Facing this King Liang, who is famous for killing local colleagues first wherever he takes office, coupled with the army that can't be seen at a glance, the young commander of the forbidden army didn't dare to talk nonsense, and scattered with his subordinates.

Gao Cuifeng has no objection to this arrangement, in fact, the forbidden army here is not under his command, and the officials with command authority got the news that King Liang went north two days ago, and then ...... All hidden.

I was afraid that this King of Liang, who would kill when he said he would kill and hang people on wooden poles to dry after killing, would see such a scene and put the responsibility for the decline of Weiqiao Town on their heads. As for what to do here, it's easy to do, isn't there a high green peak on the top?

"The materials needed by the adults have already been prepared, but Feng thought that this battle was not as ...... as usual" Gao Cuifeng's yamen or office is still the original post yard, and after meeting, it is not as polite and greeting as the superiors and subordinates who have not seen it for many years, but directly entered the topic.

"This king is also blind to the battle situation, what is Xia Shu's opinion, come quickly!" Don't look at Hong Tao, who is known as a victorious general, in fact, he is still very uncomfortable with ancient warfare, especially after a long ride, he walks not very neatly, and lies down when he sees the kang.

“…… There are three things that are so strange about this battle! First, where did the steel plate crossbows, siege crossbows, and rockets of the Western Xia army come from? Xia Guan checked the import and export records of the two workshops, but unfortunately the accounts after the first year of the Qing Dynasty were messy and could not get a full picture of them, but there were many suspicious points. ”

Seeing that Hong Tao lay on the kang without untying his armor as soon as he entered the house, Gao Cuifeng knew that he was really tired, and he wanted to report it later, but this matter was too important, so he could only try to condense the content.

"Isn't it that the steel ingots are not strictly controlled, and they are obtained by the Tangut people along with the craftsmen?"

I didn't think that Hong Tao, who had just lay down, sat up again, and from this action, it can be seen that his body has maintained well over the years, he is forty-seven years old, and he can still do sit-ups neatly in chain mail.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, originally the lower officials also thought so, thinking that the management of the workshop has been lax over the years, and the loss of personnel has been quite large, and some craftsmen and steel ingots must have been sold to the territory of Western Xia. But twenty years ago, an old man came, carrying a steel plate crossbow of the Tangut people, please take a look......"

Gao Cuifeng also made Hong Tao startled by this action, he was really old and strong, he couldn't do this kind of action ten years ago, how could he get stronger and stronger the older he gets.

Speaking of this problem, not only Gao Cuifeng couldn't figure it out in his heart, but as long as he was familiar with the horse Wang Xu, he basically couldn't figure it out. His face is basically the same as that of the crazy horse back then, and it has been fifteen years, and he doesn't look very old.

Looking at his contemporaries, Gao Cuifeng, Jiang Dalang, Jiang Erlang, Su Shi, and Li Gonglin all have very obvious signs of aging.

In fact, you don't need to look at others, as long as you take a turn in the Pony Mansion and look at the eldest princess, Fu Ji, Zhou Yiri, Lian'er, and the Green Lotus sisters, you will find that they also have the annual rings of the years, but they can't be seen from the pony.

In the past, anyone who stood with Lian'er and him could see the huge difference in age, and it was not a generation of people. But looking at it now, the colt and Lian'er are like classmates, it's not that Lian'er is aging too fast, but that the colt doesn't grow old at all.

Of course, no one is embarrassed to ask this question, and now is not the time to discuss it. After being stunned for a moment, Gao Cuifeng immediately regained his composure, opened the locked iron cabinet on the kang head, took out a steel plate crossbow from it, put it on the pit, and brought the gas lamp over.

The steel plate crossbow was damaged, and its body was covered with crisscrossed ravines, and there were even dried blood stains inside. As soon as its owner saw it, he had experienced a very brutal battle, and the crossbow was used as a weapon to fight in close combat, and those ravines were the traces left by the sword.

But in Hong Tao's eyes, these marks are not worth paying attention to, but a hexagonal bulge in the middle of the crossbow arm is very dazzling. It was a steel bolt that held the crossbow arm to the front of the crossbow.

Unlike the small bolts on both sides, it is full-length, and it is worn from the head of the crossbow body to the tail, which not only plays a fixed role, but also adjusts the elasticity of the crossbow arm through the tightness of the bolts.

Don't look at an inconspicuous bolt, the forging and machining technology involved is extremely high, and it is really not something that a few middle and lower-level craftsmen can master, even if it is a master of the samurai family, it can't be built alone.

In order to manufacture steel bolts, it is necessary to start with the forging process and finally quench and prevent rust, and it is necessary to go through more than a dozen processes and the cooperation of at least five or six master craftsmen.

But none of these masters and their personal disciples have escaped the monitoring of the Promotion Society, and they have all been working in the workshops run by the Promotion Society all these years, so how did the Xixia people master this technology?

Hong Tao didn't think deeply about the problem of craftsmen at all, because it was impossible. The only explanation is that the steel plate crossbow was not made by the Tanguts at all, or that the key components were not made by the Tanguts, and that they all came from the town of Weiqiao and the Daimyo's workshop.

If you think about it according to this logic, many doubts can be easily explained. For example, why did the Tangut people have such strong learning and industrial capabilities, and why did they have such a fierce offensive. The answer is that there were people in the Great Song court who not only provided them with weapons, but also provided training methods and military intelligence.

“…… The Yao family also offended several ministers in the court? After figuring this out, Hong Tao immediately raised a question, why did the thieves in the court do this?

At that time, some people in the court hooked up with the Tangut people in order to kill themselves, because they harmed their interests. But now Qin Fenglu's pacification envoy is Yao Gu, the Yao family and the seed family are all big clans in the northwest, and there are many good generals for generations, so they shouldn't end up with themselves.

"I'm afraid that the people of Xixia are not going to Yao Gu, Lord Yao is in Xi'an Prefecture at the moment. As soon as the king of Qi arrived in Zhuo Luocheng, the Xixia people suddenly launched a fierce attack, and after the king of Qi retreated to Lanzhou, he crossed the Yellow River from three places and besieged it, but the battle situation in Xi'an Prefecture did not seem to be so fierce. If this is true, this is the second strange place, why there was a voice of invincibility just after the war, and when the king of Qi arrived in the Western Xia people, he suddenly attacked. It is said that Lanzhou City has many soldiers, plenty of grain and grass, and is blocked by the Yellow River moat, so it is generally not chosen to besiege in summer, and if it is stalemate, it is difficult to even protect the way out. ”

Gao Cuifeng has more say on this issue, and he can know who is in the same group with whom in the officialdom, and who is not in harmony with whom. The different treatment of Yao Gu and King Qi's soldiers and horses was really another issue he wanted to talk about.

“…… If I were a Western Xia general, I am afraid that I would also choose King Qi to break through. However, besieging Lanzhou is indeed a bit risky, it is better to maintain the pressure on Lanzhou in Zhuo Luocheng first, and then divide the troops to the west to take Liangzhou, Ganzhou, and Suzhou, so as to replenish military resources. Even if you can't conquer Lanzhou for a while, you can recover a large part of your homeland. ”

Hong Tao has a more reasonable explanation for this second strangeness, fighting is not higher than the title, the King of Qi is unknown, and compared with him, it is more difficult to deal with those experienced generals and professionals in the border pass.

However, Gao Cuifeng's doubts are not unreasonable, and the Tanguts are indeed a bit abnormal on the issue of besieging Lanzhou. Pinching soft persimmons can't be too much, and with the support of Lanzhou City, the King of Qi is probably not a soft persimmon, and the Xixia people must have their purpose in choosing this.

"What the adults said is very true, and this third point is probably related to you, my lord." Gao Cuifeng didn't argue, lowered his voice and mysteriously stretched out three fingers.

"Oh? It has something to do with this king, let's talk about it...... "After such an analysis, Hong Tao's tiredness also dissipated, and he simply sat cross-legged on the edge of the kang, and he was very cooperative, and he also lowered his voice, pulling a long tone to be funny.

"Don't you think the imperial court's attitude towards this new army is a little too lenient? Ever since he read the summoning order in the newspaper, Xia Guan has been observing the attitudes of all parties in the DPRK and China. It's been a month since the battle, and it seems that except for your new army, none of the forbidden troops on Gyeonggi Road have really arrived at Qinfeng Road, either because of grain and grass or because of the delay in the ordnance. But the ordnance transported from the Daimyo's Mansion and Weiqiao Town should have been in place a long time ago, and they couldn't hide this from their officials. ”

Gao Cuifeng was not affected by Hong Tao's expression, he was less serious when he was serious, and most of the time he was not very serious, especially when he was talking about business, it was difficult to be consistent.

.。 m.