But the rebel army already had a lot of scouts, and the speed at which the scouts searched for the enemy and the cavalry delivered information was already the fastest during the march.

Because of the speed of the war horses, the cavalry's reconnaissance range was limited.

If a war horse can travel 10,000 miles in a day, and the maximum round trip in a day is 5,000 miles, then a scout can pass back information from 5,000 miles away in one day.

The information obtained within one day is still very useful.

If a war horse can only travel a hundred miles a day, then the information sent back thousands of miles away will take 20,000 miles and twenty days.

After twenty days, the effectiveness of the intelligence was greatly reduced.

Therefore, the speed of information transmission is positively related to the effective investigation range.

That is to say, if the speed of intelligence transmission is faster, the timeliness of the intelligence can be higher, thus the effective detection range will be expanded, and thus the army can grasp the enemy's movements further away.

After thinking about all this, Li Mengxi understood that as long as the speed of intelligence feedback was increased, the scope of investigation could be expanded.

It seems that the speed of intelligence feedback has nothing to do with the scope of investigation, but there is a causal connection.

The intelligence feedback speed is the speed of the war horse.

Li Mengxi wondered if there was a faster way than using a war horse.

Just think about it, there is more than one.

Beacon tower, light signal.

The two mountains are dozens of miles apart, and the war horses have to run for an hour or two to light the beacon fire. A few minutes later, the smoke will rise, and the beacon tower dozens of miles away will immediately know the enemy's situation. The beacon fire can send messages at the speed of light.

Also, homing pigeons. Homing pigeons travel very fast.

Do you want the cavalry to carry pigeon cages on their backs and release the pigeons immediately when encountering the enemy?

This method is fast enough.

But when Li Mengxi thought about it, it seemed that he couldn't.

The reason why pigeons can be used to send messages is because they take advantage of their habit of returning to their nests.

That is, if you take the pigeon far away, the pigeon will always fly to the nest and not to other places.

During the march, the whereabouts of the army were uncertain. The cavalrymen were carrying pigeons. When they encountered the enemy, they released the pigeons, and the pigeons indeed flew away.

However, the pigeon flew away and could not find its nest.

Because once the nest is moved, the pigeons cannot return, and the information cannot be transmitted to the commander-in-chief.

After much deliberation, the only way to speed up the scouts' feedback is Langyan.

That is, whether the beacon is effective in high mountains and lofty mountains, and whether it can be used in the Central Plains.

Li Mengxi was puzzled and immediately went to find Guan Yu.

The rebel army is now heading towards Guangzong City via the road, with Guan Yu leading the troops in front.

"General Guan!" A shout suddenly came from behind.

When Guan Yu heard this, he looked back and saw his elder brother Liu Bei riding towards him, but Xi'er was nowhere to be seen.

Sure enough, when Liu Bei's horse was approaching and the horses were driving together, Guan Yu saw Li Mengxi behind the horse.

"Xi'er, why did you come to look for me?"

Li Mengxi asked Guan Yu whether it was possible to use smoke to convey enemy traces. Also, in the Central Plains, where smoke was blocked by jungle villages, could it still be used?

If so, how many miles would it take?

As soon as Li Mengxi asked a question, Guan Yu found it difficult to answer.

Being able to ask high-quality questions is considered a skill.

Guan Yu is no stranger to talking about wolf smoke.

However, the smoke of the wolf could send messages across the plains for several miles, and Guan Yu was unable to answer for a while.

From what Guan Yu thought, even if the smoke could only travel three to five miles, it would still be faster than a war horse.

The smoke is two to three miles away, and the war horses may have to gallop on a winding road for more than seven or eight miles.

With a single fire, hundreds of wolf smoke can rise into the sky, while a war horse can gallop for seven or eight miles and must be counted in seconds.

From this we can see that Wolf Smoke can be used to transmit speed when marching.

The three of them simply started discussing on the side of the road.

The simplest way to use wolf smoke is to pile a pile of wolf dung on the roadside, then light a fire, and the wolf smoke will start.

Li Mengxi believes that wolf dung and making fire are the difficulty itself.

When a scout is out and suddenly encounters an enemy, where can he find wolf dung? Therefore, the scout must bring wolf dung with him.

Also, ignition, flint and velvet grass, these things are not easy to use for starting a fire. I am lucky to be unable to start a fire for more than ten minutes. If it rains again, there is really nothing I can do.

Therefore, the scouts must bring good fire and find ways to light the smoke.

Li Mengxi thought of tung oil.

The only thing that a big man can use to aid combustion is tung oil. So whenever he sets a fire, he only thinks of tung oil.

Mix tung oil with wolf dung to make a flammable substance, and then put it in a rainproof container. After treating the enemy, take a fire stick, put a little on the wolf dung, and it will ignite immediately with a bang. Then the smoke will rise.

.

If you want to be more secure, you can add a high cover to the smoke barrel. This cover can block the rain, but the smoke will continue to fly along the cover, so even if it rains heavily, the smoke can still rise straight up.

If the smoke was made into a special tool, there would be another advantage. The scouts would not have to dismount to pile up wolf dung. Instead, they would just carry the smoke bucket and run on horseback. Wherever the horse goes, the smoke will follow.

Fixed piles of smoke on the roadside can only mark fixed enemies.

However, the cavalry, carrying smoke generators on their backs, followed the enemy's group like maggots attached to their bones. Wherever the enemy went, the smoke followed them.

In this way, the enemy's position is clearly exposed in a radius of more than ten miles, and there is no way to hide it. The art of war says that it is good to hide under the nine places, but you hide it.

Li Mengxi’s method is excellent.

Wolf smoke can travel ten miles with a hundred breaths, and a thousand miles with a thousand breaths, which is much faster than cavalry sending messages.

Several people agreed that with the Wolf Smoke Cavalry, the enemy's traces thousands of miles away could be known in half a day.

Unfortunately, we are halfway through the march now.

Wolf dung was difficult to find, cow dung was not collected, there was not enough tung oil, there was no easy-to-use igniter, and there was no special small bucket for containing wolf smoke carried by the scouts.

Just wait until later to summon the craftsmen to make the smoke weapon.

This type of cavalry carrying the smoke of war can be called a smoke scout, or, to make it easier to remember, a wolf cavalry.

Li Mengxi added another unit to the army.
Chapter completed!