After all, Cao Cao did not give Liu Bei an answer.
Surrender?
Maybe it's not impossible.
only.....
After all, there is a trace of unwillingness and the desire to fight hard.
Isn't it that so many people can gather around him because, in addition to his own personal charm, Cao Cao also has lofty and lofty ideals?
If he chooses to surrender just because the enemy is strong, he will not be Cao Mengde who dares to fight and fight, and his tribe will not follow him.
Just like in history, Yuan Shao was powerful and surrounded by enemies, but he was not afraid of it.
So as the saying goes, you don't know how strong you are unless you give it a try.
The same is true for Cao Cao.
He chose to fight, so naturally he didn't have the courage to break with Liu Bei.
Even if the chances of winning are slim, even if you may fail in the end.
At least you make your own decisions about your own life.
This is enough.
"Let's go."
Cao Cao looked at Liu Bei's leaving figure and turned to leave.
The two of them ended the meeting and went back their separate ways without saying much. Both sides already knew the other's plan.
"His Majesty."
Dian Wei had already rushed forward. Seeing that Liu Bei was fine, he was relieved and said quickly: "Do you want to order an attack?"
Liu Bei waved his hand: "Wait a minute, this battle is an exploratory attack. I just took a closer look. The enemy has laid a lot of traps around it. Don't let the soldiers make unnecessary sacrifices."
"only."
Dian Wei bowed his hands and stepped back to express his understanding.
The emperor's guard of honor returned to his formation in a mighty manner, and the army had already set up its formation.
Liu Bei's honor guard came to a nearby hillside to watch, surrounded by troops at the foot of the mountain. As the command flags were waved, wooden catapults were pushed out one after another.
When the two of them were chatting before, the army at the rear was naturally not doing anything. The craftsmen were already assembling parts.
The large-scale siege equipment of the Han Dynasty were actually very crude, but Qingzhou Institute of Physics has conducted very in-depth research on machinery, parts, levers and other physical things.
Gears, pulleys, levers, torsion plates and other components were invented, and great progress was made in siege equipment, including assembly and disassembly.
Normally, those catapults and wooden curtains are transported as parts, and when they are fired, they are temporarily assembled.
For example, a trebuchet consists of a body, a frame, a twist plate, a rubber band, a throwing pole, a hanging basket and other items. If it is a complete vehicle, it will be very heavy. If it is dismantled, it will naturally be much lighter.
The soldiers moved the parts of these large equipment to the other side of the river like ants moving. When Liu Cao met, many things had been assembled.
There were about twenty wooden vehicles and seven or eight catapults. Under the protection of the army, they had arrived within the shooting range and were ready to throw stones.
Cao Cao also had catapults, but their range and power were not as good as those of the imperial army. However, he had naturally thought of the fact that the camp might be attacked by enemy catapults.
Therefore, he built several earthen hills more than twenty feet high in the stockade, and placed a total of more than thirty catapults on them. Since my catapults are not as good as yours when shooting on the ground, I will stand on a high place.
"put!"
Following the order, Cao Jun's catapults on the mountain opened fire directly.
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo!
Dozens of sounds pierced the air, and as the imperial army watched, more than thirty boulders drew a gorgeous arc in the air and landed on the wooden chariots of the imperial army.
The wooden curtain cart can be understood as a flat cart with a large baffle hanging on it. Behind it, Chen Mu laid an iron plate on top to protect it from arrows.
But this kind of thing is like fishing. It is hung on the car to increase the defensive area, and it is not fixed on the car.
So when the rocks hit, they couldn't defend themselves at all and directly smashed through the wooden board in front.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang!
There were constant violent noises, and the sky was filled with dust in the distance. Almost all the wooden chariots were wiped out, and even the catapults covered by wooden curtains were not spared.
Fortunately, the general commanding at the front saw that the situation was not good and immediately ordered the soldiers to retreat. Otherwise, the casualties would not only be the siege equipment.
"Cao Cao is very smart."
Dong Zhao watched on the hillside and said: "The range of their catapults is not as good as ours, so they built mountains to increase the range. Your Majesty, their catapults can hit us now, but ours cannot hit them, so we can only be beaten passively."
Liu Bei looked around and asked: "The enemy actually has countermeasures in advance. What do you think we should do?"
Everyone looked at each other and said nothing.
Only Zhuge Liang, who likes to invent and create, and often goes to the School of Physics to take classes when there is no class, said: "Back to Your Majesty, Master Ma once said that throwing things farther from a high place is because as the height increases, the object
When flying in the air, the throwing distance is increased. So in order for the enemy to shoot farther, we must also increase the height."
Liu Bei asked: "You mean they built earth mountains and we also built earth mountains? But Cao Jun's earth mountains are inside the camp and are very safe. And we don't know how far their longest range is. These rocks are all big
Stones, if you put small stones, they will definitely be further away, will it be unsafe if we build them?"
Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, please let me make a calculation."
After that, I took out a pen and paper to write and draw.
Everyone gathered around.
Regarding how to calculate the enemy's projectile distance, the knowledge involved is junior high school mathematics and junior high school physics.
Uniformly accelerated motion in a parabola, the law of free fall, acceleration due to gravity, and Newton's law of universal gravitation are all included.
It's not a big deal that Chen Mu lost all his junior high school physics knowledge to the teacher. After all, as a child from other families, he was ranked first in the grade every time since he was a child. His memory and understanding ability must be far superior to those of his peers.
But first of all, too much time has passed, and there are indeed many things that are seriously missing. Secondly, if you write down the laws of physics and mathematics directly, others will not understand them, and the symbols cannot be understood at all.
For example, the unit of gravitational acceleration is m/s2, the unit of energy and work is joule, and the unit of measurement of force is Newton. Who understands these things?
Therefore, it is necessary to localize physical knowledge, and if possible, try to guide others to discover these physical laws, so as to derive some local physicists and create physics that belongs to the Han Dynasty.
It's just that although Chen Mu knows a lot about physics, he doesn't have that much time to carry out research. He can only provide some guidance, such as teaching everyone how to measure distances, how to study the emergence of some forces, and discover universal gravity, etc.
As for the laws and formulas, he really didn't have that much time to localize the laws and formulas he knew, so he could only let the people at Qingzhou Institute of Physics figure it out on their own and grow wildly.
In fact, Chen Mu himself didn't even know what was going on there, whether anyone was already studying electromagnetic force, etc. When he finally left, he just told Ma Jun that electricity could be generated through magnets and copper wires, and how to generate electricity.
, how to store it after production can only be left to them.
However, what Chen Mu didn't expect was that even though the people in the School of Physics were growing barbarically and had no specific guidance at all, the wisdom of the Han people was far more amazing than he imagined. A group of physics research experts such as Ma Jun had already developed
Explain how to calculate a parabola.
Although there are no specific units, there is already a formula. Zhuge Liang used a telescope and human reference objects to calculate the approximate height of the earth mountain. Then, by studying the enemy's catapult models, he figured out the maximum range of Cao's army's catapult.
"Your Majesty, we've figured it out."
About half an hour later, Zhuge Liang sat on the ground, with numbers already written on the paper. He picked up the paper and stood up and said: "Cao Jun's catapult uses a lever and weight. It is limited by manpower. The range is about seventy."
Between ten feet and one hundred feet, and after increasing the height, the ultimate distance reaches one hundred and thirty feet, so we can just build a ten-foot-high earth mountain at one hundred and fifty feet."
Liu Bei opened his eyes wide and said in surprise: "How did Kong Ming calculate it?"
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "These are some laws studied by the horse master. Since I don't know the specific falling speed of the stones thrown by the enemy and their specific height, I can only make a rough estimate. The error may be within ten feet."
About 100 feet or so. Maybe it will be ten feet shorter or ten feet farther. To be on the safe side, just stick to the 150 feet position."
The catapults of the Han Dynasty were very crude, with a range of only 40-70 meters depending on the weight of the projectile. After the Tang Dynasty, the catapults were changed to a lever-weighted method, which increased the projection distance. This method was first improved by Chen Mu.
The catapult used when attacking Xu has a range of about 120-150 meters.
Later, after several improvements, today's catapults have almost reached the pinnacle of technology in the cold weapon era. They have added twist plates and pulleys, and eliminated the need for manual pulling. This can increase the weight of the counterweight and allow the projectile to be launched.
The object gets more push.
Cao Cao's catapult is Chen Mu's improved second-generation catapult. It has a twist plate but no pulleys. Therefore, the counterweight of his catapult is not as heavy as the counterweight of the imperial catapult, and the throw distance is slightly shorter than that of the imperial catapult.
Twenty feet.
That's why Cao Cao needed to increase the height to increase the range. However, his catapult was not a few hundred meters high. The height of the artificially piled earth mountains was limited, and the increased range was also very limited.
Therefore, after Zhuge Liang calculated, he determined that since the range of their catapults was longer than that of Cao's army, as long as they added half the distance, they could completely surpass Cao's army.
"And it's not just catapults. The crossbows studied in Qingzhou can have a range of more than 200 feet. If we can build a mountain of earth, there is no need for catapults. We can place a large number of crossbows on it and shoot continuously at Cao Ying. We are completely
Their catapults can be destroyed with the crossbow."
Zhuge Liang pointed to the earth mountain in the distance and said: "In addition, the School of Chemistry discovered that after heating and refining the rosin cut from pine trees, it can be applied to arrows and turned into rockets after being ignited. During the shooting process, they will not be
The wind has died down, it is summer now, and the summer wind is not too strong. If we can make crossbows and shoot rockets into Cao Cao's camp, we can set fire to their camp."
Liu Bei said in surprise: "Is there such a good thing?"
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "More than that, the academy discovered that the stone paint produced in Gaonu County is purified through distillation. The extracted things are like grease. After being ignited, it will not be extinguished even if water is poured on it. It is a pity that Bingzhou is now in
Lu Bu cannot exploit it on a large scale, otherwise it would be easy to burn down a city, let alone Cao's camp."
"I do remember that Duke Meng Jiang mentioned it in the Book of Han."
Everyone became interested, and a knowledgeable scholar said: "It is said that this thing is spring water in the stone. The locals call it stone lacquer. What is strange is that it is as bright as ink and burns extremely brightly. There is Mishui in Gaonu County, and stone lacquer."
It floats on the water, and after being lit, it can cause fire to burn on the water, which is really magical."
"What is this?" "Hanshu" also said, "There is a fire well in the sky, and the temple fire comes from the earth." It is said that the flame is sixty feet high and is called earth fire. It is estimated that the thing is the same as the stone.
Paint, I'm afraid it's the same thing."
"I didn't expect there to be such a magical thing."
"I'm a big country with a big place and a lot of things. It's not uncommon to find these weird things."
"It's strange, but no one has used it in war before. If, as Kong Ming said, in the future, you can put the stone paint that is not afraid of flames into the enemy's formation or camp, wouldn't it be invincible?"
Many counselors were talking about it, but they did not expect that Qingzhou Taishan Academy would actually research a lot of good things.
In fact, oil has been recorded in the Western Han Dynasty, and after the Tang Dynasty, it was widely used in warfare. Especially in the Song Dynasty, it became an important strategic material for the Song Dynasty to resist foreign enemies.
As for rosin rockets, they also appeared in the Tang and Song Dynasties and have a long history of use.
But unfortunately, no matter how many things you have, it is of no use.
Because the Tang and Song Dynasties did not rely on these things to defend their country.
The Anshi Rebellion brought about the collapse of the Tang Dynasty.
During the Northern Song Dynasty for more than a hundred years, it was pinned down by the Liao Kingdom and Xixia, and no one could see a comeback with oil.
There is also black powder, which was first introduced in the Tang Dynasty and used in military applications in the Song Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty, guns and ammunition were already available, including Hongyi cannons. What next?
Did the Song and Ming dynasties perish differently?
So apart from thermal weapons and increased productivity, everything else is useless.
Because these things can only play the role of icing on the cake, but cannot completely rely on them to determine the rise or fall of a country.
This is why black powder was not used in warfare.
After all, as I said before, before the emergence of yellow gunpowder, black gunpowder and petroleum could cause very limited damage, and were not as good as cold weapons.
But for now, the productivity of the imperial court is sufficient. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Dong Zhuo's Rebellion, the manor economy in the north was completely destroyed, and powerful people suffered numerous casualties. A large number of fields were vacated, and the common people had land to cultivate.
.
In this way, if you can eat and drink enough, there will be no large-scale turmoil. Without turmoil, these weapons will have their use, helping the imperial court to unify the world as soon as possible in the process of foreign conquests.
"This is the power of knowledge that my fourth brother often said."