Poor Family Chapter 682

  Chapter 682 Fully Prepare for Battle

Yan Jiuling took Li Yanqing to the west. The westernmost part was three relatively simple warehouses, close to the west city wall. These three warehouses were especially huge. There were several soldiers standing at the door. When they walked to the door, a warehouse The head came out.

   "Will Yan Canjun take inventory today?"

  Yan Jiuling glared at him, "Li Dutong came to check the warehouse, quickly open the warehouse door!"

   Cangtou was taken aback, and quickly stepped forward to salute, "See Li Dutong!"

  Li Yanqing waved his hand, "Open the door!"

   Cangtou hurriedly took out a bunch of huge keys from his back waist, and unlocked the big lock on the door. Several soldiers stepped forward to help, and creaked and pushed the door open.

Li Yanqing walked into the large warehouse, and saw three rows of heavy-duty catapults neatly arranged in the warehouse. Except for the catapult placed on the ground, other components have been assembled, there are huge wooden wheels underneath, a tall catapult The machines are neatly arranged together, looking up, it looks like three teams of Transformers, which is particularly shocking.

   "Qi reported to the capital, there are 60 heavy-duty trebuchets in this warehouse, and 60 in the warehouse next door, a total of 120, which were assembled five years ago."

  Li Yanqing walked to the first trebuchet and touched the thick wooden pillars. The wooden pillars had been brushed with tung oil and they were well protected. "When was the tung oil painted?" Li Yanqing asked.

   "Reporting is controlled, we have to brush it every six months, and it has never stopped for more than ten years!"

Li Yanqing looked at the throwing pole on the ground again. The throwing pole was not placed directly on the ground, but a wooden frame was placed underneath, which prevented the throwing pole from being rotted by the moisture on the ground, and the six-foot-long throwing pole was also brushed. Tung oil has been preserved as new for more than ten years.

Li Yanqing was very satisfied, so he turned his head and said to Liu Fang: "A few years ago, I inspected the warehouses in various states in Hebei, and the trebuchets inside were all rotten, which made people sigh, but here they are kept very well. We must give a heavy reward, six cao divisions, two thousand Two taels of silver, and the three storehouses here will each reward a hundred taels of silver in recognition of their careful protection of the city's important weapons!"

  Everyone was overjoyed, and bowed together to thank them, "Thank you for the reward from the governor!"

Li Yanqing left the trebuchet warehouse and entered the easternmost one. The storehouse opened the door and said, "This is the cannon and the bed crossbow. It is the same as the trebuchet in front. I brush it with tung oil every six months to keep it in good condition." Very good!"

  Li Yanqing walked into the storeroom, and saw a row of assembled cannons on the left side of the storeroom, and bed crossbows on the right side, each set of bed crossbows wrapped in straw mats.

Artillery is the former stone cannon, which was named after it was changed to launch firearms. It is a supplement to the trebuchet and is mainly used for close-range shooting. For a long time, it was aimed at the enemy's nest vehicles. Taiyuan's artillery Obviously not too many, only forty, more bed crossbows, there are 350 pairs.

Li Yanqing is not worried about firearms. They have brought 300 thunderbolts and a large number of iron fire mines to the north this time. Rockets and fire ravens, these two long-range arson weapons are still widely used in warfare.

  At this time, Li Yanqing suddenly remembered something, turned around and asked Yan Jiuling, "How much fire oil is in stock?"

   "About 3,000 barrels, fifty catties per barrel, and there are about 1,000 barrels in the Jinning County warehouse."

  Jinning County is an important military town by the Yellow River, and there is also a combat readiness warehouse there, which is mainly used to supply the frontier army for Xixia defense. Back then, Li Yanqing went there to actually take stock of military resources, and he knew that the reserves of various materials there were quite considerable.

  Li Yanqing immediately said to Liu Fang: "Immediately organize manpower and vehicles to transport all the military resources in Jinning County back to Taiyuan, and do it now."

   Liu Fang hesitated and asked, "Do you want to let the army guard it?"

Generally, transporting materials is the work of the Xiang army. Of course, five thousand Xiang troops will be used to move the warehouse materials in Jinning County, but it is debatable whether the imperial guards are needed. Li Yanqing pondered and said: "Let five thousand cavalry be the guards. , I will tell Liu Tie later that you go to raise vehicles first, and you can ask the Taiyuan government for assistance."

   "Humble post obeys orders!"

  Liu Fang winked at Yan Jiuling and others, and he hurried away with several officials from the Six Cao Division.

  Li Yanqing said to the soldiers again: "Get Wang Gui and General Gong Zuwen to meet me immediately!"

After explaining to the soldiers, Li Yanqing walked out of the warehouse and went directly up the city wall from the corridor in Cangcheng. Not long after, Wang Gui and Gong Zuwen hurried over. Li Yanqing bowed and saluted, "See Dutongzhi!"

  Li Yanqing first said to Gong Zuwen: "Soon Liu Canjun will arrange Xiangjun to go to Jinning County to carry supplies. There is no need for Xiangjun here in Taiyuan City. You immediately lead the army to follow Liu Fang to Jinning County!"

   "Follow the order!"

  Gong Zuwen left in a hurry, Li Yanqing asked Wang Guidao again: "Is the army ready?"

  Wang Gui nodded, "It's almost there, and the barracks are all ready."

  Li Yanqing pointed to the warehouse and said: "Now we need to carry all the heavy defense equipment to the city and install them. The trebuchets and artillery are basically assembled, and you are responsible for installing them on the top of the city."

   "Humble job, just do it."

  Wang Gui turned to leave, Li Yanqing stopped him and said with a smile: "Don't be so impatient, I haven't finished yet!"

  Wang Gui scratched his head in embarrassment, stopped, and waited for Li Yanqing to continue to order. Li Yanqing pointed to the outside of the city and said: "If I use the fire crow to launch from outside the city to Cangcheng, do you think it will cause a fire in Cangcheng?"

Wang Gui looked at Cangcheng. The buildings in Cangcheng are almost all stone walls and wooden roofs. The location is just in the northwest corner of the county. No matter whether the enemy is from the west or the north, they can launch fire crows or project kerosene into the city, thus triggering an explosion. The fire, unless the two rows of warehouses against the wall are demolished, and a large amount of grain and grass are transported away.

Wang Gui thought for a while and said, "Otherwise, we should designate a restricted area outside the city, such as spreading poisonous thorns, or digging ponds to release water to form a lake in the area outside the city, or simply move the granary to the center of the city. , it happens that there is an inner military camp in the center of the city, which is only slightly smaller than Cangcheng."

  Li Yanqing smiled slightly, "I have made progress, do you think there are loopholes in my plan?"

Wang Gui pondered for a moment and said, "It's not appropriate to sprinkle thorns. You won't be afraid of thorns if you wear thick wooden boots. There's no point in digging a pond. You can also go to the city to shoot fire crows by rowing a canoe. The best way is to rely on distance. For defense, there is no need to remove all the supplies in the warehouse city, just remove the two rows of grain warehouses against the wall, and the three arsenals for heavy defensive weapons will also be dismantled to make room for them.”

   "It's a good way to dismantle the warehouse, I think it's feasible!"

  Wang Gui shook his head again and said: "But I don't understand, since there is such a loophole, why did you build Cangcheng close to the city wall?"

   "The reason is very simple, because no one thought that the enemy would attack the city of Taiyuan, so you see that although there are so many heavy trebuchets, they were not installed at the top of the city. This is the reason."

Li Yanqing said to Wang Gui again: "I will leave it to you to carry the grain, grass and supplies. You can use the Caohe River in the city to transport them, build a high wall around the inner military camp, and temporarily use a large tent to replace the warehouse. You can ask the military government to recruit some The craftsmen will help, and all the trebuchets and artillery must be installed on the city immediately."

   "The humble job understands, this is to handle it!"

Wang Guixing saluted, turned around and left in a hurry. Li Yanqing looked at Cangcheng below the city wall with his hands behind his back. He had experienced many battles and knew that building warehouses against the city walls was a taboo in the army. It is easy to be destroyed by Thunderbolt or Fireball, and he has had a profound lesson in Yanjing defense.

The city began to move quickly. There is a Cao River in Cangcheng, which runs across the entire county. The military requisitioned more than 100 tugboats and began to transfer the grain, grass and money in Cangcheng. In fact, it was not completely removed. The supplies from dozens of warehouses on the city wall were moved away, most of which involved food, grass and money.

   Except for trebuchet warehouses, the warehouses of other military materials are far away from the city wall, and materials such as armor, kerosene, etc. are far away from the city wall, and they cannot be blasted by thunder. Then the roof is covered with a layer of mud, so there is no fear of fire crows arson.

  In addition to transporting food and grass, Liu Kai's army cooperated with the intelligence department to implement large-scale population registration in Taiyuan City, and began to investigate possible spies hidden in the city one by one. The atmosphere in Taiyuan City gradually became tense.

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end