Chapter 1355: Han Banner Under Heaven (Forty-Five) 4 Clouds Move (Five)

At Hangu Pass, Lu Chao stroked the cold barrel of the artillery, looked at the dark muzzle, and then looked down at the round shells in the box next to the artillery. His face was very heavy. Behind him, there were several others. Tianjiaping saw with his own eyes the Qin army officers who were showing off their powerful artillery. Xu Yahua sent them here from Lubin.

Because of the invention and application of cement, the road from Lubin to Hangu Pass has now been entirely built with cement. The journey between the two places has been shortened from the original ten days to three days. This has great military significance. Benefit, of course, this benefit also applies to enemies. After Xu Yahua sent his general Qian Zhongyi to defeat the Third Division of the 20th Army of the Han Army, he unexpectedly grabbed about ten artillery pieces. To Xu Yahua's pity, there were originally ten more, but they were killed by Han Army soldiers at the last moment. Blow up. After grabbing these powerful weapons, Xu Yahua felt like he had found a treasure and immediately sent two of them to Hangu Pass.

&=Pig=Pig=Island=Novel ww.zhuzhnbsp; "Is this thing called an artillery piece?" Lu Chao asked.

"Yes, General, the Han army calls it artillery." An officer replied respectfully.

"Tell me about the specific situation."

"The general was stationed in Xiyangping at that time. In the distance, about a mile away, I could vaguely see the muzzle flash of the artillery, making a huge explosion, bursts of smoke, and then this The iron ball sprayed out from the muzzle, like a fireball in the air, and rushed towards our city wall. With a bang, a section of our city wall collapsed. "The officer described it vividly. Lu Chao closed his eyes slightly and looked at it. I pictured the scene in my mind.

After a while, Lu Chao opened his eyes and said, "Find someone to give it a try. I want to take a look."

"No, General!" the officer exclaimed in surprise: "In Lubin, General Xu also wanted to give it a try. As a result, the artillery exploded, killing or injuring more than a dozen soldiers around him. In the end, we captured the Han soldiers. When I brought them in for questioning, I found out that these artillery pieces were operated by specially trained people and that ordinary people would not be able to use them.”

Um? Lu Chao was slightly shocked: "Then we didn't catch the person operating these artillery pieces?"

"We didn't know at the time that these artillery pieces needed to be operated by specially trained people. We didn't pay attention to this matter. The battlefield was in chaos at that time, and the main force of the opponent's third division was retreating. The location of our attack was not far from Tianjiaping, so we grabbed After finding these things, they immediately retreated. Finally, they figured out the matter and asked the prisoners, but no one knew how to operate these artillery pieces." The officer said.

Lu Chao patted the cannon body with some regret. If you grab something but don’t know how to use it, it’s just a decoration!

"Han people!" He shook his head. They can always come up with some incredible things. Cement makes everyone's travel extremely easy. It is also very meaningful in military terms. Wrapping the outside of the city with a layer of cement after,

Defense is greatly increased. What Lu Chao couldn't understand was that the Han State was interested in these things that were obviously military weapons. The Han people did not seem to hide it. Like the cement formula, they easily sold its production formula to the Chu State, and they themselves also obtained the production technology from the Chu State. I heard that the Chu people obtained it from the Han Dynasty. I spent millions of taels of silver to buy the patent for this technology. But in the end, he only spent five thousand taels of silver from Chu State.

Lu Chao laughed, and with five thousand taels of silver, he bribed an official of Chu State, and then came back with the cement formula easily. However, the cost of cement production in the area under our control is now a bit high. It was about 10% more expensive than the one smuggled in by Guo Yang, but Lu Chao believed that as time went by, his costs would definitely come down.

There are also buildings and bridges made of reinforced concrete. It is difficult to obtain specific technologies from the Han country, but when you come to the people of the Chu country, it is completely different.

However, I had never heard of this artillery before. It seemed that the Han people regarded it as a treasure. They got these few by themselves, but they couldn't do anything. They patted the heavy cannon body and said: "This guy has at least several thousand Be heavy!”

"Yes, this iron thing is too heavy. It took us a lot of effort to get them back. Fortunately, the ones who attacked their logistic baggage were cavalry with many horses, otherwise we really wouldn't be able to get them back," the officer said.

"The advantages are obvious, but there are also many disadvantages. This thing is too heavy and it is extremely difficult to move. There is no need to worry about it for the time being." Lu Chao said. "Take one to the craftsman's department and let our master craftsman study it carefully."

Putting these things aside, Lu Chao returned to his study. As a general in charge of the army, he was naturally eager for powerful new weapons, but he was not superstitious. He always firmly believed that the most essence of war is human beings. , the emergence of a new weapon is not enough to change the general trend of the war, not to mention that this weapon still has major flaws. At that moment, Lu Chao thought of no less than ten ways to deal with this kind of cannon. Method, if we meet again on the battlefield. He believed that if Xu Yahua encountered this thing in Lubin, he would be able to think of it with Xu Yahua's experience and the resources Lubin now has.

It’s just that the performance of the Han army is so strange! Tianjiaping Fortress has been lost. Although the third division of the Han army that marched into Lubin was defeated, it was a drop in the bucket for the Han army with more than 100,000 troops stationed in Jinyang. The 20th Army was not their core battle force. force. But why did they stop moving forward after losing the battle?

It was already the fourth day, and the intelligence showed that the Han army was still staying in Tianjiaping and had not moved. What did Gao Yuan want to do? Could it be that he came to Jinyang just to make a special trip for inspection? Definitely not, he must have a conspiracy. I have sent 10,000 reinforcements to Lubin, and Lubin must be defended.

Staring at the map, Lu Chao's eyes moved slowly. Xianyang was about to launch, but the messenger sent to Wang Jian had no news. Now he needed Wang Jian to fulfill his promise and send troops to contain the Han State so that he could do his own big things at ease.

No matter how the Han State moved, his actions here could not be changed. The worst case scenario was to hold on to Hangu Pass while continuing to launch in Xianyang. The best result would be to defend Hangu Pass and take Xianyang. Of course, it is also possible that although Xianyang was taken, Hangu Pass was lost. At that time, even if he successfully controlled the Qin State, he would immediately face the tide of attacks from the Han people.

But when the time comes, I will be in a different position and have more resources to mobilize. I will not necessarily lose completely. What's more, I can still borrow the power of Chu. At most, I will give them some meat.

Lu Chao, who has made up his mind, no longer cares about the actions of the Han people. He will not fail so easily.

Good news came soon, but not from Lubin. There was still no movement in the direction of Lubin. It seemed that the action of the Han army this time was not to take away the fortresses in Tianjiaping and other places. However, Xu Yahua seized this rare opportunity to reinforce Lubin again. The feedback from him was that his confidence in holding on was getting stronger day by day.

The good news came from Shannan County. The Han Army Hun Cavalry Division, which had been camping outside Shannan County and threatening Shannan County, suddenly broke camp and left under the leadership of the ghost-faced general Guli. Then the spies found out that the Han Army Donghu Cavalry Division, which had been staying in Dai County, also broke camp and left. The direction of the two cavalry units was pointing to the same target, Dayan County.

Wang Jian should have moved. After receiving these two pieces of news, Lu Chao breathed a sigh of relief. The strength in Wang Jian's hands should not be underestimated. It seems that his promise of splitting the land and becoming a king still moved this guy. Returning to his homeland must have a lot of attraction for him. With his move, can the Han army in Jinyang still besiege him here? At least a part of him must be mobilized to Dayan County to deal with Wang Jian, and the pressure here will be greatly reduced.

In the next ten days, various news continued to gather from spies to Lu Chao's desk. First, the spies in Jishi County discovered that a large amount of arms were continuously transported out, and the destination was Mengchi in Han State, which was the third military region commanded by Helan Xiong. It should be the front line of the Han army's defense against Wang Jian, but they had few soldiers and limited combat power. In the end, they had to transfer troops from the interior. Looking at the number of weapons transported by the Han people to Mengchi, it was obvious that the scale of Wang Jian's attack was not small. Judging from the scale of these transport teams, Lu Chao speculated that it could equip 30,000 to 50,000 troops.

Then, the Han army, which had been silent in Jinyang County, finally responded. Two reorganized armies set out. The powerful Ding Wei Fifth Army and Yan Haibo Sixth Army left Jinyang and headed towards Dai County.

Lu Chao breathed a sigh of relief after receiving this news. These two armies were definitely the main forces among the Han army stationed in Jinyang. Ding Wei and Yan Haibo were Gao Yuan's trusted generals. Their departure represented that Wang Jian's momentum was much better than he had imagined.

Closing the thick file in front of him, Lu Chao felt extremely comfortable. Well, Xianyang could start to launch. The next month would be the most important moment in his life. Lu Chao had never thought that he would fail. From the son of a soldier in Fufeng, he stepped up to the highest position in Qin. This achievement was enough to make him proud forever. Of course, Gao Yuan's achievements were greater than his own, but he still had a lot of time to compete with him.

He planned to have a few drinks after returning today. Lu Chao was extremely strict with himself. Because of the shortage of food, brewing was not allowed in Hangu Pass. In order to boost morale, Lu Chao himself set an example and rarely drank, although the general's mansion would never lack these things.

"General, General, the Han army has sent an envoy." Gou Yi stepped in. Gou Yi was the only one who could freely enter and leave Lu Chao's study.

"Emissary? Did they finally send someone? Who is it?" Lu Chao's mouth curled up a smile.

"General, the one who led the way is Guo Yang, but the protagonist is Cao Tianci!" Gou Yi said. (To be continued.)