Wang Wenxiu, who was at the end of the team, led his troops quickly and slowly, still two miles away from the battlefield.
The soldiers at the battalion's artillery post were already cleaning the battlefield.
There were groans of pain everywhere.
Liu Chengzong passed by the outskirts of the battlefield where corpses were strewn, and the artillery sentry sergeants were escorting the captives of the flag army and carrying the wounded soldiers.
In the shallow stream that could not even cover the feet, old thief Cao, who was sitting on a four-wheeled Hongyi artillery cart, his face covered with blood, was chewing horse meat leisurely, holding a porcelain pipe with only the blue and white pictures of the erotic palace, and started to smoke it little by little. Tobacco compaction.
This is Master Huo's pipe.
On the day when Huojiabao was captured, the cracked pipe was handed over by the soldiers, and he gave it to Cao Yao.
Seeing him coming, Cao Yao stood up from the artillery cart and raised his thumb behind him proudly: "General, did you fight well?"
"It's so beautiful. Sit down. It will be a while before the cavalry is back."
Liu Chengzong complimented him, then dismounted and asked, "How did you do that face?"
Cao Yao wiped his face with the back of his hand, shook his head and said, "It's unlucky to be hit by the Crouching Tiger Cannon. They banged a few cannons, but all my soldiers were fine. Only a piece of flesh was bitten off my face by the cannon."
Fortunately for him, the enemy fired the shot at a greater distance, and the wound was also on the cheekbone.
A little further up, there will be a one-eyed dragon; if the cannon fires later, one more row of people will be killed.
Liu Chengzong put down the red flag and grazed by the stream. He also went over and sat next to the cannon cart. He handed out a handkerchief for him to wipe it with: "It's time for my sister-in-law to scold me when I go home. Follow me out and break up our relationship."
"Forget it, we are not like Lin Wei who rely on our reputation to make a living."
Cao Yao laughed out loud, and immediately called to a gunslinger who was running away with the weapon, and asked for a match rope to light the pipe. Then he said: "This is the first game. Let me fight two more games, and I will be able to light the rifle." All the large and small mixed formations are listed."
"Forget it, you'll be dead in two more fights."
"Um……"
Cao Yao waved his hands and spoke with ease: "This is the most difficult battle. I think they are easy to deal with so I fought like this. The artillerymen are counting how many people have been killed by the artillery fire. In the next battle, we will fire at a hundred steps."
Good guy, when Liu Chengzong heard that this old thief still knew how to calculate data, he gave a thumbs up and said: "Brother Cao, you were born late. If you were born a few years earlier, you would be Qi Yuanjing!"
"You were born a few years earlier and you were still Tan Zili." Cao Yao took the pipe from his mouth and spread his hands: "Isn't it too late for me to be born? Is there anything I can do?"
Liu Chengzong said: "Tell me what you think."
"Fifty steps, a hundred steps, a hundred and fifty steps, the Tiger Crouching Cannon is loaded with gravel, the Emerging Pearl Cannon is loaded with six cents of iron powder, and the Fran Machine is loaded with three cents of iron powder."
Cao Yao stretched out three fingers, corresponding to the distance in turn, and calculated: "For each distance, three types of cannons correspond to five, six, seven, um... nine types, corresponding to nine types of enemy casualties."
A smile appeared on Liu Chengzong's face. He originally thought that Cao Yao's hands were itchy, but he didn't expect that he was looking for rules very strictly.
He also thought about firing a musket at close range.
But the times are wrong, the weapons are wrong, and the enemy is wrong.
Using a musketeer team to close in and fire a volley can cause a lot of casualties, but if the number of muskets is insufficient, it will not be able to defeat the enemy, and at a closer distance, it is easy to be counterattacked by the enemy.
Most of the time, the winning strategy is determined by the enemy's shortcomings.
The Ming Dynasty's frontier troops in this era studied Qi Jiguang's drill code published by the Ministry of War.
When Qi Jiguang was stationed in Jizhen, the requirement for the cannons and artillery in the carriage camp was to fire 512 No. 4 Franz machine guns in sequence, pursuing continuity of firepower with extremely high discipline.
Because the Mongols generally did not engage in positional warfare with the Ming army.
"When I figure it out, which cannon is better, I will use that cannon and fire at the most suitable distance."
Cao Yao said it very simply: "I hope it is the Pearl Cannon. It is light and durable. The Fran Machine is also good, but it is too heavy. As for the Tiger Crouching..."
The old thief raised his finger and pointed at his cheekbones: "You didn't kill me. I don't think it's good to penetrate armor."
The shooting angle of the Tiger Crouching is high, it can shoot far but not directly, and the shells are clear, so the damage to armored enemies is not as good as other guns.
Liu Chengzong did not follow his words, but instead asked: "Do you know where I most want to go when I enter Shanxi?"
"Prince Yonghe's Palace and Prince Qingcheng's Palace in Fenyang City?"
Liu Chengzong shook his head: "There is no food in the palace. The food is in Wangzhuang outside. Shaanxi has reduced production this year. Food is very important, but I want iron smelting more. There are ready-made tools. We used to cast a batch of cannons ourselves, which is most suitable for us." cannon."
"What kind of gun?"
Liu Chengzong's eyes showed reverie: "A small red barbarian cannon weighing less than 200 kilograms, with a gun carriage of 400 kilograms, two mules running, and powerful enough for field battles."
Use the modulus of each part of the gun body to make the thicker areas thicker and the less thick areas thinner, so that the artillery can be lighter and more durable under the same power.
So under the same weight, it is naturally more powerful.
Cao Yao narrowed his eyes, wiped the blood on his face again, and was very excited: "You wait, when you cross Luliang Mountain, you let me walk around, and I will bring back some Buddha statues. Don't use iron, use copper."
The requirements are quite high.
Liu Chengzong smiled and nodded, and saw in the distance that the cavalry that was chasing the enemy were escorting hundreds of prisoners and returning in groups.
Zhong Bao, who was leading the cavalry, galloped over, dismounted and prostrated, saying: "General, we still ran dozens of people. We went into the mountains and couldn't catch up."
"It's okay. You can send someone to the village at Chengguan in Pu County to ask how the flag army's military discipline was when it was stationed in the camp."
"As long as you don't do anything that makes people angry." Liu Chengzong thought for a while and suddenly touched his body and said, "If you are willing to surrender, then accept it; if you don't want to surrender, then... Brother Cao, do you have any money?"
"Silver? How much do you want?"
"Three to five taels, maybe a dozen taels will do."
"Easy to handle!"
As he spoke, Cao Yao jumped down from the cannon cart, handed the pipe to his hand, crouched down and searched around in the cannon cart of the Hongyi Pao, struggled to lift the cannon tail bead, and after a while he stretched out his hand: "Is it enough?"
Two flattened silver ingots worth ten ounces.
Liu Chengzong was dumbfounded: "You put money down the cannon?"
Cao Yao said it was to seek a good omen, but he didn’t know where the superstition came from.
"If you are willing to follow, you can have enough to eat and drink; but some family members are in the guardhouse, and they don't force it. Each of them will be given one yuan or sixty-seven cents of silver for travel expenses. Let them make it clear that we were soldiers before, and it will not be easy for us to let go. They go home."
He said and laughed to himself.
In that case, why pursue it?
But things are sometimes so weird. On the surface, the results are the same if you don't pursue them and if you let them go, but in fact, for those who are let go and those who know about it, they are very different.
Whenever the imperial court could afford military pay, Liu Chengzong would not do so.
Only a little travel expenses were needed to ensure that the next time the troops were sent out, everyone still bravely joined the army, gathered the numbers for the generals and officials, and enthusiastically surrendered during the fight.
It was already dark, so Liu Chengzong dispersed the Tang soldiers ten miles away and camped in the camp where the government troops had set up camp.
In the middle of the night, Zhong Bao stood outside the tent and said that the servant who had gone to Pu County was back and brought back the situation of the Pingyang Guards in Pu County.
"They were stationed in Qiangou, Pu County for two days. Mrs. Du said that they dismantled the door panels of their home to sleep in, but did not secure them when they left. They took four bundles of hay to feed the mules and used them for paving the ground; they also wanted to use the mules' Take it away, Mrs. Du saw it and stopped holding it."
"There is also an old man named Mi from Xixiang who said that two bannermen lived in his house. They stole his cotton trousers when he left and did not leave the torn cotton trousers behind. There is also an old man named Chen's nephew. There is a small bannerman under Song Baihu's command. We made an agreement with him that if I sleep with my mother-in-law for one night, I will give her four cents of silver, and if I sleep for two nights, I will give her five cents when I leave."
After Zhong Bao finished speaking, he glanced at Liu Chengzong and whispered: "Military discipline is okay."
Liu Chengzong licked his lips and pondered for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay, this is just a bunch of prostitutes, it's not a big problem."
He clearly felt Zhong Bao let out a long sigh of relief.
Early the next morning, Liu Chengzong asked the prisoners to bring out more than 600 people. He also borrowed some money from Zhong Hu and others, collected 70 taels of silver, and registered on the spot.
Indeed, few people were willing to follow him.
I am not willing to join a thief in the first place. If the thief is released and given money, then who will continue to be a thief?
In the end, there were fourteen people who said that they had no family members in the guard station and that if they became thieves, they would not harm their relatives and be lured into the army, so they became thieves and were incorporated into various sentries.
The remaining people received a penny of silver from Liu Chengzong and entered the prisoner camp again.
When everyone was about to leave, Liu Chengzong told them: "Don't harm the people on the way back. Come back when you run out of food. I'll take care of how many days you have to eat. If you don't want to follow me, it's okay. Eat for a few days before you go back."
Before they could leave, Liu Chengzong broke camp and left, leaving behind the porridge cooked in the camp and letting them drink a bowl. Everyone packed up the remaining food before leaving.
Then the soldiers and horses rushed to Daning County, and soon pursued Yonghe County. They almost made a circle before catching up with another army of Pingyang Guards by virtue of their marching speed.
This official army is not so well-behaved.
They didn't fight with them at all. Since Wei Qian'er's Tangqi was discovered in the northeast of Yonghe County, the whole army dispersed and ran all the way.
Cao Yao was so angry that he screamed, and the sentry soldiers chased him all the way to Shilou County on the hilly road in the northeast.
When they reached Shilou County, there were more than 400 people left in the flag army. They had abandoned their armor along the way and were completely defeated.
Shilou County did not dare to open the city gate for them. After running for nearly sixty miles, they lost any strength.
Finally, outside the shallow moat, they formed a formation with their backs to the suspension bridge.
It was Zhong Bao who was chasing them, and there was nothing he could do against this group of people.
There were many of his men chasing the cavalry, but they could not withstand the flag soldiers and surrendered all the way. They also discarded their helmets and armor along the way, leaving weapons and armor everywhere.
If they surrendered, they would have to send someone to watch them, and the weapons everywhere made it more difficult to watch them.
By the time he chased him to Shilou, he only had a vanguard of fifty cavalry.
The two groups of people confronted each other by the Longquan River outside Shilou City. They waited until an hour later when Liu Chengzong led his troops over and said, "Tell them, Shilou County doesn't care about food. Come with me and have a full meal before we talk."
No one listened.
Later, when Liu Chengzong saw Shilou County, he had no intention of sending troops to fight it out, so he simply asked people to bring pots picked up on the road, fetched water from nearby villages, and put in some dried horse meat that the soldiers carried with them.
Made a horse meat soup.
As soon as the drinking started here, the flag army couldn't stand it anymore.
After the meal, the usual ceremony of collecting and releasing people was carried out. They were all from Pingyang Guards. When passing through Daning County, Liu Chengzong also sent someone to ask.
Their performance is similar to that of the flag army in Pu County, they are also a bunch of old gangsters.
However, this time Liu Chengzong had experience and asked the carrier to bring some money in advance and paid back the money of the sentry commanders. The specifications for releasing the prisoners were still the same.
He was very happy about this battle. The flag army was defeated but there were not many casualties. Everyone was not in a bad mood.
Only Shilou County was shocked. At first, there were only a few dozen riders, so they didn't want to light the smoke. Later, there were more people, but Liu Chengzong didn't want to besiege the city, so he didn't dare to light the smoke.
After they went south, they finally breathed a sigh of relief and sent someone out of the city to send a message to Li Shien, who was stationed at Kulong Pass in the east, saying that the bandit soldiers from the south had crossed the border and besieged the city, and they left after being besieged.
Perhaps because of the retribution for lying, just one night after Shilou County passed the news to Li Shien that the city was under siege, Shilou County was really besieged.
In a sea of "Chuangzi" banners, the magistrate of Shilou on the top of the city wanted to cry without tears, just wanting to open his mouth that he had never opened before.
Gao Yingxiang took dozens of horses and headed south. The further he walked, the more confused he became.
I passed two villages that were burned down at the beginning, and I thought to myself, Liu Shishi asked me to strictly enforce military discipline, and destroyed all the villages myself?
But further south, things are very different.
This village is not afraid of thieves!
When the common people saw them, it was as if they had not seen them.
It's just that when they marched on this road, the people would carry dung and go on the other side.
There were even people holding iron tools to follow them.
At first, Gao Yingxiang was frightened, but later he found that the people were just picking up horse dung after them, just a hundred steps away.
I have never seen anything like this in Shaanxi!
It's hard to say what he felt in his heart, Gao Yingxiang was not happy at all, and there was even a sense of irritability rising in his heart.
He has seen others fear, and he has also seen others support him. No matter which way it is, he feels very good.
There are more than fifty fully armed horse soldiers, and even Tatars from Mongolia, and more than one hundred and sixty horses. Not to mention frightening you to the point of kowtowing and begging grandpa for mercy, you have to give me some face to get into the mountains, right?
Such complete disregard?
King Gao Chuang couldn't accept it in his heart. It was like this after walking through one village, and it was still like this after walking through two villages.
In the third village, there were still people following the team picking up horse manure. He couldn't help it, so he patted the horse soldiers and turned back.
"Hey, that old man, stop and don't move!"
The old man was startled, so he picked up a piece of flattened horse manure with an iron clip and pointed it at the horse thief: "You, what are you doing?"
This is the first time the old man has seen this situation. This thief is actually talking to someone!
"Aren't you afraid of us? You've been picking up horse manure from behind!"
The old man was stunned for a while, then slowly frowned and asked in a low voice: "You heroes, which team do you belong to?"
"Which team do you care about... I ask you, are you not afraid of us?"
The old man asked again: "General Liu?"
The horse thief shook his head.
"Border troops?"
The horse thief shook his head again.
"Flag Army?"
The horse thief still shook his head.
The next moment, the old man threw away the iron clip and the wooden basket containing the horse manure, and ran towards the village. His straw sandals flew away as he ran, and he shouted: "Hurry up the mountain, there is a thief!"
