Before leaving the Pingxi Palace, Deng Ming saw that Wu Sangui had given the arrow when he called his personal guards, and he had an idea, so he coaxed him back to the military station where he was staying. When Deng Ming went into the house to call his companions, he summed up the situation in front of him in a few words, and the first person to jump up was Li Xinghan, who strongly advocated going to the arsenal and setting fire. However, Deng Ming told everyone to be calm, to act at the opportunity, if the warehouse is heavily guarded, then honestly take the cotton armor back to sleep, and find an opportunity to go out of the city tomorrow; If there is an opportunity, then set fire, of course, you are not allowed to act without permission, but you must obey Deng Ming's orders.

On the way to the arsenal there was a barracks, outside which there were sentries standing guard and other patrolling soldiers. After passing the barracks, we soon arrived at the arsenal, and the distance between the two was not far. At that time, the Ming army realized that it was necessary to act quietly, so as not to alarm the military camp not far away.

The warehouse is very large, and it seems to be divided into several large storage areas, and several wells have been drilled for fire prevention, and there are many large tanks for water storage. The guards of a warehouse led the way, Deng Ming and Wu Sangui's guards followed him, and Li Xinghan and others followed. There was an entrance to each of the reservoir areas that passed by, guarded by two or three soldiers, all of whom sat at the door and dozed off. A few of them heard the commotion, and raised their eyelids sleepily to look at the group of pedestrians, and when they saw them walking in front of their own defense zone, they lowered their heads again and closed their eyes.

The door to the warehouse was so heavy that it would be difficult to break through from the outside, and if it were to be stormed, it would definitely alarm the nearby barracks. Now the law and order in Kunming is good, and there are only the descendants of Wu Sangui and Hong Chengchou in the city, and those who can enter this warehouse are Wu Sangui and Hong Chengchou's henchmen. The gate of the reservoir area is locked, and you can only enter unless you have Wu Sangui's arrows. There had been no accident in the past three months, and the guards of the warehouse relaxed their guards. During the day, they had to patrol and stand guard, and they did not dare to slack off, but after dark, some of the guards went home, and the warehouse was silent, and the soldiers on night duty dozed off at the gates of the various reservoir areas.

There was a precedent for people to come at night to pick up things, but the soldiers who kept vigil knew that they usually did not come at night to pick up a large number of equipment, usually a few pieces of armor, weapons, or a few tents and military uniforms. The guards reminded the men who came in that they could not hold a fire in the warehouse, and the guards lit a few lanterns and repeatedly told them to carry the lantern in their hands and not to put it down casually, although such lanterns were specially made and would not throw the fire out even if they were put down, but caution was always necessary.

Stopping at the door of a reservoir area, the two soldiers on duty were woken up and checked the arrows again, then took out the key, opened the door of the warehouse, and then took a step back and let the men in.

Although he didn't know Li Xinghan's name, Wu Sangui's personal guards felt that this guy was really a little annoying, and they walked all the way back and forth with one or two flattering words, "It's amazing that you have won the trust of the prince at such a young age" made the guards feel that their ears were about to grind out of their cocoons.

"He can't take the iron armor in a moment." Li Xinghan's mechanical repetition is no longer a compliment but a kind of torture for people, and the guard said ruthlessly in his heart.

At this moment, Wu San and Wu San suddenly shot at the same time, grabbing the left and right arms of the guard, while Li Xinghan, who was following closely behind, covered his mouth with one hand and simply twisted his neck neatly, while the Ming army also cleaned up the remaining three or two people.

Carrying several corpses into the warehouse and laying them flat on the ground, Wu San took out the silver he had just given him from the arms of Wu Sangui's own soldiers. After ambushing the Qing army in Jianchang last time, when summing up after the war, Wu San sighed that he was not calm enough at that time, and forgot that he had taken the silver back after killing people, and of course he would not make the same mistake this time.

More important than the silver was the waist card of this pro-soldier and Wu Sangui's arrow, Deng Ming took these two things into his arms, and began to observe the storage in this warehouse, it turned out that this was a armor warehouse, from ordinary cotton armor to jīng zhi iron armor.

Li Xinghan and Zhou Kaihuang each took a few people, without saying a word, they moved out with light steps, and after a while they returned with several strings of warehouse keys. The soldiers guarding the gate and the warehouse were all cleaned up by them, some were killed in their sleep, and some of them sensed that something was wrong, but they swallowed their breath before they could shout.

Opening one warehouse after another, Deng Ming saw that not only firearms, ammunition, and armor were stored, but also military uniforms, bedding, tents, and a large amount of cloth, cotton, and leather. More importantly, Deng Ming found the gunpowder warehouse, and as soon as he opened the door and smelled the strong smell of sulfur and saltpeter, everyone nervously took two steps back, lest the lantern in their hands would cause a disaster—here were not only the storage of the Yongli Imperial Court, but also the tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder that Wu Sangui had brought in later, and the new gunpowder that had recently been produced. In the corner of this warehouse, there are also warehouses for saltpeter and sulfur.

"This is it." Deng Ming found the arson materials that were most needed, and they placed the lantern in the open space in the distance, and went in the dark and dragged out several bags of gunpowder.

Behind a wind-shielding wall, they stirred the gunpowder and poured it out of the bag, forming a black ribbon that stretched all the way to the warehouse where the gunpowder was stored. After laying it, Deng Ming looked at it, worried that the fuse would go out halfway, so he took out two more bags of gunpowder and spread another layer on the fuse.

A few bags of gunpowder were transported to several other warehouses, where several small fuses were made, and the rest were poured at the ends of the fuses to ensure that the initial fire was large enough. After the cotton cloth and cotton were mixed with gunpowder, Deng Ming was not worried about their fire, but felt that there were not enough combustibles in the weapons and armor warehouse, so they dragged a few bags of cotton from the cotton warehouse and put them in the armory, and the cotton was mixed with gunpowder and placed at the end of the fuse.

After these tasks were completed, Deng Ming and the two of them went through the final inspection again, and the rest of the people immediately went separately to select iron armor and weapons - this was a very easy job, and the relatively rare and expensive weapons were placed in obvious positions in each warehouse, and the equipment of different grades would not be mixed together, and the Ming army did not need to look at the piles of goods behind them, and specially selected among the best equipment.

Zhou Kaihuang had been paying attention when he was looking at the stored saddles just now, and when he was done with his business, he immediately took five people and ran away, and hurriedly picked out a batch of high-quality saddles with good leather and workmanship, and one person carried two or three of them, and galloped between the reservoir area and the gate—they had to move things out, and they also needed to quickly replace all the mounts with new saddles.

Li Xinghan also took out a batch of good boots in this leather goods warehouse, and his companions each had a pair. And Li Xinghan weighed the two pairs for a while, he changed into one of the pairs, but the other pair was still reluctant to throw away, so he rushed to the military clothing warehouse under his armpit. When he opened the door just now, Li Xinghan took a fancy to the silk cotton cloak in it, and now that the cowhide boots were in hand, he hurried to move the big coat for himself and his companions, and the silk cotton cloak was light and warm, but it was usually difficult to find.

"Hurry, hurry!" Deng Ming had already completed the last inspection, smashed all the tanks that stored water, and destroyed the water lifting equipment in each well. At this time, seeing that most of his subordinates were still busy looking for good things in the warehouse, Deng Ming couldn't help but urge, and now the excited expressions of these guards gave him a feeling of "rats have fallen into the rice tank".

"It's early, Mr. Deng." Wu San replied as he ran in front of Deng Ming, just now he had thrown away the old cotton blankets that everyone had tied behind the horses along with those old saddles, and now Wu San was holding a new stack of woolen blankets in his arms, and was busy tying them to the new saddles of his companions.

Deng Ming pointed to the hunting flags on the flagpole and said to everyone hurriedly: "The wind is not small today, if the wind suddenly changes direction for a while, then our gunpowder will be in vain." Come on! Come on! Take less. ”

At Deng Ming's urging, everyone changed into iron armor, grabbed their weapons, and prepared to leave the arsenal immediately. Before leaving, the Ming army took out some incense candles, made a small mound with gunpowder at the initial end of each fuse, and then lit several incense candles and inserted them on them. On the fuse leading to the gunpowder warehouse, Deng Ming was worried that the incense candle would be extinguished, so he inserted three more in one go.

Although the firefighting equipment was destroyed, Deng Minglin still locked all the doors firmly before leaving, causing trouble for the firefighters as much as possible. In the city of Kunming in the middle of the night, the Qing soldiers should not have a very quick response, and it is difficult to arrive before the fire grows. However, Deng Ming was still worried that there would be an accident, or that a passing patrol would find out about the fire. After coming out of the side door, Deng Ming also locked it, so that even if people outside wanted to enter the warehouse, it would take a lot of effort.

Li Xinghan was still unsatisfied, and advocated going to the city to light a few more fires.

"There is no time," said Deng Ming, who only had about a pillar of incense, and if they did not leave Kunming City within this time, they would be in danger: "If we don't get out of the city in time, then you can just set fire to it, maybe we can take advantage of the chaos to get out of danger." But for now, let's get out of town first. ”

Riding on their horses, Deng Ming and his guards ran straight to the nearest city gate......

The guards on the castle tower saw a string of fires rapidly moving from far to near, and the guards guarding the city gate also heard the dense sound of horses' hooves in the night, and soon they saw a group of knights with torches held aloft and emerge from the darkness of the night and come to them.

"At night, you can't open the door unless you have an urgent order." Normally, anyone who came to the city gate at night would carry a military order, but the officers guarding the gate repeated it out of duty.

"The handsome guards Wu Ming." The knight at the head took out a waist tag from his waist and handed it to the officer in front of the city gate.

The officer carefully examined it, held it in both hands, and then asked, "Is there a military order?" ”

"Ordered to go out of the city on errands." The knight replied, took back the card, carefully put it in his bosom, and then unhurriedly took out another arrow and handed it over.

After verifying that it was correct, the officers guarding the city gate again held in both hands the arrows that had returned the order of the king of Pingxi to his guards.

"Open the door, put the drawbridge!" The officer stepped back a few steps and gave way to the group of knights.

With the loud shouts of the officers, the heavy Kunming city gate was slowly opened, revealing a heavy darkness outside the city. After opening the city gate, the two soldiers quickly walked out of the gate and raised their torches so that Deng Ming and the others could barely see the passage of the drawbridge that had just been lowered.

The guards at the gate of the city and their officers all looked at the people who came, they didn't know all the personal guards of King Pingxi, but they guessed that these people in front of them must be not small, even if the leader was not the captain of the personal guard and the deputy of the team, he was also one of the best celebrities in front of King Pingxi. For by the light of the fire in front of the city gate, the sharp-eyed guards had seen that this Wu Ming was dressed in first-class equipment all over his body, and the light of the fire reflected the bright sè emanating from his saddle and riding boots; The saber hanging from his waist is contained in the skin sheath of the blue shark, and he knows that it is a sword without looking at it; Under the silk cotton draped on his body, the cold light of metal armor was revealed.

If only one person is like this, it would be fine, but the group of knights who followed closely behind were all in ordinary attire, and the guards at the city gate had seen a lot of the personal guards of the King of Pingxi, and they really hadn't encountered a few people wearing such luxury.

Deng Ming rushed out from under the city gate first, and the knights behind him did not hesitate, passing under the door one after another, stepping on the drawbridge in the firelight, galloping away from Kunming.

When he saw one after another knights coming out of the night, everyone was in this line, and the officers in front of the city gate felt a shock in their hearts. Sending such a henchman out of the city in the middle of the night, King Pingxi was obviously going to make some big moves. But the guards at the gates knew that this was not something they could ask about.

For each of the knights, the gate officer silently counted in his heart, and when the last knight left the drawbridge and disappeared into the vast night outside the city, the gate officer was relieved.

"Eighteen, where did the prince send so many guards?" The officer whispered to himself, and then shouted to the soldiers: "Put away the drawbridge and close the gates." ”

When the two heavy gates closed again, completely cutting off the knights outside the city from themselves, the guards of the tower began to talk.

"Did you see a few people carrying birds?" It was a firecracker who spoke, and just now he swallowed saliva after seeing a few jīng bird-making guns hanging on the horses of Wu Sangui's personal guards, and he estimated that he might not have the opportunity to have the same one in his life. Due to workmanship problems, firearms in this era were not very safe, and if the charge was sufficient, it was easy to explode, and if the charge was insufficient, it lacked power. As for the relatively safe three-eyed guns, they are very powerful, and when he fought with Tan Hong, Li Xinghan's three-eyed guns were also seen by Deng Ming, and there was no gunpowder at that time, so they had to be used as hammers, but even if there was gunpowder, they should still be used as hammers, or in the first place, they should not use these iron to make three-eyed guns, but should directly make iron hammers. But this time, I saw five jīng zhi long barrel bird guns in the firearms storehouse, packed in several jīng beautiful gun magazines, and were taken away by Deng Ming without landing on the ground.

"And their bows, their arrows!" Another soldier shouted. Just now he noticed the white feather arrows in the quivers of several Ming army knights: "They are all triple barbed iron-bone wolf's tooth arrows!" This soldier knew that the cost and time of each wolf's tooth arrow was at least ten times that of the ordinary feather arrow in his hand.

It is not uncommon for Wu Sangui to send people out of the city at night, but it is very bizarre to send a team of guards equipped with jīng liang out of the city in one breath, which is not uncommon but unprecedented, and this group of cavalry moved near the city of Kunming with bows and arrows, firecrackers and other weapons for foot combat.

In the vicinity of Kunming City, Wu Sangui's personal guards did not need to charge into battle, so the equipment they carried had already changed from focusing on the needs of the battlefield to focusing on the needs of bodyguards. This group of knights, on the other hand, is completely different, carrying weapons that only have a heavy meaning on the battlefield and usually only feel cumbersome. Just like the leader, his weapons were not only swords—this kind of beautiful and generous equipment could also satisfy the work of bodyguards, and was almost the standard equipment of Wu Sangui's personal guards—the officer saw a man-long horse sword hanging on one side of the horse, and although the latter was very powerful in horse fighting, it was obviously inconvenient to carry it when dismounting and walking. The officer at the gate had a good eye, and he also noticed that there seemed to be a saber hanging from the back of the horse on the other side, and a long dagger for hand-to-hand combat pinned to his riding boots.

"Where are they going this big night?" Finally, someone asked curiously, this cavalry is carrying a large number of field weapons, obviously someone is going to be unlucky, but what kind of enemy needs the king of Pingxi to send personal guards to attack? Of course, no one knew who this group of Pingxi Wang's guards, armed to the teeth, was going to deal with, but after seeing their equipment, the officers and soldiers at the city gate were somewhat sympathetic to their enemies.

After leaving Kunming City, Deng Ming did not leave in a hurry, but stopped on the avenue in the middle of the night, turned his head and looked in the direction of Kunming, and they waited anxiously for the final result.

The time for a pillar of incense seemed to have passed, and Deng Ming felt uneasy about the people around him, and he was also very nervous, worried that something had happened to the fuse or burning incense: "Let's wait for another pillar of incense." Maybe it's burning, but we can't see it. ”

If it didn't burn, then of course he would have to flee as much as possible, and Wu Sangui, who was in a hurry, would definitely report to the whole of Yunnan to intercept and arrest people along the way. But if it can be burned, then Deng Ming feels that he still has one more thing to do.

……

At this time, in Hong Chengchou's official residence, his henchmen and generals caught the arrow thrown by his boss, hesitated, and did not immediately carry out the order to go and get people. He still has a few words left to finish, and there is still something to report to the chief.

"Why don't you go yet?" Hong Chengchou scolded dissatisfiedly.

"Lord Kaiyu." The general finally made up his mind, and at this time, his drunkenness also dissipated a lot, and he hurriedly reported to Hong Chengchou: "That Li Ming was accepted by General Zhao as a subordinate just now......

"Then go get it for me, too." Hong Chengchou was a little impatient.

"The last will know." The general bow stammered in defense: "However, then, Li Ming begged to give him a piece of iron armor, and also begged King Pingxi and General Zhao to agree that he would go to the arsenal immediately to collect it. ”

"Arsenal?" Hong Chengchou raised his head from the map again, and his brows furrowed even tighter: "What is he doing at the arsenal at night?" ”

Hong Chengchou summoned another general, handed him an arrow, and ordered: "You quickly take my arrow to the arsenal......

Before he finished speaking, there was a sudden loud bang on the ground, as if a thunderbolt exploded in the city of Kunming, shaking Hong Chengchou's body, and at the same time, the dust on the roof also fell......