In a chaotic and famine-stricken era, I picked up an empress to be my wife.

Half an hour later.

Shen An led them to Black Mountain Village.

When they arrived, they saw hundreds of dynamite canisters.

They frowned. They had witnessed the power of this thing before, but it was impossible for it to kill tens of thousands of people.

"My lord, these numbers don't seem capable of killing tens of thousands, do they?"

"These are just the prelude; the real method to kill tens of thousands lies here!"

As Shen An spoke, he buried a canister of explosives in a courtyard and lit it.

After a loud explosion.

Everyone thought it was over, but the next moment, a raging fire suddenly broke out in the courtyard. The fire spread extremely quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the entire courtyard was engulfed in flames, while thick, choking smoke rose up.

At such a speed, anyone inside would either be burned to death or suffocated to death, with no chance of escape.

"My lord, this courtyard looks like flat ground, how could it have caught fire so quickly? If someone were inside, they wouldn't have been able to escape," Liao Bing couldn't help but ask.

"Because I've tampered with the ground in this courtyard." Shen An led them to another courtyard and dug up the ground.

Everyone

They discovered that beneath the rammed earth lay a large amount of dry grass, as well as something completely unfamiliar to them.

"Is this all there?" Dugu Meng asked.

"Besides hay, there are also a lot of animal fats, tung oil, pine resin and other substances. These are all accelerants that can cause the fire to ignite instantly. In addition to harming the enemy, those explosive canisters can also detonate these things underground."

Once detonated, it will unleash a raging fire, leaving them nowhere to escape.

In addition, there are mugwort, rice husks, and saltpeter. When burned in large quantities, these produce a lot of thick black smoke, which not only chokes people but also quickly obscures their vision, making it difficult for them to find their way in the short term.

"Under these circumstances, not being able to find your way means death!" Shen An explained, "And since these things are buried underground, it's difficult for them to find them when they arrive at the city gate. Even if they do find them, they won't think that these things have any killing power and can seriously injure them!"

At that time, if a suitable opportunity is found, there is a good chance that they could suffer tens of thousands of casualties, or even more.

I believe that given Yuwen Qin's cautious nature, he would absolutely not dare to continue the siege!

"My lord, you are amazing! How did you come up with all this? Did the dragon even teach you these things?" Liao Bing said admiringly.

Liu Wenyuan sighed repeatedly.

Dugu Meng was even more shocked than the others, because everyone else believed that Shen An was a descendant of the dragon, and that the Dragon God had entrusted him with a dream.

But she knew that Shen An was relying on himself.

She simply couldn't imagine how Shen An had come up with the idea of ​​using these things.

They find it hard to understand, but for special forces soldiers, this kind of trap is really simple.

If he had all the materials, he could create something even more powerful.

However, the team he sent into the Nanling Mountains only found some natural caves and some saltpeter.

But sulfur is nowhere to be found.

He currently has saltpeter and charcoal, but because he can only purchase sulfur secretly, the amount of explosives he has is still insufficient for large-scale operations.

It can only be used as an auxiliary tool, utilizing fire to kill enemies.

The arrangement of this courtyard was a helpless measure he took because he didn't have enough sulfur to make explosives.

Dugu Meng and the others were unaware of Shen An's inner helplessness. In their eyes, this was already astonishing enough and would definitely cause the cunning Yuwen Qin to suffer a great loss.

"My lord, where should we set up this kind of trap?" Liao Bing asked.

"It's right outside the county seat. Only here can they concentrate their forces. Elsewhere, their forces are too scattered, and they'll kill too few people after the attack," Shen An replied. "Liu Wenyuan, I'll give you a list. Prepare this as soon as possible. Remember, this is top secret; it must never be leaked. Otherwise, you can forget about being the county magistrate!"

Liu Wenyuan knew the seriousness of the matter. Right now, it was a game of wits with Yuwen Qin, and if anything went wrong, it could very well lead to a complete defeat.

"My lord, I will absolutely not make the slightest mistake in this matter, or I will offer my head in retribution!"

Three days later.

Liu Wenyuan raised enough items for Shen An's request, and that very night Shen An began renovations outside the county town.

Having enough subordinates does indeed lead to high efficiency.

It was done in one night.

There's still snow outside; covering it with this will prevent anyone from suspecting anything tomorrow.

As for whether someone else will detonate it? That's impossible. Shen An hasn't placed a fuse on the explosive canister yet. Without explosives to detonate it, even if an ordinary person lit a fire, they wouldn't be able to penetrate half a meter of ground to reach the accelerant.

After doing all this, Shen An found the fake Yuwen Qin.

After three days of rest, this guy is already able to get out of bed.

Upon seeing Shen An arrive, this guy immediately knelt on the ground: "Welcome, Lord Shen."

"Since Yuwen Qin sent you to impersonate him, how will you contact him? You need to pass on messages to him, right?"

"We can just send messages by carrier pigeon. He taught me a set of rules, like pronouns. For example, when I want to express my feelings, I say 'he'; when I want to say something good, I say something bad, and so on. Others may see these as ordinary words, but they actually have a different meaning," the fake Yuwen Qin replied.

"Yuwen Qin, Yuwen Qin, you really are amazing, you even came up with this kind of method."

After sighing, Shen An ordered, "When do you think it would be the right time to send him a message saying that I completely trust you, and he would believe it?"

"Are you trying to turn this on me?"

"Yes, I need your cooperation."

"Lord Shen, I, Jiang Laowu, will absolutely cooperate with you and make that despicable Yuwen Qin pay the price!" The fake Yuwen Qin patted his chest.

"You better keep your word, or I'll make you wish you were dead!"

"Don't worry, I will definitely keep my word. Please give me some paper and pen."

"Bring me pen and ink."

Once the paper and pen arrived, Shen An gave the order: "Tell Yuwen Qin that I believe you and have decided to wait for the temperature to rise before joining forces to attack Yuwen Bingyu."

"My lord, didn't you write a letter to Yuwen Bingyu saying that you would attack her within ten days? The letter that Yuwen Bingyu wrote, seemingly for me, was actually read by the real Yuwen Qin. He also knows that you wrote a letter threatening Yuwen Bingyu saying that you would attack her within ten days," said Jiang Laowu.

"That was just to scare her," Shen An said with a light laugh.

In the current situation, not fighting is actually better than fighting.

Although Yuwen Bingyu seems to be disloyal and lacks supplies, even a starved camel is bigger than a horse. If he sends troops, the success rate cannot be guaranteed, and he may also be ambushed by Yuwen Qin and Li Huaiyi.

He was actually pleased to see Li Huaiyi and Yuwen Qin attack Yuwen Bingyu when she was at a disadvantage.

He'll be the one to launch the sneak attack.

However, now that bastard Yuwen Qin has come to set a trap for him, his previous plans are about to be overturned.

"You wrote to the real Yuwen Qin that I was deliberately scaring Yuwen Bingyu, making her live in constant fear, and that I didn't really intend to attack her."

"However, with his cooperation, I'm willing to go and fight after the ice and snow melt!" Shen An arranged.

The reason he said the ice and snow were melting was that he wanted to wait for the surrounding ice and snow to melt so that he could use the explosive trap he had set in front of the city gate.

Otherwise, given the current snow cover, it would be difficult for the snow to ignite quickly, and its power would be greatly reduced.

If the snow outside the city walls were forcibly removed at this time, it would certainly arouse the suspicion of the enemy.

"Okay, okay, I'll write the letter right away!"

After writing down his message, Jiang Laowu took it out and sent it to Yuwen Qin via carrier pigeon.

The homing pigeons in front of us are all directional, unlike those on TV that can be sent wherever you want.

"For the rest of the time, you can go out whenever you want, but I'll have people following you. You'd better behave yourself!"

"I'm absolutely honest, you can rest assured!"

After making the arrangements, Shen An left the county town and arrived at Qingtian Village.

Today is the day for trading with the Helian Merchant Alliance.

In recent days, tens of thousands of people have perished in Qingyang County, and tens of thousands of kilograms of blood charcoal have been produced.

Although the price of blood charcoal has now dropped to three ounces per kilogram.

That's 30,000 taels.

Upon arriving at Qingtian Village, Shen Angang dismounted.

"My dear sister, you're here!"

A surprised woman's voice rang out, and Shen An immediately felt a headache coming on—it was Luo Li!

Even now, she still believes he was born impotent and that no medicine could help him, and she still wants to be his sister.

Shen An deeply regretted that he shouldn't have pretended to be impotent.

Looking up, he saw Luo Li running towards him.

She was dressed in a red outfit, looking both heroic and dashing, and the thing on her chest looked enormous at that moment.

She came up to him and gave him a bear hug.

The enormous object was pressed against Shen An, making him feel its weight even more.

Even though Shen An is currently indifferent to matters of love and sex, he is still a passionate and vigorous man.

I couldn't help but swallow.

He was also afraid that if he reacted, Luo Li would see through his deception and lie to him again.

Otherwise, given Luo Li's temper, his business might have gone bankrupt.

He tried his best to control himself, but Luo Li treated him like a good sister, not like a man at all.

"My dear sister, your chest feels so safe and secure. I'll stay close to you a little longer."

Luo Li leaned on Shen An's shoulder, her face full of enjoyment.

After a while, she seemed to remember something: "Good sister, I heard about what happened here. You are amazing! You were able to wipe out Yuwen Bingyu's tens of thousands of troops, making Li Huaiyi and Yuwen Qin no longer dare to be your enemies!"

After hearing this, my father said he wanted me to invite you to the capital to become a general. Will you go?

"Go to the capital and become a general!" Shen An was quite surprised.

Luo Li pouted, "Judging from your expression, you don't seem to want to? But let me tell you, my father is the current prime minister. If you go, you'll definitely get a high position, which is much better than staying in this rural area!"