"Supreme."
On the warship, Zhu Ran and Pan Zhang knelt down in front of Sun Quan, both of them covered in blood.
Sun Quan helped the two men up and asked, "Yi Feng and Wen Gui, what are the losses of the front army?"
Pan Zhang and Zhu Ran looked at each other and sighed: "Your Majesty, the front camp suffered a lot of losses, and the sergeants were scattered a lot. If General Yi Feng hadn't arrived in time, I would have been in grave danger."
"Huh?" Sun Quan was shocked at first when he heard this, and then he slapped the railing of the boat and said bitterly, "I was careless and allowed the Wei thieves to succeed in a sneak attack. I will fight with the thieves after daybreak."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Ran advised: "Your Majesty, our army has suffered heavy losses tonight, its morale has dropped, and it is in urgent need of rest and recuperation. Reinforcements of the Wei army have arrived, and the great victory was at a time when morale was at its peak. Therefore, I thought that our army retreated to the south bank to rest and recuperate first. We will wait until the strength of the reinforcements from the Wei thieves is discovered later and then we can make further arrangements."
"This..." Sun Quan remained silent, unable to make a decision.
This time, he had been preparing for months to personally lead the army. He was sure to win over Jiangxia. Unexpectedly, he was defeated by the Wei army at the foot of Shiyang City before he could use his full strength. How could he swallow this? Take this breath?
Not long after Cao Pi died, Cao Rui, the new emperor, was at his most unstable foundation. It was the right moment to mobilize troops. If the opportunity to fight was so rare, it would be difficult to accomplish anything if he retreated.
Although Sun Quan was not good at fighting, he liked military matters very much. He had gained quite a lot of experience on the battlefield over the years. Therefore, he knew clearly that he would fight again after dawn to find out the enemy's situation. But as long as the army retreated to the south bank, It would be almost impossible to attack Shi Yang on the north bank in the future, so he was not willing to retreat to the south of the Yangtze River easily.
It was just Zhu Ran's suggestion to withdraw his troops that forced him to seriously consider the opinion of his top general.
Zhu Ran had studied with Sun Quan together, and they were very affectionate. Therefore, when Sun Quan took control of Jiangdong, he made him his confidant. Zhu Ran did not live up to Sun Quan's high regard. He conquered the south and the north and made many achievements. In the battle of Yiling, he worked with Lu Xun to defeat Liu Bei, which can be said to be an outstanding achievement.
Later, Cao Wei attacked Soochow, and Zhu Ran's performance was even more impressive. At that time, Cao Pi was personally in charge of Wancheng, and sent three famous generals, Cao Zhen, Xiahou Shang, and Zhang He, to attack Jiangling and built several camps to besiege the city.
Because the reinforcements outside Soochow failed to rescue the siege, many of the defenders in Jiangling City suffered from swelling and disease, and there were only more than 5,000 combat-effective sergeants left. In such a difficult and critical situation, Zhu Ran actually relied on the isolated city to hold on for six years. For months, Cao Zhen, Zhang He and others had no choice but to retreat. Because of this battle, Zhu Ran was so powerful in Cao Wei that he was named Dangyang Marquis by Sun Quan.
So even though Sun Quan was annoyed and angry at the moment, wishing he could lead his army and fight back, after hearing the advice of Zhu Ran, the number one general, he could only temporarily suppress the anger in his heart and calmly think about the current situation.
After thinking for a long time, Sun Quan also knew that with the current situation of his soldiers, they would not be able to go into battle tomorrow anyway, and then sighed: "That's all, let's retreat to the south bank to rest first."
There is a three-story house next to the Hanzhong Prefecture. It was originally the place where the county guards were stationed. However, it has been vacated by Yang Qing and reserved exclusively for the new county commander Kong Majun.
There was originally an office space for Sikong in the county government, but Yang Qing knew that if he wanted to give full play to the role of a great talent like Ma Jun, he had to provide an independent and quiet place. In addition to the spaciousness of the place, the most important thing was safety and confidentiality.
Ma Jun and his family also moved out of Guanyi and moved into this house. The back is the living room and the front yard is where Ma Jun develops equipment.
"Fu Jun." Sawdust was flying in the courtyard, and a lot of sawdust fell on Ma Jun's head. He patted it quickly and then bowed in salute.
Yang Qing waved his hand: "Sir, there is no need to be polite." Looking at the wooden blocks and machines on the ground, he asked, "Is this a stone-making cart?"
"Exactly." Ma Jun replied: "I'm going to prepare it now. Today I will assemble it, complete it and test it again."
It turned out that after Ma Jun entered the prefecture as the commander of the county, Yang Qing gave him an important task, which was to improve the stone-making cart.
After Cao Yuan launched the Battle of Guandu during the Jian'an period, Liu Ye, a counselor in Cao's camp, proposed a catapult in order to crack Yuan's army's siege equipment, the high oar. Because it sounded like thunder, it was also known as
For Thunderbolt Cars.
Although Liu Ye's Thunderbolt Chariot shined in the Battle of Guandu, in fact this catapult was still a single-engine type. It was a large scale with a bucket hanging on one side, one bucket filled with stones, and the other bucket. A rope hangs from one end.
When the catapult was launched, the sergeants pulled down the rope, and the other end filled with stones was lifted up, and the stones were thrown out to attack the enemy.
Although this single-shot catapult can inflict great damage to the enemy, its shortcomings are also obvious. Each time it is fired, it takes a long time. Therefore, in order to improve the current catapult, Yang Qing specially asked Ma Jun to put down the official business at hand and first develop a catapult that can throw stones rapidly.
Of course, Yang Qing probably knew the secret to increasing the efficiency of later catapults. He mentioned the role of pulleys in front of Ma Jun. Ma Jun, who was already inspired, immediately had an idea. He only said that the finished product would be presented to him in five days. Yang Qing watched.
"Okay, then I'll wait and see." Yang Qing nodded and smiled, watching Ma Jun's performance quietly.
After that, Ma Jun called the craftsmen on the side to start assembling the new trebuchet. Soon a wooden wheel was spliced together, and then there were various mechanisms. Half an hour later, the brand new catapult was completed.
"Fu Jun." Ma Jun pointed at the catapult and said excitedly: "This catapult improved by humble duty can use wooden wheels to continuously launch stones one after another. In this way, the enemy will be defeated one by one. Once the army is close, it will be too late to guard and defend."
Yang Qing circled around the trebuchet and exclaimed: "Okay, okay, with this thing, it will be easier to attack the city in the future." After a pause, he then asked: "Mr. Deheng, this kind of How far can a catapult be thrown?"
Ma Jun replied: "Hui, Mr. Huifu, the last time I tried it, I could throw it more than 200 steps."
"Oh? Is there room for improvement?"
Ma Jun pondered for a moment and then said: "I, your Majesty, if you give me a little more time, you can increase the range to hundreds of steps."
"That's very good. Don't be anxious, sir. We have plenty of time." Yang Qing said, "Since I'm here today, let's take a look at the power of this new catapult."
"promise."
Just as Ma Jun was shouting at people to try the catapult, a guard suddenly rushed in and whispered something in Zhou Xing's ear. After hearing the report, Zhou Xing waved his hand to ask the guards to retreat, then walked up to Yang Qing and clasped his fists, saying, "Master Fu, Mr. Pu Yuan is here."
"Ah! Pu Gong is finally here." Yang Qing was surprised when he heard this: "Where is he now?"
"At the prefect's residence."
Yang Qing nodded, turned around and said to Ma Jun: "Mr. Deheng will not test the car today. I will take you to meet someone."
"Dare, dare I ask the Lord, who he is?" Ma Jun asked curiously.
Yang Qing smiled and said: "Pu Yuan Pu Gong has arrived in Nanzheng, let's go and meet him together."
"It turns out that Mr. Pu, Mr. Pu Yuan is here!"
Ma Jun was also surprised. As one of the few famous craftsmen in the world, he naturally knew Pu Yuan's reputation. Moreover, after coming to Jihan, he even knew Pu Yuan's accomplishments in forging weapons. Therefore, Ma Jun had already paid attention to this man. I have admired the famous craftsman for a long time.
Ever since he knew that Pu Yuan would come to Hanzhong soon, Ma Jun had been looking forward to seeing Pu Yuan. When he heard that Pu Yuan had arrived, he was extremely excited.
