Fenghou

Chen Qing glanced at the doctor, who thought for a while and said: "She just fell asleep, it's okay to look at the door, don't disturb her, she is too weak."

Chen Qing led Wang Gong into the small courtyard. Zhao Qiaonv lived in the west wing of the main room. Wang Gong stood at the door of the living room and looked into the room. He saw a girl lying on the bed covered with a thick quilt, her eyes deep Her lips and face were sunken, and there was no trace of blood on her lips and face. Perhaps it was because of the pulse diagnosis. Her left hand was placed outside. It was very small, and her wrist was as thin as a hemp stick.

Wang Gong gasped, this is Emperor Xiande?This is as thin as a beggar.

At this time, Li Qingzhao came out of the room and gently closed the door. Wang Gong was stunned, "You are... Layman Yi'an, you... why are you here?"

Li Qingzhao had a very difficult life for a while. In order to ask for her deceased husband's salary, she always came to the official department to ask for an explanation. At that time, Wang Gong was working as Yuanwailang in the official department. He knew Li Qingzhao.

"It turned out to be Wang Yuanwailang, long time no see."

Chen Qing smiled and said, "Lady Yi An is my wife's master, and they came here together."

Wang Gong understood that Li Qingzhao probably couldn't survive in Lin'an, so he followed Mrs. Chen Qing to Oasis Fort.

Liu Jing asked: "Emperor Ji Xiande is taking care of Lay Yi An?"

Li Qingzhao nodded, "She was tortured by the Jinren, and she could only eat one meal a day. She was too thin, and she was lucky to survive. This time, she was sick for almost half a month, and it depends on whether she can survive it." Let's do it!"

Wang Gong hesitated for a while and said: "Can you take her back to Lin'an for recuperation?"

"Absolutely not!"

The doctor categorically rejected it, "Don't let her go to Lin'an, even if she goes to Hanzhong, her body will not be able to support her, and she will... die of illness on the way."

Li Qingzhao also said: "Wang Yuanwailang, we have been doing our best to treat her, and finally she is getting better. Seeing that the weather is getting warmer day by day, she may recover slowly, but now she must not travel long distances, and all previous efforts will be wasted."

Wang Gong looked at Chen Qing in embarrassment, and Chen Qing said with a smile: "Let's do it! When she recovers, I will bring her back with me next time when I go back for a temporary report."

Liu Jing whispered: "Now it seems that this is the best way. We have all seen it with our own eyes, and the officials can understand it."

"All right!"

Wang Gong had no choice but to agree, he also saw Xiande Emperor Ji's wrist, it was as thin as a stick, probably it was really bad, if she died of illness on the way, he couldn't bear the responsibility.

"Just ask Chen Dutong to take good care of her and let her recover soon."

"This is my duty, Wang Shijun, don't worry!"

Everyone walked out of the yard, Zhao Qiaoyun sneaked up and looked around, Li Qingzhao quickly waved her to lie down, don't show her secrets at this time.

……

Walking to the street, Wang Gong asked again: "How did Chen Dutong arrange the other concubines and maids?"

Wang Gong has already read the list, there are no important people in it, the highest title in the palace is only talent, and there is no concubine, so he has no motivation to take them away.

Chen Qing sighed and said: "They are all poor women. If I can find a home for them, it will be a merit. Originally, many of my generals are not married, so I can fulfill them, but they have special identities. I dare not marry them without the court's approval. I am going to ask the imperial court for instructions."

Wang Gong's eyes lit up, this is a good way, resettle on the spot, and marry the general on the border.

"It's a good idea, and I think it's feasible."

"But they used to be palace servants!"

Wang Gong shook his head, "They are no longer, and the imperial court will definitely not recognize them."

"What do you mean?" Chen Qing still didn't understand.

"Chen Dutong still doesn't understand? All the previous palace files were destroyed in the war, and the current palace records are from the Jianyan year. Even if they return to Lin'an, they can't prove their identities. No one knows them. At most, the imperial court will give them a little money to make a living by themselves. What do you think they can do? It’s not a hasty marriage. Since they are all married, it’s better to marry the soldiers on the border, at least they can make some contributions to the anti-golden war.”

Although it was an excuse, but what Wang Gong said made sense, if they returned to Lin'an, their fate would indeed be worrying.

Chen Qing thought for a while and said, "That being said, I'm afraid that someone will make a fuss about this matter in the future and say that I..."

"No! Please rest assured that this is a disgrace to the court. No one will make a fuss about it. Whoever dares to make a fuss about it will definitely be attacked by the court officials."

Liu Jing also gave Chen Qing a wink, expressing that he can rest assured.

Chen Qing said with a smile: "In this case, I will be responsible for arranging them! To be honest, there are many bandits on the road, and I am really worried about them going south."

After a pause, Chen Qing laughed again: "Wang Shijun, go and have a talk with them! Let them stay with peace of mind."

Wang Gong thought for a while and said: "Yes, I will tell the truth, let them understand their situation, and return to Lin'an when they die!"

……

The discussion between Wang Gong and the palace people really worked. Originally, there were a few concubines who wanted to return to Lin'an, but now they completely gave up, and could only start to think about their own destiny in a down-to-earth manner.

Wang Gong only stayed in Ganquan Fort for two days. Seeing that the Song army was actively preparing for battle, he was really afraid of the outbreak of war and couldn't leave by himself.

In the early morning of the third day, he and his deputy Liu Jing left Ganquan Castle with several entourages and went to Beixianren Pass under the escort of fifty guards.

Chen Qing sent Wang Gong away, received news from his wife and returned home, but unexpectedly found that Zhao Qiaoyun was also at home, waiting for him to come back, of course she was not alone, Lu Xiu and Li Qingzhao were also sitting beside her.

Chen Qing smiled and comforted Zhao Qiaoyun and said, "He has already left, you can rest assured!"

"What about after that?"

Zhao Qiaoyun whispered: "I mean, can you push the boat along the way and say that I died of illness?"

Chen Qing shook his head, "This is definitely not possible!"

"Why not?" Zhao Qiaoyun looked disappointed.

Chen Qing sighed and said: "There are many people who know you, there are hundreds of women here, they will marry my subordinates, and then your fraudulent death will become a handle for me, if I offend anyone, a fraud The king's crimes are all on my head."

Zhao Qiaoyun nodded silently, and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I was too selfish and didn't think about the general."

Chen Qing said with a smile: "Don't worry, Ganquan Castle is thousands of miles away from Lin'an. It's not easy for the envoy to come here. I just found an excuse and dismissed it. I just said that you went back to the Song Dynasty to play the mountains and rivers to relax. Who knows when you will come back, and Empress Dowager Wei never wants you to go back, so what are you worried about?"

Lu Xiu also smiled and said: "That's right! What are you worried about? Our Chen Du unified promise, as long as you don't want to go back, he won't let you go back!"

Chapter 386 Preparing for War

Since the news of the arrest of the two deserters became clear, the battle preparations for Fort Ganquan began to step up. Thousands of pine trees were felled and transported back. The mountains of trees must be at least seventy or eighty miles away.

This can be regarded as a disguised form of fortifying the wall and clearing the countryside, including some farmers living nearby who either moved to the city or moved to other counties hundreds of miles away.

In addition to logging, mining coal and boulders is also a kind of preparation for war. Needless to say, coal was mined thousands of tons in just half a month, and piled up in the northwest corner of the city, enough for the army and civilians in the city to use for a year. The Song army stopped immediately He stopped coal mining and began to dig big stones with all his strength. He quarried large stones from the stone mountain thirty miles to the south and returned to the city. This was to prepare defensive weapons.

Before dawn, thousands of soldiers ran out of the barracks, ran directly up the city wall along the corridor, and began to conduct physical training along the city wall. These soldiers failed the physical fitness test, a total of 6000 soldiers, including [-] soldiers from Huyantong , They were all long-distance runners at the beginning, but in the past few years, they have been pampered, stopped training, and their physical strength has declined severely. None of them has reached the standard.

The soldiers were originally training outside the city, but they were worried that the Jin soldiers would kill them at any time. Since yesterday, the army has changed to running and training on the top of the city.

Although Ganquanbao is called a castle, it is actually a county seat. The circumference of the city wall is 40 miles, and it takes more than [-] miles to run three laps.

At this time, Chen Qing was also on the top of the city. He had nothing to do with running training. He was inspecting the Song Army craftsman camp to test the fire kite. The fire kite was in charge of two master craftsmen, one was Hu Zhen, a master craftsman of the crossbow workshop, and the other was a master craftsman of the equipment workshop. Xie Changzhi, these two have their own strengths.

Hu Zhen is the chief craftsman of the Shaanxi Road Armament Bureau. He originally followed Wang Yan of the Eight-character Army, and later followed Chen Qing. He is good at making crossbows. He made the giant crossbow gunpowder guns installed on large ships, and he also designed and made small trebuchets. .

And Xie Changzhi is good at making large-scale equipment, and he is also good at making flying machines, that is, wooden birds, and the fire kite is a kind of wooden birds.

Xie Changzhi and Hu Zhen are doing two things at the same time. One is to install the second thousand-step gun, which is a super giant trebuchet. It will take five years at the fastest for a throwing pole, and they have no time to mass-produce it.

It's just that Zhou Kuan, who is far away in Zitong County, accidentally found a throwing pole of a thousand-step gun in a boat shop in Chengdu. As for how it got there, Zhou Kuan immediately bought it for [-] guns. After getting rid of this throwing pole that has no effect on the boat, this time the army went north, and the throwing pole also went northward together.

There is already a thousand-step gun in Ganquan Fort, and this is the second one.

The thousand-step cannon was almost completed, and the finishing work was handed over to other craftsmen. Hu Zhen and Xie Changan began to go all out to make the fire kite.

The fire kite can be said to be a firearm with the highest technical content. It must always maintain a stable flying attitude, even after the gunpowder boosts it, and it must land accurately at the end. This is not an ordinary difficulty.

Fort Ganquan has carried out hundreds of improvement tests successively. It has basically solved the problem of accurate landing and normal flying posture, but the biggest problem is that it will deviate from the flight path and always fly off. The reason for this problem has never been found. Also has not been resolved.

Xie Changzhi has conducted three days of experimental research. He is worthy of being the chief craftsman of the Tokyo Military Bureau. After flying more than a dozen test flights, he found the reason.

"Qi Dutong, the reason for the flight deviation is caused by the kerosene loaded on the belly of the fire kite. The instability of the kerosene makes the flight of the fire kite unstable, so sometimes it flies straight, but more often it flies off. In addition, the wings of the Size and thickness are also a bit of an issue.

Beizhi used the fire kite without kerosene to test the flight, and after making a slight improvement on the wings, it succeeded five times in a row. "

Chen Qing asked in a deep voice: "Then is there a solution?"

"The solution is to go back to the beginning, instead of loading kerosene, ignite the fire kite itself, and then explode over the enemy, and the burning debris will fall in all directions."

Hu Zhen next to him added: "Another way is to soak the fire kite in kerosene for a few days, then take it out and dry it in the sun, so that the fire kite itself is kerosene, or find a way to make the kerosene into sludge. Apply it on the fire kite..."

Chen Qing said with a smile: "The idea of ​​oil immersion is okay, that is, the original wood is soaked in oil, not the fire kite, otherwise it will be deformed after drying, and the oil sludge is not applied properly, but the idea of ​​oil sludge is very good. It can overcome the problem of liquid oil. There are a lot of disadvantages, such as throwing after being directly ignited, no need to throw the kerosene barrel.”

"We can experiment!"

"As soon as possible! If it's too late to soak in oil, I'll improve it slowly in the future, so that the fire kite can be used first."

"Understandable!"

At this time, a soldier rushed over and knelt down on one knee to report, "General Zheng is in a hurry at the East Gate, please hurry!"

Chen Qing encouraged the craftsmen a few more words, and then hurried down to the city.

A group of merchants came from outside the east gate, consisting of more than 200 strong mules, each carrying four large wooden barrels. Zheng Ping was leading the soldiers to inspect the supplies in the large wooden barrels.

"what is this?"

Chen Qing came down from the Dongcheng corridor, just in time to see the caravan.

"It's the baby we need most!"

Zheng Ping excitedly said, "Guess what it is?"

Chen Qing saw the black liquid from the cracks in the wooden barrel, and said with a smile: "It can't be kerosene!"

Zheng Ping gave a thumbs up, "One guess is right, absolutely right!"

Chen Qing was surprised and delighted at once, and quickly asked: "Who sent this?"

The short and fat owner of the caravan stepped forward and saluted: "This is a small effort made by the villain to the Song army. We sincerely hope that Ganquan Fort can stand still, so that we Han people in the north can still see hope!"

Chen Qing was really moved, and quickly returned the courtesy: "May I ask the proprietor's name, where is he from?"

"Han Dongtang, a native of Fushi in Yanzhou, is in the wine business!"

"It turned out to be Dongzhu Han, please come to the barracks to speak!"

The soldiers drove the mules to the barracks and unloaded all the kerosene. One barrel was [-] catties, a total of [-] barrels, and a total of [-] catties. Of course, this is not kerosene, but crude oil, and a few more impurities need to be filtered. Only then did we get relatively pure Menghuo oil, and in the end we could get about [-] catties of Menghuo oil.

Chen Qing asked Han Dongtang to sit down in the big tent of the Chinese Army, and asked, "How did you get this batch of kerosene?"

Han Dongtang leaned forward and said, "This kind of high slave oil is produced in some ditches near our Fushi County. Gudu Gudu emerges from the ground. It used to be a monopoly of the imperial court. There are troops stationed in more than a dozen oil producing areas, and ordinary people are not allowed to steal it. , but still can’t control it, everyone used it to light oil lamps at night, and it can also treat moss scabies. Later, when the golden soldiers came, no one took care of these high slave oils, and then every household collected them and sold them to pharmacies and groceries everywhere. Shop, mainly used as lamp oil.

Probably the year before last, the Puppet Qi government once again controlled Huoyou, but it was far less strict than the Song Dynasty, and there were loopholes. I planned to do this business because I knew people from the government, but I heard from a friend that this is also a very powerful city guard. Weapons, I was thinking about getting some for Ganquanbao. "

Chen Qing suddenly became interested, and asked with a smile, "Is kerosene under military control?"

"No, it's just that the Fushi County government is managing it!"

"If I want to buy more, can I still get it?"

"More than a thousand barrels per month is fine, but no more."

"I heard from you just now that the common people seem to have quite a few of them."

Han Dongtang said with a smile: "There are indeed a lot of stocks, but it is easy to collect in the hands of the common people. The key is money!"

"How much does a barrel of [-] catties of kerosene cost now?"

Han Dongtang thought for a while and said: "The cost of getting oil for a humble job is 1000 two hundred Wen a barrel, of which two hundred Wen is wooden barrel money, and the market price is two guan dollars a barrel, including the wooden barrel money."

"Are barrels readily available?"

"Suizhou produces wooden barrels, and Yanzhou also produces them. They are easy to buy. Small wooden barrels are cheap, and this kind of large wooden barrels are a little more expensive."

Chen Qing nodded, and asked again: "Will you encounter checkpoints along the way?"

"There are checkpoints, but I am familiar with the road conditions and can completely bypass them."

Chen Qing was overjoyed, and ordered the soldiers: "Go and get 150 taels of silver, and then go and find General Hu Yanyun!"

Of course, Chen Qing would not miss this opportunity. They have a thousand camels, and each camel can carry five hundred catties, which is ten barrels of kerosene. One trip can transport [-] barrels of kerosene!

Chen Qing said to Han Dongtang: "Please ask Dongzhu Han to collect folk kerosene for me. I will pay Dongzhu Han the usual commission for each barrel of kerosene. I want [-] barrels of kerosene first."

Han Dongtang never dreamed that he went to Ganquan Fort out of the idea of ​​helping Song Jun, and he could earn [-] yuan.

Chapter 387 The Battle Begins

On the eighth day of March, Chen Qing received news from scouts from Chengji County that a large number of Jurchen sentry cavalry appeared around Chengji County. This was an obvious signal that Fengxiang's golden soldiers had already set off in the direction of Qinzhou.

Chen Qing immediately announced that the whole city had entered a state of war. At this time, the firing of large vats had achieved initial results, and 1 water vats were fired. The county government distributed ten large vats to each household, and the army Help transport water and make strategic reserves.

Tens of thousands of boulders were also transported back to the city one after another. Except for fetching water, the military and civilians in Ganquan County basically stopped their external activities.

Lu Xiu was also quite nervous. This was the first time she had truly experienced war. She knew very well that women like them would suffer the most tragic fate once the Jin soldiers broke through the city.

After declaring a state of war, Chen Qing and all the generals could not go home, even if his home was opposite the barracks, he could not go back.