When Cao Bianjiao finally led a large number of cavalry, braving the pouring rain, to the place where Chen Yiti's troops died in battle, those Maguindanu natives had already withdrawn.

Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info On this land where there was once a fierce battle, the blood that was originally scattered everywhere has been washed away by the rain, leaving only a headless corpse, half-sinking and half-floating in the muddy water everywhere.

Cao Bianjiao's teeth were gritted, and his face was almost distorted with anger.

With a sad face, he threw his head up at the sky, and roared like a wolf.

His mournful roar soon disappeared completely in the continuous rain, and it was almost inaudible.

The whole army was like a puppet, sitting like a puppet in the heavy rain.

Our army is defeated!

This defeat can be called the biggest defeat since the Tang Army invaded Southeast Asia.

The well-armed and well-trained Tang army was defeated by these savage-like Maguindanu native soldiers, and even though they killed the enemy several times, it was also an unacceptably humiliating defeat.

"Brothers! I, Cao Bianjiao, swear to heaven here, if I can't eradicate these ugly creatures for you, if I can't destroy the soul in heaven who comes to comfort you in the country of Maguindanu, I, Cao Bianjiao, will definitely apologize for my sins with death and swear not to be a human being! ”

Cao Bianjiao gritted his teeth and swore to the sky, his face full of rain and tears was indescribably hideous.

In the end, he had no choice but to give the order for his soldiers to return to Zamboanga silently with those headless corpses.

Because it was impossible to identify who these corpses were, Cao Bianjiao finally had to order that these corpses be cremated together and a monument was built to commemorate them.

Next, Cao Bianjiao no longer dared to send troops to attack easily, but ordered the whole army to hold Zamboanga, build fortifications on the ground, and wait for the next move.

Subsequently, Cao Bianjiao wrote in detail the story of the incident in a letter, and sent it back to Li Xiao in Manila in the form of a flying pigeon message, and asked him for his guilt.

Two days later, Cao Bianjiao's letter reached Li Xiao's hands.

Seeing Cao Bianjiao's letter, Li Xiao was also taken aback.

Nearly 700 Tang troops were sacrificed, and the main general died, and the strategic goal was not achieved, and finally the Maguindanu indigenous army won the final victory in this battle, which was really an extremely humiliating defeat.

Such a defeat was the first time in the process of the Tang Army's expansion into Southeast Asia.

Li Xiao's face suddenly became very ugly.

He knew that in the process of conquering the Philippine islands along the way, he had finally met a fierce enemy.

You must know that this Maguindanu country, in history, has fought many times with the Spanish colonizers in the north, but it has never been conquered.

In real history, the country was conquered by the modern American army in the late nineteenth century until the United States took over Spanish rule over the Philippines, and finally came under Philippine rule.

Even the modern U.S. military has made considerable sacrifices in the process of conquering this region, and the final occupation method is to let this nation and this region be nominally incorporated into the Philippines and enjoy a high degree of autonomy.

Because this ethnic group has been incorporated into the Philippine State for the shortest time, and has always had a high degree of autonomy, and there are also reasons such as different religious beliefs, it has always been the most turbulent place in the Philippine state, and riots and rebellions are commonplace, and the Philippine rulers are anxious.

(Note: As of press time, in the Mindanao region, the Philippine national army is still fighting fiercely with a rebel called Mute, attacking and defending each other, each with casualties, and the local people are scattered and fleeing, and peace is far away.)

And now, these barbaric and ferocious, murderous and plundering soldiers, with religious beliefs and fearless death, and rich experience in fighting Western colonizers, can be said to have occupied the right time and place in this Mindanao region, and it is really very difficult for the Tang army to gnaw this hard bone.

It can be seen that this Maguindanu country is very likely to be the toughest and most difficult opponent it has encountered when it conquered Southeast Asia and advanced towards Australia.

It is not easy to win against such an opponent.

It's just that this Mindanao Island is located at the key point of the Tang Army's southward and northward advances, and it will not work if it is not captured.

Only by capturing this Mindanao can he have no worries about further conquest of New Guinea and Australia in the future.

So, what should I do to completely and quickly eradicate these Maguindanu ugly creatures and capture the whole of Mindanao?

Li Xiao paced back and forth in the room, and after muttering for a long time, a unique idea suddenly flashed in his mind.

That is, the master's skills are used to control the Yi, why not let the Tang army turn around and learn from these Maguindanu people?

The most critical reason why these Maguindanu people were able to completely wipe out the besieged Tang army was that they knew how to use long-range attacks to attack the Tang army, so that the Tang army's best positional defense and organizational training could not play a role smoothly under such long-range attacks.

Of course, if the Tang army had powerful firearms to help it in the interior, it could be the strongest in the Ming and Qing dynasties in terms of long-range strikes, but in a tropical rainforest like Mindanao, where it could rain two or three times a day, the firearms of the Tang army, once they were wet by the torrential rain, would become a complete waste.

Li Xiao knew that under such an extremely strong tropical downpour, even if he developed a flintlock pistol in the future, the sealed medicine door and the flint that were fired would be drenched by the continuous rainstorm, and thus become a burning stick that could no longer be used.

And once the artillery of the Tang army is wasted, then under the shuttle dart of the Maguindanu, it can only be beaten passively.

Therefore, learning from the Maguindanu and finding long-range attack weapons similar to their pikes is the only way to defeat the enemy.

In his heart, Li Xiao had already thought of a powerful long-range weapon, the steel crossbow.

When it is difficult for archers to train quickly, and the bowstring is easily wet by rain and loses its elasticity, making a large number of long-range crossbows and cultivating a large number of crossbowmen is the best way to defeat the enemy.

If you can combine the manufacturing process of modern bows and crossbows that you have read about in books in your previous life, and use the refined steel that can be produced now, to make a steel crossbow that can be used by a single person, then you can undoubtedly quickly counteract and defeat the Maguindanu shuttle.

What's more, in addition to Mindanao, such as New Guinea Island, Micronesia Islands and other territories that have not yet been invaded by the Xiyi, they are all hot and rainy rainforest environments.

Li Xiao planned and immediately began to draw the steel crossbow structure he had conceived on straw paper, such as the shape and size of the crossbow bow, crossbow arm, crossbow machine, crossbow string, mouth, chisel ear, hook tooth, lookout mountain, buckle, bottom bracket and other crossbow machine parts.

Originally, Li Xiao wanted to hand over this research and development work to Tielongcheng in Shanxian County, Shandong Province for manufacturing and development, but considering that the distance is too far and the communication is inconvenient, it is most appropriate to develop it in Taiwan nearby.

After all, the current Taiwan Iron and Steel Plant, which is built next to a large iron mine in the suburbs of Changhua County, has six blast furnaces, three iron-frying furnaces, and two steel-making open hearths, and the monthly output is also very considerable.

Although the local iron ore in Taiwan is of low taste, and the output after impurities removal is much lower than that of Shandong, the output is still far more than that of other iron ore production and processing in the late Ming Dynasty.

In addition, there are many experienced craftsmen transferred from Shandong in this Taiwan iron and steel plant, who also use hydraulic forging machine tools for production, so neither production nor R&D efficiency is under Shandong Tielongcheng.

Therefore, Li Xiao believes that he will definitely not be disappointed by handing over the research and development of this steel crossbow to Taiwan's iron and steel plant.

Subsequently, Li Xiao immediately began to adjust the adaptation plan on a large scale.

First of all, Li Xiao ordered to send a large number of craftsmen to Zamboanga, where Cao Bianjiao's department was located, to build a large fort with a circumference of about four miles in the local area, so as to ensure that Cao Bianjiao's department could be stationed safely and would not be harassed and attacked by the natives again.

Then, Li Xiao ordered to expand the army to the east camp of the town and expand the east camp of the town into Andong Town.

Let this Andong Town, like Xingzhong Town and Pingnan Town, become a powerful town with three battalions below.

Build this town of Andong into the most powerful military presence in Northeast Asia except for the Manchus.

The strength of the expanded army in Andong Town was basically transferred from Pingnan Town.

According to Li Xiao's order, in the three battalions of Pingnan Town, in each battalion, except for the general soldiers of General A, the rest of General B and General C were all transferred to Andong Town.

As a result, a total of six general troops were transferred out, and all of them were transported to Ezo Island by the naval division.

Outside the Dongsheng City on Ezo Island, two battalions of soldiers and horses were formed into the B Battalion and the C Battalion of Andong Town.

In addition to the above soldiers and horses transferred from Pingnan Town, Li Xiao also transferred 1,500 Xuanhu heavy cavalry, 1,500 flying harriers, 1,500 rampant people, and 2,000 firecrackers in Pingnan Town, which were also transferred to Andong Town.

Together with the adapted spearmen and shield soldiers, they were transferred to Ezo Island, where they were mixed with the original soldiers and horses of Andong Town to form the soldiers and horses of Andong Town.

In this way, the newly formed town of Andong is fully equipped and has strong combat power.

And now Pingnan Town, although there are still three battalions, but each battalion only has a total number of soldiers, as well as 1,000 Xuanhu heavy cavalry, 1,000 flying harriers, 1,000 rampant artillery and 80 heavy dragon artillery artillery units.

In Li Xiao's planning, in the current Pingnan Town, each battalion still has three general soldiers, of which the first general is the original spearmen and shield soldiers, and the other two generals are composed of shield soldiers and crossbow soldiers.

Under his new establishment, the number of such a total number of soldiers per unit was three posts per total, and the number of men per sentry was 510 men in 5 teams of shield soldiers and 10 teams of crossbowmen 1020 men.

The number of soldiers in such a post is 1,530, and the total number of soldiers in a post is 4,590, and the number of soldiers in both Battalions B and C is 13,770.

This number of shortages is the number of soldiers that Li Xiao wants to urgently recruit now.

According to Li Xiao's request, he planned to recruit 4,000 recruits in Dengzhou, Shandong, and then 10,000 recruits in Taiwan.

These soldiers, except for nearly 5,000 who will become shield soldiers, the remaining more than 10,000 people will be trained as crossbowmen.

Li Xiao's new recruitment plan has received enthusiastic responses from the people of Taiwan and Shandong, and there has been a flood of applicants at various recruitment points.

Although everyone knows that the Tang army had just suffered defeat when it attacked the country of Maguindanu, the people loved and supported the Tang army and Li Xiao from the bottom of their hearts.

Everyone knows that such a setback is only an extremely rare situation, and maybe the next attack of the Tang army will completely wash away the shame.

Every applicant who came to sign up knew in their hearts that once they could get a medal in the Tang Army, their life would be completely changed, and they would soar from then on.

Only three days later, the task of expanding the recruitment was fully completed, and a large number of candidates who were not recruited into the Tang Army were full of complaints, and the candidates who were successfully selected for the Tang Army were overjoyed and triumphant.

In the late Ming Dynasty, when the people regarded joining the army as a daunting path, under Li Xiao's rule, it was a miracle that the people could join the army so enthusiastically.

After the recruits are recruited, they will immediately concentrate in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for rapid basic training.

Under Li Xiao's strict urging, Taiwan's iron and steel plant set up a crossbow machine research and development team, many of these groups of research and development personnel, many of whom are old craftsmen with many years of experience, after more than half a month of research and debugging, finally successfully trial-produced a steel crossbow made according to Li Xiao's drawing.

Ding You, the head of the Taiwan Colonization Regiment, personally handed over the successfully made steel crossbow to Li Xiao.

After receiving this steel crossbow that felt quite good, well-made, smooth and exquisite, and shone with the silver-gray luster of fine steel, Li Xiao was overjoyed.

He saw that the bow plate of the steel crossbow was fastened to another piece with steel rivets to make a flat-bottomed "U"

On the shaped stainless steel plate, the U-shaped iron plate is tightly clamped on the steel bent arm and riveted with steel pins.

The crossbow arm of this steel crossbow is made of Taiwanese black ironwood, which is extremely hard and dense, and the waterproof performance is also excellent.

The entire bow arm is delicate and smooth, and each corner is transitioned in a circular arc.

There are three three-and-a-half-width arrow grooves on the upper plane of the crossbow arm, and a steel stirrup is installed at the lower front end for stepping on the foot to pull the string.

Under the bow slots at the front and at the middle and rear of the crossbow arm, a square hole five minutes larger and an inch long was dug from the side, and a magnet polished into the rectangular body was tightly pressed into the hole.

The front end of the crossbow arm is equipped with a crosshair made of stainless steel sheet, and a thick steel sheet with a groove in the middle and a stainless steel shrapnel that can be lifted and lowered are erected at the rear.

At the back of the crossbow arm and in front of the bent handle, there is a elastic steel suspension, also known as the suspension knife, where the crossbow machine is held, and above it is a circlip made of stainless steel.

There is also a lock on the side of the crossbow arm of the hanging knife, as long as the lock is dialed, the hanging knife cannot be fastened, so as to prevent accidental misfire, which is very safe and practical.

In the middle of the two-foot-four-long bowstring, it is clamped on a string support that is square at the front and the width of the crossbow arm, and the rear part is arced and extends out of the crossbow arm for one inch on each side as a handle.

A thin sheet of steel with an extremely elastic arrow pressure is also nailed in front of the string holder, which can firmly hold the shaft loaded into the groove.

After hanging the string and pulling the bow, as long as you pull the hook of the board machine, you can shoot one to three steel crossbow arrows in the bow crossbow arm slot, and the parts made of fine steel are tightly and flat, but very flexible, and polished to smooth and shiny, without the slightest hand.

The bowstring of this steel crossbow is made of multiple strands of ox tendon and silk thread, two feet eight long, nearly three points thick, and the two ends are tied at two steel rings.

When winding, as long as the steel ring is put on the round tube at both ends of the bow plate with a little force, the winding action is completed, which is very convenient.

Li Xiao tried it, and after the entire steel crossbow was wound, the bow was two feet nine feet wide, and the crossbow arm was two feet long, and the total weight of the steel crossbow was only fifteen catties, which was really light and practical.

Li Xiao even noticed that the entire steel crossbow, especially the crossbow string, had been repeatedly soaked with grease, and it was very slippery to the touch.

The purpose of this is to ensure that the crossbow is effectively waterproof and can be used smoothly in heavy rain.

Next, Li Xiao began to test shoot.

He stepped on the steel pedal with his foot, pulled the crossbow string, and then loaded the steel arrow, pinned the crossbow arm, aligned the lookout mountain with the crosshair, aimed at the target, a buckle of the hanging knife, a swish, the steel arrow shot out like a streamer, grabbed a muffled sound, and firmly shot the edge of the target a hundred or so steps away.

Although the shooting accuracy of this crossbow arrow is far from being comparable to that of the firebolt, Li Xiao is already very happy to achieve this effect.

"Master Li, have you ever thought about giving this crossbow a name?"

Ding You wasted no time in making do.

Li Xiao smiled and replied with his head raised: "This crossbow is very powerful, like a divine machine suddenly appearing, suddenly appearing, let's call it a divine machine crossbow." ”