Chapter 1

What a big fellow... The people gradually arriving at the test site looked at the thing that was more than twice the size of the ballista currently equipped in the Dongping army and exclaimed in unison. Beside this giant cannon, there were also a dozen ballistae, catapults, Shenbi crossbows (a type of powerful crossbow), and other large military weapons lined up. Behind these big guys, there were rows of wooden boxes stacked up. Behind the wooden boxes, enough buffer distance was left, and a considerable number of wooden boxes filled with sand were also prepared. Everyone was already aware that once fierce fire oil and Huoxing bombs (fire star bombs) caught fire, they couldn't be extinguished just by pouring water on them.

"What are you all doing here... And you, Chi Lei, these things have nothing to do with your scout cavalry. What are you doing joining in the fun?" Ye Tao had no temper at all in the face of so many acquaintances swarming in. At the test site, almost all the officers from Dai Yun to the battalion level of the command were present, except for a few unlucky ones who didn't draw the right lot and stayed in their respective defense zones just in case. Presumably, after the observation, Ye Tao could work here on the spot and discuss various strategies for further strengthening the Yunzhou army. Originally, Ye Tao wanted to postpone this inevitable meeting for at least a month, but it seemed that everyone was very anxious.

"Don't say that, it hurts feelings," Chi Lei said with a smile. "Ye Jinglue (Pacification Commissioner), you didn't summon us, so we had to come ourselves in a hurry. The whole army of Yunzhou is undergoing a major re-equipment, such a big thing, we have no idea what's going on if you don't say anything."

"Do you know why I didn't look for you?" Ye Tao asked with a wry smile.

"I know, isn't it just that there's not that much money now? Looking at it now, the Xueqi Army (Blood Kirin Army) really doesn't treat money as money, but you should at least give us an explanation, right? When will the re-equipment start, and how will it be done?" Chi Lei continued to say with a cheeky smile.

Ye Tao couldn't do anything about Chi Lei's lively and unrestrained attitude. This kind of personality was really inconsistent with the style of scout cavalry, which required flexibility and forbearance. It was hard to believe that he could lead one elite scout cavalry after another. It was understandable that Chi Lei was anxious about the re-equipment and other military affairs. The Shuanglang (Frost Wolf) and Yinyi (Silver Wing) armies under his command had not yet been fully staffed, but after having such a large establishment, Chi Lei knew that these two armies, in addition to being scouts, actually had the ability to independently carry out battlefield attack missions. He needed to equip at least a batch of soldiers to practice tactics and determine the training methods of the two armies, in order to find ways to give full play to the capabilities of the two armies on the battlefield in the future. Naturally, after the battlefield mission had changed, he wasn't very sure about what equipment the Shuanglang and Yinyi armies needed now, but it was definitely different from the Xueqi Army's scout cavalry battalion before.

"Let's watch the demonstration first..." Ye Tao said helplessly, "I promise you that the re-equipment will definitely start from your Shuanglang and Yinyi armies, but it's impossible to be in place all at once at the beginning. Let's find a way to replace the equipment for three thousand people first. It will be transferred from the workshops in Danyang, and the subsequent re-equipment will have to wait for the factories in Suiyuan to start, or for the factory equipment here to be installed."

Chi Lei said with satisfaction: "That's enough." He then asked: "Isn't playing with fierce fire oil Type II and Huoxing bombs Type II supposed to be a secret military matter? How can those Persians come? Aren't you afraid of impeachment from those in the court...?"

Chi Lei mumbled and skipped the sensitive words. Ye Tao smiled and said: "Lord Qu Yan is in charge of the Censorate now, and life is much better now. Feng Zi is an absolutely crucial staff member in the Jinglue Mansion (Pacification Commissioner's Office). As for the impeachments from other scattered officials and sinecures, there's no need to take them to heart. Moreover, that group of Persians didn't come specifically to watch the demonstration. They were sent by Old Man Qi to Danyang to pay their respects to His Majesty before running to Yunzhou, seemingly to discuss something. Catching up with the demonstration can only be said to be a coincidence. His Majesty's flying eagle letter clearly stated that he hoped to draw the Samir family into his camp."

"Draw into the camp?" Chi Lei savored the statement and asked: "Could it be that the Samir family is preparing to establish a country over there?"

Ye Tao smiled and did not answer. Like Chi Lei, a son of a prominent family with a father who ranked among the three highest ministers, various news, strategies, or intrigues accompanied them as they grew up, and had long been ingrained in their bones. Although Chi Lei's expectation was bold, it was not too far off. The growth and expansion of the Samir family in recent years had given them greater ambitions, and in the Middle East where the Samir family was located, various forces, whether secular, religious, commercial, political, academic, royal, civilian, obvious, secret... the complex political and social environment had subtly different reactions to the strength of the Samir family, which had grown to its current point. Some were attached to them and close to them, while others constantly denigrated them and suppressed them. And all of this finally made the council of elders of the Samir family begin to consider a question: should they take everything into their own hands?

The Samir family was good at naval warfare, but on the ground, because they had always indirectly controlled some local magnates, provincial governors, or the kings of very small kingdoms to control military and political power, or they had just taken advantage of the situation. However, they did not have a single army that could be pulled out and win victories on the battlefield. Before directly contacting the representatives of the Samir family, Ye Tao didn't know whether the Samir family had thought of him, an official with considerable experience in building and reorganizing armies and with considerable weight in a military power like Dongping, and wanted to seek experience in training and preparation through him, or whether they simply wanted him to agree to a series of military technologies, such as more precise and longer-range ballista technology, such as improved mechanical sights, or the Type II products of Huoxing bombs and fierce fire oil, which they should have heard of? Although the original Huoxing bomb product did not become a technology controlled by Dongping from the beginning because of Gao Jia's sabotage, which brought a lot of trouble to Ye Tao, the current Huoxing bomb and fierce fire oil Type II were both filed with the Ministry of War and the Imperial Guards Command of Dongping. If the Samir family wanted to obtain these two technologies, they must have the official approval of Dongping.

The representatives of the Samir family were a little late. Unlike the Yunzhou officer corps who came in a mighty team, they set off from Thunder Cliff at dawn and didn't arrive at the Yunzhou branch of Ye's workshop until after noon. After learning that the firearms demonstration was ready, the representatives of the Samir family immediately rushed to the test site.

All the people who came to participate in the observation were arranged on a hillside. The seats were very sparse, and each person had a pair of binoculars in front of them, which had a much wider field of view than the monoculars used by scouts. Behind the main guests, there were six simple seats for guards or attendants to use. The apprentices of Ye's workshop also prepared rich tea and refreshments on one side. In order to prevent possible changes in the weather, they also prepared a lot of foldable awnings and paper umbrellas that could be set up at any time. This approach was already the habitual arrangement of Ye's workshop when demonstrating to customers. Today, they may have just added a pair of binoculars for each guest. If it was a demonstration of some civilian products, displaying furniture or other utensils, this approach would be very normal, but when the products demonstrated today became a series of products aimed at burning and destroying more efficiently, this arrangement inevitably reminded Ye Tao of the new product launch and reception activities of those super military industrial groups in capitalist countries.

"Senior Brother, can we start?" Suo Zheng, who came from the workshop and is now a general, also came to the workshop today. He had visited those launching devices at close range, and then he excitedly took over the command of the entire demonstration. When he saw that the representatives of the Samir family, who were late, had already taken their seats, he came to ask for instructions. And this "Senior Brother" fully demonstrated his close feelings for the workshop and his close relationship with Ye Tao.

"Start," Ye Tao said lightly.

Suo Zheng took the Xueqi Army's standard composite bow and a signal arrow from the guards beside him, and shot the arrow far into the direction of the empty test site.

With a sharp whistle, the demonstrators from the heavy equipment department of Ye's workshop, who had been waiting in the launch area for a long time, busied themselves.

"Check the scale! Seven hundred paces! ... Wind direction four o'clock, wind force three," a strong and serious middle-aged technician looked at the current weather data presented by several apprentices and shouted.

"Inspection complete!" A series of responses rang out quickly. Although the heavy equipment department of Ye's workshop were not soldiers, they dealt with these things all day long. In terms of shooting accuracy and speed, they were no worse than the Xueqi Army's heavy equipment battalion. And their ability to skillfully master the latest models of various shooting auxiliary equipment made the soldiers and officers of the Xueqi Army's heavy equipment battalion sigh with admiration.

"Load the detonation bomb. Starting from seven hundred paces, each shot shortens the range by twenty paces, a total of five rounds of shots, listen to my orders," the technician shouted.

The apprentices immediately pulled the torsion springs on the ballista to the full, and installed a pottery pot painted with a circle of white paint marks at the end of the slide rail.

"Ready!" A series of voices rang out.

"First round, shoot! ... Second round, shoot! ... Third round..." The technician pressed the stopwatch and looked at the frequency of these apprentices under his charge, and completed five rounds of shooting in a very short time.

The apprentices watched the five rounds of detonation bombs being fired, and breathed a sigh of relief. You know, although the detonation bomb was extremely powerful, it was extremely dangerous to use and had a very strict set of regulations. This thing was mainly made of light oil and other volatile things. Once it was broken when loading the bomb, it would be a big trouble. However, the observing guests were a little puzzled. Why didn't these things catch fire? Why was there no reaction except for breaking some pottery pots?

"Don't worry," Suo Zheng, who was standing aside, waved his hand indifferently.

"Load the Vulcan cannon, one ordinary Huoxing bomb," the technician ordered after waiting for a while.

Several apprentices used a simple winch to hoist an original model Huoxing bomb and waited for orders with a torch in hand.

"Launch!" The experienced technician could now judge whether it was possible to detonate by observing the subtle and peculiar refraction in the air. Now, after several adjustments, the probability of the detonation bomb producing a detonation phenomenon was much higher. And these experts who played with fire were extremely experienced with this kind of thing.

The apprentice touched the torch to the fuse of the Huoxing bomb, and then with a creak, the giant ballista, known as the Vulcan cannon, made a crisp sound and threw the Huoxing bomb far into the middle.

There was a bang... as if the whole world was burning and was swept into the sound waves of the explosion. Then, the air broken by the huge explosion swept past the artillery group, swept past the guest seats on the hillside. Those light folding chairs were blown upside down, and the teacups on the small tables in front of the guests fell to the ground with a crash. And everyone didn't seem to react at all to the tea spilled on their clothes...

"...This... what is this?" A Yunzhou infantry battalion commander who came from a Dai family soldier background asked with trembling lips.

"Detonation," Suo Zheng said, suppressing his excitement, "The detonation that the fire oil bomb could occasionally cause has now been basically mastered by the firearms division of Ye's workshop. According to our method, the probability of triggering the detonation effect should be more than 70%. Today, the detonation bomb is radiated according to the standard density, and no extra ingredients have been added specifically for everyone to see something new."

"Sir, it's going to rain, let's put up the shed first," a guard whispered for instructions.

"Okay," Ye Tao turned around and said with a smile to Chi Lei and other officers: "Anyway, we have to wait for the ground to cool down, and we have to move some targets up."

"Will the demonstration continue when it rains?" An officer asked.

"It's even better to see the effect when it rains. This fire can't be extinguished by rain. ... At least that's what the workshop reported to me." Suo Zheng seemed very dissatisfied with this ignorance. The officer immediately bowed and apologized. In Yunzhou, offending Suo Zheng, the general who was in charge of the entire army's supplies and logistics, was worse than offending the same level or even a superior.

"Next is the demonstration of Huoxing bomb Type II, followed by the demonstration of fierce fire oil Type II." The pattering rain quickly lowered the temperature of the ground in the test site, and this special formula detonation bomb, although extremely powerful, left very little residue after the heat explosion and combustion. Although the ground was scorched everywhere, there were only a few small fires still burning.

Watching the workshop apprentices put iron-clad well-railings, siege vehicles, and a section of simulated city walls only four feet long on the test site, Suo Zheng shot the second signal arrow, then the third...

The Vulcan cannon fired a total of seven times, five of which hit the target. This extremely high hit rate gave the officers present a further understanding of the accuracy of the Vulcan cannon and the strength of the apprentices in the heavy equipment department of Ye's workshop. And the fierce fire oil Type II was sprayed close to the two iron-clad well-railings... The orange-red flames that soared into the sky, the raindrops that were lifted by the heat of the flames and could not fall on the fire, and the slight heat that could be felt even at such a long distance gave everyone a very intuitive understanding of the power of the Type II products of Huoxing bombs and fierce fire oil.

"Please wait a moment, and wait for the apprentices to put out the remaining fire, then everyone can go down and see the real effect." Suo Zheng bowed slightly to everyone. And this invitation was exactly what everyone wanted. They all wanted to see what the effect of these impressively powerful things was.

Being able to let everyone identify the effect so frankly was enough to prove that Ye's workshop was the most sincere and straightforward arms dealer of this era. And everyone looked at the city wall simulation section that was burnt crisp by the Huoxing bomb, and watched the well-railing turn into coke and the iron skin outside clearly experienced the process from solid to liquid and then solidification, and couldn't help but gasp... The Huoxing bomb and fierce fire oil had not undergone improvement, but innovation.