Zhang Lei said bitterly: "A big truck transporting 500 catties, a total of 60,000 catties of saltpeter ore and other materials were seized. ”

According to the current purification ratio, 60,000 catties of saltpeter ore can purify 5,000 catties of nitrate, which can make hundreds of large iron fire mines, and more importantly, it took three years to accumulate.

Guo Song was extremely annoyed, he turned around and asked Wen Miao, "Is the envoy of Hanzhong Jiedu Guo Yao?" ”

Wen Miao said: "It's no longer true, Guo Yao was reappointed as Taichangqing in October last year, and now Cao Liwei is the envoy of Hanzhong Festival." ”

The name was very unfamiliar, and Guo Song asked, "What is the background of this Cao Liwei?" ”

"I'm going to check it out."

Wen Miao hurriedly went out, and Guo Song asked Zhang Lei again: "How can you be detained, is there any horse foot exposed?" Still not paying taxes? ”

Zhang Lei shook his head, "Guys, no one knows what it is really for, we are crossing the border with the name of miscanthus salt, it is a medicine, it is used in many places, and we have paid the taxes that should be paid, the pigeon letter did not elaborate, I estimate that the number of one-time transportation is too large, it is easy to attract attention, the new festival makes you want to find trouble, and it just so happened that this batch of saltpeter collided." ”

At this time, Wen Miao walked in quickly and said, "Your Highness, I found out, this Cao Liwei is the envoy of the Shence Army, and he is the head of Huo Xianming's Thirteen Taibao. ”

To be the head of Huo Xianming's Thirteen Taibao must be a little capable, Guo Song asked again: "Do you have his resume?" ”

"I only know that he was originally Li Sheng's general, Li Sheng was a Zhonglang general when he was seized military power, and then I didn't know, he has been stationed in Chengdu as a general of the Shence Army, and he has not experienced war, and we only knew last year when he was promoted to the envoy of Hanzhong Jiedu that he was Huo Xianming's great Taibao, and the official was appointed as the soldier and horse envoy of the Shence Army, and the military rank should be a general."

Guo Song took a few steps with his hands down, and he had already realized that this was also an opportunity to seize Hanzhong.

He immediately said to Wen Miao: "Go and inform Tiance Tower, immediately send an order from the King of Jin to Chengdu, urge the Southern Tang Military Department to thoroughly investigate this matter, and order Cao Liwei to release the goods immediately, otherwise all the consequences will be borne by him!" ”

At present, Guo Song still recognizes the Southern Tang court, although he has essentially established the imperial court, but after all, he did not ascend the throne and claim the emperor, and the various official offices he established are under the name of the Jin Palace, and all the appointed officials will be sent to the Chengdu court for the record, and even his wife and children will be canonized by the Queen Mother.

It is precisely because of these reasons that a tacit understanding was reached between Guo Song and the imperial court, and the goods or personnel between the two sides would not be seized at the checkpoints along the way, so the seizure behavior in Hanzhong seriously undermined this tacit understanding, and it was an extremely important strategic material that was seized.

Maybe Hanzhong doesn't know the importance of this batch of materials yet, but Tiance Tower has already begun to act.

At the same time as the Jin king's order was issued, Guo Song also issued an emergency mobilization order, the so-called emergency mobilization order is a response measure taken by the Jin army in order to deal with an emergency, it includes three parts: army mobilization, logistics preparation, and emergency dispatch, requiring this series of measures to be completed in half a day.

A cavalry of 20,000 men was stationed in the camp in the upper east of Chang'an, which could be called the elite of the elite, and was currently under the command of Pei Xin, who was demoted for reckless action in the Battle of Mengjin Pass, but Guo Song did not lose trust in him, and appointed him to command this rapid reaction army.

Just after noon, Pei Xin received an urgent dispatch order issued by Guo Song, the king of Jin, but the tiger talisman had not yet arrived, but this did not affect the assembly of the army, Pei Xin immediately ordered: "The army is assembled!" ”

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

The low sound of war drums suddenly sounded in the barracks, and groups of soldiers rushed out of the barracks, and the red signal flag was raised at the exercise ground, which was the order to send troops.

There are many details of rapid response, such as soldiers usually wear soft military uniforms, that is, cloth uniforms, once there is an order to send troops, soldiers must quickly put on armor, pack luggage, organize equipment, these problems are not big, if it is cavalry, it also involves war horses.

War horses can not be fed in the soldiers' tents, must be placed in a special stable, one or two soldiers to get the war horses is not a big problem, the action will be very fast, but 20,000 soldiers at the same time to take the war horses, the momentum is huge, it is very easy to cause congestion and chaos, if a little arrangement is not thorough, I am afraid that it will not be able to take it in an afternoon.

The soldiers put on their armor, put on their duffel bags, and rushed to the stables with weapons, everyone's war horse is fixed, and cannot be taken away arbitrarily, and the war horse is taken care of by hundreds of horsemen, and each war horse has a horse card, which is consistent with the military card of the cavalry.

The stables occupy a considerable area, there are a total of twenty-four stables, and there are strict rules on which stable each horse is placed in, so that the soldiers can quickly find their warhorses.

There was a long queue in front of each stable, and the soldiers were holding military badges, waiting to pick up the horses, check the cards, and take the horses, fast, tense and orderly.

In less than an hour, 20,000 cavalry appeared on the exercise ground, on the exercise ground, the logistics officers had prepared bags of dry food, and the soldiers stepped forward to extract a total of 20,000 dry food, the dry food in it could be eaten by the soldiers for five days, and the rest depended on logistics support.

At this time, Guo Song also came in person, and he brought the Tiger Fu and three hundred soldiers of the firearms battalion.

"Are you ready?" Guo Song asked.

Pei Xin bowed and saluted, "Your Highness, 20,000 soldiers are ready, just wait for the tiger talisman and the dispatch order."

The tiger talisman is very easy to understand, without the tiger talisman of the army, the army leaving the barracks without permission is a rebellion, but it is not enough to have a tiger talisman alone, there must also be an arrow to send troops, and the arrow is a detailed task, Pei Xin only knows that he has to send troops urgently, but he doesn't know where to send troops.

Guo Song took out the tiger talisman and handed it to him, and then ordered: "Go to the Meridian Valley and immediately send troops to Hanzhong!" ”

"Obey!"

Pei Xin galloped on his horse and ordered in a loud voice: "The army is set off, the target is Meridian Valley!" ”

'Woo-' the horn sounded again. A group of horsemen turned their horses and set off.

"Your Highness wants to conquer Hanzhong in person?" Pei Xin asked the marching Sima Zhou in a low voice.

Zhou Yi said with a smile: "Your Highness's mind is difficult to guess, but this is an opportunity to seize Hanzhong, and I believe His Royal Highness the King of Jin will not let it go." ”

"What the hell is going on?" Pei Xin asked.

"I'll tell you slowly on the way back, now the soldiers are fast, and when Cao Liwei regrets returning the things, he will lose the opportunity."

The 20,000 cavalry was like a rushing torrent, rushing towards the Meridian Valley, and at this time, the logistics army composed of 5,000 camels and 3,000 soldiers also set off from Chang'an.

……….

60,000 catties of saltpeter mine was seized in Hanzhong, Zhang Lei received a letter from the flying pigeon, but because of the limited space, he didn't know some details, this matter was not Hanzhong Jiedu made Cao Liwei willful, but a mouthy guy inadvertently leaked the secret.

Nearly 200 carts, 60,000 catties of saltpeter and a large number of other materials attracted Cao Liwei's attention, he personally came to check this batch of saltpeter, the tax bill said that the saltpeter was written, but what the salter was, he didn't know.

An equally unwitting fellow introduced him to the effects of miscanthus salt, which can be used to treat skin diseases, can be used to tann animal skins, and can cause fires........

But it was the four words 'ignition and burning' that made Cao Liwei nervous, and he ordered a piece of saltpeter to be thrown into the fire, and the flames were so loud that the tongue of fire rose a foot high, making the people around him exclaim.

Cao Liwei immediately realized that this batch of materials was probably not as simple as medicine, it was very likely to be military materials, maybe the mysterious iron fire thunder of the Jin army was made with it.

Chang'an strictly prohibits the strategic flow of military armor and pig iron into Bashu, and Bashu is the same, it is strictly forbidden to transport military materials to Chang'an, and this batch of saltpeter obviously belongs to the military category.

Cao Liwei immediately ordered the seizure of 60,000 catties of saltpeter, and sent people to Chengdu to deliver the letter.

Hanzhong is composed of five prefectures, including Jinzhou, Yangzhou, Fengzhou, Liangzhou and Xingzhou, Liangzhou is the population, economic and military center of Hanzhong, and Zhengxian County is the largest city in Hanzhong, with a population of more than 100,000.

It can be said that as long as you take Nanzheng City, you will basically take Hanzhong, on the one hand, most of the population of Hanzhong is concentrated in Nanzheng, and on the other hand, Nantang only stationed 15,000 troops in Nanzheng.

At present, the Southern Tang Dynasty has four types of troops, the first is the Shence Army, which currently has a total of 50,000 people, which is the elite army of the Southern Tang Dynasty, stationed in Chengdu, guarding the capital, and completely controlled by the eunuchs of the Northern Ya.

The second type of army is called the Waifan Army, Guo Song's army can't be talked about, it mainly refers to the army formed by Han Rong of the two Zhejiang provinces, the army of Liu Qia of the Jiangnan East Province, stationed in the area of Yuzhang and Jiujiang, the army of Ma Sui of the West Road of Jiangnan, stationed in Yueyang and Changsha, and then the Yangtze River water army of Hun Ying, stationed in Jiangling, and then there is the army of Li Si, the envoy of the Lingnan Jiedu, these five armies have about 100,000 people, all of which are supported by local taxes, and the imperial court basically does not care about their military salaries and military rations, and cannot control the generals. These five armies belonged to a semi-feudal state.

The so-called semi-feudal town refers to the independence of the army, but the local government is still under the jurisdiction of the imperial court.

The third type of army is called the Bashu Army, the main guide to the face of Dugu Dashi's Bayu Jiedu envoy, the eldest grandson Quanxu's Jiannan Jiedu envoy, and Cao Liwei led the Hanzhong Jiedu envoy, they have the least troops, only about 50,000 people, and the eunuchs are going all out to infiltrate the control of the army At present, the Hanzhong Jiedu Mansion has been taken by the eunuchs, and the next step is the Bayu Jiedu Mansion and the Jiannan Jiedu Mansion, in fact, the eunuchs have the financial power, and it is only a matter of time before they are taken down.

The fourth category is called the scattered army, that is, the soldiers of the states and counties and townships, and the number is not large, and the total number is only 30,000 or 40,000.

The Hanzhong army of about 15,000 people, stationed in the Nanzheng camp, it has been completely controlled by the Northern Ya, after Cao Liwei took office, all the generals promoted by Guo Yao were replaced, and the generals above the brigade commander were all served by the personal soldiers he brought.

Most of these pro-soldiers were of inferior quality, insatiable, cruelly oppressed the merchants and subordinate soldiers, lax military discipline, plundered people's property, and humiliated people's daughters, so that Guo Yao's army that was originally well governed began to rot from the roots.