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On the fourth day of March, in the "Chang Mansion" in Changyi City, Song County, the old head of the family "Chang Xi", who was over sixty years old, met with the eldest son "Chang Man" in the side hall of the mansion, "Chang Man", the general of the Beibo Army.

Chen Si".

This Chen Si is the general of the Beibo Army who captured Changyi without a single blow two days ago.

But the strange thing is that Chen Si, the general of the Beibo Army, clearly holds the military power, but in front of Chang Xi, he still maintains the courtesy of a junior and is respectful.

In fact, this is not surprising, because Chang's family, the "Chang family", is derived from the surname Zi, and comes from the same branch of the Song royal family as the "Zi surname Song" - to be precise, the ancestors of the Chang family were once

The son of a certain king of the Song Dynasty was granted the title of fief of Chang land, and this was how the Chang family came into being.

Therefore, to put it bluntly, the Chang family is the descendants of the princes and nobles of the Song Dynasty, and they were once the owners of the county town of Changyi.

Of course, today's Changyi is no longer owned by the Chang family, but it cannot be denied that the Chang family, as a prominent local family, still enjoys a high prestige in the local area.

It is no exaggeration to say that the reason why Chen Si, the general of Bei Bo Army, was able to capture Changyi without a single blow, Chang She and the Chang clan played a decisive role in it.

Because of this, even though Chen Si was a general in the Beibo Army with heavy troops, he still treated Chang Xi with the courtesy of a junior and treated him with respect.

Of course, what's more important is that Chang Xi and the Chang family are also one of the financial backers who secretly funded the Beibo Army.

"...General Chen Si doesn't have to worry about money and food."

Holding a Song Dynasty porcelain tea bowl, Changzhen took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "I have contacted several old friends and raised a sum of money to reward the rebels..."

Hearing this, Chen Si's face suddenly filled with a smile. Suddenly, he asked: "Mr. Chang, I wonder if you can think of a way to get a batch of armaments for our army?"

Hearing this, Chang Xi's face showed a somewhat solemn look, and he frowned and asked, "Is it because Mr. Wei is running?"

"Yeah." Chen Si nodded.

It turned out that when civil strife broke out in the Wei Kingdom a while ago, the Beibo Army took advantage of the situation and successively recovered "Rencheng", "Nanpingyang", "Changyi" and other places that were once occupied by the Wei Army. Unexpectedly, in the past few days,

On the same day, they suddenly received detailed news from Wei State, and then they learned that the civil strife caused by the "Three Kings" in Wei State had been suppressed by Wei Gongzi Run.

Immediately, the young master of Wei, Run, suddenly changed his identity and became the prince overseeing the state of Wei.

This piece of information was extremely bad news for the Beibo Army in Song County: Regardless of whether Wei Gongzi Run, who had been victorious in every battle on the battlefield, also had the same talent in the temple, the key lies in the fact that after Wei suppressed the rebellion,

, then it is obvious that the Wei State will definitely take corresponding retaliation for the recent actions of their Beibo Army.

When he thought that Wei Gongzi Run, who was already the crown prince of Wei, was very likely to send his troops to Song County to sweep across Chu and South Korea, Song Yun, the leader of the Beibo Army, became restless and hurriedly recruited troops and trained them.

Soldiers, prepare to face Wei's coming revenge.

As a result, the number of weapons and equipment cannot keep up.

"Don't the rebels have the support of the Mo family?" Changzhen asked doubtfully. As far as he knew, behind the Beibo Army, there was a group of selfless Song Mo disciples supporting him, although the original Song Mo emperor Xu Ruo "betrayed" the Song Dynasty

With the Beibo Army, he led a group of Mohist disciples to defect to the Wei State, but in fact there was still a large group of Mohist disciples who still unswervingly supported the Beibo Army.

After hearing this, Chen Si said with a bit of bitterness: "Mr. Chang, that was before... A while ago, when Zhao Zuoshang, the king of Nanliang in Wei State, was garrisoning "domestic (Song County)", he unfortunately destroyed several of them.

There was a workshop for forging arms, and many Mohist brothers were killed... Now our army is forging arms at a speed that is far too late to arm the new army..." At this point, he clasped his fists and begged Chang Xi: "Mr. Chang, can you think about it?

way?"

Hearing this, Chang Xi stroked his beard, frowned and said, "Arms... I'll try to contact my old friends in Lu to find a way to raise a batch of armaments for the rebels."

After hearing this, Chen Si swallowed his saliva and asked cautiously: "Mr. Chang, can you find a way to get Wei's weapons?"

Chen Si has been coveting the weapons of Wei for a long time.

I remember when the Wei Wujun and the Suppression Army were stationed in Song County, why did the Beibo Army not dare to take the lead? The reason was simple, because they were defeated by these two armies equipped with Wei's latest armaments.

The disparity between the Wei Army and the Beibo Army can be seen simply from the difference in the crossbow equipment between the two armies: the Wei Army's crossbow equipment generally has a range of 120 steps, and can even penetrate the trunks of three trees continuously at close range;

The crossbows of the Beibo Army could not penetrate the armor of the heavy infantry of the Wei Army beyond forty paces and cause effective damage to the Wei soldiers.

This is simply a difference between cloud and mud!

At this time, Chang's eldest son, Changman, interjected in confusion: "General Chen Si, why are the weapons of the Wei State? Are the weapons of the Wei State comparable to the weapons of the Lu State?"

Chen Si smiled bitterly and said: "Sir, the Wei State today is no longer the Wei State nine or ten years ago."

Compared with the weapons of the State of Lu, he actually preferred the weapons of the State of Wei.

Regardless of the fact that Lu's craftsmanship is said to be twenty years ahead of other countries in the Central Plains, this actually refers to the overall craftsmanship. For example, the Lu's superb mechanism skills have nothing to do with Wei craftsmen, let alone being twenty years ahead.

Even two hundred years is not surprising.

But in the area of ​​"war equipment", since Wei Gongzi Run took charge of the Smelting Bureau, the Wei State has made rapid progress in this field, and has already narrowed the gap with the Lu State. Now compared with the latter, I am afraid that it is

Not to mention more concessions.

But since they were sitting side by side, why did Chen Si prefer Wei's weapons?

The reason is that the current way of improving weapons in the Wei State is significantly different from the way the weapons are improved in the Lu State: Lu State improved the weapons through the brainstorming of many craftsmen, focusing on "such improvements are more in line with the development of technology";

The Wei State is different. They will absorb the feedback of users, that is, the frontline soldiers, and focus on "modifying (the soldiers) in this way to make them more comfortable to use."

Therefore, some design improvements to Wei's weapons may not be necessary in the eyes of Lu's craftsmen, but the soldiers found them very easy to use.

The most important thing is that under the influence of a certain Wei Gongzi, Wei craftsmen paid great attention to "huge" and "powerful" when designing forged weapons. For example, Wei's trebuchet was not only much larger and heavier than other weapons

The trebuchets of various countries have a range and power that cannot be matched by other countries, including the trebuchets of Lu.

Compared with the weapons produced in the Lu State, which looked more like exquisite craftsmanship than war weapons, the weapons of the Wei State gave people a simple and crude feeling - they looked ugly, but they were strong, practical, and lethal.

Powerful.

After listening to Chen Si's explanation, Chang Xi and his son suddenly realized, nodded and said: "I'll think of a way... It shouldn't be a problem to get a batch of obsolete old ordnance. As for the latest ordnance of the Wei army..."

"Chen doesn't dare to ask for anything extravagant." Chen Si said quickly: "The weapons of the Wei army have always been strong. Even if they are old items, they are enough for the new soldiers of our army." At this point, he sincerely thanked you: "Mr. Chang, let you

Thank you for your trouble."

Changzhen waved his hand and said seriously: "I, the Chang family, are also a subject of the Song Dynasty. How can I watch the country fall apart?" At this point, he sighed and said with a bitter smile: "If you are stingy even with this, how can you wait for me?

When I step into Jiuquan one day, how can I have the dignity to meet Mr. Xiang?"

The "Xiang Gong" he refers to is the hero of the Song Dynasty, the scholar-bureaucrat Xiang Ju, and the biological father of the leader of the Beibo Army, Song Yun (Xiang Ding). When the Song Dynasty fell, including the Chang family,

At that time, almost most of the princes and nobles of the Song Kingdom fled to the State of Lu in fear. Only Xiang Ju led a very small number of nobles and the Song army to stay and fight the Wei army under the guise of the King of Song. Unfortunately, they were outnumbered.

”In the end, he died heroically on the battlefield.

It is precisely because of this that Xiang Ju, who was originally unknown, suddenly became a hero in the eyes of the Song people, and also became the Beibo Army's belief in inspiring the Song people to persist in their resistance.

While they were chatting here, suddenly, an old servant of the house hurried in and said to Chang She: "Master, there is a group of people outside the house asking to see you."

Chang Xi glanced at Chen Si apologetically. Although the latter smiled and waved his hands to show that he didn't care, Chang Xi still frowned and said to himself: This old servant has been serving him for decades, why is he so ignorant today?

?

Perhaps he guessed what the old master was thinking, the old servant quickly took out a greeting card from his arms and said in a low voice: "Master, the identity of the person who comes to visit this time is not simple."

"..." Chang Xi took the greeting card doubtfully and then glanced at it.

After just a glance, his expression suddenly became solemn, because the signature on the invitation was clearly written: Wei, Foreign Envoy, Cui Yong.

Seeing the change in Chang's expression, Chen Si asked curiously: "Mr. Chang, what's wrong?"

Chang Xi handed the invitation to Chen Si and said in a deep voice: "The envoy of Wei..."

Chen Si took the invitation and took a look at it, feeling a little surprised.

You must know that Changyi has been recaptured by their Beibo Army, and there are still a large number of Beibo Army soldiers stationed in the city.

Under such circumstances, the Wei envoy and his party actually dared to sneak into the city. It must be said that this courage was not small.

Suddenly, Chen Si scanned the text of the greeting card and saw the words "sent by the East Palace" at a glance, and his expression suddenly became solemn.

After all, the "East Palace" of Wei State now refers to Prince Zhao Run, also known as Wei Gongzi Run.

"Is he from Wei Gongzi Run?" Chen Si said in shock.

"..." Chang Xi stretched out his hand to stroke his beard, frowning slightly and saying nothing.

"Father?" the eldest son Changman called, probably asking his father if he would receive the Wei envoy.

Chang She and Chen Si looked at each other, then nodded and said in a deep voice: "Invite the Wei envoy to this room."

"yes."

The old servant bowed and retreated. After a short while, he led three young people, who were estimated to be in their twenties, to the house.

These three young men were none other than Cui Yong, Gao Kuo, and Zhang Qigong.

At this time, Chang Xi stood up, raised his hands and asked, "Who is the envoy of the imperial court?"

After hearing this, Cui Yong took a step forward, cupped his hands and said with a smile: "I, Cui Yong, have just been entrusted with an important task by the East Palace... These two are my deputy envoys, Gao Kuo and Zhang Qi."

Different from Cui Yong's smiling appearance, Gao Kuo and Zhang Qigong seemed quite cold - but there were differences between them: after entering the house, Zhang Qigong looked around at the furnishings in the house, while Gao Kuo paid attention at first glance.

Arrive at Chen Si.

Although Chen Si was wearing very ordinary clothes today, Gao Kuo still instinctively felt that this man was definitely not an ordinary Song citizen.
To be continued...