Chapter 027 New Type of Big Firecrackers
Zhang Yanei began to panic. Looking at the huge city in the distance which also included Xuzhou Prefecture, he thought that he was only in his twenties and had endless wealth and glory to enjoy. He began to look for a way out for himself.
In the afternoon, Xu Chaolin invited Zhao Yulin to have a drink at Chengyi Restaurant.
The Shenwei Army had been winning these days, which made him a little embarrassed. Zhao Yulin went with Lei Man. He said that Xu Gong invited him to dinner and the wine was his , so he asked the waiter to bring two jars of Wugufeng wine.
How could the waiter dare to be negligent? Zhao Yulin was the future son-in-law of Chen Zhongshun, the owner of Chengyi Restaurant. Soon, the delicious wine and food came up, and the three of them drank one glass after another and quickly became tipsy.
Xu Chaolin thanked his Shenwei Army for being so powerful that they finally surrounded and killed Deng Gaoshan. He said that they should work together to make more efforts and wipe out the bandit group.
Zhao Yulin nodded and said that only a complete plan could be put in place.
Xu Chaolin was anxious, looked at him eagerly and asked: How can we conquer the mountain?
Lei Man said that this was easy. As long as they were surrounded and killed, the bandits would have nothing to eat in the mountains and would naturally disperse.
Zhao Yulin said that this was a solution. They just needed to interrogate the captured prisoners carefully to see how many people and food they had, and then they would know how long they could hold out.
However, the state government needs to mobilize nearby militiamen to come and help guard the mountain for a long time to ensure that not even a fly on the mountain can fly away.
Zhao Yulin judged that the bandits had little food left. First, there was not much old food on the mountain. There were not many people in You Mazi to begin with, and they were forced to go up the mountain later. With so many people, the food was consumed quickly. Second, the bandits risked their lives to go down the mountain several times to rob food, and they must have come down because they saw that there was not enough food on the mountain.
Zhao Yulin said another way was to attack the mountain directly.
He asked Xu Chaolin, someone among the prisoners captured in the morning had confessed that another group of bandits had come down the mountain from the east, was there any news?
Xu Chaolin said no, no one in his defense area reported that there were bandits coming down the mountain?
Zhao Yulin felt strange.
Someone must be lying here.
He suggested that the judge go back to tighten the encirclement and prevent the bandits from coming down the mountain to rob food.
The three of them drank two kilograms of wine and then parted ways.
Lei Man said that there must be bandits running away from the other side of the mountain. He saw Xu Gong's hesitation. Zhao Yulin felt that Lei Man had made progress. This sentence did not sound like something a barbarian would say.
He said that if it was true, there should be a way down the mountain, and as long as we found it, we could also climb up the mountain. The two returned to the office and pondered over the mountain climbing map on the table.
The next day, Miao Gui came back and said that he heard a loud noise of fighting in the back mountain in the middle of the night yesterday, and he didn't know what the situation was.
It was obvious that the bandits had come down the mountain again.
Xu Chaolin did not tell the truth last night. His subordinates discovered the path trampled out by Liu San and his men while on patrol, and set up an ambush two hundred meters up.
Zhang Yanei also wanted to escape. When he saw that Liu San hadn't come back, he knew that this was the way to go. He led a group of bandits down the mountain at midnight yesterday. This thief was very timid and walked at the back. When the bandits in front entered the encirclement, an officer nervously released the arrow in his hand and shot one immediately. The bandit screamed immediately after being shot, and the ones behind him retreated in panic and fled back.
Xu Chaolin arrested several bandits and finally made a contribution.
In the morning, Chen Xian sent the modified catapult across the river. Zhao Yulin took a look and found it was easy to carry. The catapult of the Song Dynasty could throw stones several miles away.
Chen Xian said that after his transformation, the catapult was revived and could fire stones three miles away.
Zhao Yulin had looked at the terrain and found that there was a relatively low place on the north side of the main peak of Denggao Mountain, less than three miles away from the main peak. If they took over this northern peak and set up a catapult, wouldn't they be able to solve the problem?
He asked Chen Xian to go back and repair the other one as soon as possible, and he took Miao Gui to the site for inspection.
Zhao Yulin saw that there was a field of sorghum two hundred meters in front of the front checkpoint. As long as he took the sorghum, he could control the road leading to the North Peak. With the catapult in his hand, he could launch thunder bombs to destroy all enemies.
Zhao Yulin decided to fight a battle, capture Gaoliangzi and occupy Beifeng. He called several captains and made such arrangements.
The next day, the catapult was installed and Zhao Yulin ordered the cannon to fire. With the spring as the power source, the catapult was miniaturized and it easily threw a five-jin cannon over the sorghum, which exploded with a loud bang on the cliff behind it.
The gunner said honestly that the angle was wrong and the force was too great.
Zhao Yulin said seriously, "Adjust quickly and launch."
Then, one after another, firecrackers exploded on the sorghum, and the mountain area was already shrouded in fire and smoke. Zhao Yulin waved his hand and called Lei Man forward.
Miao Gui took the lead and led his armored brothers to rush forward.
A five-jin cannonball would explode if it fell on the ground. Unless it fell into mud or water, it would kill everyone. When Zhao Yulin arrived at Gaoliangzi with the eight hundred million poles, all the bandits except those who were dead had been captured.
Miao Gui has taken advantage of the victory to seize Beishan.
Zhao Yulin ordered Gao Jin's fourth squadron to garrison the North Peak and install catapults, and the rest of the troops advanced one mile forward and deployed defenses along the foot of the mountain.
Zhang Yanei is definitely an expert at fighting in bed, but he is a novice at fighting on the mountain.
If he stationed a group of troops on the North Peak, it would definitely be a threat to Zhao Yulin, but he did not do so.
He had been frightened last night and fell into a drowsy sleep at daybreak. He was awakened by a burst of cannon fire in front of the mountain. His followers went up to him and told him that the Shenwei Army was attacking the mountain and the front ridge had been lost.
Zhang Yanei was so frightened that he sat down on the ground, and all his sleepiness flew away.
There were nearly seventy or eighty people on the ridge, and they were gone in an instant.
Then someone came in to report that the Shenwei Army at the foot of the mountain had used catapults, and huge gunpowder pots were exploding everywhere, making it impossible to hide.
These bandits had never seen such primitive artillery shells.
This is a giant cannon designed by Zhao Yulin himself, with a ceramic shell filled with gunpowder and iron slag. One cannon contains five kilograms of gunpowder, and this amount of gunpowder alone can kill you.
Zhang Yanei's confidant whispered that they should escape, but Liu San knew that he could not hold on and had already slipped away.
Zhang Yanei laughed bitterly and said, "Where can we escape to? The abandoned son of the Zhao family has sealed off the front mountain, and the secret passage in the back mountain has been discovered. Where can we escape to?"
He roared hysterically, shouting that he would not leave and would fight the government to the end with this gang of minions.
Zhao Yulin rode into the city and went to the government office to report the progress of the war. He told the prefect that the front mountain had been surrounded by him like an iron barrel, and the guards on the blockade line could already see each other and greet each other.
The prefect was very happy. In recent days, he issued strict orders to various places to organize militia to come to help in the battle. He raised two thousand people to participate in the siege of the mountain. All the achievements were reported to Jiazhou, and the letters sent from the higher authorities also contained many praises.
The prefect said happily that the ambush set up on the back mountain last night was a great success, and the bandits would be wiped out in the near future, hahahaha.
Zhao Yulin said he planned to launch the final attack tomorrow and came to ask the prefectural soldiers to join him. The prefect was delighted and immediately called Xu Chaolin. The two of them demarcated the defense zone on the spot and agreed to tighten the encirclement at the same time.
When Zhao Yulin returned to the front of the mountain, Lei Man said that the two catapults had been installed, and Chen Xian also sent dozens of lime bombs. Zhao Yulin knew the wonderful use of this thing, so he asked his guard Xia Dingtian to cross the river immediately to find his mother and rush to make a square scarf and send it to him.
He briefly explained the purpose and told Xia Dingtian to leave immediately. He then ordered Zhou Ping to intensify the search on the river and not let go of any escaping enemy.
In the early morning, the scarf he asked for was delivered. Zhao Yulin summoned all the generals to explain the tactical points: the catapults will carry out two rounds of bombardment. After the first round of bombardment, Miao Gui's first squadron will rush to the cliff ten feet below the main peak to avoid the bombardment. After the second round of bombardment, the entire army will launch a charge and take the main peak in one go.
He asked Miao Gui to distribute the scarves to the soldiers and ordered everyone to use them to cover their mouths and noses.
Because he was going to use lime bullets.
At daybreak, the flag bearer issued an order to the catapults on the North Peak. Immediately, the two catapults continuously fired thunder bombs at the main peak, and explosions were heard continuously on the mountain.
Later, the flag bearer ordered to stop the shelling, and Miao Gui immediately led the soldiers of Unit A to rush towards the cliff. By the time the bandits on the mountain discovered them and threw stones and rolling logs, they had already rushed to the bottom of the cliff.
The catapults began to sing again, this time one throwing thunder bombs and the other throwing lime bombs. The bandits had never enjoyed such a generous treatment, and they immediately ran around with their heads in their hands and tears streaming down their faces.
Zhang Yanei stood on the hilltop, holding a long sword and shouting, "Hold on, hold on!" A thunder bomb landed behind him, knocking him to the ground and taking away his right to speak. The remaining bandits fled in all directions.
A group of bandits quietly came down the mountain and filed into the narrow gap at the back.
On the front side of the mountain, Miao Gui led his team up the mountain without waiting for the shelling to stop. As they climbed, they threw thunder bombs tied with ropes to the top of the mountain.
The teams behind continued to follow.
By the time Zhao Yulin went up, the main peak had been completely controlled by the Shenwei Army, but Liu San was not captured, which made him feel a little regretful.
Zhang Yanei was still breathing, his mouth was foul, and he was still howling that he was not convinced. Zhao Yulin went up and kicked him, saying that he was not convinced, and then stabbed him twice.
At this time, people on the back hillside started shouting and killing.
It turned out that the bandits had actually crawled out from the narrow gap in the sky and suddenly appeared behind the government soldiers and in front of Xu Chaolin's headquarters. Xu Tongpan was horrified and kept calling for help. He led his guards and fought desperately with the bandits. The surrounding government troops quickly rushed over to join the battle.
In the afternoon, except for a very small number of bandits who escaped from the back mountain guarded by the government troops, the other bandits were almost wiped out, and the battle to suppress bandits in the mountains came to a successful conclusion.
Seeing that there were many houses on the mountain, Zhao Yulin thought it was a good place to station troops, so he ordered Hao Xiaoming's Fifth Squadron to station there, prepare roads, and train soldiers. He wanted to expand the army and prepare for war on this mountain.
Lei Man asked him, will there be no soldiers stationed at the dock?
He said that he would not stay there anymore, as that place was the prefect's territory, and he would leave it there for the prefect to station troops. From now on, the order at the dock would be maintained by the dock workers, and the rest of the troops would all return to Cuiping Mountain.
Zhao Yulin and Lei Man went to the government office and the county government office to report the results of the battle. After handing over the prisoners, the county magistrate said he would treat them to a meal, but Zhao Yulin had to bring the Chen family's abundant grains.
Of course he had to agree, and he invited the county magistrate to hold a banquet at Chengyi Restaurant on the pier, and all the leaders of the Shenwei Army above the rank of squad leader went to toast the county magistrate.
Prefect Xu also came to join in the fun, and everyone ate till they were delighted.
