Chapter 14: Blazing Flames in the Valley

After Zhang Mai left, Yang Yi followed him. When he came out, he saw Zhang Mai seemingly talking to Yang Xin. He thought Zhang Mai and Yang Xin had already recognized each other, so he didn't ask any more questions, just said, "If you have the chance, I want to see your marksmanship."

As the commander-in-chief of the Beiting battlefield, Yang Yi could not stay in this village for too long. Guo Shiyong and Murong Chunhua had been urging him in the rear. Yang Yi led his personal soldiers back. Before leaving, Xi Weinan asked about the offense and defense of the west bank of the Wuzai River. Yang Yi said: "I knocked a stick from Satuk, and it will take a few days to come back to his senses. Although Beiluntai City has reserved elite troops, I don't want to transfer it here. But now there are only five big villages left in the west as their main business, and this little force is not enough."

Guo Wei said: "Before the Wuzai River is dry, if you defend, you can call militias to help defend, use militias to defend the village, patrol the river, and the five villages to attack, guerrillas, attack the tough and break the sharp edges, which should be enough to get the attack of the Uighurs in the west."

"Minister?" Yang Yi said: "Now I'm going to the battlefield directly. It's okay for militia to defend the city, but it's easy to collapse in field battles. This is because I have not used militias on the outer third ring road so far."

Guo Wei said: "When he was in Liangzhou, there were 3,000 militias who had been trained for several months, and they were quite able to cooperate with our troops' offensive and defense. After arriving in Gaochang, the marshal handed me another 3,000 people, and he had been training for more than a month and could be responsible for logistics. If the governor allowed me, please let me transfer those 3,000 people into the middle reaches of the Wuzai River."

Yang Yi pondered for a moment and said, "Okay, I will hand over the middle reaches of the Wuzai River and the eastern upper reaches to you."

He immediately issued an order to mobilize the 6,000 militias from the Second Ring Road. Guo Wei obtained this group of power and piled up soil for more than 20 miles north and south of the middle section of the Wuzai River. In a few days, he piled up hundreds of muds of more than one person high, allowing militias to enter and exit behind the mud, so that the enemy could not measure the depth and form a raft as a floating bridge, so that soldiers could move forward and retreat more easily, making it more convenient for the two villages in the middle of the Wuzai River.

However, he led Mingwei Mansion to the bank of Baiyang River, and even had conflicts with the Uighurs' vanguard several times. Yang Xin's subordinates had become a formal team leader. Every time he attacked, he always rushed to the front and killed many Hui Hui!

Seeing that the offense and defense of the Wuzai River had changed drastically. From the fact that it piled up soil and built a base, it seemed to be to strengthen defense, but from the fact that it was building a floating bridge, it seemed to be to facilitate the attack. The Tang army's intention was not visible for a moment. It was believed that Yang Yi adjusted his tactics, so he did not dare to attack from here.

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If you cross the Wuzai River and continue to go east, the fast horse can reach Beiluntai City in the first half of the day without stopping. Beiluntai City guards a plain dozens of miles behind it. There are military camps of the Tang army everywhere. There may be militias in the barracks, herders who have not retreated to Gaochang, farmers who have farmland, or materials hidden. Going south, you will reach the Tianshan Mountains. In a valley where the Uighurs and Khitans cannot enter, flames are emerging at this moment!

This valley is about eighty miles away from Beiluntai City. On the outside, there is a two-tall fence that completely seals the entrance of the entire valley. There are militia patrols on the outside and no herders can be allowed to be approached by farmers. If soldiers want to enter, they must have a general or a token issued by Yang Yi himself.

Even the residents living nearby were all the Guabei Hundred Tents, who were loyal to the Tang Dynasty. Some people saw the red flames that occasionally emerged from the valley, and secretly criticized them as the occasional thunder sounds from the valley. However, they had already received the warning from the patriarch: no rumor or discussion about this matter!

What exactly are you doing in the valley?

That day, Zhang Mai came back from the west bank of the Wuzai River and arrived directly here.

At this time, the valley was in charge of Murong Qiuhua, a general of the Tang army, who had a foundation in military mathematics. He was originally good at literature because Murong Qiuhua was very skilled in martial arts, so he was arranged to do government affairs at first. Later, because Shule needed to defend the city, he was "temporarily" borrowed to preside over the gunner's acquisition. Unexpectedly, Murong Qiuhua could not come back from then on. He has been responsible for major defenses in various places for several years. Yihei, Gaochang and Beiting wars. He himself became more and more sophisticated in various equipment and military mathematics. In addition, he has a military mind. Now he has become the leader of the Tang Army's instruments and fortifications.

The Tang army's fortifications troops were originally responsible for the "militia". They were the auxiliary of regular troops. Regular government soldiers must be proficient in at least infantry, cavalry and bows, while the instrument fortification troops do not necessarily require strong martial arts. Therefore, the regular government soldiers did not say anything about this army, and they actually looked down on them and did not think that they could be compared with themselves - this was very normal in the era of cold weapons.

However, Zhang Mai attached great importance to this army. Some of the militias in this army are becoming more and more proficient in their skills. Although they are still not good at martial arts, they have developed a skill in ballistic accuracy, instrument physics, gunpowder control, etc. These functions are considered by some old-school soldiers and generals, not as orthodox martial artists, but Zhang Mai doesn't think so. He let all skilled people escape from the militia organization and re-establish a mansion, which is called fortification soldiers, and they have soldiers and generals, but their treatment and promotion system are different from Modao and Tang cavalry.

At this time, more than a thousand fortification soldiers gathered in this valley of Tianshan Mountain, and there were thousands of trained militias. Fortification soldiers had a skill, while militias had to obey the command of the fortification soldiers for assistance, such as pulling ropes, moving stones, etc.

In addition to fortification soldiers, there are also a large group of instrument scholars and alchemists surrounding Murong Qiuhua, paying attention to the experiments in front of him.

The equipment scholar is headed by Ningyuan mechanic master Sadi. He originally had a group of disciples. With the strong support of Zhang Mai over the years, he recruited students, promoted the various equipment principles inherited from the Far West, and cultivated a group of students. Many of Archimedes' inventions have been transformed by this group, and Sadi's own inventions have also appeared one by one in front of people with the support of Zhang Mai.

The alchemist was headed by Khalid, the director of the Dihuang Pavilion. Western alchemy and Eastern alchemy are the two major sources of modern chemistry. They are all about how to turn this thing into another through chemical reactions. However, before meeting Zhang Mai, Khalid was inevitably immersed in the dream of refining gold and refining elixirs. However, after Zhang Mai's guidance, he changed his path and applied the knowledge of chemical reactions to commercial production and military weapons. Khalid himself had not deep academic foundations and was soon surpassed by some younger alchemists and even his students. However, Khalid had a high management ability, so he still firmly controlled the leadership of the Dihuang Pavilion.

At this time, they and Murong Qiuhua were watching a new weapon invention. It was a weapon created by combining the forces of Sadi and Dihuang Pavilion according to Zhang Mai's description. The main body of the weapon was a long iron cylinder with a round bullet placed inside, ready to be pushed with the explosive power of gunpowder. This thing is the "cannon" in Zhang Mai's mind!

But his description was that Sadie really created this thing, but it was very different from what he imagined. It was not only much clumsy, but also much huge. What about its power?

"Ah! The Marshal is here!"

Everyone hurriedly greeted him, and Zhang Mai said, "Don't worry about me, you guys continue." He stood aside.

In the past few years, although Zhang Mai has invested huge investment in the research and development of firearms, the results of the output have been pitifully small. If Zhang Mai had not been persisting, he would have been rejected by some old-fashioned generals long ago. They have calculated the "false" expenses that have been spent were enough to build a cavalry unit of 5,000 people!

But Zhang Mai was enjoying it in this direction, which made many mature and steadfast generals and ministers unable to help but shake their heads secretly, and even said in secret: "Qin Shihuang, Emperor Wu of Han, is so wise and magical, and he is still superstitious about gods and immortal medicines. After all, the marshal is not perfect, and it is normal to have a small flaw."

Among the entire army, only Xue Fu and Guo Luo could continue to support Zhang Mai's decision.

At this time, Zhang Mai Rang was on the side, including him, and everyone was far away from the "cannon". He connected the fuse three meters away with gunpowder, and then ignited it by a fortification soldier. After the fortification soldier was ignited, he ran away quickly.

The gunpowder was burning with a silence, getting closer and closer to the cannon, and finally arrived...

"What will happen?" Zhang Mai thought, even if the cannon is clumsy, it only takes...

He suddenly stopped this idea because after the fuse burned in, the "cannon" did not move!

"It's dead again!" Khalid frowned and pointed at Sadie and said, "Did you design the small hole that leads the gunpowder without ventilation?"

Sadie couldn't help but be furious when he heard Khalid make the mistake on his head, but before he could turn back, he suddenly rumbling loudly! The huge iron tube exploded, and many iron fragments were blown up and shot out. The fortification soldiers who had been prepared next to him quickly hid behind the shield, and someone erected a felt that could block the arrows to prevent the flying fragments from hurting Zhang Mai.

Zhang Mai was quite disappointed when he thought about it. The principle of cannon was actually very "simple", but if it was really done, why was it so difficult? This was because it invested in the national power of the Tiance Army and gathered the world's first-class equipment masters and alchemists!

However, if you want to gain a long-term foothold in the Western Regions, hot weapons are necessary. Even though the Tang cavalry is powerful, the era of cold weapons relies more on physical strength rather than intelligence. How long can this nation maintain its advantage over foreign races by relying solely on swords and horses?

"Persevere, how long will it take!" Zhang Mai said to himself. He knew that science and technology sometimes is a process of quantitative change causing qualitative change.

"Keep working hard!" He cheered the fortification soldiers and equipment scholars and alchemists.

At this time, Khalid came over and said, "Marson, I think it's better to develop refining bombs."

Refining bombs are improved by a student named Pheles of Khalid. In principle, it is to refine oil to an extremely flammable level, then put it in a cylinder the size of a wine bottle, and designed to ignite it, and then it is ejected, and it will explode when it hits the ground or hits the enemy. The splashed refining will instantly turn into pervasive flames to swallow the enemy.

The prototype of this refining bomb, the Black Fire Water bottle, was used in Shule, but it was just a temporary device. Before the war, women had to pour Black Fire Water into the bottle. Khalid's students improved it. The fuze pipeline to the production process was improved a lot, making the bomb more convenient for storage and carrying. He also separated the production process so that this refining bomb could be produced on the assembly line.

The appearance of this weapon was not within Zhang Mai's expectations, but Guo Luo saw its power, so he specially established workshops in Shule and Ningyuan. Some places in the Western Regions have abundant oil, and making refining bombs is a good and cheap choice. In the past two years, more than 100,000 have been produced, and now tens of thousands have been transported to Beiting. It is a powerful weapon for the Tang army to defend the city. Sometimes it can be used in field battles. In order to cooperate with the use of refining bombs, a machine scholar under Sadi has developed a small throwing machine. This throwing machine is just the size of a bench and is very light, and can be used by one person, or even tied to the buttocks of a horse. The objects thrown out by this throwing machine are not very penetrating, but if combined with refining bombs, it can be ejected dozens of steps away, which is also a very practical combat tool.

However, Zhang Mai has never been optimistic that these are obviously weapons with craft improvements. Although he knows that they are useful at this stage, based on his existing experience, he feels that these weapons do not seem to be directed towards the direction of mainstream hot weapons. His combat philosophy still must be coordinated with infantry and cavalry, and cannot replace infantry and cavalry. At this stage, he does not deny the role of these weapons, but the center of gravity he expects is not here.

“Huhu——”

Fire dragons were sprayed out of the air, which was filled with iron pipes with gunpowder and oil. After ignition, flames were sprayed out. This flame tube would be very useful if used in defending the city, but it was still far from Zhang Mai's expectation - the musket.

"Use the bursting power of gunpowder to eject the iron bomb..." Sadie thought Zhang Mai's idea was very good. He also led the students to make one, but the thing he made was a reduced version of the cannon. The place used to ignite the gunpowder was a big ball of fist. In the end, although the iron bomb was shot out, it only shot more than a dozen steps and was not penetrating at all.

"It is better to shoot out flames than to shoot out iron bullets!" Sadie concluded at the time, so there was the fire dragon spear that is currently here.

That was an experiment that had failed half a year ago. At this time, Zhang Mai thought of the musket when he saw the Fire Dragon Spear.

It seems that Sadi and others have made new improvements in the past six months, but the direction is still inconsistent with what Zhang Mai thought, and it seems that the new firearm is not hoped to be used in this Beiting war.

"Refining bombs... Fire Dragon Gun..." These are of course also useful, but these weapons are not like the real guns and cannons envisioned by Zhang Mai. If they really want to exert their power, they need to be very restricted in their application situations.
Chapter completed!