Chapter 100: Leverage

Soon, Wang Zicheng and the local county magistrate and Qianzong came together.

Along with them came a large number of yamen runners, constables, men in black, and Qingluan Guards. It can be said that almost all the local government personnel were dispatched, nearly a thousand people.

Qianzong's full name is "ying Qianzong", which is the sixth rank, the same rank as the Qingluan Guards, and two levels higher than the seventh rank county magistrate, and is not controlled by the county magistrate.

This dynasty has felt the drawbacks of the previous dynasty's emphasis on civil and military, and has used both civil and military since the founding of the country. The power of military officials in the court is not weaker than that of civil officials. There is no very clear and insurmountable boundary between civil and military. Many cabinet elders are generals and ministers, so the status of military officials in the Daxuan court is not low, and there will not be a situation where high-ranking military officials are controlled by low-ranking civil officials in the previous dynasty.

According to the Daxuan Army system, a thousand-man commander led 500 soldiers, including 200 elite regular soldiers and 300 auxiliary soldiers. The "black-clad men" in the eyes of the world mainly refer to regular soldiers, also known as combat soldiers, who do not work on weekdays and focus on training. As the name suggests, auxiliary soldiers assist combat soldiers, such as transporting food and grass, building fortifications, cooking and feeding horses, maintaining firearms, etc.

The local thousand-man commander's surname is Zhao. This time he brought 150 regular soldiers and 200 auxiliary soldiers. The regular soldiers were all equipped with firearms and armor. They were not the hand cannons commonly used by Taoists, but long cannons with longer ranges, and the magazines could store multiple projectiles, which could be fired continuously. The auxiliary soldiers mainly brought four artillery pieces from the camp.

In the early days of using front-loading artillery, the size of the artillery was distinguished by the weight of the shells. At that time, the army used four types of artillery most commonly, heavy artillery with 60-jin shells, general artillery with 30-jin and 20-jin shells, and small artillery with 10-jin shells. Among them, heavy artillery can only be equipped on large sea vessels and fixed artillery platforms and cannot be moved.

However, with the continuous updating and iteration of artillery technology, the artillery equipped in the army has gradually become breech-loading rifled artillery. It is not very meaningful to judge the size by the weight of the shells, so the caliber of the artillery is used to distinguish the size of the artillery.

Nowadays, the army is equipped with D-class artillery with a diameter of 1.9 to 2.3 inches, C-class artillery with a diameter of 3.1 to 3.6 inches, B-class artillery with a diameter of 4.5 to 4.6 inches, and A-class heavy artillery above 4.6 inches. Among them, heavy artillery is further subdivided. Some heavy artillery can only be fixed on artillery platforms or equipped on ironclad ships, which has nothing to do with local troops.

This time, General Zhao Qian brought four C-class artillery with a caliber of 3.1 to 3.6 inches. It may not be enough to attack a city, but it is more than enough to attack a mansion.

In addition to the black-clad men who were responsible for the frontal assault, there were also a large number of yamen runners and constables. In this regard, similar to the Tiangang Hall, one constable had two deputy runners, each deputy runner had helpers, and together with the three shifts of yamen runners, there were more than 200 people. They were mainly responsible for clearing the streets, imposing martial law, dispersing the crowds of onlookers, and preventing accidental injuries to ordinary people.

In addition, the local Qingluan Guard Hundred Households were mobilized to assist the black-clad men.

Although the Qingluan Guard was the emperor's personal army and mainly engaged in criminal investigation and case handling, it was still among the ranks of the black-clad men. Many high-ranking black-clad officials entered the court. In addition to joining the Ministry of War, they would also transfer to the Qingluan Guard, and then transfer to the Ministry of Justice, Dali Temple and other yamen through the Qingluan Guard, and finally enter the ranks of civil servants. Therefore, there were many people who were born in the black-clad men in the Qingluan Guard, and it was not difficult for both sides to cooperate.

When Zhang Yuelu and Qi Xuansu arrived outside Xiachang Mansion, they saw that it was surrounded by water.

Although the ranks of Taoism and the imperial court were not the same, the Great Master of Taiping Dao, one of the three deputy masters of Taoism, was also the imperial master of the imperial court, so he set a standard between Taoism and the imperial court, which could be roughly equivalent.

There is no doubt that the local county magistrate, Qianzong, and Qingluan Guards are not as good as Zhang Yuelu, the fourth-rank Taoist priest. Only Wang Zicheng is equal to Zhang Yuelu, so it was decided by Wang Zicheng and Zhang Yuelu after consultation.

Wang Zicheng asked in a deep voice: "Are the people of the Xia family still unwilling to come out and surrender?"

Zhao Qianzong replied: "Reporting to the superior, I have asked the brothers to shout three rounds. As long as they are willing to open the door and surrender, only the main culprit will be executed. If they are stubborn, it will be too late to regret. But there is no movement inside. Please give instructions."

Wang Zicheng glanced at Zhang Yuelu and asked: "I don’t know what Master Zhang means?"

Zhang Yuelu said: "If it were a normal gentry family, seeing such a scene outside the door, they would have opened the door to explain the situation. Now no one responds, it can be seen that they are guilty and confessed. There is no need to be polite. Just use artillery to blow open the gate and the courtyard wall and force their way in."

Wang Zicheng nodded and said: "Just follow Master Zhang's words, General Zhao Qian, aim and shoot."

Zhao Qianzong, wearing black armor, took the order and went to a place about 100 feet away from the gate of the Xia Mansion. He could only barely deploy two artillery pieces, and the other two artillery pieces were arranged on the two wings.

Qi Xuansu observed the cannon with great interest. It is said that this kind of cannon was developed and designed by the Taoist Tianji Hall, and then jointly produced by the Ministry of Industry and the Shenjiying. It adopts a multi-layer composite barrel structure. The whole cannon is composed of a large and small double-barrel composite multi-layer barrel. The small barrel is engraved with rifling, and the front loading is changed to rear loading, which shortens the loading time. Overall, compared with the previous Wei Dynasty's front-loading smoothbore cannon, it is lighter and has a longer range. The shells are not solid shells, but shrapnel shells, which are filled with fierce gunpowder and can cause violent explosions after landing.

Then I saw General Zhao Qian raised his right hand high: "One shot loading."

The four artillery pieces moved at the same time. The well-trained gunners quickly opened the wooden box. The two men lifted a metal-cased cone-shaped shell and loaded it into the barrel from the rear of the artillery piece.

Then the gunner shouted: "Loading is complete."

Mr. Zhao Qian suddenly waved his palm down: "Let go!"

Qi Xuansu only felt a hot wave of air blowing towards his face, and at the same time, the ground beneath his feet shook, as if shaking.

Then the gate tower of Xia Mansion had completely disappeared, and a section of the courtyard wall had completely collapsed. There were still a few traces of fire left on the ruins.

Mr. Zhao Qian raised his right hand again: "Adjust the angle and load the second shot."

Then the gunners started to use terms about what direction and what angle, and they saw the gun body rotating and aiming in other directions. The gunners then cleared the barrel and reloaded the gun.

"Loaded."

"Loaded."

"Loaded."

The gunner's voice sounded continuously.

Mr. Zhao Qian waved his hand again: "Let go!"

The four C-class artillery roared again, spitting out a red flame that was more than a foot long from the muzzle, and the huge air wave escaping from the rear of the gun rolled up a cloud of smoke.

There was a whistling and humming sound in the air, and four cannonballs drew a curve that was invisible to the naked eye in mid-air and fell into Xia Mansion.

The shell exploded, and the huge air wave and the explosive fire formed clouds of smoke. These smoke clouds connected together in an instant, and the shattered soil, stones, trees, and house debris were thrown directly into the air by the air wave.

Qi Xuansu felt the ground beneath his feet shaking, and his ears were filled with the sound of wind and thunder.

With the power of this kind of artillery, even an innate person cannot defeat it from the front.

After two rounds of volleys, Xia Mansion was completely devastated. Even if there was any formation, it should be almost destroyed.

When the prince was established, he ordered to attack the palace.

Qi Xuansu, Zhang Yuelu, Wang Zicheng and others walked at the end, while the county magistrate stayed outside and was responsible for maintaining order in the city.

After crossing the ruins of the courtyard wall and entering the mansion, you can still smell the smell of gunpowder smoke.

Zhang Yuelu stretched out his hand to fan the smoke and said softly to Qi Xuansu: "I remember an anecdote about Xuansheng and Donghuang. After Donghuang encountered the incident at Da Baoen Temple, he almost died. When he met Xuansheng, he was killed by Xuansheng. Rebuke. The original text is: Xuan Sheng rebuked Donghuang for relying on his brother's relatives, receiving the weight of the feudal territory, relying on his power to cultivate, without any scruples, using the sword without fear, being arrogant, not listening to other people's advice, being arbitrary and dictatorial. OK, taking risks alone will lead to today's disaster. In vernacular, Xuan Sheng said that Donghuang was arrogant because of his background, realm, and power, and he underestimated the power of everyone and exaggerated his personal role, so he suffered such a big loss. Damn. I don’t know if this rumor is true or not, but from now on, when the Taoist sect is wiping out the ancient immortals, we will never do it alone if we can use our own strength."

Not long after, news came one after another from the black-clothed and Qingluan Guards that some servants were found in the backyard. They were all dead, not from artillery, but from some kind of poison, as if they had been murdered, and The rest were nowhere to be seen.

Wang Zicheng became more and more certain that this place was the demon's stronghold and lair, and ordered a strict search without missing a single spot.

In this regard, Qingluan Guard is professional.

Luo Xiao personally led a search and soon found the entrance to the underground palace in a rockery.

Wang Zicheng was not polite and sent people to blow up the rockery with explosives, revealing the entrance to the underground palace below.

The opening of the underground palace is quite wide, allowing four people to walk side by side, sloping all the way down. There are not only steps, but also tracks that can push cars up and down.

Mr. Zhao Qian shouted: "Shield soldiers."

More than a dozen men in black, fully armored and holding large shields, walked side by side into the entrance of the underground palace.

Although these shield soldiers are only in the cultivation stage of acquired people, they are extremely powerful and physically strong. They are covered with "prisoner ox armor", which is composed of 360 armor leaves. Each armor leaf is only the size of a baby's hand, only Only slightly thicker than cardboard. It is specially designed to deal with the Qi-control injuries caused by martial arts masters, and it also has a certain resistance to various spells. It is covered with a piece of cotton armor, which has been specially processed, soaked in water and then dried in the sun. It is very tough, lined with iron leaves on the inside, and fixed with copper nails on the outside.

After the emergence of firearms, traditional iron armor became somewhat outdated, and the heavy armor improved by Daomen was too expensive to be distributed to ordinary soldiers. So starting from the Jin Dynasty, cloth-faced armor with a cloth exterior and iron pieces inside appeared, which was the predecessor of cotton armor. Today, cotton armor has been further developed, and special face armor has been added to resist miasma poisonous gases.

Finally, there is the large shield, called the "Steel Hyena Shield", which can block half of the body. It can not only withstand fire blunderbuss shots, but also withstand infuriating energy and some spells.

Behind the shield soldiers are men in black holding long guns, which can shoot through the gaps between the shields.

With this advancement, ordinary demons are no match.