Fenghou

Not long after, the female doctor Liu Hui came, and Lu Xiu told her about the situation. Doctor Liu immediately ordered the medicine. Fortunately, there were all kinds of precious medicinal materials in the mansion, so he quickly boiled a thick bowl of tonic, and supported Yu Ying Drink it slowly.

It is still midnight, and there is still an hour before dawn. Seeing his wife sitting in a daze, Chen Qing pulled her up and comforted her: "Ah Ying is fine, make up your body and rest for a few days. Alian is taking care of her. Let's go!"

Lu Xiu and her husband walked out of the yard, and hurriedly led the way with a little maid holding a lantern. Lu Xiu sighed and said, "Husband, am I really bad?"

Chen Qing hugged his wife and said, "You don't have a lot to do with bad, you are very kind, but sometimes the rules are a little stricter."

"A-Lian told me today that Ah Ying lost a lot of blood, but she didn't dare to tell her, and she didn't dare to ask a doctor, because she was afraid that I would severely punish her."

"Have you punished them severely?"

Lu Xiu shook her head, "No, I just said it fiercely, but I never implemented it, like how many times A-Lian broke the rules in your study, I didn't punish her once."

"This one is abolished! It's my own problem, and it has nothing to do with them."

Lu Xiu nodded, and said sadly: "I'll talk about it later, it would be a pity if Ah Ying is pregnant with a boy this time."

Chen Qing said for a while: "If Ah Ying is pregnant but she doesn't know it, maybe A-Lian is the same."

There are some things that he can't talk about, but he knows it well, he also knows when Ah Ying will be pregnant, and Alian was there at that time, and the two sisters are in sync with each other in many ways.

Eight chapters and eight successes

It was such a coincidence that the next day, Dr. Liu checked Yu Lian's pulse and found that she was indeed a happy pulse, and she was about two months pregnant.

Hearing the news, Yu Ying was both happy and sad, happy because her younger sister Yu Lian was pregnant, but sad because she was not careful and the child was gone.

Chen Qing comforted her, and when she recovered, he would count time with her and let her conceive a child, at most half a year late.

Lu Xiu also comforted her, told her to take care of her body, and she would not punish her, so Yu Ying was relieved.

Two things happened at home today, Lu Xiu was very busy, Chen Qing called Zhao Qiaoyun and Zhao Yingluo to his study, starting from today, he will spend three days to tell them the follow-up plot of Journey to the West, and let them go Go write it, and he doesn't care about the book.

The number of subscriptions of "Beijing News" has exceeded [-], and it is still on the rise. A few days ago, the first episode of "Journey to the West", "Monkey King Trouble in Heaven", was printed and launched, and the market response was unprecedented. In the Zhao area, [-] copies were sold in three days.

In the early morning of the fifth day of the first lunar month, Chen Qing brought hundreds of soldiers and a dozen generals to the firearms testing ground.

There are two testing grounds for firearms, one is in the courtyard of the institute, where some small firearms are tested, and the other is not far away. There is a hill three miles away, the hill is split, and there is a canyon two miles deep. The innermost part of the canyon is A vacant lot the size of two acres of land.

Since the emergence of firearms decades ago, this place has always been a firearms testing ground, guarded by soldiers, and no one is allowed to enter, even up the mountain. Who knows if you are an enemy spy who came to spy on the firearms tests of the Song army.

Today, the security here is heavily guarded, and all the small roads up the mountain are guarded by soldiers, and no one is allowed to go up the mountain.

This was an arrangement made two days ago. Chen Qing specially dispatched [-] troops to escort the experiment.

This test is so important that even the generals expressed their opinions after hearing the answer. The allocation for the protection army is too little, at least 1 people are needed.

They are all experienced generals, and no one knows the importance of this experiment better than them. They tested the iron shell fire mine, and the iron shell fire mine was successfully developed.

"It would be great if the Iron Shell Fire Thunder came out earlier, it won't be of much use to us now."

It was Liu Qiong who spoke. He saw that everyone looked at him, and added: "The role of the iron-shelled fire mine is mainly for defending and attacking the city. It is useless for field battles. We have fierce fire oil, and we use iron-shelled fire mines to replace it." I don't think it makes much sense to use heavy fire oil."

Liu Qiong's thoughts can represent many people. Over the years, gunpowder barrels have been a bit of a tasteless existence. In the early days, poisoned iron nails stuffed in gunpowder barrels were very effective against the poorly equipped puppet Qi army, but now their enemy is the Jurchens The army, Donghu army and Xie Cong army are all equipped with shields, which can defend against the poisoned iron nails of the gunpowder barrel.

Therefore, the Battle of Hedong this time was basically fuel oil to clear the way, and the gunpowder barrel was not used much.

The gunpowder barrel has become a chicken rib, so how strong can the iron shell fire thunder be?They don't need firearms as long as they fire oil.

Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "The difference between a wooden shelled fire thunder and an iron shelled fire thunder is equivalent to a three-year-old child competing for strength with a 30-year-old strong man. If you think of an iron shelled fire thunder as a strengthening of a wooden gunpowder barrel, then you It’s a big mistake, I don’t talk about other functions, if we have iron fire mines, then we are kings on the water, and an iron fire mine can blow a ship to pieces.”

Liu Qiong still didn't believe it. He smiled and said, "I'm really looking forward to seeing his power with my own eyes."

Not long after, the crowd came to the mouth of the valley on horseback. More than [-] officials including Ma Xiaoyuan, commander of the Ordnance Department, and Xie Ying, deputy commander and director of the Firearms Department, were waiting at the mouth of the valley.

All the officials came forward to pay respects, Chen Qing waved his hands and smiled and said: "Everyone is very anxious, don't be delayed by these etiquette, why don't you go in directly?"

"Jun Wang, all generals, please follow me!" The commander Ma Xiaoyuan shouted loudly, and led everyone into the valley.

"Thank you, steward, how did you solve the defect?" Chen Qing asked with a smile.

Xie Ying showed embarrassment and said: "The structure of the snail that the king said last time is too difficult, we failed many times without success..."

"is it hard?"

Chen Qing didn't understand, "Small snail castings don't need to be cast as a whole, they can be made into two halves, put them together and fill the seams with molten iron, then put them on the mold, and when the casting mold cools down, it will fuse with the iron shell." , I think it is relatively simple!"

Xie Ying was stunned for a moment. They all thought that the snail structure was to be cast as a whole with the iron shell, but they couldn't make it anyway, so they made it separately.

"We thought this plan was complicated at the beginning, and we can make up for it later."

"What do you think of now?"

"Qijun Wang, let's make a pipe on the mold. After casting, there will be a pipe inside the iron shell. Insert the fuse directly into the pipe. Insert it to the end and it will be gunpowder. Then make a pipe on top of it." A wooden cork with a hole closed the opening."

"This method is also good!" Chen Qing imagined the appearance of the pipe.

"This is actually the reminder given to us by the king of the county. As long as we buy a little time, the fire will explode before the fire escapes. The pipe will play this role and buy us a little time, so we succeeded."

Chen Qing said happily: "Whether it works! The key is to master the principle, I believe there will be a better way, let's see the explosion effect!"

……

The Firearms Institute painstakingly remodeled the test site. The viewing position is on the mountainside, about 100 steps from the ground. Dozens of small stools have been placed. Everyone sat down. Their eyesight is very good. The following situation Be clear.

According to Xie Ying's introduction, two experiments will be carried out today, one is the iron hedgehog experiment, and the other is the iron dog experiment. The name is the experiment, and it is actually a report. They have already conducted several experiments internally. There is a cover explosion in the valley. Noise effect, so the sound cannot reach Jingzhao City.

"What is an iron hedgehog? What is an iron dog?" Gao Ding asked puzzled.

Xie Ying introduced with a smile: "This is our internal saying. A five-pound powder barrel is called a hedgehog, a thirty-pound powder barrel is called a wild dog, a one-pound box-type fire mine is called a black pig, and a five-hundred-pound box-type fire mine is called a black pig." rhino."

All the generals applauded and laughed: "This name is good, simple and easy to remember, and the army will use this code name in the future."

At this time, a horn sounded from below, and it was about to start. Everyone fell silent and looked down at the open space.

I saw a craftsman running towards a wooden house with an iron lump the size of a pumpkin in his arms. After a while, the craftsman ran out of the wooden house, ran more than [-] steps, and hid behind a big stone that was placed in advance. ear.

Without Xie Ying's reminder, Chen Qing and all the generals covered their ears.

"Boom!" There was a loud noise, flames burst out, pieces of wood splashed, and black smoke rose into the air. Looking at the wooden house again, only half of it was left, and the roof and walls were blown out.

"Awesome!" The image of a ship being blown up appeared in everyone's mind.

Chen Qing stroked his beard and nodded, "Successful once, not bad!"

Immediately afterwards, several craftsmen carried a piece of black winter melon and ran towards a section of the city wall in the northeast corner. Everyone was stunned. This should be a thirty-pound wild dog, but it looks very much like a winter melon.

Everyone was not very interested in bombing wooden houses, but bombing city walls attracted everyone's attention.

The city wall is three feet long and two feet high. It is built with big blue bricks and filled with sand in the middle. It is exactly the same as the real city wall, as if a section was cut out and placed here.

A hole was dug in the city wall, and two craftsmen stuffed the iron fire mine into it, and lit the matchlock.

The two ran quickly and hid behind a large rock bunker thirty steps away.

For a moment, just listen to 'Boom! 'With a muffled sound, the city wall collapsed, everyone stood up and applauded enthusiastically.

Even Liu Qiong was convinced that thirty catties had the same effect as five hundred catties, which is amazing.

Chapter 8 Nine Sneak Attacks

The Hexi Corridor in January is still a world of ice and snow, the wind is howling, and there are few people. The whole world seems to be still.

That afternoon, countless small black dots appeared on the endless white snow. There were five or six thousand people, and they walked slowly towards the mountains in the south.

If you look closer, it turns out to be an army, riding on camels, wearing thick leather armor, wearing a round helmet, holding spears, short swords at the waist, and bows and arrows on the back, each of which is extremely long. Stocky, many with beards and flat, broad faces.

On their banner is a black wolf's head, and the color of the entire army is mainly black.

This army was the Xizhou Uyghur Army that had just annexed the Yellow-headed Uyghur Army. The two armies were originally a family, like brothers fighting for territory. It had no effect on ordinary people, and it was only the nobles who were unlucky.

But the Song Army and the Xizhou Uighurs are different. They are of different races. The Xizhou Army must drive the Song Army out of the Hexi Corridor.

Dadou Bagu is a strategic location in the Hexi Corridor. Of course, the Xizhou Army cannot tolerate it being controlled by the Song Army. It was only January, and the Xizhou Army took action.

Attacking in January, the Xizhou Army is of course preparing for a sneak attack. January is the time when the sky is freezing, and the Song Army will never expect that there will be a war. They will occupy a foothold first, and then continue to fight in March. Attack deep in the valley.

The Xizhou Army didn't know much about Chen Qing's army. Although Chen Qing led the army to destroy Xixia, in the eyes of the Xizhou Army, it was nothing special. They also knew that Xixia had internal strife and its strength was greatly weakened. It's just cheap.

But the Xizhou army knew the Song Dynasty army very well. It was a bloated and decaying empire, and the army was full of corruption. Even if it had a million troops, it would be vulnerable.

The Xizhou army looked down on the Song army from the bottom of their hearts, and it was easy for them to capture Liangzhou city without any effort. Naturally, they didn't care much about Chen Qing's army.

In fact, this is the underestimation of the enemy caused by the distance and lack of information. The Xizhou Army did not know the battle between Chen Qing and the Kingdom of Jin. Their latest news was the Jingkang Rebellion ten years ago.

This camel cavalry consisted of 5000 people, and the leader was a ten-thousand man named Tie Mo. He was about 30 years old, tall and burly, holding a single-handled hammer weighing fifty catties. He is a fierce general who is good at sneak attacks, and he led the army to cut off Cao Changchun's logistics.

Although he looked down on the Song army from the bottom of his heart, Tie Mo was more cautious when actually fighting. Of course, he would not attack Dadou Bagu during the day, but a sneak attack at night.

Twenty miles away from Dadouba Valley, Tie Mo looked at the sky and saw that it was almost dusk. He ordered the army to stop moving forward and find a leeward place to stop and rest, and sent several spies to Dadouba Valley to investigate the situation .

In fact, the Xizhou Army also knew some things. For example, they learned from the Qiang people who transported salt that there were three passes in Dadouba Valley, one at the mountain pass, one at forty miles in the middle, and one at the exit of Hehuang. A pass, about 3000 people.

If the pass at the entrance is resolved first, then the grassland and lake water behind the pass will also be controlled by the Xizhou army, and they will have a place to garrison. This is the wishful thinking of the Xizhou army.

Of course, they also brought dozens of siege ladders. Siege ladders are a must if they want to sneak attack the pass.

The night has come quietly, and several fires are lit on the pass city of Dadouba Valley. The soldiers of the Song Army on the top of the city gather around the fire. The Dadouba Valley at night is very cold and windy, and the defenders must warm themselves by the fire. .

This Guancheng is about two miles away from the entrance of Dadouba Valley, and behind it is an open pasture. The Song Army stationed two hundred large tents and more than 2000 defenders.

This is somewhat inconsistent with the information of the Xizhou Army. The reason is that when the Qiang salt transport team passed through the pass, the defeated army in Liangzhou had not yet come. The [-] Song troops who returned from Liangzhou were all placed in the first seat. On the pass.

The general of the pass is called Song Xinping, a commander, from Xinping County, Jingzhou, and the general of the Song army in the entire Dadouba Valley is Wang Lun, the commander. He is in the second pass, where there is an eagle tower, which can be compared with Lanzhou Contact Eagle Letter, and Lanzhou will transfer Eagle Letter to Jingzhao.

Song Jingping was on the top of the city. He was having dinner with a thousand soldiers. Their supplies were relatively sufficient. Dadou Bagu was originally controlled by the yellow-headed Uyghur army. After two thousand yellow-headed Uyghur troops rushed to rescue Zhangye, they were led by Wang Lun. The army seized this strategic location, and found that there was a large amount of grain, mutton and wine here, enough for thousands of their troops to hold on for half a year.

Soldiers of the Song Army were roasting mutton by the fire, and the soldiers were sipping sheep's milk wine and nibbling on freshly fried noodles.

"General Song, do you think the county king gave up the Hexi Corridor?" a commander asked worriedly.

Song Xinping said with a slight smile: "Of course the king will not give up. There are tens of thousands of Han people in Liangzhou, and it is related to the safety of Lingzhou Mansion. State."

A commander next to him took a sip of his wine and said in a muffled voice, "What are you talking about? Nearly a thousand people were killed in Liangzhou City, and the lieutenant general was also killed. How could the county king let it go?"

"Old Li is right, how can this bad breath come out? As long as we guard the Dadou Bagu and prevent the Xizhou army from harming Huangzhou, the county king will have no worries."

Just as he was talking, a soldier ran over and said nervously: "General Song, there are lights on Qitian Ridge!"

Song Xinping stood up abruptly, turned his head and looked to the south, and saw three torches raised on the sentry tower of the big tent in the distance.

Qitian Ridge is a high mountain at the entrance, and there is a very hidden sentry tower on it. If the enemy is found, the soldiers of the sentry tower will hold up a torch in a special place. This torch cannot be seen in the north of Dadouba Valley. It can't be seen, and it can't be seen on the pass either. Only the sentry tower at the garrison behind can see it. The sentry tower acts as a mirror, reflecting the alarm on the Jueling to the pass.

This is the cleverness of the defender. If you build a warning tower that you can see, but the other party cannot see it, the other party will naturally have no way of knowing that you have been discovered.

"General, it's impossible! It's January, and the snow is so thick that it's hard for horses to move. How could they come?"

Everyone thought it was impossible, but the alarm was three torches, and that was an army of more than 1000 people!

Song Xinping said coldly, "They chose this time to come here because you think it's impossible."

"But general, heavy snow..." Another general wanted to remind Song Xinping.

Song Xinping interrupted him with a wave of his hand, "It's as easy as riding a camel!"

Everyone was surprised, yes!They don't need to ride a horse, and they don't have to worry about the depth of the snow when riding a camel. They didn't expect it.

Everyone looked at Song Jingping together, what should we do?

Song Xinping participated in the defense of Jiandao Pass back then. He was just a small soldier back then. Eight years later, he has now been promoted to the commander of the upper army. If he wins this battle, he will be promoted to deputy commander. Xinping is of course also looking forward to this battle.

He pondered for a moment and said, "I'll do whatever I can, and catch them off guard!"

……

At the second watch, [-] troops had already entered the valley. Since the valley had to turn a corner to see the defensive pass a few hundred steps away, the Xizhou army did not have to worry about being discovered by the Song army at this time.

At this time, the soldiers of the Xizhou Army had already seen Guancheng, and there were only two bonfires on it.

"Are you sure there were six bonfires at the beginning?" Mrs. Tie Mo asked.

"I can assure you that there were indeed six bonfires when it was just dark."

It is so cold at night, you have to warm yourself by a fire, and you can judge the number of defenders on the top of the city from the bonfire. According to the maximum number of people, a fire with 50 people is enough to roast the sky.

Generally speaking, there are 20 people in a pile of fire, but there can't be only 40 people in the city, and there can't be soldiers who don't warm up, so you need to count more.

Tie Mo pondered for a long time, he felt that he should be considered pretty good, there were 50 people roasting a fire, there were originally 300 people on the top of the city, but now it is reduced to 100 people, this is reasonable, there is no danger in the cold winter, the top of the city There doesn't have to be so many people, of course, this is also the reason why they attacked Guancheng at this time, by surprise.

He finally nodded, "Attack!"

Chapter 8 Lessons