Across-the-River Divine-Mechanism Fire Dragon Formation

The illustration for this section depicts a technical military maneuver. A horse on a riverbank is shown pulling a rope system attached to a wheeled floating device in the water. This demonstrates the historical Chinese use of mechanical advantage to deploy naval mines or fire ships across river currents.

[Page 10]

Once the Throat-Sealing Poison Fire original: 封喉毒火 (fenghou duhuo); an incendiary chemical compound likely containing arsenic or lime designed to cause respiratory failure and severe chemical burns strikes the enemy, they will immediately begin to rot. If you then deploy surprise troops original: 奇兵 (qibing); highly mobile units used for unorthodox tactics or flanking maneuvers to respond to the chaos, there is nothing that will not be utterly decimated.

Lead shot original: 鉛子 (qianzi), when hitting the enemy, will pierce through the abdomen and penetrate the heart.

Even in a state of defeat, the ingenuity of this mechanism is so profound that even ghosts and spirits could not fathom its inner workings. This traditional phrasing suggests that the weapon's design is so clever and its effects so sudden that it appears supernatural to those targeted by it.