In the southeast of Tongwan City, at the corner of the Wuding River and the Heishui River, a new tent was set up.

The topography of this tent is extremely ingenious. Backed by the angle between the two rivers, facing the Tongwanjian City. On the side facing the fortified city, a long trench was dug and sandbags were erected. After more than ten days of intense construction, the long moat of the siege has changed a little, the moat near the east and south sides of Tongwan City has been deepened and widened, the breastwork wall built with sandbags behind the trench has also become taller, wider and thicker, and many side rows have been erected on the top of the breastwork.

The trenches on both sides of the northwest of Tongwan City are still perfunctory, narrow and shallow, and at first glance they are tofu slag projects that cut corners.

In addition, at the junction of the southern and western sections of the long trench, as well as the junction of the eastern and northern sections of the long trench, two circular fortresses made of sandbags appeared, called "South Fort" and "East Fort". Although the fort was not large, it became a support point for two long trenches to cover the flanks of the two long trenches in the southeast.

In the protection of the two forts in the southeast, the two long trenches in the southeast, the Heishui River and the Wuding River, it is the camp of the 25,000 army of Wuhaogu.

Because there were no trees to be found, Wu Haogu's camp did not set up a camp fence and reject horses, but used sandbags to build a parapet. The "Tree That Slipped Through the Net" (which was also cut down) was used to build a tall watchtower that stood in the middle of the barracks.

Military Jiyi, the former knight of the imperial palace, and Li Yongqi, who was on loan from the third shift, carried a telescope knocked out of copper skin early this morning, and climbed up the wooden ladder of the watchtower. On the top of the watchtower, the soldiers under the command of the two military commanders—both clever and literate, and relatively young, both from Jiehe Merchant City, most of them were children of the samurai and Simon families, or children of customers (tenants)—had arrived. Seeing Li Yongqi climb up, they both bowed their hands.

Li Yongqi nodded, "Can I bring the flag?" Is a tripod available? ”

"It's time to get back, it's all ready."

One of the soldiers replied and pulled out three small pennants of red, yellow, and green, while the other propped up a tripod.

The small flags are used to transmit signals, and the Boundary River Knight Academy and the Ship Master Academy have compiled a simple set of flags according to Wu Haogu's orders and prompts. The tripod frame was designed by Wu Haogu according to the triangular easel of later generations, which can be used for drawing and telescope.

The telescope is the long cylinder rolled into the skin of the cylinder that Li Yongqi is carrying, and each of the two sections of the telescope has a convex lens made of crystal grinding - it was very easy to invent the telescope in the Song Dynasty, because the people of the Song Dynasty would have long used the crystal polished convex lens as a magnifying glass or glasses.

Wu Haogu only needed to find two convex lenses and a long cylinder to make a simple telescope. However, everything that can be seen through this telescope is upside down, left and right...... This is because concave lenses are more difficult to grind than convex lenses, after all, no one grinds. Moreover, the crystal lens is not glass, not to mention the high price, the output is also small, and grinding the two lenses at the same time is not conducive to lens interchange.

Therefore, a military machine like Li Yongqi has to endure an upside-down world.

However, compared to climbing the tower in turn, watching an upside down, magnified world with a strange telescope, what makes military operators feel more headache is the large amount of copywriting work they have to face every day.

For example, every day, they have to write all kinds of "battlefield logs" and "training logs", and they are also responsible for drawing a large number of maps, including topographic maps, defense maps, and so on, and they also have to formulate very trivial "battle formation strategies" at all levels, and supervise the implementation of the troops at all levels.

Moreover, on the basis of various "logs," "strategies," and "summaries," the military command is constantly improving a series of various rules and regulations for guiding the combat training of troops, namely the "Infantry Regulations," "Cavalry Regulations," "Engineer Regulations," "Baggage Regulations," and "Staff Command Regulations."

This set of things is taken for granted in the eyes of later generations, but for a Northern Song Dynasty soldier like Li Yongqi, the entire way of thinking has to be completely changed. Because this set of methods, which have been improved through repeated practice and careful observation, is the application of positivism in military science.

All kinds of logs and various strategies are actually inferring or understanding experience through direct or indirect feelings. The various ordinances are the summary of these experiences, as well as the deduced hypotheses that have not yet been verified, which can be verified by practice!

It is a method of achieving progress and knowledge that can be used not only in the natural sciences, but also in the military and the development of various social systems.

Don't underestimate the impact of these thinking methods on the Song people, which are of course for future generations, in the era of the Northern Song Dynasty, the thinking of the Chinese people is still relatively dogmatic, and they attach great importance to what the sages wrote in books. Writing books and speaking is a sacred thing, and you have to be a great Confucian or an old military strategist to be qualified to write a military book. It is really inconceivable that a young officer like Li Yongqi can now participate in the drafting of various regulations with extremely high value for actual combat application.

But an order is an order! No matter how much Li Yongqi didn't understand, he had to do it to the letter, and every day he kept as detailed a record of his own camp, the enemy's city, and everything that could be seen from afar.

If there is any abnormality, it should be reported in time through the flag!

After placing the notebook and pencil he had brought with him on a small wooden table, Li Yongqi placed the telescope on a turntable on a wooden shelf and tied it tightly with a leather cord. Then the observation began...... The observation is in order, following the cycle of "four directions - enemy camp (city) - own trench - own camp - four directions", and every time you look at it, you must report whether there is any abnormality. The soldier who was in charge of erecting the tripod was also a recorder, and would record the situation reported by Li Yongqi in his notebook one by one.

"Northern ......"

Li Yongqi first turned the telescope due north, and the dizzying image of the handstand appeared in the eyepiece. The sky is below, the earth is above, and a layer of gray smoke floats in the middle, with a sharp head that takes on a diverging shape backwards.

This is?

Li Yongqi's head buzzed and became nervous, this is a large group of cavalry marching in! Judging from the scale of the smoke, it is estimated that there are at least 10,000 horses (in fact, far exceeding, but Li Yongqi doesn't know how to judge the number of enemies by the smoke and dust in the telescope), and they are bypassing dozens of miles north of Tongwan City!

"Enemy! West thief! About 50 miles away, the smoke and dust are visible, and the location is due north, and the number of horses is about 10,000, and it is rapidly moving westward! No, no, it's eastward! They're heading east! ”

With his roar, the soldier holding the triangular signal flag desperately waved the red flag and green flag in his hand, and sent his report to the Chinese army tent of the Three Direct Army as quickly as possible.

"10,000 horses 50 miles to the east?"

"The West Thief wants to go to Stone City?"

"Impossible...... Shicheng has a general of the Hedong Army, how can more than 10,000 western thieves be impressed? ”

"I guess I want to cut off our food supply, right?"

In the big tent of the Chinese army, the remaining military soldiers sent people to report to Wu Haogu, Gao Yu, Tong Guan and Zhao Zhongge, and they started to talk about it.

After a while, Wu Haogu, Gao Yu, Tong Guan and Zhao Zhongge rushed from their respective camps in a hurry.

"What's going on?"

Wu Haogu was the most nervous of the four, and asked as soon as he entered the big tent.

"Yudu Yuhou," replied a young military officer named Liu Bin, who was five short in stature, but had a brain shell and bright eyes, "The lookout reported that a large puff of smoke and dust was found 50 miles north of it, and it was judged that there were Western thief cavalry passing, and the number was about 10,000 horses. ”

Tong Guan interjected and asked, "Is it 10,000 horses or 10,000 cavalry?" ”

"It's still uncertain," Mr. Liu said, "and it's so far away that you can only see smoke and dust from the lookouts, so it's impossible to tell." ”

"Where's the Scout?" Tong Guan asked, "Is it 50 miles away?" ”

"It's 30 miles," Zhao Zhongge said, "but they should be able to find out what is going on 50 miles away, and it will pay off later." ”

The farther away the Ranger is not to say that the farther away the better, especially since the Horsemen who are released often hunt the enemy Rangers - this requires the formation of larger Ranger detachments, usually 50 to 100 (including auxiliary cavalry). And the imperial horses, including the auxiliary cavalry, gathered a total of more than 3,000 people, and took turns to dispatch, and they had to shield and guard in all directions, so it was naturally impossible to spread the net too wide.

Wu Haogu walked to the map table with his arms crossed, and the approximate location of the Western Thief Cavalry that had just been discovered had been marked with a small wooden plaque.

Obviously, this cavalry is deliberately bypassing the elite of the three straights that surround Tongwan City!

"Where do they want to go?" Wu Haogu asked.

"It should be between Tongwan and Shicheng." Tong Guan gave a seemingly most reasonable answer.

"Cut off our food routes?" Gao Yu asked.

"Probably so," Tong Guan smiled, "It's 10,000 people in the sky, can you still conquer the stone city?" ”

"Great official, Great Lang," Gao Yu said with a smile to Wu Hao, "Why don't I take the cavalry on a trip and defeat these ten thousand thieves!" ”

Tong Guan nodded, "Da Lang, what do you think?" ”

Now the command of the Sanzhi Forbidden Army is rather strange, and in the eyes of outsiders, it seems that Tong Guan and Gao Yu should have the final say. Tong Guan is an envoy to appease the economic strategy, and Gao Yu is an international celebrity who single-handedly "brings" the elite of the three straights. In contrast, Wu Haogu was just a merchant who couldn't fight, how could the people below listen to him?

But in fact, through the command of the military machine, the false knight, the Jiehe utility cavalry, as well as two engineer commanders and one baggage commander, Wu Haogu firmly held the command of the Sanzhi Forbidden Army.

Therefore, it is up to him to decide whether to dispatch the powerful palace palace royal horse straight.