Chapter 154: The Power of Ballistas

Everyone laughed, and Du Dalei said: "It seems that you still have to 'fight local tyrants and divide the fields'!" These pirates are also discouraged, and the poor are dying. I still have to look for a local tyrant like the He family on Zhoushan Island, and it's very enjoyable to grab it. ”

An Dalang gave him a slap in the face, "Do you think there are bad people like the He family everywhere?" It has to be very rich, waiting for us to go to the house. ”

Wei Hongye stood up and said, "Don't gossip, delay everyone's time." I'm going to report back to you on the work I'm responsible for. Now the output of cement, red bricks, coke and pig iron has gradually increased, and there are already a lot of stocks. The Armor Workshop and the Armor Workshop also produced a lot of products, enough to arm the convoy. ”

Zhao Zizhong asked: "Old Wei, if we use red bricks and cement to build the school and the children's dormitories, will it be enough?" ”

Wei Hongye nodded, "It should be about the same, you can start construction first, and then the cement and red bricks will be gradually produced, and the construction period will not be delayed." ”

Zhao Zi thought about it again and said: "That's it, Lao Hu, you first use red bricks and cement to build a house for Old Madam Cui, and you can't let her old man live in a wooden house all the time." ”

Cui Daoshu hurriedly said: "This can't be done, our Cui family can't be special." ”

Zhao Zizhong said: "This is our juniors who are filial to the old lady, and it has nothing to do with you, so don't express your opinion." ”

The brothers all agreed, and Na Zhe said: "There is no need for public funds, our brothers will raise funds to build a house for the old lady, and there will be no problem." ”

An Dalang hurriedly said: "Don't fight with me, I have all the money to build a house, last time I got married, the old lady gave me a thousand yuan, there is still a lot left, and I will pay for the house." ”

Du Dalei said with a smile: "Okay, we won't fight with you, a local tyrant, I still have to keep some money to buy jewelry for Fu Hongyu." ”

The matter was settled, and Cui Daoshu was helpless. He secretly decided that he would send some money to his brothers regularly in the future, and their current monthly salary was only twenty yuan, which was not a big amount.

Zhao Zizhong continued: "Old Hu, after building the old lady's house, you will build dormitories for the children, and finally build classrooms for them. I have to build more, and a lot of children will come one after another. You'll want to set aside some open space for later expansion. ”

Hu Shuiyang promised to come down and prepare to survey the terrain tomorrow and start construction immediately.

Cui Zhaorong opened his mouth and said: "Everyone, let me tell you, the spring ploughing is almost busy, it should be able to pour out more than 200 people, let's discuss it, see what these people do?" ”

Du Dalei shouted: "Then there is no need to say, let's go to dry salt." ”

Hu Shuiyang raised a different opinion: "There is also a shortage of people to build a house, so it's better to give me some." ”

Zhao Zi thought about it again and said: "In this way, let these people go to the south to build a shack, and when the shack is built, let them stay there and dry salt with the new homeless people." ”

Everyone said that this method was good, and Hu Shuiyang had no opinion.

Cui Daoshu stood up and spoke: "After the salt is loaded, I will go to Jinling immediately and trade with Cao Deshun." It is necessary to sell the salt as soon as possible and recoup the funds. ”

Zhao Zizhong said to An Dalang: "Da Lang, you let Guo Jintao take two warships to escort the merchant ships, and there must be no mistakes." ”

Boris said: "I'll go with me this time, I want to see what the Yangtze River looks like." ”

Everyone agreed, Du Dalei said: "You wait for a day, I will have the newly made ballista installed on the warship, that guy is very powerful, he can throw the clay pot containing * out of three hundred meters, the clay pot explodes in the air, the enemy ship will be killed and wounded, and there will definitely be no living people left." ”

Zhao Zi thought about it again and said, "Da Lei, how safe is that thing?" Will it hurt your own people? ”

"Boss, don't worry. I'll send a few experienced craftsmen to follow me and let them supervise the escorts in handling the ballistas, and there will be no problems. ”

Zhao Zizhong said again: "Boris, you have to be very careful, you must manage the storage of *. Absolutely no carelessness. In addition, Cui Daoshu can't live on the warship, and he has to be separated from you. ”

Boris promised to come down, saying that he would definitely pay attention.

After discussing some details, the meeting broke up and went to work.

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April 13 of the first year of Qiande (963 AD)

In the morning, everyone came to the dock to see the salt convoy off.

Zhao Zizhong pulled Boris and repeatedly instructed him to protect Cui Daoshu.

Boris felt that the boss was becoming more and more like Tang Seng, so he had to nod frequently and agree.

Everyone quickly boarded the ship and got rid of Zhao Zizhong's chatter. The two warships left the dock and joined up with the four merchant ships parked offshore, heading northwest.

Boris stood at the bow of the boat, observing the distance with a telescope, and his heart was full of pride, and Lao Tzu could also be on his own!

Guo Jintao walked over and asked, "Mr. Bao, why are those things that are newly installed on the ship so ugly?" Can it be useful? ”

Boris said with a smile: "Lao Guo, you wait a while, I will let the guards train to launch once, and you will know." ”

Boris ordered the guards to lift the tarpaulin covering the ballistas and began to try to operate and fire the clay pots filled with *.

Guo Jintao looked at it seriously, this kind of ballista was Du Dalei recalled the experience of playing computer games in later generations, and drew a ballista structure similar to the ancient Romans, and let the craftsmen imitate it.

The craftsmen used the principle of torsion springs, that is, the torsion generated by two bundles of tensioned horsehair, leather rope or animal tendons as the power to drive the crossbow arm to drive the bowstring to throw the clay pot.

The artisans designed the ballista with a sturdy bracket on which the main beam rests on the bracket and its front end is flanked by two torsion spring sets, each of which drives a crossbow arm with a bowstring attached to the center of which is a braided mesh bag for the projectile. Put a clay pot in it and you can launch it.

The guards carefully put the clay pot into the net bag, lit the fuse at the seal of the clay pot, and immediately launched the clay pot.

The clay pot drew a graceful arc in the air, flying out a few hundred meters away, and with a loud "boom", the clay pot exploded.

Guo Jintao was dumbfounded, this is too cruel!

Boris smugly asked, "How's it going?" Lao Guo, are you convinced? ”

Guo Jintao knelt down completely, and hurriedly said: "Convinced, really convinced." ”

Boris asked the guards to continue their training, and he became proficient in the operation of ballistas, and he had a bunch of training shells brought in, and the clay pots used for training were filled with dirt, and then they kept firing them.

The flotilla continued on its way, and on the morning of the next day, entered the Yangtze River. The guards have been training non-stop, and they are already proficient in operating ballistas.

At noon, Boris and Guo Jintao were eating in the cabin when a guard ran in and said loudly: "Report, there are three ships in front of the interception fleet, and they are under the banner of the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Boris and Guo Jintao hurriedly ran to the deck, and when the two men came to the bow of the ship, they saw three ships sailing in front of them, all with three masts and three hard sails.

Boris looked through a telescope and saw a flag hanging on the mast with the word 'Song' embroidered on it.

Boris asked, "Old Guo, what's going on?" ”

Guo Jintao replied: "Now that the Great Song Dynasty occupies the north bank of the Great River, it is estimated that these three ships are their patrol ships, and they want to check us, I think they want to extort money." ”

Boris said categorically: "There is no such cheap thing, you give the order to go down, let the merchant ships go first, we will stop these three ships, and if it doesn't work, we will start a war!" Lao Tzu destroyed them. ”

Guo Jintao asked the sailors to wave the flag, and the four merchant ships drew an arc on the river, bypassing the three ships in front on the right.

Guo Jintao ordered the sailors to speed up and rush up, blocking the middle position between the merchant ship and the Great Song patrol ship.

Boris asked the guards to get ready, and the guards were busy, and after a while, the bed crossbows and ballistas were ready to go, just waiting for Boris's orders.

Boris held up a telescope and carefully observed the ships ahead. He saw that the Great Song ship's ship had begun to prepare for battle, and many soldiers were standing on the side of the ship with weapons, ready to jump into the gang to fight. There were also soldiers who drew their bows and prepared to shoot arrows.

Boris ordered: "Lean up, three hundred meters, bed crossbows and ballistas fire freely!" ”

The two warships approached the ships of the Great Song Dynasty one after the other, and when they were almost more than four hundred meters away, the bed crossbow in the bow was fired, and the huge crossbow arrows shot out, rowing an arc towards the opposite ship.

When the crossbow bolt was more than ten meters away from the opposite ship, it fell into the river. The soldiers who frightened the Great Song Dynasty were startled, and they shouted one after another to give themselves courage.

The ships on both sides continued to approach, and the two bed crossbows on the starboard side fired one after the other, but neither hit.

At this time, the distance was only three hundred meters, the ballista was aimed, the guard lit the lead, and the clay pot flew out, and flew in an arc to the sky above a ship opposite, and exploded with a bang.

Fragments of the clay pot and iron beads and pieces of iron in the jar shot out, sweeping across most of the deck. Many of the soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty were shot, and some were killed instantly, falling on the deck. Some wailed and rolled.

There were about thirty soldiers and sailors on the deck of the ship, and after the clay pot exploded, there were only seven or eight intact people left, all standing dumbfounded.

Boris exuberantly shouted: "Keep launching!" Sink the ship! ”

Guo Jintao also shouted: "Shoot!" Shoot them! Leave no mouth alive! ”

The guards were excited, and everyone continued to wind the bed crossbow and ballista in preparation for a second fire.

The distance is much closer, only about two hundred meters. The bed crossbow continued to fire, and finally a crossbow arrow hit, opening a large hole in the deck of the Great Song's ship, and shooting all the way into the cabin.

The ballista fired a second round, and the clay pot exploded exactly over the ship, leaving the remaining seven or eight men on the deck, most of them dead, and only three wounded, rolling and wailing.