However, due to Zhou Huaian's surprise, at the designated joint meeting of multiple departments, almost most senior executives and some leaders expressed more or less optimism about this military operation of a partial division breakthrough, which formed a sharp contrast with Zhou Huaian's expected prudential and hesitation.

Even Fan Chuo, the chief of the Judicial Office, who has always been relatively calm and down-to-earth and rarely made a statement easily, said that he could squeeze out some resources under the existing operational foundation to help end the war in Hedong as soon as possible. Zhou Huaian then knew that their optimistic attitude came from good news.

Just two days ago, the mining department reported from Hunan Road: During the mining process of Daye open-pit (iron) mine in Yongxing County, Ezhou, more accompanying copper veins were found; based on the discovered parts and the initial furnace trials, it is inferred that a rough ingot production capacity of about 800,000 kilograms can be provided every day.

The positive and prospects brought by this news are enough to issue additional military bonds with an annual profit of 25% (paid for the current year) on this basis, with a total of 3 million to 5 million yuan; it is more than enough to convert the military expenses prepared for the corresponding battle.

After all, compared with the past dynasties where technology was backward and production efficiency were inefficient, the Taiping Army has mastered relatively cheap mining, smelting and casting technologies. As long as explosives are used to blast the surface slabs, they can use scaffolding and conveyor belts to excavate layer by layer.

Then it is crushed into a machine with a hydraulic or steam nearby, and then sent into a built coke reactor, and filter out copper liquid and impurities with higher melting points in turn; finally, use hydraulic power or make the pressure roll into a plate in the forging machine of steam, and then roll into a mold to form a stack of money samples.

In this way, mining, smelting, casting, and eliminating the corresponding labor, fire consumption, materials, and transportation costs, the pure profit of a pound of rough ingots is seven or eight hundred cents. Although most of them will be allocated internally to continue the industrial production of copper materials; the remaining part is still enough to correspond to the upcoming redemption requirements for two or three periods.

By the same token, using this expected income as a guarantee and mortgage is enough to leverage the power of commercial capital in the south to the private sector; for a fee, it is required to undertake the task of purchasing and transporting designated materials, as a supplementary force besides official bulk production and transportation.

Therefore, although the current transportation capacity under the Taiping Army has not yet been restored to its heyday in the Tang Dynasty, it can be divided into two-and-six million dan of chestnut rice, beans and wheat transported to Beijing twice a year; however, by expanding the shipping capacity of Hou Shangzhou-Wuguan Road/Danshui still maintains a monthly transportation volume of at least 300,000 to 400,000 stones per month.

In addition, through the reprocessing of grain and agricultural and sideline products, it becomes the form of portable products such as cakes, cakes, noodles, baits, balls, canned food, etc., which improves the utilization rate and cost-effectiveness ratio of the corresponding products; therefore, it not only provides the necessary requirements for the restoration of production in Gyeonggi Province and the states in Gunan, but also has some spare energy to support the military operations in Gunan.

With the order of the Grand Commander, the supplementary camps and Minzhuang, which immediately set off from various assembly points in Gyeonggi Province, as well as many hoarding sites such as Xiwei Cang, Yongfeng Cang, Lantian Military Cang and Chang'an Taicang Office, transferred grain, fodder, materials and equipment. The military forces scattered in the northern part of Guan'an Road were once again mobilized with all their strength.

Outside Linfen City, the most difficult and critical moment was also encountered on the earth platform of the brigade of the Taiping Hedong Counterattack Army. In front of him, the ramp was filled with entangled bodies of people and horses and broken swords, guns and spears; the ground that was full of blood became soft, slippery and muddy.

Even his robe and armor were splashed with blood and sporadic meat, which was the product of the waves of enemy forces being bombarded with large guns and short-barrel cannons at close range. However, the Hedong vassal cavalry who had already broken into the camp were still rushing towards him as if they had recognized him.

The trenches arranged in layers of outer areas, horse-repellent walls, and earth-buildings were filled with and hit by the bodies of men and horses. A large and small gap was spread out in this area surrounding the Central Army's Crown and the flag battlefield, a large and small fan radiant wheel ring was laid out.

The several earthen platform cannons shrouded in a mist behind him, and even watered the cannon chambers could not cool down immediately. Instead, several people were killed or injured due to overheating. The remaining members of the cannon team could only hurry up and pick up muskets and swords and join the front-line formation battle.

However, at this point, except for the reinforcements from the south and west of the city, they were divided into several teams that could only fight on their own. As the attack on the general Ge Congzhou had already attacked the city, the other part of the troops that were particularly fierce in the battle had not returned to the rescue for a long time.

Meng Kai, holding a half-slit hook spear, could not hide his fatigue and his body twitching, but he still stood like a mountain among the pile of corpses; but the left arm around him had already collapsed and his whole body was like the head of a personal soldier soaked in blood, but he was still trying hard to persuade him:

"Master, the guys can't hold on for long, so they'd better retreat for a while and lean against the city to form a formation... Otherwise, they'd really be left here..."

"No withdrawal is allowed without orders."

Meng Kai twitched unmovedly and said, "I'm not sure if I'm going to be too hard."

"Since I have received the military order, as long as I can still stand, I will not allow the enemy to step one step away."

"Mengtou, let me wait to win the front line for you. Only when you are alive can you have a way out. Only when you are useful can you have more thoughts!!"

Another old man with his eyes blinded, but he raised his sign and swung a flying arrow and hissed and persuaded again:

"No, I will follow the Central Army's Crown and nail it to the last moment..."

Meng Kai shook his head expressionlessly again and said: after this step, he was already free from joy or sorrow and even had some enlightenment. Perhaps the best result of his first formation death here. In this way, the remaining old brothers can better integrate into the new dynasty, instead of having a little unnecessary thought.

As his vision passed through the camps with fireworks, the Hedong cavalry who gave up their mounts and turned into infantry war lost the advantages of impact and maneuverability, but also greatly reduced the killing effect of the firearms' radiation.

Therefore, in the battles of close combat, the thrown grenades became powerful. However, when the grenades were exhausted, they became the place where the traditional swords and spears were defeated again;

At one point, the camp outside the city was filled with a large number of reorganized soldiers and auxiliary soldiers, and they would inevitably fall into a disadvantage and retreat step by step; so much so that even the wait-in-time civilians had to pick up swords and add to the forefront of the match.

If Meng Kai had not kept a few small cannons before and bombarded his momentum with scattered guns at critical moments, he would have been driven away by these enemy forces early on. However, the strength, spirit and quantity of these enemy troops would not be endless.

Therefore, he also seems to have a sense of intuition and feeling that as the enemy attacked from afar, he should have been tired and declining since the long battle. The next battle for victory depends on who can persist for a longer time and drag the opponent into a disadvantage and weakness.

At this time, a few violent explosions suddenly came from afar, and then they turned into loud noises and shouts in the main formation of the central army: "The No. 3 artillery base in the left wing has also been lost..."

However, as the east side, it was a high platform base that responded to and reached the corner of the formation. In the end, under the Hedong soldiers' back and forth attacks, the death soldiers with an axe hammer broke the barrier and broke into it; and the gunpowder in the detonation artillery block exploded into a huge cloud of smoke with blood rain.

At the same time, there were also people around Li Siyuan, the general manager of the South Road, who was supervising the battle outside the camp, who was trying hard to persuade him, but the commander of the left horse army, who was dyed red with a robe and armor. Li Sien (Luo Yangxing), the governor of Yizhou, said with a loud voice:

"Brother, let the men slow down, and if they continue to fight, there will be no one left. What hope will be expected in the future?"

"The general manager, the men have been attacking until now, and the water and rice have not yet been upgraded. I'm afraid they will be exhausted."

Another vanguard envoy, Kang Junli, who had retreated from blood, also gasped and agreed with a rough voice:

"That's why we have to keep fighting..."

However, Li Siyuan's expression was as firm as iron and cold as a stone:

"You must slow down, but if you want the thief army in the city to recover, there is nothing to expect! Can these people who attacked the enemy camp still escape unscathed?"

"It's not a pity for those vassal cavalry to die, so I sent Zhengxu soldiers to go there. Zhengxu soldiers were not enough to be used, so I took my own personal troops up. Even the thief soldiers outside the city could not break through, so how could they win in the future!"

"If you can't even stick to the only chance to win at the moment, what's the use of adding more people and equipment in the future? If you don't realize it, you will hand over your respective troops and horses, and I will lead all of them to the top..."

"After my order, the central army moved forward five hundred steps, entered the enemy camp, and shared with the soldiers of the army..."

Before he could finish his words, he slowly advanced and pressed forward as the large number of flags that moved one after another; but several obvious roars suddenly came from the direction of the city. However, some people in the city took all their troubles to bring heavy artillery to the wall and began to support the battle in the camp outside the city.

Although there were only a few cannons, the bombardment of the enemy forces crowded with clusters of scattered outside the last few towers still burst into pieces of blood-colored ravines; and the Hedong Army, which was attacking the incoming Hedong Army, was repelled and dispersed again in the uproar.

However, this strengthened Li Siyuan's determination to take all his might. He raised the sword in his hand and pointed at the largest tower. The still swaying Dou Daqing Banner said to the generals on both sides:
Chapter completed!