Chapter 116 – Inventing Weapons and Gadgets for Battle to Come
Translated by Bloodfalcon, Edited by Krayto
POV back to Liu Mang.
Liu Mang did not attend the night of the banquet, because he is busy tending to his units. It now is comprised of the newly surrendered generals Huang Zhong, Gan Ning and Su Fei’s with their units along with his Urban Army.
“Little lord, is this thing really useful?!” A middle-aged man forcing a smile while showing a confused face is currently asking Liu Mang while he himself is looking at the mess on top of the table
The one who addressed Liu Mang as little lord is Huang Zhong. Since Liu Mang rescued his Huang Xu, Huang Zhong has addressed Liu Mang as little lord.
Liu Mang did not know where this Huang Zhong learned to call him little lord from, he has already been corrected a few times by Liu Mang on how to address him.
When Liu Mang recalled his decision to rescue Huang Xu, his face was filled with bitterness, and tears would well up in his eyes. Because when he brought back the Qingmei tablet and antibiotics, Liu Mang once again violated the rule of time and space and was blocked not to return again to the present for an entire year.
Those two items, even though they were the main reasons for the penalty, when Liu Mang went back to the present time, he also brought back many books about warfare up to Qing Dynasty age. Along with that he also brought back books containing maps and how to create various weaponry.
He also brought back the latest revision of Bencao Gangmu to create more medicine in this world to cure more people including Huang Xu, and he brought back some paddy seed and sweet potatoes seeds; all of them sealed inside vacuum plastic.
TL: Bencao Gangmu = Compendium of Chinese material medica compiled by Li Shizhen. The latest revision also covers on how to create antibiotics.
Liu Mang cannot advanced technology too much, otherwise if it is too advanced too quickly then these books will also be useless.
Liu Mang is currently polishing some crystals on the table. These crystal are not the imitation that was made in modern times, but it is a true crystal. Liu Mang made Lu Bu collect these crystals from half of Lujiang.
Even though these crystals only dozen in numbers, each of them are priced really high.
When Huang Zhong looked at Liu Mang discarding these crystals casually, Huang Zhong’s heart almost broke.
If these crystals were changed into their weight in gold, it can be exchanged for grain and provisions for 10,000 soldier’s consumption for several months.
However those crystals were now just placed casually by Liu Mang. Some of them were cut, some of them were even grounded into powder. Even a defeated clan still did not treat their treasures like this.
“Relax! When has this boss ever done something unreasonable!!!?” Liu Mang just casually replied back.
Huang Zhong started to get familiar with Liu Mang’s speech. Sometimes he spoke in vocabulary that is difficult to understand.
If you're wondering what Liu Mang is making right now, he is building a very simple telescope based on Emperor Kangxi’s model, one of most important tools for war.
Liu Mang needed to be able to track Boss Lu when he rushed toward his enemy. In battle, Lu Bu moved too quickly, so he need to make sure of Lu Bu and his allies position in order to fight the correct enemy.
This tool can also be used to match Boss Lu’s eagle-like vision, so everyone can see from faraway. Now that Boss Lu had a domain, naturally Liu Mang will not waste this grace period. Originally he wanted to bring it from the present, but he cannot do it due to the time and space rule.
So, for lack of a better option, Liu Mang decided to build it by himself.
These crystals can be a substitute material for lens. The price of these crystals is extremely high, so Liu Mang is helpless. Although currently Liu Mang has a method to create lens, currently they still do not have the necessary industrial works to do it, let alone craftsmen. So, he can only do with crystals as a lens substitute. What they needed now, is to boost Lu Bu’s army’s combat capability.
Because the threat from Jiangdong and Jing Province are too high war can breakout anytime.
This simple telescope, only comprised of one convex lens and one concave lens plus a long wooden tube to place both lenses. Liu Mang did not expect the output of a high-end telescope with only his crude technique.
Even with this simple method, Liu Mang is wasting a lot of precious crystals in order to make this one out.
“Hehehe, DONE!!!” Liu Mang was truly excited when the lens were put inside the tube and wanted to see the result immediately. “Eh?!” Liu Mang’s brow wrinkled, because he cannot see anything, it is pitch-black! Is this broken?
Liu Mang wanted to see what is wrong and suddenly he discovered that Huang Zhong is standing in front of him. No wonder he could not see anything.
“Old Man Huang, out of the way!!!” Liu Mang said toward Huang Zhong while being very annoyed.
“Oh, okay!” Huang Zhong did not know why he was reprimanded but he listened to Liu Mang’s words and stood on Liu Mang’s side.
Liu Mang then saw the Administration Office using the telescope. Liu Mang does not live in the Administration Office, Lu Bu gave him a big house and the distance is quite far from Administration Office. But currently Liu Mang can see almost everything inside the Administration Office.
He can see the branch of the tree up to its pores, watching servants busy tidying up and even Old Man Chen Gong who is currently supervising everything inside Administration Office. With this distance, this simple telescope actually have a magnification power of three times.
Looking at Huang Zhong’s curiosity, Liu Mang handed over the telescope.
“WOW!!!!” Huang Zhong screamed in excitement, he was so excited that he almost dropped the telescope. Fortunately Huang Zhong is able to control his emotion perfectly, otherwise Liu Mang half-day effort would have been wasted.
“This, this thing….!!!!” Huang Zhong cannot get his composure back for a while. This thing can see something far away? If Liu Mang can only see pores of the tree in Administration Office with it, then Huang Zhong can see the leaf’s vein within it.
Huang Zhong is a military commander therefore his mind is preoccupied with battle. If this thing is used in war, Huang Zhong cannot believe the effects that it will bring. Before enemies come, you have already prepared a big ambush and you can see enemy movements and prepare more ambushes. This thing can predict everything like a prophet, so even though they made the first move, they can take control of the battle immediately and win a flawless victory.
Also if one is standing on a high vantage point, that person can see everything from formations to how much grain and provisions the enemy had. In that persons eyes, the enemy will have no more secrets in his sleeves.
“WUAHHH, THIS THING IS A MAGICAL ITEM, A MAGICAL ITEM!!!!” Huang Zhong’s gaze toward Liu Mang changed. Before, when Liu Mang rescued his son, he is truly grateful for Liu Mang’s medical skills, but now, he is completely in worship of him.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!!!” Liu Mang laughed bitterly while feeling very apologetic. Being looked by an old man like this, raised goosebumps in his heart. So in order to not to be stared at profoundly like this any longer, Liu Mang quickly changed his topic
“Old Man Huang, what about Xingba?!” Gan Ning and Su Fei are training naval units. Naval strength is currently one of Lu Bu’s army’s weak spot. Although Gan Ning and Su Fei are valiant generals in naval battle, but they cannot resist when they are overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Furthermore, their opponent’s right now is Jiangdong and Jing Province. Jing Province had Cai Mao, Zhang Yun, Wen Ping and Huang Zu as their naval veteran generals.
Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, although in the original history, both of them were killed by Old Cao, their ability is very high, especially in regards to training and commanding naval units, and that is enough to show them as senior generals.
Huang Zu is the person who manage to guard Jiangxia against Jiangdong's two generations, which is Sun Jian and Sun Ce before meeting his end at the hand of Gan Ning who was later employed by Sun Quan in the original history.
When Jing Province was captured by Cao, Wen Ping immediately surrendered to Cao Cao, later Cao Cao appointed Wen Ping as Jiangxia's Prefect and he defended that area for many years.
In Jiangdong, there is Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, Ling Tong, Huang Gai, Han Dang. These people are water dragons. Zhou Yu with Huang Gai's assistance was able to destroy Old Cao's 800,000 troops in the Battle of Chibi.
But now Lu Bu’s army only had more than 5,000 people. Even if they recruit 3000 or 10,000 more troops, their numbers still dwarfed compared to Jiangdong's and Jing Province's. If they bump into either of them, the current Lu Bu's naval units is no a match. Their only choices are to hide land or refuse to do battle.
If the naval units hide on the land, can they still be called naval units? Even if Lu Bu wanted to do that, Gan Ning and Su Fei definitely do not want to do that.
Therefore Liu Mang want to give them another method to overcome sheer numbers! Liu Mang has never experienced genuine water battle, but he knows from Gan Ning and Su Fei that naval battles begin with archer salves and if they survive the salvo then they got near each other to do close quarters combat.
The firing distance of arrows only covered a hundred steps max, and its distance is even lowered by the swaying of the boat, so all naval battles is basically close quarter combat.
Regarding close quarter combat, these 5000 naval units might be unrivalled against Jiangdong's and Jing Province's naval units. But what if they are spread out? What if they choose to do long range battle? It is right that the arrows distance is only 100 steps, but there is another weapon that can shoot more than 300 steps. It is called ballista.
The arrow that a ballista can shoot not only harms the crew but also the ship and if referring to the warships durability during this time it took only 3 ballista arrows to sink a large ship into the river's bottom.
Huang Zhong then said “Little lord, yesterday, Zhong went to the naval camp! Zhong reports that Xingba has assembled this giant crossbow apparatus, but it can only shoot one round and it is very hard to pull the bowstring, it needs at least ten people to pull it!!!” Huang Zhong shook his head. Liu Mang gave them blueprints. Although it is quite detailed but when the oxybeles was made, its result was truly a disappointment.
The great arrow can only shoot at max 200 steps. Although it can pierce human, it is unable to pierce the ships wood and after shooting one arrow, it needed at least tens of people to pull the bowstring in order to shoot again.
If it used in naval battles, an oxybeles which can only shoot one arrow, one must put at least ten devices on the hull. After one shot, it only become a big burden, because it did not give the naval soldiers much space to maneuver and also its weight slowed down the warship.
“Only shoots one arrow?!” Liu Mang's brow wrinkled. If his oxybeles can only have this function, what is the difference from normal ballistae? It’s just another useless weapon!
“Cheng Yu!!!” Liu Mang called Cheng Yu. “Send this telescope to Honorable Father-in-law! Old Man Huang, we go to the naval unit’s main camp!!!” If this oxybele test goes well, Liu Mang is also prepared to let his Urban Army use it. If this thing was used, its power is very strong. Although he cannot use it in large amounts, he can frighten the enemy and that is what Liu Mang needs.
In ancient warfare, if elite troops suffered 30 – 40% casualties, then the entire army will be scattered. Their will to fight will be diminished suddenly and morale will plummet into the very bottom.
Therefore Liu Mang had his Urban Army practice showing battle spirit first and then went into training. Troops must have a huge morale, if one had battle spirit, he will definitely have the power to fight and also can be counted as a soldier.
And lastly, battle spirit is essential in order to lead those soldiers to victory despite a lot of setbacks. In this cold weapon era, the one who shows fear is the one who loses.
And the oxybeles that Liu Mang created is a scary weapon!