Lu Buwei returned to the living room, with the same fear from before on his face.
Wang Jian asked with concern: "Master Xiangguo, what's wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"
Lu Buwei waved his hands and said: "I'm fine, everyone has fun, everyone has fun! I have something to deal with at the moment. You drink first, I will be back in a while!"
After saying that, Lu Buwei ignored everyone's dissuasion and turned around to leave. He called a few close disciples to the study and told them exactly what had just happened.
Several diners were also shocked. No one expected that Cao Qiudao could come back from the dead and demand five hundred thousand taels of gold!
"Gold is a small matter. He can appear in the Prime Minister's Mansion without revealing anything. This is the key issue!" A retainer said: "In order to assassinate Ji Jie, Cao Qiudao lost all his property. There is no such big Cao family left. The next few people, now he has his mouth wide open, his purpose is obvious!"
"I thought to myself, as long as he can get rid of Ji Jie, a serious problem, no matter how much money he has, it doesn't matter!" Lu Buwei said: "And I have already agreed. If I don't give it, he will be disadvantageous to me. I believe no one in Qin is." His opponent!"
"There is one!" Another disciple said with a smile: "Cao Qiudao is not Ji Jie's opponent, and General Wang Jian and Ji Jie are tied. In other words, Cao Qiudao is not the opponent of General Wang, as long as he stays in the prime minister By my side, don’t you just..."
Lu Buwei shook his head and said: "No, General Wang is the mainstay of our Great Qin. For the sake of my own safety, I cannot let him give up leading the army and stay by my side every day. The current situation does not allow this! You might as well give the money to Cao Qiudao , it would be best to kill Ji Jie, if not, just spend money to eliminate the disaster!"
Lu Buwei also thought of another point. With so much money, it would be difficult for Cao Qiudao to take him out of Qin in a short time. As long as he was still in Qin, it was not certain whether the money belonged to him!
…
After a period of rest, the Zhou army regained its strength. Ji Jie left some people to garrison the captured city. He personally led the army to set off and arrived outside Tongguan again.
There were nearly 20,000 defenders at Tongguan. They relied on high walls and deep trenches, and did not take the 120,000 Zhou army seriously.
"Xiongguan!" Ji Jie looked far into the distance and saw the towering city wall of Tongguan in front of him.
"Your Majesty, I think it's just a small pass!" Xiong Bi said in a relaxed tone: "Hangu Pass was made the most important pass by the Qin people. What happened? It changed hands in less than an hour. Tongguan Pass in front of us Same!"
To put it simply, how can the same trick be used twice? The Qin people learned the lesson of losing Hangu Pass last time and replaced the original defenders. At this time, there were only a few spies of the Zhou Dynasty among the defenders in the pass, which was not enough to satisfy them. In response to the request of internal cooperation and external cooperation, the most that can be done is to transmit the information.
"Find a good place and dig a tunnel!" Ji Jie came up with an idea.
"Dig a tunnel?" Xiong Bi opened his mouth wide. He didn't believe Ji Jie could come up with such a common way to attack the city. Among the many methods, digging a tunnel can be said to be the most shameless.
"That's right!"
"Can you dig it in?" Xiong Ben said with a wry smile: "It is impossible for a pass of the size of Tongguan not to have a sound cylinder inside. People can hear it as soon as they dig it in here!"
Ji Jie said with a smile: "Young man, you think things are too simple! Did I say that we need to dig the tunnel all the way into the pass? We just need to dig it under the city wall. When the time comes, we will bury gunpowder and blast..."
Xiong Ben suddenly understood and said: "I understand, we will make arrangements immediately!"
The Dazhou Tunnel Warriors kept digging tunnels day and night. In order to improve their access to the city, Ji Jie ordered to start from three positions. The one with the fastest progress would be rewarded. There was another reason for doing this. It is better to bet on three treasures than to bet on one. More insurance.
At the same time, a trebuchet with the longest range kept throwing shells at the city wall, using the sound of explosions to cover up the sound of tunnel excavation below.
Tun Daoyong advanced very quickly, and the three teams advanced hand in hand. It only took five days to dig to the edge of the moat. They immediately discovered that the depth of the moat was beyond all imagination.
"General, my three teams of tunnel warriors have stopped by the moat!" the messenger reported: "We are still about ten feet away from the city wall. I am afraid that the explosive power of gunpowder will not be able to destroy the city wall!"
Ji Jie shrugged. This is indeed a problem. If the gunpowder is exploded rashly, it may not be able to damage the enemy's city wall. At the same time, it will expose one's own purpose, which is not worth the gain.
However, excavation and delivery has already consumed a lot of manpower and material resources. The most important thing is that it took so long, and the loss caused by returning without success will be even greater.
"Then..." Ji Jie waved his hand, signaling all irrelevant people to leave.
He and Xiong Ben were the only two people left in the huge Chinese army tent. Xiong Ben said with a smile: "Your Majesty must have an idea!"
"You're the one!" Ji Jie laughed and cursed, and then said: "Now that we have dug to the moat, it would be a pity not to make good use of these three tunnels! You go and notify the tunnel warriors trapped by the river and ask them to give up. Dig forward instead of digging upward!”
"up?"
"Yes!" Ji Jie explained: "Dig up until there is only half a foot thick from the surface, and then replace them with soldiers who are familiar with water properties, bring them with good airtight barrels, load them with gunpowder, and in the middle of the night When the time comes, you can swim across the river and pile barrels of gunpowder under the city wall! Haha, you don’t need me to teach you what to do next, right?"
Xiong Ben nodded with a smile and said: "Just light the fuse and then boom!"
"Haha, we must master the time of the explosion!" Ji Jie added: "After the city wall collapses, the Qin army will fall into fear. Of course, this fear cannot last for too long. It is best for our army to wait until they are still alive." When he doesn't recover, rush in and kill him without leaving a trace!"
"Understood, I'll make arrangements right away!"
It didn't matter what arrangement Xiong Ben made, he also arranged himself into the death squad. He personally led hundreds of soldiers who were good at water. While the defenders on the city wall were drowsy, each man held a wooden barrel filled with gunpowder and drank water. Cross the river.
The three teams acted together, created three explosion points under the Tongguan city wall, connected the fuses, and then quietly retreated.
At the same time, the three armies were ready to attack, and the Zhou army soldiers were ready to attack.
When it was just dawn, a Qin Jun on the city wall rubbed his eyes and looked down. He pushed his sleeping companion next to him and said, "Look, why are there so many barrels down there?"
"Don't make trouble, you must not have woken up, your eyesight is dazzled!"
"It's possible!" The man rubbed his eyes and looked down again. This time he not only saw the barrel, but also the burning fuse, which was emitting white smoke!
"No, this must have been done by the enemy. An enemy attack..."
"boom……"
As soon as the man shouted, a violent explosion sounded, blowing the section of the city wall where he was directly into the sky.