The burning wine urn descended from the sky in a dense formation, spreading a sea of fire in the center of the Qiang army.

More than 3,000 Qiang people died in an instant.

More than 3,000 people are not much, but let's not forget that it is an animal instinct to fear fire. Most of the Qiang people were cavalrymen, and although their horses were trained to no longer be afraid of small fires such as bonfires and torches, they instinctively feared the moment they saw the overwhelming sea of fire.

The horses of the rear team saw the blazing flames in front of them, and suddenly retracted their feet, refusing to continue forward, no matter how urged by the cavalry on their backs.

After witnessing their own kind turn to ashes and be burned into a puff of scorched smoke by the fire, the horses around the fire panicked and jumped up and down, trying to throw the Qiang cavalry off their horses.

After discovering that the horses of the front team had become a sea of fire behind them, they ignored the knight's command, and ran forward desperately like crazy, slamming into the church army formation in front of them.

The Qiang army was in chaos after just one round of projectiles.

At this moment, another round of incendiary bombs fell from the sky.

What is meant to add fuel to the fire, this is tar on fire. On the vast Longxi Plain, this depression near Jiuquan has become a big pot -- a big oil pot today.

More than 20,000 Qiang cavalry were trapped in the boiling hot oil, and the screams were heard more than ten miles away, which was extremely miserable.

Under the scorching fire, the Qiang people's forward formation became more and more chaotic, and the vanguard and reserve echelons were isolated by the flames, and the end was completely disjointed.

At this time, Zhuge Liang gave the order to throw a hand melon.

The third column of eighty thunderbolts struck at the same time, and 1,600 handmelons densely packed into the sky, hail down from top to bottom, and fell in front of the Qiang people.

When the barbed gourd bullet smashed into the Qiang people's brain, it was a string of blood holes, and the screams came and went, which was more tragic than the fire and the fire.

Subsequently, the hand-melon fuse burned into the ammunition compartment, causing an explosion...... "boom, boom, boom......" A series of huge explosions made the birds disappear within a radius of fifty miles, and the beasts did not dare to show their heads.

Looking at the Qiang soldiers and horses, people turned on their backs, and there were more than 10,000 casualties. The stumps and broken bodies were everywhere, and even the war horses, which were more solid than the human body, could not bear it, and the horses' hooves, legs, and intestines were scattered all over the place, mixed with the human organs, and it was impossible to distinguish which ones belonged to people and which ones belonged to horses.

witnessed the whole process of the blasting, and watched more than 20,000 cavalry rush through the sea of fire, only to be torn apart in the next moment.

Burning the Qiang King Beigong Boyu was speechless for a long time. It was only at this moment that he really understood what an explosion was...... It's like the thunderbolt falling to the ground.

He was furious, rushed to Han Sui, grabbed Han Sui's collar and asked, "Why didn't you say earlier that the Han people have such sharp weapons?" ”

Han Sui looked innocent, "I told the king an hour ago, and the king said that he knew about gunpowder, so I didn't mention it much." ”

"You ......" Beigong Boyu knew that he was at a loss, and he couldn't get out of his anger, so his old face turned red, "I'll settle accounts with you when I go back." ”

At this time, the leaders of the five tribes of Sister Le, Dangfang, Khotan, Sister Gang, and Beipu saw that their soldiers and horses had paid great casualties before they had time to engage with the Han army, so they came to Beigong Boyu and pleaded: "King, I'm afraid it won't be effective if you attack like this." Why don't you withdraw the men and horses first! ”

Beigong Boyu's eyes were bloodshot with anger, "Withdraw? Can't be withdrawn! At this time, the people in front of the retreat will not die in vain. Keep rushing me. ”

"But ......"

"But what!" Beigong Boyu didn't wait for the man to finish speaking, so he interrupted the other party's words with a loud voice, "The Han people don't have any great skills, they will play some small tricks of arson and explosion, once they rush in front of them, they are not our opponents in a white-knuckle battle." Rush, give it to me. ”

After listening to Beigong Boyu's words, Sister Le, Dangfang, Dang Khotan, Sister Yan, and the leaders of the five departments of Beipu felt that it made sense. As Beigong Boyu said, in the past battles, according to their understanding of the Han army, the combat power of the Han people in close combat was indeed not strong. Rather than give up your efforts at this time, it is better to fight against the flames.

"Good! Then keep fighting! "Sister Le, Dangfang, Dang Khotan, Sister Gang, and the leaders of the five departments of Beipu bowed to Beigong Boyu, and Pegasus returned to the front of the big array. Listening to the fierce howls of the family members in the sea of fire, and the fearful posture of the rear army in the face of the wall of fire, the eyes of the five leaders were red, "Sons, follow me to reinforce them." ”

With a wave of their long swords, the five leaders actually personally slaughtered out of the great array and led the warriors of the 50,000 clans to the top. Rendezvous with the 40,000 rear troops blocked by the flames, bypassed the place where the flames rose, and slaughtered the right flank of the Church army.

At the same time, the 40,000 vanguard of the Qiang people became clearer and clearer in the sight of the Chinese army in the church, and they were less than 100 steps away from the front of the church.

They looked imposing, but after the blast, their horses were frightened and began to run at full strength too early, and the higher terrain in the direction of the church army required them to climb a long slope to charge. So at this moment, the war horse's sharpness has been greatly reduced, and its speed is far from its peak.

Seeing this scene, Luan Yi smiled proudly and said to the herald behind him: "Let Kong Ming and Han Sheng prepare!" ”

"Bow ......" "Arrow array, ballista array ready!"

At the sound of an order, a total of 40,000 crossbowmen in the six large squares led by Huang Zhong strode forward with longbows, exchanged positions with the shields and spearmen guarding in front, and stood at the front of the large array.

Not far from the large array of bows and crossbows, a column of shield soldiers flashed to the side, revealing a strange-looking cart.

The cart was very similar to a wheelbarrow, except that there were two wheels pressed underneath, and above the wheels was a strange crossbow slightly larger than a normal crossbow. This is the ballista that Luan Yi said, and it is also the Zhuge repeater designed by Zhuge Liang, who is famous all over the world in later generations.

Speaking of this Zhuge repeater, it was just designed by Zhuge Liang and Huang Yueying before this western expedition. There is a complex bracket between the bowstring and the trigger under the crossbow, which is equipped with springs, springs, etc. During combat, the soldier only needs to reload the mainspring to realize the automatic stringing action of the bow and crossbow, so as to complete the continuous firing action. Each full spring can be continuously ejected 12 crossbow bolts in a short time, after which you need to rewind the spring before you can start the burst again, and so on. The lethality is staggering.

When he first saw this repeater, Luan Yi was shocked for a while. In my memory, the so-called Zhuge Repeater is just a legendary existence, and the specific production method has been lost in later generations, but I didn't expect Zhuge Liang and Huang Yueying to really create it.

More importantly, the Zhuge repeater in the impression can only fire ten arrows in a row at most, but this one in front of him can shoot as many as twelve, which is two more than the legend.

Don't underestimate these two crossbow arrows, one crossbow cart shoots two more bolts, what about ten? What about a hundred? 1,000 units shoot 2,000 more arrows, and the power is not half a star.

Later, after Luan Yi saw the internal structure of the ballista, he immediately understood the reason why the new ballista was so powerful - many elements of clockwork, gears, and springs were added. These things were born in the Han Dynasty in history, and they are the products imported by Luan Yi from the 21st century. The combination of these advanced elements gave the repeater a new lease of life.

Luan Yi has reason to believe that the new Zhuge repeater is several times stronger than the legend in terms of both the number of fires and the firing distance.

The advantage of Zhuge Repeater is not obvious, and in a short period of time, hundreds of repeaters will be fired in a row, and a dense arrow array composed of twelve arrows in a row will deal a heavy blow to the enemy. But the disadvantages are also obvious.

As a medium-sized machine, winding it is not a simple task, it takes two strong men and a long time to rewind it. In this regard, Luan Yi wanted to learn from the principle of "steering assistance" of later generations of automobile steering wheels to reduce the amount of work required to twist the mainspring. It's a pity that the big war is imminent, and Luan Yi has no time to arrange manpower for research and development. Further improvements can only be made after the end of the war.

In addition, the crossbow arrow magazine on the crossbow can only hold twelve crossbow arrows at a time, so the arrow magazine needs to be replaced after each round of arrows, and the specific replacement process is also complicated.

In the final analysis, after a ballista throws twelve crossbow arrows, if you want to shoot the second twelve, it will take half a pillar of incense at the earliest.

And on the battlefield, half a pillar of incense is enough time for a well-trained enemy army to do many things. If the enemy is cavalry, you will have plenty of time to enter the crossbow chariot formation and break through your own array in one fell swoop.

Therefore, although the crossbow is powerful, the flaw is that it is a one-time ordnance on the battlefield, and there is almost no possibility of throwing it again after firing twelve crossbow arrows.

But then again, the battlefield is all about preemption, and the coherent shooting of twelve arrows has a significantly stronger advantage than a weak.

Therefore, the Zhuge Repeater had been designed to work, and Luan Yi realized its powerful function on the battlefield. He immediately ordered Pu Yuan to preside over the completion of the manufacturing of 3,000 thunderbolts within two months.

This task made it difficult for Pu Yuan. From Qingzhou to Xiliang, it takes only one and a half months to transport the ballista, which means that the time to manufacture the thunderbolt is only half a month. 3,000 crossbow trucks, half a month...... It's simply impossible.

Just when Pu Yuan was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, he suddenly remembered that Luan Yi once said, "There are always more ways than difficulties." So he was anxious to discuss countermeasures with the excellent craftsmen in the office.

At the following meeting, his eldest apprentice, Ma Jun, suggested that he build a repeater to follow the model of the Thunderbolt. In Qingzhou, only the main parts are manufactured, and competent craftsmen are sent to Chang'an with the main accessories, and then the overall assembly is completed from Chang'an. The lighter weight of the main parts also reduces the delivery time, so that a lot of time can be squeezed out of the trip for manufacturing.

Pu Yuan was overjoyed, so he followed his words.