Early the next morning, Dililarna prepared an army of 50,000 and went to see the Gaochang envoy Chaksuier, and told Chaksir that Ebilu wanted to add money to Chaksuier, she thought that Chaksuir would be undecided, and at least she should send someone back to report to Lu Wentai, but she didn't expect Chaksuir to just smile slightly, nodded and agreed: "Okay, everything will be done according to the requirements of Yibilu Khan." "Sure enough, he is rich and capricious.

Dili Larna was also quite helpless, so she could only take 50,000 troops and Chaksuir to Gaochang, although there were many people and horses, but they did not bring baggage and grain and grass, because all this was provided by Gaochang at that time, so they marched quite fast, and they arrived at Gaochang in only half a month.

The 50,000 army did not enter Gaochang City, but went to Jiaohe City, because Gaochang City was too close to Xizhou, and large-scale personnel and horses were easy to be detected by Xizhou, and Jiaohe City was located in the northwest of Gaochang and close to Tingzhou.

From the day after the robbery of the camp, Li Yuanzhong and Wang Yuantai searched everywhere for sulfur (realgar) and saltpeter, if in Guanzhong, it is not difficult to find these things, but in Tingzhou, it is really difficult to find, Li Yuanzhong even took more than 100 soldiers to the distant mountains to look for saltpeter.

Li Hao began to be busy ordering people to burn clay pots for gunpowder, to be honest, the iron shell is naturally the best for gunpowder, the clay pot is easy to break, if it is thrown out to break, it will become a dud, but the current conditions are limited, Li Hao has no extra pig iron, can only use the clay pot, but his clay pot is very thick, so thick that it will not break if it falls on the ground, it is almost solid, what can be done, Li Hao himself is also very helpless, the conditions are difficult, and he can only use it.

He doesn't need to do it himself, he only needs to supervise and inspect the construction of the city wall, and he also has to inspect the progress of the construction of the city wall, although Li Hao defeated the Gaochang army, but the whole people of Tingzhou have a sense of crisis, and they have actively participated in the construction of the city wall, and voluntary labor, no money, just take care of the food, now participate in the repair of the city wall of more than 7,000 people, work hard.

Every time Li Hao goes out from the Assassin's Mansion, he will see a person, that is Cao Tian, Cao Tian was locked in a prisoner car, placed on the street at the entrance of the Assassin's Mansion, there are more than 30 government soldiers taking turns to guard, not letting the people approach, and not throwing sundries at him, because Li Hao is afraid of smashing him to death, he said that he wants to starve Cao Tian to death, then he must be starved to death.

Now it has entered the early summer, the sun in Tingzhou is very poisonous, the surface temperature has exceeded forty degrees, Cao Tian was put on the scorching street, exposed to the poisonous sun, scorched by the hot air, broken lips swollen into pieces, constantly bleeding pus and blood, causing many flies to stare at him, only one day, Cao Tian was sunburned like a cooked lobster, red.

Li Hao saw Cao Tian's sick appearance, felt that he was dying, and ordered to feed him more water tomorrow, he must ensure that he is alive, and then starve to death, he is usually very casual, but once it is more serious, it is quite true, saying that if you want to starve him to death, you must starve him to death.

The next day, the guards fed Cao Tian water every other hour, although Cao Tian also knew that starvation was painful, but it was also painful to be sunburned and thirsty, almost instinctively, he drank water frantically, although he was not thirsty, but he still wanted to drink, and his mouth was painful, so he wanted to drink.

Drinking water is really useful, Cao Tian suffered another day, and in the evening, Cao Tian's whole body has been sunburned and molted, his stomach is full of water, and there is a feeling of fullness, but after drinking too much water, he wants to pee, Li Hao is not so kind to let him go to the toilet, he can only urinate on his body. After sprinkling two bubbles of urine, he felt so hungry and uncomfortable, at this time, he cursed Li Hao madly in his heart, if it weren't for Li Hao, he would still be able to cover the sky with one hand in Tingzhou, sitting on hundreds of thousands of family fortunes, eat whatever he wants, play whatever he wants, kill whoever he wants, Li Hao's appearance changed everything, he reflected in boredom, the reason why he lost to Li Hao was due to two factors, one is five hundred right Xiaowei, and the other is Wang Yuantai.

If Li Hao didn't have the support of five hundred right guards, Cao Tian wouldn't have to be afraid of Li Hao at all, the previous assassins were the best example, as for Wang Yuantai's chess piece, he was angry when he thought about it, but he didn't expect that he would end up in the hands of such a little person, and he was really unwilling.

On the third day, Cao Tian still felt very hungry even if he drank water hard, after all, he hadn't eaten for three days, and he also felt the pain of his skin as if it was cracked, this kind of torment made him feel painful, he prayed silently in his heart, praying that Gao Chang would quickly organize an army to attack again, and quickly capture Tingzhou, maybe he could save himself, this was his last glimmer of hope, and it was also the only motivation for him to survive for so many days.

On the fourth day, Cao Tian was already hungry, the skin on his body was really cracked, causing more flies, his lips had begun to fester, and there were already small maggots wriggling in the ulcerated parts, but he couldn't see it himself, he only had one thought in his heart at the moment, looking forward to the arrival of the Gaochang army soon.

On the fifth day, Cao Tian no longer had the strength to drink water, his whole head was drooping on the prisoner car, pus and blood flowed from the cracked skin on his body, which was stained with his clothes, and his consciousness had begun to trance.

When Li Hao returned to the Shi Mansion from the head of the city to inspect the completion of the work, he passed by Cao Tian's side, stared at him for a long time, and asked coldly: "Is it painful?" ”

Cao Tian didn't reply, and he didn't have the strength to answer.

Li Hao continued: "As a citizen of the Tang Dynasty, you have been persecuting your compatriots in the Tang Dynasty, do you know how many families you have killed, your wives and wives have been separated, and you have burned not only thousands of stones of grain, but also thousands of lives. ”

Cao Tian still didn't speak, just looked at Li Hao with drooping eyelids.

Seeing him so pitiful, Li Hao sighed lightly and said: "There is a way that people are about to die, and their words are good, you are now a dying person, I don't know if you have the heart to repent, as long as you say 'I was wrong', I will let people execute you now and let you be free." ”

Li Hao waited for a moment, only to hear Cao Tian squeeze out one word from his mouth with difficulty: "Get out!" ”

Li Hao's eyes narrowed, and he suddenly said in a deep voice: "Flying Eagle, go get a basin of salt water!" ”

Feiying led the order to get a basin of salt water, Li Hao took the basin from Feiying's hand, and directly splashed a basin of salt water on Cao Tian, Cao Tian suddenly raised his head and let out a heart-rending scream, and the scream did not stop, he who originally looked like he was dying, but now he screamed so loudly.

The salt water has a disinfectant effect on the wound, but the salt water flows into the wound, and the pain is also very penetrating, which is a cruel destruction to Cao Tian, who is already physically and mentally exhausted.

Li Hao handed the basin back to Feiying, looked at Cao Tian coldly, and said, "Since your bones are so hard, then I will give you a refreshment." ”

He turned around and glanced at the ambush guards and shouted, "From now on, every other hour, day and night, pour a basin of salt water on him to refresh himself!" ”

"Yes!" All the soldiers of the government took the order in unison.

The surrounding people pointed at this side, and praised Li Hao's behavior, Cao Tian has plagued Tingzhou for many years, and the people have deep grievances, and they can't eat their flesh and skin, and now they see Cao Tian being tortured by Li Hao like this, so they naturally have to clap their hands.

On the sixth day, Cao Tian had to be splashed with salt water every other hour, and his skin cracked everywhere, and the intense pain made him almost crazy, squeezing the last of his energy.

At night, Cao Tian finally couldn't do it, his energy was already overdrawn, and when the government soldiers found that no matter how much they poured salt water on him, they didn't react, a government soldier went up to investigate, and he was out of gas, so he hurriedly rushed into the assassin's mansion to report to Li Hao.

Li Hao came out to check and confirmed that Cao Tian was indeed dead, so he ordered his body to be hung above the newly built city tower.

Early the next morning, Wang Yuantai and Li Yuanzhong came to look for him together, and presented to Li Hao the sulfur and saltpeter they had been searching for in the past few days, thirty-seven catties of sulfur and one hundred and twenty catties of saltpeter.

Looking at this pitiful material, and then looking at Li Yuanzhong and Wang Yuantai's tired and hopeful appearance, Li Hao really couldn't bear to hit them, so he could only sigh helplessly: "You have worked hard, these materials ...... I'll use it for now. ”

Li Yuanzhong and Wang Yuantai understood the meaning of his words, they didn't say much, they didn't say anything, only left one sentence: "Let's look for it again!" With that, the wind ran away.

Li Hao ordered Feiying and others to move all the saltpeter and sulfur to the inner courtyard, first let them help them plane the saltpeter into pieces, then crush it into powder, collect it, and then burn some charcoal to crush the charcoal into powder, so that all the raw materials are ready.

Next, Li Hao found a small scale, weighed the three raw materials in proportion, mixed and stirred, and the next step was the most important step, boiling gunpowder.