Daqin Engineering Corps

The fact that the Qin army built a fortress on the top of the mountain meant that the Qin army came prepared, and had been here for at least a few days, but did not do anything until then.

If this is the case, Qin Jun will not want to escape, but is likely to stick to it.

So Maodun understood why the Qin army attacked the gunpowder workshop instead of the mine.

It's not hard to guess.

If the Qin army just sent a small team over to evacuate after the sneak attack, it should choose to blow up the mine. Only in this way can the Huns be unable to make gunpowder for a longer period of time.

But if the Qin army wants to stay there for a long time...the mine is always under its attack range, so why rush?So of course it was an attack on the gunpowder workshop.

What Mao Dun didn't understand was that the Qin army crossed the Yinshan Mountain alone and had few troops. How could they stay here for a long time?

He understood when he rushed to the top of the mountain surrounded by his personal guards.

The Qin army occupied the highest peak and built a fortress in a dangerous place, but the mountain was steep and the road was steep, and the Huns could not rush up even if there were many people. A group of only a few hundred people could attack upwards.

In this case, it can be said that as long as the Qin army still has arrows and supplies, the Huns have nothing to do with them.

Mao Dun immediately ordered the troops to stop attacking.

Usually in this situation, "surround but not attack" is the best countermeasure.

But after observing the terrain around him, Mao Dun immediately realized that it couldn't be surrounded at all...

The Qin army's supply line is at the rear, built on the cliff with ropes and rope ladders.

Unless the Huns can go around this cliff and cut off their supply lines.

But that's easier said than done.

Climb along the mountain cliff?

Or rely on ropes like Qin Jun?

That will only become the target of the Qin army's crossbow.

Another way is to build a new line of defense between the Qin army and the mine to prevent the Qin army from destroying it.

But after thinking about it, Mao Dun sighed and shook his head.

It won't make any sense.

Because just as Mao Dun analyzed before, the advantage of the Huns is not in sticking but in maneuvering.

If you want to use a large army to build a line of defense to protect the safety of the mine, wouldn't that be a solid defense?

How many people are appropriate?

Three thousand?

Five thousand?

even more?

Doesn't that give Qin Jun a definite target?

If the Qin army broke through from Langkou and outflanked this point, wouldn't it mean attacking these 5000 people from both sides?

Will Maodun save or not?

If they are rescued, they will become the main force in a face-to-face decisive battle.

If you don't save them, you will lose both mines and troops!

Therefore, the Xiongnu has its advantages in being good at maneuvering, and the Qin army also has its advantages in being good at offense and defense.

In the battle between the enemy and the enemy, it is important to see whether the general can grasp his own advantages and use his own strengths to attack the other's weaknesses.

In fact, what Shen Bing did was to firmly grasp the characteristics of the Qin army's strength in offense and defense, so that Maodun was in a dilemma.

Chapter 371 Acquisition

At the beginning, Maodun was a little bit reluctant, and asked the slaves to mine day and night, hoping to store more ore, and even Maodun had a glimmer of hope to keep the mine.

But two days later, Mouton was disappointed.

Because the Qin army's cities were built step by step, one by one, one by one.

Since the Qin army is good at attacking and defending but the Huns are very primitive in this aspect, why didn't the Qin army make full use of this?

Under Mao Dun's anger, he also organized several counterattacks.

But unfortunately all ended in failure.

Qin Jun's "step by step" is step by step and carefully considered.

The distance to advance is about [-] steps, and the villages are built in dangerous places.

About a hundred steps means that the camp behind can provide cover for the new camp, especially the trebuchet... The new trebuchet can adjust the weight to adjust the distance, so it is almost modern long-range artillery support.

As long as Xinzhai put up a few flags, the trebuchet would throw out a round of stone bullets, and the operators could repel the Huns time and time again without even seeing the enemy.

Mao Dun could only watch helplessly as the Qin army camp approached layer by layer, while the Xiongnu retreated step by step.

Then it didn't take long for the trebuchets in the Qin army's camp to hit the mine.

This also means that the mine is controlled by the Qin army.

Because at any time, as long as Qin Jun is willing, he can throw a few stone bullets, or even a few "thunderbolt fireballs" towards the entrance of the mine.

Mao Dun sighed helplessly, so he had no choice but to abandon the mine and evacuate the people.

It's not that I feel sorry for the lives of those slaves, but it's meaningless to go on like this. Even if I sacrifice the lives of the slaves, I can't mine much ore. Some of the slaves even secretly ran to the Qin army camp...

The Huns are dead anyway, so why not risk their lives and flee to the direction of the Qin army to survive?

This is actually a shortcoming of slavery. If a dog is in a hurry, he will jump over the wall and drive people to a dead end... Then rebellion will happen sooner or later.

Mao Dun was worried that the situation of the First World War in Wuyuan would reappear, so it was a wise choice to abandon the mine.

Zuo Xian Wang Ji Porridge suggested:

"Shan Yu, the reason we are losing now is because the Qin army took the commanding heights first."

"We can explore another mine, and then take the commanding heights first and build a village."

At the beginning, Mao Dun also felt that this was reasonable, but after thinking about it, he shook his head and denied it:

"If we occupy the commanding heights and build a stronghold, can we defend it like the Qin army?"

Ji Porridge wondered:

"The Qin army can hold it, so how can the Xiongnu warriors not hold it?"

Mao Dun gave a wry smile.

No wonder Ji Porridge would say this, he only said that the Huns warriors were braver than anyone else, even the Qin army was no exception.

Therefore, what the Qin army can do, the Huns must be able to do.

Mouton didn't answer and asked instead:

"If we build a stronghold and the Qin people use three-bow bed crossbows and trebuchets to attack, what should you do?"

Ji porridge was speechless.

The Xiongnu did not have a three-bow bed crossbow, nor did they know how to make trebuchets, so they could only use bows and arrows to fight far away even though they had a favorable geographical position.

At that time, although the Qin army was in a disadvantageous position below, the long range of the three-bow bed crossbow and the trebuchet could make up for it.

So as long as the Qin army has enough stone bullets and iron crossbow arrows, in principle, there is no city that cannot be broken.

The Xiongnu cavalry may be the king on the grassland, but fighting in the mountains...they are far inferior to the Qin army, especially when it is the offense and defense of the city.

After saying that, Mao Dun sighed and said:

"At least the mines in the Yinshan area will not belong to us."

"Unless we can find it in other places, otherwise...the only option is to exchange it with furs, cattle and sheep from the Central Plains."

Prospecting for mines in other places is just like what I said before, it is extremely difficult to prospect for mines in an open grassland.

So in the end, Maodun could only barter from the Central Plains.

Originally, Mao Dun thought that the exchange would be very difficult, because he thought that Shen Bing would try his best to prevent it, but he didn't expect that everything went smoothly, and although the price rose slightly, it was far from what he imagined.

This made Mouton heave a sigh of relief.

For him, being able to switch to it is no different from finding a mine and digging it himself, so he even gave up trying to continue prospecting.

Mao Dun didn't realize at all that he had actually fallen into a trap carefully set by Shen Bing.

It didn't take much effort for Shen Bing to abolish the mines found by the Huns.

In fact, it cannot be said to be useless. Those mines were bought by the Qin army with hundreds of soldiers and crossbow bolts in exchange for supplies. In any case, the cost should be recovered.

So it was immediately changed to be run by Qin Jun, organizing workers to cross the Yinshan Mountain to mine.

Since this job is more dangerous, the salary is of course higher than in Hetao.

In fact, Shen Bing had also considered the issue of stationing Yinshan.

When Zhao Guo Li Mu was stationed in this area, he had stationed the Great Wall in Yinshan Mountain, but most of them fell into disrepair for many years and some were not yet built.

If you want to prevent the Huns, the best way should be to suggest to Yingzheng to repair the Great Wall and connect the Great Walls of several countries into one piece like Meng Tian to keep the Huns out of the Great Wall.

But Shen Bing felt that he shouldn't be passively defensive at this time.

The result of this is that the Qin State was not destroyed by the Xiongnu but was intensified internally by laboring the people and wasting money.

On the other hand, at this time, the Qin army has the upper hand, and it is the Xiongnu, not the Qin army, that should be defending.

Shen Bing thinks that the more economical option is to unite with the Western Regions.

If the cavalry of the Western Regions can be used to defeat the Xiongnu, wouldn't the Qin army take advantage of the fishermen?

If it is said that it takes money to recruit cavalry from the Western Regions, compared with the construction of the Great Wall, it is simply a drop in the bucket.

What's more, these Western Region cavalry can create value themselves, such as seizing materials from the Huns, or escorting caravans heading to the Western Regions...

Besides, if we can unite with the cavalry from the Western Regions to push the battle line to the north of Yinshan Mountain, then who will the Great Wall around Yinshan Mountain be used to defend against?

Therefore, building the Great Wall was the next strategy. It was the helpless choice of Qin Mengtian who didn't know that there was a western region to use, and the Qin army, which was good at infantry, couldn't hunt down the Huns on the grassland.

Now that Shen Bing knew this, of course he had to have a different plan.

There are many things that the people of this age do not understand.

For example, Shen Bing's handling of gunpowder raw materials.

When Shen Bing blocked the Xiongnu mine, he thought that the Xiongnu must eventually return to the road of purchasing raw materials from the Central Plains.

So Mengliang immediately asked Mengliang to buy saltpeter, sulfur, etc., mainly in the border area with the Xiongnu.

After buying, they will be shipped to the Northland.

Fusu can understand this point, if these raw materials are almost bought by the Northland, then the Xiongnu can get less.

But what Fusu couldn't understand was that after Shen Bing bought these raw materials, he didn't go back far to the north, but sold them to the Xiongnu at a low price through merchants and folks on the spot.

Fusu couldn't help but wonder:

"Why is the general so supportive of the enemy?"

"If we sell the raw materials to the Xiongnu like this, why should we buy them? Why should we block their mines?"

Chapter 372 Control

What's more, Fusu also said:

"The general is now selling these raw materials to the Huns, and tomorrow they will be made into 'thunderbolt fireballs' by the Huns to fight against our army."

"Has the general considered our soldiers?"

Shen Bing didn't answer and asked instead:

"My lord, do you think that if I, Shen Bing, don't do this, the Xiongnu won't be able to get these raw materials?"

Fusu thought for a while, then replied: