"Look at this... Can it be made? ”

Li Zhan handed his father a drawing... This is a drawing of a stone crossbow, what is a stone crossbow, in fact, a stone crossbow is also called a ballista.

Ancient Chinese long-range weapons are generally bows and crossbows, and there are also cannons, however, this so-called cannon is actually a stone thrower, and it is very large.

So this stone catapult, he is not a weapon in ancient China.

The birthplace of the catapult was Greece, and in 399 BC, Dionysus of the ancient city of the Greek Serra gang faced the threat of force from the powerful Carthaginians.

At this time, a weapon that eclipsed all other forces was born... The craftsmen of Dionysus designed and built the first torsion spring ballista in the history of warfare!

With the development of armor and fortifications, the role of individual bows and crossbows was correspondingly weakened, and they were unable to penetrate bronze shields, let alone destroy masonry bunkers.

Although attempts have been made to make huge crossbows, the firing power generated by the elastic deformation of the crossbow arms is close to the limit, and it is impossible to give more power to the arrows or projectiles.

The ballista invented by the craftsmen of Dionysus was the first to use the latest achievements in the study of mechanics... Torsion springs, that is, the torsion generated by two bundles of tensioned horsehair, leather rope or animal tendons as power, drive the crossbow arm to drive the bowstring to throw projectiles or arrows.

The Greeks designed the ballista with a sturdy bracket on which the main beam rested on the bracket and two torsion spring sets on either side of the front end, each of which drove a crossbow arm with a bowstring attached to the center of which was a woven mesh bag for the projectile.

The upper side of the beam has a long dovetail groove, a slide with a long guide rail can slide back and forth along the long groove, and the rear end of the slider is equipped with a set of ingenious firing mechanism. The bowstring can be easily set and released, and the end of the beam is equipped with a winch, which can be moved by the user by pulling the handle, or by dragging the rope ten sliders.

When the bowstring is pulled back and fixed by the firing mechanism, the weapon is in a state of readiness.

In order to make the operation of the winch not too laborious, metal racks are arranged on both sides of the beam, which not only allows the work of opening the bow in one go, but also adjusts the projectile force of the weapon to obtain the required range.

Later, the metal rack was replaced by a round ratchet, making the operation easier and more reliable.

In order to give the ballista a flexible orientation and elevation angle, they designed a base for the ballista that could be turned freely.

Balistas are powerful, and a good ballista is capable of throwing 1 tarrant (an ancient Greek unit of weight, about 26 kilograms) of stone projectiles 300 yards away.

In 332 BCE, when Alexander the Great of Macedonia laid siege to the Persian possession of Gazaga, the defenders used ballistas to fight back, and a spear fired from a ballista even pierced Alexander's bronze shield, piercing his ornate cuirass and bruising him.

The ballista completely changed the balance of power between the offensive and defensive sides, and his tremendous striking power and precision made people shudder.

The Romans' giant ballistae could crush enemies up to 400 meters away, and their spears could pin two or three enemies to the ground in a dense formation. In addition to this, the accuracy of the ballistas is also breathtaking, they can even hit the same spot repeatedly, and there have been records of ballistas firing spears that split the spears that had already hit in front of them into two pieces.

Of course, the stone catapult made by Li Zhan is a small stone crossbow, except for the key part of the metal, the others are made of wood, and the size is more than one meter high and more than two meters wide, which can be carried very well.

Because Li Zhan made the stone catapult to fire fierce fire bombs, a small jar of about five kilograms, and a ballista with good performance can throw 52 catties of stones to 300 meters away.

Li Zhan's small stone crossbow threw a small ten-pound jar, and conservatively speaking, five hundred meters should not be a problem.

Li Dafu finished reading the stone crossbow and said: "Zhan'er, I can do this thing, I can't do the metal parts, and I can't make the bowstring, I can do the rest." ”

"I knew Daddy was awesome... I will find a general to supervise the metal parts, and you will help me do the rest, of course, you will make ten samples first, and when the test shot is successful, I will give you a certain share...! ”

Li Zhan's words made Li Dafu smile: "It's still my son who knows how to hurt his father, unlike your mother, who knows that he will harm your father." ”

"Poof...!" Li Zhan laughed and said, "Daddy, forget it... Don't say it's bad for your mother, be careful that she suddenly appears in front of you. ”

"Wow...!" Li Zhan's words made Li Dafu speechless: "Stinky boy, don't say such a terrible thing, be careful to scare your father out of the way, okay... I'm going to do something, study your catapult, you can go wherever you want, right? ”

"Cut...!" Li Zhan, who was driven by Li Dafu, said disdainfully: "Let's go... By the way, Dad, pay attention, you must do a good job, it is for Your Majesty to see. ”

"Don't worry...!" Li Dafu grinned.

Seeing his father's affirmative appearance, Li Zhan also walked out of Li Dafu's workshop with confidence... However, just as Li Zhan walked out of Daddy's Workshop, Li Zhan didn't expect that an assassination was actually waiting for him.

.............................

On a flower boat in Yong'an Fang, the lord of the Lotus Society sat in the middle and asked, "Are you ready for today's assassination?" ”

Then I listened to the great shrine master of the Lotus Society: "Please rest assured, the Lord is ready, it can be said to be foolproof." ”

"We must be foolproof, kill him first and then kill Empress Changsun, we can't even make a mistake with a pawn, if we can't even kill him, how can we kill Empress Changsun." The lord of the Lotus Society opened his eyes.

"Yes...!" Then I listened to the master of the big shrine and said: "The killer we sent this time is actually an ordinary person to put it bluntly, and it took us a long time to arrange this ordinary person who has been brainwashed by us into Dunhua Fang."

The identity review system of this Dunhua Fang is very strict, and it took us a lot of effort to arrange this person smoothly, and we have already sent a signal yesterday that he will assassinate Li Zhan today. ”

"Good...!" Finally, the lord of the Lotus Society smiled and said, "This assassination of Li Zhan is an exercise for us to assassinate Empress Changsun, so we are only allowed to succeed, not to fail." ”

"Yes...!"

There are two flowers, one on each branch

After Li Zhan left his father's workshop, because it was in Dunhua Fang, Ying Lao was not there, Gao Hu was not there, Ouyang Ye was not there, and Li Yi was not there, Li Zhan told them that he wanted to talk about some things alone with his father, after all, it was in Dunhua Fang, which was equivalent to Li Zhan's territory.

So I relaxed a bit, and everyone was doing their own thing.

As everyone knows, after Li Zhan walked out of his father's workshop, a figure appeared behind Li Zhan, this person was a bald head, with no hair on his face, not even the eyebrows on his eyes.

At this time, this person had a knife in his hand, the knife was a pig-killing knife, and he didn't know where this guy came from, so he hid behind Li Zhan and looked at Li Zhan so fiercely.

The hand holding the pig-killing knife became tighter and tighter, and then he saw the bald head, his face was ruthless, and he rushed out from behind Li Zhan, and the tip of the knife was aimed at Li Zhan and stabbed directly.

..............................