Chapter 1184: The Third Update

The workshop covers an area of ​​80 mu, with people coming and going, as many as four or five hundred people, many of whom are Taoists. Everyone is busy, but who knows what they are busy with?

Wu Shaocheng coldly swept across everyone's face and hands. His eyes were very poisonous, and he could tell who was a soldier at a glance?

"Excuse me, military advisor, where are the outsiders you recruited?"

Zhang Luanzi's heart moved. The other party didn't know how many people he had recruited?

Come to think of it, if Wu Shaocheng knew that he had recruited a thousand people, he would have come to arrest people long ago.

"I told you that they are responsible for finding and mining. They went out to find mines at dawn and would not come back until the evening."

"Why didn't the soldiers guarding the city see it?"

Zhang Luanzi sneered, "Your soldiers were sleeping in the morning, what could they see?"

Wu Shaocheng didn't say anything. He entered the wartime state at noon, and he was indeed very relaxed in the morning. He had nothing to say.

At this time, a group of people came to an abandoned courtyard. Wu Shaocheng looked out and asked, "Where is this?"

"This place has been abandoned. I plan to turn it into a firearms ingredient workshop. "

Wu Shaocheng walked in and looked around, but did not enter the house. He just looked through the broken window. There was a strong smell of mold and rot.

Zhang Luanzi's heart was in his throat. A thousand people were hiding here. A search would be enough.

Although these were shabby, Wu Shaocheng always felt that something was wrong. His intuition told him that someone had stayed here.

Wu Shaocheng was about to ask someone to search in, when a soldier came to report, "General, the granary is on fire!"

Wu Shaocheng was shocked and cursed, "Asshole!"

He did not bother to search the room, and saluted Zhang Luanzi, "Excuse me! "

Wu Shaocheng left in a hurry with his men.

Looking at the other side's back going away, Zhang Luanzi breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, and then walked into the house.

Strangely, there was no one in the house, and the bedding and other things were gone, as if it had returned to its original state. No wonder Wu Shaocheng didn't see the problem.

But where did the people go?

At this time, a pile of broken tables and chairs against the wall were pushed away, revealing a big hole in the wall, and Zhang Dian came out of the hole with a dozen men.

Zhang Luanzi was stunned, and Zhang Dian smiled and said: "We hid in the warehouse, and the weapons and armor were taken back to the warehouse."

Zhang Luanzi breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Fortunately, the granary caught fire just now, and he left in a hurry, otherwise he would definitely search carefully! "

Zhang Dian said calmly, "How can it be such a coincidence? I sent two men to set fire to the granary and set fire to the hay warehouse with gunpowder arrows."

Zhang Luanzi suddenly realized, "So that's it. I was wondering how it could be such a coincidence that the granary caught fire."

Zhang Dian said again, "Maybe Wu Shaocheng will come again. We will hide in the warehouse temporarily. Please prepare some dry food and water, Taoist priest."

Zhang Luanzi nodded, "Don't worry! I will arrange it."

The granary in the northwest corner of Hefei City was filled with smoke and flames. Thousands of soldiers scooped water from the Caohe River to put out the fire. The seven warehouses on the periphery were burning.

At this time, Wu Shaocheng came. He looked for a moment and ordered, "Don't save the warehouses on the periphery. Isolate the warehouses inside!"

The seven burning warehouses on the periphery were all hay warehouses. It didn't matter whether they were saved or not. The key was that the twenty granaries inside must be isolated from the burning hay warehouses.

Thousands of soldiers began to act quickly, wrapping the roof of the warehouse with soaked blankets. The walls of the warehouse were made of bricks and stones, but the top was made of wood. As long as the roof of the warehouse was covered, it would basically not be ignited.

But how could the hay warehouse be set on fire? With such strict defense, no one could come in. This puzzled Wu Shaocheng.

At this time, the captain on duty came to report, "General, the arsonist set the fire from outside."

Wu Shaocheng frowned. How could it be possible? There was a moat and a city wall in Cangcheng. The nearest warehouse was more than 30 steps away from the city wall. Even the outer perimeter was 50 steps away, and it was out of reach of hand-thrown torches.

"General, it's rockets, fired from at least a hundred steps away, more than a dozen rockets were fired at the top of warehouse No. 3, and fell into the warehouse after burning. They don't know what kind of incendiary agent, but the firepower is very strong."

"Who is it, didn't you see it?"

The lieutenant shook his head, and Wu Shaocheng was so angry that he cursed, "A bunch of useless wimps, raising pigs and dogs is more useful than you!"

A group of soldiers were scolded and trembling, and dared not look up.

Wu Shaocheng was really anxious. He knew that his judgment was correct. There were already enemy spies in the city, but he didn't know where they were hiding?

It was already dusk, and it was not realistic to search the city again on a large scale. Wu Shaocheng had to continue to issue a curfew. No one except the army was allowed to go out on the street, and those who violated the order would be killed without mercy.

As night fell, the city search operation that had been going on for an afternoon finally quieted down. Although there was no more search, the atmosphere in Hefei was still tense. Wu Shaocheng implemented the most severe curfew. Except for the army on duty, anyone who went out on the street would be killed without mercy.

Ten thousand troops patrolled the streets and the top of the city, and patrol soldiers could be seen everywhere.

It was past the second watch. Inside the workshop, a thousand soldiers lined up neatly. They were all wearing the uniforms of the Huaixi Army. In fact, the leather armor and weapons of the Huaixi Army were the same as those of the Tang Army, except for the slight difference in the style of the helmets. The Huaixi Army soldiers had a pair of horns on their helmets, which were horn helmets.

The Tang Army mainly wore eagle-shaped helmets, which were very recognizable. Even at night, the difference could be seen at a glance.

At this time, Zhang Luanzi hurried forward and said to Zhang Dian: "The password tonight is watertight. If anyone asks, the general will say that he is from the Ninth Battalion."

"Is there anything special about the Ninth Battalion?"

"The Ninth Battalion has just withdrawn from Hezhou, and most people are not familiar with it."

Zhang Dian nodded and asked: "Will the password be changed?"

"It will not change before the fourth watch. When the guard changes at the fourth watch, the password will also change."

"Thank you!"

"General Zhang, take care of yourself. I can't help you next."

Zhang Dian nodded silently, and then he led his men out of the side door.

Outside the side door is a short alley. After the soldiers lined up in the short alley, Zhang Dian led a thousand soldiers to the west gate.

"Password!"

As soon as he came out, he met a patrol team of 100 people.

"Watertight!"

"Which battalion are you from?" the other captain asked again.

"Ninth Battalion!"

Hearing that it was the Ninth Battalion, the other captain no longer paid attention to them.

The Ninth Battalion was originally the state soldiers of Hezhou, with a total of 3,000 people. They had a very low status in the army and were discriminated against by other armies. Usually, no one paid attention to them.

So when they heard that it was the Ninth Battalion, other patrol teams were unwilling to pay attention to them.

The street was very quiet. They lined up on West Street, and the end of West Street was the West City Gate.

The moat of Hefei was very wide, more than 20 feet wide. A stone bridge was built. There was no road at the end of the stone bridge. It was three feet away from the stone pier on the opposite bank, and it was necessary to wait for the suspension bridge to be lowered.

So the importance of the suspension bridge is self-evident.

At this time, Lai Zhen’s 30,000 troops had arrived outside the West City, about one mile away from the moat, patiently waiting for the fire on the top of the city.

This kind of internal and external cooperation is simple and difficult. If the other party has no defense and it is not wartime, it will be easy, and there will be only a few people on duty at the city gate.

But if it is a wartime state, the city gate guards will increase sharply to hundreds of people, and they will not sleep and closely observe the movements inside and outside the city. At this time, it will be difficult to capture the city with internal and external cooperation.

The time was gradually approaching three o'clock in the morning.