Zhang Yu spoke passionately and impassionedly.
Mao Xiang and the guards were very excited when they heard this.
Zhu Bai sighed secretly: It's a pity that more than a hundred years later, it was breached.
The steepness of the pass is important, but the people who guard it are even more important.
Otherwise, even if they have Hongyi cannons, muskets and treasure ships in their hands, they will still be defeated in the end.
Hadir said: "Even if it is repaired, as long as there are many people, pick a remote corner and dig day and night, the city wall can always be dug open."
Zhu Bai: "Thousands of soldiers are needed to dig it out. The purpose of building the pass in the Ming Dynasty was mainly to resist the small groups of hundreds of people from Mobei, so that the people in the north of the Ming Dynasty could rest and cultivate their lives with peace of mind. The Mobei Cavalry Their characteristic is to rush in and out quickly, and run away after grabbing and killing. With the Great Wall, they can't get in. If the number of enemies exceeds 10,000, and they start digging into the city wall, the city wall can withstand it for a while, enough to make the soldiers stationed on the Great Wall burn. Raise the smoke and gather an army to resist.”
This is fireworks positioning.
Hadir said: "Why do you call it wolf smoke? I picked up wolf dung and burned it. In fact, the smoke is not straight at all and it smells very bad."
Zhu Bai was very interested in this question and looked at Zhang Yu.
Cattle and sheep dung from herbivorous animals can be burned after drying because it is full of undigested fiber.
But wolves are carnivores...
Moreover, the beacon towers are approximately ten miles apart. Once there is military intelligence that requires the transmission of two thousand miles a day and night, two hundred beacon towers will be burned together.
The wolves in the desert may not be able to make enough babies even if they are all gathered together in this life.
Zhang Yu replied: "The beacon smoke is actually not about burning wolf dung, but because the enemies of China used wolves as totems. Once the beacon smoke is lit, it tells nearby colleagues and the court, 'Those wolf-like enemies are coming', so it is called It's called 'wolf smoke'. It uses wet weeds such as Populus euphratica, tamarisk, apocynum, splendens splendens, white field grass, camel grass, licorice, dry reed, Haloxylon ammodendron and other wet weeds growing in the desert, and then burns them in a well-sealed chimney. It also makes the smoke very straight.”
Zhu Bai nodded: "This explanation is reasonable."
Smoke is caused by incomplete combustion. As long as the fuel humidity is high enough, sufficient concentration of smoke can be produced. The concentration of smoke is high, and then it is sent into the air with a straight chimney, so it will naturally be straight and difficult to disperse.
Moreover, during the day, smoke is burned as a beacon, and at night, fire is used as a flint. Because there is no light, the smoke cannot be seen from a distance, and it can only be transmitted by luminescence.
Hadir frowned and asked again: "There is only one pass now. What if someone wants to go around it?"
Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Look, there is the Badain Jaran Desert to the north. Assuming that if the Beiyuan cavalry bypasses Jiayuguan from the desert, they must abandon their mounts, because the sand in the desert is soft and horseshoes are easy to sink in. If they are on foot, wait for them After crossing the desert, the combat effectiveness was reduced by 70%, making it impossible to fight anymore."
Zhu Bai nodded slightly: "Yes."
Camels are the only suitable means of transportation in the desert.
Zhang Yu added: "To the south is the Qilian Mountains, which stretches for hundreds of kilometers. The snow on the top of the mountain does not melt all year round, which is not suitable for cavalry to go around. Moreover, there is a cliff to the south called the No. 1 Dungeon in the World, with a drop of thirty feet. .The cavalry can’t get through either.”
Hadir still had questions to ask.
Zhang Yu said: "Let's go quickly and talk as we go. If we don't leave, we don't know when we will arrive."
There are wolves in the desert and wandering Beiyuan people, so it is dangerous to stay overnight. Therefore, we should try our best to spend only one night on the road and arrive in Guazhou in two days.
Zhu Bai and the others rode hard all the way, stopping when they encountered an oasis to let the horses drink water, eat grass and rest.
Hadir was very curious about what Zhu Bai brought, especially the telescope. As soon as he stopped, he took it in his hand and looked around.
The oasis where we stopped for the night in the evening was not large, but there were many wild animals.
The antelopes and rabbits ran away when they saw people. However, a few things that looked like sheep and deer ran for a few steps and then stopped and looked back at Zhu Bai and the others.
Zhu Bai smiled: "Tsk tsk, Silly Roe Deer really deserves his reputation."
Then Zhang Yu and the others excitedly took out their bows and arrows: "Oh, you didn't run away, it's God who gave us meat to eat."
"Just right, shoot a few and roast them tonight."
In less than half a stick of incense, those silly roe deer were skinned, their internal organs removed, and salted.
Zhang Yu asked: "How far have we gone?"
Hadir replied: "More than three hundred miles."
Zhang Yu: "Is there a place to rest nearby? The sun is going down anyway, so let's stop and set up camp."
Hadir: "Yes. There is a Populus euphratica forest over there, where you can find firewood and get shelter from the wind. It's the best place to spend the night."
Hadir took them two or three miles to the Populus euphratica forest.
This Populus euphratica forest is as large as dozens of acres, and it is like a paradise in the desert.
Zhu Bai was very excited and pointed to the poplar tree that had just sprouted buds and said, "It's a pity that it's not autumn, otherwise it would be very beautiful."
Zhang Yu: "Yes, yes."
Still thinking about autumn. We must get you back in the summer!
The guards gathered dry firewood from Populus euphratica and lit two large bonfires to roast the roe deer.
Sentinels on guard milled about, and others rested around campfires.
During the day, when the Gobi sun hits the ground, the ground temperature reaches 20 degrees, but once the sun goes down, the temperature drops sharply.
It's close to freezing now. If you don't light a bonfire at night, you will freeze to death.
Zhu Bai asked Hadir: "Are there wolves around here?"
Hadir said: "Yes. So if there are few people, it is best not to spend the night in the wild. But you don't have to be afraid. There are many of us and we light bonfires. The wolves are afraid of the fire and dare not come over."
Zhu Bai grinned: "I'm not afraid of fire. I want to get some wolf fangs."
Hadir laughed: "If you really see a wolf, you won't have any thoughts about the wolf's teeth. You will only think about escaping for your life."
Zhang Yu coughed slightly, reminding Zhu Bai to restrain himself.
"Hey, it's better to come early than to come by chance. I didn't expect us to have such a good fortune." Someone laughed in the darkness.
The sentry raised his bow and pointed in the direction of the sound: "Come out, or we will be rude."
Zhang Yu and the others stood up one after another and picked up their bows, arrows and knives.
It was deserted except for people passing by on horseback.
But as this person approached, there was no sound at all, like a ghost.
The sound must have been hidden on purpose.
Jube took Hadir and hid behind a big rock.
It's not that he's a coward, it's that he has to pretend to be a coward.
In fact, he wasn't too worried. If this man really wanted to do something, he would have made a sneak attack instead of letting them find out his location.
Either the other party really didn't mean any harm, or they thought they couldn't defeat them in a sneak attack because there were so many people, so they gave up.
The man walked into the firelight. He was a big man with a square face and a mustache.
He looked to be in his thirties, and although he was smiling, his ruthless aura made people's hair stand on end like a wolf.
He smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, I'm just passing by to ask for a bite to eat."
