The first thousand one hundred and fortieth chapters
"Commander, please tell me from the top of the tower. I have not seen you for more than two years. I miss you so much!"
Liu Mingzhi hesitated for a moment: "Can you see the city gate from the top of the city tower?"
"Everything is clear, please, Commander!"
Liu Mingzhi looked sideways at the city gate. Du Yuzheng led the soldiers of the Governor's Mansion to start deploying at the city gate tightly inside and loosely outside. It seemed to be no different from the previous defense changes, but based on Liu Mingzhi's experience, he could tell at a glance what was happening around him.
It is said that there are at least five hundred soldiers and horses hidden in the private houses.
Long Wuwei received the arrogant signal and turned a blind eye to what was happening downstairs, completely pretending that it had not happened.
The pockets were opened, and they were waiting for the caravan that wanted to leave the city hiding the eight-oxen crossbows and plate armor molds to get in. The question was whether this caravan had already left the city, or whether it was still in the city. Even Liu
Mingzhi didn't even have a clue in his heart.
"Let's go up and catch up on old times!"
Liu Mingzhi went up to the city tower under the leadership of Cheng Kai, found a fence with a clear view and sat down, so that he could easily observe the situation of the city gate by turning his head!
"Commander, I'm on official duty and I can't drink. I'll prepare a cup of light tea. Please don't mind, Marshal!"
"It's good to drink tea. Drinking tea can clear your eyesight, improve your mind, and cultivate your body. The older I get, the more I like drinking tea. You can also sit down. Don't be formal. From now on, you can call me anything you want. Don't call me Marshal anymore!"
"This Master Liu, I will still be used to calling you Commander-in-Chief. Don't worry, Commander-in-Chief, I will call you Master Liu outside. We brothers should not be so open to each other!"
"Compared to Zhou Baoyu, Duan Buren, Ning Chao, Ye Baotong, Feng Buer and the rest, I am the one who has been with you the longest. First he was responsible for controlling the locust plague in Qingzhou Prefecture, and then he was responsible for the suppression of Jiangnan.
Bandits, followed by the conquest of the Western Regions, the last general has always served under the command of the commander, so I am really not used to the sudden change of calling the last general!"
"Well, don't call me Marshal in front of outsiders, otherwise it will cause unnecessary trouble!"
"How are Zhou Baoyu and the others doing? Do you keep in touch with each other through letters a lot?"
"Every once in a while, we communicate through letters. We also want to write to the Marshal to reminisce about old times, but as the Marshal said, the border army generals have close correspondence with the important ministers in the DPRK. The closeness of the relationship is not suitable for you, Marshal.
What a good thing, in the end we can only suppress the thoughts in our hearts, hoping that the commander-in-chief can understand the difficulties of the brothers!"
Liu Mingzhi drank all the water in the tea cup and stared at Cheng Kai with wide eyes pretending to be dissatisfied.
"Who do you think I am? I have trained you to death on the way back from the Western Expedition at such a young age!"
Cheng Kai didn't get angry when he was scolded, but instead smiled and scratched his head.
"Commander, I feel very comfortable listening to you scolding people, and you look friendly!"
Young Master Liu shook his head helplessly: "You bitch, you are the first to scold me! How is Feng Buer doing in the Eagle Guard now?"
"The life is quite comfortable, just like the generals, they are all about to get rusty, unlike Zhou Baoyu, who can't bear to have them in Ganzhou and Yunzhou, and can occasionally fight with the people of the Western Turks!"
"Don't be dissatisfied, you idiot. Isn't this a bad life? You have to go to the battlefield to see blood, are you happy? Be careful that one day you, the idiot, will be pierced by thousands of arrows and die, and you will be shot into a hornet's nest. I think
Even if I collect the body for you, you won’t be able to recognize it!”
Cheng Kai's smiling face suddenly darkened. He sat cross-legged in front of Liu Mingzhi, slowly stroking the Hengdao in his arms with both hands, and looking dimly at Shanhaiguan outside the city.
"The general has been fighting for half his life. He used to fight with the Dulu tribe and the Jin Kingdom. Later he came to Beijing to lead and train new soldiers!"
"Then Qingzhou, Jiangnan, the countries in the Western Regions, and Yingzhou have long been used to fighting and killing!"
"Back under the general's command, life is stable, but the general has not had a good night's sleep in the past two years!"
Liu Mingzhi looked at Cheng Kai in surprise: "Are you sick?"
"I'm not sick, but I can't sleep well without hearing the sound of the fighting and iron horses every day. At the end of the day, I wiped my knife. I wiped the knife over and over again, but it was never of use!"
"How could the general not know that fighting means death, which means that the brother who was chatting and laughing with you in the morning may turn into a corpse in the blink of an eye."
"But besides being able to fight, the general can't do anything else!"
"If there's a battle, I'm afraid of dying, but if there's no battle, I'll be bored and bored!"
"The last general is also an old man from Longwuwei. He has been a soldier for half his life. I really don't know what he can do after he is disarmed and returns to the field!"
"My wife Gao Tang also came to Yingzhou with the general from her hometown, but the general still feels that his life is in a haze. He is afraid that the weapon in his hand is rusty, and he doesn't know if he will be on the battlefield again before disarming!"
"I think it's better to die in battle and get a title for your descendants than to live in confusion after being disarmed!"
"If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will slap you with my big mouth. Do you believe it?"
"The last general will believe it. The last general will believe whatever the commander says!"
Liu Mingzhi looked at Cheng Kai helplessly: "You are just a thing that can't be held up by mud! How is Jiang Lei now?"
"He was transferred to the Northern Xinjiang army as the artillery general. After all, Jiang Lei is also an experienced artilleryman who followed the commander. Some time ago, he even asked the scout to bring a letter to the general!"
"Bring a letter! That's good, that's good. Bringing a letter means you are still alive and well. How many brothers Long Wuwei have been transferred to me for the Western Expedition?"
"Of the 30,000 cavalrymen, I heard from Jiang Lei that there are still just over 20,000 left, which is more serious than the losses in the Western Regions!"
Liu Mingzhi's eyes darkened, his lips were waxy and he didn't know what to say.
"Commander, please be careful! In the Western Expedition, we blocked the news of every country we conquered, that's why it went so smoothly, but with the Western Turks, the two armies opened up and you attacked me!"
"In the Western Region, we are attacking the city. If one round of artillery fires, half of the city wall will collapse. With the Turks, we are fighting on the grassland in a field battle. The advantages of artillery cannot be used at all!"
"I heard from Jiang Lei that some Turks are already able to judge the landing direction of artillery shells based on the sound of artillery, and the lethality of exploding shells is also decreasing day by day!"
"It seems that Duke Wu has already planned to cancel the artillery camp, replace all the light cavalry, and shift the focus from casting cannonballs to making arrows!"
Liu Mingzhi stood up in surprise: "No, artillery cannot be canceled no matter what. We must go through actual combat to make up for the shortcomings of artillery step by step, and discover shortcomings in actual combat."
"Commander, there is nothing we can do. Unless we make the artillery more powerful and more lethal, so that the Turks can't find the pattern of where the artillery lands, artillery will not be of much use in field battles except for sieges."
, and waste men and horses to protect their positions."
After hearing this, Liu Mingzhi frowned tightly and fell silent. He rubbed his forehead tightly with his hands and began to think deeply.
Cheng Kai didn't bother seeing this. He glanced at the calm city gate and set his sights on Shanhaiguan in the distance.
For a general who has spent half his life in the military, perhaps it would make him feel more at ease not to go into battle to kill the enemy!
"Yes!"
I don't know how long it took, but Liu Mingzhi slapped the tea cup on the low table so hard that it flew out.
"Commander, what's wrong with you?"
"I thought about it. The heartless cannon is so lethal that it is definitely a nightmare for the cavalry!"
"What's more important is that once the cannon fires, the enemy won't know where to hide!"
Cheng Kai's eyes lit up: "Does the artillery shell cover the entire range?"
Liu Mingzhi shook his head angrily, his eyes a little embarrassed.
"Because we may not be able to guess where the cannonballs are going, but the power is definitely powerful enough. One cannon can cover a large area!"