Chapter 140

The Seventh Prince said that there would be no leisure time in the future, and so there would be no leisure time.

In the next half month, he divided the army into twenty small teams, which surrounded and besieged Heitu Village every two or three days.

But they did not attack with all their might. Instead, as soon as the Heitu Village made any move, they immediately retreated like cowards, abandoning their weapons and armor. Sometimes they did not even have time to pick up their weapons.

The bandits from Heituzhai held their knives in their hands, their heads full of questions.

If you are not the big brother, then who are the bandits? You are soldiers in the army. Shouldn't you fight to the death when the general gives the order? Why are you so skilled in running away?

Inside the village.

The eldest boss was so frustrated that he said, "Why don't we charge in! He is just walking his dog! Kill them and teach them a lesson. The governor has sent them a lot of food."

The cartloads of food and military supplies were displayed openly behind the village. They secretly went around the mountain to have a look and could not help but envy them.

If we rob a few, how many villages can it equal to robbing a few rich families?

Unfortunately, the third brother kept stopping them from going down.

"How could a man who has found all our weaknesses be so simple?" Yu Ruo had really tried his best to persuade this gang of bandits who started out as bandits. "His trick is to lure us down, or lure us down the mountain to rob and kill us."

The second in command picked his teeth and said, "Tu Er has not returned since he went down the mountain. Although no one in the village knows his identity, there is no trace of him until now. I am afraid that he is in danger."

He supported Yu Ruo on the surface, but after Yu Ruo left, he whispered to the boss.

"Brother, let's wait and see. If we are sure that the Seventh Prince is a coward, then we will rob him!" Greed and ferocity were revealed in his eyes. "We have killed government officials before."

The eldest boss clapped his hands and said, "That's right. The worst that can happen is that we can just run away. The third brother is smart, but he is timid. He is not allowed to do this or that, and he feels very frustrated when doing something."

After Yu Ruo returned to the room, he spread out a piece of paper.

Thinking about the seventh prince's thoughts.

However, a moment later, Gu Xin appeared and delivered a letter: "A letter from His Majesty the Fourth Prince."

The Fourth Prince is the most beloved son of Emperor Nanning. His position as crown prince is almost certain, and he is just waiting for the right opportunity to announce it.

Yu Ruo opened the letter and found a very brief order: [Kill the Seventh Prince of the Great Zhou and force the leaders of the Qing and Ji states to rebel.]

Now that these bandits have surrendered, some of them can still turn back. After all, the imperial court has always taken the path of surrender. But if it involves the killing of the prince, the fight will not stop until one is dead.

Killing the royal family who were suppressing the bandits was tantamount to rebellion.

Yu Ruo sneered.

Gu Xin: "Your Highness, what are you laughing at?"

Yu Ruo: "He is too anxious. Father's original intention was just to interfere with Da Zhou's vision." He estimated the time, "Don't worry about him. I don't know how long I can stay here. Is it enough to decide the outcome with the Seventh Prince?"

-

Ling'an Village.

After being cleaned up, this place was completely transformed into the base camp of the bandit-suppression army.

Qu Dubian sat cross-legged on the ground, fiddling with a handful of black particles in a mortar. In the distance, the soldiers who had just run down the mountain had smiles on their faces and were competing to see who could run faster.

Lieutenant General Zhang squatted beside Qu Dubian and said, "Your Highness, they still haven't come down."

Qu Watanabe: “Yeah.”

He raised his head and glanced at the stronghold where the bandits were.

"It seems that their third in command is really a character."

He had read the files on the bandit suppression records. The first and second in command of the Heitu Village were brothers and had no relatives left. They were pure refugees and originally killed pigs.

It’s not that he thinks that no hero can emerge from a refugee family. After all, in the thousands of years of history, there have been many heroes who came from common people.

But judging from their past records of suppressing bandits, these two brothers were not very smart people. At most, they were a little clever and decisive. However, they became greedy and cruel after suddenly gaining power.

In other words, their brains may not be as good as those of the eldest and sixth brothers.

Apart from the two of them, the only one who can speak is the mysterious third in command.

Lieutenant General Zhang: "But General, our brothers here are also anxious. When are we going to fight with real weapons?"

Qu Watanabe: "Wait a little longer, let the brothers continue to lure the monster out and see if it comes out. If it doesn't, it's time to make dumplings."

After he finished speaking, Lieutenant General Zhang did not leave.

Qu Watanabe: "Do you have anything else to do?"

"..." Admiral Zhang held back his anger and said, "General, you can't use the word seduction."

Also, what is weird.

Is the way of speaking in Beijing so trendy now?

Qu Watanabe: "It is attractive. Well, I am not well educated in Beijing. It means something similar. Don't mind it."

In his spare time, he would read novels about modern games, and whenever a word came to his mind, he would say whatever came to his mind. Occasionally, he would blurt out inappropriate words, which was probably one of the few connections between him and the modern world.

Lieutenant General Zhang: “…”

That's quite a difference!

He went down to arrange the troops to go up the mountain the day after tomorrow. Xi Zixing came over with a pen and placed a rolled-up long scroll in front of him. "The topographic map is more than half drawn. Take a look."

Qu Watanabe: "No hands, open them for me to see."

Xi Zixing had no choice but to put down his pen and unfold the topographic map.

Qu Dubian picked out the one with relatively good memory from each group of troops that went up the mountain to harass the enemy, and asked him to be responsible for recording the various terrains on the mountain and the checkpoints set up by the Heitu Village on the way up the mountain.

I went up the mountain frequently for half a month and finished drawing roughly half of the overall map.

Qu Dubian looked at it for a while and circled it with a pen. "This piece of forest connects Qingzhou and Jizhou. The data provided by the local villagers is not accurate. Let Zuo Tianlang secretly send someone to measure it."

"Okay," Xi Zixing glanced at the black stuff in his mortar, "I'm telling you, this is black gunpowder. Even if you have inner strength, you have to be careful."

Qu Watanabe: "It's not very powerful."

The current war is still in a period of alternation between cold and hot weapons. Black powder has only been used in warfare for a short time. The current proportion of saltpeter is about 10%, and its power is average.

At first, black gunpowder could scare the horses, but later the horses almost got used to it.

Moreover, people nowadays do not seem to realize that the most important feature of black powder is its explosive property. They add several ingredients such as clear oil and hemp to the formula to aid combustion.

Setting off fireworks is great, but on the battlefield, their lethality is very limited, and cold weapons are still the main means of attack.

But even so, Northern Xinjiang still hated the Great Zhou because they were divided and did not even have a system to manufacture black gunpowder, so they would always suffer losses in this regard.

When I was in school, I remembered the ingredients: one sulfur, two nitrate and three charcoal, but Qu Watanabe never thought that there would be a day when he would be able to improve black gunpowder, so he never memorized the best ratio of black gunpowder.

Now we have to remove the combustion aid and adjust the ratio slowly, bit by bit.

It becomes more dangerous in the later stages, but fortunately he has internal strength.

Qu Watanabe: "Just wait, this thing will be very useful after it is improved."

Xi Zixing: "How long will it take to improve?"

"have no idea."

Qu Duan Bian said worriedly: "Let's adjust it slowly first."

The simulator does not allow back doors, and he could not get large quantities of black gunpowder for research when he was in the Prince's Mansion. Now that he is out, he can study black gunpowder openly with the identity of a general.

-

Great Zhou.

The Imperial Palace.

Emperor Chongzhao looked at the report given to him by Zuo Tianlang on the latest progress of the Seventh Prince's anti-bandit campaign in Qingzhou.

This is the first time we report once a month.

Suppressing bandits is a long-term matter. There has been no major movement in Qingzhou yet, but when Emperor Chongzhao received the first report, he fell silent.

It was completely different from what he had imagined. Although Xiao Qi was the commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression operation, the actual situation was that it was Zuo Tianlang who was in charge of the bandit suppression operation.

According to Zuo Tianlang's report, the Seventh Prince intimidated the governor alone, captured the thief within the clan, cut off the connection between the bandits and the villagers by means of collective punishment, investigated the county magistrate, completely eliminated the internal troubles, and commanded two thousand soldiers, stationed at the foot of the mountain.

He handled each and every one of them with swift and decisive action, displaying wisdom and ability that he had not shown in the past sixteen years.

Emperor Chongzhao picked up the paper and looked at it in the sunlight.

Eunuch Yu: "Your Majesty, what are you doing?"

Emperor Chongzhao: "Let me see if I am seeing things because my old eyes are blurry."

Eunuch Yu didn't know what was written on it, but that didn't stop him from responding: "What you said is written in black and white, how can it be wrong?"

"Yes," Emperor Chongzhao slowly put down his hand with a complicated expression, "Zuo Tianlang would not lie to me about such a thing."

But he always thought that Xiao Qi was not good at anything except martial arts and weapons.

-

Black slaughter village.

For ten days in a row, the anti-bandit troops below came up to harass from time to time.

Many of the bandits who had driven out the officers and soldiers heard their complaints, saying that the Seventh Prince was only here for show, had no idea how to fight, and was giving random orders. If they could just spend another month here, he would be able to return to Beijing and receive rewards for his experience in suppressing bandits.

The people above are so full of food that their mouths are drooling, but they are running themselves ragged every day.

It was a very ridiculous rumor. Anyone who was familiar with the fighting between the princes would definitely see through it at a glance. After all, only those who successfully suppressed the bandits would be rewarded.

But the boss and the second in command didn’t know.

They were anxious.

"I thought the third brother must have made a mistake this time!"

"The army brought so much food with them. If they really leave, where will they get so much food?!"

"Our place is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Even if two thousand soldiers come charging at us, we can still run away. Big brother, what are we afraid of?"

The boss made a prompt decision: "Let's do it!"

Second in command: "Then is the stone that the third brother asked us to prepare still rolling?"

The big boss said: "Get lost, we'll launch a surprise attack tonight to steal the food, and then we'll get rid of them when they catch up, killing two birds with one stone."

-

"Two of the sentries from the Black Slaughter Village have been withdrawn?"

Qu Duanbian smiled and said, "Okay, I finally can't sit still anymore."

Zhang Canjun: "General, should we kill him?"

Qu Watanabe: "Put the bandits' thoughts into consideration. They want to steal food. We should pretend to be defeated this time and let them have a taste of the sweetness."

"Ah, why?"

Qu Dubian rubbed his fingertips unconsciously and looked at the mountains in the distance: "Their third leader is a smart man, similar to a military advisor. What we need to do now is to dismantle the prestige of the 'military advisor'."

Xi Zixing: "I have an idea that can make his prestige even worse."

Qu Dubian raised his eyebrows: "What a coincidence, I have one too."

That night.

The bandits from Heituzhai took advantage of the night, took a long detour, and went directly to the rear of the army.

The carts of food were placed here in a disorderly manner, with only a few soldiers guarding them, some of whom were asleep.

The second in command waved his hand, and the people behind him immediately went to steal.

Not long after, someone woke up and shouted: "The bandits are coming down the mountain! The bandits are coming down the mountain!"

"Someone come quickly!!"

The second in command cursed, but was unwilling to rob too little, so he ordered fifty men to cover the rear, and the rest of the men each carried two bags of food and started running up the mountain.

As soon as he ran past the sentry post, he shouted: "Throw the stone!"

"Put down the stone!"

Rocks rolled down the hillside and they ran all the way.

When they all ran back to the village, the second in command slammed the bag of rice on the ground and laughed.

"Hahahaha, the officers and soldiers are still no better than this!"

The eldest boss heard the noise and came out in a hurry, "Brother! What's the situation?"

The second in command waved his hand with high spirits, and the brothers who were carrying bags of rice behind him threw the bags on the ground one by one, and soon they formed two small hills.

"Okay! How many injured?"

The second in command checked them out: "Three were shot by arrows, and one was chopped, but it's not serious."

"Hahaha, they definitely didn't expect this move of ours! Who could have expected us to do it so suddenly? It's normal that they weren't prepared!"

The second in command nodded: "Maybe there won't be this opportunity later."

They looked at the two piles of food and laughed heartily.