fled. At least we would have had a way to survive. If we stayed in the city, we would have died at some point!" "

Having said this, the shopkeeper wiped his tears with his sleeve.

"so serious?"

Wang Shen asked in surprise: "Does everyone still have something to eat?"

"The rationing system is implemented. Each person has two bowls of porridge and a lump of dried noodles every day. I feel hungry every day, but I can barely survive. But if you have money, you can buy some food on the black market."

"You won't be caught!"

"What are you catching? This is a black market run by these rebels. They make money. Okay, I don't have the strength to speak anymore. Please go up to the second floor."

Wang Shen didn't ask too many questions. If he asked too many questions, he would be suspected, so he could only take his time.

The next day, under the guidance of the shopkeeper, Wang Shen sold the medicinal materials at a good price on the black market. At the same time, he bought a dozen bags of flour at a high price and gave one bag to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was so grateful that he could talk freely.

The shopkeeper had a relative who was a county lieutenant in the county government, named Zhang Yan, who was an official who knew the Yan army well. He heard that there was flour in the inn, so he came and took away two bags of flour. Zhang Yan was talking to Wang Shen. , also intentionally or unintentionally leaked some information about Yan Jun.

The Yan army has a total of 30,000 people, including 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry. The soldiers in the army are basically the Tang army from the Central Plains who surrendered to the Yan army, not the Youzhou army. They are about to go on an expedition, but the direction is unknown.

Wang Shen then, with the help of Zhang Yan, bought a shop at a very low price, specializing in medicinal materials, and became the exclusive supplier shop of the Yancheng government. With this status, he could apply for a city exit permit at the county government , two guys can be sent to Tangzhou to purchase goods.

Of course, there are conditions for Zhang Yan to help him do business. He needs three bags of flour every month.

In Yanshi County, about thirty miles east of Luoyang, there is a large canyon called Calabash Valley. As the name suggests, the inside of the canyon is like a gourd, with a small exit, but very wide inside. It is more than ten miles long and at least as wide as There are rivers, lakes, and woods in Wuli, and the environment is not bad, but this was once the weapons testing ground of Luoyang Ordnance Supervision, where large-scale siege weapons and city defense weapons were tested.

This place has naturally become a weapons testing ground for the Yan Army. The person in charge here is Dugu Wensu. He is also the weapons supervisor of the Yan State and is responsible for building various new weapons for the Yan Army.

Today, Prince An Qingxu also came to the Hulugu Weapons Testing Site in Yanshi to witness with his own eyes the birth of a new weapon.

This new weapon is gunpowder. Yuan Siyi was guilty of selling Feilong's gunpowder and treasure book to An Lushan. The treasure book contains the formula and production of gunpowder, as well as its uses.

According to the treasure book, Yan Jun produced the first batch of gunpowder. There are three uses in the treasure book. One is gunpowder arrows. The gunpowder package is tied to the arrow and fired into the sky. The red flame is bright and can be seen thirty miles away. Convenient and practical, it is a very good signal arrow.

The second purpose is to ignite fire. It is usually stored in a bamboo tube and is easy to carry. When necessary, sprinkle gunpowder on the target. It ignites fire quickly and is much more powerful than traditional tinder such as sulfur and sawdust.

The third use is more powerful. It is called Jun Tianlei, also known as Tiannu Scattering Flowers. Gunpowder is placed in a closed porcelain bottle. The gunpowder expands and explodes. Not only the porcelain pieces are scattered, but also the iron nails inside are scattered. After the poison is quenched, the gunpowder expands and explodes. , greater lethality.

In addition, Feilong also introduced how to make a match rope in the treasure book. Sprinkle gunpowder evenly on the tissue paper, roll it and rub it, and a thin and long match rope is made. It seems simple, but it is extremely versatile. There is no fuse. Neither gunpowder nor Juntian Lei can be used.

Today is the day to test Jun Tianlei.

In a large tent, Dugu Wensu introduced the Jun Tianlei on the table to An Qingxu. They were black balls as big as grapefruit, each weighing about five kilograms.

"Your Highness, please look at this. This is a porcelain ball. It is fired as a whole. Only a small hole is left. Slowly fill the small hole with gunpowder. After filling it, put a match rope on it. When the match rope burns in, the porcelain will explode. ”

An Qingxu looked at it for a while and asked, "Wouldn't this porcelain ball break if it falls on the ground?"

Dugu Wensu shook his head, "The porcelain balls are very thick and may break if hit on the city wall. However, we have done experiments. If the ball hits the city wall a hundred steps away, three of the ten porcelain balls will break. It is not a big problem." .”

"Then can you make it thicker so that it doesn't break?" An Qingxu asked again.

"Reporting to Your Highness, this thickness is currently the limit. If it is thicker, it will not explode. In fact, even if it breaks into pieces, it will still ignite fire and have a certain effect."

"Forget it. If only three out of ten are broken, that's acceptable. I care about how many Jun Tian Lei there are now. We don't have time to delay it any longer."

"Reporting to Your Highness, the first batch totals about one hundred."

An Qingxu nodded, "One hundred is enough for us to capture Xiangyang, let me test it and see!"

Dugu Wensu shouted: "Get ready for the test!"

On the third day after the Jun Tianlei test, Emperor An Lushan issued the order for the Southern Expedition, ordering Prince An Qingxu to be the Grand Marshal of the Southern Expedition, Cui Qianyou and Tian Chengsi to be the left and right lieutenants, and Yan Zhuang to be the counselor, commanding an army of 150,000 to attack Jing. Xiang.

According to Yan Zhuang's deployment, this southern expedition was divided into two groups. The main force still went to Ye County to attack Luyang Pass. He also ordered General Wu Lingyu to lead 30,000 troops as a surprise force to attack Tangzhou from Yuzhou, and then from Tangzhou to Dengzhou. Cut off the retreat route of Luyang Guan Tang Army.

In fact, the army of more than 100,000 people did not set out from Luoyang, so the intelligence scouts of the Tang Army in Luoyang would have discovered that the army of 120,000 people was deployed in Ruzhou. When An Qingxu arrived in Ruzhou from Luoyang, the army of 120,000 people began to move in force. Dang headed toward Dengzhou to kill.

Tian Chengsi was ordered to prepare for war two months ago. He used 20,000 camels to continuously transport food and supplies from Luoyang to Ye County. 10,000 troops were specially stationed in Ye County to protect their largest logistics center.

Three days later, 120,000 troops arrived in Ye County.

In the Chinese army's tent, An Qingxu held the first pre-war military meeting.

Tian Chengsi pointed at Luyang Pass on the sand table with a wooden pole and said: "According to our information, there are currently about 2,000 permanent troops stationed at Luyang Pass. The commander is Huang Xinwu, who was the original training envoy of the Dengzhou Regiment. Our spies checked Looking at his resume, he has no actual combat experience and has never been on the battlefield, so Li Ye sent him as the commander-in-chief of Luyang Pass. He is only responsible for the peacetime garrison. Once the war breaks out, there will inevitably be a new commander-in-chief to replace him."

Speaking of this, Tian Chengsi said slowly: "We can use the strategy of sneak attacks and take advantage of the gap between the Tang army's defense exchanges to seize the opportunity to capture Luyang Pass in one fell swoop."

An Qingxu asked Yan Zhuang, "What do the military advisors think?"

Yan Zhuang nodded, "A sneak attack is a good idea. I agree with the sneak attack, but I still need to think of a clever strategy on how to attack."

Cui Ganyou, who had been silent all the time, took the wooden pole, pointed to several houses on the road and said, "What kind of facility is this?"

Tian Chengsi said quickly: "This is our transit warehouse. Our army is passing there to prevent the Tang army from sneak attacks on food, so we have to set up transit logistics warehouses. There are four in total, but three of them were damaged by the Tang army and need to be repaired before they can be used."

Cui Qianyou said calmly: "I guess the Tang army is keeping an eye on these warehouses. Once we repair them, they will get the signal that we are going to attack. Since we want to attack by surprise, then don't repair these warehouses. The army will go south lightly and make a surprise attack." Luyang Pass."

Tian Chengsi sighed and said: "We considered this for our first attack. We sent six thousand cavalry south to attack Luyang Pass. As a result, six thousand people were ambushed and all were burned to death. Are we going to make the same mistake again?"

Cui Qianyou shook his head and said: "If the Tang army ambushes and burns us again, it will be a desperate attempt to find a sword. Li Ye will not do such a thing, and we will not be fooled again."

Tian Chengsi frowned, "But since the Tang army is monitoring the abandoned warehouse, and our army is still discovered when we go south, what else can we do for a sneak attack?"

Cui Qianyou sneered, "General Tian did not understand my thinking. I was not making a sneak attack, but a surprise attack. As General Tian said just now, I used the time difference between the defense exchanges of the Tang army to capture Luyang Pass in one fell swoop."

Cui Qianyou clasped his fists to An Qingxu again and said, "Your Highness, I am willing to lead an army of 10,000 to raid Luyang Pass as the commander of the sneak attack army."

An Qingxu glanced at Yan Zhuang, who nodded. An Qingxu immediately said: "I agree to General Cui's request. I must bring Jun Tianlei with me and let the Tang army have a taste of Juntian Lei."