The telescope, which is a big killer, not only has great military strategic value, but also the emergence of the telescope is a multiplier of scientific progress, which can allow people to observe astronomical phenomena more clearly.

At the same time, after the advent of telescopes, it became possible to make microscopes, and microscopes can observe microscopic phenomena, so that people in this era can see with their own eyes what is called cells and what is called fine microorganisms, which is extremely important for the development of medicine and even chemistry and physics.

Therefore, Li Xuan quickly looked for craftsmen who could create concave and convex mirrors among the many craftsmen in Xingquan Mansion and Liping Mansion, and after some investigational searching, he finally found a glasses craftsman, and the glasses craftsman was naturally the only talent who could polish convex and concave mirrors in this era!

The spectacle maker, Fang Long, was soon recruited into the Royal Academy of Sciences to polish more precise convex and concave lenses to make telescopes.

In these years, to make telescopes or microscopes, high-purity transparent glass was needed, but in today's Tang Dynasty, this kind of transparent glass cannot be made, so it can only be replaced by natural crystal.

Well, the lenses used in the glasses of this year are not actually made of transparent glass, but natural crystal!

That's right, it's expensive natural crystals!

Because it is made of natural crystal, and crucially, the lens used in the telescope has relatively high requirements for multiples, which requires skilled craftsmen to carefully polish and manufacture high-precision convex and concave mirrors.

In this way, the cost is so high that Li Xuan feels pain!

The glasses craftsman Fang Long was busy for several months, and the waste of crystals was enough to bankrupt a middle-class landlord family, and the glasses craftsman Fang Long was so stressed that he once wanted to commit suicide, because he wasted so many expensive crystals, let alone buy him, and his whole family was not enough to buy a fraction, he was very worried that he would not be able to make the lenses used in the telescope, and finally his family would be harmed.

But the hard work paid off, Fang Long tried various grinding processes repeatedly, and finally succeeded in grinding out the high-precision lenses required for the telescope, so the Tang Dynasty, and even the world's first telescope was born!

The magnification of this telescope is not very high, only four times!

However, even so, it is of great strategic significance for the optical development of the Tang Dynasty and even the entire human race, and this is not only the strategic significance of military applications, but also represents that the scientific development of mankind will enter a big step in the near future.

This small progress in the field of optics of the Tang Dynasty will be able to directly promote mankind to take a big step forward in many fields such as astronomy and biology!

When this monocular quadruple telescope was made, Li Xuan simply played with it himself, and immediately sent it to Hao Bonian.

At the same time, several new research projects were established in the Royal Academy of Sciences, such as optical lenses, microscopy, astronomy, etc.

The research and development of optical lenses is the foundation, and the latter are applied disciplines.

The main purpose is to continue to specialize in the technology of polishing convex and concave mirrors, and make technical preparations for the manufacture of microscopes, military telescopes and even high-magnification astronomical observation telescopes in the future!

Fang Long, the glasses craftsman who successfully built the first telescope, became the vice president of the Royal Academy of Sciences in one step, and began to tackle the field of optics with a group of his apprentices.

At the same time, Li Xuan did not forget the research and development of transparent glass and mirrors, and continued to pay attention to the glass project in the Royal Academy of Sciences and invest funds, but this thing needs to be constantly tested in order to truly fire qualified transparent glass and mirrors

In a short period of time, Li Xuan couldn't see transparent glass, especially the birth of mirrors!

After this monocular was sent to Hao Bonian, not to mention that Li Xuan specially instructed him to pay attention to secrecy, even if Li Xuan didn't give orders, he realized the huge military strategic value contained in this thing.

And today, it is the first time that the telescope has officially appeared on the battlefield!

Using the telescope, although they were located five or six hundred meters away, they could clearly observe every move of the Ming army camp opposite, especially some of the Ming army's relatively hidden fortifications, such as the bowl mouth cannon hiding behind the wooden fence and only exposing a cannon muzzle, which were clearly visible.

And all this information was written down one by one!

Next, this information will be passed on to the Second Artillery Battalion, where the eleven heavy guns in the Second Artillery Battalion will carry out point-and-point artillery bombardment on these Ming army's concealed gun positions to destroy their artillery power.

After receiving the relevant information, Butcher Chen, the battalion commander of the Second Artillery Battalion, grinned and said: "Let General Hao rest assured, my old Chen is absolutely authentic, and when the artillery is set up, my old Chen will personally command it, and I will definitely destroy the artillery of these thieves!" ”

After so long under Xie Ziwei's hands, Butcher Chen finally came out, although his cultural level is still not high, but he has a clear understanding of some of the knowledge required by artillery, and he is barely able to write a very straightforward letter to his family.

This Chen butcher is also the only one among the many bandit generals of the older generation who will devote himself to learning and is willing to give up the promotion that originally seemed bright.

And now, he's finally made it through!

When the artillery battalion was divided into two, he naturally became the battalion commander of the second artillery battalion, with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Now the Second Artillery Battalion under his command temporarily has three artillery teams, the first team has five 500-jin guns, the second team has six 800-pound guns, and the third team has four old guns ranging from 300 jin to 500 jin captured from the Ming army.

In addition to artillery, his 2nd Artillery Battalion had two artillery convoys.

Although the Second Artillery Battalion has only more than 10 artillery pieces, in fact the Second Artillery Battalion is quite large, with more than 600 troops and nearly 200 horses.

Otherwise, the commander of the artillery battalion would not have surpassed the commander of the infantry battalion and led the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The artillery positions of the Second Artillery Battalion are divided into two places, one is the position where the old guns with a relatively close range are located, and this position is expected to move forward to a distance of 200 meters from the Ming army camp.

However, the artillery position of the eleven cannon heavy guns will be erected about 350 meters away from the Ming army camp, which can ensure a safe distance and at the same time pose a deadly threat to the Ming army!

The first 350-meter fort was quickly constructed, and the fort of this era could not be very professional, in fact, it was just a simple small earthen high platform, and there were bags of sand piled up in front of the muzzle to resist the enemy's artillery attack, and it was also used to resist the enemy's infantry and cavalry charges, and served as the last line of defense.

If necessary, the artillery battalion's own musketeers and spearmen will line up in front of the artillery, and some spear infantry will be placed near the artillery position to protect them.

If the Ming army wants to attack this battery, they must pass through the blockage of the front-line infantry team, and at the same time need to rush through the scattered fire of the artillery itself, then the interception of the infantry phalanx protecting the artillery, and finally come to the front of the artillery position, and also need to fight with the musketeers and spearmen of the artillery battalion itself, and when they break through these layers of barriers, they can completely destroy this artillery position.

Almost every Ming army that fought with the Tang Army, their generals would immediately have the idea of destroying the artillery positions of the pseudo-Tang Thief Army, but most people often gave up this plan as soon as they saw this kind of strict protection.

The only exception was during the Battle of the Tonggu Acropolis, when the Ming army relied on cavalry to launch a charge, but these Ming cavalry still failed to break through the flank infantry phalanx of the Tang Army, so as to kill in front of the artillery position.

So the artillery positions seem to have very poor self-protection capabilities, but in fact they are under the protection of the whole army!

After all, when fighting, except in extreme cases, few generals will leave these precious guns unprotected.

After the first artillery position was constructed, five 500-pound guns of the First Artillery Corps and six 800-pound guns of the Second Artillery Corps in the Second Artillery Battalion were pushed onto the batteries by the artillerymen one after another.

This earthen fort, which was originally located on a low earth slope and was temporarily several meters high, was seven or eight meters high from the ground, which was enough to make the artillery here condescending and attack any target within the effective firing range, including various Ming army defense facilities in the Ming army camp.

At this time, Butcher Chen personally went to the fort, holding a small book marked with various parameters on one side, and arranging tasks for the artillerymen under his command on the other.

"The first team will first clean up the wall and gun emplacements on the east side, and the second team will clean up the wall and gun emplacements on the west side, and after cleaning up, extend the artillery bombardment to the depth behind the wall!"

Butcher Chen said to several artillery officers under his command: "When the army can launch a general attack depends on when we can clear their artillery and wall!" ”

After the order went down, Butcher Chen immediately ordered: "Free shelling!" ”

After giving the order, Butcher Chen naturally did not ignore it, but continued to write and draw with the small notebook in his hand, and from time to time he was talking to a few artillery officers around him.

This time the shelling process will be a long-term continuous shelling, according to his own estimates, at least a few hundred shells, so as to completely clean up the Ming army's walls, gun emplacements and arrow towers and inflict maximum damage on the Ming army within a limited range.

In this shelling process, it is naturally necessary to make timely adjustments according to the effect of the shelling.

A few minutes later, the first 800-pound artillery that had been loaded and aimed first let out a roar, announcing the bombardment of the Ming army camp by the heavy artillery unit of the Tang Army!

A solid ball iron projectile of about four catties and nine taels soared out of the muzzle, and then drew a curved arc in the air and flew towards the Ming army camp!

The shell landed exactly outside the wall of the Ming army's camp more than 350 meters away, first hitting the ground fiercely, then bounced off the ground, and finally hit the wall of the Ming army's camp in front of it.

Suddenly, sawdust flew sideways, and the screams sounded at the right time!