The hot air balloon floated high in the sky, five zhang high, two zhang higher than the ordinary city wall, enough to incorporate the situation within a radius of tens of miles into the clairvoyant mirror.

The two scouts spotted the flying ball in the air, and they lifted their deerskin hats, revealing their bare foreheads. Judging from their almost stripped sheepskin jackets, they were Manchu Tanma.

"There's no Nikan city here, so why do you have such flying balls?" One of the older asked.

"Let's take a look?" The other, who is a little younger, can still see a ring of stiff hair on his lips that is different from his beard. In the past, the Manchurians used a five-foot wooden staff to recruit soldiers, and those who were higher than five feet were counted as Ding, and then those who were strong and strong were recruited into the army, and those who were weak were Yu Ding. Now the five-foot staff has not been used for a long time, and as long as you can shoot arrows on horseback, you can be included in the army.

The older tanma was more cautious, freeing his hands from his leather gloves, bringing them to his mouth and making a few birdsong songs.

Soon, more birdsong came from the forest. As the sound of birdsong continued, the Manchurian horses within a radius of ten miles all gathered in the direction of the old horses, and finally stopped at twenty horses.

"Everyone knows that the flying ball of the Dou Nikan has to be pulled down below, otherwise it will be blown away by the wind, why did this flying ball come to our territory?" The old tanma pointed to the hot air balloon with a ghost face painted and exclaimed in surprise: "Look! It's still flying! ”

What hot air balloons have never been able to solve is the problem of free flight, which may not be solved until the invention of airships with hydrogen on a large scale. However, the unwilling soldiers of the Ming army finally thought of a workaround: the snow boat towed.

The snow boat is a new trial production of a technical college to slide on snow and ice. The size is like a boat, and it can carry seven or eight hundred catties of goods. Because the bottom is made of two wide skateboards, the pressure on the snow surface can be reduced, and there is not much friction, so it is easy to pull the horse.

The only restrictions are still horses and roads.

No one knows if there are pitfalls dug by both sides on the snow-covered road. Or other traps arranged by hunters, which greatly limited the range of activities of the snow boat, so the initial use of the snow boat was mainly to transport the baggage from the port to the castle, or in the area under the absolute control of the Ming army, the road that had been taken.

Colonel Chang Zhifan, who was recently promoted to battalion officer. This time, it was with great determination that a snow boat was dispatched to conduct a feasibility test on the snow boat pulling a hot air balloon for field reconnaissance.

"It's Dongyu's exploration horse." The warrior of the imperial horse on the snow boat resembles a woolly bear, and the whole person is wrapped in fur.

"yes." Another "hairy bear" sitting behind him said, "We should go back too." ”

As the two were talking, a wooden board had been lowered on the hot air balloon, and inside was an indication of the direction in which the Manchurian exploration horses gathered.

"Twenty." The warrior who looked at the plank said to Mite, "It's four o'clock in our direction." ”

"It's done!" With a flick of the reins, the two horses picked up speed, threw out a big bend, and turned northwest.

In this snowfield, the Ming army and the exploration horses of the Eastern Captives infiltrated each other. The momentum is like a dog's tooth, as long as the support of his own people is called, the twenty horses are not taken into account by the two.

The hot air balloon lookout overhead also gave off a signal: a crisp sound of a cannonball exploded in the air, and the sound was heard far away.

Because the hot air balloon is particularly eye-catching, since Dongyu can see it, his own people can naturally see it. What's more, in order to ensure the safety of the experiment, there was originally a team of scout horses on standby in the reconnaissance area.

The horses also heard the sound of cannonballs. It's just that I don't know how many people and horses there are in the Ming Army, and I don't know if the flying ball of Lu Dao is a bait to lure the Dongyu cavalry to take the bait.

Since the Battle of Ningyuan. Dong Yu also realized the tactical advantages brought by this kind of flying ball, and thought that it was easy to imitate, but the reality humiliated Dong Yu to the point that he was not clothed.

Not to mention the material and size of the airbag of this flying ball, the fierce fire oil used to generate hot gas alone is not something that Dongyu can get. Traditional fuels such as coal and charcoal are too heavy, and their thermal efficiency is not high enough. Simply not enough lift is provided.

Zhu Cihong took more than two years to develop a weapon that took the best scientists of the Ming Dynasty to develop, so the progress in mathematics and physics brought about by it was enough for students to study for an extra semester.

In this case, capturing a ready-made flying ball is the only option for Toyo.

The old detective reined in the horse's head and said, "Most of the Ming army has an ambush. It's better not to be safe. ”

The young scouts were not happy, and said one after another: "They are asking for help, obviously there is no ambush." If there was an ambush, it would have been quietly waiting for us to follow. ”

That makes sense...... The old tanma was still a little hesitant.

"Drive! If you don't go, let's go! ”

There is only cooperation between the horses of the Eastern Captives, there is no leader, they are all their own men and horses, and they only recognize their own masters. After all, these Manchurian youths with strong blood still did not control their greed, and chased after them towards the hot air balloon.

"They actually chased after them, and they are really not afraid of death." Sitting in the snow boat, "hairy bear" said.

Mide turned his head to avoid the tuyere, and said loudly: "There is still a pier ahead of us!" ”

"After all, it's some animals, let's go to the pier to rest and then go, see if they dare to come around."

Mite's masterful manipulation of the reins caused the horses to turn their heads, and the snow boat drew a beautiful arc on the snow and galloped towards the side pier.

According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, there was a pier in three miles, a pier in five miles, and only five or seven people were stationed in the fort, and the main task was to warn and not conquer for the enemy for a while. On the battlefield of Liaodong, the Ming army has occupied the absolute main force, and the building materials are really insufficient, so build a fort in five miles, and leave five or seven people in the fort to guard, and in the areas where there are frequent battles, there will also be a one-seven battalion artillery.

The defenders of the pier soon discovered the hot air balloon floating high, and knew that it was their own thing, and hurriedly prepared to open the door. However, according to the military discipline and discipline, the dun soldiers still have to snow the boat to the door, check the military badge, check the accent, and then open the door and let people in.

Although there was only one real soldier among the soldiers, because of the sufficient rations and the stability of the people, they were naturally vigilant. Unlike those border soldiers in the past, Dongyu was still asleep when he touched the bedside. Since the completion of these newly built side piers, they have not been touched by the Eastern Prisoners.

The captain of the dun came out to salute his comrades in the snow boat, and the hot air balloon was fixed by the dun soldiers on the small watchtower of the dungeon, and there was no need to turn off the fire and descend at all.

"Colonel, do you want to call the dun soldiers for training?" Wu Chang walked beside the "hairy bear" and asked in a low voice.

This "hairy bear" strode into the public house, peeled off the leather jacket on his body, and revealed the two-bar three-star epaulettes, which was Chang Zhifan, the approver of the experiment. The person next to him also took off his leather jacket, it was his old partner Zhao Wei, who was in the royal car just now.

"Jingyudun," Chang Zhifan looked at the name of the side pier, "We are already on the territory of the white flag opposite?" ”

Zhao Wei stepped forward and dialed the fire, and said, "It should be, it was a territory with white flags before." In the first two months, I don't know what happened to the road, and the flag was replaced by a white flag. ”

"How far is their nearest cow from us?" Chang Zhifan asked.

Wu Chang hurriedly said: "Originally, the nearest one was Ertaizitun, but now that tunzi is abandoned, I heard that everyone has gone to Yilanzitun eight miles away." ”

Chang Zhifan nodded: "How many people are there in Zhilu Dao?" ”

"Women and children, the old and the weak, are not more than thirty people." Wu Changdao: "Yilan's translation into Chinese is 'three families', and there were three families before. The land is barren, and no one wants to live there. No, our scouts went to Ertaizitun twice in three days to collect people, and they escaped. ”

Zhao Wei smiled: "You know a lot of Taoism, you are not from Guannei when you listen to the accent, right?" ”

"The lowly student is outside the gate, my father was captured by the east, and his ancestral home is Xuanfu. The army who joined the army before the humble post is familiar with this place. Na Wu said.

Zhao Wei nodded and said with a smile: "It's good, it's the standard words and phrases issued by the Discipline Department to keep in mind." Yilan is Manchu, right? ”

The Wu chief shuddered and said, "Guilty of despicable duty!" ”

Zhao Wei waved his hand, indicating that it didn't matter. Anyway, the Discipline Department is also cooperating with Feng Bin of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to do this, in short, there is no Manchu language in everyone and everywhere.

If you really can't avoid it, or if you lack a Chinese name, you have to make a temporary one.

They believed that it would not be long before there would be no trace of Manchurians in Liaodong, but they did not know how much inconvenience Lu Dao had caused to the army.

You have chosen your own name here, and the locals caught in the army do not know what to do, so they talk about their own things, which adds a lot of trouble. In particular, when the General Staff Department draws up operational or patrol plans, sometimes they think that they are two different places, only to find out that they are the same place when they go to the field.

Zhao Wei can be said to have suffered deeply.

"It's not bad here, and when the slave Gandusi is recovered in the future, just by changing the name, you can change the dead." Chang Zhifan was a little gloating and said: "Let's be okay, the staff will compile a map in the future, and you will look at it again, it is not strange that there are seven or eight names in a river, and there is nowhere to cry." ”

Zhao Wei smiled bitterly.

While the three of them were talking, the lookout outside had already issued a warning: the East is coming.

Chang Zhifan stepped out of the tower in three or two steps, turned around and led the dun soldiers to the watchtower, picked up the clairvoyant mirror and looked for it, only to see a layer of snow and dust. Judging from the height of the snow and dust, there are no more than ten horsemen, and it is a fool's dream to attack this side pier.

At this time of year, just pouring a layer of water on it will become a hard ice shell in the blink of an eye, and Dongyu will not send 180 people, so he will not want to succeed at all. And once they dispatch a large number of people, the Ming army is not vegetarian here. In the past few days, all the small battles of hundreds of people have been endless, and the Ming army has never suffered a single loss.

Dongyu's more than ten horsemen really stopped far away.

"Huh? Are these scouts yellow-flagged? Chang Zhifan held the clairvoyant mirror and vaguely saw a yellow flag flashing in front of him. (To be continued......)

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