Yan Jiuling took Li Yanqing to the west, the westernmost side is three relatively simple warehouses, close to the west city wall, these three warehouses are especially huge, there are several soldiers standing at the door, they walked to the door, and a warehouse head greeted them.

"Does Yan join the army and take stock today?"

Yan Jiuling glared at him, "Li Dutong came to check the warehouse, quickly open the door of the warehouse!" ”

Cangtou was startled, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, "See Li Dutong!" ”

Li Yanqing waved his hand, "Open the door!" ”

Kuratou hurriedly took a bunch of huge keys from his back and opened the big lock on the door, and several soldiers stepped forward to help, squeaking and pushing the door open.

Li Yanqing walked into the big warehouse, only to see that the warehouse was neatly lined up with three rows of heavy trebuchets, except for the throwing rod placed on the ground, the other components had been assembled, and there were huge wooden wheels underneath, and the tall trebuchets were neatly arranged together, looking up, like three teams of transformers in later generations, which was particularly shocking.

"There are sixty heavy trebuchets in this warehouse, and there are also sixty in the warehouse next door, a total of one hundred and twenty, which were assembled five years ago."

Li Yanqing walked to the first trebuchet and touched the stout wooden pillar, which had been brushed with tung oil and was very well protected, "When was the tung oil brushed?" Li Yanqing asked.

"Back to the capital system, we have to brush it every six months, and it has never been interrupted for more than ten years!"

Li Yanqing looked at the throwing rod on the ground again, the throwing rod was not directly placed on the ground, but there was a wooden frame underneath, so as to avoid the throwing rod from rotting by the moisture of the ground, and the six-zhang throwing rod was also brushed with tung oil, which was preserved as new for more than ten years.

Li Yanqing was very satisfied, so he turned back to Liu Fang and said: "I inspected the warehouses in Hebei Prefecture a few years ago, and the trebuchets in them were rotten, which made people sigh, but they were kept very well here, and they must be given a heavy reward, two thousand taels of silver for six Cao Si, and one hundred taels of silver for each of the three warehouses here, in recognition of their careful protection of the heavy weapons guarding the city!" ”

Everyone was overjoyed and bowed down together to thank, "Thank you for the reward!" ”

Li Yanqing left the trebuchet storehouse, and entered the easternmost storehouse, and the head of the warehouse opened the door and said: "Here are fire cannons and bed crossbows, and the trebuchet in front of it, the humble duty brushes tung oil every six months, and it is very well preserved!" ”

Li Yanqing walked into the warehouse, only to see that there were assembled cannons in a row on the left side of the warehouse, and all the bed crossbows on the right side, each of which was wrapped in straw mats.

The artillery is the former stone cannon, just changed to fire firearms and got its name, it is a supplement to the trebuchet, mainly used for close shooting, for a long time is aimed at the enemy's nest car, Taiyuan artillery is obviously not too much, only forty, more bed crossbows, enough three hundred and fifty pairs.

Li Yanqing is not worried about firearms, they carried 300 earth-shaking thunder and a large number of iron fire thunder to the north this time, since the advent of the earth-shaking thunder, other old-fashioned firearms have basically become 'chicken ribs', the only ones that have actual combat effects are rockets and fire crows, these two long-range arson weapons are still widely used in war.

At this time, Li Yanqing suddenly remembered something, turned around and asked Yan Jiuling, "How much is the stock of hot oil?" ”

"About 3,000 barrels, 50 catties per barrel, and about 1,000 barrels in the Jinning County warehouse."

Jinning County is an important military town on the Yellow River, and there is also a war readiness warehouse there, mainly for the supply of the border army for the defense of Western Xia.

Li Yanqing immediately said to Liu Fang: "Immediately organize manpower and vehicles to transport all the military materials from Jinning County back to Taiyuan, and do it now." ”

Liu Fang hesitated and asked, "Do you want the army to escort you?" ”

Generally, the transportation of materials is the business of the box army, and of course five thousand box troops will be used to carry warehouse materials in Jinning County this time, but it is debatable whether the forbidden army is needed to escort it, Li Yanqing muttered and said: "Let the five thousand cavalry be the guard, and I will tell Liu Tie when I turn back, you go to raise vehicles first, and you can ask the Taiyuan government for assistance." ”

"Obey the order!"

Liu Fang gave Yan Jiuling and the others a look, and he hurried away with a few officials of the Six Cao Division.

Li Yanqing said to his soldiers again: "Go and find Wang Gui and General Gong Zuwen to see me immediately!" ”

After explaining the soldiers, Li Yanqing walked out of the treasury and went directly to the city wall from the Yongdao in the cangcheng, and after a while, Wang Gui and Gong Zuwen hurried over, Gong Zuwen was promoted to deputy commander, in charge of the five thousand van army, and the two bowed to Li Yanqing, "See the capital system!" ”

Li Yanqing first said to Gong Zuwen: "Immediately Liu Senjun will arrange for the Xiang army to go to Jinning County to carry materials, and there will be no need for the Xiang army here in Taiyuan City, you immediately lead the army to follow Liu Fang to Jinning County!" ”

"Obey!"

Gong Zuwen left in a hurry, and Li Yanqing asked Wang Guidao again: "Are the troops stationed?" ”

Wang Gui nodded, "It's almost there, the barracks are all ready-made." ”

Li Yanqing pointed to the warehouse and said: "Now you need to carry all the defensive heavy weapons to the city and install them, the trebuchets and cannons are basically assembled, and you are responsible for installing them at the head of the city." ”

"Let's do it."

Wang Gui turned around to leave, but Li Yanqing stopped him again and smiled: "Don't be so anxious, I haven't finished talking yet!" ”

Wang Gui scratched his head embarrassedly, stopped, and waited for Li Yanqing to continue to command, Li Yanqing pointed out of the city and said, "If I use a fire crow to launch at Cangcheng from outside the city, do you think it will cause a fire in Cangcheng?" ”

Wang Gui looked at Cangcheng, almost all the buildings in Cangcheng are stone walls and wooden roofs, and the location is exactly in the northwest corner of the county seat, whether the enemy army is from the west or the north, they can launch fire crows or fire oil into the city, thus causing a fire, unless the two rows of warehouses against the wall are demolished and a large amount of grain and grass is transported away.

Wang Gui thought for a while and said: "Otherwise, we will draw a forbidden area outside the city, such as sowing quenched tribulus thorns, or digging a pond to release water to form a lake in this area outside the city, or simply move the grain and grass warehouse to the center of the city, which happens to have an inner military camp in the center of the city, which is only slightly smaller than the cangcheng." ”

Li Yanqing smiled slightly, "There is progress, do you think there are loopholes in your plan?" ”

Wang Gui pondered for a moment and said: "It's not appropriate to sprinkle thistle thorns, wear thick wood-soled boots and don't be afraid of thistle thorns, there is no point in digging a pond, rowing a canoe can also go to the city to launch fire crows, the best way is to defend from distance, and you don't need to move all the materials in the city, just dismantle the two rows of grain and grass warehouses against the wall, and the three arsenals of heavy defensive weapons must also be demolished to empty the place." ”

"It's a good idea to demolish the warehouse, I think it's feasible!"

Wang Gui shook his head again and said, "But I don't understand, since there is such a loophole, why should the Cangcheng be built close to the city wall?" ”

"The reason is very simple, because no one thought that the enemy army would attack the city of Taiyuan, so you see that although there are so many heavy trebuchets, they are not installed at the head of the city, this is the reason."

Li Yanqing said to Wang Gui again: "I will leave the matter of transporting grain and grass materials to you, you can use the Cao River in the city to transport, build a high wall on the outer side of the military camp, temporarily use a big tent to replace the treasury, you can ask the military government to recruit some craftsmen to help, in addition, all trebuchets and cannons must be installed in the city immediately." ”

"I understand that this is to handle!"

Wang Gui saluted, turned around and hurriedly left, Li Yanqing looked at the cangcheng under the city wall, he had experienced many battles, and knew that it was a taboo in the army to build the warehouse against the city wall, and in a large-scale siege battle, the building by the city wall was easily destroyed by earth-shattering thunder or fireballs, and he had a profound lesson in the defense of Yanjing.

........

The city began to act quickly, there was a Cao River in the cangcheng, across the entire county, the military requisitioned more than a hundred tugboats, began to transfer the grain, grass and silver money in the cangcheng, in fact, it was not completely removed, mainly the materials of the dozens of warehouses close to the city wall were moved, most of which involved grain, grass and silver.

In addition to the trebuchet warehouse, the warehouses of other military materials are relatively far away from the city wall, and the earth-shaking thunder cannot be blown up, and then the roof is smeared with a layer of mud, and there is no fear of arson from the fire crow.

In addition to transporting grain and grass, Liu Kuang's army cooperated with the Intelligence Department to begin a large-scale population registration in Taiyuan City, and began to investigate possible hidden spies in the city one by one, and the atmosphere in Taiyuan City gradually became tense.