I, Altria, only want to rule China.

Soon, the news of the suppression of bandits spread throughout Liangzhou. After all, the mobilization of 15000 troops is different from the momentum of 5000 troops.

The people knew about the 5000 soldiers sent to suppress bandits a few days ago, but they didn't care. But now the number has been increased to 15000, and it's hard for the people not to care.

What was the matter that required mobilizing the entire city's military forces? Soon some people with ulterior motives told the story about Wu'an County.

When the people heard about what happened in Wu'an County, they were stunned. This kind of thief was also suppressed? It's too unjust! This is not a thief at all, but a living Bodhisattva!

But no matter what the people think, there is nothing they can do. After all, they are just ordinary people in this kind of situation. There is nothing they can do. They can only hope that these rebels will not be wiped out so quickly.

He is indeed not a thief to the people. After all, he has not caused any harm to the people and is actually very beneficial.

But for the noble families and the government as the ruling class, Liya is the real traitor, or even worse than a traitor. Once Liya's way is accepted by the people, she will be the one who shakes the foundation of the country and must be eliminated!

At this moment, after a day of preparation, the Liangzhou army of 15000 troops have begun to march towards Wuxing County, looking very impressive.

Be it Tuoba Feng or Prince Leping before the expedition, or the middle-aged aide, they all believed that this would be a great victory. After all, the rebels numbered less than 10000.

After the troops from Liangzhou were dispatched, Leah was the first to receive Merlin's news.

Knowing that the troops from Liangzhou would arrive in a day, Liya immediately convened a combat meeting.

"Tomorrow, the troops from Liangzhou should arrive in Wuxing County. The general leading the army this time is Tuoba Feng. General Li, do you know anything about this general?" Liya asked Li Lin on the side.

"My lord, Tuoba Feng is the brother-in-law of King Leping. He is quite capable and a brave general. It may not be possible for him to be a general." Li Lin thought for a while and said

"Just a reckless man? If so, it would be much simpler." After hearing Li Lin's evaluation of Tuoba Xiu, Liya felt a little relieved.

"Li Lin, you will be in charge of this operation. I asked you to send more people to make the grenades. You already know how to use them, right?" Leah asked.

"My lord, the soldiers already know how to use it, but that pine wood cannon..." Li Lin seemed to be hesitant to speak.

"What's wrong with the pine wood cannon?" Leah asked curiously.

"Although the pine wood cannon can be used, its lethality is not that strong and it is easy to damage. I don't think it has much practical significance." Li Lin said after thinking for a while.

The so-called pine wood cannon is actually to select a fresh elm trunk, hollow out the core of the tree, dig out a round hole, and insert a thick iron pipe with a length of 7 feet, an inner diameter of more than half a foot, and a wall thickness of more than 2 centimeters.

Then it is tightly enclosed with five iron hoops on the outside and wrapped with thick iron wire. Finally, a small hole is drilled at the base of the gun to serve as the fuse for firing and the place for placing the powder.

After the barrel is made, more than ten pounds of gunpowder and thirty or forty pounds of broken plowshares, large weights, broken iron pots and other items are loaded into the barrel. The fuse is then connected, and finally the wooden muzzle is tightly sealed with cotton and yellow mud. In this way, a cannon is completed.

Of course, we can't expect too much power from the artillery made in this way.

The real function of these wooden cannons is like that of a large shotgun, which is mainly used for early warning and ambush. Even then, only a sound can be heard. The range is within 180 meters. After firing, the enemy can be smashed to pieces, but the killing range is relatively small.

But Leah didn't use this to destroy the enemy, it was mainly for deterrence. After all, the roar when the artillery was fired was too shocking.

The enemy doesn't know that this kind of cannon can only fire a few shots, so as long as it can shatter the enemy's mind, that's enough.

As for a truly powerful cannon, it is not so easy to make at least now, and Leah does not have the materials to make it.

After she has completely controlled Liangzhou, she can do it slowly.

"It's okay, that thing is just used to scare people, and the effect will be beyond your expectations." Leah just smiled.

Seeing Liya say this, Li Lin didn't say anything.

"Mulan, I asked you to count the number of people in every household in Wuxing County. Did you get any results?" Liya was not nervous at all about this battle. Unless Li Lin betrayed her, the troops of Liangzhou would only return in defeat.

"My lord, excluding the people from the counties and villages, there are more than 4000 households in Wuxing County, with a total population of more than 36000 people, and each household has about 8-9 people." Mulan said the information she had sorted out.

"8-9 people?"

Liya was a little surprised after hearing this. No wonder so many people starved to death in ancient times. She only had a few hundred thousand mu of land from those noble families. If she divided it up, each family would only have a dozen plots of land. If she divided it up among her children, that would be one plot per person. It was not enough!

In ancient times, the fact that there were more people was actually of little significance, because productivity could not keep up and the extra people would only starve to death.

It seems that she has to distribute the land in her hands as soon as possible, and provide them with various farm tools and grain seeds, so that they will have the energy to open up new land, otherwise the population will limit.

Chapter 27: Liangzhou Troops Attack

After thinking for a while, Liya said to Li Lin: "Li Lin, I'm going to go to the fields to take a look. I'll leave the things here to you for the time being."

"I understand, my lord." Li Lin nodded.

"Mulan, take me to see those fields."

"Okay, please follow me, my lord." Mulan nodded and took Liya to the outside of Wuxing County.

Leah came to the outside of the city. Because it was an emergency period, the people could not leave the city, and no one was taking care of the large fields outside the city.

But it's February now and the rice in the fields has not been planted yet, so it's nothing.

The two of them came to the fields with some soldiers. Liya took a look at the paddy fields and after confirming the size of one acre, she said to Mulan: "Mulan, next you should have people measure all these fields. After the war is over, divide them among the people according to the measured size."

"I understand, my lord. If you do this, the people of Wuxing County will be very grateful to you!" Mulan said hurriedly after hearing what Liya said.

Leah just smiled slightly. She did this only for her own purpose. Although she had selfish motives, it did bring benefits to these people.

Of course, to put it bluntly, she slaughtered all the other landlords and became the only landlord and the only exploiter.

But while she is an exploiter, she can also take out what she gets from the people and use it on people in need, so she is not considered an exploiter.

What she does is called taking from the people and giving back to the people.

Moreover, she only collected taxes from one level, which was much better than those noble families who collected taxes from at least five levels.

Sometimes Liya doesn't understand why a person who has enough food and clothing, a wife and children would embezzle so much money?

Wouldn't it be good for these people to work diligently for the people? This way they can gain a good reputation and won't have to worry about their lives.

As a result, after these people were buried, they still had to take a lot of silver into the coffin. Even if the grain had become smelly, they were unwilling to take it out. In their eyes, the common people were not even as good as the pigs in their homes.

In short, Leah thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out.

After patrolling the fields for a day, Leah, Mulan and others returned to the city, planning to have a good rest tonight and have a good fight with the soldiers from Liangzhou tomorrow.

If we win, we will be able to fully control Liangzhou. If we lose, we will definitely not lose!

.............

In the past few days, Tuoba Feng has heard a lot about the rebels.

They swept through several noble families at once. It is said that those noble families have a lot of money. If they succeed in suppressing the bandits this time, they will make a fortune!

As for whether the money will be returned to the noble families, don't even think about it. Those who robbed the noble families were rebels, not the regular army of the court. They are only here to suppress the rebels.

Who knows where the rebels stored the money? Anyway, they didn't find it!

After marching for half a day, the city wall of Wuxing County could be said to be clearly visible.

"Sure enough, the intelligence was correct. All 5000 soldiers from Liangzhou have surrendered to the rebels." Seeing the group of soldiers on the city wall, Tuoba Feng frowned.

You guys don't serve as regular soldiers, but run away to be rebels, it's simply outrageous, but he is a big man who doesn't bear grudges and is willing to let you come back, so don't be ungrateful!

Thinking of this, Tuoba Feng called a soldier and asked him to go up and make a speech.

The soldiers who received the order immediately ran to the city wall and shouted loudly.

"Listen up, people on the wall. The one leading the army now is our General Tuoba Feng. The general said that as long as you surrender, he will forgive you for what happened. If you don't, don't blame him for not remembering the friendship of our former compatriots!"

The soldiers on the city wall heard this and began to murmur in their hearts.

Go back to your mother, will you give me money?

You should know that they are paid for being soldiers here, with free food and accommodation, and can earn 3 taels a month! What does this mean? It's more profitable than farming. Only a fool would want to be a soldier in Liangzhou where they can't even get enough food.

Moreover, their lord now controls the powerful weapon of gunpowder. Now they each have two grenades, and they can fight ten enemies at once!

The 15000 of you are not enough to kill!

They have seen the effect of grenades. They can injure up to 7 or 8 enemies at a time. Even if there are fewer people, they can still kill 1-2 enemies. This is different from bows and arrows. It does not require years or even decades of practice. Anyone can use it!

It can be said that the soldiers are not stupid, nor do they have no conscience. At least what Leah is doing now is really good for the people. If they have the choice, they would rather work under Leah.

"Tell your general that if he has the ability, he should use his strength to win." After all, he was his former superior, so Li Lin didn't want to say anything too harsh.

When Tuoba Feng heard the refusal from Li Lin, who was guarding the city, his face suddenly turned cold.

"General, Li Lin refused. What should we do now?" asked a general.

"Let the siege soldiers set up the ladders, and the vanguard battalion will charge directly!" Tuoba Feng said coldly. Since Li Lin doesn't know what's good for him, don't blame him for being ruthless.

"Yes!" the general responded and immediately went down to take command.

In just a moment, a group of soldiers from Tuoba Feng's position shouted "Kill!!!" and rushed towards the city wall.

Seeing these soldiers rushing over, Li Lin also asked the soldiers to get ready. As the soldiers got closer and closer, Li Lin shouted loudly: "Shoot!"

Countless arrows fell from the sky like a swarm of bees, densely packed together, as if ice spikes were raining from the sky. Countless soldiers were shot and turned into hedgehogs.

However, the soldiers did not stop their actions, but continued to charge. They set up ladders on the city walls and climbed forward fearlessly.

These soldiers were greeted by countless falling rocks and oil pans. In just a short period of time, the casualties of the soldiers in the vanguard camp reached 3000.

However, Tuoba Feng seemed not to notice this situation. The so-called vanguard camp was originally for sale, specifically used to consume the enemy's bows and arrows and the defensive equipment of the city defenders.

If he could capture a city with 3000 soldiers with only 5000 men, then he would be the reincarnation of Wu Hou!

Wuxing County is not big, and the casualties of these 3000 soldiers have almost consumed all of Wuxing County’s defensive equipment.

Next, it’s the human wave tactic!

Tuoba Xiu did not hesitate. He waved his arm and another 3000 infantrymen rushed forward.

However, the infantry this time were different from the previous ones. Each of them had a wooden shield in their hand and rushed forward while yelling.

"Use the pine wood cannon." Seeing this situation, Leah said directly.

Chapter 28 Attack and Defense!

The pine wood cannon had been waiting on the side for a long time, and after a series of operations, flames came out of the muzzle of the pine wood cannon, a "boom" sound was heard, and a cannonball was fired directly from the muzzle.

With the deafening sound, the enemy troops who were still charging suddenly stopped. Why did the sky suddenly thunder? Is it going to rain?

Before the enemy troops could understand what was happening, a shell landed in their position and exploded. Accompanied by a few screams, the smell of gunpowder filled the battlefield.

With the sound of "boom", a shell fell into the group of soldiers. When the people around the soldiers saw the people around them being hit by the shell and their bodies torn into pieces, they were stunned.

A group of people around this soldier were lying on the ground, screaming miserably.

"The gods have come down to earth, run!"

After a few more cannon shots, the charging enemy troops were no longer as brave as before. Instead, they became cowards and ran towards their own positions.

The supervising officers couldn't stop them at all.

"What on earth is that thing!" Tuoba Feng frowned as he looked at the dozen or so pine wood cannons on the city wall. He could see clearly from a distance that the noises were emitted by these things.

"General, although the things that make strange noises look very powerful, in fact, their lethality is not very high. Although it looks terrible after blowing a person to pieces, in fact, it can only hurt a dozen people."

A general stepped forward and told us what he had observed.

"You're right, these things are just paper tigers. They look scary, but in reality they're just like that." Tuoba Feng thought about the scene just now. The killing power of that strange thing was indeed not very good.

In other words, once a certain number is reached, it is not that scary.

What these people don’t know is that cannons were not originally used to attack soldiers. The purpose of cannons was actually to attack city walls and suppress the soldiers on the walls.

Although they knew this, the soldiers still didn't dare to go up. They were really scared. Can you imagine a person being torn into pieces with blood and internal organs sprayed all over his body in front of your own eyes?

Only when you have witnessed that kind of scene with your own eyes, you will know how terrifying this thing is!

But under the pressure from their superiors, these soldiers could only suppress their fear and continue to rush towards the city wall.

Just as Leah thought, although the enemy troops were forced to attack the city, their morale had become low. They were afraid that the next bomb would fall on their heads, so they became timid.

Leah did not disappoint them. From time to time, a shell would fall under the wall, killing more than a dozen soldiers.

However, as time went on, the defensive equipment on Leah's side was almost gone. During this period, many enemy troops climbed onto the wall. Although they were killed and repelled, it could be seen that Wuxing County had basically run out of ammunition and food.

"All the troops are on the move. Take Wuxing County directly. Those who climb the city wall will be rewarded with platinum!"

Seeing this, Tuoba Feng knew that the opportunity had come. After they had suffered thousands of casualties, now was the time to take over Wuxing County in one fell swoop.

Seeing that the enemy had already pushed all its troops forward, Leah knew that her opportunity had come.

She didn't ask anyone to throw grenades before because she wanted to maximize the damage. Otherwise, the opponents would all be scattered, and even with grenades, not many people would be hurt.

There are also many city defense equipment in the city. If they are not used, they will just gather dust.

When the soldiers were about to rush to the city wall, Leah shouted, "Prepare the grenades!"

Thousands of grenades were held in the hands of the soldiers, "Light up, fire!"