During the training period for the artillerymen of Diaoyu City, the Pili Army personnel were not idle either. Ouyang Xuan asked Zhang Jue and Wang Li for advice on their combat experience against the Mongolian army, and also learned about relevant information about the current situation. Although he knew the direction of history, he did not know the details of the Sichuan Anti-Mongolian War. After all, the history books only recorded approximate records, some of which were unclear and might even be completely opposite to the real situation. There is a saying that "history is like a little girl who can be dressed up by others." Therefore, Ouyang Xuan does not fully believe in history books. After all, "it is better to have no books than to believe in all books." Diaoyu City is located at the intersection of three rivers, and is only more than a hundred miles away from Chongqing, the center of Sichuan's anti-Mongolian movement. Therefore, it has a much better grasp of the dynamics of the Mongolian army than the Perak Army, which is located in western Sichuan.
During the conversation with Zhang Jue and Wang Li, Ouyang Xuan learned that since Meng Ge entered Lizhou in the autumn, he had been continuously attacking cities and plundering territory. Not long ago, they broke through Kuzhu Pass, fell into Changning Mountain (today's Cangxi, Sichuan), and killed the guard Wang Zuo and his son. The Mongolian and Han armies led by kings Mo Ge and Shi Tianze marched southward from Yangzhou Micang Pass to Sichuan. Together with the Mongolian armies led by Niulin, the three groups of Mongolian armies were approaching Chongqing. These three Mongolian armies had more than 100,000 elite soldiers. Not only did they exceed the Sichuan Song Army in number, but their combat power was overwhelming. The Mongolian army also invested heavily in the Jinghu Battlefield and the Lianghuai Battlefield, intending to take over the Southern Song Dynasty in one fell swoop. If Sichuan was not secured, the Mongolian army would move down the river and threaten Lin'an. Seeing that the battlefield in Sichuan was in danger, the Song Dynasty sent Lu Wende to lead a large army to Sichuan to support it.
Ouyang Xuan couldn't help but feel moved when he heard the name Lu Wende. Lu Wende was among the list of important officials in the DPRK who he told Li Kaipeng to bribe. Before his death in 1269, this man had been the main general in the Korean War against Mongolia. He was born a commoner and started fighting against the Mongols. During his more than thirty years of fighting against the Mongols, he fought in Jianghuai, Jinghu, and Sichuan, and made many military exploits. But he himself was extremely greedy for money and power, and was good at forming parties for personal gain. He promoted a large number of family members and fellow villagers to become generals, and colluded with the powerful minister Jia Sidao to form a huge military group.
The drink bottle Ouyang Xuan gave to Li Kaipeng was given to Lu Wende, and the jacket was used to bribe Jia Sidao. As for the bribery argument, Ouyang Xuan also explained: "This treasure is a magical weapon from the far west. It is born from the essence of gold and does not get wet when exposed to water..." You can shout whatever you want, anyway, this thing It is an extremely rare and precious thing, and there will never be another one in the world. In the memory, after Lu Wende reinforced the Sichuan battlefield, Jia Sidao led his troops to Ezhou as the right prime minister to fight against Kublai Khan, the younger brother of Mengge Khan, who led the army to invade the Jinghu battlefield. Li Kaipeng should be able to find the two of them on his way to Lin'an.
While teaching bombardment, Huang Dagen took navy personnel to learn water warfare in Diaoyu City. Among the naval forces of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Jinghu battlefield was the strongest, followed by the Lianghuai battlefield, and the Sichuan battlefield was the weakest. In the battlefield of Sichuan, the navy in eastern Sichuan was the strongest, followed by Xuzhou and Luzhou in southern Sichuan, and the naval forces in western Sichuan such as Jiading Prefecture were the weakest. This distribution of strength of the navy is not surprising. After all, where the rivers and lakes are wider and the wars are more frequent, the navy will naturally be the strongest. Mongolia, which has lived in the interior of the north for a long time, did not have a navy before, so naturally it suffered many losses in water battles with the Jin Kingdom and the Southern Song Dynasty. Of course, the Mongols naturally understand the principle of "Southern Ships and Northern Horses". They have been developing their navy and have gradually achieved results. The defeat of the Xuzhou Navy with more than 500 warships is an example. The Xuzhou navy was stronger than the Jiading navy, and far surpassed the Perak navy, but it was defeated by the Mongolian army. Although the Mongolian land troops and horses played a decisive role in this battle, the rapid progress of the Mongolian navy cannot be ignored.
Since Ouyang Xuan was safe in Diaoyu City, the accompanying special forces soldiers competed with Wang Jian and Zhang Jue's personal guards in martial arts. The two personal guards are not only guards, but also a key force in the counterattack when the city defense is breached. Sometimes they also perform night raids on enemy camps and destroy enemy siege equipment. Their mission is similar to that of the special forces of the Perak Army. Only Li Kaipeng's team seemed a little more relaxed. Diaoyu City is the seat of Hezhou government, but it is a fortress military city with no commercial activities. They can only chat with people and collect information about the local customs.
After the Diaoyu City gunners became proficient in gunnery, Ouyang Xuan declined Zhang Jue and Wang Li's attempts to stay and set sail back. Before returning home, Ouyang Xuan ordered that in addition to ammunition and weapons for self-defense, all artillery shells and gunpowder should be donated to Diaoyu City. The gunpowder used by the Perak Army for the fortress cannons was made from purified saltpeter and sulfur, which were mixed with charcoal in proportion. After multiple processes, they were granulated, and then pressed into half, one, or two kilograms with waterproof oil paper. Customized. Solid bullets are standard equipment, and shotgun shells are also custom-fitted, allowing rapid firing during wartime. In fact, Diaoyu City can also produce gunpowder, and even has iron firearms and thunderbolts. However, the quality of its gunpowder is far inferior to that of the Thunderbolt Army. Not only is the ratio rough, the raw materials such as sulfur and nitrate are not refined, and there are no processes such as granulation. Therefore, the firearms have loud fireworks but poor lethality. Ouyang Xuan also tried to guide improvements, but after seeing the current situation of Diaoyu City's tools, personnel, and raw materials, reaching the level of the Thunderbolt Army was not a short-term solution, and would require a lot of time and testing, so he had to give up.
As for the grenades, they were all left to Liuqiu Company of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade - that is, Li Kaipeng's team. Dozens of them have heavy responsibilities and are far away from support. It is really difficult to carve out a world on their own. Therefore, in addition to providing sufficient start-up funds, the Perak Army also provided the best equipment, including a short musket and a large number of copper-cased bullets. Since the arsenal did not have much inventory at all, these short muskets and ammunition were urgently deployed from the soldiers of the Reconnaissance Battalion of the Internal Guard Brigade. Since the Mongolian troops under the Niulin Division have controlled the water surface from Chongqing to Fuzhou, Liuqiu Company personnel will be escorted by Diaoyu City and first take the land route to the lower reaches of Fuzhou, and then take boats down the river. Ouyang Xuan specially told Li Kaipeng to pay attention to the news of Lu Wende and Jia Sidao while going down the river, and to meet them before going to Lin'an. Of course, the reason for meeting the two men was not to give gifts, but to report the activities of the Mongolian troops hundreds of miles around Diaoyu City. This information was obtained by the Diaoyu City scouts with great pains. Although Li Kaipeng also knew the military information entrusted by Zhang Jue, he still sealed it with fire paint and stamped it with the official seal of Hezhou.
Although the sail was hung on the way back, the speed of boarding the boat was much slower due to the water. It was mid-November again, and the water in the river became a little shallower without realizing it. Since the Perak Army had just come down from the mountain, various undertakings were in the stage of being unfinished, and the situation was changing too fast during this period. Ouyang Xuan and Huang Dagen were also worried about their families, so the fleet did not dock at the Divine Arm when they returned. City and Xuzhou City, but headed straight towards Jiading Prefecture. Because they were in a hurry, the Perak fleet did not pay much attention to the harassment of small groups of water bandits along the way. As long as they did not get too close, they ignored them and allowed them to follow. On the one hand, this was a good return, and on the other hand, most of the gunboat ammunition was given to the defenders of Diaoyu City, leaving only enough for each gun to fire two or three times, so it was really not suitable to fight all the way.
Although there were few artillery shells, Ouyang Xuan was not worried about safety on the way back because there were still dozens of long muskets. When he was in Diaoyu City, Ouyang Xuan had the idea of giving these muskets to Wang Li's men, but considering that in the defense battle of Diaoyu City, muskets were not as easy to use as bows and crossbows, and their maintenance was also troublesome. What's more important is that there are not many copper bullets. When they are all fired, they are used to burn the fire roots, so they are brought back. Due to the shortcomings of slow firing rate and poor accuracy, current muskets must be used on a large scale to fully exert their power. It's just that the Pili Army currently has a huge shortage of muskets. Even Cao Ergou's most elite mounted infantry battalion is still short of more than 40% of the muskets.
