There was still some time before the catapult was finally completed, and Cao Liang took advantage of this gap to bring the stone buds to the ironwork workshop.

The ironwork workshop is located in a courtyard of the Grange, with a high wall and a guard at the door, and like the catapult construction site, no idlers are allowed to enter.

There were noticeably fewer craftsmen in the blacksmith workshop than in the construction yard, but the atmosphere was just as enthusiastic, with the fiery charcoal furnaces, the clanging sounds, and the sparkling forge room.

Coal was not widely used in this era, and the furnaces used to strike iron were all good charcoal, and the use of bellows could also make the furnace fire reach a very high temperature.

This is undoubtedly a familiar scene for Shibud, and the blacksmiths are sweating like rain, beating the iron billet.

The blacksmiths built the repeater crossbow that Ma Jun had improved.

This kind of steel arm crossbow is heavier than Zhuge Liang's crossbow, and it is also ten arrows per shot, but after Ma Jun's ingenious improvement, the range and rate of fire have been greatly improved.

Cao Liang had never seen Zhuge repeater, but Ma Jun had seen it, so Ma Jun confidently said that the efficiency of the repeater he made could be more than five times higher than that of Shu's repeater.

The repeater is different from the catapult, the catapult is huge in size and difficult to store, the repeater is just a single weapon, small in size, even if Cao Liang creates hundreds of them, it is not difficult to store, as long as they are not discovered, everything is OK.

Cao Liang left Shi Bao in the ironwork workshop, and he served as the overseer, responsible for supervising the construction of Ma Jun's crossbow.

Shi Bao's iron-striking skills are far above these ordinary blacksmiths, after all, there are only a handful of masters in the world who can create cold iron swords, and he will supervise the manufacture of Ma Jun's crossbows, and the quality can be better guaranteed.

Shi Bao did not refuse, on the one hand, striking iron is indeed his old job, and Cao Liang did not let him do coolies himself, but just let him be a supervisor to check the quality, this job is very easy, and it is Shi Bao's eyesight and supervision ability that is tested.

On the other hand, Shi Bao was still counting on Cao Liang to give him a good future, so he did not have any dissatisfaction with Cao Liang's arrangement, but happily accepted this position.

Seeing that Shi Bao was willing to stay in the blacksmith workshop, Cao Liang was also secretly relieved, with Shi Bao's quick temper urine, if he was left in the Hou Mansion with nothing to do, he would be able to annoy you to death every day.

At that time, in order to win over Shi Bao, Cao Liang swore an oath, but when he came back, could it be so easy to arrange an official position for him?

Now the imperial court implements the selection and allocation system of the nine products, and there is a mature process for the selection and appointment and dismissal of any official, which is the so-called rules of the game.

Even if it is to go through the relationship of Cao Yan, it is not easy, Cao Yan is just a four-rank cavalry general, and if he wants to appoint a few military attachés, he must wait for the right opportunity.

Anyway, in a short period of time, Cao Liang felt that it was impossible to insert Shi Bao into the Xiao Cavalry Camp, and Shi Bao was willing to stay in the Grange to supervise the construction of the crossbow, which was exactly what Cao Liang wanted.

After a simple lunch, Cao Liang came to the construction site again.

The construction of the catapult is nearing completion, and according to Cao Liang's requirements, many of the foreign craftsmen have been cleared, and those who remain in the field are basically trusted people within the farm.

In order to prevent leakage, Cao Liang's arrangements in this regard were still painstaking, in order to make up for the lack of manpower, it was also a last resort to hire outside craftsmen, but these craftsmen only participated in the pre-construction process of the catapult, at that time the whole catapult was still a pile of miscellaneous parts, and when it was not assembled, no one knew what it would be.

Now that the catapult is finally assembled, these expatriate craftsmen will inevitably be dismissed, and none of them will have the opportunity to see the true face of Lushan, and even if they do, they will not be able to tell anyone else what is being built in the grange.

There is no big mistake in being careful, Cao Liang repeatedly warned himself that he must be cautious in everything he does, and he will not leave any handle for his opponent if he plans to do the worst.

Now the few craftsmen who stay on the field are all their own people who have repeatedly expressed their trustworthiness by the cattle steward, so Cao Liang is naturally relieved.

What's more, Cao Liang still has a back hand, even if he really leaks the secret, others will have nothing to do with him.

The final assembly step was to install the boom on the giant catapult.

The throwing arm of the catapult is a beech wood with a length of about five or six zhang and the thickness of the bowl mouth, and the beech wood has the advantages of heavy wood, firmness, good toughness, impact resistance, etc., which is more suitable for the throwing arm of the catapult.

This beech tree was unusually heavy, and it took at least a dozen strong men to lift it.

Ma Jun's expression was grim, and he meticulously directed the craftsmen to carry out the final installation, which was the most important part of the catapult, and Ma Jun did not allow it to deviate by a fraction.

With the installation of the throwing arm completed, the entire catapult was finally completed.

Looking at the catapult standing majestically, Cao Liang couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart, and personally stepped forward and stroked this peerless catapult.

It's not easy, this is the first artifact created by Cao Liang after crossing through using the knowledge of his previous life, which made the advent of the counterweight catapult a thousand years ahead of time, realizing a big leap across the era.

Of course, without Ma Jun's cooperation, Cao Liang alone would not have been able to build such a huge catapult anyway.

Therefore, any invention and creation of an era is great, even if you have the foresight of a traveler, and think that you are superior to a higher person, but in fact, when you really want to do it, you will find that what you have mastered is some skin, which is based on the level of modern science and technology.

And once you get rid of this foundation, everything will become difficult.

Cao Liang is not arrogant, let alone self-righteous, the success of the construction of this catapult is entirely the credit of Cao Liang and Ma Jun, both of which are indispensable.

As for who comes first and who comes second, it doesn't matter so much.

Importantly, this catapult has finally been born, and this counterweight catapult, known as the Big Mac, has finally been born.

This will be an invention that will change the whole era, a major breakthrough in the history of military warfare, its appearance, affect the construction of the city's defense system, all the existing city walls, will tremble, because in front of it, any city wall that claims to be the strongest will become vulnerable.

The counterweight catapult will be an epoch-making product.