Min Shaoqing said that the cylindrical object pulled by a carriage transported with Chai Jin's reinforcements was lighter than ordinary catapults, but because the whole body is metal, it is still very inconvenient to transport it. It is not necessary to move four or five strong men.

On the 19th day of the winter month, on the third day of the Huai Army's fierce attack on the city, Min Shaoqing heard a news that Qu Zhu and Chai Jin were organizing the cavalry of the Imperial Army to go out of the city to launch a counterattack. They had no experience to kill people. It would be good to be able to defend the city wall at this time. Counterattack was seeking death. It is very likely that the Huai Army would seize the city gate because the cavalry was too late to return, causing Xuzhou City to fall.

Min Shaoqing asked again, and when he learned that Ma Feng had gone to negotiate with Chai Jin and Qu Zhu, he hurried over to the north city gate.

Before we reached the city wall, we saw a team of cavalry preparing there. One of them was like a young leader of the Imperial Guard shouting in a strong northwest accent: "Yesterday, Huai Geda came to attack the city from the north, and today I will let those turtles have a good look at our family!"

Although many of these imperial guards were just soldiers, their official positions were not low. Min Shaoqing knew that he could not touch these arrogant palace guards. He still went directly to meet the great marshal Chai Jin for rebellion.

Today is Chai Jin's first day of guarding the city in shifts. He was energetic and dressed in military uniform. He was directing people to transport the cylindrical object to the downstairs of the city tower with Qu Zhu.

"Move onto the city wall, don't touch it." Chai Jin seemed to care about those things very much.

"General Chai, you..."

As soon as Min Shaoqing opened, Chai Jin turned around and said happily: "Brother Min wakes up? What a great thing, that's great."

Min Shaoqing's heart was filled with anger, "Good mother!" The Huai Army was about to attack the city. You are a great marshal who was trying to rebel and did not do serious business. You actually wanted to open the city gate to send the cavalry out of the city to fight back?"

Unfortunately, Min Shaoqing had not yet vented this anger. Ma Feng, who was beside him, came over and pulled Min Shaoqing's sleeve, meaning not to let him speak. It seemed that he had persuaded him before and it was ineffective.

Qu Zhu walked over and said, "If Prefect Min advised Prince Chai to give up today's military deployment, he would be spared from the verdict. This counterattack not only meant by Prince Chai, but also specially approved by the emperor's imperial order."

Min Shaoqing thought he had heard it wrong and asked, "The emperor will issue a special order to let the defenders launch a counterattack?"

“That’s exactly that.”

Qu Zhu took out the imperial edict for Min Shaoqing to see. After Min Shaoqing finished reading it, he smiled bitterly. What's wrong with this new emperor? He suddenly became concerned about the defense of Xuzhou City. The first imperial edict was to open the city to fight. Such a clumsy strategy must have been fooled by Qu Zhu. With Chai Jin's stupidity and timidity, he would not have come up with such a reckless way to make progress.

"Anyway, today, you can't open the city gate even if you die!" Min Shaoqing blocked the city gate, opened his arms and shouted.

Qu Zhu glanced at him and said, "I didn't say I'm going to open it right away. Where is the gate of Prefect Min who is in a hurry? If you like to block the city gate, just block it. Let's go to the city wall together!"

Min Shaoqing watched in surprise as Qu Zhu and Chai Jin escorted down the city tower in Mafeng three steps. Although the Huai Army had not launched an attack yet, the first time the Grand Marshal and the Imperial Guard were on the front line in person. With these two bigwigs, more Imperial Guards climbed the city wall.

Xuzhou Dianfang Yu Yong jogged down from the city tower to Min Shaoqing and said, "Prefect Min, General Chai, let you go up!"

"Tell them that this city gate is the prefect's position today, and no one wants me to move!"

Even though he said so, he really wanted to go up the city tower to see what these two bigwigs and the Royal Guard soldiers were fiddling with.

"Dong!"

There was a dull sound from somewhere. Min Shaoqing was stunned at first, and instinctively thought that it was the Huai Army's catapult to attack. Under such an urgent situation, Min Shaoqing probably knew that it was unlikely to go out of the city to fight back. No matter how many cavalry there were like a tide, it would be useless, not to mention that all the cavalry in Xuzhou City had a total of less than a thousand cavalry.

"Dong!Dong!Dong!..."

Sudden muffled sounds came, both as if they were coming from the city tower and as if they were coming from outside the city. Min Shaoqing first hid under the city gate for a while, but he didn't see the falling rocks, so he ran out and looked up. The soldiers near the back edge of the city wall did not look for cover, which means that it was not the Huai Army's catapult car that was sieging the city.

A soldier who was hiding under the door at the same time was responsible for holding the city gate, saying, "Prince, why not go up and take a look if you are anxious?"

"You are also in charge of the matter of this prefect?" Min Shaoqing treated the soldiers like brothers on weekdays. Today, he was tortured by Chai Jin and Qu Zhu, and his tone became heavier. The soldiers knew that they were talking too much and hid aside. A bunch of soldiers were looking out of the cracks in the door. After seeing them, they all rushed to see something strange.

"What do you see if you don't stick to your post?"

Min Shaoqing was a little annoyed by the continuous muffled noises. At this time, he walked to the city gate and drove away the soldiers. He couldn't help but look out through the crack of the door. It didn't matter, and it almost shocked him to sit on the ground.

This is not where the Huai Army was sieging the city, it is clearly retreating in a hurry. Flowing smoke filled the fireballs and the fireballs kept falling into the Huai Army camp three miles away, and the fire was everywhere. In this situation, the Huai Army even abandoned the newly built fortifications. The camp was rushing out and was running away.

"What happened?"

Min Shaoqing murmured to himself and rushed to the city tower. The dull sound became clearer and even a little deafening. When he was about to reach the city tower, he happened to meet Qu Zhu who was hurrying down the city wall. Qu Zhu had no time to pay attention to him and went over without even saying hello.

"Commander Qu, where are you going?"

Qu Zhu then realized that Min Shaoqing had just passed by, and curled his lips and said, "Don't you block your city gate? This commander will lead the cavalry to pursue!"

Min Shaoqing sighed helplessly. It seemed that he was too conceited. These big guys were not as good as he thought they could only talk about war on paper. At least in the matter of defending the city, he felt that he must be humble in the future and not be infected by Ma Feng's anxious temper.

When I arrived on the city wall, I knew everything.

The metal objects were descending from a high point, firing fire bombs one after another, and the range was several times higher than that of the catapult car. The average catapult car was at its limit of two or three hundred steps, but the fire bomb could be launched thousands of steps away. As the fire bombs fell into the Huai Army camp, it either caused a burst of smoke and fire, or an explosion made a muffled sound. The Huai Army had originally suppressed many outpost camps more than a mile outside the city, and had been completely flattened.

"From the height, you can hit far."

At this time, Chai Jin was covering his ears with both hands and talking to himself, like a child who had found a new thing, with a happy smile on his face.

As the city gate opened, the cavalry led by the Imperial Army soldiers rushed out, and the roar on the city tower finally stopped. The powerful force of this killer weapon was huge and the impact was quite large. The city walls were broken one by one, and some walls were damaged. What's more, the explosion of some killer weapons caused casualties to the soldiers responsible for ignition.

In general, the deterrent effect of this round was obvious. The Huai Army was like a frightened bird, chased and killed by the cavalry led by Qu Zhu himself. Qu Zhu did not dare to advance too recklessly. He had retreated before the Huai Army returned to the deserter and launched a counterattack. Although it was too difficult to turn the situation around this battle, it was enough to cheer the defenders up.

"General Chai, what is this weapon... known?" Min Shaoqing walked over and asked Chai Jin who was staring at the battle under the city wall.

"The name? I don't know. This is what Brother Liu asked me to bring with me with the army. He said it was called a cannon. There are still some in Tongguan. The subsequent Chang'an City will be transported there. I don't know the specific one."

Min Shaoqing was shocked. This was the first time these weapons appeared on the battlefield. He had seen the great power. With this thing, the situation that would have been defeated would have turned a little. If the court army had this weapon, at least it would not suffer too much in the battle with the Huai Army. The arrival of reinforcements was just around the corner.

"The brother Liu mentioned by General Chai, is General Liu Wenyan and Liu?"

"Yes, it's him, it's a pity that he is not here." Chai Jin said with disappointment.

Min Shaoqing finally knew why the new emperor was so dependent on Liu Wenyan. Not only did he rely on the new emperor in his wisdom, but he also relied on Liu Wenyan in military affairs. Although he didn't know whether this thing was developed by Liu Wenyan, it just depends on the court that he could develop such a powerful weapon in a short period of time. Liu Wenyan, who took over military affairs, made great contributions.

As Qu Zhu brought the cavalry back to the city, the Huai Army did not dare to advance too aggressively. The dark iron barrels on the city wall were enough to make the Huai Army frightened. It seemed that the Huai Army would have to postpone the next round of siege and make new preparations to come again.

The city was filled with joy. Even when the people learned that the defenders had won a victory against the trend, they brought their own food and goods to comfort the defenders. For a moment, the city wall was very lively, and the soldiers celebrated each other and were inspired by their spirits.

In the temporary command post, Qu Zhu was full of energy. This was his first time to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy. The general's sense of honor and an undisputed victory made him feel a little fluttered. He almost rewarded the three armies on behalf of the emperor. Fortunately, he remembered that there was nothing in the city now, so when he started, he had no words.

Min Shaoqing put away his contempt and arrogance and asked for instructions: "General Chai, Commander Qu, I wonder how long this weapon can last?"

"How long?" Chai Jin thought for a while, "can be used until it is broken, but there are so many cannons and a little few shells."

This was the first time that Min Shaoqing heard the term "cannonball". He first thought about it and then asked: "How many bullets are there?"

"I used almost half of it today, so I can do it again."

Hearing Chai Jin's words, Min Shaoqing and Ma Feng almost rushed up from the chair where they were resting and sat, and exclaimed: "Half?"

They were all relieved, thinking that the court had such a powerful killing weapon, why didn't it be used earlier? It was only now. With this thing in the future, it would be clear whether the Huai Army would dare to attack the city. Who knew that in just one morning, the "cannonballs" of the killing weapon had been squandered half of the "cannonballs" of the killing weapon. Even if there were half of them left, the Huai Army would be cautious in the future and would definitely choose a wall section without the defense killing weapon to attack.

After all, this big killer weapon is simply a decoration! (To be continued, please search Piaotianwen, the novel is better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!