"Shi Li Dingdong, the head of the Qiang Lieutenant Mansion, was transferred to the Sima of the Lieutenant Mansion, awarded General Zhaowu, the false festival, the governor of the military of Longxi, and controlled the armies of Guangwu, Wuwei and Jincheng. Xie Ai, the chief secretary of the Qiang's Captain's Mansion, was transferred to the chief of the Captain's Mansion, and Suo Milling, the chief bookkeeper of the Assassin's Mansion, joined the army. Guangwu Taishou Xin Phong served as the school captain's office, raising food and wages for the army and supervising the transportation of ordnance. I hope that all the monarchs will work together to recover Longxi, and do not live up to the hope. ”

The chamberlain who read out the appointment letter looked at Li Yanjiong, who knelt down to receive the order, with a smile, and said, "Li Zhaowu, congratulations!" ”

Li Yanzhi took the letter of appointment handed over by the chamberlain, retreated with a fist, and then handed the letter of appointment to Liu Jiwu on the side, and then saw that the chamberlain took a stalk and offered it with both hands. Li Yanzhi gave a deep salute, and then hurriedly took it. He held the festival in his left hand, bowed down and said: "The internal officials have been trekking for days and days, and it is very hard. I am grateful, I have a little heart here, and I hope that the internal officials will smile. ”

After saying that, Li Yanzhi beckoned, and a soldier on the side immediately stepped forward with a bag of money. Li Yanzhi took the bag of copper coins in his right hand, bowed deeply, and then presented the money bag.

Seeing this, the chamberlain pretended to be angry: "So-and-so is just helping the envoy deliver the message." Zhaowu is like this, don't you look down on a certain family? ”

Li Yanzhi held the money bag in his left hand, and held the money bag in the air with his right hand: "Yan will never dare to have this intention." It's just that the internal officials are tired and hard, and they can't bear it, so they just talk about gratitude. Later, I prepared a thin wine, and hoped that the internal officials would rest for a while. ”

When the waiter heard this, he smiled faintly: "Li Zhaowu is so sincere, but a certain family is disrespectful." After saying that, he turned to the side and made a look, and another small internal official on the side immediately stepped forward and took the money bag in Li Yanzhi's hand.

The leading chamberlain pointed to the knots held in Li Yanzhi's hand: "The envoy has words, this burden is not light." I hope that Li Zhaowu will provoke one of them. Lone will not treat Zhaowu lightly. ”

When Li Yanzhi heard this, he hurriedly bowed down and kowtowed: "You don't dare to be a negative envoy!" ”

Tell the guards to stay with these attendants and rest for a while. There was silence in the room, and when the attendants had gone away, the hall was suddenly cheerful. Liu Jiwu, Cao Jian, Zhou Xing, Tao Heng, Wang Cheng, Lei Rong, Qin Dayong and several others saluted together: "My subordinates wish Zhaowu a high promotion!" ”

Li Yanzhi saw that these people looked happy, but his mood suddenly became a little heavy. He smiled bitterly and said, "Don't be in a hurry to be happy. This time to conquer Longxi, it is not a good thing for the king to appoint me as a handsome, it is really to roast the boiler on the fire! ”

When the generals in the house heard this, they were all a little puzzled. Tao Heng raised his head, frowned and asked, "The envoy appoints Zhaowu as the commander, and allows Zhaowu to control the soldiers of the three counties." This is a good thing, why do you say that it is roasted on the fire? ”

Li Yanzhi shook his head and said: "Tao Bairen, now all the high-ranking families in the state have mastered the words. This time, he appointed me as the handsome, don't you feel strange? ”

Li Yanzhi continued: "From the perspective of military affairs alone. If I settle Longxi, these high-ranking wealthy families will have a recommendation attack in front of the envoy. And those thoughts of each family, the monarchs also know it. If Longxi is calm, who doesn't want to come to get a piece of the pie? And the king only granted a holiday this time, and with me, he only has the right to arbitrarily judge in military affairs, but he has no right to govern. In the future, the land of Longxi will not be the territory of those high-ranking wealthy families? ”

In this era, there are several levels of knots, false knots, knots, envoys, and false knots. The false section belongs to the lowest level of them, and the authority is only above the military, and it has the right to arbitrarily decide on the occasion of wartime, and can behead those who do not obey military orders. But there is no governing power. In peacetime, you can kill people who have no official position, and in wartime, you can kill people with less than 2,000 koku. The envoy is like the envoy in person, and in peacetime and war, he can cut down less than 2,000 stones. As for the fake festival Yue, it was directly granted by the emperor, and it could be arbitrary on the spot and kill the festival general!

The communication between Liangzhou and the Eastern Jin Dynasty was interrupted for a long time, so it was naturally impossible to ask for a leave of absence. Zhang Jun himself was only an envoy who had not been confirmed by the emperor of the current dynasty. Therefore, this fake festival is just Zhang Jun taking the festival left by the ancestors to Li Yanzhi and giving him the right to arbitrarily decide in the military.

"What's more, this time he is an alternate deputy general, so that Jun actually designated three people in one go. Needless to say, Xie Changshi said. Na Suo Mill previously served as a tooth keeper under Song Duhu, and he has been in battle for a long time, and he is a person from a wealthy family, so he is naturally far from being a good stubble. Xin Fei was an official at first, and it must be impossible to be happy in his heart at this time. It means a lot to make you act like this. ”

Li Yanzhi has a basic understanding of his current situation. As he said, to put him in this handsome position at the moment is really to roast him on the fire. Under a series of arrangements, it can be said that there is an undercurrent. In everything he did after that, he not only had to face the constraints of many deputy generals' subordinates, but also faced Zhang Yuanjun's own suspicions.

"In that case, what does Sima want?" When Liu Jiwu heard this, he pondered for a moment, and when he figured out the joints, he also asked Li Yanzhi worriedly.

"Don't worry too much, let's wait and prepare the ordnance first, and then transfer the food and wages. In any case, and prepare our army's own food and ordnance. Tell the workshop to make more arrows. The captives are good at riding and shooting, and if there is no strong bow and crossbow, our army will definitely suffer a great loss. ”

"Obey the orders of the Zhaowu Army!" When the generals below heard this, they all hugged their fists and took their orders.

"Governor Liu, Governor Cao, come with me to the workshop to see what novelties Craftsman Li has made recently." Li Yanzhi beckoned, ordered Liu Jiwu and Cao Jian to follow, and then went out of the house first. After the generals followed out, except for Liu and Cao, the rest returned to their camps.

After leaving the camp, the three of them walked about 200 steps along the street before they came to the door of the workshop. Since the previous time when the Qiang people gathered on their own to storm the treasury, a team of soldiers was arranged around the workshop to guard these craftsmen in shifts. In case of any unexpected situation that causes damage to the workshop.

Li Yanzhi was the first to step into the workshop, and he was greeted by the blacksmiths working outside the hall. On the walls and floors of the hall, rows of lacquered crossbow machines are neatly stacked. Xu is drying in the shade. And the three of them stepped into the hall together, but they met Li Liang.

When Li Liang saw Li Yanzhi, he hurriedly bowed and saluted: "The grass people have seen Li Changshi. Li Yanzhi was just transferred, and miscellaneous names such as General Zhaowu were added, and the news had not yet spread, so Li Liang did not know. And Li Yanzhi didn't care about these details, and smiled and saluted Li Liang back: "Craftsman Li, hard work." ”

After Li Liang saw that Li Yanzhi returned the salute, he got up and looked at the many crossbow machines that were still drying in the hall, and hurriedly said to Li Yanzhi: "The grass people and the craftsmen in the workshop, I learned that Changshi wanted to make bows and crossbows to resist the thieves, so I used the bows accumulated in the arsenal as the basis to prepare crossbow arms, crossbow machines, etc. So far, 300 crossbows have been completed. Please also have a long history of acceptance. ”

After that, Li Liang took two crossbows and handed one to Li Yanzhi. Li Yanzhi carefully inspected the crossbow machine in his hand, and Li Liang introduced on the side: "Long history, this crossbow machine is cast from pig iron, and the craftsmen have also tried this crossbow before. Although the crossbow power is not large, the shooting of crossbow arrows is smooth and accurate. ”

Li Yanzhi bent down, stepped on the bow arm with both feet, pulled the string apart, and hung it on the bracket. Then he took the crossbow and glanced around. There is a scale engraved on the crossbow machine, which can be adjusted. The principle is equivalent to that of the front sight on the firearms of later generations. It can be said that it is very easy to use.

In this short period of time, the workshop has produced these hundreds of crossbow machines, which still makes Li Yanzhi satisfied. However, looking at the iron crossbow machine in his hand, Li Yanzhi turned his head and asked Li Liang again: "If the crossbow machine is made of iron, it will inevitably rust." Dare to ask Li Craftsman, is there a magic way to prevent rust? ”

Hearing this, Li Liang arched his hand and said: "There is a way, Changshi might as well wait for a while." After that, Li Liang went to the inner room, took a small piece of animal fat wrapped in oiled paper, and then brought it to Li Yanzhi and unfolded it: "Please see in the long history, if the crossbow machine is made of iron, it is easy to rust, so Liang thought that he would boil lard, wait for it to condense, and then prepare it into such small pieces, and carry it with the soldiers." In case of rain and fog, simply order the soldiers to cut a small piece, roast it on the fire, and pour it on the crossbow machine. It can stop rusting. ”

"If the battle is not tight, you can also ask the soldiers to disassemble the crossbow machine and polish it with stones to remove rust......"

Regarding the solution proposed by Li Liang, Li Yanzhi also felt that it was available. It's just that in the middle of summer, the cooled and condensed animal fat is a little difficult to carry and use.

However, there is a shortage of copper at present, and the use of pig iron to make crossbow machine parts is really a last resort. After thinking about it for a while, Li Yanzhi said again: "Among the hundreds of crossbow machines produced this time, how many of them are iron crossbow machines? ”

Li Liang turned around and took a book, opened it and looked at it a few times, then replied: "One hundred and thirty-one copper crossbow machines and two hundred and five iron crossbow machines." ”

Li Yanzhi nodded when he heard this. He also said: "In addition to the preparation of the crossbow machine this time, I don't know if the craftsman has anything else?" I heard from the corporal a while ago that the craftsman was trying to make a giant crossbow in the workshop. ”

Li Yanzhi mentioned the matter of the giant crossbow, but it made Li Liang quite impressive. He successively recruited skilled craftsmen among the displaced people in Guanlong, and his hard work paid off, and finally he finally recruited a few skilled hands. Among these skilled hands are those who were previously engaged in the manufacture of weapons. He and these people tried and made it repeatedly, and finally made a giant crossbow, which is being tested, and has not yet been able to make it in large quantities.

When he heard Li Yanzhi ask each other this time, he was very proud and led Li Yanzhi inside. Outside the door of a locked warehouse, Li Liang took out the key and opened the door, and the various weapons in the warehouse amazed Li Yanzhi and several others. And in the middle of the warehouse, a giant crossbow covered with cloth attracted everyone's attention.

Li Liang stepped forward and uncovered the cloth, and a ballista cart that could be pushed forward by human hands appeared. The bow arm at the front end of the ballista was as long as Li Yanzhi's outstretched arms. And the crossbow string is as thick as an adult's thumb. At this moment, although this crossbow string is not in a state of being twisted and ready to be released, it is still terrifying to see.

It undoubtedly takes tremendous force to pull such a crossbow arm. And when the craftsmen design it, they take it into account. To pull the string of the crossbow, it is necessary to hang the string like a winch, and then the two people shake the wheel together, and the winch twists the string and then hangs it on the crossbow machine. Then put the crossbow arrow, aim at the target, and pull the hanging knife so that the crossbow string will shoot the crossbow arrow out.

Li Liang took out the crossbow arrows used in this giant crossbow. It was made of iron, dark and shiny. It is a crossbow bolt that is more than two feet long. At the tip of the crossbow is a three-edged arrowhead that is extremely versatile. Li Yanzhi looked at this crossbow arrow, and he already vaguely knew its power.

Beneath the huge arm of the ballista was a four-wheeled vehicle that could carry it on its feet, propelled by several people. The crossbow arm attached to the car can also adjust the pitch angle according to your needs, which is a masterpiece.

Li Yanzhi looked at this crossbow and was immediately excited, and said five good things in a row. This expedition to Longxi will inevitably encounter arduous and cruel siege warfare. And the appearance of this crossbow machine will undoubtedly make the siege easier.

"Craftsman Li has worked so hard to create such an artifact, and he really can't ask for it. Ji Wu! Li Yanzhi praised Li Liang while turning his head to look at Liu Jiwu.

"The subordinates are here!" Liu Jiwu took a step forward and bowed down to stand by.

"Later, take my seal letter and go to Liu's other department in the army to withdraw 10,000 yuan, and bring it to Li Jiangtou as a reward."

"Yes!" Liu Jiwu received the order. Li Yanzhi fumbled in his arms for a long time before handing over the new seal letter that he had just received from the chamberlain who came to the state to Liu Jiwu. And Liu Jiwu was about to leave, but he saw Li Liang clenching his fists again and again, and said to Li Yanzhi: "Li Changshi, I can't help it, I can't make it ......."

"Why can't you do it?" Li Yanzhi was suddenly a little puzzled, so he asked bluntly.

"This crossbow machine was not made by a single person, but by the joint efforts of several newly recruited craftsmen. Good judgment cannot be rewarded by history...... I also hope that Changshi will summon those craftsmen and give them such a generous reward. It will also enable them to give full play to their strengths in the future, for the workshop, for the county government, and for the army......"

"That's easy to say!" Li Yanzhi smiled heartily: "Then ask Craftsman Li to summon all these craftsmen here later." After that, Li Liang hugged his fists and left, and after a while, he led several craftsmen into the treasury and said to them: "This general is Li Changshi." ”

Li Liangyan said, and several craftsmen knelt down together: "The grass people have seen the long history ......" Seeing this, Li Yanzhi hurriedly stepped forward, helped them up one by one, and said: "I heard Li Craftsman's words to make a giant crossbow, come and take a look, it is indeed a divine weapon." I wanted to allocate a sum of money to reward the craftsman, but the craftsman said that it was the kings who made this crossbow machine. In order to show the reward, I will still award this money to the gentlemen, but I hope that the gentlemen will work together in the future to contribute to the county government and the army, and Li will not treat you badly! ”

When the craftsmen heard this, they were overjoyed and thanked one after another. During the conversation, Liu Jiwu had returned here with two soldiers, and the two soldiers carried a wooden box into the warehouse. Liu Jiwu walked to Li Yanzhi and stood still. Immediately, Li Yanzhi pointed to the wooden box that the two soldiers put on the ground and said, "This is 10,000 yuan." Later, let Li Craftsman share it with the kings. If you have any difficulties in the future, you may as well come to the camp to find me and say clearly. You can also entrust it to Craftsman Li and ask him to convey it to me. ”

Li Yanzhi's words of comfort and encouragement also made everyone in the hall feel useful. They were displaced, and their fate was like a mustard, but they never thought that they would be so valued and treated by the "big guys" one day, and everyone was immediately emotional.