After the trebuchet, the giant thunderbolt and the hand crossbow were built, the generals once again came to the school with thousands of soldiers to prepare for the test.

However, this test is not a real test, because the power of the giant thunder is immeasurable, and even if the giant thunder does not explode, the crockpot of more than ten catties will be seriously injured if it hits people at a high speed.

Yang Cong didn't want to kill people when he tested it, so this time he told Tang Shunzhi and Zhu Xizhong to use a wooden frame instead of cavalry, and first test the power of the combination of trebuchet and giant thunderbolt.

This time, it was Tang Shunzhi who arranged the drill tactics, and after he explained for a while, Qi Jingtong walked in the direction of the trebuchet with ten strong soldiers, while Tang Kekuan took thousands of soldiers and carried hundreds of wooden frames of about eight feet in front of the trebuchet about a hundred paces away to form a neat phalanx.

Everything was ready, Qi Jingtong immediately raised his hand and shouted: "Pull the rope." ”

Ten soldiers received the order, and quickly ran to the bottom of the trebuchet, pulled together a hemp rope about the thickness of a child's arm, slowly pulled down the torsion arm of the trebuchet, and then tied the torsion arm to the base with a hemp rope of about three fingers.

Qi Jingtong then raised his hand and shouted: "Reload." ”

When the squad leader of the ten non-commissioned officers heard this, he immediately ran to the side and carefully placed a giant thunderbolt the size of a watermelon in the frame of the trebuchet.

Qi Jingtong then ordered: "All stand back." ”

Ten soldiers received the order and quickly retreated into the formation about fifty paces away.

At this time, Qi Jingtong actually stepped forward in person, took out the fire fold, lit the fuse on the giant thunder, and then pulled out the saber on his waist, staring at the fuse that was burning rapidly.

This is also for his safety sake, because the thunder is too powerful, if there is an accident, he will not be anything in armor, and the general soldier is cloth, and he is estimated to be seriously injured if he is not killed by the thunder at close range.

After about a flick of his fingers, he decisively swung his knife to cut the rope that fixed the torsion arm, and with a "woo" sound, the giant thunder with green smoke was thrown into the sky, and quickly smashed into the "wooden array" more than 100 steps ahead.

On the school ground, everyone's eyes rotated with the trajectory of the giant thunderbolt, and everyone's faces showed expressions of expectation, what is the power of this giant thunderbolt?

"Boom" There was a loud bang, and the giant thunderbolt exploded almost at the moment it fell into the wooden array, and several nearby wooden frames were staggered by the shock wave, and after a dense and rapid sound, the entire school field returned to calm.

At this time, Tang Shunzhi and Zhao Shichun couldn't wait to run towards the "wooden array" with more than ten of their subordinates, they observed carefully for a while, and then roughly measured it, and then ran back quickly.

Seeing Tang Shunzhi's excited expression, Yang Cong couldn't help but ask loudly, "Yixiu, how is the effect?" ”

Tang Shunzhi said excitedly: "My lord, the effect is very good, the iron needle penetrates the wood about an inch and a half, and there is no problem at all to penetrate the cooked cowhide, and the attack range of the giant thunder is also very large, Xia Guan estimates that if the Tartar cavalry is thrown into it, the Tartar cavalry within half a zhang will be seriously injured if they do not die, and the Tatar cavalry within the range of three zhang will be injured to varying degrees." ”

Three-zhang range!

If the Tartar cavalry charge formation is relatively dense, a giant thunderbolt can kill and wound nearly thirty Tartar cavalry.

In this way, as long as a thousand giant thunderbolts are thrown at one time, nearly 30,000 Tartar cavalry can be injured!

According to the previous situation, the Tartars would send about 40,000 or 50,000 cavalry to raid Xuanfu Town at most, that is to say, if they could build a thousand trebuchets, this war would almost be invincible.

A thousand trebuchets, is it an exaggeration?

In fact, it is not an exaggeration at all, according to historical records, the attacking and defending sides of siege warfare in the Sui and Tang dynasties generally built hundreds of trebuchets, thousands of them are also common, and there are also thousands, so it is not much to build a thousand trebuchets at all.

However, this was the Ming Dynasty, not the Sui and Tang dynasties, so when Yang Cong announced the plan to build a thousand trebuchets, all the generals, including Wang Xuan, were shocked.

Hungry obediently, a thousand trebuchets, one requires ten soldiers to operate, and a thousand is ten thousand soldiers, is he going to use a pure trebuchet phalanx against the Tartar cavalry?

Tang Shunzhi couldn't help but remind: "My lord, no, according to historical records, the Song army and the Jin army also prefer to build trebuchets, but they were all defeated by the Mengyuan iron cavalry, so it can be seen that the Mengyuan cavalry still has a certain way to deal with the trebuchet, if we use the pure trebuchet phalanx to deal with the Tartar cavalry, they are likely to disperse the raid, so that we will not be able to hurt many Tartar cavalry, and as long as they rush to the trebuchet, 10,000 soldiers will almost become lambs to be slaughtered." “

Yang Cong smiled slightly: "Of course I can't use a pure trebuchet phalanx to deal with the Tartar cavalry, anyway, it's not much difficulty to pull the rope and ignite the fire, just recruit some strong guards, as long as you practice more, there is no problem for them to operate the trebuchet." ”

Wang Xuan, who was on the side, couldn't help but be surprised when he heard this: "My lord, do you mean that things like the fire dragon chariot, the thunderstorm, and the hand crossbow still have to be manufactured in large quantities?" ”

Yang Cong nodded without hesitation: "Of course." ”

Wang Xuan was a little worried: "My lord, I'm afraid I will have to recruit two or three thousand more people to help." ”

Yang Cong said lightly: "Two or three thousand is two or three thousand, you don't have to worry about the silver, you just need to recruit people." ”

Immediately afterwards, he said to Zhu Xizhong: "General Zhu, let's try the effect of the hand crossbow next." ”

When Zhu Xizhong heard this, he bowed his hand and obeyed the order, and then waved his hand: "Fire Dragon Chariot, get on." ”

Qi Jingtong got the order, and immediately led his soldiers to push the fire dragon chariot towards the "wooden array", this time it was ten taels of fire dragon chariots, and each pikeman was equipped with a crossbow, a total of forty crossbows.

Qi Jingtong led the car formation to rush to the front of the "wooden formation" about fifty steps before ordering to stop and start the attack, "pop pop" after a burst of gunfire, followed by a "whoosh" sound of arrows flying, almost in the blink of an eye, the attack was over, not that they were perfunctory, this is also according to the actual situation of the battlefield.

The speed of the cavalry's charge is no joke, the distance of more than a hundred steps is only a blink of an eye, if you can't complete the attack in the blink of an eye, then there is basically no need to attack, because the enemy has already rushed to you.

Immediately afterwards, Qi Jingtong stepped forward to see the effect, and then ran to Yang Cong, and said loudly: "Report, my lord, a total of thirty-one of the forty crossbow arrows hit the enemy, and five of them hit the vital range. ”

This effect is already good, Yang Cong nodded, and said with a smile: "Well, let them practice more, improve their accuracy a little more, and equip all musketeers with machetes, otherwise, they will have to watch from the sidelines after shooting." ”

When Qi Jingtong heard this, he hurriedly surrendered his hand and obeyed the order.

Immediately afterwards, Yang Cong said to Wang Xuan: "How many people do you need to build 30,000 small thunderbolts, 3,000 giant thunderbolts, 2,000 fire dragon chariots, 10,000 crossbows, and 1,000 trebuchets in two months?" ”

When Wang Xuan heard this, he couldn't help but shudder: "At least five or six thousand people are needed." ”

Yang Cong nodded slightly, and then urged: "Five or six thousand is five or six thousand, hurry up and recruit people." ”