Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 271 Believe in Science

Pei Yuan soon saw Taoist Zhiwei, who was tied up on a wooden stake at the Jinyiwei camp.

He did not explain what happened before, but simply said, "Get ready to work."

The Taoist sighed and blew gently on the ropes that bound his body.

The ropes that had originally tightly bound the Taoist Zhiwei suddenly came alive and spread out in all directions.

Taoist Zhiwei brushed off his robe, stood up and looked at Pei Yuan, saying with great sorrow, "Where is the most basic trust between people? Since I have agreed to serve Qianhu, why should I do this in such an embarrassing way?"

Pei Yuan saw that the Taoist priest had this trick, so he glanced at Song Chunniang and pretended to scold her, "How do you do things? How can you be so disrespectful to the Taoist priest?"

Song Chunniang waved her hands angrily, and the dozen or so archers who were staring at the Taoist retreated.

After all the outsiders left, Taoist Zhiwei reluctantly emphasized again, "I have made it very clear before. Although I have some tricks, wind, rain, thunder and lightning are all God's will, which cannot be interfered by the mortal body. I don't have the ability to pray for rain for you."

Pei Yuan confidently comforted her, "Don't worry, believe in science."

Knowing that he is a Taoist, "???"

So what the hell is science?

Pei Yuan didn't say much, just said, "Come on, I'll take you to see the altar."

"Dharma, Dharma altar?" Taoist Zhiwei was stunned. Is it so formal?

Pei Yuan led Taoist Zhiwei directly to the front camp. Not far from the lookout tower, many torches were burning, and many young men in thin clothes were working hard to pile up and tamp the earth.

Taoist Zhiwei was a little dumbfounded when he saw this.

Is there really an altar?
Could it be that Captain Pei intended for me to pray for rain here?

If I fail, won’t I be socially dead on the spot?
Taoist Zhiwei wanted to explain to Pei Yuan again, but there were so many people around that it was difficult to open his mouth.

When the young men working there took their eyes off the two men, Zhiwei Daoist said in a low voice, "Captain, can we talk for a moment?"

Pei Yuan looked at the observation deck not far away.

It just so happened that he also wanted to see the situation in the bandit camp, so he said, "Let's go over there and talk."

Pei Yuan left guards behind and still only let Cheng Leixiang follow him.

Taoist Zhiwei was still some distance away from the observation tower when he saw the head of Chen Hu hanging on it. He asked in surprise, "Captain, who is this?"

Pei Yuan glanced at the guy and saw that the arrival of his group also attracted his attention.

He waved his hand casually at him, and said to the Taoist Zhiwei, "This man is Chen Hutou, a leader of the Bazhou bandits. He is ours, so don't worry about him."

"Oh." Taoist Zhiwei nodded. In his opinion, this Chen Hutou should be killed by Pei Yuan soon.

So if you have any secrets, there is no need to hide them from the dead.

Taoist Zhiwei then said to Pei Yuan truthfully with a worried look on his face, "Captain, I am really not good at praying for rain. Why do you have to make such a big fuss? If it fails, wouldn't it affect the morale of the army?"

Zhiwei, a Taoist, was used to worldly affairs. Seeing that he had repeatedly emphasized that he would not pray for rain, Captain Pei still insisted.

He roughly guessed in his heart that Pei Yuan might want to use lies to deceive and temporarily boost the morale of the army.

As long as it can stimulate military morale and improve combat effectiveness in a short period of time, it doesn’t matter whether the subsequent information can be concealed or not.

Even if the news spreads, as long as the victory is achieved, it will be a good story of skillful military operations.

If you lose... then what's the point of caring?
But this made him, the Taoist who prayed for rain and was publicly executed, feel a little embarrassed.

Because Pei Yuan can do whatever he wants, but he is a man of the same trade.

How to develop business after this?

Pei Yuan replied, "This is not your business. I have my own way to make it rain."

Then he asked casually, "I remember that the Taoist priest once showed his ability to turn paper into a heavenly dog. Is that true or not?"

Taoist Zhiwei saw that Pei Yuan was determined to do what he wanted, so he did not dare to let Pei Yuan have too many extra fantasies, and said frankly, "I remember that I told Qianhu clearly at that time, but I just saw the black cloud coming, so I used a little trick to deceive the eyes. Qianhu, please don't think too much."

Pei Yuan nodded, not knowing whether he heard it or not.

After a moment, he said, "I am already building an altar for you, and I will ask you to pray for rain later. Do you have any similar tricks to deceive people?"

Whether we can pray for rain or not is another matter, but at least we should make the scene look good.

A Taoist also knows that it concerns his own reputation.

He could only ask uncertainly, "How about I create a blue dragon illusion?"

Pei Yuan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he quickly said, "We don't want Azure Dragon, we want Phoenix or Golden Crow."

Taoist Zhiwei was surprised when he heard this and asked, "Why is that? If you want to pray for rain, you have to use either a dragon or a dragon. How can you use a fire spirit?"

Pei Yuan said, "I told Xiao Yan and Gu Dayong before that there is a golden aura rising from this place, which hinders the formation of clouds and water. If we want to rain, we should naturally use fire to overcome metal."

Taoist Zhiwei was speechless upon hearing this. What the hell was this nonsense?

Just as he was about to persuade him, Pei Yuan said firmly, "Just listen to me. If you think what I said is wrong, I can let Han Qianhu explain it to you in detail later."

Taoist Zhiwei raised his head, sighed, and no longer insisted.

He could already imagine the scene where "half a lifetime of fame was destroyed in an instant".

Perhaps it was a report from Xiao Yan and Gu Dayong's spies, or perhaps the two were already waiting impatiently and came looking for him now.

Pei Yuan asked Taoist Zhiwei to prepare, and together with Xiao and Gu, they wrapped themselves in warm clothes and stood on the observation deck, watching the progress of the rammed earth altar while observing the movements in the bandits' camp.

Seeing that large areas of the bandit camp were slowly extinguishing their torches and plunging into darkness, Pei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, "It's almost done. Once the altar is built, you can ask the Taoist to pray for rain."

Pei Yuan said, and Gu Dayong said, "We have to borrow Eunuch Gu's flag and drum for use."

As the eunuch in charge of military affairs, Gu Dayong had his own flags, drums and ceremonial guards.

Lu Ting was not willing to use the things of the defeated general, so he naturally did not take it.

Gu Dayong became angry and embarrassed.

Since he didn't want to keep it, nor did he want to destroy it, he simply took it back to Beijing. It was also what he had been thinking about for more than a year.

This is convenient for Pei Yuan now.

After waiting for another half an hour, the altar was finally built.

In the large camp of the bandits in the distance, except for a few sentries on duty where bonfires were still lit, everywhere else was completely silent.

Pei Yuan had some messy colorful flags placed on the altar, and called out all the soldiers to pray devoutly together.

Zhiwei Taoist had already made preparations. When he saw the blazing fire in the camp and many soldiers gathered around, he couldn't help but curse inwardly.

This Pei Yuan is simply fucking terrible.

Perhaps it was a telepathic connection, Pei Yuan happened to look over and then said loudly, "Please know that this is a Taoist priest ascending the altar."

Taoist Zhiwei sighed, straightened his robe, held the whisk in his hand, and walked up to the altar. He was in a bad mood at the moment, and just wanted to quickly complete the task assigned by Pei Yuan and then go down.

He was not in the mood to do anything extra, so he just followed what Pei Yuan had just said, saying something like "The upward rush of the golden sword hinders the formation of the cloud and water. If you want it to rain, you have to use fire to overcome gold."

After saying this, he began to mutter something and paced back and forth on the altar several times.

Then a red light flashed out from his sleeve.

The red light was dazzling, shooting up to the sky and suddenly exploding, revealing the shape of a golden crow.

The officers and soldiers of Xuzhou Guard who were gathered around were all in an uproar. Even Xiao Yan and Gu Dayong, who had always suspected that the Taoist was a liar, opened their mouths wide with a look of disbelief.

The golden crow-shaped red light fell very slowly in the sky.

Pei Yuan quickly shouted, "Beat the drum! Support the Taoist priest!"

Cheng Leixiang, who was guarding the war drum, quickly beat the drum with all his might. In the quiet wilderness in the middle of the night, the sound of the drum spread far away. Even the bandits became alert and lit many fires to observe the movements here.

Knowing that the Taoist had finished his performance, he wanted to come down quickly to avoid the subsequent embarrassment.

Pei Yuan took two steps forward and stepped on his shoe, stopping his movement. He said in a barely audible voice, "Wait a minute."

Zhiwei the Taoist looked around guiltily.

Fortunately, everyone was looking at the flaming golden crow in the sky and no one was paying attention to this side.

Pei Yuan's eyes were fixed on the hill in the distance. When he saw a faint fire, he immediately told Taoist Zhiwei, "Try to get others to look at you, and then point hard at the hill."

After Pei Yuan finished speaking, he quickly stepped back and hid aside.

Zhiwei Daoist was helpless and could only shout, "Hey!"

As he spoke, he raised his whisk and pointed in the direction of the hill.

Thinking about his own exaggerated and deliberate behavior, a faint sense of shame came over Zhiwei Daoren's heart, making him want to cover his face and walk away.

Everyone's attention was attracted by Taoist Zhiwei's shout, and then sent away by Taoist Zhiwei's finger.

They looked in the direction that Taoist Zhiwei pointed and saw several flames suddenly appearing on a hill not far away.

It is now the turn of winter and spring, which is the time of the year when fire hazards are most serious.

Pine trees contain a lot of oil and are very easy to burn.

The flames were like wandering ghosts, spreading all over the hill.

The wildfire was raging, and the slightest breeze would cause it to swirl and flutter.

Several fires started at the same time, and soon the fires connected and burned into one piece.

The birds that stayed overnight flapped their wings and flew up, dotted the red sky like sesame seeds. They struggled to fly over the fire, and soon lost consciousness and fell into the sea of ​​fire.

In a flash, half of the sky was burning brightly, and even the campfire in the camp was eclipsed by this huge volcano.

The wildfire illuminated a large area nearby, making it as bright as day, and the bandits' camp was also in turmoil.

Many people stood up to see the fire burning outside.

"Starry Sky" was also called out in the hazy state.

When he saw the fire, he immediately made a judgment, "This must be Zhuge Jiang Gan's plan."

As for what use this scheme would have...

Well, I haven’t figured it out yet.

At the same time, he couldn't help but feel secretly proud, "Fortunately, we saw the hidden dangers of fire attack at the beginning and did not choose to station near the hills."

Thinking of this, "Mantianxing" asked, "By the way, where are Zhang Sigouzi's team? Let's have them withdraw quickly while it's still light. They're too close to the wildfire, and they might get tricked."

"Mantianxing" looked for a while, but still couldn't figure out why Zhuge Jiang burned the mountain.

This... this wildfire is so far away, it can't affect me at all.

Is this the weak's way of venting their anger?

Tsk, I laugh at Zhuge Liang’s lack of strategy and Jiang Gan’s lack of wisdom.

"Mantianxing" looked at it for a long time, but really didn't know what to do or how to respond.

After thinking for a while, he said loudly, "Everyone disperse. Keep those who are on guard, and the rest of you can go back to sleep. Maybe they are deliberately stirring up trouble to tire out the soldiers. If you don't have the energy to fight tomorrow, you will be the ones who will suffer."

Under the rational control of "Mantianxing", the bandits in the camp returned to their tents one after another.

But even after they returned, they did not stop talking and kept discussing the strange behavior of the government troops.

The government troops were also confused.

Everyone’s first reaction was that this Taoist burned the mountain for no apparent reason... Why did you burn it?
My second reaction was, wow, this Taoist priest is so awesome.

Knowing that he was a Taoist himself, he felt completely numb.

What did I do?
As for Pei Yuan, he stared at the burning forest and the thick smoke billowing up.

Pine trees are rich in oil and are difficult to burn completely. When they burn, the smoke they produce is extremely large and filled with a variety of particulate matter.

When these rolling smoke and dust come into contact with water vapor that slowly settles due to the low temperature at night, they will act as condensation nuclei.

The encounter of a large number of condensation nuclei and abundant water vapor is the basic principle of artificial rainfall.

Pei Yuan had no way to launch rockets into the sky to create artificial rainfall, but he could set an entire mountain on fire, artificially creating a strong enough updraft to send the thick smoke into the sky.

The choice of this time point at night, in addition to making it impossible for the bandits to respond in time, has another reason.

That is, they can take advantage of the low temperature at night to make the clouds in the sky sink and come into contact with the smoke and dust as much as possible.

Now, it depends on whether Pei Yuan’s crazy idea can bring about crazy results.

Pei Yuan stared at the sky intently, searching for the result he wanted.

Before my eyes could see it, I felt a slight chill on my cheeks.

Pei Yuan wiped it casually, then realized what was happening and hurriedly opened his hands to catch it.

Seeing Pei Yuan's reaction, Gu Dayong and Xiao Yan were stunned for a moment, then they also reacted and started waving their hands around.

Soon, Pei Yuan’s previous feeling was confirmed.

Drop after drop of rain fell from the sky.

Pei Yuan felt the coolness on his hands, face, and arms.

His face twisted instantly, and then he laughed wildly.

Gu Dayong and Xiao Yan also forgot their identities. They caught the raindrops in ecstasy, beating their chests and stamping their feet, dancing and laughing.

(End of this chapter)