Chapter 279 Pull up my artillery
Daming Prefecture cannot be attacked by force, so we have to resort to strategy.

However, it would take some time to formulate a plan, so after Shandong was stabilized, Liangshan began to expand towards Cangzhou.

Cangzhou is an important military location. If it is not captured before winter, the enemy will surely move south when the Yellow River freezes and stops flowing.

By then, the north will be full of defensive loopholes and there will be no place to defend.

As for the border with Liao after taking Cangzhou, the Khitans are now unable to protect themselves under the attack of the orcs of the Jin Dynasty, so how can they have the strength to fight on two fronts?

Presumably, they would also like to see civil strife in the Song Dynasty to avoid losing Yanyun.

When heading north, the first person they have to face is Zhang Qing, the "Featherless Arrow" who is the defender of Dongchang Prefecture.

This man was quite resourceful. After Dong Ping was defeated by him, Wu Song, leading the Eighteen Tiger Guards and thousands of heavy infantry, still failed to gain any advantage and only captured two of his lieutenants.

Now Cao Jie personally led the troops to attack, and the vanguard was "Flower-necked Tiger" Gong Wang and "Tiger Shot by an Arrow" Ding Desun.

The two surrendered very quickly because Wu Song gave them so much.

Erhu was originally ranked only seventy-eighth or seventy-ninth among the Earthly Fiends, but after being blessed with the talent of "Subduing Tiger Arhat", his strength skyrocketed to the forefront of the Earthly Fiends.

Even the speed of cultivation increased by 50%.

Wealth and power are secondary. The increase in cultivation speed is a real and huge temptation!

For military generals, there is nothing greater than this temptation, how can they not surrender!

In order to gain merit, Erhu led the vanguard and headed straight for the city of Dongchang Prefecture.

Gong Wang, the "Tiger with Flowered Neck", has tiger stripes tattooed all over his body and a tiger head on his neck, and he can use a flying spear. Ding Desun, the "Tiger with an Arrow", has scars on his cheeks and neck, and he can use a flying fork.

These two tigers made up for the lack of medium and long-range combat power among the tigers under Wu Song's command.

When Zhang Qing, the "Arrowless" saw that his former deputy general had become someone else's vanguard, he flew into a rage and shouted from the tower:
"Gong Wang, Ding Desun, it's fine that you two don't want to be loyal to the country, but you actually led troops to attack Dongchang Prefecture. The flying stones in my hand are blind and will definitely take your lives..."

Gong Wang yelled at the top of his voice: "Zhang Dujian, a wise bird chooses a tree to roost in. Now that Zhao Song's national fortune has run out and the country is about to fall, why don't you surrender?"

"Humph! I, Zhang Qing, am here, so don't even take a step north! Last time I beat Wu Song, this time I'll beat the young Wei King Cao Jie."

Zhang Qing's voice was heard faintly, and immediately made Cao Jie's generals all furious:
"How shameless! Brother, let me take his head."

"I, Zhu Tong, will fight him!"

"I, Tie Niu, will not give you the credit for being the first to reach the summit. Eight hundred barbarian soldiers can't wait any longer."

"Brothers, don't be impatient. This man's flying stones are very sharp. Why should you use your short hand to attack his long hand?"

Cao Jie doesn't care about Zhang Qing at all.

Even in the original novel, he used his unique skill of flying stones to defeat fifteen Liangshan generals including Xu Ning, Yan Shun, Han Tao, Peng Qi, Xuan Zan, Hu Yanzhuo, Liu Tang, Yang Zhi, Zhu Tong, Lei Heng, Guan Sheng, Dong Ping, Suo Chao, and Lu Zhishen, and captured Liu Tang back to the city.

This kind of ability gives him an advantage in a fight between generals.

At this time, whether on the battlefield or in the martial arts world, if you want to avoid the enemy's bows and arrows, or hidden weapons, there are two ways. Either you wield your weapon so hard that even water cannot penetrate it, or you rely on your quick eyes and hands to stare at the enemy's hidden weapons as they are fired, and then either block them with your weapon or dodge with your body.

Although Zhang Qing's flying stones were not powerful enough to kill people, they could still cause bloodshed and dizziness if they hit the head. The enemy is good at this, so I won't fight you. What can your flying stones do to me?
"Pull up my artillery."

At Cao Jie's command, "Thunder" Ling Zhen, who was familiar with artillery, followed many artillerymen from the Thunder Department and pushed nine bronze thousand-jin cannons to the front of the position.

"King Wei, how do we fight?" Ling Zhen asked with a fist clasped.

He was good at shooting with thunderbolts and was very accurate. Now he changed to shooting artillery and he mastered it thoroughly in just one month. His skills were better than those of the experienced artillerymen who had been practicing artillery for more than a year.

This is talent!
Liangshan’s target’s eye and eagle eye!
"Even if Zhang Qing has reached the state of great spiritual perfection, he will be injured or even killed in the artillery fire. Let's attack the city gate first to give him a warning. If he refuses to surrender, it won't be too late to kill him later."

Upon hearing this, Gong Wang and Ding Desun secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Although they had surrendered, they still had some feelings for their old boss.

Zhang Qing was the garrison commander and military commander of Dongchang Prefecture, and he took great care of the two of them. He couldn't just watch his elder brother get killed by a cannon, so they all stepped forward and clasped their fists and said:
"King of Wei, once we have conquered Dongchang Prefecture, the two of us will go and persuade Zhang Dujian to surrender. If Zhang Qing surrenders, the entire Dongchang Prefecture will fall into King Wei's hands without any effort."

Cao Jie actually had the same idea. Even though he had nearly a hundred heroes under his command, there were actually only a few of them who could govern an entire city.

And Zhang Qing, the "arrowless man", is a talent who can be in charge of an entire city.

Don't say that he was originally one of the 108 generals. Even if he wasn't, it would be better if he surrendered.

"fire!"

After adjusting the angle, Ling Zhen gave an order and with a "boom" the heavy city gate of Dongchang Prefecture was shattered into pieces by the cannonball.

Zhang Qing was standing on the city wall looking at the tens of thousands of Liangshan rebels. He was already worried. At this moment, when he saw the city gate of his own city being blown to pieces by a cannon, his scalp went numb.

The Song Dynasty does have Thunderbolt Run, but not in the provincial capital!

Long-range attack, that is, using a catapult to throw large stones, the range of that thing is simply not enough to reach the enemy's position.

When Zhang Qing saw this scene, he knew that the situation was hopeless.

At this time, Gong Wang and Ding Desun took a few steps forward again, and their voices were heard on the tower: "Zhang Dujian, and brothers in the army, the Liangshan heroes are here to enforce justice on behalf of heaven, and will never harm the people. Think about your relatives at home, and think about those corrupt officials..."

"Now, brothers, I am serving as a vanguard under the command of the young King of Wei. Do you know how much the soldiers get in terms of food and wages? Five taels of silver per month, a full salary. After every battle, there are also subsidies..."

"Brothers, it's just a few bucks a year! Is it worth it to work for those corrupt officials?"

"Look at the power of the cannon just now. In a cup of tea, those shells will fall on the heads of our brothers."

"Zhang Dujian, are you willing to let thousands of your brothers die tragically? Are you willing to let tens of thousands of people suffer in war just for your own selfish reasons?"

At this time, the prefect and other officials in the city had already decided to surrender. Zhang Qing glanced at the civil servants who had hurried over, and with a ruthless heart, he decided to do something drastic and shouted:

"Brothers, we have captured the prefect and brought him to surrender. This is a great achievement."

"Zhang Qing, I'm going to fuck your ancestors for eighteen generations..." The prefect was tied up tightly and carried out of the dilapidated city gate by Zhang Qing's personal soldiers.

Zhang Qing rode his horse empty-handed to the front of Liangshan, clasped his fists and bowed, saying, "Zhang Qing is willing to surrender. Here are the prefect and all the officials in the city, big and small, captured and presented to the King of Wei!"

(End of this chapter)