Before Wu Chengsi reached the Yalu River, news came that the Yalu River had been captured by Pei Xingjian.
Since Pei Xingjian captured the city suddenly, the Koreans only focused on escaping and had no time to transfer supplies.
In this battle, although Lebo led a large army to help, Pei Xingjian finally gave up the city, but he also captured more than 80,000 stones of grain.
Pei Xingjian's army currently occupies Linjiang City and is confronting the Koreans across the river.
Wu Chengsi immediately ordered Wu Youji to take three thousand cavalry to Nansu City to transport the sulfur and saltpeter collected over time to Linjiang City.
Then he ordered the army to speed up and go straight to Linjiang City.
After nearly ten days of marching, on the afternoon of this day, Wu Chengsi's army arrived outside Linjiang City to meet up with Pei Xingjian.
The army set up camp in the north of the city.
In the commander's tent, all the generals gathered together. After Hei Te Changzhi told them about their experiences in Fuyu City, Russell, Hou Yanjing and Yuan Biao all looked at him with smiles.
Hei Te Changzhi said angrily: "Have you all eaten garlic? You are smiling so weirdly."
Russell smiled and said: "Actually, we have already guessed that you have gone to the territory of the brown people."
Hei Te Chang said curiously: "How did you guess it?"
Russell told Pei Xingjian's analysis at that time, and also said that Le Bo spread rumors and wanted to ambush them, but Pei Xingjian used his plan and captured Yalu City.
Wu Youji was surprised and said: "You also conquered Eulchito?"
Hou Yanjing smiled and said: "Yes, that guy is indeed very brave. Yuan Lang and I fought two against one and could barely defeat him."
Pei Xingjian added: "General, Euljito is brave if he is brave, but he is simple-minded and does not know loyalty. Such people cannot be reused."
Wu Chengsi had no intention of reusing this person, so he nodded and asked, "How are the other armies and horses doing?"
"Marshal Li, like us, is confronting the Koreans across the river. General Xue Rengui's army has crossed the river and is attacking Wugu City. In my opinion, he can capture the city within ten days." Pei Xingjian replied.
Wu Chengsi asked: "How can we see it?"
Pei Xingjian smiled and said: "The general doesn't know something. More than ten days ago, General Xue's Liaodong City was attacked by five thousand Koreans."
"How dare the Koreans fight back? Where did they come from?" Hei Te Changzhi asked hurriedly.
"We took the sea route and went around it," Russell replied.
Wu Chengsi nodded. He and Li Ji both left five thousand defenders in the city to prevent the Koreans from taking a detour to attack. Only Xue Rengui left only 500 men. If the Koreans knew about it, they would naturally plan to send people for a sneak attack.
Pei Xingjian continued: "Originally, Liaodong City could no longer be defended, but just when the Koreans were about to capture the city, a cavalry suddenly appeared from outside the city and defeated the Koreans.
This cavalry is very famous, General, does he know which troop it is from?"
Wu Youji exclaimed: "Could it be General Xue's White Horse Team?"
Pei Xingjian smiled and said: "Exactly, although these cavalry only have three thousand people, they are all brave and elite. One can fight ten. They are the signature troops in the hands of General Xue. He specifically requested the imperial court to transfer them from Yongliang."
When Wu Chengsi heard the words "White Horse Team", the first thing he thought of was Xue Yujin's White Horse Team. Presumably the White Horse Team formed by Xue Yujin was modeled after his father's army.
Black Teeth Changzhi rolled his nose and said: "I heard that General Xue's white horse team is not only powerful in field battles, but also good at attacking cities. Every time he lets other armies attack a city gate, and he leads 3,000 white horse teams further away.
Attacking a city gate can often produce miraculous results."
Pei Xingjian smiled and said: "This is where General Xue excels. As soon as the White Horse Team arrives, I believe it will be difficult to defend Wugu City."
Wu Chengsi looked around and said loudly: "Last time we were the first to capture Nansu City. This time we cannot easily fall behind others. Do you have any strategies for capturing Yalu City?"
Hou Yanjing said: "We have taken away all the rations in Yalu City. The rations in the city cannot supply the army. Yuan Nanjian has transferred 20,000 troops to the inner city. Now there are only about 40,000 defenders in the city. We might as well attack by force!"
Pei Xingjian said in a deep voice: "Both Le Bo and Jie Heng are good at defending. If we attack by force, it will not only be difficult to succeed in a short time, but our army will definitely suffer heavy casualties."
"Does General Pei have a plan?" Wu Youji asked.
Pei Xingjian had already thought about the countermeasures and said: "The best way to deal with such a defensive general is to use the tactic of alienation. Yuan Nanjian has a favorite named Ashide Huzhen beside him. This person was demoted from the Turks and loved
Gold and silver, we can start from him."
Russell's eyes lit up and he said to Wu Chengsi: "General, Asted Huzhen is Asted Yanran's uncle, we can let Yanran convince him!"
Wu Chengsi smiled and said: "Going back and forth is too time-consuming, why bother? General Xue has a white horse team, we can't lose to him."
Pei Xingjian frowned and said: "General, General Xue's White Horse Team has been specially trained and is good at climbing walls. It is difficult for our army to select such talents at the moment."
Han Cheng raised his head and said, "That's not necessarily true. If I select some martial arts brothers from the army, they may not lose to General Xue's White Horse Team."
Wu Chengsi smiled and said: "We don't have to learn from General Xue, he has his methods, and we have our own methods. Our team is called the Shenhuo Team, which is responsible for breaking down the city gates and walls!"
Pei Xingjian thought for a moment and really didn't understand what Wu Chengsi could do. He just heard Wu Chengsi say: "Generals, please go back to your camps first. In a few days, I will tell you how to attack Yalu City."
Although everyone did not know what was going on, after several battles, everyone had full confidence in Wu Chengsi and resigned in unison.
In the next few days, Wu Chengsi waited patiently in the camp. After waiting for five days, Wu Youji finally brought the sulfur and saltpeter.
There were two carts of sulfur and one cart of saltpeter.
Wu Chengsi ordered people to crush them all into powder, and also asked people to get charcoal powder. He selected a special tent from the military camp and asked his guards to carry the three powders into the barracks.
Then, he ordered people to get a large piece of oil paper, fuse, steel scale, cowhide and other objects, and then ordered: "Han Cheng, you go and guard outside the tent, don't allow anyone to come near, and then send my military order, this barracks
No open fire is allowed within fifty feet."
"Master, what are you going to do?" Han Cheng rarely asked questions, but when he saw Wu Chengsi's weird behavior, he felt a little uneasy.
Wei Heng followed: "Sir, are you sick?" He only knew that sulfur and saltpeter were used as medicine, so he thought Wu Chengsi wanted to brew some medicine.
Wu Chengsi smiled and said: "You will know later, please go out."
Han Cheng and Wei Heng nodded and led the other guards out.
Wu Chengsi immediately got busy, weighed three powders with a small spoon, poured them into oil paper bags, and began to refine black powder.
For all time travellers, many inventions and techniques of later generations can be used in ancient times, but none of them are as good as gunpowder.
This is not only because gunpowder is so powerful that it can almost change the rules of war, but also because gunpowder is easy to make.
As long as you know the optimal ratio: mononitrate, disulfide, and carbon, you can prepare the best gunpowder. There are no big technical obstacles, and any future generation can do it.
In this era, gunpowder is still just a concept for alchemists, and is mainly used to make elixirs.
Even Sun Simiao's fire-and-brimstone method has not been proposed yet.
However, even if Sun Simiao's gunpowder formula comes out, it is still an immature gunpowder used to make elixirs. It burns slowly and releases little gas, so it cannot play the true role of gunpowder at all.
This is also the reason why gunpowder was neglected for a long time after it was invented in history.
It was not until the Song Dynasty that the power of gunpowder was slightly improved and it was used in the military.
By the late Ming Dynasty, gunpowder had been improved to a level close to the optimal ratio and had become indispensable in the army.
Although gunpowder is available, it still takes a long way to develop guns.
But even without guns, gunpowder itself is an excellent weapon, especially when attacking a city.
In the late Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng and Zhang Zhaozhong were two blasting experts. They both made full use of the power of gunpowder and captured many famous fortified cities.
Compared with the fortified city of the Ming Dynasty, the Yalu City in front of us is naturally nothing to mention.
According to the ratio of one pound of saltpeter, two ounces of sulfur, and three ounces of carbon, Wu Chengsi packed a gunpowder bag of about twenty pounds, connected it to the fuse, and then wrapped it with cowhide.
Originally, gunpowder was best processed into uniform granules through soaking, compacting, drying, hammering, sifting and other procedures to achieve the best explosion effect.
But Wu Chengsi's goal was only a Yalu city that was not particularly strong, so he omitted this time-consuming step.