And further north, the Chencang Ancient Road rushes to Dasanling Shangguan City, and there is also a scene of soldiers and horses running chaotically. Baskets and bundles of arrows, wood and stones were carried to the top of the city, and many blood-stained wounded and corpses were carried down.
Looking down from the mutilated buttresses on the sides of the city on both sides, as most of the rebels from outside the pass are pressing and clinging like ants, platoons, car crashes, and long ladders are being attacked in groups, which seem to be more and more precarious.
Although outside the gate of Guancheng, there are already piles of broken equipment and bloody corpses, but the troops from the rebel camp below still continue to rush forward endlessly.
In the midst of the heavy deaths and injuries sustained by arrows like rain, rolling logs, and ash bottles, the city of Guancheng, where resistance has become sparser and weaker, has become increasingly weak.
And every time they went to the city for the first time, it meant another tragic casualty of the officers and the army in the melee, as well as more destroyed and damaged city defense facilities. As a defender Lu Hongyan who insisted on staying at the head of the city, he has also become a man who does not hesitate to deduct blood.
There was even an arrow in his body that was too late to be removed. It was the price he personally cut to a thief who raised the flag and then broke the flag and threw it away.
The guards gathered around him also became sparse, and everyone was wounded and could hardly conceal the color of fatigue and depression; just looking at him, the eyes were firm and trustworthy.
However, Lu Hongyan couldn't resist the look in their eyes; because he promised and guaranteed that their reinforcements would come again and again. But in fact, he didn't know where the so-called reinforcements were.
As the last stronghold of the official army guarding the pass, it used to include You Shence Army, Zhongwu Batu, Xichuan Huangtou and Shenji Army, Commander Camp, Shanxi Shenjian Army, and Zitong Army at its peak. Sixty-seven thousand Sheng soldiers.
However, Xinshijiu went straight to the point. First, the Eighth Capital of Zhongwu mutated out of the Five Capitals, and only returned to Han Jiansuo's subordinate. Then, when Niu Xie was expelled by Song Hao from Jiedu of Shanxi, the Shenjian Army of Shanxi was worried about his family and left on his own.
Then there was Dongchuan Jiedu who made Yang Shili stand on his own feet. As a result, the Zitong soldiers in the pass were disarmed, and the establishment was dispersed and added to other ministries. As a result, they ran away a lot overnight.
Then came the news that Chen Jingxuan, the ambassador of Xichuan Jiedu, robbed the emperor and raised troops to fight the chaos. The Yellow Head Army immediately collapsed into a small half of the civil strife, and the remaining Divine Machine Army and Commander Battalion were purged by Er Yang and finally controlled the situation.
Then, under the leadership of Shumi Yang, the majority of the troops went south and went to King Qin without stopping; so now there are only the three capitals of Zhongwu and part of the yellow head army in the Guan, as well as the group training children transferred from Fengzhou to make up the number. .
But at any rate, the whole winter road opens in spring, and the thieves in the pass have suffered heavy losses and are unable to do anything. Therefore, it is rare for them to have a not-so-short period of recuperation, and even repaired the walled city and the barriers to the vicinity of Chencang (now Baoji City).
As a result, at the beginning of summer, suddenly an overwhelming army of thieves attacked, and Fengxiang Town, which was supposed to serve as a support and arrival, did not even issue any warnings or signs.
Moreover, these thieves are generally more morale and well-equipped than the official army; not to mention that they were mixed with the banners of Fengxiang, Yingning, and Weibei Army to kill together; the army that came into contact with them first It was easily deceived and captured.
As a result, the army of nearly 15,000 officers was caught off guard and lost a small half in the continual defeat of the road; when the pirate army hit the bottom of Dasanling, the defenders in Guancheng were already less than 10,000. Up.
As the two generals of the Yellow Head Army, the strongest generals in the army, they also flee from the dead. This made him, the No. 1 general of loyalty and military, elected to the hospital bed of Xiao Yang Dujian and became the leader today.
However, his various methods have now been exhausted; including letting the people from Liangquan County wave the flag in the rear, and counterfeiting a large number of military Malay aid schemes, which was easily spotted by the thieves of the year.
So he doesn't know how long he can persist, whether he will die in the next round or the next few rounds of the offensive of the thief army. When he thought of this, he couldn't help calling his own soldiers and asked:
"Did Supervisor Xiao Yang's chariot and horse ever set off..."
"Return to the generals, and all supervise the oath to live with Guancheng, and they all scolded me..."
However, this soldier showed a certain sad expression:
"Then you guys think of some ways, even if you send people to Zhoucheng first just in case..."
Lu Hongyan did not feel angry and said:
At this time, the military on the city’s head watch suddenly shouted loudly while knocking on the gong:
"Be careful... Cannonstone..."
However, before the voice fell, I heard the whistling sound in the air immediately; however, as a large row of black was held up and pressed against the cover, the bandit army came, and many stones of various sizes crashed on the wall and the ground, splashing. A lot of dust came up.
Although only a few of them hit Guancheng, all the places where they fell were the walls cracked, and a large piece of rammed earth came off and burst one after another.
There was also a wooden arrow tower and watchtower in the middle. Before several archers even screamed and screamed, they were already bloodied in the debris and ruins.
After seeing this scene, Lu Hongyan couldn't help but stare at it. Obviously, under the transportation and transportation of the thieves at all costs, they had overcome the ruggedness of the narrow and long valley road, and transported stone cannons and other equipment to Guancheng.
The morale and fighting spirit that this pair of officers and soldiers could only maintain was undoubtedly a heavy blow; with the second round of bombardment that followed, it fell into the crowd of civilians gathered in Guancheng, and suddenly seemed to be blown up. Fleeing like a nest.
At first there were soldiers in charge of guarding them, screaming and beating them to drive them back; but when several civilians knocked down, the officers and soldiers intercepted by the fence after the gate fled into the field, and things suddenly changed. Can't pick up.
"Quickly release the arrow..."
Lu Hongyan, who had just turned around, yelled loudly, knowing that it was not good, but it was already too late.
Before the archers who turned around at the command to open their bowstrings, the officers and soldiers in charge of guards in Guancheng, seeing that the situation was not good, began to turn around and toss down, cut open the fence, and stepped into the footsteps of the fugitives.
At this time, the thieves who had cleared the passage in front of the door also began to make a fierce knock on the door.
—I am the dividing line —
And outside Jiangning City, the boats gathered again and showed a situation of returning home full of loads. Standing on the deck of the ship, Zhou Huaian looked at the scenery from the north of the Yangtze River among the fireworks on the other side, and sighed with regret.
Well, this time I took advantage of the opportunity to make "Qilü Taiping Army Occupy Liuhe". It depends on it and missed it. At least in the short term, it is no longer suitable for the Taiping Army to aggressively attack Huainan.
He originally planned to take the women who have just arrived, and take the time to visit even in this era, it is also called the historical scenic spots and historical sites of the south of the Yangtze River. As a result, after the incident about the Xiajiang River, he could only come and rush back to his hometown.
On the one hand, this is because of the cycle needed to digest and consolidate Jiangdong’s basic disk. On the other hand, it is because I cannot leave the governor center in Jiangling for too long, resulting in a deviation in economic and military focus.
Because with the passage of time, some problems that have been concealed by a series of results after the victory are gradually emerging and emerging; such as delays in execution and response mechanisms, and trends in the imbalance of power structure and economic circulation.
This time, Yuzhou is in a hurry, which is the best example. If you drag on, these accumulated factors will always explode, and it will not be so easy to clean up and rectify. Therefore, no matter how good Jiangdong Fengwu is, I can only ask for it for the time being.
After all, the current political core and economic system of the Taiping Army’s Metropolitan Government is still based on the transportation capacity and convenient transportation provided by the Jianghan—the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River—Xiangshui—Pearl River and other water systems for operation and regulation.
Therefore, as a central hub, Jingzhou Jiangling is still irreplaceable. However, in the Jiangdong region, unless the laying of siding signal towers and the transformation of the local social structure and economic foundation are completed, it will not be possible to shift the economic center of gravity.
Thinking of this, Zhou Huai’an is also increasingly looking forward to the small-scale experiment and trial of the cable telegraph network in the Pearl River Basin in Lingnan; in a sense, the threshold of this primitive electric signal transmission method is not high, but it is being tried out. There are many problems in the details.
For example, the wiring and poles on the flat ground are relatively simple. These new lines can be arranged side by side with the original post and signal tower system and managed and operated with ready-made hands, or some kind of subsidy project can be obtained on the spot. .
The copper-zinc metal required for the water tank type reaction battery, and even the green vitriol/sulfuric acid and other catalysts; all have ready-made industrial output; not to mention the iron wire and encapsulation as the wire, there are also ready-made batch products.
However, the laying of cross-river and ridge-crossing routes, as well as subsequent patrols and maintenance methods, is a time-consuming and laborious thing that requires constant debugging and exploration; it can be said that the relatively complex terrain and trends south of Wuling, as well as seasonality The flash floods and wind disasters in China are both potential threats and challenges.
However, once the construction of the first long-distance network cable is completed, the various problems and potential development bottlenecks and upper limits encountered by the Metropolitan Government after its rule expansion can be solved at once.
Needless to say, just from Yuzhou to Runzhou in the coastal area of more than 2,000 miles upstream and downstream of the Yangtze River, it is possible to achieve instantaneous and knowable efficiency day and night. The bonus to the dominance, execution efficiency, and response to countermeasures has more than doubled.
It’s a pity that the technology tree can take shortcuts through predictable elements; but if you want to change from manual products in the laboratory to industrial products that are sufficient for mass production, you need to constantly try and error in various solutions. Only by accumulating enough experience can a qualitative change happen naturally.
On the other hand, in the eleven main army prefaces, the problems encountered in the implementation of further firearms; mainly the relatively stable production process and equipment plan of gunpowder, and the source of raw materials in the production of gunpowder. Gradually approaching a basic limit;
At least until more sources of sulfur and saltpeter (such as Japan) are opened up, it is impossible to make a breakthrough. After all, there are not many minerals such as saltpeter and sulfur in the south, and the mining efficiency is not high (salt mine companion organisms).
Therefore, as a further upgraded product, the output of various nitrates is not satisfactory. At present, it can only focus on the production of explosive raw materials for engineering blasting and military attack; as a propellant for long-range projection, it still depends on refining. The purified granulated black powder bag continued to carry the main beam.
On the other hand, after acquiring the land and population in such a large area of Jiangdong, it is also a huge burden and a source of negative growth in a short period of time. Especially when the Taiping Army's Dudufu did not intend to let them fend for themselves, but try to organize them to resume production.
In addition to the expenditure required to maintain the local military presence and public security, there are also the allocation and input of a large number of improved varieties, farm animals and agricultural tools, as well as the planning and implementation of specific production division and organization.
Other aspects of the demand are good, and there are ready-made materials and objects that can be adjusted; but the most important part of the agricultural fertilizer production quotas in Xintunzhuang is inevitably tense.
As the basic element of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, traditional nitrogen fertilizer can be made by collecting aquatic plants, silt and crop roots and leaves on the spot, and accumulating fermented green manure; phosphate fertilizer can be supplemented by searching for struvite accumulated in coastal islands.
But there is really no way for potash fertilizer. It can only be made from raw materials such as natural minerals and hard salt ore through industrialization and means; for example, potassium sulfate in salt lake crystals and potassium chloride extracted from salt well bitter brine.
This needs to be collected from the Xiajiang Road in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and then released and transferred to the Jiangdong area. The local hydraulic workshops and workshops are set up for further processing to gradually meet the basic needs of various camps and villages.
Therefore, pesticides that can effectively kill pests and diseases, such as realgar water, Bordeaux mixture, lime sulfur mixture, and even organic ingredients such as tobacco (grass) tar, turpentine, pyrethrum, roe, etc., are the same.
After all, in this era when there are no chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but intensive farming can only be used to maximize yields, once these auxiliary methods are used to increase agricultural production, the result is almost an explosive increase in production.
In a sense, this is also part of the "fate" declared and firmly believed by the Taiping Army; because as long as the villages established by the Taiping Army are located, it is not surprising whether it is land production or production efficiency. The benefits of the surrounding area are huge.
On the one hand, this has greatly enhanced the appeal of the corresponding initiation of farming; on the other hand, it has also attacked and weakened in a disguised form the remnants of the traditional tycoons and landowners, as well as the power and influence of the rural language that they once held.
After all, ordinary poor people may not be literate, nor can they understand what theories and propositions are; but they can actually feel the benefits of the increase in land production; this is more effective than mere advocacy and publicity 10,000 times. Many.
Then, there will naturally be people who take the initiative to contact and try to communicate with them, in order to obtain or probe the secrets of corresponding fertility. In this way, the influence spreading from the villages as the center can easily become a strong support point to stabilize the local situation.
What's even better is that these key lifelines and materials to increase production and harvest are all controlled by the Taiping Army's production system; even if others want to secretly imitate and imitate, they will not be able to learn it at all.
In this way, the local people of local origin, who want to obtain these gains and benefits, can only actively seek cooperation and learning opportunities from the Taiping Army’s reclamation system; even in the form of joining the army and accepting corvee, they gradually become part of the Taiping Army’s ruling system and order. , A contributing member.
Such a plethora of things and projects, although there is generally a mature system to operate, but at many key nodes, Zhou Huai'an still needs to make corresponding general direction guidance and judgments; it is possible to avoid the development of crookedness. Or go in the right direction again.
Therefore, although later generations are all complaining about that, they like to point fingers at the front line and micro-manipulate to the famous empty space of the grassroots units; but at this moment, Zhou Huai'an hates to be countless, so that he can solve and guide these endless problems one by one. .
Then, there was a soft body, which came up from Zhou Huaian's back and said:
"What is Lang Jun thinking about..." (End of this chapter)