Of course, it's not a big deal if he fails. At most, he loses a few Hongyi cannons. For him now, a few Hongyi cannons are not a big loss, not to mention the ones in Jinan Prefecture and Guangdongchang Prefecture.

There are four to five hundred craftsmen in the firearms making workshop.

After half a year of experience accumulation, and most of the craftsmen are craftsmen passed down from generation to generation, four or five Hongyi cannons can now be produced every month. A few Hongyi cannons are not a big loss.

However, even if Wang Congyi wanted to organize experts to destroy the Hongyi cannon, he would definitely organize as many experts as possible. After all, climbing the city wall is extremely dangerous, and if you want to easily climb the city wall, you must have at least the strength of a second-rate warrior.

A person with this kind of strength will be a master wherever he goes. Even if he doesn't take risks and just hangs out in the county town, he is still a wealthy landlord with clothes to stretch out and food to open his mouth. And a first-class warrior can be like a fish in water in the capital.

In the army, the minimum number is one hundred households, and the starting point is one thousand households.

To destroy the Hongyi cannon, naturally not only three or five people can do it, but at least ten or twenty first-class warriors. It is naturally not an easy task for so many masters to risk their lives, so Wang Congyi

Only by mobilizing the masters of the entire army can everyone be silenced.

After all, people's mentality has always been to worry not about scarcity but about inequality. They are all officials. Why should they risk their lives while others watch the show from behind?

After thinking for a long time, Su Hao came back to his senses, asked for other details, and arranged for Zhao Xiaoer and Ding Zimo to return to Jinan Mansion, and finally stayed in Dongchang Mansion.

As time passed, there was less and less silt in the canal. In order to prevent the rebels in Dongchang Prefecture from causing trouble at the last moment, Wang Congyi mobilized tens of thousands of troops to cross the canal and build a garrison on the west bank.

Four days later, at the junction of the Tuhai River and the canal, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong appeared with soldiers and horses. At this time, there was only a foot wide of sand blocking the river, and there were hundreds of civilians in the river.

Digging out the last bit of sand left.

Wow! Wow!

A large amount of river water washed away the last bit of sand, like a torrent rolling southward.

"Success!"

Watching the rolling water flowing south, Wang Congyi's face showed joy. Now that the canal has been opened, it will be useless even if the rebels in Dongchang Mansion have any conspiracy, because if they want to block the canal again, at least thousands of people will have to work for several days.

God, he wouldn't just watch the other party block the canal again.

On the other side, on the wall of Dongchang Mansion, Su Hao, Tang Xiangjin and others also watched the river water carrying mud and rolling southward.

………

Soon, half a month passed, and ships reappeared on the canal. For some courageous businessmen, as long as they had enough profits, any danger could be ignored. Now the price of food in the capital has reached one stone per stone.

The price is as high as two or five taels, while the price of grain in Huguang is only four or five taels per stone. Transporting a ship of grain from Huguang to the capital will yield a profit of at least three to four hundred taels. No businessman can refuse this benefit.

Dongchang Mansion, Mansion Office.

"Qianhu, according to reports from spies, the Water Transport Office of Huai'an Prefecture has begun to mobilize the official ships along the river to prepare to transport the first batch of grain to the capital. Should we intercept this batch of grain?"...

Tang Xiangjin cupped his hands and said: "According to the information obtained by the spies, this batch of grain was transported by 300 small and medium-sized ships and contained approximately 150,000 kilo of grain."

One hundred and fifty thousand stones of grain!

After hearing Tang Xiangjin's words, Su Hao gently tapped the handrail. One hundred and fifty thousand dans of grain was not too much, but now that the food shortage in the capital was becoming increasingly serious, 150,000 dans of grains could already quench his temporary thirst.

After thinking for a moment, Su Hao asked: "How much grain is being stored in Jiangnan now?"

"In the past month or so, a large number of ships have docked at Huai'an Prefecture. According to spies' estimates, there should be nearly two million stone grains hoarded in Jiangnan."

Tang Xiangjin cupped his hands and replied.

"Don't take action yet, let these ships enter Beijing."

After thinking for a while, Su Hao shook his head and said: "Maybe the other party is testing this time, otherwise they wouldn't all be small boats."

Although there are not many large ships on the canal, the water flow from Jiangnan to Jining Prefecture

There are many large ships in this large river section. This time, the other side only used small boats and only transported 150,000 shi of grain. This must be a test. Only if it is successfully passed this time, will the other side be able to send more ships to transport.

More grain.

On the other side, as the fleet transporting grain got closer and closer to Dongchang Mansion, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong also became nervous. They sent a large number of soldiers and horses to block the east and south gates of Dongchang Mansion.

After taking a look at the slowly advancing fleet in the canal, Wang Congyi turned his attention to Dongchang Fucheng not far away, with a solemn look on his face. He attached great importance to this grain transportation. Can he save Zhu Youjian's eyesight?

This is the only impression I have.

Although Zhu Youjian hasn't beaten him off yet, that's just because Su Hao's rebellion has greatly increased the court's fear of eunuch officials. The court is making every effort to deal with the eunuch officials left by Wei Zhongxian.

.

Now that the affairs at the court have been settled, if something happens to the canal again, he can return to his hometown and enjoy his old age in peace.

To Wang Congyi's expectation, there was no movement from the rebels in Dongchang Mansion until the fleet transporting grain disappeared from sight.

The first batch of grain arrived in Beijing smoothly. Wang Congyi immediately ordered the Governor of Water Transport to continue transporting grain. The shortage of grain in the capital was still very serious.

The reason why the capital is so short of food, apart from the millions of stones of grain stolen by Su Hao and the blockage of the canal, there is another very important reason, that is, the powerful people in the capital are hoarding food and driving up the price of food.

According to some gossip, some people took advantage of this food shortage and made four to five million taels of silver in less than half a year.

………

Time passed little by little, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye. The second batch of grains set sail from Huai'an Prefecture. This time, the grains amounted to 500,000 dan, and there were seven to eight hundred ships of various sizes.

At this time, all the craftsmen in Dongchang Mansion were intensively inspecting all the Hongyi cannons. Due to confidentiality requirements, all the forged Hongyi cannons had not been tested, so Su Hao ordered the craftsmen who cast the cannons to be responsible for the red cannons.

Cannon shooting.

But for the craftsmen, this is an extremely dangerous thing. Although firearms have been developed for hundreds of years, things like exploding the chamber are very common, not to mention that they have never seen such a new thing as the Hongyi cannon.

I've passed it, it's even the first time for me to cast it, whether it will explode or not depends entirely on my fate...

However, no one dared to refuse Su Hao's order. If they went to fire a cannon, life or death would depend on fate. If they didn't go, their lives would be lost on the spot. Moreover, Su Hao's reward was something that all the craftsmen could not refuse. Every time a cannon was fired,

Reward one tael of silver, hit the target, and shoot ten taels!

For the craftsmen, this price is enough to make them work hard. After all, their monthly salary is less than one tael a month. One shot is worth more than a month of their hard work. If it hits the target, it will be even more expensive than them.

It takes more than a year to work day and night, and it is unknown whether it will explode or not, but the money is just in front of you.

As the grain fleet got closer and closer to Dongchang Mansion, all twenty-four Hongyi cannons were pushed to the city wall, but they did not set up the stomping mouth. The imperial army hundreds of feet away from the city wall did not notice these people.

partner.

Walking up the city wall, Su Hao looked at the huge military camp on the other side of the canal, and the corners of his mouth raised slightly. After this time, the court probably wouldn't have the energy to deal with him again. The chaos in the capital was enough to give Zhu Youjian a headache.

After withdrawing his thoughts, Su Hao took out fourteen small paper figures from his sleeves, which were exactly the paper figures he had refined, the Shadowless Formation!

With the injection of mana, eight of the paper figures flew out, fell according to the directions of the Eight Trigrams, and then disappeared on the blue bricks of the city wall. Then the remaining six paper figures flew out, falling in six positions up, down, left, front, and back, and five merged into

After entering the city wall, the remaining one merged into a flag banner. Finally, Su Hao came to the middle of the formation and began to form seals with his hands.

As Su Hao's hands continued to form magic seals, one after another mana penetrated into the fourteen paper figures. Soon, pieces of magic patterns spread from the paper figures and gradually connected together. Finally, there was a flash of light.

, the hundred-foot-long city wall had an illusory feeling, but then this feeling disappeared, and the city wall once again returned to its former ancient solemnity.

Time passes little by little. When the sun comes to the middle, it is the hottest time in summer. The hot sun

The light made all the soldiers sweat dripping from their bodies. At this time, at the bend of the river, boats transporting grain appeared.

Seeing the ships, Tang Xiangjin waved his hand, and all the craftsmen and gunners quickly pushed the twenty-four ships to the gate of the city wall and began to calibrate. The shell of the Hongyi cannon was a large iron ball weighing twenty kilograms. As you can imagine

Such a heavy iron ball hits the wooden ship at an extremely fast speed under the action of gunpowder, and its destructive power will be astonishing.

Not long after, the muzzles of the twenty-four Hongyi cannons were aimed at the Tieta Temple Pier. Because this section of the canal in Dongchang Prefecture was all manually dug, the river channel was not wide, only about ten feet or about forty meters wide.

, coupled with the fact that there is a big curve in front of Tietasi Pier, ships must slow down here, making it the most suitable blocking location.

Of course, the main reason is that the accuracy of the Hongyi cannon is so poor. The longest effective range is only 500 feet. No matter how far it is, it has no accuracy. What it can hit can only depend on luck. Iron Tower Temple

This section of the pier is the closest to the city wall, only about two hundred feet away, which is within the optimal range of the Hongyi cannon.

Not long after, a ship slowly approached the Iron Tower Temple Pier.

On the other side, Wang Congyi and Yang Guodong watched this scene, and their nervousness relaxed a lot, because as long as they passed the Tieta Temple Pier, the fleet would be far away from Dongchang Fucheng.

On the city wall, looking at the slowing down ships, Tang Xiangjin waved his hand: "Give me a blast!"

lq.
Chapter completed!