Soon after the fall of Lonely Huaien's gang, Abba moved to Huayin County and stayed in Changchun Palace to see off the second brother's army. Li Zhiyun also led the new army to Huayin County and joined the second brother's conquest army. After Abba asked him to train the army, he went out with his second brother, of course he couldn't disobey the order, but he only brought one regiment this time, and Li Tieniu's regiment had not been trained yet, so he couldn't go out yet. During this time, the arsenal produced seven or eight hundred bird guns and eight cannons in red clothes, which was only enough to equip one battalion. So, in fact, only one battalion of this regiment was a firearms battalion, and the other three battalions were armed with spears and crossbows.

Before the army sets out, a ceremony is held. The departure ceremony was held in an open field, and all the soldiers lined up in a phalanx, with Li Zhiyun and many generals standing at the front of the phalanx. Five or six feet in front of them, a three-foot-high wooden platform was erected, and the second brother stood on the wooden platform to preside over the ceremony. Not far from the wooden platform, there stood a huge yellow satin rogue, under which Abba stood and many accompanying officials gathered around Abba.

The first is the sacrificial ceremony. As soon as the ceremony began, Li Zhiyun heard the cry of "baa baa". He turned his head and saw that a soldier had brought two sheep in a wagon. The carriage stopped near the wooden platform, and several soldiers stepped forward and unloaded the two fat sheep. A vicious-looking butcher approached, holding a long, shiny knife in his hand. In full view, he is going to kill these two lovely sheep? That's cruel, isn't it?

As soon as the butcher slashed down, the sheep stopped calling. When the knife was drawn, blood splattered all over him. One of the soldiers ran over with an empty bowl, took a bowl of goat's blood, then ran up to the wooden platform and handed the bowl to the second brother. How? Does the second brother want to drink this bowl of sheep blood and make an alliance with his brothers? Li Zhiyun thought to himself, how dirty this sheep's blood is, I don't know that there are hundreds of millions of bacteria in it, if it is brought to me, I won't drink it!

However, the second brother didn't drink sheep blood, he just held the bowl in a daze. Several soldiers each carried a military flag and climbed the wooden platform and stood in front of the second brother in turn. The second brother dipped his fingers in sheep blood and flicked it on each military flag. It turned out that this was a sacrifice of animal blood. After the sacrifice of the military flag, some soldiers brought war drums, gold duo, weapons, etc. and piled them up in front of the second brother, and the second brother concocted the same method, and poured the blood of these things used on the battlefield, which is called "provocation", which means sacrificing to the gods.

Next, the soldiers put the two slaughtered sheep back onto the wagon, and a general stood on the wagon, holding his sword and shouting: "All the soldiers listen to the announcement, and those who do not die will be killed!" "The carriage began to circle the phalanx, and every time it traveled, the general shouted. He was warning the soldiers that if they were greedy for life and afraid of death on the battlefield, they would be slaughtered like these two sheep, which was called "martyrdom." ”

After circling the phalanx, the carriage returned to its original place. The soldiers stepped forward and unloaded the two sheep again, and beside them, a soldier set up a pyre, and a sheep was placed on the pyre. Could it be that this is to roast a whole sheep? It's a pity that there is only one sheep, more than 30,000 people, and one person is afraid that he can't even share a small piece of mutton.

The pyre was lit, and the fire grew louder and louder, engulfing the sheep in an instant. It's not roasting a whole sheep, it's roasting a whole sheep. When the fire was extinguished, the whole sheep was burned to ashes, and there was no skeleton left. Li Zhiyun understood, this was a sacrifice to the gods, and the sheep was burned to ashes, indicating that it had been enjoyed by God.

Needless to say, the other sheep should be enjoyed by the Lord of the Land. Sure enough, several soldiers were already digging a pit not far away. After the pit was dug, the sheep was carried over and buried.

After these strange rituals, the pledge meeting began. First of all, Abba took the stage and delivered a passionate speech, expounding the great significance of this crusade against Liu Wuzhou. Then, Abba gave the second brother a festival and a knight. The knot is a bamboo pole with a white pole tied to it, and the shaft is a weapon like an axe. The attendant handed the festival and Yue to Abba, and then Abba gave it to the second brother, indicating that the command of this combat operation was completely handed over to the second brother. In the end, the military discipline was read out by the supervising army on the stage, which was nothing more than the beheading of those who cowered in battle, the beheading of those who escaped from the battle, and so on.

The day after the departure ceremony, the army was marched. A few days ago, there was a cold snap in the north, the temperature plummeted, and the Yellow River was already frozen. The army crossed the Yellow River from Longmen on hard ice, entered the southwest of Shanxi, and then continued eastward. The army of more than 30,000 people set up a long snake formation, and marched forward on the official road, with no head in front and no tail in the back, which was quite spectacular. The team was divided into three armies, the front army was the vanguard, the middle army was the main force, and the rear army was the baggage and grain and grass.

Li Zhiyun's new army is located in the Central Army. He rode a horse and followed the team, walked for a while, and saw the second brother and two guards in front of him standing beside the road, so he drove forward and said, "Second brother, why don't you go?" The second brother did not answer, but looked at the marching queue and asked, "Fifth brother, is this your new army?" Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Yes." ”

"What are they carrying?"

"Oh, that's a bird gun, also known as a fire gun, and it's a long-range weapon."

"Can this thing fight?" The second brother felt a little unbelievable.

"Of course, it's much more powerful than a crossbow."

While the two were talking, an artillery company armed with a red-coat cannon came over. For this expedition, Li Zhiyun specially asked people to make a gun carriage, the barrel of which was mounted on the gun carriage and pulled by mules and horses, and the ammunition was also carried by mule-drawn carts. In this way, as soon as the artillery team stops, it can quickly reload and fire. Li Zhiyun didn't wait for the second brother to ask, so he took the initiative to introduce: "Second brother, that's a cannon, you will know its power in the future." The second brother retracted his gaze, looked at him and said, "Fifth brother, what is hanging around your neck?" ”

Li Zhiyun took off the telescope hanging on his chest, handed it to his second brother and said, "This is a telescope, use it to see the scenery in the distance, it is very clear." ”

It is a ten-fold military telescope, carved out of walnut wood and inlaid with concave and convex lenses in the tube. The main material used to make telescopes is, of course, glass. The manufacture of glass is actually very simple, just as the Chinese have long been able to fire porcelain, and the Europeans have invented glass very early. Moreover, the manufacturing process of the two is similar, both are high-temperature sintering, except that the raw material used for porcelain is kaolin, while the raw material used for glass is sand.

It is said that more than 3,000 years ago, a European Phoenician merchant ship, loaded with crystal minerals "natural soda," sailed on the Belus River on the Mediterranean coast, and the merchant ship ran aground due to the low tide of the sea. So, the crew went to the beach one after another, and some of the crew carried cauldrons, brought firewood, and used a few pieces of "natural soda" as the support of the cauldron to cook on the beach. After the crew finished eating, the tide began to rise. As they were about to pack up and board the boat and continue sailing, someone suddenly shouted, "Come and see, everyone, there is something bright and sparkling on the beach below the pot!" "The crew brought these glittering things to the ship to study them carefully, and found that there were some quartz sand and molten natural soda stuck to these shiny things, it turned out that these glittering things were the natural soda used to make the pot holder when they cooked, and under the action of the flame, the crystals produced by chemical reaction with the quartz sand on the beach, this is the earliest glass. Later, the Phoenicians made a fortune by mixing quartz sand with natural soda and melting it in a special furnace to make glass balls.

By the fourth century AD, the Romans had made transparent glass from purer quartz sand, potassium carbonate from appropriate plant ash and calcium oxide calcined from limestone, and then blown out large glass containers and flat glass mounted on doors and windows.

Some time ago, Li Zhiyun cooperated with a wealthy businessman in Chang'an City to set up a glass company. This telescope was made by the glass company.

After the second brother got the telescope, he didn't know how to use it. Li Zhiyun took it, demonstrated it to him, and then handed it back to him. The second brother took it and looked into the distance for a while, nodded and said, "This thing is really good, you can see the people and things in the distance very clearly!" Li Zhiyun said with a smile: "Then give it to you, with the telescope, it will be much more convenient for you to command the war in the future." When the second brother heard this, he happily: "Fifth brother, thank you!" ”

After three days of marching, the army came to a place called Baibi, where they took up camp. The perimeter of the walls of Baibi City is twenty miles, and there are more than 10,000 households in the city, which is neither small nor large, and more than 30,000 people can't all live in the city, so most of the troops are stationed outside the city, and camps are built in open areas, and some camps are built in traffic passes and dangerous places. The second brother ordered that each camp should be built into a strong fortress. Therefore, the soldiers buried the ground with a wooden stake with a thick bowl mouth, built a wall, set up firewood deer and horses outside, and then dug a ditch two zhang wide and one zhang deep. There are also watchtowers and archery towers in the camp, and the defense can be said to be impregnable. It seems that the second brother is planning to stay here for a long time.