Since Empress Dowager Xiao carried out Xiao Gan's strategy of delaying the army to the letter, and won Xiao Gan ten precious days, Xiao Gan has been desperately training the 20,000 Khitan soldiers he had just recruited these days.

The current Khitan people are no longer all soldiers a hundred years ago, any herdsman can go into battle with a knife, and there is no difference between the Khitan and the Han people now, without military training, they are a weak flat-headed people.

20,000 soldiers in armor and helmets stood in line on the school field with spears in hand, listening to the final lecture of the commander, their intensive training had ended, and they were about to go to the battlefield, everyone's heart was full of ups and downs, and their hearts were full of anticipation for the big war.

"The Song people will never spare us Khitans!"

Xiao Gan shouted in a hoarse voice: "Everyone just look at Yi County, after the Song army entered the city, they killed all the Khitan men, the women were reduced to camp prostitutes and humiliated, and the children were sold into slaves, if we don't rise up to resist, our mothers, wives and daughters and sisters will all suffer the same fate, we are fighting to defend our families, our fate is in our own hands, on the battlefield, we would rather die to the last person than give in to the enemy!" ”

The blood of the 20,000 soldiers boiled, and they raised their spears and shouted angrily: "Never give in!" ”

"Never give in!"

Xiao Gan drew out his battle sword and ordered: "The time has come, let's go to the military camp outside the city to assemble and prepare for battle!" ”

Xiao Gan turned on his horse and led 20,000 soldiers to drive out of the city.......

After Guo Yaoshi surrendered, there were only 50,000 troops left in the Liao State, of which 5,000 were stationed at Juyong Pass, 5,000 were stationed at Lulong, and the other 40,000 troops were stationed in the capital.

Now after recruiting 20,000 new troops, their strength has reached 60,000, of which 10,000 are led by the general Xiao Fengxian to stay in Yanjing, 20,000 are handed over to Yelu Dashi to meet Tong Guan's army, and the other 30,000 are led by Xiao Gan, preparing to go south to meet the seed master Dao.

At this time, the seed master Dao was not idle, he also got the edict of the Son of Heaven, suspended the northern offensive during the negotiation, and he also used this short time to continue to integrate the 30,000 Jingdong Xiang Army, and thanks to these few days, he finally completed the integration of the Jingdong Road Xiang Army.

There is a forest covering an area of about 20 acres in the south of Fanyang County, this forest actually has another mystery, but there are two rows of trees on the periphery, and the trees inside have been cut down and turned into a flat land, which has become the firearms test ground of the East Route Army.

The woods were surrounded by sentry posts, and no one was allowed to approach them.

At this time, in the woods, the cultivator Dao watched intently as Li Yanqing opened an iron box and took out a swarthy firearm that looked like a small eight-sided purple gold hammer from inside, "Is this the Iron Fire Thunder?" The planter asked.

Li Yanqing nodded, "Actually, it's a shrunken sky-shattering thunder, and below it is the handle, which weighs about three catties, and a strong person can throw it thirty steps away." ”

Hearing that it was a shrunken earth-shattering thunder, the seed master Dao suddenly had a strong interest, picked one up casually, weighed it and smiled: "I can probably throw it thirty steps away, let me give it a try!" ”

Li Yanqing immediately gave Ambassador Chen next to him a look, Chen Hui thought, and immediately tied a goat wrapped in iron armor to a stump, the planter Dao was slightly stunned, and immediately understood, although he has experienced a hundred battles, but he is not a person who kills lives at will, but this kind of firearm test does need to be tested with a living mouth, like Xixia may also use slaves to do the test, so the planter Dao will not say anything more? He smiled and asked, "How should I use this iron fire thunder?" ”

"Unscrew the lid under the handle first!"

Li Yanqing pointed to the wooden lid under the handle, Chen Da Chen Er General made a new improvement to the fire rope, it turned out to be a semi-circular cover, the fire rope is wrapped in the cover, but the kind of cover is easy to accidentally touch off, so Chen Da and Chen Er pondered to hollow out a small section of the handle, while not affecting the use, so that the fire rope is coiled in the handle, and then a wooden cover with a toothed edge on the outside, firmly buckles the wooden handle, and it takes a little force to unscrew it, this design makes Li Yanqing greatly appreciated, and he also realized from this, Only true firearms craftsmen are the key players in the development of firearms.

The Seed Master Dao unscrewed the lid, and a short section of the fire rope spun down, which made the Seed Master Dao admire, "Good! It's really exquisitely done. ”

Chen Da and Chen Er were proud in their hearts, and bowed down together and thanked: "Thank you for the compliment!" ”

The planter smiled and pulled out a fire fold, 'Whew! As soon as the ground blew, the fire suddenly burned, he lit the fire rope casually, Li Yanqing hurriedly said: "The fire rope can be thrown out when it burns to the wooden handle!" ”

The planter nodded, and when the fire rope burned to the wooden handle, he shook it hard, and the iron fire thunder drew an arc and threw it at the goat thirty steps away, Li Yanqing hurriedly pulled the planter to hide behind the big stone, only for a moment, only to hear 'boom! The sound of the explosion sounded, although the sound was deafening, but it was far less earth-shattering than the earth-shattering thunder.

After a moment, they stood up, only to see white smoke in the distance, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gunsmoke. ”

"Within a radius of thirty paces, a piece of iron flew over our heads just now."

Seed Master Dao suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly asked, "Will this hurt the soldiers who threw iron fire thunder?" ”

Li Yanqing nodded, "This is its biggest flaw, throwing out the iron fire thunder, people must lie on the ground to prevent being injured by the iron pieces it bursts out." ”

Seed Master Dao pondered, "Then why can't you control its lethality within twenty steps, such as putting less medicine." ”

"I'm afraid not, Chen Da Chen Er has tried and tested repeatedly, and even a single point less medicine can't blow up the iron shell, originally I wanted them to make a pound of iron fire thunder, but now three pounds is already the limit, if the iron shell is made thinner, then the iron shell will not be lethal, they have tried and tested for a whole year, and they can only do it like this."

Seed Master Dao also knew that things were not as simple as he thought, so he smiled and said: "I think it's quite good to use it to defend the city, it just makes up for the defect that the earth-shaking thunder is too powerful, an iron fire thunder can blow up a cloud ladder, but I think it's more pleasant to deal with cavalry or sky-shaking thunder." ”

"The lowly thinks the same way."

Seed Master Dao raised his head and laughed, he walked quickly to the stake, Chen Da had already taken off the iron armor, only to see that the goat was covered in blood, I don't know how many pieces of iron shot into its body, Seed Master Dao praised repeatedly, and asked Li Yanqing, "How many pieces of this iron fire thunder have been made now?" ”

"Returning to the marshal, a total of about 1,000 were made, and a firearms battalion of 300 people was specially set up, each carrying three, and there were also 50 earth-shaking thunders, which were divided into two kinds of field earth-shaking thunders and siege earth-shaking thunders, and then there were conventional firearms, such as rockets and fire crows."

Seed Master Dao nodded secretly, although there was already a firearms battalion in the Song army, I am afraid that the firearms battalion of the entire Great Song Dynasty is not as powerful as half of Li Yanqing's firearms battalion.

At this moment, a soldier rushed from outside the forest, knelt down on one knee and reported: "Commander, the holy decree has arrived!" ”

The Seed Master Dao was shocked, and he didn't care about testing the Heaven-Shaking Thunder again, so he hurried back to the camp, Li Yanqing asked Chen Da Chen Er to clean up the venue, and also followed the Seed Master Dao to rush back.

The time when the edict of the Son of Heaven Zhao Ji arrived in Fanyang County was still half a day earlier than Tong Guan's expectations, because it was not a holy decree, but only a decree, and the Daoist did not put incense on the case to receive the decree, after he read the edict, he immediately ordered the soldiers to invite several important officials to the big tent to discuss, in addition to the three deputy commanders, and Sima Liu Tao, Li Yanqing was also particularly favored by the Dao of the Seed Master because of his first meritorious service, and participated in the military aircraft deliberations as a commander.

The planter raised the oracle in his hand and said to everyone: "The Great Song Dynasty has concluded negotiations with the Liao State, and the Liao State has decided to surrender the Great Song Dynasty and cede the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, and the Son of Heaven has ordered us to immediately go north to recover Yanjing." ”

Uncle Zhang frowned, "It seems that there is something wrong with this!" Now it is only an agreement with the envoy of Liao, and it has not been approved by Empress Dowager Xiao and the court of Liao, how can Liaoguo let me give Yanjing to us? ”

The seed master said with a smile: "Maybe the Liao State has put forward a lot of conditions, as long as we unilaterally agree to these conditions, and the Song Dynasty has made a will, then there is no need to confirm it back and forth, and the Jin State is eyeing it from the side, and the Liao State is also afraid of long nights and dreams!" ”

There was silence in the big tent for a while, and the seed master Dao also felt a little strange, he glanced at everyone, and found that Li Yanqing seemed to be thoughtful, so he said: "Yanqing, you are the first to take Zhuozhou, you should know the situation best, tell me your opinion!" ”

Li Yanqing stood up and saluted everyone, "I'm thinking, will Tong Guan receive an order at the same time as us?" ”

"What do you mean by that?"

Li Yanqing thought about it and said slowly: "This edict was sent from the capital at noon the day before yesterday, calculated from the distance between Yizhou and the capital, the edict to Tong Guan should be half a day later than us, but with Tong Guan's character, he should not wait until the arrival of this edict to know the inside story, I think he should have known the news yesterday, so could he have sent troops to Yanjing yesterday?" ”

The secret that Tong Guan was eager to take Yanjing first for the sake of the will of the Divine Sect was already known to everyone, at least a few people in the big tent knew very well, and the Seed Master Dao did not want to fight with him, even if the Liao State really handed over Yanjing, the Seed Master Dao would give Tong Guan to take the Yanjing Mansion first, but at this time, Li Yanqing's speculation made the face of the Seed Master Dao change.

"You mean, there's a problem here?"

Li Yanqing nodded slowly, "I have an intuition, including this Song-Liao negotiation is a delaying tactic of the Liao State, I am afraid that the Liao State is ready for an ambush, just wait for Tong Guan to eagerly step into the trap." ”

Everyone's faces changed greatly, Li Yanqing's guess was entirely possible, they all knew that Tong Guan was the biggest weakness of the Song army's northern expedition this time, and I am afraid that the Liao State had already seen this weakness.

Zong Ze hurriedly said: "Then you should immediately send someone to inform Tong Guan, don't rush in!" ”

Li Yanqing shook his head slightly, "If Tong Guan sent troops yesterday, I'm afraid it would have been too late." ”

Everyone looked at the Planter Dao together, and the Planter Dao pondered for a long time and said: "Whether it is too late or not, we must immediately send someone to Yizhou to remind us, this is the responsibility we must bear." ”