On the eighth day of October in the first year of the Great Song Dynasty, Wu Haogu was officially appointed as the Marquis of Yu, the capital of the three direct capitals. There are more than the two straight Du Yu Hou that Zhao Ji was ready to give him at the beginning. The reason why this happened was because Wu Haogu asked Zhao Ji for 20,000 soldiers, increasing the total number of troops under his command to 30,000.

There are so many people, almost enough to be an "army". However, considering that there are no formal establishments of the 20,000 or thousands of them, they are all utility, government soldiers or knights, so it is a bit too much to give a military name. Therefore, Zhao Ji only added a temporary establishment of "Imperial Dragon Neiwei Zhi", and let Wu Haogu make a three-straight capital Yuhou.

The three straight capital Yu Hou Si and two large battalions commanded by engineers and one cavalry commander are now all placed in the martial arts arena of Mu Daogang. The wall, which had been blasted by tunnels for an unknown number of times, had now been completely bulldozed. In their place, there were more than 300 tents, large and small.

An army is already stationed here. Of course, it is not the main force of the three straight in front of the emperor, if the army of more than 30,000 people is put out, it will be boundless, and there are only more than 300 tents, but they can't accommodate it anyway. Therefore, the 20,000 soldiers will go directly to Yan'an and temporarily hand over to Gao Yu and Wang Yu for the time being.

Now there are only two or three thousand people gathered in Mu Daogang. Including more than 1,000 sappers directly under the Yuhou Division of the Three Straight Cities, half of which are the "first command of the sappers" composed of construction craftsmen and small workers drawn from all over the place by Huang Shilang; The other half were the miners of Zhou Daxia and Zhu Xingshu, who were incorporated into the "first command of the engineers".

There are also more than 1,000 people brought from Murong Parrot from Jiehe Commercial Market. Among them, there are 200 young knights drawn from the dummy army, 400 knight retinues recruited in Jiehe Shang City, and more than 400 volunteers to join the army to gain fame - some of these effects are knights who can be incorporated into the palace in front of the palace, some are strong men who can be used as dragon warriors, and some are students who graduated from the doctoral department of Yuntai Academy to serve as Wu Haogu's staff in the army.

In addition, there are some miscellaneous people, such as the maids who accompany the army, musicians, cooks, and servants, all of whom were raised by Bai Feifei for Wu Haogu, and there are as many as two or three hundred people.

This red leader of the Fang Building is really a little affectionate to Wu Haogu now, and he is actually willing to follow Wu Haogu to serve in front of the Northwest Army.

And the reason why Bai Feifei also recruited a group of maids, musicians, cooks, and servants is actually the old rule of Song Jun. A group of generals who lead troops, all of them are masters who will enjoy, who doesn't go to the front with a group of people who are waiting?

When Gao Yu led his troops to the northwest before, he also brought a lot of beauties who were waiting for him. However, Gao Yu would not show these people generously, and he did not take them to the battlefield in Huangzhou.

On the night of the eighth day of October, when night fell.

Wu Haogu was in the capital office of Mu Daogang, and the lights were bright, and the melodious sound of silk and bamboo was heard.

This is Wu Haogu and Tong Guan in the reception of the visiting Yan Yan Road to appease the envoy and know the Yan'an Mansion, Jixian Hall to repair Tao Jiefu.

Tao Jiefu came to Beijing to report on his work. The calendar used in the Northern Song Dynasty was similar to the lunar calendar in later generations, and October was already the early winter season, which was not a good day for war in the cold northwest. The five-way summer battle in the fourth year of Yuanfeng was because the date of sending troops was too late, and Gao Zunyu, who was the latest to send troops, did not set off from Huanzhou Hongdeqi until October 13. Therefore, it didn't take long to fight, but it encountered a cold winter, and after the defeat, many people starved to death and froze to death.

This time, the Song army can be regarded as having learned a lesson, and postponed the time of the attack on the entire east road to March next year, and then comfortably dispatched troops when the spring flowers bloomed.

And because of the previous Battle of the Haoqian River, the Western Thieves seemed to be afraid of the Song army, and adopted a defensive posture on both the eastern and western fronts.

Therefore, Tao Jiefu, one of the commanders of the Song Army on the Eastern Front, was able to firmly abandon the military affairs and government affairs of Yanyan Road and travel thousands of miles to Kaifeng Mansion to face the king.

The time for entering the camp arranged by the Gate Division has not yet arrived, so Tao Jiefu simply ran to the military camp of Wu Haogu in Mu Daogang, on the one hand, he wanted to find out; On the one hand, I also have a relationship with this favorite minister of the Son of Heaven.

After a cursory tour of Wu Haogu's military camp, Tao Jiefu was a little disappointed. Except for a small number of young knights who were training in a queue, the barracks of Nuoda was a loose scene, and there were many flowery ladies coming in and out.

And Wu Haogu himself is the Marquis of Duyu, and the government office is placed in a magnificent mansion with deep courtyard walls. This place does not look like a military camp, but as if it is a palace (it was originally the palace, and Zhao Ji lent it to Wu Haogu for temporary residence). In and out of it, there are also all kinds of bright colors and people.

It's completely rotten to the root of the Kaifeng Mansion forbidden army!

And Wu Haogu, the Marquis of Du Yu, who commanded the three armies, doesn't seem to have much of the domineering of a general, just a young man with handsome eyebrows and two mustaches. It's far less than Tong Guan with him.

Putting 30,000 troops in the hands of this man won't be a big deal, right?

Wu Haogu was also looking at Tao Jiefu at this time, Cai Jing's henchman (Wu Haogu wronged him, he was Zhang Qi's person) was a thin middle-aged man, wearing a scarlet official uniform, wearing a black gauze soft hat, just sitting there casually, he naturally had an awe-inspiring bearing that had commanded the army for many years.

He is now the initiator of this war in the northwest, and the plan to win over Renduo to protect his loyalty and attack the east in the west was all proposed by him to Cai Jing.

In addition, he did not put forward unrealistic goals, but only took the seizure of the states along the Wuding River as the goal of ending the war.

The goal is realistic and should be achievable!

After three rounds of drinking, Tao Jiefu's brows were already wrinkled, "The morale of the two elite who were transferred to Yan'an was a little low, and everyone up and down was looking forward to Wu Xuanzan's early appointment." I wonder when Wu Xuanzan will be able to leave for the west? ”

Wu Haogu was raising his glass and drinking, as if he was still thinking about the time to set off, Tong Guan said with a smile: "It's soon, you can always go out this month, you can get to Yan'an before the end of November, and you can't miss the war in March next year." ”

Wu Haogu put down his wine glass and said, "This time I will go west to bring a lot of equipment and nitrate powder and sulfur powder for preparing gunpowder...... Now the ordnance supervisor is stepping up production, and it will be completed soon, and then it will be ready to go. ”

"Nitrate, sulfur?" Tao Jiefu was a little confused, "Is there no stock in the ordnance prison?" ”

In fact, Wu Haogu asked for a lot of things from the ordnance supervisor, not only nitrate powder and sulfur powder, but also 10,000 spears, 10,000 leading foot armor, 10,000 straight knives and some other miscellaneous equipment. In addition to nitrate powder and sulfur powder, other equipment and equipment were used to arm 20,000 government soldiers. Half of these government soldiers will be incorporated into the Imperial Dragon Inner Guard and the Imperial Dragon Warrior as soldiers, and the rest will be directly under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Yu Marquis as government soldiers, or directly under the jurisdiction of the Duyu Marquis.

And it is not so easy to straighten out so many troops. Although Wu Haogu will become a great military strategist, he does not have any experience in leading troops to fight at the moment, and he has not learned.

So he is still waiting for the arrival of Zhao Zhongge, who will become the commander of the newly established Imperial Dragon Neiwei Zhi, and also the "chief of staff" of Wu Haogu. How to sort out the chaotic 30,000 army depends on his ability.

In addition, Wu Haogu also hoped that Zhao Zhongge, Murong Yu, and Huang Zhisheng could sort out a staff group for themselves - he, the general, was actually a layman who knew a little about the military knowledge of later generations. It is simply impossible to give very specific orders, only an approximate one.

If there is no high-level staff group, the 30,000 army will definitely be messed up by Wu Haogu!

Fortunately, the Jiehe Yuntai Academy Palace and the previous Military Science Department have cultivated a lot of military talents, and Huang Zhisheng has also collected a group of high-level construction craftsmen. If these people can be organized into a staff group that can carry out Wu Haogu's orders, then he will be able to lead his troops to fight in the future.

Even if Wu Dalang can't think of a genius plan, as long as there is a genius executor, he can still play an epic victory.

"Envoy," Tong Guan opened his mouth to explain for Wu Haogu at this time, "Wu Xuanzan asked for tens of thousands of catties of nitrate powder and sulfur powder, and it also cost ...... Pure, a good thing with high purity. ”

"Oh? What is it for? ”

"It can be used to blow up the city wall...... Tong Guan told Tao Jiefu about the cave blasting siege method he had seen with his own eyes.

After six or seven tests, tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder were wasted. Wu Haogu, Huang Shilang and Zhu Xingshu finally found a more ideal blasting method, which was the multi-pit multi-chamber blasting method - because storing too much gunpowder in a single chamber through a single pit would cause the problem of insufficient combustion. It is better to dig multiple pits and medicine chambers, ignite them at the same time, and blast them continuously. In addition, it is not good to put gunpowder directly in the coffin, it is better to divide it into multiple oil paper packets and layer them on top of each other in the barrel.

"Can you really blow up the walls?" A hint of joy flashed on Tao Jiefu's face, and he looked at Wu Haogu and Tong Guan and asked again.

"It can explode!" Tong Guan stroked his beard and nodded. "Our family has seen it several times with our own eyes, and it has exploded!"

Wu Haogu also said: "It can indeed explode!" The fortification of the cities along the Wuding River will be handed over to the lower officials to be responsible. ”

Attacking Jiancheng is the most troublesome, but Wu Haogu is now very sure. In contrast, bottomless is indeed a field battle.

Tao Jiefu smiled and nodded, "Okay!" Then there is Lao Xuanzan. ”

He said this, but in his heart he thought: If you really have this ability, it is a pity that it is only used in the states on the banks of the Wuding River, and it should be used in Lingzhou and Xingzhou! In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, if the fortified city of Lingzhou could be broken with gunpowder, the western thieves would have perished for many years!

It seems that this time there is a chance to destroy the thief!