Tang Qi Tan

Chapter 196
And here, no matter whether it was a mount or a carriage, they could no longer move forward; Jiang Tian and his party also switched to walking forward.It didn't take long to pass through the still standing palace wall, and the next moment, a large open field and continuous buildings lined up in succession appeared in front of my eyes.

It is really hard to imagine that inside this city wall that looks like ruins, there are actually large areas of human settlements and busy scenes like caves; these buildings are obviously the products of renovation and reconstruction on the old site, so they seem to be full of people. Barracks-style rough style.

When passing through a house, Jiang Tian even smelled the unique smell of various burning materials including refined kerosene; in the open hall, a group of craftsmen in fire raccoon/asbestos burqas were carefully weighing And what is being filled, and finally become things in oval bottles.

In the other building, it was filled with the more familiar smell of saltpeter and sulfur products being processed and concocted.And under the pergola in the open-air storage yard, there are already some finished products, which are similar to the enlarged version of fireworks in later generations; they are firearms inherited from this era;
Among them, there are flying rockets (Hale rockets) tied with wooden poles and arranged on bamboo frames, which look like sky-riding monkeys; A swarm of more than a dozen arrows...but the most eye-catching is a leather cannon.

It is a transitional firearm with a wrought cast iron inner chamber wrapped in leather or other fabrics; it is matched with a fist-sized bullet, or a spoon that weighs a thumb-sized powder.Although this kind of thing looks crude and has a rather limited service life, it is fortunately light and simple enough.

In addition, in another venue, Jiang Tian saw a small net thrower transformed from a single wooden crossbow; a large net ejection mechanism like a rotating lever-a throwing pole; a crossbow with an iron track; and a bundle of Prefabricated wire fences, together with fixed pickets, are wound into a spindle shape;

Jiang Tian even noticed that in addition to the thorns and hooks like thorns, there are also small bells tied to it, which can keep ringing as long as they are lightly touched.And after passing through this jingling and buzzing construction area, which appeared to be busy and busy, we came to the Miyagi stage inside.

In ancient times, the field in front of the stage, which was used to review Chinese and foreign troops, was a scene of drills in full swing.It's just that the way they drill and the equipment they use are obviously different from most traditional troops of this era.Instead, it is divided into many groups, scattered in different regions.

Some of the sergeants in leather suits were throwing some specially made hook-blade throwing axes; while others were getting used to throwing, a kind of short hook with a tough and thin cord.In addition, there are people using the hammer head to throw the rope, spinning over and over again around the stake as the target.

As a cooperation, there are also some stout sergeants wielding long and heavy weapons such as thorn spears, maces, hammerheads, and steel flails, smashing the targets; but the most conspicuous ones are the traditional standard equipment of the Tang army. An array of human-height long-handled Mo Dao and dual-wielding long Ke axes.

I saw these fully clothed armored soldiers with only their mouths, noses and eyes exposed, like iron men, divided into small groups and slowly walked forward, shouting, hacking, hacking and slashing; The wooden targets on the specific row platform were all torn apart with a loud bang, fragmented all over the place.

Therefore, they are only a hundred or so in number, but they seem to have been killed out of thousands of troops, and they seem to be full of bloody momentum.

After seeing these scenes, Jiang Tian calmed down a little.This is a prosperous and prosperous age that has lasted for more than a hundred years, and the political system is still functioning well, but the relatively large bureaucratic (central) system and a slightly dull old empire should have a normal display of foundation.

After slowly passing through these non-stop sergeants who were immersed in targeted drills, only Zhang Wusheng was left to follow Jiang Tian.However, Chen Wentai did not lead him up the steps of the palace steps, but turned him to a new brick doorway under the palace steps.

When I walked into Jiang Tian, ​​I realized that there was another quite open hall inside, even in broad daylight, it was brightly lit and noisy.There are several spacious corridors in the surrounding area, extending inwards, and from time to time, people in armor or military uniforms pass by in a hurry.

Among them, the most conspicuous ones are undoubtedly the corrals located on both sides, which are divided into large and small rooms;From the most common animals such as chickens, dogs, pigs and rabbits, to elk, donkeys and mules, and even a listless camel.

Therefore, in this underground space, the smell is unavoidable; but the air is not turbid at all, and the sound of the wind can be felt obviously, obviously there is no means of exhaust ventilation.Just here, Jiang Tian also felt faint prying and threats.

It wasn't until Chen Wentai showed his confidence to the civil servants sitting by the middle corridor; this feeling of being spied on and faintly threatened gradually faded away.Apparently, the Qianmen cave hall excavated and expanded under this palace platform is not without precautions and vigilance.

Next, walk along the widest aisle in the middle, which can almost pass a carriage or ride in parallel.Jiang Tian soon saw the various functional areas extending from the underground of the palace platform.Among them are arsenal, material room, residence and dining hall, which are connected to large and small test areas.

It seems to have the shape of an underground secret base.Of course, according to Chen Wentai's introduction, these underground space patterns actually exist out-of-the-box; they are similar to the caves and underground palaces left by the previous dynasty, so after taking over, they have only been repaired and expanded.

Therefore, during the walk, Jiang Tian even saw the small wild boar-shaped beast that was captured alive; it was actually quite alive.It's just that the fur of the whole body has been shaved, revealing the scarred pink skin; the body shape has also swelled up a circle; lying lazily in the cage.

Occasionally, when someone came forward to extract body fluids from it with a thick needle, it would habitually groan once or twice;It looked as if he had been spoiled mentally and spiritually.

Of course, only when someone else sent a whole bucket of butchered animal offal soaked in thick blood on a trolley would it suddenly reveal its other side of murderous instinct.Suddenly he slit his mouth to his ears and roared, buried his head in the tin bucket and made a loud noise, sucking and licking so that the juice flew around.

And when it devoured the blood, it began to crack its mouth and flick its tongue outward, wanting to growl in a deep voice.The next moment, a strange-shaped iron fork was struck hard on the cage post, making a loud bang; immediately, it split its mouth and merged, retracted its tongue, and lay down again.

That apathetic sage state, as if the previous ferocity sprouted, never existed at all.This scene reminded Jiang Tian of an experimental joke called "Pavlov and Gouzi".Apparently this once ferocious beast has gotten used to this kind of daily routine.

"This is our current treasure," Chen Wentai explained upon seeing this, "especially the body fluids extracted from it are of great use. Not only can it be used to cover up the breath, but it can also be formulated to target strange beasts." A medicine arrow. It can paralyze and weaken it after being shot."

Then in another adjacent hall, Jiang Tian saw rows of display racks.They were samples of various beasts and ghosts hunted and killed by the Jinwu Guards. Most of them had only one head left and were nailed to a specific chopping board. It seemed that there were hundreds of them in different shapes and sizes.

Correspondingly, in the cave hall opposite, they were restricted by thick chains and iron hoops; they could only neigh in a low voice in the iron cage.Their bodies were scarred or their limbs were mutilated, and their minions no longer existed. It was obvious that the previous test object came from this.

In the large room connected to the side, there are also some thick glass transparent jars; inside are the limbs and organs soaked in some kind of antiseptic liquid.In addition, those personnel whose gowns were stained and suspected to be medical officers/medical officers were burying themselves in the scene of a disembowelled beast;

And this smelly place is full of some villain-style underground human experiment base.However, this scene made Jiang Tian feel more at ease.Because this also represents the results of various efforts made by the political institutions of this era to deal with this sudden change.

Next, under the leadership of Chen Wentai.Jiang Tian also visited the dispensing room that specialized in processing various by-products from the body fluids and organs of alien animals; among them, several results have been obtained through previous in vivo experiments, and they have begun to be tested in actual combat.

These include the poison of medicinal arrows prepared with herbs, which can paralyze and weaken most beasts and ghosts in a short period of time, or the poison of arrows that cannot heal wounds temporarily; spraying to disrupt senses such as the sense of smell of beasts bait; even spearhead clusters made of minion bones...

Then, Jiang Tian also met the actual person in charge of this underground place at the end of the innermost underground palace.

(End of this chapter)