The spring of the thirty-second year of the reign of King Qi came earlier than ever, and the water on the east side of Linzi and the water on the west side melted and thawed early, and only a little ice and snow could be seen in the bay. The bitter north wind finally stopped howling, and the warm spring sun made people lazy, only the sound of piano building and the eruption of cheers during cockfighting in the street market can make people cheer up a little.

The state of Chu was in Qi, and the Manchu generals may be a little worried, but for the common people of Linzi City, the only difference in life is that their livelihood is more urgent. Because of the war, the price of millet rose again, and the price of each stone exceeded 200 yuan. Of course, this is deliberate, and foreign wars are the best time to harvest the wealth of the Yi Dafu and the merchants who are attached to the Yi Dafu. The king of Linzi ordered that the chariots, horses, armor shields, soldiers, and military funds should not only be raised by each city, but also provided to Linzi, and the prices of the whole country rose sharply for a time.

But this time, there was a different voice, a ballad that made the court heartbroken, and sang in the Qi country: Praise, its own? Bud, its return to the king of Chu! (Singing, it's almost over, isn't it?) Prosperous, let's go and join the king of Chu. ）

Obviously, there are national thieves who deliberately did it, and the original ballad was obviously: Praise, its own? Budding, its return to the field into a child! This is the story told in "Han Feizi Waichu Says on the Upper Right": There was a famine in Qi country, and many people starved to death on the side of the road, and the people went to the Tian clan with the old and the young, and no one starved to death, so the people sang this ballad. Seeing that the people's hearts were like this, Qi Jinggong knew that the Tian family's seizure of the country was inevitable, and he wept with remorse when he heard it.

The story was naturally fake, but someone tampered with the ballads in the story and made it widely sung, which put the Linzi court in a passive situation. Hou Sheng issued a series of royal orders, demanding that the provinces severely punish those who spread the ballads, but the towns did not take it seriously at all. The Yi doctors did not want to form an alliance with the Zhao State and make the Qin State an enemy, and they also did not want to turn against the Chu State and make enemies of the Chu people. They just want to take advantage of the war and make a fortune instead of getting involved in it.

The Linzi Imperial Court made an assertion that caused Qi and Chu to fight each other and even fight each other, and then asked them to pay for the war, which made them extremely angry. The king of Chu is not the Tian clan in the Jiang Qi period, and it is impossible to usurp the throne and become the king of Qi, so it is better to warn Linzi with such a ballad.

Although the spring is good, there are national thieves everywhere. In the Prime Minister of Qi's mansion, the sullen Hou Sheng was listless, knowing that someone had told the Qin envoy Wang Ao to ask for a meeting.

"Jishui has been passed, dare to ask the weapon that broke the city...... "Wang Ao is the person who guards the city, he has done the marriage, and he has also done it to provoke the war in Qi and Chu, but the last thing has not been completed, that is, the weapon to break the city into Qin.

"Now that the water has been opened, the weapon of breaking the city can naturally be transported to the Qin State, and then ......" Hou Sheng paused, "I heard that the King of Chu has been preparing for battle in Langya, when will the 100,000 Qin troops promised by your envoy arrive in Qi State?" ”

"The weapon of breaking the city will arrive in the eastern county of the country, and the 100,000 troops will be able to enter the army." Wang Ao said. "This matter has been ordered by the widow, if they are all heart-to-heart, the contemptible people can ask the army to enter first."

"No, no." Wang Ao is different from the previous Qin envoy's weakness and Yao Jia, Wang Ao is amiable and never coercive, he is so polite and takes a step back, and he doesn't want the Qin army to enter the country. "If the Chu people break through the Muling Pass, it will not be too late for the army to re-enter the Qi country."

"No." Wang Ao replied seriously. He said again: "The weapon that destroys the city......"

"This prime minister has ordered Linzi to guard Tian Yang, and the weapon of breaking the city can be transported out of the city today, and then it is ......" Hou Sheng was a little surprised when he thought of the weapon of breaking the city, that thing weighed more than 30,000 Chu catties, and I really don't know how the Chu people made it. From the trebuchet to the Chu people, and from the Chu people to the Chu army's imminent attack, Hou Sheng couldn't help but be a little trance-like.

"Qi Xiang......" Wang Ao couldn't understand why Hou Sheng was speechless, so he had to shout.

"Oh." Hou Sheng came back to his senses. "However, the weapon of breaking the city is really heavy, and it took more than 10,000 people to transport it back then."

Twenty simplified trebuchets, without a squirrel cage drive, were configured not ten tons but only five tons, and with a tall and sturdy frame, the total weight was about seven tons. When it arrived, it took hundreds of people to carry a trebuchet, and now it will probably take so many people to transport it away.

Hou Sheng was worried about manpower, but manpower was not a thing for Qin State at all. On the same day, under the command of Ye Tunnel, a great engineer of Shaofu, more than 1,000 Qin people began to carry the two trebuchets.

Most of the things in the Chu State are exquisite, such as the king's hand-held crossbow, but the tens of thousands of catties of things such as the city-breaking vessel are also so exquisitely made, it is really a bit out of the expectations of the great engineer Ye Tunnel. Before carrying it, he carefully inspected the trebuchet, which was no different from the human catapult used to defend the city, but the Chu people made it larger, and instead of relying on human power to pull the tip, the counterweight fell freely.

A big tripod is only a thousand catties, but the counterweight is 20,000 catties, which is equivalent to twenty big tripods, which is really incredible. This is not as simple as pouring 20 tripods together, it also involves the load-bearing of the entire rack, and the most important thing is the rotating hub between the boom and the counterweight, and between the boom and the rack.

Three years ago, Princess Chu Guoqian married into the Qin State, and the axle hub of the four-wheeled carriage that accompanied the marriage was obviously replaced. Shaofu dismantled two of the carriages, only to find that the axles were all new, and the others were not abnormal, and the Tao of Qin was also better than that of Chu.

If Yushou's words are true, then the carriage of Chu should have two axle hubs, one is no different from the axle hub of all countries in the world, and the other is a new type of axle hub, so it is particularly light to walk. What was just speculation at the time has now become a reality. At the junction of the trebuchet boom and the wooden frame, the leaf tunnel saw a new, never-before-seen shaft, which had no iron mace, no spoke holes, and no adding ......

The blade tunnel did not know that what he was seeing was a roller bearing. The coefficient of friction of rolling friction is almost one-tenth of that of sliding friction. The purpose of installing large roller bearings on the trebuchet boom is to reduce friction, especially in the case of a halved configuration, which is more important to reduce friction and increase range. However, once the conscientious act of building the mansion was betrayed by the Qi State, the Qin State would reap great benefits.

When it was dark, the two city-breaking vessels that had been repeatedly urged by the Qin State were finally transported out of the east gate of Linzi City. At night, the Qin people did not rest, but held a fire and shouted a trumpet to load them on the big boat that had been waiting for several months, and the big boat would follow the water to the east for several miles, and then turn to the northwest. This is a part of the Jinji Canal, the water flows to the northeast through Linzi City, and crosses the Judian Lake (known as Qingqiu in ancient times, now Qingshuibo) and the water of time meets into the sea.

The water flows northeastward, and the water in the north flows due east, so it intersects, but before it flows through Bochang (now Boxing), the water flows due north to west. Its tributary, the water is of the same origin as the water system on the west side of Linzi City, and the water turns and flows to the northwest fifty miles west of Linzi City, and then flows due east in Bochang after joining the water.

During the reign of King Qi Wei, the State of Qi dug two sections of canals to connect the water and the water. One section connects the water in the east of the city with the water, and the other section connects the water with the water before the water bends. In this way, a triangle is formed with the intersection of Linzi, Bochang and Shishui as the apex. The angle of Linzi is at the southernmost end of the triangle, and the angle of Bochang is almost parallel to the confluence of the two waters, and is in the westernmost part; The confluence of the two rivers is located in the easternmost part.

Starting from Linzi, follow the Jiji Canal to the northwest, you can enter the Jishui, the Jishui traces the water upstream, and passes through the Xia (now Jinan), Luyi (now the southwest of Changqing County), and Hubyi (now Dong'e Town, Pingyin County) to enter the East County of Qinguo. Hubyi is an extremely important city of Qi State, located in the east of Jishui, west of Mount Tai, west of Jishui is Qin realm, and more than ten miles south is also Qin realm. The State of Qi has a lot of equipment here, in order to reject the Qin people in the west.

The twilight was deep, and the halberd-wielding people at the head of Linzi City could vaguely see the big boat of the Qin State going down the water by the starlight. Under the same starlight, the Bohai Sea, which is calmer than the Yellow Sea, has arrived at Laizhou Bay under the leadership of the Vermilion Bird.

It took 56 hours to sail from Langya Harbor and the fleet arrived at Bailing Island, which was close to North Korea. The other sides of the island are mostly rocky, but the southwest side is a delicate sandy beach. The whole army landed and rested for five days, and five days later set out from Bailing Island and sailed to Daqin Island, more than 800 miles away. Daqin Island is located in the middle of the Bohai Strait, and there are Xiaoqin Island, Nanhuangcheng Island and other islands next to it, but these islands have no fresh water, and after only two days of rest, the whole army set out from the west mouth of Daqin Island and sailed to the mouth of the sea more than 400 miles away.

Although each leg of the voyage of 2,500 miles was greatly reduced compared with the previous one, the attrition was still serious. When we set out from Bailing Island, the whole army was reduced by only 3 percent, but from Daqin Island, the whole army was reduced by nearly 10 percent. It was not that there were casualties, but the main symptom was seasickness, people and horses were also dizzy, and many horses fell on Daqin Island.

Finally entering the calm Laizhou Bay, a new problem arose: the Suzaku could not determine the water entrance to the sea at night. The latitude of the estuary is known before departure, but it is difficult to find it at night, even if the error is only a few miles. And more than one river flows into the sea nearby, and all the waters north of Mount Tai have this into the sea.

"It's a dereliction of duty." After more than ten days of wind and waves, Xiong Jing's voice was a little hoarse. Seeing that the sky was about to dawn, he began to be angry that Hou Spy, who knew that the other side of the company, did not mark the direction of the boat team, and according to the agreement, Hou Spy's should light a fire at the mouth of the water.

"I thought I could only anchor and wait for the dawn." The original boat commander Alto is also in the boat team. Now that the whole army is at a standstill, in order to prevent a collision, the lights of each boat are lit. The lights are different from the lights, they float with the undulations of the warship, and they look like a swarm of fireflies from a distance.

"Waiting for dawn?" There's no way around it. It's just that after dawn, this section of the sea area will be patrolled by the Qi Guozhou Division, and once the whole army is exposed, whether it can successfully reach Linzi, which is two hundred miles away, has become a problem.