In the next few days, both Zhao Hongrun, King Lu Xi of Qi, and Tian Dan of the Qi Army on the East Route were all busy preparing for the upcoming battle.
In the past few days, the Lu craftsmen group that followed Qi King Lu Xi's army showed their uncanny skills. Within a few days, they built several pontoon bridges with a width of more than 20 feet.
Provided for the three armies to forcibly cross the Hui River.
After hearing the news, Zhao Hongrun was secretly surprised: A floating bridge of this size must be extremely heavy. How could the soldiers push it into the Weihe River?
Out of curiosity, Zhao Hongrun sent Zongwei Mu Qing to inquire, and he was stunned by the answer he got: It turned out that Lu craftsmen already knew how to place rolling logs under heavy objects to reduce friction.
In addition, Lu's craftsmen also built several warships to resist the Chu fleet in the Hui River Basin.
Regarding this matter, Zhao Hongrun secretly shook his head. After all, in his opinion, the Huihe River was the closest water stream to Shouxing, the capital of the King of Chu. There was no doubt that the Chu State would definitely station a naval force here. Just relying on the craftsmen of the Lu State
How could the few warships they built compete with the Huihe navy of Chu?
Therefore, when King Lu Xi of Qi sent a quartermaster, Zhao Hongrun gave up the need for warships. Instead, he asked King Qi for a hundred Lu heavy crossbows, and personally drew a drawing and designed a
The crossbow arrows specifically used to target ships were made by the craftsmen group of the State of Lu.
In fact, this kind of crossbow arrow is very simple. It is nothing more than carving a bloodletting groove on the crossbow arrow. No, it is a leaky groove. It is convenient that after the crossbow arrow hits the hull of Chu State, the river water will quickly invade the hull along the leaky groove, so that it will not be like
Like a general anti-ship crossbow bolt, the breach in the hull will be blocked by the crossbow bolt, so that the hull can still be used despite being damaged.
It is worth mentioning that when the drawings of the anti-ship crossbow designed by Zhao Hongrun were sent to the Lu craftsmen, those craftsmen discussed it and actually gave up the shipbuilding plan and began to transform the heavy crossbow to increase production of the heavy crossbow designed by Zhao Hongrun.
Crossbow arrow.
Even the King of Qi, Lu Xi, asked the quartermaster to come and commend him afterwards, saying that he wanted to remember Zhao Hongrun for his great contribution.
Others may be confused, but Zhao Hongrun naturally knows why Qi King Lu Xi wants to remember him for his great achievements. After all, the crossbow arrows specifically targeted at the navy are as powerful as catapults. They can be used well and the Chu people have worked hard.
The mighty warship that was built could be sunk by the Qi army in the river with just one heavy crossbow bolt.
Anti-ship weapons are just like the role of city walls that was greatly reduced after the emergence of catapults. The advent of this kind of crossbow arrows can greatly weaken the Chu navy. Without warships, the Chu navy is just a bunch of infantry who know how to use water.
That's all, not worth mentioning.
In the next few days, Zhao Hongrun stayed at his residence, simulating various situations and battlefields in emergencies every day in his mind, and making plans in advance to avoid being in a hurry when encountering similar problems later.
It has to be said that Zhao Hongrun pays special attention to this upcoming war, because this is the first time he has participated in an unprecedented war in which both sides have invested nearly two million troops. A war of this scale is rare in a century.
Zhao Hongrun didn't want to mess it up.
The Fenxing Army, led by General Xu Yin, had already left Zhi County and chose favorable terrain between Fangzhong and Zhi County to build barracks and barriers to protect Zhi County. After all, once the Wei army broke through the Hui River and invaded southward,
Zhi County will become a crucial stronghold.
There is no doubt that Xiang Mo, who is in Fangzhong at this moment, will definitely launch a fierce offensive against Qi County in order to cut off the return route of Yanling Army and Shangshui Army.
At that time, we will all rely on General Xu Yin and his Fenxing Army.
As for the Yanling Army and the Shangshui Army, they took advantage of a few days of repairs to carry out the second army reorganization, with the intention of allowing the entire army to go through the running-in period so that it can exert its due strength in the upcoming war.
What excites the soldiers and generals the most about this military reorganization is that Zhao Hongrun almost raised the ranks of all the generals and generals by one level in one breath.
Wu Zhang was promoted to Shichang, Shichang was promoted to Tuen Chang, Tuen Chang was promoted to Bo Chang (general of one hundred people), Bo Chang was promoted to Quhou (general of five hundred people), Quhou was promoted to Army Marquis (general of one thousand people), and Junhou was promoted to partial general (two thousand people).
Will).
This incident made the soldiers and generals of Yanling Army and Shangshui Army excited. No wonder, after all, it was a promotion. You know, if the military rank of Wei State is promoted, there will be a chance to obtain the noble aristocratic status in the future.
,Although he is a lower-class noble, he is still a noble after all, right?
However, Ran Teng's military position as a Thousand-Man General has not changed at all.
This...what went wrong?
Ran Teng, a thousand-man general, couldn't help but feel a little depressed.
You should know that since their Shang Shui Army integrated Nanmen Huai and Nanmen Jue's 20,000 surrender troops, and then integrated the remnants of Chu general Wu Yuan in Su County, the Shang Shui Army has increased to 50,000.
Therefore, some generals in the army are obviously at the level of generals with a thousand men, but they are in charge of two thousand men or even more.
This time, Zhao Hongrun generally upgraded the ranks of generals in the army, making these thousand-man generals become two-thousand-man generals.
No, just now, Ran Teng met Xiang Dai, a colleague in the army.
Both Xiang Dai and Ran Teng were officers who were promoted from the ranks of the soldiers. Just one day ago, Xiang Dai and Ran Teng were both generals with a thousand men. But today, after Zhao Hongrun issued this order, Xiang Dai
Transformed into a general of two thousand men.
You must know that in Chu State, going from a thousand generals to two thousand generals is simply a long process, and you don't know how much suffering you will suffer during this period.
Therefore, Ran Teng was also happy for Xiang Dai.
but!!
He is still a general with thousands of troops.
Not only was the thousand-man team under his leadership still the original number of one thousand, but his military rank had not been improved either.
In this case, it's no wonder that Xiang Dai looked at Ran Teng with a strange expression after hearing about this.
Ran Teng could understand Xiang Dai's expression, which seemed to say: All the soldiers in the battalion have been promoted, except you, Ran Teng... Did you offend King Su? Or do you have different intentions?
Ran Teng could not remember how he said goodbye to Xiang Dai after that, because his mind was completely focused on this matter: all the soldiers in the battalion were promoted, except him.
Could it be that I did something to misunderstand His Highness Prince Su?
Ran Teng was a little confused, because he thought to himself that he was loyal and enthusiastic towards the Wei State, the Shang Shui Army, and His Highness King Su, so how could he have any different intentions?
Feeling depressed, Ran Teng found two close friends: Xiang Li, a general of thousands of people, and Zhang Ming, a general of thousands of people.
Because the three-person thousand-man team was the elite of the merchant navy, the three of them had frequent contact with each other on weekdays.
During this period, Ran Teng asked Xiang Li and Zhang Ming about this matter and asked whether Xiang Li and Zhang Ming had been promoted.
Unexpectedly, after asking, he found out that he was not the only one who received "differential treatment". Xiang Li, like Zhang Ming, stayed at the position of General of Thousand Men, and the number of troops under his command did not increase.
What's going on?
The three of them really couldn't figure it out.
But it was not easy for them to ask around for this kind of thing, so the three of them got together and had a drink.
After all, the army had been preparing for war in the past few days. King Lu Xi of Qi brought a lot of drinks to reward the Wei troops on the west route, and Zhao Hongrun also allowed the soldiers and generals to have a drink to satisfy their cravings after completing their daily tasks.
During this period, Ran Teng told the two thousand-man generals who were connected by the same fate what happened when he just met Xiang Dai, and muttered with some jealousy how high-spirited Xiang Dai was at that time.
After listening to Ran Teng's words, Xiang Li and Zhang Ming also nodded in agreement. Apparently they had also encountered similar experiences.
Just as the three of them were complaining, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open, and a soldier wearing gray leather armor walked in and said in a deep voice: "Thousands of generals, Ran Teng, Xiang Li, Zhang Ming, Your Highness Prince Su, are you here?"
please!"
The Blue Crows...
Ran and Teng looked at each other and murmured to themselves, after all, among the Wei army, the only ones wearing gray leather armor were the Green Crows.
Could it be that the three of us were complaining here and His Highness Prince Su found out about it?
Feeling anxious, Ran Teng, Xiang Li, and Zhang Ming followed the Green Crow to Zhao Hongrun's residence.
When they entered, Zhao Hongrun was still sitting behind his desk, writing and drawing on the map with a strange pen, sometimes frowning and thinking deeply.
"His Royal Highness King Su." Ran Teng, Xiang Li, and Zhang Ming called out with clasped fists in an anxious mood.
After hearing this, Zhao Hongrun raised his head, put down the pen in his hand, and said with a smile: "I heard that the three of you have complaints about me?"
After hearing this, Ran Teng, Xiang Li, and Zhang Ming suddenly changed their expressions and quickly wanted to explain.
But at this moment, he saw Zhao Hongrun waving his hands and saying with a smile: "Haha, it's just a joke with the three of you, don't take it seriously." After saying that, he suppressed the smile on his face and said seriously: "You three are...
Aren’t you very surprised that I promoted other people but missed you three?”
"Your Highness's move must have a profound meaning. How dare we make any wild guesses?" Ran Teng said, cupping his fists.
Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun nodded and said: "Yes, I do have deep meaning... You must be envious of the thousand-man generals who are at the same time as you, right? You envy them all for being promoted to two-thousand-man generals, but in fact
What? The strength of the teams in the hands of these two thousand generals is probably not as good as before. Why? Because
We have absorbed too many regular troops from the Chu State, and their strength varies greatly... The thousand-man team led by the three of you is a rare elite thousand-man team in the Shang Shui Army. I don't want to destroy it and make it
They were annihilated by the masses. Therefore, I have neither sent troops to your three-thousand-man team nor promoted your three military positions."
I see!
Ran Teng, Xiang Li, and Zhang Ming suddenly realized this, and their doubts were immediately dispelled.
At this time, Zhao Hongrun stood up, looked at Ran Teng, Xiang Li, and Zhang Ming and said: "But after thinking about it, this king is not fair to you, so I call you here and let you make a choice for yourself.
: Do you want to be promoted to a general of 2,000 men, or should you continue to lead the elite 1,000-man team under your leadership?"
In this case, even a fool knows what choice to make.
No, Ran Teng, Xiang Li, and Zhang Ming hurriedly said: "Thank you His Highness King Su for your kindness, but we were confused... We chose to give up the promotion of two thousand generals."
"Very good!" Zhao Hongrun nodded with satisfaction, and then said seriously: "Then, I will grant the three of you the authority to lead the army alone. After the army crosses the Hui River, the three of you will lead your own teams of thousands to leave the army.
Fight on your own... I will send ten Qing Crows to each of you to assist you. What you have to do is very simple, go deep into the hinterland of the Chu Kingdom and raid its grain, grass and granaries."
Going deep alone? Surrounded by millions of Chu troops?
Ran Teng, Xiang Li, and Zhang Ming looked at each other and then clasped their fists heavily.
"Follow the order!"
"Very good. From today on, you are the independent battalion of the Shangshui Army. As long as you have the ability, even if you recruit a team of ten thousand people, I will grant you corresponding special permissions."
Thousands of people...better than a general!
Ran Teng, Xiang Li, and Zhang Ming looked at each other, and then swallowed as if longing. (To be continued.)