Su Jin's strategy was both unexpected and reasonable, and the lush trees on Longshan Mountain were the culprits, whether it was the raw materials that Su Jin needed to build Weizhou City, or the wood needed by the current Western Xia army to make siege equipment on the spot, all of them were collected from Longshan without exception.

Of course, the entire Longshan has several peaks towering, and the radius is also dozens of square kilometers, and it is not practical to destroy all the trees on the mountains, but the part that Su Jin wants to burn is only the trees on the easternmost slope of Longshan, and if you cut down trees inside, you need to climb the towering eastern slope, even if Xia Jun has the perseverance to go in and cut trees, how to get the trees cut down will be a big problem, or it is impossible at all.

As soon as Su Jin's plan came out, Jingtai, Li Chong, Pan Jiang and others were dumbfounded, none of them thought of this idea, this is indeed a plan to draw salaries from the bottom of the kettle, without making a head-on entanglement with Xia Jun, Xia Jun's idea of cutting wood and building ladders can be completely broken, when it is impossible to harvest wood on Longshan, what will Xia Jun use to build those thousands of ladders?

The city wall of Weizhou City is more than three zhang high, originally needed two ordinary ladders to dock to barely catch the edge of the city wall, the higher the ladder is longer, the more wood needs to be thick and whole, this is not just to cut down some roadside miscellaneous trees and miscellaneous willows by the river, not to mention the number of needs is too much, in addition to the trees on the Longshan Mountain, the flat land is almost barren, and you can't see a few standing trees at a glance, so in addition to going up the mountain to cut trees, Xia Jun has no other way.

"Master Su, what a plan, I sincerely obey my humble duties."

"Yes, the lower officials are also convinced, why can't we think of this?"

Pan Jiang and Jingtai boasted one by one, but it didn't seem like a pure sycophant, they were really admired.

"Son, leave this errand to me." The dynasty took the initiative to ask for help.

Su Jin smiled: "What are you going to do?" ”

Wang Chao said: "What else can I do?" Just light the fire and burn it, can't I set it on fire? ”

Su Jin shook his head and said, "Then you are wrong, it is the middle of summer, the trees on the mountain are lush, how do you order it?" Even if it is lit, it will not form a prairie fire; If you want to set fire, there will be a sky-high fire, and the eastern slope of Longshan will be burned to the ground at one time, and the western thieves must not be allowed to take advantage of it. ”

Wang Dynasty understood that Su Jin meant that he was worried that if half of it was burned and extinguished, it would expose the strategic intentions of the Song army, and the Xia army would send troops to hold the mountain pass, and then it would be impossible to burn the mountain again.

"Tonight, you take 500 soldiers to go, camel 500 bundles of hay in the city, and bring more than a dozen barrels of fire oil, take advantage of the current southeast wind, pour the hay with fire oil and spread it in the dense forest, be sure to wait for the pine wood to burn before evacuating, the pine fir is fatty, and it is not easy to extinguish when burned, the key is to make the fire big enough to sweep up." Su Jin said with a smile.

Pan Jiang hurriedly said: "Master Su, do you also use fire oil?" There's not much left of that, didn't you say you had to rely on oil to defend against the enemy? It's a waste. ”

Li Zhong smiled and said: "General Pan, in fact, there is no waste at all, if this plan fails, the city will be broken, what else to talk about?" ”

Pan Jiang nodded and said, "I understand, I'm just a little reluctant." ”

Su Jin said: "Yes, I am also distressed, but what can I do; I heard that this thing is produced in Sichuan and Shaanxi, doesn't our Jingyuan Road belong to Shaanxi? Why haven't you heard of this anywhere? ”

Jingtai said: "Yes, there are many of them, Fan Shuai's Dunyan Road produces this thing, it is said to be born in the water, the cave where the sand and stone and the spring water are mixed, the black oil comes out in a daze, and the local natives take the pheasant tail to pick it up, and collect it into the reed. ”

Su Jin patted his thigh and said: "Why didn't you say it earlier, I said it earlier, I would have asked Fan Shuai for more, and I would have stabbed a thousand children and eight hundred, are we still afraid that his western thieves will attack the city?" ”

Jingtai was stunned and said, "Eight hundred barrels of Qian'er? Are you kidding? The black oil collected by the locals is called 'oil', it is extremely difficult to burn, and it is also black smoke billowing when it burns, which makes people can't do it, and the black smoke that comes out is like wisps of black wool, which is difficult to remove when it is stained on the curtain of clothing; ”

Su Jin's eyes widened and said, "Is such a precious strategic material only used to make ink?" Why does the oil we use burn when it gets wet, are you talking about this thing we use? ”

Jingtai said with a smile: "My lord doesn't know, the oil is indeed the oil, but after it is extracted, it needs to be refined through multiple processes, which costs a lot of money, so the refining is very little, but it is very easy to make ink, so most of it is used to make ink instead of refining." ”

Su Jin was very interested and said, "But I don't know how to refine it?" ”

Jingtai said: "Xia Guan is not very clear, but it is said that it is necessary to collect oil in a large kettle to boil and steam, after several tosses, every hundred barrels can get a barrel of oil, do you think about how much manpower and firewood it costs?" If it is not for military use, who will refine it? ”

Su Jin carefully recalled the knowledge learned in later generations, and seemed to have a little impression that the soil method of petroleum refining is distillation and decomposition, as if it can be decomposed into liquefied gas, gasoline, diesel and other substances according to different temperatures, and the final dregs are asphalt oil for paving; Su Jin was suddenly very excited, although he couldn't extract a large number of ancient monsters from oil like later generations, at least he could find a way to produce an important strategic material like fire oil on a large scale, which would have a great impact on both military and civilian use.

Su Jin raised his head and shook himself, and suddenly heard the sound of the drums of the city tower, I don't know when the trebuchet of the Xia army had stopped bombarding the city wall, and the drum sound was a signal for the remaining troops on the city tower to monitor the enemy army to remind them to guard against the enemy's attack.

Pan Jiang hurried to the soldiers who were sitting on the school field to rest after they had eaten, and shouted: "All go to the city wall!" In case the thieves attack again. ”

The soldiers hurriedly got up, the whole team climbed to their respective positions on the city wall, Su Jin and the others also returned to the city tower, looking from a distance, the crowd in the Xixia camp was surging, it seemed that the troops stationed in the back were moving forward, but there was no sign of attack.

……

The atmosphere in the snow-white and tall Li Yuanhao's big tent of the Chinese army was depressing, although the smell of wine and meat in the tent was fragrant, but the faces of everyone present were gloomy and gloomy, and they couldn't swallow it in the face of food and wine one by one.

Li Yuanhao sat on the top, holding a wine glass in his hand thoughtfully, although his expression seemed calm, the suppressed anger in his eyes exposed his heart.

The first battle of the siege in the morning was frustrated, with tens of thousands of dead and wounded, although thousands of new cannon fodder recruits were recruited, but Li Yuanhao, who was going to make a contribution to the first battle, still felt angry, Yeli Yuqi and Yeli Wangrong swore before the battle, completely ignoring Li Yuanhao's advice, using very simple and rude siege methods, and also wanted to break through the city defense of Weizhou City in one fell swoop, but the result was a great disappointment.

Although extremely angry, Li Yuanhao still gave face to the two Yeli kings, and did not blame them, on the contrary, he deliberately set up a banquet to treat the two, of course, there is no lack of humiliation, and the more important reason is that Li Yuanhao wants to take back the right to decide this battle, and let the Yeli brothers follow their own advice, instead of insisting on going their own way.

"Generals." In silence, Li Yuanhao spoke.

Everyone was obviously shocked, because of self-blame and horror, the generals did not know what kind of punishment was coming, the emperor's tyranny was notoriously aware, in the last battle with the Song State that he personally supervised, with several times the enemy's strength but was beaten to the ground, he would definitely kill a few scapegoats to relieve his hatred, but I don't know which one or two of the scapegoats were here.

"Generals, hard work." Li Yuanhao looked at the silent crowd and felt a burst of pride, and even the Yeli brothers were full of shame and horror, which made Li Yuanhao very satisfied.

"Your Majesty...... We are incompetent...... Please ask the emperor to forgive the sin. Yeli Yuqi got up and left his seat and knelt down in front of Li Yuanhao's case, originally discussed with Yeli Wangrong to hold on, but when facing Li Yuanhao, he was still a little unbearable.

Yeli Yu begged to be soft, Yeli Wangrong didn't have the courage to insist, he got up and knelt down, and the tent suddenly fell to his knees.

"What is this for? I don't mean to blame you, I sincerely invite you to drink and relieve your fatigue, and get up quickly. Li Yuanhao said lightly.

"The ministers are incompetent, and they lost the first battle, so please ask the emperor to condemn us and others, otherwise the ministers will be uneasy." Ye Liyu said in a hoarse voice.

Li Yuanhao got up with a smile, came to Yeli Yuqi, stretched out his hand to help him, and said quietly: "Victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, this battle has just begun, how to say victory?" Although we lost the first battle today, our army was only wounded, so why should we be so sad? Besides, this battle has also found out the details of the Song people, and they have also gained, everyone should get up, I won't blame you. ”

Everyone was relieved, it was rare to see Li Yuanhao so magnanimous, and today's luck was really good.

"But...... The reasons for the defeat of this battle are worthy of our analysis, who will tell me why I lost today? What is the cause of failure? Li Yuanhao's words changed, and everyone's hearts hung again.

Everyone, you look at me, I look at you, but no one wants to speak first, and the tent falls into dead silence again.