The light of the sword is like the moon reflecting on Kyushu

Liu Miezhou's face was gloomy!
Yang Ye also looked solemn at this time: "Your Majesty, that team of 500 people is really powerful! The gun barrels can fire firearms and can even penetrate the heavy armor of the Khitan cavalry!"

Liu Miezhou's eyes flickered, and he said in a deep voice: "If I take action myself, will I be criticized?"

Yang Ye was startled and said quickly: "Your Majesty, you are a body of ten thousand saints, how can you do it yourself?"

Liu Miezhou said: "If I don't take action, can this city be defended?"

Yang Ye had seen the power of the catapult, crossbow cart, three-bow crossbow, divine arm bow, and musket. He had read forty or fifty books on the power of so many powerful weapons concentrated here. The city gate could not hold out for long!

He didn't know how to answer for a moment!
Liu Miezhou's eyes were cold and grim: "Since Zhao Guangyi dared to lead the army in person, he should have anticipated everything that might happen!"

"Your Majesty, could it be that... you want to implement the beheading plan?"

"Beheading? Humph! That's too easy for him! I will first consume his main force and make him feel heartbroken! The same heartbreak as losing a loved one! When he is heartbroken to the point of despair, then I will kill him!"

Yang Ye suddenly felt a chill on his back!

Emperor Xian Liu's hatred for Emperor Song Zhao Guangyi seems to be more than just a family-country feud! What unknown stories are there between the two?

The Song army had already assembled. The left, center, and right armies were arranged into countless square formations of hundreds of people, a dark mass that exuded a suffocating sense of oppression!

All the infantrymen had bloodshot eyes and murderous intent, like hungry beasts ready to pounce on their prey at any time. Yang Ye on the top of the city knew that as soon as the charge was sounded, this surging army would start attacking the city again!
Behind the infantry phalanx is the longbow battalion formation, which is also composed of several small phalanxes of hundreds of people!
Behind them is the Divine Arm Bow Group of 200 people!

The crossbow group, the catapult group, and the three-bow crossbow group are lined up side by side!

The cavalry gathered far away and were on standby, waiting for the city gate to be broken, then they would attack quickly and rush into the city!
The musketeers then slowly moved towards the front of the central army.

The closer you are to the enemy, the more accurate your musket aim will be, the stronger the impact of the lead bullet will be, and the greater the ultimate lethality and destructive power will be!
Pan Mei said in a deep voice: "Pass on my order!"

The herald behind him suddenly appeared from nowhere and said, "Yes!"

"Requirements: The three groups of catapults, divine arm bows, and longbow battalions will focus on attacking the top of the city walls and suppress all counterattacks from the enemy! The three-bow crossbow group will fire treadle arrows and build ten siege ladders on the city walls! The crossbow group will cooperate with the battering ram to attack the city gate! The musket battalion will be the mobile force and support the various troops at any time! The army in the middle will prepare to attack the city!"

The herald waved the five-colored flag and the war drums sounded at the same time!

Bows are strung, swords are unsheathed, ladders and battering rams slowly move forward from the formation!
Pan Mei drew out his sword and was about to shout "attack" when unexpectedly five giant arrows like meteors, trailing sparks, suddenly flew out from the top of the city wall, drawing a perfect arc in the air and hitting the three-bow crossbows of the Song army!

Five bright lights flashed, illuminating half the sky red. Accompanied by loud bangs, the five three-bow crossbows were blown into pieces!
Amidst everyone's astonishment, five more meteors blew up the remaining three-bow crossbows!

At this time, everyone reacted, and Pan Mei roared: "Attack!"

The catapult shot out ten huge stone bombs, two of which hit the city tower, six hit the ground on the top of the city, and two hit the outer wall!
Two hundred divine arm bows whizzed through the gaps between the arrow stacks, scaring the Han army so much that they dared not show their heads! But it did not affect their firing of flaming arrows at the city! The angles of the Song army's arrows were all shot from the bottom to the top, so as long as everyone was careful and did not expose themselves, the divine arm bow arrows would not be able to shoot them!
What could actually hit them were the feathered arrows shot by the longbowmen under the city!

But the arrows were shot from bottom to top, so in order to ensure that they could hit the top of the city wall, the shooting angle had to be raised. However, this increased the time the arrows stayed in the air, which reduced their final speed and gave the enemy more time to respond! Even a spent force could not penetrate the silk cloth of Lu.

On the top of the city wall, countless Han soldiers once again loaded the three-bow crossbows with giant arrows, which were tied with explosives. The soldier who loaded the arrows said, "The arrows are ready!"

Soldiers continued to say, "The arrows are ready!"

"The arrows are ready!"

"Aiming is in place!"

"Aiming is in place!"

"Ready! Fire!"

whoosh-

whoosh-

whoosh-

whoosh-

Five arrows fired at once!

This time it was the trebuchet that was blown up!

"Get ready to load arrows!" Several soldiers divided the work and coordinated with each other, passing the arrows, putting them in the slots, and pulling the capstan all in one go!
"Loading completed!"

"Aim completed!"

"Ready! Fire!"

Five more flames appeared on the ground, and the last five catapults of the Song army had been destroyed!

Zhao Guangyi, who was watching the battle from a distance, was furious. "When did the Han army also have three-bow crossbows?"

Eunuch Li said: "I think our "Secret Map of the Three-Bow Crossbow" has been leaked!"

Zhao Guangyi's face was gloomy: "Go back and check the crossbow factory! And check the south and north workshops as well!"

The South and North workshops are responsible for the mass production of weapons and armor, and are affiliated with the Engineering Bureau; the Crossbow Institute is responsible for the design and manufacture of bows and crossbows, and is on par with the South and North workshops!
After Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne, he divided military power through the Ministry of War, the Privy Council, and the Three Yamen. Although the weapons manufacturing institutions were affiliated with the Ministry of Works or directly under the central government, they were strictly coordinated and controlled by the Privy Council, reflecting the governance logic of "controlling the military with civil power"!

Eunuch Li said: "Yes!"

On the top of the city wall, Liu Miezhou said: "Zhao Guangyi will never imagine how our army can also have a three-bow crossbow!"

Yang Ye smiled and said, "I never expected that the emperor actually had the "Secret Map of the Three-Bow Crossbow"! He arranged for the work to be rushed a few days ago, and the workshop has done a good job. Five crossbows have been built, which really came in handy! There are also dozens of divine arm bows that will be completed soon!"

Liu Miezhou said: "With these powerful weapons, we can maximize the damage to the enemy and reduce our own losses!"

Yang Ye said: "Now the enemy's most powerful catapults have all been scrapped, and our pressure is much less!"

Liu Miezhou said: "Keep pursuing the victory and kill their three-bow crossbows! As for other weapons, their killing power is limited, such as battering rams and ladders. Wait until they get closer before attacking! The more concentrated their people are, the easier it will be for us to attack them!"

There are a lot of gunpowder, pine oil and thunder stones on the city wall!

The soldier in charge of operating the triple-bow crossbow on the top of the city wall began to aim at the triple-bow crossbow of the Song army below the city from behind the arrow stack!
Looking down from a high place, you have an advantageous perspective!
The Han army could see the Song army, but the Song army could not see the Han army!

Liu Miezhou added a protective design to the three-bow crossbow. It looked very simple and was not complicated to make. It was just a huge iron cage covering the three-bow crossbow, and a layer of wire mesh outside the iron cage! Of course, the wire mesh left a gap for the arrow slot to fire.

With this wire mesh, the rain of arrows from the Song army was basically shielded from the outside, and the shooters were quite safe; and the soldiers responsible for carrying the giant arrows were covered in heavy armor, with head, face, neck, chest and back protection. Nothing was exposed.

Therefore, the operators of the three-bow crossbows on the top of the Han army's city walls hardly had to worry about their own safety! They went all out to fire giant arrows!
According to General Yang's order, we only focus on hitting the target, not speed!

Because there is explosives tied to the arrow head!

Because the power of gunpowder is so great, it is considered a success as long as the target is hit within a radius of ten feet!
Therefore, the flight trajectory of the Han army's one spear and three sword arrows was not a straight line, but a crescent line!

Pan Mei frowned and said, "Are they idiots? Don't they know to ask the crossbows to retreat? Are they just standing there and being a living target?"

The herald immediately waved the flag!
The Song soldier in charge of controlling the bed crossbow immediately put away his iron stabilizing claws and prepared to push the bed crossbow back! Unfortunately, before he could push it back a foot, he saw a flash of fire, a bright light in front of his eyes, and then an extremely powerful air wave blew him away, and he immediately lost consciousness! The air wave razed the entire bed crossbow to the ground, and all the infantry next to it were blown away!
All of the Song army's three-bow crossbows were destroyed!

Zhao Guangyi's eyes seemed to be about to spit fire: "Whoever leaked the "Secret Map" will be executed along with his entire family!" Eunuch Li said: "Yes!"

----------------

Feng Jiuxiao and others had just entered Maozhou at this time.

Maozhou can be traced back to the Qin and Han Dynasties. In the first year of King Wu of Qin, the Xiandi Road was established. In the Han Dynasty, Wenshan County was established. In the eighth year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, Nanhuizhou was changed to Maozhou.

It was named after Maoshi Mountain on the southern border of the state and became an important military stronghold on the southwestern frontier during the Tang Dynasty.

It is located on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, spanning the upper reaches of the Minjiang River and the Fu River.

The terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, with mountains and valleys as the main feature. The highest peak, Wannian Snow Mountain, is 1,700 feet high!

The further north you go, the lower the temperature.

Maozhou City is an irregular rectangle with a perimeter of about three miles. It is built with rammed earth and bricks, and the wall foundation is more than two feet wide. There is an urn at the south gate, with a stone plaque with the words "Zhen Qiang" embedded above the gate. The north wall is built along the cliff of Yulei Mountain, and the remains of the old water gate of the Tang Dynasty are left on the west side facing the Minjiang River. The drum tower in the center of the city is a three-story building with a hip roof, from which you can overlook the Weizhou beacon tower in the northwest.

The city gates were guarded by Song soldiers.

Feng Jiuxiao showed his gold medal, and Song Bing let him go immediately. He had seen Feng Jiuxiao from afar and had always had an impression of him. Now that the gold medal was shown, his identity was confirmed, so he let him go immediately.

Feng Jiuxiao specifically told Song Bing that he had urgent matters to attend to and not to tell anyone about his entry into the city. Song Bing immediately promised that he would not dare to do so.

After entering the city, I found that although there were not many people here, it was very prosperous. After all, it was also the border between the Central Plains and Tubo, so there were naturally many foreign merchants coming here to trade.

The number of Qiang people in Maozhou has obviously increased.

The straight Central Street is endless. In addition to the bamboo and wooden houses of the Han people, there are also the watchtowers of the Qiang people. Since the county is located on the mountain range, the terrain is quite undulating, and the terrain is higher as you go out, and those watchtowers are basically built on the hillside.

La Jiao looked at the towers on both sides curiously, "Are those Qiang buildings?"

"That's right. Diaolou is also called Qionglong, Diaolou, Diaofang, Stone Nest, etc."

"It looks so weird, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, square and just like a big stone tablet. It's so ugly!"

"Don't underestimate them, they have many uses! They can serve as housing, defense, storage, information transmission and many other functions. Look at it from another angle, can they be used as beacon towers?"

"You know what, they're really good! They're quite tall, they can be used as beacon towers! One family lights a torch, and the other family far away follows suit. A single spark can start a prairie fire!"

"Diaolou can be built not only in isolation, but also as a whole or in groups. It is very flexible and can be combined with houses. You say it is ugly, but ancient books say that it has a dignified shape, exquisite craftsmanship and sophisticated structure. In addition, it has a strong ability to resist natural disasters such as wind disasters and earthquakes, and has super stability! Moreover, they generally have four corners, five corners, six corners, eight corners, ten corners, twelve corners and other different shapes, and are built in different ways such as stone, clay, stone and clay mixture."

“How high can it be built?”

"That depends on how high they need to build it. As far as I know, the highest they can build it is more than ten feet high!"

"More than ten feet high? That high? I see that the towers on both sides are not very high, maybe only about four or five feet high!"

Pang Shiwu sobered up at this time and said in the last carriage: "Forty or five feet is not too low!"

Three horse-drawn carriages traveled slowly along the central street, and the people in the carriages enjoyed the exotic scenery.

But in the eyes of pedestrians outside the car, they are also a beautiful scenery.

Although there was a lot of traffic and noise outside, Yuan Zishan could still feel a moment of peace in her heart. On the east side of the street, a Han peddler wearing a short brown jacket with the right lapel passed by an old Qiang woman with a black scarf on her head. The silver pendant on her earlobe was swinging, reflecting the steam from the soup and pancake shop on the corner.

On the west side of the street, three Qiang girls came out of the colorful silk shop. Their indigo gowns with cloud embroidery swept the stone steps by the roadside, and the silver chains on their waists jingled with their steps. They laughed and dodged a packhorse loaded with lacquerware, and the horse's tail just happened to sweep the tie-dyed leggings of the caravan man. The smiling faces of the three girls instantly made Yuan Zishan feel a familiar "vitality"! The vitality of vigorous youth!

At the corner, a Tibetan merchant was gesturing for the price in stiff Chinese, his turquoise-studded waist knife pressing down on an open musk bag, while the Song merchant in a cross-collared robe stared at the turquoise in his braid and shook his head. Presumably, the Song merchant was not very satisfied with the price.

At the window of the second floor of the tavern, several scholars in round-necked robes were seen shaking their heads. Under the eaves, an old woman was weaving "Ten Kinds of Brocade" with a wooden shuttle. Several figures passed by, including three Tanguts wearing fur hats with feathers, two Western Hu girls wearing amber earrings, and a monk holding a Zen staff.

Suddenly Feng Jiuxiao said, "Hey? There's a tavern? Stop here, have a meal, and replenish some supplies!" Before Feng Jiuxiao got out of the car, a smiling waiter came towards him.

He came forward wearing a black fu hat, a short brown cloth shirt, hemp shoes, trouser legs tied with straps, and a towel draped over his shoulder.

"Sir, do you want to be a top-notch person or stay in a hotel?"

Feng Jiuxiao said: "Let's have a snack"

The waiter took the reins and said, "Okay!"

Wait for the waiter to tie up the three carriages, and then lead everyone into the tavern.

The plaque on the door of the tavern reads: Zuixianju.

Feng Jiuxiao said: "What a good name."

The waiter smiled and said, "Thank you, sir!"

Business was booming and the first floor was full, so we went to the second floor. There happened to be an empty table in the corner. It was not facing the street and there were no windows on the wall, so we couldn't see anything outside. It was a very bad location.

There were seven or eight tables of guests on the second floor, with at least five or six people at each table, and as many as seven or eight people being haunted by evil spirits.

Most of them are businessmen.

There are also people from the underworld.

No matter businessmen or gangsters, all eyes were suddenly focused on Yuan Zishan!
At this moment, the noise in the entire Zuixian Tower immediately stopped!
Many people sighed in their hearts that although this woman had a black veil on her face, just by looking at the few steps she took from the stairs to the second floor and moved to the corner, many wonderful lines emerged in their minds, such as "graceful as a startled swan, graceful as a swimming dragon", "slender steps, exquisite and unparalleled in the world", "the lotus leaf skirt is cut in the same color, and the hibiscus blooms on both sides of the face", "the willow waist moves gracefully, and the lotus steps move lightly like poetry"!

It wasn't until she slowly sat down that everyone came to their senses!
Many people are wondering, is this woman ugly? Or does she have a scar on her face? Otherwise, why doesn't she dare to show her true face to others? What a pity for such a beautiful figure! Many people are sighing that this woman is so charming even without showing her true face, she is a demon!

The whole house is full of outsiders. When you are out and about, there are no constraints, so it is okay to peek at beautiful women without any restraint!
Because no one will take care of them!

Yuan Zishan naturally disdained these pieces of color. Just one look at them would make her eyes dirty!

Pang Shiwu frowned! Feng Jiuxiao said, "Okay, let's eat something and go. There's no need to delay the trip because of trivial matters."

Pang Shiwu glanced around coldly and snorted, "They are lucky!"

There are three tables by the windows facing the street, one of which is occupied by six gangsters.

One of them frowned and whispered, "I seem to have seen that young man in white before somewhere before?"

The other man took a sip of his drink and asked, "Who do you think he looks like?"

The man said: "I can't remember where, but I know who he looks like."

"Like who?"

"Feng Jiuxiao!" (End of this chapter)