On the fourth day of the first month, in the gloomy and cold Taihang Mountains, I can't see my five fingers. Even though they had made adequate preparations to avoid frostbite and even to prevent them from getting lost at night, the number of people in the group was only about thirty people, and most of them still felt the difficulties of the hidden march on the mountain road at night.

"Hold the cotton thread tied behind the waist of the person in front of you with your left hand, and use the spear with your right hand to watch your feet, don't fall behind! Backwards! Li Yi said to the people in front of him with this peculiar short spear like a cane, and walked at the back of the line.

Cheng Hai, who is more experienced in night walking, hangs with a unique long pole and covers it with wooden planks on three sides, and only the very unique lantern with a faint light on the side facing him advances.

In the night when there is not even starlight, it is too dangerous to move forward without lighting at all, and Zhang Lixin does not dare to gamble like this.

In this case, the speed of moving forward in the dark and carrying a lot of weight is much slower than that of ordinary walking. It took about two hours of trekking to estimate that it had advanced more than ten miles.

Perhaps in order to strengthen his courage, it was inevitable that someone would whisper at the beginning, but when he encountered this situation, Zhang Lixin immediately stopped and patiently taught and reprimanded. After all, the whole team was as silent as possible when moving forward.

Because they had done their homework during the day, had a more detailed understanding of the terrain and even the possible routes, and had some experience in night operations by Cheng Hai, Li Yi, Wang Wei and others, the whole team barely got lost.

When the surviving people recalled the past many years later, they realized how convenient this seemingly boring and difficult night walk in the dark had brought to the whole team.

After arriving at their destination, many people finally breathed a sigh of relief. People who couldn't hold back began to gossip.

"You know what you're doing? Don't say it's not a real fight, even if it's a night training, if there is a murderer hiding in the shadows who shoots arrows at you based on the sound of his speech. Even if you get close enough to blow arrows, it's not impossible that the entire team will be wiped out... ”

As a result of this rectification, the entire contingent also began to have a superficial awareness of "not speaking unless requested or in the enemy's situation during night training."

Carrying heavy trebuchet parts or heavy pottery bombs on their backs, under the dim light of several single-sided translucent lanterns, people practiced assembling small trebuchets and preparing them for launch under difficult conditions.

Under the guidance of Zhang Lixin, Wang Wei and others, the four selected people with outstanding understanding practiced how to use a wooden tube wrapped around the vertical line of the stone to judge the horizontal position, and reported the angle according to the relative height of the faint lantern light standing on the small hill surveyed during the day. And through the angle measurement of two different positions in the same direction, the distance of the target can be estimated in the state of actual combat requirements at night.

This requires the use of trigonometric functions, and Zhang Lixin actually can't remember much about trigonometric functions. However, when the artillery team was established in the Weiyuan Battalion, it took a lot of effort to make a one-zhang size model of the real ruler, and patiently measured the actual measurement, from 1 to 45 degrees, and the tangent of 30 scales between 2 degrees and 5 degrees were all familiar by heart, of course, the most core calculation should be completed at a relatively fast speed, and only Zhang Lixin could do it.

"12 degrees, 17 degrees angle, no, retreat! Behind! Retreat to within 5 degrees!" Zhang Lixin whispered. However, at this time, Zhang Lixin also suddenly felt that in order to effectively conduct operations at night, a set of sign language was still very necessary.

When the position was adjusted to the right and almost the same, under Zhang Lixin's request, everyone tried not to make a sound as much as possible, even if they were slow, and quietly completed the preparation of the portable trebuchet.

In this way, the whole preparation process took half an hour. However, Zhang Lixin believes that from the perspective of actual combat, the concealment of such operations is the first requirement, and it is worth taking even an hour to complete the preparations.

Zhang Lixin was not idle at this time, and also climbed up a wooden pole from the place where everyone had already laid out the soft soil pile in accordance with the requirements of the actual combat plan as close as possible, until he climbed to a height of about two zhang. And to carry out supplementary corrective tests and test firing with bows and arrows, and to practice the methods of observing and covertly shooting arrows at the enemy in such conditions.

As Zhang Lixin signaled with the clusterless arrows that had been used as signal markers, the slingers who had already completed the preparations for the launch had already erected white cross flags to indicate that the preparations were complete, and there was no problem.

Subsequently: After feeling the darkness to the person who had placed enough straw in the predetermined position to return, Zhang Lixin quickly signaled to launch the fire with the tuftless arrow shaft that shot directly at several launchers closer to it!

In this way, almost at the same time, the four young men, who were draped all over their bodies and carrying heavy earthenware bullet bags, hung their arms on the T-shaped bar at the front of the trebuchet, lifted their feet completely, and pressed down on the lever of the trebuchet with the force of their body weight. The aimer with the special pottery bombs released the hook, and twelve one-pound pottery bombs flew towards the target with the sound of the wind whistling in the night. And when it shattered and cracked, the charcoal containing it with a red glow flew in all directions.

The dry forage that had been laid out at the target location quickly burned under the splash of sparks, instantly illuminating many scenes near the target location.

Immediately afterwards, the trebuchet and the twenty people who operated the trebuchet no longer had much scruple to load and throw bombs, and when the short incense in the bamboo tube in the windshade was estimated to only burn for about two and a half minutes, when it was almost finished, the catapult, including the one prepared in advance, had completed sixteen rounds of projection, and more than 300 pottery bombs were fired.

When the people lit a bonfire near the target area under the leadership of Zhang Lixin, they saw a mess near the target area, an area of about three zhang longitudinally and twelve zhang horizontally. Most of the "big chopping wood" that was used as a target was smashed, and there was a wild wolf that was caught and put in a wooden box, although it was not smashed and killed on the spot, it was also broken bones and tendons smashed by pottery bullets through the wooden plank, and was dying...

At a projectile distance of 90 meters, a stone projectile with the energy power equivalent to a top human individual throwing a grenade, the effectiveness of smashing on the target is actually unreliable for some heavy defensive targets wearing armor and shields in Zhang Lixin's opinion--- unless you use a javelin or a lead bullet with a smaller attack area close to a catty.

However, if the target of breaking heavy protection is used as the standard, there is no doubt that the lethal output and effectiveness will be reduced. Zhang Lixin did not believe that targets such as the Hejian Zhongtun Wei Qianhu Institute would have those heavy targets of top-level protection in the era of cold weapons like the "foreign soldiers" in the early Ming Dynasty. Not to mention the lack of jingle themselves, this team has not many at all, from gunpowder to lead bullets.

Zhang Lixin said to the people who gathered to observe the effect of the attack at this time: "You may have seen group fights or weapon fights when you were in your hometown. People in real battle formations or actual battles cannot be like group fights or weapon fights, and in order to strengthen their courage, they are often next to each other. In order to facilitate the use of long soldiers and cavalry to advance and retreat freely, the scattered formation of one person within a radius of about one zhang is relatively loose. Even if the opponent we encounter is this kind of scattered density, the size of one person's projection is calculated according to the equivalent of a radius of about three feet, and the pottery bullet we shoot in a single stick of incense can severely damage more than 30 people. Killing and wounding thirty people in a short period of time is likely to defeat hundreds of them, even if they are highly skilled in close quarters and have firearms or bows and arrows. In the future, we have more than one trebuchet, and even if we don't replace it with iron bullets or buckshot bullets, we can thwart a hundred people in a few breaths, and even against hundreds in one battle. As long as we have strict discipline and training, this is the strength and combat effectiveness that all of us can burst out. ”

In this way, although people like Wang Wei, Cheng Hai and others who have some military experience and common sense can feel that some of them are too idealistic, the tension that exists in most people's hearts these days is gone.

In the following half a month, a total of 15 more such actual combat drills were conducted. Not only did they become more proficient at operating trebuchets at night, but they also learned how to cook with a simple cooking cart and dig a bunker for temporary shelter at night. Even how should the situation in crisis be dispersed, concealed, or even transferred.

Because there are also some morale-boosting, political evangelism, storytelling and other activities, the amount of work during the day has been reduced. But even so, because of the experience of carefully making the first trebuchet, Guo Carpenter led the team to select a few helpers who could help make the weight counterweight trebuchet a lot faster, and it only took about half the time to make the second trebuchet.

When he became familiar with many things, especially when a few helpers were not so amateur in the simplest of tasks, he made three or two weight-weighted trebuchets that had been tested and passed in the remaining nine days.

In the following 15 days, Zhang Lixin had no intention of "cherishing the fruits of his labor." In addition to those 15 drills, a total of 200 drills were conducted with different counterweight standards and different positions for the levers of the trebuchets. The ability of the trebuchet to continuously and accurately attack moving targets within a certain range, and the ability to move targets at closer or farther positions--- such as 16 zhang or 100 paces or so, also has a reference basis.

Of course, even with more than 20 days of preparation, the goal of attacking the Thousand Households of Hejian Fuzhong Tunwei Thousand Households is completely uncertain with these people. The most important thing is that there are so many people around him, and he is not sure that he will attract most of the other party to the position required at the head or corner of the city.

It's like infantry and artillery coordination: what if the offensive capability of infantry or direct-aim units is not strong enough, and the other side sends a few people or a dozen people to deal with errands? Therefore, it is impossible to maximize the success rate and not rely solely on the opponent to make the mistakes they expect from the opponent and not take risks.

Even: with suppressive firepower as the main striking force, the necessary risk of accidental injury must be beared. For example, even with firepower troops like the U.S. Army in World War II, about 10% of casualties are still from accidental injuries.

In the face of this pressure, Li Yi, who really understands some of the actual situation, seems to have some worries and frowns. In order to put an end to all kinds of hidden dangers, Zhang Lixin found that this kind of sign has always been an expectation to have a straightforward conversation with people.

"I'm guessing you're not entirely unsure about the operation we intend to undertake. Do you think such an action is not worth it? Not the best option for the team in the future? Or... Is there a problem with justice and the overall situation? ”

At this time, Zhang Lixin is no longer a few years ago, and he has just crossed over not long ago. After going through a lot of things, the ability to observe words and emotions has also become much stronger. "I understand, you and I used to be from the official army, and such a direct rebellion has a knot."

Hearing Zhang Lixin say this, and knowing Zhang Lixin's personality in general, Li Yi, who weighed it for a long time, finally decided to speak bluntly: "This time is different from the past, and there are rampant prisoners outside the border. If we're always fighting for the brothers, for some way out, that's fine. But if it grows in the future, it will need to deal with or even eliminate more officers and soldiers. Wouldn't that put the Tartars outside the gate in danger of becoming bigger? Let China have the same calamity as the previous dynasty? ”

Such words and views are not new to Zhang Lixin. What Li Zicheng and the other peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty became bigger, giving the foreign invaders the opportunity to delay Huaxia Yunyun. In the past, and even now, Zhang Lixin is not completely free of such concerns. However, in the Weiyuan Camp and the experience of the Battle of Fuzhou, Zhang Lixin had no other choice. Even if someone can stand out with their talent in this era, it is not something that a person like himself who has no relationship background can easily do it. In this era, if a time-traveler like himself does not have the natural "luck golden finger" and "plot power" that traditional literature will have, there is no other way out except to cling to the "thief" or pull the pole to rebel.

"If I'm not mistaken, you have been in the army in Liaodong since the end of Wanli, right? In all fairness, how has the face of the border army changed over the years? What is the situation in Liaodong? For example, today's officers and soldiers are compared to the time before and after Salhu... ”

"Even on the border, the guns and armor are still rotten. But at least the artillery is much more reliable, and the generals are more effective than before. There seems to be a lot more camp heads that can be beaten... "Li Yi participated in the Battle of Salhu that year, and also participated in the Battle of Fuzhou, even if the variable of Weiyuan Battalion is not included, the changes in the border army are obvious.

"That's it, a lot of times: with strong opponents and threats, it's possible to make some people brace a little bit like that. Therefore, I do not believe in any uprising that leads to external troubles. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang did not let the Xiongnu enter the Central Plains, the Yellow Turban Rebellion did not cause the Han family to lose the Western Regions, and the Yellow Nest did not bring the Yuan Dynasty hundreds of years in advance. If one day, the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty defeated the Ming army in the north and entered Beijing, but it could not deal with the Manchu Qing who entered the customs. Even the remnants of the Ming Dynasty united with the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, coupled with the possible shaving order to cause the vassal Jianzhou people to rebel against the water, can not be as unfavorable to the advantages of Jianzhou as in the south, and in favor of our local map, that can only show one problem: it is our nation, our culture itself has a problem. Even if we don't have the state, we still can't produce advanced industrial products, let alone any 'industrial revolution'--- only when we face a greater crisis than the state, a more advanced opponent, can there be some changes... ”

Zhang Lixin carefully observed Li Yi when he said these words, because some of these things could only be known by the traverser. However, Zhang Lixin didn't feel anything unusual from it after all.

"General! I understand it below! I am convinced that the general's career will change the fate of the people, and at the same time, it will also make China stronger... ”

"So, would you like to go to the city with me in person?" Zhang Lixin asked solemnly.

"I am willing to do it!"

Hearing such an answer without much hesitation, Zhang Lixin's heart relaxed slightly: a person with personal selfish thoughts and ambitions, whether he is a traverser or not, should not be able to face such a dangerous task without hesitation.