Chapter 423: Cannons Fired at Him

Chapter 423: Cannons fired at him...

There were only four people on the wall of Liangzhou. Pei Shouyue and Su Dingfang behind them were full of excitement, staring at the troops coming slowly from the distance.

There was only the sound of wind between Xue Rengui and Li Jing.

But after several months of getting along, Xue Rengui gradually became familiar with the old general. Although he didn't speak at the moment, he could still tell from Li Jing's motionless posture and the sound of his breathing that could not be covered by the wind:

The old general valued the troops of the Wulei Office very much.

But if Xue Rengui asked himself a little, he had to ask himself:

Can I not value it? Dare not value it?

During the time in Liangzhou, Li Jing taught Xue Rengui everything he knew.

In addition to emphasizing that a general needs to be brave and strategic, he also interspersed past wars in the middle, using sand table simulations to let Xue Rengui think from his own perspective.

In his spare time, he would take miscellaneous weapons and equipment and explain the tactical differences brought about by them to Xue Rengui in detail from the small to the big.

During this step-by-step teaching, Xue Rengui also heard about the Wulei Temple founded by General Li Jing, and knew about the thing called gunpowder.

Although he had not seen it with his own eyes, just hearing General Li briefly describe its power was enough to shock Xue Rengui.

Now that he was about to see it with his own eyes, Xue Rengui's heart became more and more excited.

From Guanzhong to the west into the Western Regions, there are only three important towns along the way, Liangzhou, Zhangye, and Dunhuang.

If Hexi is regarded as the arm of the country, Zhangye and Dunhuang are both the arm of the country, and Liangzhou is undoubtedly the root of this arm.

Connected to Chang'an in the east and Zhangguoye in the west, Liangzhou can be said to be a mixed bag of people. Merchants on the trade route, tribute envoys, Turkic spies, and Tuyuhun spies all traveled through here.

In view of this, after Li Jing arrived, he relied on his brave and strong soldiers to repeatedly screen Liangzhou.

Now it can be regarded as the initial effect. At least the ban has been issued, and no one dares to go out on the streets of Liangzhou City against the order.

The Hu people only dared to hide behind the door, complaining that the Liangzhou garrison commander who suddenly arrived was difficult to get along with, while looking at the army slowly passing by on the straight street through the crack of the door.

Silent and mighty army.

As for why the court suddenly sent important generals and heavy troops to Liangzhou, the Hu people in the Western Regions themselves were also confused and made various speculations.

Although some people speculated that they wanted to destroy Tuyuhun and eliminate the threat of elbows and armpits, on the one hand, Jie Li Khan had only settled in Chang'an for more than a year, and it was hard to believe that the Tang Dynasty had the spare energy to conquer for years. On the other hand, who in the Western Regions didn't know that Tuyuhun was good at escaping, it was not difficult to defeat it, but how difficult it was to win.

So in the end, the mainstream speculation was that the Tang court should want to sort out Hexi.

Li Jing knew this very well, but he still ignored it. In order to ignore this speculation, he even sent troops to patrol between Zhangye and Liangzhou frequently, so that the Western Regions Hu people confirmed this speculation.

Seeing that the Wu Lei Office had successfully entered the city and was going to camp in the north of the city, Li Jing turned around and said:

"If you want to command soldiers, how can you not know soldiers? Follow me."

Xue Rengui felt that his whole body was excited from the inside out.

Most of the people from the Wu Lei Office went to camp, but there was still a small group of people outside the city. Combined with what Li Jing said, how could he not understand that this gunpowder weapon could be seen with his own eyes today!

On the other side, Pei Xingjian and Su Lie saw Li Jing waving to this side from a distance, and they followed him with joy.

If you want to test the weapon, you naturally can't do it outside Liangzhou City. After Li Jing got off the city gate, he took the initiative to hand over the waist card and let the team carefully check it.

After the identity verification was completed, Li Jing rode on his horse and led the team to the east of Liangzhou.

They walked and stopped like this until they were more than 30 miles away from the city. Li Jing waved his hand and stopped, pointing to the front and said:

"Let's use this beacon as a test."

After hundreds of years of war, the territories of the Han and the Hu people were repeatedly shifted. There were countless beacon towers scattered throughout the north, all of which were built with rammed earth and were extremely solid. After a hundred years of wind and sand, the walls of the beacon towers were still quite intact.

"What to test? Wait, let us charge at this earth wall and break it down?"

Pei Xingjian said it immediately, and Su Dingfang almost covered his mouth again.

It's not that Pei Xingjian didn't believe in his master Li Jing. The main reason was that on the one hand, he couldn't keep his mouth idle, and on the other hand, the words in history books that described power like Su Dingfang were really rampant and a bit exaggerated.

Especially when reading the records of state affairs during the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties in Hongwenguan, similar descriptions were particularly common.

So in his imagination, even if the Five Thunder Department is powerful, at most it should have sharper weapons. Could it really borrow thunder from the sky?

Especially when he saw this team of people unloading a copper cylinder from the baggage carriage, which was as thick as Su Dingfang's thigh.

Pei Xingjian became more and more certain... Hey, hey, hey, why are you guys starting to mix medicine powder?

Completely different from what Pei Xingjian imagined, this team of people is more like craftsmen than elite soldiers.

But seeing these people carefully mixing medicine powder and handling copper cylinders, their expressions are extremely solemn, as if the items they handled are worth more than a thousand gold.

Out of curiosity, Pei Xingjian also instinctively stopped talking, and stood aside with Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui and watched these soldiers operate seriously.

They didn't have to wait too long. The first to stand up were a row of the tallest and strongest soldiers. What made Pei Xingjian almost laugh was that these soldiers all carried bamboo baskets on their backs, inside which were clay pots with ears, and a thin hemp rope was passed through them to tie them tightly.

This time Pei Xingjian couldn't help it again: "Is this toad-like pottery pot a military weapon?"

Toads are tadpoles, and Su Lie thought they looked like tadpoles.

But after being glared at by Li Jing, Pei Xingjian quickly covered his mouth and stared with wide eyes.

The soldiers seemed to be unaware and took out a "tadpole" from the backpack. Then they took out a fire and touched the small tail of the pottery pot in an orderly manner. When they saw that it had started to smoke, they grabbed the tail rope of the "tadpole" and swung it around like a flying stone for several circles, and then threw it towards the beacon at the same time.

Immediately afterwards, Pei Xingjian fell off his horse.

The sudden loud noise not only caused Pei Xingjian's brain to crash, but also caused the warhorse under his crotch to neigh. Fortunately, Su Dingfang, who was riding with him, almost relied on instinct to suppress the horse's commotion and leaned over to pull Pei Xingjian up, so that he avoided the fate of being trampled by the horse.

Pei Xingjian, who was still in shock, could no longer laugh. His eyes were wide open and he murmured:

"It is more than far superior to ghosts and gods, this is to seize the power of heaven and earth! Su Dingfang, how inaccurate you are!"

Su Lie was also speechless for a while and was too lazy to argue with him. He was riding on a horse and was in a high place. He could see clearly that the pottery pot burst and a puff of dust rose. After the dust settled, he saw that the pottery pot fragments had been embedded in the beacon tower wall.

The rammed earth wall was like this, and it was also conceivable that if it touched the human body...

Just for this thing, Su Dingfang felt that today's visit was particularly worthwhile, but it was not over yet.

Then, several people watched the thin bamboo tubes that could emit thick smoke and a little flame. It was said that they were made of waste gunpowder. The bamboo tubes could only be thrown away after use. It was suitable for the warriors to carry two with them when they went to the army, and ignite them before the battle and throw them into the enemy's formation.

The most important part was the iron cylinder.

Su Dingfang watched the warriors dig a pit with great effort to bury half of the cylinder body, and then stuffed a polished round stone into it.

At the tail of the cylinder, a fuse as thick as a little finger was lit, and then the warriors ran away one by one.

Although he didn't know why, Su Lie subconsciously pulled the reins and stepped back a little, and then he sincerely felt fortunate that this decision was correct.

The smoke and dust were dozens of times thicker than the previous pottery pot, the earth-shaking loud noise, and even a little tremor of the earth could be felt. Then he saw that a gap had been broken in the rammed earth wall that could allow a horse to go back and forth calmly, and the dust was flying.

Pei Xingjian fell off his horse again.

Li Jing was the only one who could still not feel the noise.

The former master of Wu Lei Temple was full of joy at this time, and he was particularly clear about these things.

Let’s not talk about the pottery cannon and the smoke pipe for now. This cannon is really easy and difficult.

The easy part is that I have seen the cannon called "cultural relics" in the light curtain. I tried it several times and it has achieved initial results in the past year.

The difficulty is because the material of the cannon body. The choice of copper and iron involves the size of the cannon body, the power of the launch, and other unknown things.

For example, after being incorporated into the General Works Bureau, with the help of the blacksmith, Wu Lei Bureau once confidently cast a cannon made of iron. As a result, the cannon body cracked after firing a shot. When it insisted on trying the second shot, the cannon body of iron exploded. If it had not been prepared in advance, I am afraid that the craftsmen of the General Works Bureau would have suffered heavy casualties.

That is why the only thing that could be brought to Liangzhou in the end was this copper cannon.

But this is enough! Li Jing was full of energy and couldn't wait for the next war.

Wen Mang looked at the huge exclamation mark that popped up in the upper right corner of his website and clicked it curiously, then read out:

"Congratulations on reaching a major historical turning point?"