Chapter Eighty-Nine: Three-Dimensional (I)

What is a ballista?

What you see is something like this:

It has a sturdy bracket with the main beam placed on top of the bracket and two torsion spring sets on both sides of its front end, each of which drives a crossbow arm with a bowstring at the end of the crossbow arm, and a long groove in the shape of a dovetail on the upper side of the beam, and a slider with a long guide rail can slide back and forth along the long groove. Behind the slider is a clever firing mechanism that allows the bowstring to be easily locked and released. A winch was installed at the end of the beam, the operator could pull the handle, move by towing the slide through the rope, and when the firing mechanism locked the bowstring and pulled back, the weapon was in a state of readiness. In order to make it less strenuous to operate the winch, ratchets were set on both sides of the beam, which not only allowed the work of opening the bow in one go, but also adjusted the projectile power of the weapon to obtain the required range.

In this time and space, the power of ballistas is really unfamiliar to everyone, and there is no machine that uses torsion springs in this land. Crossbow weapons that use deformable elastic power and gravity-based catapults are the mainstream. But Ye Tao clearly knows how effective a ballista is. This weapon, invented by the ancient Greeks but carried forward in the hands of the Romans, has profoundly influenced some things in this world. The reciprocal relationship of infantry arrays was changed by the advent of ballistas, and the status of craftsmen was enhanced by the complex and sophisticated manufacturing process of ballistas. In 270 B.C., the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt developed the calculation method that "the diameter of the torsion spring of the ballista firing stone projectile should be one point and one time the square root of the weight of the projectile fired", and in this calculation process, human beings put forward requirements for the evaluation of the cube root for the first time......

The ballista made by Ye Tao is a model designed by modern weapon enthusiasts and experts in various fields in accordance with historical books, modern mechanical theory, elastic dynamics theory, etc., and is used to launch a ten-kilogram projectile. At this level, the design is almost impeccable, at least on this plane. To modify this design is too lacking in theoretical basis. Ye Tao can certainly make ballistas with a longer range, heavier projectiles, and more powerful ballistas. But now, after all, they are defending the city, the materials are limited, and the range of application is also limited, and this model is enough.

"Go to the city. Let's test shoot. Ye Tao dusted off the wood chips on his body and commanded. This time, he really opened the door, and a new type of long-range projectile weapon was born.

The ballista isn't the longest-range weapon that can be found on this plane. Just the Divine Arm Bow specially provided by the Ye Clan's Workshop for the Blood Qi Army can reach the longest range of 1,500 steps, and naturally, there is no power in this range.

Ballistas are also not the most powerful. Compared to catapults, ballistas do not have an advantage in power.

But the ballista is very accurate. It's not like the giant arrows shot by the Divine Arm Bow. It is very affected by the wind. It's not like a catapult, no one expects a catapult to be able to point where to hit it, and no matter how well-designed the catapult is, it can only ensure a smaller dispersion range, after all, the net used to throw out stones is really unreliable. At the head of the city, several rounds of test firing were carried out on the open space outside the city. Let everyone fully appreciate the special features of this weapon.

The maximum range is slightly more than 800 paces, and it is already possible to bring all the catapults on the Xiling side into the firing range. And the accuracy is amazing, when fixed at the range of 600 steps, the impact point of three consecutive projectiles is not more than two steps apart. This precision. It's just sensational.

"Okay, that's it, I left the drawings in the workshop, and everyone saw that I did it just now, so let's go and get started." Ye Tao was very satisfied with his results, and immediately issued an order for mass manufacturing. The materials used to make torsion springs don't seem to be a problem in White Rock City, which actually stores about two hundred bundles of beef tendons. That's enough to make more than two hundred ballistas.

I found out after inquiry. In fact, it is a customary rule for various cities in Dongping to reserve beef tendon. Because the tendon is the best thing to load on the fixed cart when the prisoner is trapped and transported long distances, it is much more reliable than the rope. In many cities, when cattle are slaughtered, they must be supervised by the government, and then the tendons that can be used are stored, but there are no clear regulations on subsequent use. And in the end, it has become a situation where the beef tendon is more and more saved. A city with developed commerce and trade. Beef tendon can still be sold to merchants for use. And for a small city like White Rock City, accumulating these things is just a convention.

But at this moment. This was originally something that everyone hated to occupy the place, but it became a treasure.

Until the evening, the army besieging Xiling was no longer able to launch an offensive. From noon to night, except for the soldiers who were sent to work in the workshop, the entire Blood Qi Army finally had a fairly adequate rest after the recent close and almost hasty battle. And even at this time, the quality they showed was also admired by Yu Kang and other officers who were familiar with military affairs. In less than an hour, the Blood Qi Army assigned the heavy infantry deployed on the four city walls, after leaving a considerable number of reserves, to the four city walls, and reported to the officer in charge of this aspect and accepted the command. At the same time, the accommodation, food, guard duty of the camp, clearing and patrolling the roads leading to the battle site, fire fighting in the camp and evacuation routes in case of emergency, and even the preparation of materials, personnel and routes for a forced breakthrough with important personnel in the event of a breach of the city as a last resort have all been completed. When the two flag teams of heavy equipment, the six flag teams of heavy infantry, and the four flag teams of archers summarized their preparations to Qiu Haohui on time, and then Qiu Haohui reported to Yu Kang and Pan Xiangmin and asked for further instructions, Yu Kang and Pan Xiangmin were stunned. Yu Kang and Pan Xiangmin followed Qiu Haohui to the temporary camp of the Blood Qi Army, the whole camp was quiet, most of the soldiers were either sleeping, or sitting in the courtyard, opening the chessboard of marching chess in the open space to fight there.

"In order for the soldiers to have a good rest, the rule of the Blood Qi Army is during the rest time, unless there is an urgent military situation, or it is ordered by a superior officer, otherwise there is no need to salute when the commander patrols the camp. Otherwise, if you jump up again and again, you won't be able to relax completely. Qiu Haohui explained, then pointed to the soldiers in light armor who were arranged at intervals, and added: "The sergeants on duty are changed every hour. It's a bit cumbersome, but it's been too long, and just standing alone doesn't have the effect of vigilance......"

Yu Kang was extremely surprised. The general Dongping army, even if it is a forbidden army, where are there so many meticulous rules. And these rules are all accurate and proper. In fact, these are all things that have been gradually summarized and perfected by the Blood Qi Army from its establishment to the present, in the exercises of different scales that I don't know how many times. In the Blood Qi Army, almost everyone has the experience of attacking the camp or being attacked by the camp, everyone has stood guard, and there are not a few sentries who have been put down by the opponent's top soldiers in the drill, even if the soldiers are playing and resting in the courtyard, their armor and weapons must be placed in a place that can be obtained immediately, and some flag teams even maintain the other half of the post in the barracks, and someone is awake at any time to pay attention to the surrounding situation, but such excessive vigilance is not respected by everyone.

From standing on the cruel stage of the battlefield to the present, the Blood Qi Army has destroyed a total of more than 20,000 enemies, and it is not far from 30,000, but it has lost less than 1,000 people in total. More than half of the 1,000 people were wounded, and they could continue to fight after they recovered. The soldiers of the Blood Qi Army have reason to be proud and have reason to despise the enemy. Although the real battlefield is cruel, although it will really kill people, whether it is the quality of individual soldiers, quality, equipment, until the overall cooperation, the management and command system of the army, the Blood Qi Army is not only a grade ahead of this era. In the eyes of most people, the battle with the Xiling army was really not up to grade compared to their various internal drills.

"Why are the sergeants all marching chess?" Pan Xiangmin asked strangely.

"The formation of our army is because of marching chess," Qiu Haohui explained with a smile the composition of the two armies and the origin of the officers at all levels in the army, and then said: "The two armies checked the palace, there is no one who can't play military chess, according to the ranking of the members of the Yi Zhanlou, there are forty-four people in the top 100 in the army." We also encourage everyone to play more chess and use their brains more. Although when fighting a war, the command of the general direction relies on a few people, as long as there is a battle, even if it is two or three people, the team can form tactics and form cooperation. In a melee where officers can't afford to take care of it, soldiers who can use their brains are far more useful than soldiers who can only die and work hard. ”

Yu Kang nodded, took a rough look at the camp of the Blood Qi Army, and listened to Qiu Haohui's explanation, which made him feel that he had benefited a lot. And he also began to understand why the Blood Qi Army's combat effectiveness was so amazing, and it was not just because of the luxury of their equipment. Almost from the moment this army was born, the rules that were constantly enriched and perfected determined that this army was bound to win.

"General Qiu, can you please send some officers to take charge of the stragglers in the city. Although the contemptible people have been in the army for many years, they do not have the prestige to subdue those who do not belong to me. But now, with the military appearance and discipline of your army, and with such strict management of your army, everyone should be able to listen to you in their eyes. Moreover, there are so many children of families in your army, and their status and persuasiveness are really much stronger than people like us......" Pan Xiangmin looked at Yu Kang and suggested.