It is said that gunpowder appeared in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and was created by some alchemists who refined alchemists inadvertently, so it was known as gunpowder. However, it will take hundreds of years to truly popularize gunpowder and apply it to life and even military affairs.

Although it is mentioned in some legends that China has recorded the use of gunpowder in the army since the Tang Dynasty, Sun Tu himself knows that at least there is no regular army in the Song Dynasty that mainly fights with firearms, which at least shows that it is still a distance away from the era when gunpowder exerts a certain combat power.

As a time traveler, he, even though he knew that the Song army was far inferior to the enemy country dominated by nomadic cavalry such as Liao, Jin and Xia in frontal confrontations, naturally easily came up with a new weapon that could truly restrain the cavalry and eventually let large-scale cavalry combat completely decline.

Although Sun Tu was a time traveler and a time traveler who had been a soldier, he was a little embarrassed and could not even carry the black-gunpowder formula, fortunately he had a warehouse system and a lot of fireworks and firecrackers were stored there, which solved the critical process from scratch.

Now, seeing the continuous research and efforts of the craftsmen, a batch of gunpowder that was finally created, Sun Tu was in a good mood. With gunpowder in his hands, he would not have trouble making some simple landmines or throwing weapons. As long as he used these, it would be enough to make the enemy cavalry suffer.

After a good life praised the craftsmen and decided to give them five hundred stag of copper coins on the spot as a reward, Sun Tu left the secret house happily. Seeing that it was still early, he returned to the military camp.

Just when he arrived in front of the military camp, he heard a horse's neighing sound, and even a burst of laughter came from the camp, which made Sun Tu happy. It was obvious that Lin Chong had returned from Zengtou City and asked for the robbed horses, so he hurried into the camp to investigate.

Sure enough, as soon as he entered the military camp, he saw many soldiers surrounding Lin Chong and dozens of horses, saying something happily. Until he saw Sun Dujian come back, everyone corrected their appearance and saluted them one after another. Lin Chong even stepped forward a few steps and saluted with his hands and said, "I have seen Dujian for the last time. Fortunately, I have not humiliated my fate. Finally, I have brought back the seized horses."

"Thank you for your hard work in Commander Lin." Sun Tu smiled at him with satisfaction, glanced at the dozens of horses with different fur colors, and asked with some concern: "The people in Zengtou City didn't make things difficult for you, right?"

"No, when the people in Zengtou City learned that they were robbing the horses of our Qingzhou Army, they were quite frightened and guilty, and repeatedly apologized to me, and specially sent you a letter of apology to the Dujian." Lin Chong said, then took out a letter from his arms and handed it over, and then said: "And to express his apology, they added five more horses to us, which are not inferior to those of the horses from the Liao Kingdom."

"Oh, it seems that the people in Zengtou City are quite serious." Sun Tu smiled with satisfaction, took the letter and opened it and read it casually, but did not find that Lin Chong seemed to have anything to say. Seeing that he looked down at the letter, he temporarily endured it.

The content in this letter is actually very ordinary, it is nothing more than apology. In addition, it means that Zengtou City does not know the origin of these horses, and hopes that Sun Dujian can pass by without caring about villains. Sun Tu just glanced at it at a glance and did not spend more time reading it carefully. He was still very satisfied with this result. At least from this matter, it can be seen that he and the Qingzhou army have already had extremely high prestige on the ground in Shandong. Even a local tyrant like Zengtou City dare not offend him easily.

When he put away the letter and planned to let Lin Chong talk about the details of the negotiations in Zengtou City, Huangfu Duan and Duan Jingzhu rushed over after hearing the news. It was not until they saw the horses brought back by Lin Chong that the two nodded happily: "Yes, these horses. Duan Jian, these horses are all very expensive horses in the Liao Kingdom. If they can successfully breed them in the western suburbs, in a few years, our Qingzhou army will have an elite cavalry of hundreds of people!"

"If this is true, you two will have a lot of contributions." Sun Tu was also happy when he heard this. Today is indeed a good day, and the good news is coming one after another. The gunpowder has made a breakthrough and the horses have been sent back. Only Chai Jin's attitude is left, but judging from his reaction, this matter should have a good result soon.

After joking with everyone for a while, Sun Tu waved his hand to let everyone disperse, and then his eyes lingered on the group of horses driven away, looking forward to the grand occasion of establishing an elite cavalry in the Qingzhou army two or three years later. This is a beautiful thing that many military generals in the Song Dynasty could not find.

It was not until he returned to his barracks with a smile that Sun Tu suddenly realized that one of the things was a bit strange, but because a lot of things happened just now, he couldn't get the point: "What kind of thing seems a bit unreasonable?"

His thoughts were soon interrupted by Lin Chong's voice outside the door: "Master, I have something to do to ask for my opinion."

"Let's talk." Sun Tu put his thoughts aside. After inviting someone in, he smiled and said, "Senior Brother Lin, you don't have to be so disagreeable between you and me in private. You must be a little tired after just returning from Zengtou City. Why didn't you go home to rest first, but came to me again? But do you have anything to say?"

Lin Chong smiled at him first, then said with a solemn expression: "It's not a small matter, and I can't tell the truth or false, so I thought I'd report it to the Yudu Supervisor now."

Seeing that he was speaking solemnly, Sun Tu also restrained his smile. He poured him a cup of hot tea and asked him to sit down. He asked, "Oh? But what's the big deal? Is it related to Zengtou City?"

"That's right." Lin Chong nodded: "Actually, everything went smoothly after I went to Zengtou City this time. Because Senior Brother Shi came forward to speak, they didn't dare to make things difficult for me. But at the beginning, there were a few young masters of the Shi family who interfered, so there was a slight delay in returning the horses."

Sun Tu nodded and expressed his understanding: "It is not easy for thieves to steal things, and it is naturally even more difficult to let them spit things out. I guess you should have put in a lot of effort in the meantime, right?"

"No, it's just that before Bei Zhi thought about a refusal, the Zeng family's attitude suddenly changed. Not only was he more polite than before, he also agreed to return all the horses he had seized before, and wrote another letter to apologize and compensate five horses."

"Oh? Isn't this a good thing? If you didn't work hard on it, then Senior Brother Shi would have said something later. After all, his status in Zengtou City is not low, and it would be better if he came forward."

Lin Chong frowned and said, "At that time, I thought it was because of his difficulty in speaking, so I was naturally grateful to him. But afterwards, I realized that something seemed wrong."

"What's wrong?" Sun Tu heard something strange in his words and asked curiously.

"I arrived in Zengtou City on the tenth day of the lunar month, but on the afternoon of the 11th, my senior brother deliberately sent me away and got everything done, as if he wanted to drive me away as soon as possible." Lin Chong carefully said, "You must know that it was getting dark at that time and it was not suitable for departure at all. It was precisely because he discovered this that he changed his words and said that he was going to leave Zengtou City tomorrow. As a result, he came again early on the 12th, and this time he really sent me out of Zengtou City."

"I'm so anxious to send you out, is it that something is going to happen there? Or are they having something shameful to do, and they are worried that you will see something you shouldn't see when you stay there?" Sun Tu said guessing. This immediately got Lin Chong's approval: "This is the problem, please see..." As he said that, he took out a note from his sleeve and put it in front of Sun Tu.

Sun Tu took it and found that the handwriting on it was very clumsy, just like the exercises of a person who had just learned to write. Fortunately, he could see it clearly: "Zengtou City colluded with foreign tribes and wanted to present the city to foreign enemies..."

A sentence without beginning or end made Sun Tu's face suddenly change: "Where did you find this?"

"I found it at the door of my guest room that morning. I originally thought it was just a joke, but then I thought of Zengtou City's rush to send me away, and I felt that there was a big problem." Lin Chong said, swallowing nervously: "Dujian, are you saying this matter true? Although Zengtou City does many unjust things, it is still my native Song Dynasty. Will he really make the idea of ​​colluding with foreign enemies and taking on Lingzhou City?"

Sun Tu's eyes fell on the paper with a steady look, and after a while, he said, "It's better to believe in such a thing than to believe in it. Lingzhou is not a small place. Once it is really invaded by foreign tribes, there will be too many innocent people. Moreover, Lingzhou had just sent nearly a thousand troops to Qingzhou before, and the local guards were empty, and the consequences were unpredictable by foreign enemies." There was another sentence he didn't say, if this was the case, Sun Tu's responsibility would be quite large.

"Do those people in Zengtou City really do such a thing?" Lin Chong said with some suspicion. He was indeed unable to accept the fact that the people of the Song Dynasty colluded with foreigners.

Sun Tu knocked the table lightly with his hand, and after a moment, his expression moved: "I can't say whether they colluded with foreigners to plot against Lingzhou, but one thing is confirmed, that is, they should have had some contact with foreigners. Do you still remember the five extra horses? Those horses were very majestic, not under the horses they got from the Liao Kingdom, and were even rare in my Song Dynasty. However, Zengtou City could easily take out five horses to apologize, which itself is enough to explain the problem!" It was not until this time that he understood what he thought was strange just now. Zengtou City did seem to be a big problem!

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We will continue to pay New Year greetings to you on the second day of the lunar month... But this year is indeed special. Passersby who originally wanted to pay New Year greetings to their elders as usual can only stay at home... But this is good, and they can still concentrate on typing and update on time...

Finally, I would like to mention it. It is better for you to not go out. After all, health is the most important thing, and you have it every year.
Chapter completed!