After waiting for more than ten days, the firearms requested by Boss Qian arrived as promised. However, these firearms were not packed in cargo boxes, but were equipped on the soldiers of the Perak Army. At this moment, Cao Ergou led 246 soldiers-in addition to the two companies from Hengyuan Town and 44 scouts under Yuan Shanhu, an artillery position had been built in front of Qianjiazhai. According to Cao Ergou's ultimatum, if the four kidnapped scouts are not handed over before noon, the Pili Army will uproot Qianjiazhai.
This Qianjiazhai is located on a rock thirty miles west of Huojing City. Although the village only has a few dozen acres, it is surrounded by cliffs with a height of more than tens of meters on three sides. Only one side of the village gate is a flat and gentle slope, making it an easy-to-defend but difficult-to-attack place. There are nearly a thousand people in the village. Its wall is seven meters high and five meters thick. It is tamped with loess on the inside and wrapped with stones on the outside. It is stronger than ordinary city walls in prefectures and counties. In addition, the Qian family has strong financial resources, plenty of money and food, and excellent weapons. There are even several trebuchets in the village. Not to mention that ordinary bandits couldn't attack, even the officers and soldiers of Qiongzhou and Huojing County were helpless. Strong force is also what he relies on for his private salt business. When the Mongols captured Huojing, they tried to persuade them to surrender because they were a tough nut to crack, but the Qian family stubbornly refused to surrender to the Mongols. On the one hand, they were unwilling to accept foreign rule, and on the other hand, they hated the Mongolian invasion for disrupting business and cutting off their financial resources. The Mongols had nothing to do about this. Although there were many troops stationed in Qiongzhou and Huojing, they had to guard against the Song army in the direction of Jiading Prefecture and Ya and Diaozhou, so they did not attack Qianjiazhai in a large scale. It was precisely because the Qian family refused to surrender to the Mongols that Ouyang Xuan asked Cao Ergou to pay homage first and then fight. Otherwise, by kidnapping the soldiers and threatening the Pili Army, the Qian family village would be destroyed no matter how heavy the casualties were.
As soon as the ultimatum time passed, Cao Ergou ordered the artillery fire. After all, this military operation was on the territory of Qiongzhou and fell within the sphere of influence of Yu Xing of Jiading Prefecture. In order to quickly decide the battle and prevent too much movement from causing interference from the government and army, Cao Ergou did not bring the field artillery recently developed by the Pili Army, but still brought the light tiger crouching cannon and mother-child cannon. The new field artillery not only has a range of three miles, but also has a fast rate of fire and is very powerful. If you use solid shells, you can easily blast open the gates of the forts. Even the iron gates of Wanjia Fort and the Hengyuan Fort under construction will not be able to withstand a few rounds before being bombarded. collapse. It's just that the new artillery is too heavy. Although a wheeled gun mount is installed, its mobility is still insufficient due to the lack of mules and horses.
After a few rounds of shelling by the Perak Army, the gate of Qianjiazhai was opened and the captured scouts were released. In fact, in these rounds of shelling, the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Mother-and-Child Cannon only left shallow bullet marks on the stone strips of the village wall, and could not blast open the heavy wooden door. However, the dense shotshells had a very large impact on soft targets such as the human body. of penetration. Qianjiazhai has a large population and extremely dense buildings. Although the flying shotguns only injured a few unlucky people and a few livestock, the shelling ignited the livestock fodder stored in the village, and the fire ignited the surrounding houses. Although the fire was quickly extinguished, it caused great panic among the villagers.
Qian Jiazhai, who was engaged in business and robbery, was naturally very well-informed. They knew all about the illustrious deeds of the Perak Army and knew the power of artillery. They even found out that the man leading the attack was Cao Ergou, who had easily defeated Dayi City. This was Ouyang Xuan's number one general. Since the rise of the Thunderbolt Army, the rumors about Ouyang Xuan have become more and more evil. Later, there were even rumors that a god descended to earth and he would cast spells to summon the God of Thunder and God of Fire to destroy those who disobey his will. "Thunderbolts from heaven are invincible." This reputation is not bragging, but is earned through battles. Although Boss Qian doesn't believe the rumors, it is always true that firearms are powerful.
As a profit-seeking businessman, Boss Qian had no determination to fight to the death with the Perak Army. He kidnapped the Perak Army scouts just to extort igniters to deal with the Yibo bandits who robbed the caravan. He never expected that the Perak Army would mobilize an army and travel a long distance to attack him just for a few soldiers. He originally thought that relying on the stronghold to force the Perak Army to retreat, but he didn't expect that the sharpness of the artillery was beyond imagination. What was even more frightening was that he didn't know when the artillery fire would end! Will it become more and more fierce? After weighing the pros and cons, he ordered the village gate to be opened and the captured scouts returned, and he took his personal entourage out of the village gate to negotiate with the Perak Army. The reason why Boss Qian dares to do this is that on the one hand, the Perak Army has always been tough and has a good record against the Mongols he hates, which suits his appetite. On the other hand, it is also based on his businessman's way of thinking. He firmly believes that everything in the world is It is a benefit. Except for sworn matters, you can spend money to eliminate disasters. Based on this mentality, although he captured the Perak Army scouts and kept them under strict supervision, he treated them with delicious food and drink, more like treating them to guests than prisoners.
It should be said that Boss Qian guessed Ouyang Xuan's psychology very accurately. Before setting off, Ouyang Xuan specifically explained to Cao Ergou the principles for handling the matter - those who offend the Pili Army must be punished no matter how far away they are, and those who repent can be treated with magnanimity. Seeing that the four released scouts were in good health and had not been mistreated by Qianjiazhai, Cao Ergou agreed to the request for negotiation. He originally planned to send death squads to blow open the gate of the village with explosives. As soon as the gate of the village was broken, they could fall down with one blast. It's just that Cao Ergou is an expert in leading troops in war, but he is a layman in negotiations. The negotiation was handled by Zhu Tiaozi, the manager of the accompanying trading company. Ouyang Xuan specially arranged for Zhu Tiaozi to come with the army this time. After reading the information sent back by Yuan Shanhu, he was keenly aware that Qianjiazhai was extremely important for the Pili Army to open up trade routes between Yi and Tibet in the southwest. Therefore, we have established the principle of courtesy first and then fighting, and we will do our best to win over this force.
The Perak Army is currently developing rapidly, and the area under its control is rich in products, but only Ouyang Xuan knows that it is now facing a development bottleneck, especially the lack of several strategic materials, which will seriously restrict the next development of the Perak Army. The area controlled by the Perak Army is not only short of daily necessities such as salt, hemp, and cotton, but also lacks important minerals such as copper, silver, tin, and mercury. There is also a shortage of fire salt and lead production for the military. There are even fewer horses that can greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the army. So pitiful. Expanding trade with the outside world can not only obtain urgently needed strategic materials, but also a large amount of funds. During this period, whether it was fighting, clearing land or building fortresses, money and food were consumed so quickly that Li Shuang, the general in charge of government affairs, and Yang Xiucai, who was in charge of finance and taxation, both complained about the lack of money, food and materials when they saw Ouyang Xuan.
Currently, the Pili Army's trading company does not have much business, and most of the few sales transactions are within a few dozen miles from Hengyuan Town. The reason is that the war not only destroyed the economy, but also blocked the trade routes. Although the profits of trading activities were very high, due to the small transaction volume and the inconvenience of the roads, which required armed guards, there was not much money to be made after settlement. The trading company can still exist because the Perak Army is in urgent need of strategic materials such as salt, seeds, and linen from the outside. In the past few months, the businesses of industrial companies, mining companies, construction companies, etc. have been booming and their scale has expanded a lot, but only the trading company is half dead. Zhu Tiaozi is so anxious that he can't do anything.
Ouyang Xuan, Zhu Tiaozi and others also discussed ways to break the trade situation many times, but they were unable to solve the dilemma. Since the north is controlled by the Mongols, the current feasible trade routes for the Perak Army can only go south and east, and there are three main routes. The first is to take the water route, passing through Meizhou, Jiading Prefecture, Luzhou, Chongqing Prefecture, and then along the east river to Lin'an Prefecture. The second is to go through Jiading Prefecture and then to Shimenguan in Xuzhou, and go south to Bozhou, Luo Shiguo and Dali. In places like China, the third tea-horse road heading west is, as its name suggests, a trade road leading to the Yi tribes and Tibetan tribes in the southwest. The largest commodities traded between the two sides are tea and horses, and other specialties are also traded. For the Perak Army Trade Team, the first two routes are too far and require not only a large amount of capital investment but also a long period of operation to be effective. Although the third route is short, the road is extremely difficult and dangerous. The Yifan tribes along the way have extremely fierce folk customs, and some even Take pride in robbing and killing. Even a man like Boss Qian, who is both a businessman and a bandit, managed to open up the connections along the way by spending many years spreading money to make good friends with the tribes along the way. However, the invasion of the Mongols broke the political balance of some Yi and Tibetan tribes and made the trade routes dangerous again. Ouyang Xuan took a fancy to the connections between Qianjiazhai and the tribes along the business road, and was convinced that Boss Qian was unwilling to have his years of hard work ruined, so he sent Zhu Tiaozi to negotiate.
