Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

The biting wind howled across the towering city walls, whipping up snowflakes that stung people's faces.

Chu Ze led Lu Jian and his group along the gray-white, iron-hard city wall, finally stopping atop a specially heightened and reinforced bastion. This was the highest point of the entire northern city wall, offering a panoramic view overlooking the snow-covered plains several miles around the city.

A massive, black steel structure lies silently in the center of this bastion.

It's that repaired red-coated cannon.

Unlike the rusty, cracked old cannons Lu Jian had seen in the Beijing garrison, this weapon of war before him was in near-perfect condition. Its dark barrel reflected a cold, dangerous gleam in the pale light of the day, its deep muzzle resembling the throat of a steel behemoth ready to devour its prey.

The cannon barrel was wiped spotless, and every part was coated with a thick layer of anti-rust grease. The pulleys and rails under the gun carriage were polished to a gleaming shine, ensuring that the angle could be adjusted quickly.

This doesn't look like a dusty decoration in a border armory; it's clearly a sharp blade ready to drink blood at any moment.

The guards behind Lu Jian unconsciously lowered their breathing. They were all connoisseurs; the sheer vitality of this cannon, so meticulously maintained, was enough to make the artillerymen of the three major camps in the capital ashamed to the point of suicide.

"General! What brings you here!"

A voice broke the tense silence. A player with the ID "King of Cannons" was seen wiping the cannon with a thick cloth soaked in grease, muttering to himself as he focused intently, as if he were caressing a lover.

"Come here, my Italian cannon wife, let me oil you up so you can aim even better later. Once I learn inscription, I'll give you a 'Precision' enchantment and an 'Armor Penetration' aura, and I guarantee you'll blast the world apart!"

Upon seeing Chu Ze, he hurriedly dropped the oilcloth and ran over, rubbing his hands together with a fawning expression: "General, how's my cannon doing? It's shiny and gleaming, and the stats on the display have increased by several points! I guarantee it will hit its target perfectly!"

Wang Erniu slapped him on the back of the head with his large, fan-like hand and cursed, "Get lost! Can't you see the general is entertaining a distinguished guest? Go play somewhere else!"

The player wasn't annoyed. He chuckled, then ran back, hugged the cold cannon barrel, and kissed it, muttering, "My precious darling..."

Lu Jian ignored the farce. He slowly stepped forward, reached out his hand, but did not touch the cold cannon. He simply felt the chill emanating from the steel weapon from a distance of about an inch.

His gaze wasn't even on the gleaming cannon.

He was looking at the gun mount.

It wasn't the clumsy wooden frame of the Ming Dynasty, but rather a sturdy combination of hardwood and iron, far more robust than any gun carriage he had ever seen. Two parallel rails were even laid beneath the cannon, the carriage's wheels firmly secured to them. This meant the giant cannon could be quickly adjusted left and right to change its firing arc, unlike the Beijing garrison's gunners who needed a dozen men shouting commands and using crowbars to move it.

His gaze then shifted to the breech of the cannon.

There, he found a brass ruler covered with fine markings that he had never seen before, and next to it was an ingeniously designed rocker.

Lu Jian's pupils contracted slightly.

He recalled how, when the artillerymen of the Beijing garrison adjusted the elevation of their cannons, they could only rely on inserting wooden wedges of varying sizes under the cannon barrel; each adjustment was a gamble.

And this thing in front of me...

It means precision!

This means that the angle at which each shot is fired can be quantified and replicated!

This isn't just maintenance; it's a complete transformation!

"This cannon... is not the original." Lu Jian finally spoke, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"Lord Lu has a good eye." Chu Ze's tone was very calm, as if he were talking about a trivial matter. "Gongshu Ban and the Cannon King and a few others thought the old things were inconvenient to use, so they figured out how to modify them themselves. In their eyes, it's just a bigger toy."

toy.

As Lu Jian pondered the word, he felt a chill creep up his spine from the soles of his feet.

What are crucial national weapons that can determine the outcome of a battle are nothing more than toys in the eyes of these madmen.

Lu Jian fell silent.

Several oddly dressed players were arguing heatedly around the cannon.

"No! The sights are still calibrated wrong! I measured it with a theodolite yesterday, and the horizontal axis was off by 0.3 degrees! 0.3 degrees! At 500 paces, that's more than 10 feet off-target! If it goes astray, who's going to take the blame?"

"You don't know anything! This is called allowing for lead time! You have to factor in the Coriolis force..."

"Get lost! Do you think this is an intercontinental ballistic missile? There's no Coriolis force at a distance of a few hundred paces! I think it's just that your skills are lacking!"

The crux of their argument was a strange copper tube device fixed to the side and rear of the cannon. The tube was inlaid with polished crystal pieces, which looked incongruous yet exuded an indescribable sense of precision.

The guards behind Lu Jian looked at each other, completely bewildered by the conversation.

Theodolite? Horizontal axis? Coriolis?

These lunatics are speaking in slang they don't understand again.

Chu Ze ignored the few tech-savvy gamers who were engrossed in their own worlds. He simply stretched out his hand and pointed to the edge of the bastion, where a huge sand table made of wet soil and gravel stood.

On the sand table, the terrain and landforms around Guangning City were vividly reproduced, with mountains, rivers, forests, and even several main official roads clearly distinguishable.

"Lord Lu, please take a look."

Chu Ze's voice drew Lu Jian's attention away from the cannon.

He walked to the sand table, picked up a thin wooden stick from the side, and pointed to an open area outside the city on the sand table. "Amin, the second prince of the Later Jin, was here back then."

The wooden pole landed a full five hundred paces away from the model representing Guangning City. This was a distance beyond the range of traditional crossbows, and extremely difficult for ordinary cannons to hit accurately.

Immediately afterwards, Chu Ze gently slid the wooden pole across the sand table, marking three locations: a small hill, an abandoned beacon tower, and the edge of a dense forest. At each location, an inconspicuous little red flag was planted.

"The range is 520 paces, due north, wind speed is 3 with a slight crosswind, and air humidity is 2. The target is wearing a blue-bordered banner prince's robe, riding a jet-black warhorse, and is accompanied by 16 white-armored guards. He is suspected to be a high-ranking enemy general."

Chu Ze's voice was calm, as if he were reciting a passage he knew by heart. He was repeating the intelligence that the player scouts stationed at the three observation points had sent back almost simultaneously through the team channel.

Lu Jian frowned deeply. He stared at the three small red flags spaced far apart on the sand table and asked in a deep voice, "These three observation posts are at least three miles from here, and the furthest is probably no less than five miles. How can information be transmitted back to the artillery position in an instant, given the distance?"

In Lu Jian's understanding, information transmission over such a distance could only rely on fast horses, beacon fires, or flag signals. Regardless of the method, the time difference between the discovery of the target, the transmission of information, and the gunner's adjustment was enough for any target on horseback to be more than a hundred paces away.

So-called artillery bombardment, more often than not, relies on blanket bombardment, hoping to hit a general area by chance. The kind of precise targeting, down to wind speed, humidity, and even details of the enemy's clothing, as Chu Ze described, is simply a fantasy!

Chu Ze did not answer directly.

He simply turned his head and raised his chin at a player not far away who was gesturing wildly and shouting at the air.

The player, whose ID was "[Man Like the Wind]", was yelling in the guild chat: "Team Three! Team Three, did you hear that? A wild boss has spawned in the western forest, coordinates (127, 453), it's an elite bear king! Quickly organize a group to come and raid it! Damn it, if we're any later, we'll miss out!"

He was all alone, and the way he was talking to himself was both comical and eerie.

"There is a way of communication between celestial soldiers that mortals cannot understand." Chu Ze withdrew his gaze and looked at Lu Jian again. His tone was calm, but it carried an undeniable mystery. "No matter how far apart they are, they can communicate instantly and their thoughts are connected, as if they are right in front of each other."

As Lu Jian pondered these words, he felt a chill creep up his spine.

He thought of the madmen who had "come back to life" outside the city, of the impregnable "cement" city walls, and of the "blast furnace" that produced a constant stream of fine steel.

Now, there's another way to transmit information instantly, regardless of distance.

These unconventional "miracles," one after another, are constructing a terrifying reality before him that he cannot comprehend but cannot help but believe.

Just as Lu Jian was feeling excited, the player with the ID "Second Battalion Commander, You F*** Your Italian Cannon" noticed Chu Ze's arrival. Like a little fan seeing his idol, his eyes lit up, and he immediately dropped what he was arguing about, excitedly running over with something in his hand.

It was a strangely shaped ruler made of bamboo and wood, covered with dense markings and symbols that Lu Jian couldn't understand at all, all burned onto it with a hot iron.

"General! General! Come and see our group's latest research results!" The player, with a proud look on his face, handed over the wooden ruler and introduced it with great enthusiasm, "'Parabolic Ballistic Slide Ruler'! Version 2.0! We've fitted the acceleration due to gravity, the coefficient of air resistance, and the muzzle velocity of the projectile! Just input the straight-line distance to the target and the current wind speed, and then use this vernier calibrator to read the required elevation angle of the gun! The error is less than one degree!"

He grew more and more excited as he spoke, proudly waving the slide rule in his hand and patting his chest to guarantee, "Next time any blind boss dares to come near our cannons and offer himself up, I promise! One shot! Just one shot! Let him experience what it means to take off from the spot and go straight to the Western Paradise!"

These words were like another heavy cannon shot, slamming into the minds of Supervisor Lu and all the guards behind him.

Parabola? Ballistics? Gravitational acceleration? Air resistance?

They couldn't understand a single word.

But they understood "BOSS", they understood "feeding the enemy", and they understood the murderous phrase "one shot and he'll be sent to the Western Paradise"!

Then, recalling the description in that victory report about the Second Prince Amin of the Later Jin being blasted into the air by a cannon and seriously injured, a chilling coldness instantly shot from the soles of everyone's feet to the top of their heads!

So that's how it was!

What they considered a miraculous, almost divinely ordained strike was, in the mouths of these madmen, nothing more than a game of "fighting a BOSS" that could be calculated with a broken wooden ruler!

Chu Ze ignored the player's antics. He simply watched Lu Jian's ever-changing expression and continued to give a final summary of the "lesson" in his calm and cold voice.

"Lord Lu, do you understand now?"

"The victory at Guangning City was never a fluke."

"It was precisely through the precise observations made by the heavenly soldiers from several different locations;"

"Relying on their swift communication that transcends distance;"

"And then there's their ability to perform these precise calculations, which are beyond our comprehension."

"Only then could we complete all the calculations and lock on the moment Amin stepped into our shelling range, and finally... launch this fatal blow."

Chu Ze's voice was devoid of any emotion; every word was like a cold stone, crashing into Lu Jian's heart and stirring up towering waves.

observe!

communication!

calculate!

locking!

Strike!

These few simple words, in Lu Jian's mind, combined to form a terrifying war picture that he had never imagined before and had never seen in any military book!

This is not a traditional battle between two armies, nor is it a battlefield contest where generals rely on experience and courage.

This is more like a massacre... composed of countless omnipresent eyes, an invisible information network, and ruthless killing machines!

Precise, efficient, ruthless, and devoid of any emotion.

Before this war machine, individual bravery, general's strategy, and even the charge of a large army all seem so pale and laughable.

Lu Jian finally understood completely.

What he faced, and what Chu Ze relied on, was not some vague "miracle" at all, but a completely new mode of warfare that he could neither understand nor fight against!

This is a dimensional reduction attack from another world!

His knuckles were white from gripping the hilt of his sword at his waist. He suddenly felt that his martial arts skills, which he was so proud of, and the interrogation techniques he had honed in the Northern Garrison, were all a huge joke in the face of this gray and white megacity.

He remained silent for a long time, so long that even the cold wind on the city wall seemed to freeze.

Finally, he raised his head, and for the first time, a hint of... bewilderment appeared on his face, which was sculpted by the elements.

Chu Ze looked at Lu Jian's completely shattered worldview and a barely perceptible smile appeared on his lips.

He knew that the time was almost right.

He slowly removed the wooden pole from the sand table, taking it from the position representing Amin, and then changed the subject.

"A single shot might kill a brute, but it won't scare away an army of fierce warriors."

Chu Ze's voice snapped Lu Jian out of his daze.

"What truly terrified Amin and his tens of thousands of troops was not this cannon shot."

Lu Jian's pupils suddenly contracted.

Not this shot?

The power of that single shot was already astonishing; could there be an even more terrifying method?

Chu Ze looked at Lu Jian's surprised and uncertain expression and slowly smiled.

That smile carried a knowing, playful edge, and the absolute confidence of a chess player.

"Lord Lu, would you like to know how I managed to get that arrogant Prince Amin to willingly send his two thousand most elite White-Armored Bayara soldiers to hell in perfect formation?"