As the ranks expanded, so did the need for weapons. Xiao Yiran is about to expand the scale of smelting and forging on the west bank of the river.

At the same time, Xiao Yiran began to design a chariot in his heart. I remember reading history before I was reborn, especially during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the strength of the country was divided by the number of chariots, which shows the power of the battlefield at that time. With copper tools, it is no longer difficult to produce chariots.

Liang Mu has learned a lot of knowledge from Xiao Yiran in the past two years, so when Xiao Yiran painted the battlefield on the land under his feet, Liang Mu soon understood the structure and principle of the chariot, and Xiao Yiran didn't need to explain it little by little.

Liang Mu's chariot has not yet been made, and Xiao Yiran's side has already begun to make war drums. War drums are much simpler, as long as there is a hard and flexible animal skin, everything else is easy to make. With chariots and drums, it was necessary to make pikes, the kind of assassination weapons suitable for soldiers on chariots. The spear only needs Xiao Yiran to draw a pattern for Liang Mu.

It's just that if you have a chariot, you need a horse to pull it. There are no horses but oxen instead. Since the last time Xiao Yiran arranged for Xiong Shan to catch more bison and wild goats, Xiong Shan has never forgotten about it. For more than two years, not only have the tribesmen been able to drink milk and goat's milk, but they have also successfully domesticated a number of cultivated cattle. Using ploughing oxen to pull the chariot is also Xiao Yiran's only choice at present. Considering that the number of ploughing cattle was not large, Xiao Yiran only asked Liang Mu to make five chariots, each chariot was pulled by two oxen, although the speed was slower, but compared to using horses to pull it, the strength was much more sufficient.

"Xiang Lin, these five chariots and ten oxen are the treasures of our dragon clan, you have to train them well. There are nine soldiers in each vehicle, one person in charge of driving, and two attacking soldiers on the left, right, front and rear. You must protect the chariot and the ox as you protect your own life, otherwise you are the only one who asks. ”

One day, Xiao Yiran asked the guards around him again.

"Tell me about the elephant tribe south of Longshan."

"There should be more than 600 people in the elephant tribe, who domesticate elephants as their mounts and use them to transport timber and so on. In war, soldiers sit on tall elephants, and it is difficult for others to attack them. However, with our bows and arrows we should be able to attack the soldiers on the elephants. ”

Wei Kun is from the Eagle Clan and has been in contact with the Elephant Clan, so he knows the Elephant Clan better.

"Do they have many elephants?"

"Not much, no more than ten in total. Elephants are tall and powerful, making them difficult to domesticate. ”

Xiao Yiran felt that it was difficult for the dragon clan to become strong in a short period of time only by relying on the natural reproduction of the clansmen, and it was better to annex other ethnic groups through wars and dragons to grow rapidly. Therefore, after refining the copper weapon, Xiao Yiran had already planned to annex several more ethnic groups in his heart. Of course, if they want to annex, they can only be the elephant and turtle tribes closest to them. It's just that I don't know these two ethnic groups, and I don't know which family group to start with.

"Wei Wu, go and call Xiang Lin."

When Xiang Lin followed Weiwu to Xiao Yiran's side at a trot, Xiao Yiran commanded:

"You arrange competent men to investigate the situation of the Elephant Clan and the Turtle Clan, and be sure to investigate carefully, focusing on the number of their soldiers, as well as the weapons used. Don't let them notice, remember? ”

"Yes, Emperor."

While waiting for Xiang Lin's news, Xiao Yiran had to go to the smelter in Hexi every day to check. Beamwood has already created a spear for chariots. Swords and other weapons have also been created. It's enough to arm two hundred regular troops of the dragon clan, and two half-soldiers, half-peasants.

"Liang Mu, the number of arrow clusters should continue to increase, you must know that in a large-scale war, the consumption of arrow clusters is very large."

"Yes, Emperor."

"Also, the feathers at the end of the arrow, no matter how much you are real, if the feathers at the end of the arrow are not set reasonably, the arrow will lose its accuracy, so that the consumption of arrows will be greater."

After Xiao Yiran gave some instructions, he was about to turn around and leave. was stopped by Liang Mu, and led her to a smelting furnace, took out a bright piece of metal from a waste slag and handed it to Xiao Yiran.

"Emperor, this is what we accidentally discovered when we were casting, I don't know what it is."

Xiao Yiran felt a little heavy when he took it, the metal block was not big, only the size of an egg, and after a careful look for a long time, Xiao Yiran recognized it, this should be metal lead. Lead, it should be a good thing, if it is added to copper, it will be cast into a copper-lead alloy, and the hardness of copper-lead alloy should be greater than that of pure copper, and copper-lead alloy also has a characteristic, that is, wear-resistant. This alloy can be added to the hub of the vehicle, so that the service life of the wheel hub of the vehicle will be greatly increased, and not only that, but it will also reduce friction, so that the vehicle can be pulled up more effortlessly and faster.

When Xiao Yiran told Liang Mu his thoughts, Liang Mu's eyes widened, he really wanted to ask himself why the emperor knew so many things, but he didn't dare.

"Liang Mu, think more about it when you're fine, and see if you can develop other useful weapons."

"Yes, Great Emperor."

Seeing Liang Mu's look of adoration, he sent Xiao Yiran to kneel. Xiao Yiran smiled slightly, turned around and left with Wei Wen and them.

What other powerful weapon did you not think of? Xiao Yiran also thought in his heart. Repeater, I can't do it for the time being. Catapults, not needed yet. Dagger, right, dagger. Each soldier, especially his own guards, was given one each, and when the hand-to-hand combat was met, the dagger was still very useful.

As soon as he returned to his residence, Xiao Yiran drew the appearance of the dagger on a piece of bark, sent someone to send it to Liang Mu, and gave Liang Mu a message, "After the trial production is made, show it to me first."

It has to be said that the efficiency of beams is very high. On the fifth day after Xiao Yiran's dagger pattern was sent, Liang Mu personally sent three daggers of different sizes. Xiao Yiran looked at them one by one, and handed them to Wei Wen next to him, and they tried it to see which one was more convenient. In the end, he chose a dagger that was only one and a half slaps long and two fingers wide, handed it to Liang Mu and said:

"Just follow the way this one is, build more, at least let all the soldiers have one each. Remember, after you have built it, quench it to increase the surface hardness of the dagger. In this way, it will be sharper when polished. ”

New terms such as quenching, surface hardness, etc., Liang Mu has long been accustomed to it. You don't have to ask to understand what it means.

After Liang Mu was ordered to leave, Xiao Yiran was worried again. With so many weapons, where do you put these soldiers, who only wear a few leaves?

"Wei Wen, I'll give you a task, think about it, how to carry these weapons, such as daggers, swords, etc., on your body, and tell me if you've thought about it, and I'll let Liang Mu do it."

It's not a problem for modern people, but for Wei Wen, it's a big problem. Xiao Yiran looked at Wei Wen's sad faces and sad faces, he didn't feel funny in his heart, and there was a hint of a smile on his face. Wei Wen and the others were already familiar with Xiao Yiran's expression, and at this time, Xiao Yiran's expression told them that the emperor was in a good mood now.

"Emperor, can you make some sashes out of silk cloth and tie them around your waist, so that you can hang daggers and swords on them."

"A dagger can be hung on it, but a sword is so long, how can you walk on it?"

"Oh, we keep thinking."