In fact, not to mention the distant observation of some Tartar sentries scattered on the south bank, and the news was transmitted to the Tartar camp on the north bank with harrier eagles, which was the busy scene of thousands of people on the Ming army, and the Tartars on the other side could also be observed with the naked eye.

Although the site for building the covered bridge was on the bank of the Yellow River thirty miles east of the Ming army camp, the reason why Song Nan chose this place was not because he needed to avoid the eyes and ears of the Tartars, but only for one purpose.

In fact, the Ming army did not do any secrecy at all, whether it was the noise and busyness of thousands of people or the lighting of torches when building the covered bridge at night, it would be the first time to alert the Tartar soldiers on the other side and explore. Bald Meng quickly figured out what the Ming army was doing, how could he tolerate the Ming army building a pontoon bridge under his nose with such fanfare.

So, a scene that stunned Song Nan and the generals of the Ming army appeared, when the covered bridge was built in the second half of the night, it was already close to the center of the Yellow River, and the difficulty was getting bigger and bigger; Everyone racked their brains to find a way to tame the disobedient wooden corridor that was hit by the current, but they didn't notice that danger had come.

Putting aside the doubts that the Condor cannons were exposed, he ordered ten Condor cannons to be erected on the high ground on the north bank, and in the quiet night, a huge roar resounded throughout the land, startling the night birds on the grassland and the wild beasts fled; The whistling cannonballs fell on both sides of the covered bridge, and some of them hit directly, setting off monstrous waves and sawdust all over the sky, and in just a short time of incense, nearly 500 soldiers and craftsmen who built the covered bridge and more than 100 broken wooden corridors were blown to pieces. The wooden gallery that had been blown into sawdust broke away from the control with the flames, and floated away along the river in the dark night, and the soldiers who fell into the water could not swim back to the shore at all, and in the icy river water, their hands and feet were numb and carried away like a piece of wood.

Song Nan immediately led people to the scene after receiving the report, and looked at the Yellow River in the dawn light, the covered bridge that was originally a dragon-like winding bridge had been shattered, and only the thirty-four sections near the shore were still in the river, and the river was full of soldiers' corpses and floating logs that had been hit by the torrent to the slow flow of the bank, and the scene was terrible.

All the generals who arrived were stunned, and their hearts sank to the bottom of the cold river along with the dead soldiers.

The Tartars have the Condor cannon, and they still have this formidable firearm. If it is a face-to-face battle, it is not too vain, but this is a river crossing, and with this cannon to defend on the opposite bank, the pontoon bridge will never be built.

Song Nan's face was pale, biting his lower lip and his eyes were spraying anger, and the Tartar suddenly had the Condor cannon again, which he didn't expect; He didn't understand why the Tartars had to give up Wuhai since they had this firearm, and it was a nightmare for the siege soldiers and horses to take this thing to the head of the city.

Song Nan had no time to think about the idea of the Tartars, now he needed to think about how to cross the Yellow River, with the cannon on the opposite bank, what pontoon bridge, what boats to force to cross, what to wait for the frozen river to cross the river has become a delusion, the cannon bombardment, the ice surface of the pontoon boats will all be broken, even if it is a forced crossing regardless of casualties, it may not be successful.

"It's over, it seems that this method will not work, there are so many tricks of dog tartars, I don't know how many cannons they have stationed on the other side, if there are thirty or fifty guns, then I am afraid they can only fly over with wings." One of the generals lamented.

Song Nan's heart moved, and he suddenly shouted: "That's right, fly over with wings." ”

The general was taken aback, and hurriedly apologized: "The general is angry, and he is humble and unscrupulous, and he really shouldn't say such frustrating words." ”

Song Nan waved his hand and smiled: "I don't blame you, I don't blame you, I have to thank you." ”

The generals were stunned, could it be that the general was confused? The general is obviously saying something discouraged, but he has to thank others.

Song Nan smacked his lips and said: "The covered bridge was bombed, although the loss is not small, but the loss of Saion is not a blessing." If it weren't for that, we didn't know that the Tartars' Eagle cannons would still be usable, and it was clear that the Bald wanted to use them while we were crossing the river. Imagine, if he let us cross the river, wait for us to pass 5,000 or 10,000 people, and then blow up the covered bridge and cut off the follow-up soldiers and horses to the south bank, then wouldn't the soldiers and horses of the past become a small dish on his plate? What's so frustrating about peeking into his secret at the cost of the covered bridge and allowing us to avoid a huge loss? ”

The generals nodded in agreement, and Jiang Bin spread his hands and said, "Having said that, but in this case, how to cross this river?" ”

"Fly over." Song Nan said: "Didn't this brother say it just now? ”

Jiang Bin rolled his eyes and said: "General Zuo just complained casually, why do you always tease him, I will demote him when I turn around." ”

Song Nan waved his hand and said, "Who teased him?" The way to do this is to fly over. If the Condor cannon is not removed, the Yellow River will not be able to cross, and it will be the same as the battle of the Great Wall, and these Laoshzi will be destroyed first. ”

"But how can this be destroyed? Across the river. The generals were puzzled.

Song Nan said: "So General Zuo's words just now reminded me, I want to send someone to fly over and destroy these cannons, and then this covered bridge can be built." Ma Ming immediately gathered all the cattle and sheep left by the Tartars on the grassland and slaughtered them; I only want cowhides and sheepskins, and when they are skinned, they must be intact and must not be broken. All the fur is dried around the campfire, and the hair is shaved off, and the thinner the stretch, the better.

“…… What are you going to do, adult? Ma Ming scratched his head and said, "Aren't these cattle and sheep to be exchanged for silver to pay off debts as war trophies?" ”

Song Nan said: "There is no way, I can only endure the pain and cut my love." Continue to build a wooden gallery here, but don't rush to build it, and you can't build a covered bridge until the Condor cannon is solved. ”

The generals were confused and didn't know what Song Nan was going to do, but since they had ordered it, they naturally did it immediately. Ma Ming ordered the thousands of cattle and sheep that the people of the Tartars had not had time to take away, and ordered them to be slaughtered, and the intact fur was tightened and placed around the bonfire to dry, and the outer fur was scraped off and became a thin elastic layer of translucent skin. After hundreds of intact furs were dried and sent to the open space in front of Song Nan's tent that afternoon.

Dozens of generals gathered around to watch the excitement, but saw that Song Nan personally rolled up his sleeves and started to sew the thin skin together with a big iron needle, and then closed it on both sides to make a semicircular funnel-shaped ball. Then use a thick rope to tie the four corners, and after tying a basket to the lower end of the rope, Song Nan wiped his sweat and said, "Let's try it to work." ”

The four soldiers carried the four corners of the opening under the cowhide funnel, and Song Nan lit it with a pot of fire oil, and with the steaming of the heat, the cowhide gradually expanded into an irregular circle, and slowly stood up towards the sky. After another meal, several soldiers felt that their bodies could not hold the cowhide ball, and in a flash, the two soldiers took off their hands, and the cowhide ball flickered off the ground, and Song Nan, who was squatting in the basket below, flew towards the sky.

Song Nan shouted excitedly, and hurriedly extinguished the flames in the brazier with an iron lid, and seven or eight soldiers below worked together to pull Song Nan and the big cowhide ball out of the floating state.

The generals and the surrounding soldiers couldn't believe their eyes, and they looked at this qiē one by one dumbfounded, Jiang Bin smacked his lips and shouted, "This ...... How is this possible, and how do you do it? ”

Song Nan said with a smile: "It's just a Kong Ming lantern, this is just a huge Kong Ming lantern, the difference is that our Kong Ming lantern can fly with people." ”

At this time, everyone understood what Song Nan meant by flying across the river, and it turned out that he was going to fly across the Yellow River with this large Kong Ming lantern. However, they obviously made a mistake again, and Song Nan's next explanation made them completely understand what they were trying to do.

"Dozens of these things, huh...... I'll call it a hot air balloon for the sake of the taste. The hot air balloon flew over the Yellow River and reached the sky above the opposite bank, and the soldiers on it could use the hands developed by our arsenal. Thunder is thrown down, and this is called aerial bombardment. The Tartar cannons can't blast these hot air balloons with their muzzles upwards, at most they can shoot with bows and arrows, but you all know how difficult it is to shoot at moving targets in the air. The primary objective of the hot air balloon is to bomb the location of the Tartar Condor cannon with just a few hands. Thunder can destroy a cannon, making it unrepairable for a few hours. Then we can build a covered bridge to cross the river. ”

Everyone admired and shouted, this method was really wonderful, at the moment, under the command of Song Nan, the soldiers of the personal guard battalion moved together, and the thick palms with guns and knives flew up and down with needles and threads this time, and the animal skins were densely sewn into shapes according to Song Nan's requirements. After a busy night, by dawn, all 38 hot air balloons had been counted.

Song Nan made some improvements to them, such as the fire adjustment of the brazier below, which can be adjusted by the size of the guò opening, and the height of the balloon can also be adjusted. In addition, sandbags are also hung on the lower basket, which is easy to lift and adjust. This time, seventy-six lean soldiers were selected from the Divine Battalion, each carrying two balloons, one for adjusting the lifting and one for throwing. Thunder.

In the morning, on the grass in the rear, all the hot air balloons carried out a drill, except for the two balloons that were too simple when they were made, and the center of gravity was unstable, and they lost control soon after liftoff, and directly became a fireball and fell on the grassland, and the remaining 36 balloons successfully rose to a height of dozens of zhang.

The drums of war were beaten below, and the soldiers above threw a round of hands down. After the thunder and explosion, dozens of large craters suddenly appeared on the grassland. Although the throwing accuracy is average, it at least shows that this method is feasible.

In the excitement of the crowd, Song Nan himself was also a little excited. But he knew in his heart that this simple hot air balloon was extremely dangerous, and the direction was difficult to control; After the birth of the sky, if there is no wind help, it will not necessarily fly towards the goal at all. Moreover, it is basically impossible for the soldiers on these balloons to survive, and there is no way to calculate how long the fuel on them can last, if half of the fire oil burns out on the road, the whole balloon will become a ball that falls freely, and people will be smashed into flesh. Even if there is enough fuel, and the arrows on the ground and the place where the bombs are dropped are in the Tatar control area, the chances of these people surviving are very small.

Song Nan did not shy away from telling them this, and finally sincerely wished them that they would land safely and live until the time when the army crossed the river to find them. The thirty-six pairs of soldiers of the Shenshu Battalion knew that the general was pinning his hopes on them, and one by one they patted their chests and swore that they would never fail in their mission.