Chapter 722 Zhou Xu's New Project
According to the situation in Xianyang City, if they delay a little longer, the other side will basically collapse on its own. This is undoubtedly the most hassle-free and labor-saving situation for them.
"Let Xie Liancheng and Zhou Chongshan prepare. If I can't make it back in time, let them take over Feiyan City in half a month."
Traveling on horseback is definitely faster than traveling with a large infantry force. It only took Zhou Xu and Silk three days to get from Xianyang City to Green Forest City on their own war horses. It would take another four or five days to get to Green Forest City. A single journey would take almost a week, and this was without any delays on the road.
According to this calculation, the round trip alone would take about half a month, not to mention that he would have to stay in Black Rock City for a while to discuss the new project with Zhuang Mengdie.
It’s absolutely impossible to make it back in half a month.
As for the situation in Feiyan City at that time, he was not sure whether Long Aotian had exaggerated in the message.
But it doesn't matter. According to their strength, even if Feiyan City still has the strength to fight at that time, they can directly blow it up. It will only take a little more effort.
Or just observe from the outside and don't get close.
Even if Long Aotian exaggerated in the letter, Zhou Xu estimated that it was not too much.
At the same time, after a winter, it is normal for the city’s grain reserves to run out. We will have to wait for another ten days or half a month at most to get a result.
After arranging things here, the group continued on their journey. After arriving at Green Forest City, they rested for a day.
Since he had no time to go back anyway, Zhou Xu was not so anxious anymore.
After all, even if they don't need to rest, the war horses also need to rest. After three days of high-intensity running, if they continue running, they will probably foam at the mouth.
Within their Great Zhou, these carefully selected war horses are quite expensive, and their numbers are relatively limited. When there is no fighting, they must be taken good care of.
This time, they rode on horseback for a total of nine days and successfully arrived at Black Rock City.
After arriving at the place, Zhou Xu did not rest. He directly called Zhuang Mengdie and started talking to her about the new design.
Along the way, he had already sorted out his ideas and also drew a rough design. After his explanation, Zhuang Mengdie quickly had a general understanding of the structure of this new project.
However, she still couldn't figure out what this thing was used for.
"Don't worry about it. Let's make a super simplified version to practice. Once this super simplified version is made, you will roughly understand what this thing is used for."
When Zhou Xu and his team arrived at Black Stone City, it was almost evening. By the time he and Zhuang Mengdie finished talking about their ideas and briefly describing the principle and structure of this thing, it was basically time for dinner.
After dinner, the two of them lit the brazier and started making what Zhou Xu called the super simplified version.
This super simplified version is indeed simple. Zhuang Mengdie can make every part, and it is not complicated. With her deft hands, the two of them worked together to make this thing from scratch. It took less than an hour in total.
"Let's go find an open place."
As he spoke, Zhou Xu signaled Silk and the others to pick up their things and take Zhuang Mengdie to an open place.
"Silk, hold on tight."
While signaling Silk to hold the things steady, Zhou Xu did not hesitate. He raised the torch in his hand and lit the brazier fixed at the bottom very quickly.
Soon, flames started in the brazier. As the internal temperature rose and hot air was generated, the cover, which was the main part, slowly bulged up.
Gradually, Silk could feel that the thing in his hand seemed to be about to slip out.
"My lord, what should we do now?"
"Let go, just let go of your hand."
Following Zhou Xu's words, Silk let go of his hand, and at that moment, the thing in front of him slowly rose into the air in front of everyone present.
This scene made everyone except Zhou Xu exclaim in surprise.
“See? This is a sky lantern!”
After saying this, Zhou Xu raised his head with great pride, his face full of nostalgia.
When he was a child, he and his grandmother made sky lanterns and sold them during festivals and made a lot of money. Of course, later the country banned the use of sky lanterns, so the business died out.
Looking up at the sky lanterns flying higher and higher, Zhuang Mengdie's eyes were filled with bursts of wonderful light.
During this period, the people in the city who were unaware of the truth, after seeing the flying sky lanterns, knelt down on the streets in large numbers and worshiped in the direction of the sky lanterns. They all thought it was a manifestation of the gods.
The sky lantern flew farther and farther away, but under the cover of night, the ball of light was still conspicuous.
Everyone kept looking up until the lantern completely disappeared from their sight, and then they looked away.
Sky lanterns have existed since ancient times. During the Three Kingdoms period, they were also called Kongming lanterns. They also had certain military value. Sky lanterns could be released at night as military signals.
"Mengdie, do you understand what I want to create now?"
Hearing this, combined with the design drawings he had seen before, as well as some additional instructions from their king, Zhuang Mengdie, who had now realized what was going on, nodded vigorously, with unstoppable excitement on his face.
"I will use better materials to make a lampshade, and replace the bottom with a more spacious basket so people can sit directly in it and fly into the sky!"
Listening to Zhou Xu's description, Zhuang Mengdie, Silk and the others all showed longing on their faces.
Things like flying are not something that everyone can do, even in the old civilization era when gods were very powerful.
"At this point, it can no longer be called a sky lantern, it has to be called a hot air balloon!"
Needless to say, this is what Zhou Xu is going to do! As long as they have a hot air balloon, they can fly over the mountainous area regardless of the terrain. In this way, the mobility efficiency can be greatly improved!
Of course, the carrying capacity of a hot air balloon is very limited. From the very beginning, Zhou Xu did not expect to use it to transport goods or troops, but only to transport some important people and objects.
For example, he himself is going back to Black Moon City next. If there is a hot air balloon to take him over the mountains, it can save a lot of time.
In addition to this, it can be put to military use in the future. Apart from anything else, it should be very useful as an aerial reconnaissance unit.
As for the difficulty of production...
To put it simply, a hot air balloon is a super-enlarged version of a sky lantern, and they have even successfully released one just now.
But considering its purpose, its stability and safety are very important, and Zhuang Mengdie needs to study it carefully and conduct a lot of tests.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
