Yang Cong was a little confused, if there was a thunderbolt in everyone's hands and more than 10,000 people threw it together, it would be like rain, who could dodge?

Although the lethality of the thunder is not very large, the effect is different when there are more of them, and the iron needles are full of mess, who can stand it.

He was puzzled: "One person is tens of thousands, even if you can't kill people, they can be blown up all over with wounds, isn't that enough?" ”

Tang Shunzhi shook his head slowly and said: "My lord, we have tested it, the power of the thunderbolt is too small, the iron needle that is blown out cannot penetrate the cooked cowhide at all, and the Tartar cavalry generally wears cowhide soft armor, and most of them are equipped with small round shields in the front row, no matter how much thunder is thrown, it is useless, at most it can hurt their legs and arms or something, as long as the horses do not hurt their heads, it will not have much effect, so the effect of this thunderstorm is not very large, at most it can make them suffer a little minor injury." ”

It turns out that this is the case, Yang Cong's brows couldn't help frowning even more, the thunder doesn't have much effect, can it just rely on the thousand muskets of the Shenji Battalion, even if a bullet destroys an enemy, it can only overturn a thousand Tartar cavalry, people are forty or fifty thousand, what's the use of overturning a thousand, not to mention that the power of the musket at this time is not great, it is good to be able to seriously injure people, and a bullet to kill an enemy is basically a dream.

It seems that we still have to make as many muskets and artillery as possible, especially artillery, even if it is the smallest caliber tiger squat cannon, it can at least overturn a Tartar cavalry with one shot.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but preach to Wang: "Sir, if we prepare with all our might, how long will it take us to make artillery, just the smallest kind, a tiger squat cannon weighing dozens of catties." ”

When Wang Xuan heard this, he thought about it, and then estimated: "If you want to build artillery, it will take more than a month to prepare at the earliest, and the success rate of casting artillery is not very high. ”

fainted, three months, it's too late at all.

If you can't make a cannon now, can you go back and use a bow and arrow?

Bows and arrows are definitely not good, bows and arrows must be able to work, the Tartar cavalry has long been defeated, the elite of the border army is not short of bows and arrows, it is estimated that the Tartar cavalry has long had a way to deal with the rain of arrows.

Yang Cong frowned and thought for a long time, but he still couldn't think of any good way, so he simply asked: "Do you have any good long-range attack methods, it is best to make them in a short time." ”

When everyone heard this, they all pondered, and after a while, Wang Xuan suddenly coughed and said, "My lord, Xia Guan has thought of something that may have some effect, but whether it can work or not has to be tested." ”

When Yang Cong heard this, he couldn't help but say excitedly: "Oh, what's it, you say." ”

Wang Xuan hurriedly explained: "Actually, it's nothing, it's just a trebuchet, but we can replace the stone bullet with a thunderbolt." Generally, the weight of the stone bullet used in the catapult is about 30 catties, and the attack distance is about 80 to 120 steps. ”

Trebuchet!

Yang Cong really didn't think about this thing, because the trebuchet's attack methods were too backward, and he could launch it once after half a day, and the stone projectile launched was not accurate at all.

However, if it is replaced with more than ten catties of thunder, the effect is different, one or two catties of thunder damage effect is not very good, more than ten catties, just the power of the gunpowder explosion can shock people, plus iron needles inside, it is estimated that it will not be a problem to penetrate the soft armor, and the thunder is a range attack, and the quasi-head is almost nothing.

Thinking of this, Yang Cong couldn't help but excitedly say: "Okay, this method is good, it's worth trying, do you have any other methods?" ”

Unexpectedly, Shen Lian, who had been beside him without saying a word, suddenly arched his hand and said: "My lord, my subordinates think that the hand crossbow is not bad, although the attack distance of the hand crossbow is only about fifty steps, but it is lightweight, it is not in the way at all when it is hung on the body, and it is also very convenient to use. ”

Yang Cong didn't think about the hand crossbow either, because large-scale battles generally use foot crossbows or bed crossbows, and hand crossbows are generally used by people who perform special tasks, such as scouts to investigate the enemy's situation or Jinyi guards to assassinate who will use hand crossbows.

The rate of fire of the crossbow arrow is much lower than that of the bow and arrow, and the killing effect is even worse than the bow and arrow, so the foot crossbow or bed crossbow is generally only used by the defender, if it is the attacking party, the bed crossbow you can't lift it at all, and the foot crossbow has to stop and get on the crossbow arrow.

However, it is different with the fire dragon chariot at this time, hiding in the chariot, the Tartar's bow and arrow can't hurt anyone at all, and when the Tartar gets closer, a crossbow arrow shoots over, and the lethality is still considerable.

Thinking of this, Yang Cong couldn't help but nod and said: "Well, the hand crossbow is indeed very good, with the protection of the fire dragon chariot, the hand crossbow can also play a great role, sir, these craftsmen should be able to make hand crossbows, right?" “

The structure of the crossbow arrow is actually similar, whether it is a bed crossbow, a foot crossbow or a hand crossbow, it is nothing more than a crossbow body, a bowstring and a trigger, but there is a difference in size, and the smaller it is, the easier it is to do.

Wang Xuan nodded without thinking: "These craftsmen are all experts in crafting weapons, and it is definitely no problem to make hand crossbows." ”

That's it, Yang Cong glanced around, and saw that no one had expressed his opinion, so he raised his hand decisively and said: "Okay, let's build a trebuchet and a few crossbows first, and that's all for today's test." ”

The crowd quickly dispersed, and Yang Cong simply followed Wang Xuan to the Xuanhua Factory, urging those craftsmen to make trebuchets, large thunderbolts, and crossbows as soon as possible.

The structure of the trebuchet is actually not complicated, as early as the Warring States Period, someone made trebuchets for war, to the Sui and Tang dynasties, the use of trebuchets reached the peak, but unfortunately, the trebuchet is too limited, and it is not very convenient to transport, it can only be used for defense, and the attacker needs to use it, which is also a temporary manufacture, not to mention time-consuming and laborious, and the effect is not very good, so the trebuchet is not very widely used on the battlefield, especially after the emergence of artillery, the trebuchet is basically replaced by more powerful artillery.

However, if the stone bullet of the trebuchet is replaced by a thunderbolt, the effect will be very different, which can be regarded as a combination of cold weapons and hot weapons.

Fortunately, the craftsmen in Xuanfu Town and the craftsmen recruited by the Ministry of Industry are all experienced experts, and the trebuchet is nothing to them at all, and it is not a matter for them to make the thunder bigger, just make the clay pot bigger, and stuff more gunpowder and iron needles, which is not difficult at all.

Under Yang Cong's full supervision, within three days, samples of trebuchets and large-scale sky-banging thunderbolts were made, and dozens of crossbows were also made, and the next thing was to test, so what would be the effect of combining trebuchets and large-scale sky-banging thunder?

Let's see the next breakdown.