"Jun Hou, these are Shizhi..." A Shaofu official led Yi Zong to the depths of the cellar.
There, dozens of wooden barrels were packed densely.
Yi Zong stepped forward and opened the barrel, revealing the dark brown or black viscous liquid inside.
Due to the severe cold weather outside the Great Wall, these viscous liquids have frozen into a frozen object similar to solidified lard.
"Can this thing burn?" Yi Zong turned around and asked.
"Of course!" the official of the Shaofu Palace replied: "The Mohist family once conducted an experiment. After this substance is ignited, it is like grease. It will be extinguished when it burns out! It cannot even be extinguished with water!"
"Good!" Yi Zong nodded and said, "Send all these stone fats to our military camp for later use!"
"promise!"
………………
The next day, the Yi Zong army crossed Beihe.
At this time, the Han army had built six simple pontoon bridges on the Beihe River.
Floating bridge is also called ‘艁’ (zao) in China.
The early 扁, as you can tell from the font, was a method of tying wooden boats together to form a bridge on the river.
Therefore, pontoon bridges are also called beams.
Like the beams of a house, they cross the rivers!
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, and even the Western Zhou Dynasty, the ancestors of the Xia Dynasty had mastered this method of erecting floating bridges.
And, it was incorporated into the social hierarchy of the time.
The so-called princes' boat, the doctor's boat, the scholar's boat...
There is a praise in the Book of Songs: The river will last forever, and it cannot be imagined.
The word square is actually the square of the ark, not ‘歭’ as many people understand it.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, the art of sailing boats had actually undergone a leap in development.
Especially during the Qin Shihuang period, in order to solve the problem of the army crossing the river and the emperor himself traveling around the world and crossing the river, the Qin people comprehensively improved the art of boating on the basis of the old technology.
A pontoon bridge with two boats connected end to end and tied to each other appeared.
When the Qin Dynasty was at its peak, a large number of permanent pontoons were erected on the North and South Rivers to allow troops and soldiers to pass through.
However, with the collapse of the Qin Dynasty, these floating bridges had long been washed away by floods and turned into rotten wood.
Now, the pontoon bridge used by the Han army is a new type of pontoon bridge improved on the basis of the Qin people's pontoon bridge technology.
It still uses the double-boat structure of the Qin people, but adds a wooden bridge design suspended from the boat.
This structure means that as long as the pontoon exists, no matter how fast the river flows, it will not endanger the troops crossing the river.
Moreover, because of the double-boat structure, the bridge deck of the pontoon bridge is very wide, and even war horses and even chariots can pass through.
"The technology of the tunnel camp is really good..." Yi Zong praised after crossing the river: "In a hurry, you can build a bridge over this big river. It's really amazing!"
As a senior general, Yi Zong naturally knew that there had been several battles surrounding floating bridges in history.
The most famous one is that in the late Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Mu launched an offensive against the Jin State in order to avenge the Battle of Wei.
In that war, the Qin people used boats to cross the river and captured the royal officials by surprise, so that the Jin army did not even dare to fight.
So Duke Mu mourned for the remains of the Qin soldiers who died in the Battle of Xiao for three days, and then led the troops back to the country.
But historically, boating has not only taken a long time.
In order to cross the Xiangjiang River, Qin Shihuang ordered 3,000 prisoners to cut down all the trees in Xiangshan Mountain. It took more than ten days to build the pontoon bridge. As a result, God was not kind and a strong wind blew the pontoon bridge apart...
It is said that these pontoon bridges and tunnels were built in only three days.
Moreover, the materials were all taken from trees in the nearby mountains and forests. Except for the labor cost and some materials transported from the rear, the Han army did not spend half a copper more.
It can be said to have extremely high economic benefits, and this kind of pontoon is extremely sturdy. As long as it is maintained carefully, it can be used for at least three to five years!
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the river is frozen, which greatly improves the speed and safety of floating bridge construction.
But no matter what, just relying on the speed at which the tunnel camp can be built into a bridge in three days is enough to make this unit a necessary auxiliary unit of the Han army from now on!
From now on, any general who goes on an expedition will probably have to take the tunnel camp with him before he is willing to go on an expedition.
Thinking of this, Yi Zong's resentment towards the Tunnel Camp's need to share military achievements disappeared without a trace.
After crossing the river, Yi Zong led his vanguard and it didn't take long to reach the camp where Cheng Bushi was commanding.
After taking a brief look at Cheng Bushi's camp, Yi Zong praised: "Hu Ben Guards still have some skills..."
The fort built by Cheng Bushi was almost completely built according to the regular forts in the "Military Military Minutes" co-edited by Professor Wu Yuan.
There are ravines, parapets, arrow towers, and even more depth.
The military camp is in the front and the food, fodder and baggage are in the back.
On the left and right wings are the cavalry barracks, and in the middle is the infantry barracks.
The kitchen and medical barracks are between the military camp and the baggage and granary.
Yi Zong calculated the time and found that it should not have been more than five days since Cheng Bu Shi's troops crossed the river.
Such a tight camp was built in less than five days, which is enough to prove Cheng Bushi's ability.
This is already a general who can stand alone.
"If I had known that this boy was so capable, I should have poached him from the beginning!" Yi Zong felt a little regretful in his heart.
I think back then, when Huben Guard and Yulin Guard were founded.
Najumeng himself had no military talent, he was just a middle-aged man.
He didn't even learn any formal military knowledge.
Unlike Yi Zong, who had been with the emperor since Hedong, started in the army, and learned step by step. In the era of the prince's guard, Yi Zong had already begun to contact the military.
When the Tiger Ben Guard and the Yu Lin Guard were created, the Yu Lin Guard suppressed the Tiger Ben Guard.
Unfortunately, Ju Meng later found Cheng Bushi.
He was entrusted with a great responsibility, and from then on the Huben Guards kept pace with the Yulin Guards.
Moreover, these two armies of the Emperor's Guards have military souls from now on.
In the Yulin Guards and the Army, he prefers to compare techniques and tactics, and is better at using various weapons.
But the Huben Guards are different. This is an army that pays attention to details to the utmost.
Yi Zong once commanded the troops of the Hu Ben Guards in battle, and he knew very well the urinary behavior of those Qiu Ba of the Tiger Guards.
Almost every one of them is a sculpture carved from the same mold.
He always strictly follows the requirements in the book and demands of himself and his army.
They even had strict rules on whether to draw their swords first or shoot with their crossbows when charging.
Even if you die, you must follow the rules.
This certainly makes the Tiger Guards' army never make mistakes.
But it also limits their future achievements.
Yi Zong always felt that Cheng Buji was too rigid and blunt. He was a little disgusted with him and felt that he had destroyed a lot of potential.
But now it seems that Cheng Buji still has a few tricks up his sleeve. At least, with him around, Huben Guard has never been left behind by Yulin Guard, and Huben Guard even has an advantage in some projects.
Especially for the cuirassiers, the combat formation and combat effectiveness of the Tiger Guards' cuirass are stronger than those of the Habayashi Guards.
"What a pity..." Yi Zong sighed and couldn't help but envy Ju Meng. Ju Meng found Cheng Bushi, and it could be said that he was on his lap.
Now it is impossible to poach people.
It is conservatively estimated that after this battle, Cheng Bushi will be able to become a marquis or even serve as the ninth minister.
After sighing a few times, Yi Zong moved his gaze to a position in front of the Han army's formation.
There, five huge buildings have been erected.
"Is this the siege cannon invented by the Mohists?" Yi Zong looked at those terrifying instruments and felt a chill in his heart.
In Yi Zong's eyes, those five buildings were no longer simple weapons.
Every one of them is filled with demons who want to eat people.
They are full of architectural beauty, with a base several feet high, supporting two huge wooden structures, and a giant log several feet long running across the wooden structure above.
Next to the base, round and polished stone balls were piled on the ground one after another, there were hundreds of them.
These stone balls weigh at least tens of kilograms or even hundreds of kilograms according to visual inspection.
"Can these siege guns throw these stone balls hundreds of steps?" Yi Zong cursed in his heart and thought: "If this is true, what other city in the world can resist?"
I'm afraid even Hangu Pass is vulnerable to such a weapon.
As for Xingyang and Chenggao, they are just like the building blocks that children play with. They will collapse as soon as they are pushed, right?
"This world will be reshuffled!"
"There are no more insurmountable fortified cities and insurmountable fortresses!" (To be continued.)
