A Sogdian Hu merchant arrived, claiming to be the envoy of the Governor of Youzhou, and came to deliver a message.
After Gao Wei received the letter, he immediately summoned the village owners of the eight villages behind the mountain to discuss matters.
"The Commander-in-Chief Wu has an order, and you are required to surrender to the imperial court within one month, register a household with the people, pay taxes and serve, and accept the jurisdiction of the imperial court. If you disobey the order, you will be responsible for the consequences!"
Sogdian Hu Shang was an old friend of Bazhai. He was originally a businessman from Youzhou. He used to have frequent contacts with Bazhai behind the mountain and had a good relationship. When he accepted the job, he kindly persuaded him, "Gao Gong,
Now that the world is unified and the Holy Emperor is in the court, why should you continue to disobey the king's orders? The military governor is in Youzhou, and now the soldiers and horses are strong, and your arms can't be twisted past your thighs."
Gao Yaozi is tall and powerful, superb in martial arts and proficient in strategy. He wears iron armor with mountain inscriptions, a tiger skin robe around his waist, a leopard skin bow and a large bearskin cloak.
Sitting there without anger or self-respect, he was like a general under Emperor Zhenwu in the Yuan Emperor's Palace behind him.
"In the past twenty years, fighting and killing have been non-stop in the land of Youyan, and the people have suffered from war and famine. We and the people outside the mountains have formed a stronghold to protect themselves and advance and retreat together. This is precisely because we do not participate in the external affairs.
Fighting in chaos, carrying a sword to hoe, carrying a bow to herd, preparing one's own weapons, training soldiers to protect oneself, this is how we have been able to live a stable life in these years.
Why does Wu Huaiyu ask me to obey his orders now? I heard that Wu Huaiyu is very young. As soon as he comes to Youzhou, he cleans up Buddhist temples, measures acres of land, and recruits soldiers and grain everywhere. There is news that he is...
We must be prepared to fight against the Turks. Now that he wants us to surrender, my descendants from the eight villages behind the mountain may have to follow him into the battlefield."
Sogdian Hu kindly persuaded, "Mr. Gao, in this world, is it the king's territory, and the guests who lead the land are the king's ministers. It is no longer what it used to be. Now that the world is unified, how can the imperial court allow people outside the rule?"
Gao Wei sneered, "Has the imperial court remembered us, the people behind the mountains, in these years? Has it ever given us a grain of food? When those Turks, Xi people, and all kinds of bandits and rebels came to attack, did they ever rescue us?
At the beginning, Luo Yi, Gao Kaidao and others successively submitted to the imperial court, but these princes, the general managers of the Tang Dynasty, came to attack us instead. We have been frightened and surrendered?"
"Now that Wu Huaiyu is here, what do we have to fear?"
Gao Wei slapped his palm on the table, "Soldiers will block it, water will flood the soil, so just fight!"
"Send someone to contact the villages in Baihe and Heihe. Let's fight together with the people named Wu."
Outside the Great Wall, in the northwest of Jundu Mountain and in the southeast of Dama Qun Mountain, there are many people living in this area, including the major tributaries of the Chaobai River system, the Red River, the White River, and the Heihe River Basin.
For example, the Bazhai at the back of the mountain on the Red River side is actually not just the Bazhai. The Bazhai is just eight more powerful villages, and there are more than 20 small villages. In addition, there are many villages in the Baihe and Heihe river basins.
Most of the people living in these villages were border residents, some of whom were soldiers who guarded the border during the Sui Dynasty, some who migrated here later, some of whom were Tibetans and exiled criminals.
During the turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty, many people in the Land of Clouds within the Great Wall escaped due to war, famine, etc., and went to live in the mountains, reclaiming wasteland and grazing animals, helping each other, and living a self-reliant life.
There are no government offices here, and each village is autonomous. The leaders of each village will hold regular alliances, and will help each other when the enemy invades.
In the Honghe area, among the villages headed by Diaowo Village, Gao Wei has a higher prestige, but he is only the leader of Diaowo Village. The Gao family has a prosperous population and strong strength in the village.
All the eight villages have always obeyed Gaowei, and even the Baihe and Heihe villages in the north are more convinced of Gaowei.
Regardless of whether they are Tibetan or Han, the border people here have also become accustomed to freedom over the years.
Like Gaowei, everyone was unwilling to be under the jurisdiction of the court anymore.
"Brother Kang, you don't have to be a lobbyist for Wu anymore. I also know that you can't help coming and I don't blame you. We haven't seen each other for a long time. Let's kill a sheep and have a few drinks." Gao Yao really didn't know too much.
Take Wu Huaiyu's ultimatum seriously.
Luo Yi, Gao Kaidao, Gao Tansheng, even Xi Ren, Turks, have invaded many times, but who can do anything to them?
There are three thousand local soldiers in the eight villages at the back of the mountain, and thousands more can be used as backup in the villages in Baihe and Heihe. In these years of turmoil, the back of the mountain has indeed taken in many refugees and Fan Hu. In this vast area behind the mountain, that
But there were tens of thousands of free people.
Gao Wei did not have any ambition to separate himself and become a king, but he did not want to be controlled by the imperial court.
······ Youzhou.
Wu Huaiyu gathered his troops.
Directly announce the announcement, announcing that Gao Wei and others behind the mountain were disobedient to the king, formed a stronghold to resist the order, refused to pay rent, and refused to serve, etc., and announced to send troops for conquest.
Wu Huaiyu classified the villages behind the mountain as bandits.
It is not entirely unfair to say bandits. Since the end of the Sui Dynasty, the situation has been turbulent. Although Shanhou is still farming and herding in the mountains, the Gao family will also organize people to do business and trade, and occasionally appear as horse thieves. This kind of thing is very common in troubled times.
"Wu Gong really wants to destroy the villages behind the mountain?"
Seeing all kinds of soldiers and horses gathering, Lu Chengye still couldn't help but ask.
Is this really a head-on confrontation?
"It was normal for Gao Wei to take in refugees, train local soldiers, and form strongholds to protect himself during the troubled times of the Sui Dynasty. But now that the world is unified, he should take advantage of the situation and submit to the imperial court and accept government governance, instead of thinking about continuing to separate the regime.
Self-government is not allowed even if the people behind the mountain are outside the Great Wall.
The land behind the mountains belongs to the Central Plains. If everyone divides their territories like him, wouldn't it be chaos?
Anyone who dares to resist the imperial court must be destroyed with thunderous force, and there is no room for bargaining."
Lu Chengye had previously suggested that Gaowei and the others be given officers and rewards, but Wu Huaiyu rejected it outright. Now is not the time when Li Yuangang raised his army to conquer the world. It is already the winter of the second year of Zhenguan. How can the court make such an opening again?
The back of the mountain is right under Youzhou’s nose.
How can he attack the Turks and destroy Goguryeo when he can't even take down a mountain? How many people in Youzhou are watching this time, and probably many people still want to watch Wu Huaiyu's joke of hitting a wall, and want to see him lose his prestige.
If we really can't get the queen off the mountain, then there will probably be a lot of trouble in Youzhou.
So this time we have to fight, and we have to do it cleanly.
Wu Huaiyu strategically ignored his opponents, but tactically he still attached great importance to them and showed the spirit of a lion fighting a rabbit.
The Shenji camp that had just arrived from Chang'an arrived with firearms. The leader of the Shenji camp was still an old friend, Cucumber Hou Wei Siren. Previously, his brother was demoted for participating in Chai Lun and his gang's case of Wu Huaiyu. Wei Siren also suffered a little.
implicated.
Now, as the commander of the Shenji Battalion, he led a thousand Shenji Battalions here, and also brought many secret firearms.
The Shenji Workshop was established for more than two years. It has not only produced the original palm mines, but now has many new weapons, such as rockets, gunpowder bags, and even bamboo blast guns.
These are all black technologies.
Wu Huaiyu went to greet them outside the city, arranged their camp, and couldn't wait to see the various magical firearms brought by Wei Siren.
"Fireball, fireball, tribulus fireball, thunderbolt fireball, smoke ball, poison smoke ball, iron-billed fire harrier, bamboo fire harrier, rocket, a swarm of bees, a hundred horses galloping together."
There are all kinds of firearms, and even wing-mounted flying firearms, "This is the divine fire flying crow, this is the sky-shattering thunder that strikes thieves in the air,"
These two types of rockets are filled with gunpowder in the crow-shaped and spherical bodies respectively. The gunpowder has a gunpowder line flowing out and is connected in series with the gunpowder in the take-off rocket gunpowder barrel. When launching, the gunpowder line of the take-off rocket is first ignited to make the rocket fly to the enemy.
, and detonate the gunpowder in the crow's body and the ball, killing and burning the enemy's troops, which is a powerful weapon for breaking formations and attacking cities.
"These were developed and manufactured by Shenji Workshop in the past two years based on the design drawings left by Duke Wu. After many tests, mass production was successfully achieved,"
He was not surprised by these strange firearms, grenades, land mines, rockets, missiles, etc., but he was more surprised by the batch of muskets that were sent.
It is made of a large bamboo tube, with gunpowder and bullets inside, the fuse is ignited, the gunpowder erupts, and the bullets are shot out. According to Wei Siren, the range can reach 150 steps. It is absolutely sharp and a big killer.
Wu Huaiyu picked up a stick and looked left and right. It had a bamboo tube at the front and a wooden handle at the back. It was very simple. With his knowledge, he could tell at a glance that this thing was probably a sound and light maker. It was powerful and scary.
The effect may be good, but the lethality may be very average.
First of all, it is made of bamboo, which means that it may not be able to fire many rounds. Furthermore, judging from the loading and firing style of this thing, it is just a big spray gun. It is mainly loaded with iron sand, mainly shot, and the effective killing range is impossible.
If it really reaches one hundred and fifty steps, it is estimated that even fifty steps will be impossible. Maybe twenty or thirty steps, there is still no accuracy.
You must know that the three-eyed blunderbuss of the Ming Dynasty was made of copper and iron and had better gunpowder, but its killing range was only twenty or thirty steps. This bamboo musket was far behind.
"How about this lead?"
"It's much improved than before. Now the combustion is quite stable, but it's still not very accurate. The fuse is fast and slow."
"It's okay if it's fast or slow. The key is to ensure that they are all fully burned, and not to burn out half of them."
Shenjifang's muskets are made of bamboo. The reason is simple. Copper is now equivalent to money. A musket weighing several kilograms is equivalent to one or two coins, not including the casting cost. The cost of swords and spears can be
Much cheaper.
The same goes for iron. The iron used for swords, spears, and spears is only one or two kilograms, but it takes several kilograms or even ten kilograms to make an iron musket.
The most important thing about war weapons is that they must be quickly produced and installed in large quantities, and they must be low-cost. Otherwise, no matter how good they are, they will not be truly popular.
Shenjifang came up with the Bamboo Tube Fire Gun, which was treated as a low-cost gunpowder injector that could be used a few times and then thrown away.
They never thought about mass production of the Huomen Gun and the Three-Eyed Gun left by Wu Huaiyu, because the cost was too high and the price-performance ratio was not good enough. They could not pass the Ordnance Supervision, Weiwei Temple, and the Ministry of War.
Shenjifang has a special liking for various explosive bags and the like. Anyway, they are just gunpowder and fuses, packed with cloth or cans, and stuffed inside.
This time they brought many explosive bags, ranging from ten kilograms to fifty kilograms.
Wei Siren also proudly introduced a powerful weapon, a large-scale explosive and incendiary weapon weighing one hundred kilograms. It is known as the enemy of ten thousand people. It is made of clay and can be used to defend or attack cities.
It is transported with a wooden frame box. When defending the city, this thing can be thrown directly from the upstairs, rolled, exploded and burned at the same time. When attacking the city, a tunnel is dug and transported under the city wall, a blasting chamber is built, and it is lit.
, you can blow a big hole in the city wall.
"There are also ones weighing 80 kilograms, and there are also ones weighing 120 kilograms. The maximum weight can be 200 kilograms. Even a wall like Chang'an City can blow a hole."
"This time we are going to attack the eight villages behind the mountain. Our main target is Diaowo Fort. It is on the top of the mountain. It is so heavy that it cannot be transported up."
"Then we also have the divine fire flying crow, flying thieves thunder, as well as hundreds of horses galloping, a honeycomb and other rockets, as well as various poisonous smoke balls and fire balls, which can be used to attack the city. Those
People must have never seen such a magical machine, and it must be destroyed in one blow."
