With Wuchang Jiancheng as the center, the construction of the earthen city camp spread to all sides, build a large number of fortresses, connected by trenches, such a defensive plan is not proposed by Kubilong, the person who really proposed the plan is Zhou Peigong, after Aobai's guidance and modification, this set of defense plans began to put into action. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In the middle of summer, Wuchang, which was known as a furnace in later generations, was as hot as a steamer, the scorching sun shone on the earth, and the surrounding Yangtze River and lakes emitted water vapor, which increased the humidity in the air, making the already hot Wuchang City even more humid and unbearable. The terrain of Wuchang, with several small hills around it blocking the wind, and being located in a subtropical high-pressure area, has no wind and is humid and hot in summer, such weather is simply unbearable.

In Wuchang City, the governor's yamen was as hot as a steamer, the governor Zhang Changgeng and the governor Yang Maoxun were wearing silk official robes, sitting in the living room drinking tea, and the four servants on the side were desperately shaking the fans for them, but the sweat was still dripping down, and the inside and outside of the official uniform were already soaked, and the sweat beads on the top of the head were dripping down.

The red-tasseled hat-style official hat was placed on the table, and the bare heads of the two were covered with sweat.

"This hell weather, it's so hot!" Yang Maoxun sighed. He wished that he could go back to his house immediately, and when he returned to his house, he would be able to take off his official robe outside, and only need to wear a white silk garment.

But in the Governor's Palace, Yang Maoxun didn't dare to wear that, no matter how hot the day was, the official robe had to be worn on his body.

Zhang Changgeng arched his hand to the north and said: "The weather is hot, but it is my great Qing Hongfu!" When the weather was cold and the grain was not harvested, there were thieves and thieves, and the former Emperor Sizong (Chongzhen) was frugal, but he still lost the country. It is also the sky with eyes, after I entered the Central Plains in the Qing Dynasty, the wind and rain will be smooth! The weather is hot, and the grain harvest is good! ”

"But the thieves are about to attack Huguang, and our people are building fortifications outside the city, and the people are also suffering on such a hot day." Yang Maoxun sighed.

Zhang Changgeng picked up the teacup, took a sip, put down the teacup, and said slowly: "The people are suffering, and they are all thanks to the thieves!" I am in the Qing Dynasty and am about to dominate the world, but the thieves who do not obey the king have repeatedly rebelled and brought suffering to the people! These accounts will be counted on the thieves! ”

Outside Wuchang City, the scorching sun was in the sky, the hot sun shone on the earth, and the ground was dry and cracked, but the moisture in the air was very large. In this kind of weather, not to mention people under the sun, even if they sit motionless in the room, they will be soaked in a while, and their clothes will seem to be wrung out of the water.

However, in such a hot weather, the people outside the city braved the scorching sun, wielded shovels and hoes, worked hard in the city, and built city fortifications with Wuchang as the center.

Liu Feng, who was shirtless, put down his hoe, raised his head to look at the sky, turned around and picked up the water bladder, looked up and poured water into his mouth, but the water bladder was already empty, and there was not even a drop of water. Liu Feng could only sigh helplessly, and tentatively asked a green battalion soldier standing on the side overseeing: "Master Jun, can the villain go and get some water?" ”

"Go and come back!" This Green Battalion soldier is quite kind.

Liu Feng was originally a farmer in Yongxing County, but two months ago, a group of wolf-like Qing soldiers rushed into his home, saying that he wanted to recruit people to build fortifications, so Liu Feng was arrested here.

When I first came, it was okay, Wuchang in the fourth month of the lunar calendar has not yet begun to be hot, and it is even a little cold, and the labor will not be too tired in that weather, how to say that I can still eat enough, and the food is not worse than what I eat at home.

Liu Feng is a hired farmer who does not have his own land, and belongs to the kind of bachelor who feeds the whole family without starving, and works for the landlord to mix a mouthful of food. In addition to sweet potatoes or sweet potatoes at the owner's house, he was half-full and not hungry every day. And when I came to the construction site, I was able to let go of sweet potatoes and multigrain cakes, and occasionally fragrant baked potatoes.

What makes Liu Feng most happy is that there is a dish in the food on the construction site, which is a red thing, which is spicy and delicious when eaten in the mouth. It's much more delicious than the dogwood that they like to eat in Hubei on weekdays.

Dogwood, is a kind of spicy food, Huguang area, Sichuan, Guizhou and other people who like to eat spicy, in the late Ming Dynasty before the chili pepper came to China.

At this time, on the Huguang construction site, the Qing army gave the people chili peppers.

The taste of chili pepper is much better than that of dogwood, and it is very popular with the locals.

In addition to chili peppers, there is also a magical item, which makes Liu Feng even more amazed: it is a kind of thing called red hair mud, when it is transported by boat, it is bags of brown paper wrapped in powder, but this magical thing can become as hard as stone after adding water, adding crushed stones and soil, and stirring evenly! What an amazing thing!

The red mud is used to build fortresses, and the Huguang Qing army has built countless Tucheng barracks outside the city, and the Tucheng barracks are connected by moats, and between the moats and the moats, they have built a number of fortresses. This kind of fort was not large, one foot five feet long and five feet long, and one foot high, with shooting holes, which could accommodate ten musketeers, and could shoot in turns.

Xue Fengzuo and Mei Wending's master and apprentice invented a new type of arquebus called the Tiger Wing Gun, which is a kind of three barrels tied together with iron wire, with a rotating iron core in the middle, and the firing device behind it is the same as the bird gun, pulling the trigger, pressing the fire rope into the medicine pool, and firing the projectile. After a shot, turn the barrel with your hand, and then pull the trigger again, and you can complete one shot, which can fire three shots in a row.

In fact, the Tiger Wing Gun is an advanced and improved version of the Three-Eyed Gun, but both in terms of accuracy and range, it exceeds the Three-Eyed Gun, with the accuracy and range of the arquebus, the power is much greater than the Three-Eyed Gun, and the rate of fire is not lost to the Three-Eyed Gun.

Although this new arquebus was heavier and inconvenient for soldiers to carry on their backs, it was a very effective defensive weapon when combined with the fortress.

In addition to inventing the tiger wing gun, which is a defensive weapon, Xue Fengzuo and Mei Wending also invented two new defensive weapons, the three-eyed cannon and the seven-company gun.

The three-eyed cannon is to connect three 50-pound barrels together, which can fire a one-pound projectile or shotgun, and the soldiers use torches to ignite the three barrels in turn, and can fire three cannons in a row. Seven guns are a kind of seven-tube firecrackers, there is a fire door behind the seven guns, operated by two soldiers, one person is responsible for aiming, and the other person holds the fire rope, aiming at the fire door to poke into the ignition, the seven-gun can fire seven bullets in a row, and the accuracy and power of a single bullet are similar to those of the arquebus.

Whether it is a tiger wing gun, a three-eyed gun, or a seven-gun gun, although the rate of fire is fast, there is a particularly troublesome problem with reloading. However, after combining the fortress and the moat, these problems did not exist.

According to Zhou Peigong's plan, the shooters who fired the firearms hid inside the fortress and fired outside through the firing holes. In the trench behind the fort, there were special people who were responsible for loading bullets. After the shooters in the fort have fired, they send out the firearms that have finished firing, and the soldiers in the trenches behind them carry the loaded firearms into the fort.

As for the red mud used to build the fortress, it is actually cement.

As cement production increased, Nanyang had lifted restrictions on the export of cement and allowed it to be sold to the Qing court.

Due to the rapid rise of the port of Shanghai, the use of cement has long been no secret, and the Qing court has long known that there is a good thing called red hair mud in Nanyang, as long as it is mixed with water, and when it is dried, it becomes as hard as stone. At first, the Qing court couldn't buy this kind of good thing, but later, after the Nanyang Company was liberalized, the Qing court was able to buy a lot of red hair mud at a high price through various channels.

With the red mud, it was possible for the Qing army to build a fortress. In addition, red mud can also be used to build forts, using red mud as a binder to glue stones and bricks together, the effect is much better than glutinous rice mud. With the red hair mud, many new forts were built outside the city of Wuchang.

Although Liu Feng has been here for more than two months, the scale of the fortifications outside Wuchang City is particularly large, and after more than two months, it has only been completed. After entering the hot summer, the Qing army did not stop the construction, but forced the people to work under the scorching sun.

"Someone fainted!" Just as Liu Feng came back from fetching water, he heard someone shouting.

A man with bruises fell in the trench, Liu Feng recognized this person, called Zhao Sangou, who was fine when he first came, but after the weather became hot, Zhao Sangou's work speed became slower and slower, so he did not suffer the whip of the overseer.

Several Qing soldiers rushed over, and one of them reached out and touched Zhao Sangou's pulse, put his finger in front of the person, and said, "There is no help!" Carry it out, dig a pit and bury it! ”

When the Qing army chief said this, his face was expressionless, and after the climate turned hot, many people died of exhaustion, and people fell under the scorching sun almost every day.

"Master Jun, this ghost weather is too hot! Can you do it well, working at dawn and evening? Otherwise, everyone will be tired. Liu Feng had the courage to go up and beg.

The commander of the Qing army turned his head and snorted coldly: "This is the order of the Governor above!" We have to hurry! Fix the fortifications before the thieves come to Wuchang! If the military aircraft is delayed, everyone here will lose their heads! ”

Liu Feng had no choice but to turn around, pick up the hoe and continue to work. Speaking of which, he still worked harder, not only had he never been whipped, but he also became a small leader of the people, and he moved more freely, and when he was tired, he could take a breath, go to the neighborhood to get some water to drink, or sit on the ground and smoke a cigarette.

Every time he smoked, Liu Feng looked at the kind of Nanyang red double happiness brand cigarettes smoked by Qing Bing, and was envious, he smoked one cigarette, which was given to him by a well-connected chief, the taste was particularly mellow, and the taste was good, but the price was too expensive, and a pack of cigarettes cost twenty copper plates. Liu Feng couldn't afford to smoke such good imported cigarettes, so he could only smoke counterfeit Double Happiness cigarettes, which were very cheap, five copper plates a pack, but the taste was much worse.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and people are falling every day, and even a small leader like Liu Feng can't bear it. Fortunately, however, he was transferred to a hill by the river to build a fort, where there was shade and conditions were much better. (To be continued.) )