The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Li Hu was in a bad mood at the moment. He walked back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back. After a while, he said angrily, "What a cruel little beast! How dare he do that to tens of thousands of innocent people!"

In front of the sand table, the generals looked at each other without saying a word.

Li Hu walked to the sand table and suddenly stopped: "It would be great if there were another 5,000 cavalrymen." At this point, he couldn't help it again, "A good game of chess has been turned into a waste of the endgame, idiot!"

After hearing these words, everyone lowered their heads.

With a "humph", Li Hu turned his gaze to the sand table.

The White Lotus rebels drove the people of Hefei northward. Such a big movement naturally could not be hidden from the sentry camp's scouts, and Li Hu naturally guessed Shui Rong's intention. Shui Rong's cruelty frightened Li Hu, and his scheme also gave Li Hu a headache!
The camp is not a city. If tens of thousands of people rush in and flood it, they can be drowned!
Therefore, these people could not be allowed to reach the battlefield no matter what. However, there were tens of thousands of White Lotus rebels escorting these people, so it would be useless even if those few cavalry went.

As for the whole army attacking? Shui Rong is not blind, nor is he stupid. He will definitely cut off the retreat of the army and attack from both sides.

If he fell into the encirclement of hundreds of thousands of White Lotus Sect members, he would not be able to escape even if he had wings.

He couldn't take the risk.

At this time, Wang Yaozu hurried in and reported to Li Hu: "General, a group of people left the White Lotus camp and headed towards Hefei."

Li Hu: "Oh? How many people are there?"

Wang Yaozu: "Looking at the flags, there should be less than 20,000 people."

Li Hu's eyes flashed: "How many troops are there in the White Lotus Sect camp?"

Wang Yaozu thought for a moment and replied, "50,000 to 60,000 people."

Fifty or sixty thousand?
Li Hu walked back and forth again. Excluding the wounded soldiers, he could gather 40,000 people at most. 40,000 against 60,000. The advantage is on my side!

The generals seemed to understand something. They held their breath and followed Li Hu's footsteps quietly.

Li Hu stopped and ordered Wang Yaozu, "Send out all the scouts. I want to know any movement within a thirty-mile radius of the White Lotus camp!"

Wang Yaozu answered loudly, "Yes," and walked out.

Li Hu turned his gaze to the generals again and said, "For dinner, we will have enough horse meat and rice."

All the generals answered in unison: "Yes!" and walked out together.

Li Hu turned around, scanned the sand table, and then planted a few small flags on Shui Rong's camp. It was unrealistic to annihilate them completely, and at most they would suffer heavy losses. If Shui Rong acted decisively, he should be able to retreat with the rear camp intact, but he still didn't have enough troops!

No, we can't let Shui Rong escape unscathed. We have to make him a frightened bird and make him abandon the people of Hefei who are being held hostage. We can retreat to Hefei or even Shucheng! Well, we can let Jia Yun lead the Firearms Battalion to set off before dark.

Thinking of this, Li Hu remembered what the prince said, "The White Lotus rebels must be suppressed, but they cannot be suppressed completely." Let nature take its course!
At this time, Wang Daniu came in excitedly and reported to Li Hu: "Marshal, the bronze cannon has been made!"

Li Hu's eyes lit up: "Let's go and take a look." After saying that, he strode out.

We have to thank Shui Rong. The battle in Hefei made him taste the sweetness. He ordered the White Lotus Sect to search for bronze vessels everywhere. Dingyuan County happened to have a batch of bronze vessels stored there. Li Hu also ordered people to go to the surrounding temples to invite a few Buddha statues, which were enough to cast a bronze cannon.

As the old saying goes, there is no coincidence in the world. The craftsmen recruited by Li Hu from the disaster victims were good at making spears, swords and fire guns, but they didn't know how to cast bronze cannons. They didn't know, but Li Hu did. That day in the Military Equipment Bureau, he heard Dai Quan mocking the artillery manufacturing process of the Western Yi people. Men are curious, so he went to see the craftsmen in the Military Equipment Bureau making artillery and asked in detail about the manufacturing process of artillery, which was like learning and applying it.

To cast a bronze cannon, you first need to build a furnace to melt the copper. After the furnace is built, it needs to be naturally dried in the shade for a few days. Three ventilation holes are opened at the bottom of the furnace, and air pipes are used to transport air into the furnace through these three holes. In order to prevent the molten copper from accidentally flowing out of the ventilation holes, the three air pipes are inserted into the furnace at an angle.

The most time-consuming and troublesome part is to make the gun barrel mud film. This thing is troublesome, and it takes several months to dry naturally in the shade. The iron mold casting method also requires the use of mud molds to cast iron molds, and the mud molds still need to be dried in the shade for several months. Li Hu can't wait. If the shade drying doesn't work, then smoke and burn it. Of course, Li Hu dare not use the mud molds made by smoke and burn to cast bronze cannons, which is no different from the birthday man hanging himself.

He asked the craftsmen to first use the low-quality clay mold baked by smoke and fire to cast an iron mold. It turned out that the steps carefully selected by the older generation of craftsmen could not be skipped. Nearly a hundred craftsmen worked hard for several days, but all they cast were defective products.

Li Hu had originally given up hope, but God came to his rescue. Somehow, the craftsmen managed to make a qualified iron mold. With this iron mold, as long as there were enough materials, they could make a bronze cannon in a day or two.

From a distance, Li Hu saw a beautiful big guy. The craftsmen were using files to polish the surface of the barrel. Another person went into the barrel and bored the inside of the barrel to make it as straight as possible so that the shells could be fired better from the barrel.

Seeing Li Hu coming, Jia Yun hurried over to greet him. Li Hu waved his hand and walked straight forward, asking, "How is it?"

Jia Yun followed closely and replied, "Thank God, the craftsmen hit the barrel with a hammer and found no cracks or other defects. They also poured water into the barrel and found no water seepage."

Li Hu nodded, strode to the bronze cannon, and looked at this beautiful big guy carefully.

As the craftsmen drilled the firing port at the rear of the barrel, the bronze cannon was completely completed.

Li Hu walked around the bronze cannon several times, and then said to the craftsman behind him: "Tighten the outside with iron hoops, and try to make it fire more times."

At the command, the craftsmen started working enthusiastically, regardless of whether it was reasonable or not.

Li Hu patted the big guy. Bronze has a low melting point, good ductility, tough texture, and is not prone to explosion. It is a high-quality material for casting cannons, but it is too expensive.

After everything is ready, you can test it. The artillery test should be done slowly. First, a small amount of gunpowder should be loaded and detonated, and then the amount of gunpowder should be increased continuously until the gunpowder and the shell are of equal weight!
After confirming that there are no problems, live ammunition tests can be carried out, and the White Lotus camp is the best target.

Li Hu waved his hand and pulled the big guy weighing more than 3,000 pounds to the open space in front of the camp.

Li Hu smiled and looked at the White Lotus sect members who were joining in the fun on the other side, and said to the gunner, "It's not clear from the ground, send them up to see."

Everyone laughed when they heard this.

The gunners adjusted their gun positions and aimed at the White Lotus camp. They first loaded gunpowder bags containing heavy gunpowder such as cannonballs into the gun barrels. Then several burly soldiers loaded solid projectiles weighing thirty to forty pounds, and finally pushed them solid with a ramrod.

Li Hu smiled and said, "I'll fire the first shot."

Wang Daniu and the other generals were shocked: "Marshal."

Li Hu waved his hand and said, "It's okay." Then he picked up a red-hot wire with pliers and inserted it into the vent at the rear of the gun barrel, then turned around and ran.

There was a loud bang that shook the earth, dust flew, flames and black smoke rushed up.

Li Hu rushed out of the smoke and dust while coughing.

Looking at the dusty Li Hu, everyone lowered their heads, fearing that they would not be able to hold back their laughter.

Li Hu took the cotton out of his ears. The sound was too loud and his ears were still buzzing.

Wang Daniu held back his laughter and came over to brush the dust off Li Hu's head and body.

Li Hu pushed him away and stretched out his hand, and immediately a personal soldier handed him a telescope.

Li Hu took the telescope and looked towards the White Lotus camp. He was stunned for a moment. Shui Rong's gate was actually safe and sound!

Chen Qiang spoke: "There is fire in the White Lotus camp"

Li Hu looked in the direction of the sound and saw a column of fire rising into the sky from the White Lotus camp. The distance must have been more than six miles.

The well-trained gunners got busy. Some used hooks to hook out the fragments of the gunpowder bag, and then others used felt sticks soaked in water to clean the barrel.

After a while, with a loud bang that shook the earth, a cannonball trailing a flame whistled towards the White Lotus camp.

Li Hu laughed and said, "Fire one shot, change direction, and piss Shui Rong off to death!"

Everyone started laughing again.

Li Hu's guess was correct. Shui Rong was indeed very angry, but he was powerless and could only stand in front of the central army camp and curse Li Hu. (End of this chapter)