Chapter 58: The Bed Crossbow

Zhao Zi thought about it for a while, "From tomorrow onwards, you will take them to practice physical strength in the morning, I will train them in the queue in the afternoon, and teach them literacy in the evening." ”

"Big brother, what is queue training?"

"It's just to let everyone line up and practice repeatedly."

"Oh, it's the military formation. That's what I see. ”

Boris saw the two and walked over from a distance, his face has darkened a lot and his skin is a little rough these days. Du Dalei teased that he was becoming more and more like Russian tennis star Safin.

Boris greeted the two, pointed to the salt pans and said, "Now sixteen salt pans have been reclaimed, and more than 10,000 catties of salt have been obtained, all of which have been transported back to the camp and stored. If I had given some more manpower, I would have gotten more salt. ”

Zhao Zizhong said: "Give you another fifty people, Wei Hongye needs a lot of manpower to build a kiln over there, and when the next batch of displaced people arrives, I will give you more, anyway, there is not much salt in winter, and when the weather is hot in spring next year, you can do it again." ”

Boris had no objection, and everyone chatted, and the main topic was Wei Hongye's side, which was very important and the most difficult, and the science and technology tree was not so easy to climb, requiring a lot of manpower, material resources, and hard work.

Zhao Zi remembered one thing again, so he asked Boris: "When I came just now, I saw some people working barefoot in the salt pans, freezing enough, is there any way to solve it?" ”

Boris said helplessly: "We don't have anything that can be waterproof, these people are reluctant to work in new clothes and shoes, so they go barefoot." But I'll let them do it for a while and then come up, and everyone will take turns going down. Those who come up have hot soup to drink, and they will not get sick. ”

"Hey---- the conditions are a little worse, and this is also something that can't be helped. I went back and asked Cui Zhaorong to organize some women to make a batch of leather boots, stuff some more fur in them, and wear them for the people in the fields, hoping to be of some use. ”

The three brothers chatted for a while, and Zhao Zizhong walked back. He circled the island in a big circle and came to the pier to the north. There was a bustle near the wharf, with more than a dozen horse-drawn wagons parked near the coal piles, and many displaced people loading them with coal.

Fan Jinchun greeted him and asked Zhao Zizhong: "Mr. Zhao, do you have something to do?" ”

"Let me take a casual look, are these carriages going to the kiln?"

"That's right, load up the car and go to the kiln factory, do you want to go?"

"Well, I'll go with the carriage in a while, if you have any difficulties here that need to be solved, just tell me, and let's figure it out together."

"There is no difficulty for the time being, Mr. Zhao, there is a carriage going to the kiln factory, you can follow it."

Zhao Zizhong ran a few steps quickly and jumped into a carriage that had already started. The coachman looked back and saw Zhao Zizhong jump into the carriage, smiled at him, and whipped the horse and drove it southwest.

Zhao Zizhong talked with the coachman along the way, and the coachman's accent was very strong, and the two could even talk together. The driver said that he was a native of Mingzhou, and he usually pulled goods at the Mingzhou wharf, and he could earn about a consistent amount of money every month, barely making ends meet. When he came to the island, he not only provided food and accommodation, but also gave him two times a month, so he was very satisfied and was ready to work here for a long time.

After walking for more than half an hour, I came to a hillside. There are many people working on the hillside, and there are already three steamed bun-shaped buildings standing on the hillside.

Zhao Zizhong got out of the car, said goodbye to the coachman, and walked up the mountain. Approaching the crowd, I saw Wei Hongye and several craftsmen squatting on the ground, drawing something on the ground, and discussing it from time to time. He didn't disturb Wei Hongye, and stood there quietly, listening to Wei Hongye and the craftsmen discuss things.

Wei Hongye said while painting: "Ladies and gentlemen, what I want is not a kiln for firing porcelain, but a kiln for making coke, and the structure is definitely different from that of a porcelain kiln." After the coal is put into the kiln, the air is insulated. It is necessary to have a closed environment and then heat it from the outside to get coke. ”

Several craftsmen still didn't quite understand, but Wei Hongye patiently explained to them. After a while, he looked up and saw Zhao Zizhong, and stood up. Maybe I squatted for too long, and I was a little dizzy for a while, shook a little, and almost fell.

Zhao Zizhong hurriedly supported him, "Old Wei, be careful, don't fall." ”

Wei Hongye patted his head, sobered up for a moment, and asked, "Why are you here?" ”

"I'm fine, come and have a look, and ask if there's any difficulty here.

"Hey, it's hard to get started! There are many problems, let's solve them little by little. ”

Zhao Zizhong looked around, "Where did Da Lei go?" Why didn't you see him? ”

Wei Hongye smiled bitterly, "This kid is obsessed with bed crossbows, and he and a few crossbow craftsmen went to the mountains to test shoot, saying that they want to imitate the bed crossbow as soon as possible." ”

Zhao Zi was rejoiced, "This kid is still thinking about going to sea to hunt whales, but it's also a good thing to be able to make a bed crossbow as soon as possible." ”

Wei Hongye also smiled, "Lao Zhao, I don't need your help here, you go to Da Lei to take a look, keep an eye on that kid, don't let him do anything." ”

Zhao Zi nodded emphatically, "I'll go to him and take a look, don't poke out any baskets for this kid." ”

Wei Hongye called a guard and asked him to take Zhao Zizhong to the mountains to find Du Dalei. The guards took Zhao Zizhong along the path to the mountains, climbed over two mountains, and came to a valley.

A dozen people gathered on the flat ground in the valley, chatting around a wooden shelf. Zhao Zizhong walked over and saw Du Dalei talking with a gesture, and the craftsman next to him kept nodding.

Zhao Zi shouted again: "Du Dalei, what are you doing?" ”

Du Dalei turned around and saw Zhao Zizhong, shrunk his neck, a bright smile appeared on his face, separated the crowd and ran over, patted Zhao Zizhong's clothes very doggedly, and brushed the soot off his body for him.

"Boss, why are you here, you didn't notify me, and you made a surprise attack!"

Zhao Zi glared at him again, "I'm afraid that you will get into trouble, so I'll come over and take a look." ”

Du Dalei felt a little aggrieved, "Boss, I didn't cause trouble, I don't believe you can ask them." The craftsmen next to him all played a round for him, saying that he was a genius and had a lot of novel ideas in terms of equipment.

Zhao Zizhong was a little funny, but he didn't expect this unreliable guy to impress the craftsmen. He asked Du Dalei, "What are you doing here?" Is this a bed crossbow? ”

Du Dalei said proudly: "That's right, this is the three-bow bed crossbow, an absolute big killing weapon, when I tried firing just now, the crossbow arrow flew out for more than 500 meters." ”

Zhao Zizhong approached the bed crossbow and took a closer look. At the base of the crossbow is a rectangular wooden shelf, about the size of the bed in which it is slept. Three huge bows were mounted on the wooden frame, the front two bows were full-mounted, and the back one was reversed, and the three bows were combined to greatly enhance the tension and strength of the crossbow. The bowstring is made of thick hemp rope mixed with the tendons of animals.

Du Dalei said triumphantly: "Boss, how is it, this thing is not bad, right?" Wang Laoshuan, you launch it once, let my eldest brother see the power of this thing. ”

A craftsman in his forties agreed, and directed the craftsmen to begin winding. Several craftsmen attached the crossbow strings to the winch with thick ropes, and the other craftsmen shook the winch and struggled to open the crossbow strings, and one craftsman came with a huge arrow the size of a javelin, which was very large, with a thick shaft and iron feathers, and a large three-edged iron axe at the front, and the craftsman placed the giant arrow in the launch slot.

A craftsman raised a sledgehammer and hammered the plate machine with all his strength, and with a "bang", a huge crossbow arrow roared and flew forward. The bowstrings vibrated at the same time, making a "buzz, buzz" sound.

Zhao Zizhong looked in the direction where the giant arrow flew out, and the crossbow arrow drew a wonderful parabola, flew in the air for a few seconds, and pierced into the open space hundreds of meters away with an oblique trajectory, deeply inserted into the soil.

Zhao Zi nodded emphatically and said to Du Dalei: "The range and power of this thing are good, but there is still room for improvement." ”

Du Dalei patted his thigh and said excitedly: "Boss, you are too wise, you are simply a martial artist, and you are full of longevity." I was just talking to the craftsmen about improvement! ”

Zhao Zi saw that this kid started to be nonsense again, so he gave him a slap, "What nonsense!" I'm not Sect Master Hong, so I don't need you to pat me on the back. ”

When the craftsmen saw Du Dalei being beaten, they all covered their mouths and snickered. Du Dalei rubbed his shoulders and said with bared teeth: "Boss, your shot is too heavy, it is comparable to the 'Seven Wounds Fist', and it almost knocked me out of internal injury, fortunately I have practiced the magic skill of 'King Kong does not damage the body', otherwise it will be over." ”

Zhao Zi resaw that he had opened the second goods attribute, and there was no way to take him, so he simply ignored him and carefully observed the crossbow that got up.

Du Dalei chattered beside him, "Boss, I have an idea, we can modify the bed crossbow so that it can fire spherical objects. If we make *bullets,*, gas bombs and things like that, we can shoot them with a bed crossbow, then we will be invincible in naval battles. ”

Zhao Zi saw that he finally said a few reliable words, so he praised it: "Your kid's idea is good, if it can really be successfully transformed, this thing is a sharp weapon for naval warfare, the range is long enough, and the power should be good." However, our first step is to imitate it, and we can't be too ambitious, and we will talk about the transformation later. ”

Du Dalei nodded, "Boss, you're right, I'll take a craftsman to imitate a sample first, see how powerful it is, and then find a way to carry out large-scale production." When the output is stable, we will study the transformation problem. ”

Zhao Zizhong asked: "If you start copying now, what materials are missing?" ”

Du Dalei thought for a while and said, "I asked the craftsman just now, and most of the materials are available, and Cui Daoshu has already shipped some." Now there is a lack of tendons, and there is a good elasticity of wood, these things are very important, without them, the range of the bed crossbow will be reduced a lot. ”