Three Kingdoms

Taksa is a bit stuck.

This is a situation that normal people often encounter, that is, imagining things too well, and then conflicting with reality, leading to a dilemma.

Everyone has an adventurous spirit, to a greater or lesser degree.

Some of them are like climbing up a house to uncover tiles or climbing up a tree to dig out eggs, but there are also some people who can't even cope with such adventures. Once they go up, they can't come down.

Taksa is going up now and can't get down.

He didn't expect these herdsmen to have so many problems, be so chaotic, or be so stupid.

In other words, Taksa thought about it, but didn't pay attention to it. Because humans are experiential creatures, the brain prefers to rely on existing experience to deal with problems, rather than treating them as new problems every time to deduce the final conclusion.

So Taksa thought that the herdsmen in the Western Regions were probably similar to the Kushan militiamen he had remembered before...

In fact, it's much worse.

Kushan has been fighting all year round, and almost all the people are soldiers. During the entire war process, Kushan's national power is being consumed. There is no doubt about this, but it has also brought some gains in other aspects, that is, the ordinary people of Kushan have been in the war. I am relatively familiar with it and can understand many things without special instruction.

The Western Region is different.

Among these herdsmen in the Western Region, most of them came in the name of Buddha because of Master Busen. However, these herdsmen who came may regard life and death as for the Buddha, for karma, and for the next life. With little hope of a better life, they do not have many combat skills, let alone military literacy.

Only the ability to work.

Therefore, these herdsmen have no problems when doing their daily work, but when they enter a fighting state, problems of one kind or another will inevitably occur, and these problems should not occur at all in Taksa's original understanding. …

Just like the right of way in later generations, under national laws, whether to keep to the left or to the right is basically a matter that everyone knows and does not need to be emphasized. However, you will encounter some people who are going against the law and then say I am so-and-so, shouldn’t I be let go?

These confusions that Taksa couldn't understand made the plan very good but the implementation was very helpless. Especially when the third batch of elite warriors began to rush upward, something happened that made Taksa even more angry and frightened.

These elite warriors from various countries were bombed.

When these elite warriors were preparing to climb up the erected ladder, they threw some black powder grenades on the back wall of the military camp.

To be honest, these first-generation black powder grenades are not very lethal. For later grenades, even if they are protected, the fatality rate is extremely high within five meters. The main killing range is basically within fifteen meters, and the fragments can even damage an unarmored body about thirty meters away. However, in the current situation of the Han Dynasty, the hussar The black powder grenade under his command has very weak direct lethality. As long as it is not hit by flying rocks or something five meters away, it will basically make a sound.

Now the latest grenades should be the fourth generation...

Even if the first-generation grenade does not have strong direct killing capabilities, it can still produce thick smoke, a pungent smell, and an irresistible roar, which also caused great psychological oppression to these warriors of the Western Regions. , these people were frightened out of their wits, and their hands and feet were sore. The pungent smell of sulfur made these people think they were poisoned. They staggered back with snot and tears, and some people were injured in the process of escaping, bloody, and these injuries were also included in the calculation. Among the power of grenades.

This is true for the elite warriors of the Western Region countries, not to mention the ordinary herdsmen. Except for a few foolish and bold ones, most of the herdsmen thought it was a bolt from the blue. Some herdsmen even knelt down on the spot, trembling...

In such a situation, can we continue to attack?

Obviously it can't be fought.

Taksa reluctantly issued a ceasefire order and asked these people to retreat and repair.

Dusk falls.

After the secretion of adrenaline stopped and all the passion was cooled down by the wind in the wilderness, the emotions that had been covered up gradually began to stir.

The sadness of losing a loved one and a friend.

Grief caused by injury.

Confused.

All of this gradually aggregated into the most easily spread emotion.

Fear of the unknown.

This fearful emotion is engraved in almost everyone's genes. It is easily triggered, and then affects each other, causing more and more people to fall into this huge whirlpool.

Discussions began to arise. Even if a gag order was issued, it could not stop these herdsmen from conveying what happened to more people's ears and planting the seeds of fear in the hearts of others.

As the night fell, Taksa felt like someone had poured a basin of cold water on his head, causing his dizzy head to start thinking more or less, and found that the things in front of him were not as simple as he imagined.

"Grandmaster! ” Taksa found Busen, stepped back, and said in a deep voice straight to the point, “That’s the evil magic of the Han people!” Magic! I believe that the master has great magic power and can definitely restrain the opponent's evil spell! 』

The wrinkles on Busen's face were full of confusion, and he couldn't turn around for a moment, "What?" what are you saying? 』

Taksa pointed at the green smoke that had not yet dissipated from the military camp, "That's the demonic method, the Han people's demonic method!" Master can now open an altar to chant sutras and do the practices for us, so that the power of the Buddha can defend against the demonic methods of the Han people! 』

Busen's eyes widened and he understood a little bit, but he still found it unbelievable, "General, what are you..."

"Magic! The witchcraft of the Han people! ” Taksa emphasized again, “This is just a magic spell! 』

"..." Busen fell silent.

There seemed to be an invisible pressure between the two of them, weighing heavily on their heads and hearts.

After a long time, Busen whispered: "General, do you think... you can really win?" 』

A small military camp is fighting so hard. What else is needed to fight against the "demon method" of the Han people? This huge gap between ideals and reality has caused even the blindly optimistic Taksa to feel a little emotional. Face, not to mention Busen, who was originally cautious and optimistic, was even more worried.

Taksa also realized that he had some problems, took a deep breath, and then said slightly calmly: "Master, don't worry, I have a plan, a new and more complete plan." 』

Taksa pointed to the military stronghold in the distance, the place where there was a faint glow of fire in the night, "What was our original plan to capture this military stronghold?" Isn't it just for military training? This is like a whetstone that will make our swords sharper! 』

Busen listened silently, watched silently, and thought silently, yes, it was indeed like a whetstone. A whetstone that can sharpen a lake of flesh and blood may indeed make a sword sharp, but it may also sharpen it so much that the sword will break!

But Busen didn't speak, he just listened.

Taksa seemed to have regained some confidence and pointed at Jiangshan, "Since it is a grindstone, haven't we basically achieved our goal today?" New soldiers always have to see blood before they become veterans. And one thing is certain, since the Han people's military stronghold is tightly defended, it means that the Han people have deployed heavy troops here in the military stronghold! So it’s normal for ordinary men like us to be unable to defeat them... Yes, it’s normal. Moreover, since the Han people have heavy troops in the military stronghold, we can revise our original plan..."

"Since this military stronghold is difficult to fight, we will not fight. We can go and fight the better ones!" ” Taksa said in a deep voice, “Our sons are indeed somewhat good at attacking cities and strongholds... Well, so we can use what we are better at, no, not to go around and attack the Han people’s Xihai City first, but Waiting for Han reinforcements here! Let’s fight these Han reinforcements! 』

Bu Sen was stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help but ask: "Are you sure... that the Han people will come with reinforcements?" 』

"..." Taksa seemed to pause for a moment, "Of course!" Since this military stronghold has heavy Han troops, the Han people from Xihai City will definitely come to help! Even if the Han people in Xihai City don't come, wouldn't it be better? This proves that the Han people in Xihai City are so afraid that they don’t even care about their brothers and will not save them. This must be a huge blow to the Han people! 』

Taksa turned to Busen, "In order for our new plan to be implemented smoothly...Master, we must first eliminate the influence of the "demon magic" of the Han people on our sons, so...there can be no delay, Master will do it tomorrow!" 』

"How to do it..." Bu Sen said slowly, "It's not difficult, but the problem is... what if the Han soldiers come to help and still bring those "demon skills" with them? How will the general deal with it? 』

"This..." Taksa was stunned for a moment, "This is impossible!" If the Han people want to practice magic, certain conditions must be required, otherwise the Han people would have fought to the end of the world! Do the Han people still need to be here? Do you still need to stay in the military stronghold? So, don't worry! I already have a plan! There will be no problem this time! 』

…)…

The yellow sand is rolling.

At the edge of the Western Region, a neat array is displayed.

"Is there no problem this time?" Fei Qian, dressed in military uniform and protected by Xu Chu, walked slowly, and then asked the craftsmen beside him, "If you have any questions, please ask them in time." 』

When Busen started preparing for some religious ceremony, Fei Qian was also preparing for the "practice". However, he was asking the craftsmen who accompanied the army, not the religious Taoist priests.

In order to keep it secret, after arriving at Yumen Pass, Fei Qian once again pulled out the artillery for inspection. Of course, it was nominally a strategic exercise in front of the entire army.

From stone cannon to artillery, it is undoubtedly a huge leap.

It's just that Fei Qian felt a little helpless when he looked at this "flying over".

After the initial trial production of the artillery, the shape of the artillery now looks increasingly ugly. Because it needs to be close to the actual situation, rather than following Fei Qian’s original aesthetic.

"Please don't worry, General!" ” The craftsman patted his chest and patted the cast iron cannon beside him, “We have tested it many times, and now it won’t explode! 』

Fei Qian nodded, then told the craftsmen to be careful, and then rode out of the dangerous area to the high platform behind.

Under the high platform, the infantry and cavalry formed a long array.

The flags are flying and the people and horses are in good spirits.

Fei Qian stood on the high platform, then nodded, indicating that the martial arts performance was ready to begin.

Regarding the current artillery research and development, Fei Qian has repeatedly lowered his knowledge and requirements for artillery. That's right, now Fei Qian is not pursuing range, nor is it asking for destructive power, it is just the most basic endurance and not to explode.

In this artillery exercise, new equipment appeared, the iron cannon.

Fei Qian had previously modified the second-generation bronze cannon into a battleship cannon and installed it in some large-scale ships. The combat effect was indeed outstanding, but similarly, the second-generation bronze cannon still had many problems.

It's not just that it's expensive.

Of course Fei Qian knew that later generations of artillery would be made of steel, but the problem is that the current big man simply cannot make steel artillery. It is not difficult to make a spare part out of steel, but what about a large artillery...

So now there are only two options, one is bronze and the other is cast iron.

Brass, or red copper, etc., can also be considered other types of copper alloys, but bronze is the most suitable copper alloy. On the one hand, the hardness of bronze is higher, on the other hand, the melting point of bronze is low, and another very important reason is that bronze has less shrinkage, so it is very suitable for casting.

In addition, the technology of bronze casting is also very mature.

Another thing that matured during the Qin and Han Dynasties was cast iron.

Cast iron can also be used as a material for artillery, and cast iron cannons have the advantage of being cheap.

The price of one bronze cannon is worth five cast iron cannons.

So whether to use a more expensive bronze cannon or a cheaper cast iron cannon, Fei Qian was actually in a dilemma.

Bronze is relatively mature. Although this maturity is only relative, at least at the moment, the main problem of bronze cannons is not the explosion of the chamber, but deformation. This is due to the properties of bronze itself.

Bronze has a low melting point, so after firing some projectiles, under high temperature and pressure, the barrel and muzzle will deform before the chamber explodes. Once the deformation is serious, the entire artillery will be useless, even if it can still hold up. He fired it without knowing where the shell would fly.

Because of Dahan's craftsmanship, it is impossible to guarantee that the cannonball and the cannon bore are purely round and fit perfectly with each other. Therefore, cannonballs that appear to be the same on the outside cannot actually be standard circular bodies. Each time a cannonball is fired, it will pull the breech and muzzle of the bronze artillery. After multiple firings, this problem will be unavoidable. Appear.

Hence, the cast iron cannon.

The problem with the cast iron cannon generation is that it is easy to explode. Although cast iron cannons have a higher melting point than bronze and do not deform like bronze cannons, they have a higher probability of bombing than bronze cannons. Based on the inspection and analysis after the accident, the craftsmen came to a general conclusion that when the cast iron cannon was poured, there were material imbalances on the cannon, such as holes, trachoma, etc.

Later, some craftsmen proposed to use forged iron instead of cast iron as the barrel of the artillery, but this immediately brought about extension problems in the forging process, such as the need for large workpieces, large stamping equipment, etc. in the forging process...

This is the relevance of production technology.

Fei Qian could not directly cross the branches of these technological trees. He could only let the craftsmen speed up the climb, or purposefully skip some development directions that were not very important.

For example, Fei Qian said that copper cannons can still be developed, but iron cannons must also be developed at the same time. Among iron cannons, it is not only necessary to continue to study the ferroalloy process in the direction of cast iron, but also to develop the forging process.

Steel will eventually replace copper.

This time for the battle in the Western Region, Fei Qian asked craftsmen to bring both bronze cannons and cast iron cannons. It's just that the transportation speed of these heavy big guys cannot keep up with the cavalry, so Fei Qian, on the one hand, integrated the Xiqiang soldiers so that these Xiqiang people can better adapt to life in the Han army, and on the other hand, he also waited The subsequent craftsmen transported these artillery pieces to Yumen Pass.

Now, the craftsmen lined up the artillery in the Gobi desert, waiting for Fei Qian's order.

The five on the left are bronze cannons, and the five on the right of the bronze cannons are cast iron cannons.

The two on the far right are forged iron cannons.

Compared to its elder brother, the bronze cannon, and its second brother, the cast iron cannon, the forged iron cannon is smaller and uglier.

Bronze cannons and cast iron cannons at least look smooth and smooth, with straight lines and graceful curves. However, due to inherent shortcomings of forged cannons, not only can some forged spots be seen on the whole, but also because the entire cannon body is made of two It is made up of two semi-circular cannon bodies, with layers of iron hoops added to the outer layer, so it looks like a long piece of large bamboo laid flat. Even the iron bullets fired are smaller than other cannons. Number one.

It is very intuitive that the power of forged iron cannons is obviously not as good as bronze cannons and cast iron cannons. The only advantage is that this thing is smaller, lighter and easier to transport. It may be used as the key equipment of artillery on ships and warships, or Artillery accompanying the army as a short- to medium-range support infantry.

While Fei Qian was thinking, the artillery groups were already ready and were waving flags with red background and yellow edges.

"Rapid-fire five shots!" ” Fei Qian issued the order.

As the orders from the general platform were conveyed, the whole world seemed to tremble in the next moment. A huge roar rolled across the Gobi Desert, causing some of the horses and soldiers under the platform to move uneasily. Not to mention the Xiqiang infantry who had just joined the array, there were also some Han Chinese who had never seen artillery before and could not help but tremble a little. There were even some war horses who couldn't control their fear and actually jumped out of the queue out of fright and headed toward them. He ran out into the open space.

Taishi Ci's face suddenly darkened, because it was a cavalry array under his command...