King of Mercenaries

Chapter 30: Make a telescope

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During a cross-country training, Marin was there to scout the terrain, but found that the distance that human eyes can see is limited, and they can't see clearly when the distance is far away. So Marin remembered the telescope...

The telescope was only invented in the early 17th century, and there are still more than a hundred years from now. Marin had to find a way by himself and make an "invention"...

Of course, as an advanced technology, and it is an advanced technology of great strategic significance, Marin is not willing to let others know the existence of the telescope. So, he went to the optical shop in the town of Robach, found the craftsman in the shop, and polished a batch of circular concave lenses of the same size. Then, he went to another town on horseback, found a local optical shop, and asked the optical craftsman in this shop to polish a batch of convex lenses (magnifying glasses) of similar specifications for him.

Then, he went to Vienna, found a craftsman who was good at making wooden crafts, and built a batch of wooden cylinders for him. The front and rear ends of the wooden barrel are detachable spiral mounts, which can fix the polished lenses.

Of course, in order to hide the lens, there is a length of wooden tube in front of the deck, so that people cannot see the glass inside. If you don't pay attention, when Marin looks into the distance with a telescope, others will think that Marin is observing something through a wooden tube.

However, what makes Marin depressed is that the quality of glass in this era does not seem to be good. Ordinary glass is somewhat greenish. This is because the iron ions in the glass have not been removed, so the transparency of the glass is not very good. The earlier optical glass, lead glass, seems to have appeared in England in the 17th century.

Therefore, Marin can be sure that the telescopes of this era will not look too far. Because the clarity of the glass is not enough...

Sure enough, after Marin got the goods a few days later, he assembled the telescope by himself. He could pull out a long wooden tube and adjust the focus. However, no matter how Marin adjusts, the telescopic distance of the telescope does not exceed 5 kilometers. Any further and it starts to blur. Even at a distance of 5 kilometers, you can only distinguish roughly, but not clearly. Of course, this is used to detect the enemy's situation, which is much better than seeing with the naked eye.

After assembling the two telescopes, Marin bought two wooden boxes and locked the telescopes. Only he has the key and no one else can open it. Even if there are several Kahns, they don't know what it is.

After that, in order to train Schwartz (in fact, Marin decided to be lazy and let Schwartz do some daily work instead), Marin organized several group confrontations. The confrontation was mainly carried out in the mountains, and Marin also used the mountain ambush tactics commonly used in the East. It's just that he didn't dare to use the trick of throwing stones down on the mountain, because it would kill people.

Schwartz led the people hard, carefully made a long-distance detour, and then quietly walked towards the camp guarded by Marin. But what he didn't know was that at the height of the camp, Marin had already used a telescope to figure out his troop deployment and marching direction from 5 kilometers away, and made corresponding adjustments.

When Schwartz's 50 people touched the vicinity of the camp, they directly faced the traps and encirclement set by Marlin...

Others didn't understand, but Kohler, who didn't participate in the battle, seemed to understand a little bit—it seemed that Marin's ability to make corresponding subordinates had something to do with the two cylinders he locked in the box. However, as an attendant, he is not good at inquiring at random, nor can he do so. Schwartz, who was depressed, didn't understand why Marin was able to "predict the enemy's opportunity." Then, Schwartz admired Marin even more...

After several exercises, Marin seemed to notice that Kohler had noticed the cylinder in his hand. Therefore, he felt that the cylinder in his hand seemed too conspicuous.

So, he found craftsmen again, customized smaller lenses and smaller and more inconspicuous cylinders, and assembled a small telescope again. This kind of telescope is so small that Marin can cover most of it with two hands, but it can also reach an observation distance of 5 kilometers. When Marin stood on a high place and looked into the distance with a telescope, others saw Marin with his hands in front of his eyes, thinking that his hands were used to block the sun... But in fact, his two hands, holding A small cylinder…

In fact, the telescope is the most useful thing for scouts. As the coach, Marin can observe the enemy's formation before the formation, but it is impossible to go out to investigate frequently (there are also coaches who personally investigate, but the end is generally not good. For example, Li Zicheng went out to investigate in person, and was armed by an unknown landlord. KO. Washington personally investigates , and was almost sniped by Colonel Ferguson...). So, after much deliberation, he decided to develop his servant Sauer into a scout...

The reason why Sauer was chosen was because the Sauer family were all their own serfs, and they were more reliable than outsiders. Moreover, Sauer himself has a very calm personality and a good mind. Judging from his recommendation of Schwartz, Sauer is also a bit wise. At least, he can see people. Moreover, Sauer's eyesight is also good. What's more, when he was hunting in the past, Sauer often took on the task of reconnaissance, so he had some experience in this. His ability to report back without disturbing the deer or wild boar proves that he is very suitable for scouting.

Moreover, in this era, scouts often have to approach for reconnaissance, which is very dangerous. If you are not careful, you will be discovered and hunted down by enemy sentries.

But with the telescope, the scouts don't need to approach the opponent's camp. They just need to find a high point a few kilometers away and take out the telescope.

In the era when telescopes were not popular, even people with the best eyesight had to get within a kilometer to get some important data. Most people even have to be within a few hundred meters to see clearly. Therefore, people in this era, even if anti-reconnaissance, will not be more than 1 kilometer away.

Therefore, as the first group of people to use binoculars to investigate, under normal circumstances, Sauer's safety can still be guaranteed.

Afterwards, Marin and Sauer communicated in private. Marin tested Sauer's loyalty and found that it was not bad. Then he made Sauer swear that he would never tell anyone about the telescope. Moreover, every time Sauer went out to investigate, he could only come to him to pick up the telescope. Usually, the telescope used by Sauer is to be locked in Marin's box.

Not only that, Marin also asked that Sauer should not use the telescope in front of others to avoid being seen as a problem.

Sauer didn't pay much attention at first, but when he got the telescope, he was really taken aback. The first time he used the telescope, he was so scared that he almost dropped the telescope.

"This... this is amazing!" Sauer was shocked.

"Okay, Saul, remember, never reveal the secrets of the telescope to anyone! Including your relatives!"

"Yes, master!"

"Also, don't drink too much alcohol in the future. It's easy to talk nonsense when you're drunk."

"Yes!"

"Okay, let's go!"

In the next few days, Marin assigned Sauer several reconnaissance missions, taught him how to hide himself, and gave him a camouflage reconnaissance clothing.

After training, Sauer completed the task better and better each time. In fact, the difficulty of this kind of task is also very low. Who would not be able to peek with a telescope a few kilometers away. The key point is to choose a suitable location to avoid being discovered by the other party. Moreover, investigation also requires patience. Fortunately, Sauer is a very patient man. If he had a quick temper like Kahn, he would definitely not have the patience to sit there and slowly count the number of opponents, the number of livestock, and the entry and exit of horses and horses.

Of course, this involves knowledge of reasoning and calculation, and Sauer is definitely not at that level. What Shaoer can currently do is to estimate the number of people in the other party through the house/tent, and infer how many pots the other party has through the amount of cooking smoke rising during cooking, so as to simply infer the number of people eating in the other party...

These are the basic truths, and the Westerners of this era prefer to fight head-to-head, and they will definitely not come up with any strategy of "reducing the number of foes to lure the enemy" at this time. This estimate is quite accurate.

In addition, Marin also emphatically asked Sauer to strengthen the observation and estimation of the enemy's food storage locations. In the Middle Ages, Europeans would not have figured out how to make sand to disguise military rations to stabilize people's hearts. Therefore, scouting the opponent's food reserves is also helpful to estimate the opponent's military spirit (the army's morale is stable only when the food is sufficient), and it can even facilitate the destruction of the opponent's grain and grass...