In fact, Governor Feng told Liu Hun that he was not in a hurry to cross the river, but he was only telling half the truth.
The complete sentence should be, when the Wei thieves were determined to hold on, the Liangzhou army moved thousands of miles away to fight, so they would not attack the fortress unless absolutely necessary.
Otherwise, when Guan Ji was rushing to cross the river, she wouldn't have used dimension-reducing strikes like gunpowder blasting at just the ferry crossing.
Because at this time, the Liangzhou Army had no baggage troops at all and only had improvised and crude siege equipment, so it lacked the ability to attack fortresses.
When ants attack a city, it means taking the lives of the soldiers.
However, the elite soldiers of the Liangzhou Army are relatively expensive, and it would be a waste to use them in such a place.
Of course, what Governor Feng said to Liu Hun was not just a compliment.
At least when it came to the arrangements for the five Xiongnu tribes in Bingzhou, what he said was basically the truth.
Bingzhou and Hedong became Shanxi in later generations.
Who doesn’t know that Shanxi is the hometown of coal and iron?
But Feng Yong’s main purpose is not all about coal and iron.
Of course, coal and iron are also one of the main purposes.
His other main goal is the associated ore of coal mines, pyrite.
As we all know, although China has large coal reserves, it will still import a considerable amount of high-quality thermal coal every year.
In addition to the need to use sea transportation to reduce costs in coastal areas, domestic coal has too many impurities and most coal is of low quality, which is also an important reason.
Among these so-called impurities, sulfur is a substance with a relatively high content.
At least since the Han Dynasty, ancient people have discovered that places where coal is produced are often also places where sulfur is produced.
However, according to Feng Yong's understanding from more than ten years since he came to the Three Kingdoms, sulfur in this era basically has only two uses, one is used as medicine and the other is used to make elixirs.
The problem is that China has never been a country that produces natural sulfur, including in the industrial era, and has never been able to discover large enough reserves of natural sulfur.
According to the knowledge of Feng Tubiao, an amateur history enthusiast, he only knew that even in the Ming Dynasty when gunpowder was widely used, China had to import a large amount of sulfur from the island country where it had a good life since childhood.
Therefore, during the Three Kingdoms period, there was very little sulfur, very little.
So where do these small amounts of sulfur come from?
It is actually the product of the failure of ancient people to refine alumite.
The question comes again, what is alumite?
It is actually a mordant, something used to fix the dye on clothes.
Without a mordant, the dye on the clothes will fade easily once washed with water.
So it is a very important daily product.
The raw material for refining alumite in ancient times was pyrite, which was often associated with coal mines.
Feng Yongneng knew that the original origin of these things was a small piece of ice cheese, made for Zhang Xiaoluoli.
This thing requires saltpeter.
Then Zhao Guang found some remaining saltpetre for Feng Yong from the alchemy room left by Zhuge Jun, the brother of the old demon Zhuge who went to practice immortality.
There is still some unused sulfur in the alchemy room.
Only then did the fireworks of the Southern Expedition appear, and at the same time, Governor Feng understood how the sulfur of this era came from.
Why did Governor Feng want to open a textile workshop in Nanxiang, Hanzhong?
Because there is coal there, and textile workshops need a lot of dyes and mordants.
The pyrite associated with coal is used to extract mordant, which is the superficial reason.
The deeper reason is that it allows Governor Feng to conveniently experiment and improve the process of refining alumite and turn it into a process of refining sulfur.
Then Governor Feng discovered that this thing actually involves heat, temperature, materials, etc.
So we can only refine the coke first, improve the blower, and improve the water drainage...
The paper records of improvements in the alumite extraction process alone fill a whole room.
These tasks cannot be completed by Feng Jishi alone. It requires a lot of manpower and material resources, as well as sufficient power.
Therefore, we have to establish the Xinghan Society, personally train Amei, establish a school, and become a big boss of the Han Dynasty...
On the basis of the existing process, it took nearly ten years of Governor Feng's time to improve it into a standard process so that it could be used to extract high-purity sulfur.
Therefore, Governor Feng concluded that those guys who immediately produced gunpowder as soon as they traveled through time, and could promote and use it in unlimited quantities, must have a system!
With a "ding" sound, you can redeem your points and get high-explosive gunpowder out of thin air.
A loser like Feng Tubao can only rely on himself for everything.
After reading countless classics and collecting countless information, it was possible to determine that there were three places where predecessors discovered the largest number of sulfur ores.
One is Hanzhong, the other is Hexi Corridor, and the other is Bingzhou.
Even though Liangzhou is now able to produce qualified black powder, sulfur production has been a bottleneck until now.
The reason is also very simple.
The refining of sulfur is too slow.
Five hundred kilograms of ore would take ten days to smelt, and the sulfur produced would be pitiful. Anyway, according to Feng Jishi, who had seen industrialization, it was really pitiful.
How much was 500 kilograms of ore in the Han Dynasty? It was less than half a ton.
How much can be extracted from half a ton of ore?
The only advantage is that there is condensation in the refining process, and the purity of the sulfur obtained is very high.
So I could only save up slowly, and from time to time I would secretly make explosives and blast them to show off, and I could barely cope.
But if you want to let it go and use it like a red cannon, you have to continue to improve the refining process.
We can only hope that the main person in charge, Amei, will have another burst of IQ.
Anyway, Governor Feng was ready to wait another ten years.
At the same time, we must find ways to continue to increase steel production, and more importantly, quality.
Otherwise, when the cannon explodes, it will not be your opponent who is crying, but you.
Moreover, it is not possible to say that all the sulfur currently produced can be used in actual combat.
First of all, the soldiers must be tested to make them familiar with this thing. The amount of sulfur used in this process alone is enough.
What's more, part of the military's signal flares must be separated.
Things that were commonplace in later generations were thought to be just a piece of cake.
But in fact, if you don’t have a relevant industrial system, you can only get what you want in your dreams.
No matter how rudimentary or crude an industrial system is, it is still an industrial system.
As long as it can continue to develop, let alone wait another ten years, even fifty or sixty years, it will be worth it.
Standing by the river, Governor Feng was already qualified to think about the future of the Han Dynasty.
And the person who can really decide the fate of the big man is standing on the edge of the martial arts water, frowning, and his face is as ugly as if he has eaten shit.
After more than ten days of continuous autumn rain, the Wugong water habitually surged and roared towards the Wei River.
Not to mention that the ground was so soft and muddy from the rain.
In this situation, not only the horses but also the soldiers could not stand firm.
The Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, who had been paying attention to the other side of the river, sent an envoy immediately after the rain stopped, intending to reschedule the date for the decisive battle.
In fact, it is also a test.
Unexpectedly, this time, the Han envoys could not enter the camp at all, let alone see Sima Yi.
The reason given by the Wei army was that the decisive battle was imminent, and the layout of the camp was a military secret, and outsiders were not allowed to enter.
Although the etiquette is not quite right, the attitude is good.
Regarding the Han envoy's proposal to reschedule the date, the Wei envoy in charge of reception agreed.
Things seemed to be going smoothly, but it was precisely because it was so smooth that the Han Prime Minister immediately felt that something was wrong.
"Someone's coming!"
"Prime Minister?"
"Go and ask General Wei to come see me."
When Wei Yan learned of the Prime Minister's summons, he didn't waste a moment and came over to pay homage:
"Prime Minister, did you call me?"
"You immediately lead the five elements and prepare to cross the water."
When Wei Yan heard this, he was surprised and happy: "Then Sima Yi has agreed to a decisive battle?"
Zhuge Liang turned his head suddenly and stared at him, his seemingly calm expression containing surging anger:
"Don't ask so many questions, go quickly!"
Wei Yan felt bored and did not dare to ask any more questions, so he had no choice but to go down.
When he led the army to the water's edge, he still hesitated. The current was so fast that it was difficult to build a pontoon bridge. Would Sima Yi really let him go?
Is there no fraud?
With this in mind, Wei Yan watched helplessly as the people from the engineering camp drove their boats to the other side.
On the other side, no one came out to stop him.
Before Wei Yan could react, the Prime Minister on Wuzhangyuan had already sent a messenger over with great urgency:
"General Wei, the Prime Minister has ordered us not to wait for the pontoon bridge to be built, but to cross the water immediately on a bamboo raft!"
As an old man in the army, if Wei Yan still couldn't see that there was a problem on the other side at this time, then he would have lived in vain for so many years.
"Cross the water, cross the water immediately!"
Wei Yan was the first to jump on the raft and rowed towards the other side.
The rushing martial arts water made the raft stagger, but because there was no rain of arrows from the other side, it was much easier to cross than before.
When they arrived at the east bank, Wei Yan jumped out without waiting for the raft to stop.
After hastily gathering hundreds of soldiers, he led his men and rushed toward the Wei army camp.
The muddy water underfoot was sticky, and a group of people stepped on it, making a creaking sound, which made me feel very uncomfortable.
While running, soldiers fell from time to time, but this did not make Wei Yan have any intention of slowing down.
His eyes were just staring ahead, staring at the camp where the Wei army had set up in advance to prepare for the decisive battle.
Until he rushed to the front of the Wei Jun camp, the gate of the Wei Jun camp was already wide open. There was already an old soldier standing in front of the gate with a bow and a white flag, nodding and bowing:
"General, we surrender, we are willing to surrender..."
Wei Yan stared blankly at the Wei camp in front of him with the village gate wide open. It took him a while before he came back to his senses.
He looked at the old soldier in front of him who seemed to be knocked down by a gust of wind, his face gradually distorted, and he said sternly:
"Where are the people? Where are your people?"
"Go back to the general and run away. He ran away a long time ago. He ran away in the heavy rain ten days ago."
What the Han envoys saw outside the camp were just a hundred people who were just showing off.
After they saw the Han army starting to cross the water, they also ran away.
"How could he run away? How could he run away?"
Wei Yan rushed into the camp, looked at everything empty, and muttered to himself.
What about the promised decisive battle?
He actually ran away secretly in the rain?
Like a wounded beast, he walked around in the empty village a few times, growling with red eyes:
"How could Sima Yi run? How dare he run?"
In front of the two armies, they agreed to a decisive battle, and he just ran away. Aren't he afraid of the ridicule of the world?
Not to mention Wei Yan, even the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty was stunned for a long time when he heard Wei Yan's report that Sima Yi had run away.
"A man cannot stand without faith. Sima Yi, in front of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, betrayed his faith and lost his integrity as a human being. Even if he fled back, how could he have the dignity to stand in the world?"
Although the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty had long seen that something was wrong on the other side, he just thought that Sima Yi was trying to pull some tricks during the decisive battle.
He never thought that Sima Yi would escape quietly.
Being born into a noble family represents the reputation of the Guandong noble family. To do something like this is already shocking.
More importantly, there were originally 20,000 Wei troops in Qian County to the west of Wuzhangyuan, and Qin Lang brought another 50,000 people there.
Sima Yi actually abandoned these 70,000 troops as soon as he said he would abandon them, and he abandoned them maliciously.
Qin Lang's 50,000 horses are Cao Rui's imperial guards!
How could the Cao family's reputation be so worthless in front of Sima Yi?
As a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty, the Prime Minister simply cannot imagine:
Someone, with a superior force and still able to fight, deliberately asked the Royal Guards to die in order to cover his escape.
"Prime Minister, what should we do? Do we want to pursue him?"
Wei Yan asked anxiously, obviously furious.
Zhuge Liang stood in front of the sand table, staring closely at the mountains and rivers on the sand table. When he heard Wei Yan's words, he shook his head:
"If we can't catch up, if Sima Yi really wants to run away, I'm afraid he's already in Wuguan by now."
"In addition, the road is muddy and the ground is slippery. How can we pursue him? The most we can do now is to send out scouts to see if Sima Yi retreats to Chang'an or heads to Wuguan or even Tongguan..."
Before he finished speaking, Zhuge Liang didn't know what he was thinking of. He suddenly turned around and said loudly:
"Someone's coming!"
"What are your orders, Prime Minister?"
"Immediately send someone to inform General Wu to send out manpower to check the bandits' camp and see if the bandits in the east have also escaped in the rain!"
"promise."
If Qin Lang also ran away, then Sima Yi was determined to escape from Guanzhong.
However, the 70,000 troops in the west would have to take a long detour to get to Wuguan, so they might not be able to escape.
"If Qin Lang didn't run away, then Sima Yi may not have escaped either."
Zhuge Liang's face became more and more gloomy, "He may have gone to Hexi."
"Hexi?"
"Yes, it's Hexi." Zhuge Liang held a long whip and pointed it at the area between the river and Luoshui. "If Feng Mingwen has crossed the river at this time, he will most likely run into Sima Yi's army."
The more the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty spoke, the deeper his voice became: "Or, Sima Yi will ambush the Liangzhou Army led by Feng Mingwen somewhere..."
No matter what the facts are, Sima Yi is obviously better in this fight.
This person has been in Guanzhong for a long time, knows the climate of Guanzhong well, and made perfect use of this autumn rain.
If Feng Mingwen had really entered Hexi, facing the sudden appearance of Sima Yi's army, the river behind him would have become a fatal noose.
There is a large army in front, a large river behind, and a tired army that has fought thousands of miles...
Zhuge Liang's face was so gloomy that he almost shed tears.
Wu Ban's camp is only a few dozen miles away from Wuzhangyuan. Normally, it would not seem that far away. However, at this moment, the Han Prime Minister felt that his days were like years, and his heart was already burning with fire.
Just when he was about to lose control and was about to send out more troops, Wu Ban finally sent back the news: Qin Lang's army was still stationed in place.
This news, instead of making the prime minister happy, made him even more worried.
In this case, unless Sima Yi completely abandoned the 70,000 troops in the west.
Otherwise, it will only be more likely that the main force of the Wei army will go to Hexi.
"Feng Mingwen is good at Jedi counterattacks and is not afraid of back-and-forth battles. This is the case with Jieting, Jincheng, and Xiaoguan. I believe he will not disappoint this time!"
If we catch up at this time, not only will we not be able to save Feng Mingwen, but I am afraid that all the thieves in the west will run away.
Zhuge Liang gritted his teeth and said, "Wei Yan, quickly lead 20,000 troops, cross the Wei River, capture the high plateau of Weibei, and prevent Qin Lang from escaping from Weibei."
Since Sima Yi's army has retreated, the defenders of Gaoyuan in Weibei have probably also withdrawn.
Otherwise, it will become a lone army. In this case, it is just one more man who will die.