Not long after the Lonely Huai En gang was destroyed, my father moved to Huayin County and moved into Changchun Palace to see off his second brother's army. Li Zhiyun also led the new army to Huayin County to join his second brother's army.

After he was asked to train the army, he would go on an expedition with his second brother. Of course he could not disobey orders, but this time he only

He led a regiment, but Li Tieniu's regiment had not yet been trained, so it could not go on an expedition. During this period, the arsenal produced seven to eight hundred blunderbuss and eight red cannons, which was only enough to equip one battalion. Therefore, this regiment

In fact, only one battalion was a firearms battalion, and the other three battalions were still equipped with spears and crossbows.

Before the army sets out for an expedition, a marching ceremony must be held. The marching ceremony is held in an open field. All the marching soldiers are arranged in a square formation. Li Zhiyun and many generals stand at the front of the square formation. Five or six feet in front of them, there is a

There was a three-foot-high wooden platform, and the second brother stood on the wooden platform to preside over the ceremony. Not far from the wooden platform, there was a huge yellow satin luogai. Abba was standing under the luogai, and many accompanying officials gathered.

At Abba's side.

The first thing to be held was the sacrificial ceremony. As soon as the ceremony began, Li Zhiyun heard the cry of "baa baa baa". He turned around and saw that it was a soldier driving a carriage transporting two sheep. The carriage stopped at the wooden platform.

nearby, several

The famous soldiers stepped forward and unloaded the two fat sheep. A ferocious-looking butcher came over, holding a sharp long knife in his hand. In full view of everyone, he wanted to kill these two lovely sheep?

Isn't this too cruel?

When the butcher slashed his knife, the sheep stopped screaming. After he pulled out the knife, blood splattered all over him. A soldier ran over with an empty bowl, took a bowl of sheep blood, then ran up to the wooden platform and poured the sheep's blood on it.

The bowl was handed to the second brother. What? Is the second brother going to drink this bowl of sheep blood and make a blood alliance with his brothers? Li Zhiyun thought to himself, this sheep blood is so dirty. There are hundreds of millions of bacteria in it. If it is served to

I, I don’t want to drink it!

However, the second brother did not drink the sheep's blood. He just held the bowl in a daze. Several soldiers each held a military flag and climbed onto the wooden platform. They stood in front of the second brother one by one. The second brother dipped his fingers in the sheep's blood.

Bulleted on every military flag. It turns out that this is

Sacrifice the flag with animal blood. After sacrificing the military flag, some soldiers brought war drums, golden bells, weapons, etc. and piled them in front of the second brother. The second brother followed the same method and sprinkled these things used on the battlefield with animal blood. This is called "

"Provoking" means offering sacrifices to gods.

Next, the soldiers loaded the two slaughtered sheep back onto the carriage. A general stood on the carriage, holding a sword in his hand and shouted: "All soldiers listen, and those who do not want to die will be killed!" The carriage began to circle the phalanx.

Turning in circles, the general shouted once every time he traveled a certain distance. He was warning the soldiers on the expedition that if they were greedy for life and afraid of death on the battlefield, they would be slaughtered like these two sheep. This is called "martyrdom in battle."

After the carriage circled the phalanx, it returned to the same place. The soldiers stepped forward and unloaded two more sheep. Next to it, soldiers set up a pyre, and a sheep was placed on the pyre.

Could it be that this is a whole lamb roasted? Unfortunately, there is only one sheep, and there are more than 30,000 people. One person may not even be able to get a small piece of mutton.

The firewood pile was ignited, and the fire grew stronger and stronger, and instantly engulfed the sheep. This was not roasting the whole sheep, but burning the whole sheep. After the fire was extinguished, the whole sheep was burned to ashes.

, not even the skeleton was left. Li Zhiyun understood that this was a sacrifice to the god, 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 land lord. As expected, several soldiers had already dug a hole not far away. After the hole was dug, the sheep was carried over and buried.

After these strange sacrificial rituals, the swearing-in ceremony began again. First, Abba took the stage and delivered a passionate speech, expounding the significance of this crusade against Liu Wuzhou. Then Abba gave the second brother a festival and a yue.

The knot is a bamboo pole with white strings tied on it.

The cheng is a weapon like an axe. The attendant handed the jie and yue to Abba, who then gave it to the second brother, indicating that the command of this combat operation was completely handed over to the second brother. Finally, the supervisor came to power.

The military discipline is read out, which is nothing more than beheading those who flinch before the battle, beheading those who run away from the battle, etc.

The day after the expedition ceremony was held, the army set off. A few days ago, there was a cold current in the north, the temperature dropped sharply, and the Yellow River had frozen. The army crossed the Yellow River from Longmen on the hard ice and entered

to southwestern Shanxi, and then continue

Advancing eastward, the army of more than 30,000 people formed a long snake formation and meandered forward on the official road. The head was not visible in front and the tail was not visible behind. It was quite spectacular. The army was divided into three armies. The front army was the vanguard, and the middle army was the vanguard.

The army is the main force, and the rear army is the baggage and food.

Li Zhiyun's new army was located in the central army. He followed the team on horseback. After walking for a while, he saw his second brother and two guards standing beside the horse road. He drove his horse forward and said, "Second brother, why don't you leave?" Second brother

He didn't answer, but looked at the marching troops 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 called a fire gun. It's a long-range weapon."

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

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

While the two were talking, an artillery company equipped with red-coated cannons came over. For this expedition, Li Zhiyun specially had a gun carriage made. The barrel was mounted on the carriage and pulled by mules and horses, and the ammunition was also pulled by mules.

carried by large carts. In this way, as soon as the artillery team stops,

Come, it will be loaded and fired soon. Li Zhiyun did not wait for the second brother to ask, and took the initiative to introduce: "Second brother, that is a cannon. You will know its power later." The second brother withdrew his eyes, looked at him and said: "Five

Brother, what is that 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 distant scenery very clearly."

This is a ten-power military telescope. The whole thing is carved from walnut wood, and the lens barrel is inlaid with concave and convex lenses. The main material for making telescopes is of course glass. The manufacturing of glass is actually very simple, just like the Chinese very early

Just like firing porcelain, Europeans invented glass very early. Moreover, the manufacturing processes of the two are similar, both are high-temperature sintering, but 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 was loaded with the crystal mineral "natural soda" and sailed on the Belous River on the Mediterranean coast. Due to the low tide of the sea, the merchant ship ran aground. As a result, the crew members

After boarding the beach, some crew members brought big pots and firewood.

, and used a few pieces of "natural soda" as a holder for the cauldron to cook on the beach. After the crew finished eating, the tide began to rise. When they were about to pack up and board the ship and continue sailing, someone suddenly shouted: "

Come and take a look, everyone. There are some crystal clear lights on the beach below the pot.

, Sparkling things!” The crew took these shining things to the ship and studied them carefully. They found that there were some quartz sand and melted natural soda stuck to these shining things. It turned out that these shining things were cooked by them.

Natural soda used to make pot supports

, a crystal produced by a chemical reaction with quartz sand on the beach under the action of flame. This is the earliest glass. Later, the Phoenicians mixed quartz sand and natural soda, and then used a special stove

Melting it and making it into glass balls made them a fortune.

In the fourth century AD, the Romans used purer quartz sand, added potassium carbonate in appropriate plant ash and calcium oxide calcined from limestone to create transparent glass, and then blew out large glass containers and flat plates installed on doors and windows.

Glass.

Some time ago, Li Zhiyun cooperated with a wealthy businessman in Chang'an City to establish a glass company. He provided technology, the other party provided capital, and the profits were divided 50-50. This telescope was produced by the glass company.

After the second brother got the telescope, he didn't know how to use it. Li Zhiyun took it over, 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 people and objects in the distance very clearly!" Li Zhiyun smiled and said: "Then I'll give it to you. With the telescope, it will be much easier for you to command wars in the future." When the second brother heard this, he happily said: "Fifth brother, thank you.

you!"

After three days of march, the army arrived at a place called Baibi and stationed here. The perimeter of the city wall of Baibi City is twenty miles, and there are more than 10,000 households in the city. It is neither small nor big.

Of course, it is impossible for more than 10,000 people to live in the city. Therefore, most of the troops are stationed outside the city and have built camps in open areas. Some camps are built at traffic passes and dangerous places.

The important thing is that the second brother ordered that each camp must be built into a strong fortress. So the soldiers buried bowl-sized wooden stakes in the ground to build a camp wall, set up firewood deer outside to keep out horses, and dug a wide
Chapter completed!