Chapter 152: I'm in charge of this weapon that didn't exist before but now does

Gu Qingwan looked at the match placed in front of her.

She was completely dazed.

What does this mean??

Let her light a cigarette for him??

Of course, Gu Qingwan could understand that Lu Yuan acting so smugly meant he must already have a foolproof plan in mind.

Otherwise, he would never behave like this.

Meanwhile, Gu Lie, standing nearby, blinked his eyes and suddenly burst out with a hehehe laugh.

It wasn't that he wanted to see his sister light a cigarette.

But Lu Yuan's demeanor like this certainly indicated that something was settled!

Lu Yuan must have already come up with an excellent plan for this!

And the excellent plan Lu Yuan came up with is simply that Lu Yuan wins.

If Lu Yuan wins…

I can go suppress the bandits!!

How could Gu Lie not laugh out loud?

Of course…… what Gu Lie is more curious about now is……

What exactly is the method?!

Gu Qingwan looked at her brother's carefree, hehehe laughing expression and couldn't help but glare.

Gu Lie opposite her then hurriedly held back.

Afterwards, Gu Qingwan, having regained her composure, stared at Lu Yuan with gritted teeth and said:

"You wouldn't be trying to get me to light your cigarette, would you?"

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and nodded as he said:

"I've drafted a set of regulations for you, staying up all night without sleep.

You light a cigarette for big brother, and you can earn merit in the bandit suppression, fewer deaths—what's the loss, are you still at a disadvantage?"

Big brother… big brother?!

Gu Qingwan truly was about to be angered into laughter by Lu Yuan as she said:

"You're calling me big brother? How old are you? You're my big brother?"

Lu Yuan then shook his head and swayed as he said:

"Big brother is just a title, not about age.

You see the waiter outside still calls me grandpa, but I'm not really a grandpa—rest assured, calling me big brother guarantees you won't lose out~"

Seeing Lu Yuan like this, Gu Qingwan felt a surge of anger, but a few seconds later.

Gu Qingwan's face showed a hint of a dangerous smile as she picked up the match on the table.

With a whoosh, she struck a match, then handed it over while gritting her teeth and saying:

"Okay~~~big brother~~~you must definitely tell your sister a foolproof plan later~~~big brother~~~~"

Gu Qingwan's demeanor made Gu Lie beside her involuntarily shiver.

This scene…… Gu Lie has seen a bit too much……

Normally, when my sister acts like this toward me, my butt would end up getting beaten.

However, Gu Qingwan's demeanor could only scare Gu Lie; Lu Yuan isn't afraid at all.

Holding a cigarette, he raised an eyebrow and said:

"Two hands, one hand has to cover—what, you've never served anyone before!"

Gu Qingwan: "???"

You're pushing your luck, putting on airs, aren't you!!

After a half-second silence, Gu Qingwan gritted her teeth and, following Lu Yuan's instruction, finally lit the cigarette.

Once the cigarette was lit, Lu Yuan immediately began speaking seriously.

After the fooling around, when it's time to discuss serious matters, one must get straight to the point.

Lu Yuan's earlier displeasure with Gu Qingwan wasn't over anything else—just her contemptuous expression at that time.

A look of looking down on people, plus…… at that time, Lu Yuan had been freezing outside for a morning.

This inevitably made his mood a bit irritable—everyone has moments they can't suppress their fire.

But after all, this is Gu Lie's sister; causing a little trouble is fine.

Lighting a cigarette is no big deal.

The next second, Lu Yuan stood up and pointed at a spot on the map, saying:

"Look here."

This change in Lu Yuan left Gu Qingwan involuntarily startled.

When Lu Yuan had just asked her to light the cigarette, he was like a rascal, but once it came to discussing serious matters,

he truly became serious all at once, and his demeanor changed instantly.

It's like what~

Hmm…… it's like the image of Lu Yuan I imagined when I previously read the memorial.

Afterwards, Gu Qingwan and her brother began to listen seriously to Lu Yuan's words.

What Lu Yuan wants to do is actually nothing special, nor is it some earth-shattering grand tactic.

It's actually Huo Qubing's tactic.

And what is Huo Qubing's tactic.

If we look at it with modern eyes, if we interpret it with modern eyes.

Actually, there are just two.

One is special operations, the other is a beheading operation.

Lu Yuan's historical knowledge is not high; he doesn't know whether that counts as history's first true special operations plus beheading operation.

But Lu Yuan believes it is absolutely the strongest in history.

Hmm... perhaps because in Lu Yuan's heart, Huo Qubing is the strongest general.

Thus the evaluation of Huo Qubing also carries much of Lu Yuan's personal subjective bias.

But let's not discuss this matter that easily causes arguments; speaking of using Huo Qubing's method to deal with such mountain bandits, it is absolutely feasible.

The Great Zhou Dynasty has guns.

This is not unusual.

Given the Great Zhou Dynasty's current industrial level capable of producing sewing machines, having guns is completely normal.

Here there are old-style smoothbore guns, and also rifled guns.

A smoothbore gun has no rifling inside the barrel; it's just a barrel with front-loaded gunpowder.

Such guns are commonly shotguns, or hunting guns in the hands of farmers.

Of course, that kind of shotgun on Earth has also undergone improvements.

For example, the Great Zhou Dynasty's shotgun is not that powerful; its range is basically within a few dozen meters.

Then ammunition is stuffed into the front of the barrel; loading speed is extremely slow.

This weapon is widely equipped in the Great Zhou Dynasty's army.

And there is another kind of gun, namely the rifled gun.

This gun is powerful: the barrel has rifling, so when the bullet is fired from the barrel, the bullet spins out.

This allows it to shoot farther and with higher accuracy.

Basically, this kind of gun can be considered a modern rifle.

However, this kind of gun is rare.

The reason is that the manufacturing process for such barrels is very advanced.

For steel and various industrial technologies, it is a huge challenge.

Manufacturing such a barrel is very troublesome.

Before, the Great Zhou Dynasty had been at war with the Gilded Gold Dynasty.

Compared to guns, what these two dynasties emphasized more was still cavalry.

After all, on the boundless grasslands, when the two sides' cavalry charge, they will meet head-on.

For such slow-loading guns, spears and crossbow bolts are more practical.

Thus they also basically did not develop or emphasize them.

The Great Zhou Dynasty's army also has few rifled guns in hand.

Getting back to the point: the Great Zhou Dynasty's regular forces aren't many, so how many could the bandits have?

The bandits' guns are all smoothbore guns, i. e., old-style hunting guns.

Lu Yuan's idea is to train an elite unit, equip them all with rifled guns, and then go into the mountains!!

Those familiar with the great mountains are not only bandits.

There are also villagers around; this elite unit would be selected mostly from those villagers.

Just like Huo Qubing recruiting Xiongnu people into his own troops!

However, if it's only special operations, that is far from enough.

Why.

Because aerial troops can't kill people... no, it's because this elite unit cannot completely clean up the aftermath.

What is the greatest use of this elite unit?

Beheading!

Thoroughly throw the bandits into chaos in the rear!

After all, anyone who has seen Bright Sword knows that taking Ping'an County relied on large forces, relied on Italian cannons~

Tens of thousands of bandits; among them there must be a leader.

This is the so-called 'capture the bandits by first capturing their leader'.

Among these tens of thousands of bandits, whoever is the leader, the frontal regular army will grab his hair and beat him.

Beat him to death!

Don't expect the regular army to be able to kill this bandit leader.

But rather to... herd sheep!

Drive this bandit leader out of his lair!

When this bandit leader flees in panic from his lair, that becomes the task of the elite unit roaming the deep mountains.

Set up ambushes in advance on several of this bandit leader's retreat routes.

Then behead!

The elite unit Lu Yuan spoke of is absolutely incapable of making a frontal charge.

It is beheading.

After doing this several times, the bandits' camp will surely fall into utter confusion.

This is called attacking the heart!

Attacking cities is inferior; attacking the heart is superior!

Bandits are bandits; no matter how they dominate the mountains as kings, they are still bandits.

Once they lose their backbone, they are like a plate of loose sand.

After Lu Yuan finished speaking at length.

Both Gu Qingwan and Gu Lie fell into a moment of contemplation.

Gu Qingwan was thinking about the military funds needed for this.

It seems it's not that high.

However...

Can this work?

And Gu Lie was also thinking whether this was feasible.

After the two pondered for a while, Gu Lie was the first to look at Lu Yuan and say:

"Brother, this… might not work, right?"

Of course!

If it's just like this, it definitely won't work!

Lu Yuan looked at Gu Lie raising his question, was actually quite pleased, patted Gu Lie's shoulder, then looked at Gu Qingwan beside him and grinned, saying:

"Look, I said our younger brother will surely become an excellent general in the future."

"See, he immediately thought of a problem."

Gu Qingwan was stunned by Lu Yuan's words and involuntarily gave him a white-eye.

Who says we're related!

Lu Yuan, meanwhile, looked at Gu Lie and smiled, saying:

"Then you tell me, what's wrong?"

Gu Lie is now very serious, unlike his usual laughing self, or rather...

Um... the current Gu Lie is quite mature.

Unlike his previous childish demeanor.

Gu Lie immediately spoke seriously:

"The ideas so far are good, but the biggest problem is how to drive out the bandits?"

"If we charge head-on, it definitely won't work; I researched it last night at home—each bandit mountain gate is easy to defend, hard to attack, and breaking through one would cost a huge price."

"At some narrow passages, only a dozen people, each with a hunting rifle, can block hundreds!"

"Moreover, if we could actually storm the bandits' mountain gate, we wouldn't even need elite troops."

"Last night Lu Yuan went home and read the book Military God all night."

"Gu Lie also couldn't just go home and sleep soundly."

"Gu Lie also spent the night reading a book about southern bandit troubles."

"The biggest problem with the southern bandit menace is that the bandits' location is truly too advantageous."

"Some narrow places allow only one person to pass."

"Even if they rush forward holding heavy shields, as soon as a huge stone rolls down..."

"In any case, to storm a bandit stronghold of fewer than a hundred, the Great Zhou Dynasty's regular army would have to suffer casualties dozens of times greater."

"And a bandit lair of fewer than a hundred is merely considered a small bandit group."

"The largest bandit lairs in the south can number up to a thousand!"

"How can we attack this?"

"Lu Yuan Brother's idea is good: drive the bandits out of their lair, then rely on elite troops to behead them."

"But the problem is…"

"We can't even get the first step going."

"Unless we just fight head‑on, filling the ranks with lives."

"In fact, this is the hardest step of suppressing bandits."

"Lu Yuan looked satisfied at Gu Lie and smiled, saying:"

"Exactly, that's the problem… but what about bombarding with cannons?"

"Cannons?"

"Gu Lie stared, then gave a somewhat helpless smile and said:"

"That's even more impossible..."

"The mountain roads there—some places are hard to climb even for agile soldiers, and many rugged paths allow only one person to pass."

"How do we haul cannons weighing hundreds or even thousands of jin, plus their shells, up there?"

"Even if we spend enormous manpower and material to haul a few cannons up, it's useless—the cannons' maximum elevation can't reach that high."

"Hearing Gu Lie's words, Lu Yuan patted Gu Lie's shoulder on one hand and, looking at Gu Qingwan listening intently beside him, smiled and said:"

"Look, look at our younger brother—I said he really can do it, he truly is a qualified commander."

"Gu Qingwan doesn't understand much about military affairs; she understands people's hearts."

"So, what Lu Yuan just said, Gu Qingwan feels makes sense, but she can't point out what's right or wrong about it."

"On the other hand, this younger brother of hers can spot the problem in a few moments."

"For a moment… Gu Qingwan somehow felt…"

"whether she had truly delayed her younger brother…"

"But seeing Lu Yuan's current demeanor, Gu Qingwan naturally could tell that this Lu Yuan definitely has a way to solve these problems!"

"Seeing Lu Yuan like this, Gu Qingwan pursed her lips, then patted Lu Yuan's shoulder and said:"

"All right, you definitely have a way, hurry up and say it."

Afterwards, Lu Yuan shook his head and swayed his body, looking somewhat proud, at Gu Lie and said:

"You say, is there a kind of cannon whose maximum elevation can reach eighty or ninety degrees?"

Gu Lie looked at Lu Yuan with a face full of question marks.

Maximum elevation eighty or ninety degrees??

What kind of cannon is this?

Afterwards, Lu Yuan again shook his head and swayed his body and said:

"And this cannon is very portable, at most only a dozen or so jin heavy?"

Gu Qingwan again had a face full of question marks.

How could this be possible!

Although Gu Qingwan doesn't understand military matters, she hasn't eaten pork but has seen pigs run!

During wartime, Gu Qingwan also often went to the military camp.

Those cannons, the large ones weighing over a thousand jin, needed seven or eight people to pull them.

Even the small ones weigh several hundred jin.

A dozen jin??

Can this even be called a cannon?

And Lu Yuan continued shaking his head and swaying his body and said:

"Taking a squad of nine people, three per team, one person carries ten shells, a squad can carry ninety shells.

If it were you, how long do you think you could keep firing to take down a hill?"

At this moment, Gu Lie had a face full of question marks; after he came to his senses, he gave a somewhat helpless smile and said:

"Brother, what are you talking about…… How could there be such a weapon……

If such a weapon really existed…… I could bring a battalion and not need half a day, just blast his mother's……"

Hearing Gu Lie's words, Lu Yuan also broke into a smile and said:

"Right, just blast his mother's will do."

After saying that, Lu Yuan took out a stack of draft paper from his pocket, slapped it onto the table, and grinned:

"Such a weapon did not exist before.

Now it does, and I call it a mortar!"

Thanks to Old Brother Kan for the 1666 book coin reward, thank you very much~

Thanks to Old Brother Ls for the 1666 book coin reward, thank you very much~

Thanks to Old Brother Ning who loves reading books for the 200 book coin reward, thank you very much~

Thanks to Nuan Xiaoqing, Yanbei, book friend 202112, Hu Wukelian, Dedewu, and five old brothers for the 100 book coin reward, thank you very much~

Today there's still one more, I'm writing after finishing my meal.

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(End of chapter)