Volume 1: Wild Beasts, Changes Begin Chapter 41: The Movements of Beasts and Humans
"In fact, according to the documents from the capital, it is almost certain that the appearance of all mutant creatures is related to the falling of the star."
Qin An, the governor of Donghai County, said, "The star fell to the west, maybe it fell to the West Sea, or it may still be west of the West Sea. The order in which the mutant creatures appeared in various places is from west to east, and the density is getting more serious the further west you go."
"The overall trend of mutant creatures' activities is also from west to east."
This time, Qin An brought with him a number of reports on mutant creatures, which contained some speculations made by the capital after looking at all aspects.
Song Bi Da was surprised and asked, "If it was really that meteorite that created these monsters, then shouldn't these monsters be chasing the meteorite and heading west?"
"Maybe they are afraid of the meteorite, so they want to stay away. It is also possible that they consciously want to occupy more land, so they move from places where monsters are densely populated to places where they are sparsely populated." Qin An said with worry, "It is conceivable that we are only dealing with the initial situation. It will continue to deteriorate in the future. Those mutant creatures will gradually move towards towns where people gather."
These mutant creatures seem to have a tendency to attack living people. In recent days, civilians and government servants in various places have been injured or killed, and even officials in important positions have been harmed. Civil servants like Qin An, who have an overview of local political affairs and can decide on job transfers, are under great pressure.
"In fact, only large wild animals will immediately increase their lethality after mutation. Even if those small creatures are mutated, ordinary soldiers can deal with them." Song Bi Da also flipped through the documents and said, "Let's go back to Donghai County. Even if the mutated creatures have an overall trend of moving from west to east, the group in Donghai County is too fast and a bit abnormal."
"Maybe it's because the four counties along the coast in the east, headed by Qingyu, have the most dense population in the entire Donghai County?" Qin An said, and suddenly remembered something, "A few days ago, it seems that the Qingyu County Magistrate once reported that Changluo Hou was also attacked by a mutant creature. Fortunately, there was no danger."
"Marquis Changluo?" Song Bi Da nodded silently and said, "I am planning to go to Qingyu County later. Yu Qingcong is only the commander of a musket battalion. He may not be able to make decisions in the operations involving four counties. If I go there in person, I can arrange for timely response even if there are any unexpected changes. I will go to visit Marquis Changluo first."
Fang Pingbo, the Marquis of Changluo, was originally granted the title of Marquis only because he opened up the maritime trade route. He did not have a deep background and connections in the court, and his fiefdom was in a remote place like the eastern coast. People who hold real power, such as prefects and patrol generals, actually do not care too much, and sufficient superficial courtesy is enough.
But six years ago, Changluo Hou submitted a document to the capital, which included "On Hundreds of Fire-Firing Weapons", which briefly described the importance of the development of gunpowder weapons to the military strength of the Great Qi Dynasty, and also put forward many suggestions for improving gunpowder weapons.
The key point is that after reading this article, the master craftsman of the Shen Ji Bai Lian Ying was surprised to find that most of the ideas in it are actually feasible and extremely ingenious. They are just limited by the production materials and craftsmanship level and cannot be popularized at present.
Even so, after years of hard work by the master craftsmen, the equipment of the musket battalions in various places has been updated.
Although Da Qi was the first country to invent gunpowder, and gunpowder had been used in weapons research and development for hundreds of years, whether it was a musket or a cannon, before each firing, it had to go through the tedious steps of loading gunpowder, loading bullets, installing the fuse, and then igniting it. It was extremely inefficient in war, and accuracy really depended on luck. It could be said that in a real fight, this kind of weapon was more about scaring people than killing them.
The new long-handled muskets that have become popular in musket camps across the country in the past two years have improved bullet design, shooting structure and rifling. They do not need to be re-ignited after each shot. Just pull the bolt and pull the trigger to fire a bullet with a stable ballistic trajectory. Their efficiency and lethality have been improved by more than one level compared to before.
When His Majesty saw it, he also exclaimed that it was a divine spear, and he showed great favor to Changluo Hou, obviously thinking highly of him. The value of this Houye immediately changed.
Speaking of which, there is an interesting thing about this.
At that time, the document sent by Chang Luo Hou had two names written as the author, one was himself and the other was his son.
But everyone knows that his son was only twelve years old at the time, and he probably didn't even know what gunpowder was. How could he have come up with so many groundbreaking suggestions? This kind of thing involving weapons research and development requires a rigorous theoretical foundation, not poetry and literature, which can rely on inspiration and talent.
Sharing the credit of elders is certainly a common trick among prominent families to support their younger generations, but it is still too hasty to expect a twelve-year-old child to share this credit.
The incident of Chang Luohou was also a topic of conversation in the capital at that time. However, there was no malice in it, and it was just a joke that he loved his son very much.
After discussing these matters in the military camp, Qin An returned to the prefectural government first. Song Bidada was preparing to set off in the evening, taking a team of cavalry and heading directly to Qingyu County.
Yu Qing was never as leisurely as the other two. After the musket battalion was divided into four groups, only a quarter of an hour later, after a short rest and lunch, they set out from the barracks one after another.
On the official road, after a team of musketeers galloped past, a series of small noises were heard from the dense jungle on the side of the road, and a man in light green clothes stood up.
The man was holding a horse, with a red-eyed bird perched on its shoulder. He asked in confusion, "I just arrived in Donghai County, why are there musketeers searching everywhere? Is it necessary?"
Chirp!
The red-eyed bird suddenly flew up from his shoulder, circled in front of the man, and landed back on his shoulder, nodding its head towards the east. The chestnut horse beside him also pointed its neck towards the east.
"Huh? You want to go there too? Is there some treasure over there?" The big man wiped the sweat off the horse beside him with a piece of paper, thinking.
This little red-eyed bird is a divine species, one in millions on the prairie. It is the best at finding medicine. As long as it is within ten miles, it can detect even a hundred-year-old wild ginseng sealed in a brocade box underground in the palace.
The horse is no ordinary colt.
When a man travels around, he often relies on this bird and this horse.
In the past month or so, birds and horses seemed to have become more and more agile and swift. Now they showed this intention, and the man was naturally moved.
"The musketeer is going, and Xiaoque is going too. There must be some miraculous medicine that has appeared over there. We can't miss it!"
The man made up his mind, got on his horse and headed east.
The piece of paper that was used to wipe the horse's sweat was thrown aside, and it turned out to be a wanted warrant.
——Gu Yunfei, a famous bandit from Hainan, has committed many crimes over the past ten years, including stealing flowers and causing harm to hundreds of families. Local governments have jointly offered a reward of 50,000 taels of silver. Anyone who can provide clues to the government and verify the facts can also receive an additional 1,000 taels of silver.
