Zhao Fu was stunned for a moment when he heard Li Su's question, and immediately replied: "Your Highness, each state generally has an ordnance workshop, and we have a heavy army stationed in Dengzhou, so not only there are, but the scale is not small, there are enough four hundred craftsmen working in the workshop. ”

"Great, you can help me find a few craftsmen who can make crossbows, I will be of great use!" Li Su exclaimed excitedly.

Zhao Fu was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and hurriedly said: "Your Highness, the crossbow is a standard equipment in the army, except for the official military weapons workshop and a few private military workshops that are allowed, no one else is allowed to make it privately!" "When Zhao Fu spoke, he deliberately accentuated the words 'anyone', obviously reminding Li Su that it is illegal to make weapons privately, especially since he is still a prince, and his identity is even more sensitive.

"Don't worry, I'm not trying to make a crossbow for the army, you just have to find it." Li Su smiled extremely obscenely, the manufacture of military crossbows has extremely strict processes and specifications, but as long as he does not follow this process and specifications, even if he creates something similar, then change his name, with his current identity and status, who would dare to take him?

Zhao Fu had no choice but to send people to the weapon workshop and find a few skilled crossbow craftsmen. Li Su took these craftsmen to the newly built Academy of Sciences, and then explained his ideas to them, this thing is actually almost exactly the same as the structure of the bed crossbow, but some changes have been made, such as adding a turntable that can turn up and down, left and right, especially the most critical crossbow arm, which was changed into two torsion springs by Li Su. The so-called torsion spring is actually tightened with a horsetail, animal tendon or even iron wire, etc., and then two pieces of hardwood are inserted in the middle to replace the elastic force of the crossbow arm with torsion.

In fact, what Li Su did was the same as the principle of the ballista made by the Greeks, but this thing was much smaller by Li Su. It's even smaller than the bed crossbow equipped on the ship. The materials used in this thing can be found at hand, unlike bows and crossbows, which have extremely high requirements for production materials, and it takes at least one or two years for a bow and crossbow to be completed from the selection of materials to the completion of production.

The reason why Li Su wanted to create such a bargain was naturally because he had his plans. Since shooting the whale at sea, Li Su suddenly thought of a very prosperous industry in history, that is, the whaling industry, where whales are all treasures, not to mention meat. Whale fat can be boiled in oil, whale skin is also a good leather, and other uses are also very broad as whale baleen, whalebone, tendons, etc.

At present, whales in the ocean have not been killed by humans, and there are extremely large numbers. Li Su also inquired about the situation in Dengzhou's coastal waters. Every year, there will be a lot of whales in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, and even occasionally whales will attack ships, so he hit the whale on the head, wanting to add another way of wealth for Dengzhou.

However, if you want to hunt whales, you need special tools, and Li Su doesn't want fishermen to fight with whales in the sea with harpoons. But the bed crossbow is the standard equipment of the army, and it must not be used on ordinary fishing boats. And he couldn't afford it, so he wanted to make a bargain. The power doesn't need to be too great, as long as you can shoot a harpoon or a special arrow dozens of meters away, after all, this is whaling and not fighting with people, it doesn't matter if the range is closer, just shoot it when you get closer.

Li Su thought very well, but in the production process of this kind of cottage crossbow, there is a problem, that is, the accuracy of the crossbow is very poor, and the arrows shot out are often a few meters away from the target, although with the huge body of the whale, even if it is a deviation of a few meters, it may be shot, but Li Su is extremely dissatisfied, and the craftsmen studied for a long time, and found that the original is made of two torsion springs of uneven elastic force.

The problem was solved, and through the adjustment of the craftsmen, the elastic force of the two springs was finally averaged, and the arrow shot this time was really accurate, although there were still some small errors, but at a distance of tens of meters, this small error was almost negligible.

After this kind of cottage crossbow is done, because the crossbow arm has been changed to two torsion springs, it looks very different from the bed crossbow, and there is a tray that can be rotated in all directions underneath, and there is a handrail in the back. When using the arrow, the arrow is first loaded, and then a person picks up the handrail and rotates, and after aiming, the crossbow machine is fired, and the javelin-like special arrow on it is shot out, with a barb in front of the arrow to prevent the whale from breaking free, and a cable is tied to the back, and an inflatable raft is tied to the cable, so that no matter where the whale is shot, they can see it from the sea.

In order to avoid the word 'crossbow', Li Su renamed this kind of cottage crossbow as a fish cannon, which was invented for whaling, and with its power and range, it is impossible to prepare for the army's standard, although its cost is very cheap.

After getting the whaling weapons, Xijun also bought a sturdy big ship there, after all, the size of the whale is so large, the average fishing boat can't be towed at all, of course, the ship has also been transformed, the useless buildings on it have been demolished, a large deck has been vacated, and a primitive manpower crane has been made with a pulley block and the resulting shelf, which is used to lift the whale from the sea, and then dissect it directly on the ship.

Everything was prepared, but the manpower problem appeared again, although Li Su came back from a whale, and many people in Dengzhou City had eaten whale meat, but for the whale as a fetish, there was still some awe in their hearts, so the fishermen under Li Su shook their heads when they heard that they were going to go whaling.

Li Su was not reluctant to do this, but he proposed on the spot that the wages of the workers on the whaling ship had been increased by three times, and other treatments were much better than those of ordinary fishing workers.

There must be brave men under the so-called heavy reward, hundreds of thousands of people in Dengzhou, there are always some people who are bold or forced by life, for the sake of that lucrative salary, they have rushed to the Qi Wangfu in Dengzhou to sign up, so in just a few days, the personnel problem of the whaling ship has been solved, and then after a period of training and integration, they will be released to sea, as for when to come back, it is not necessarily, if you are lucky, three or five days, if you are unlucky, you may run out of nourishment, and you can't meet a whale, After all, everything is just the beginning now, and it is necessary to slowly figure out the pattern of whale infestation.

In the Liangyi Hall in Chang'an City, Li Shimin stood on the hall and laughed, and Fang Xuanling, Li Jing and other important civil and military ministers below were there, but the faces of these people were happy or worried, and obviously their opinions were not unanimous.

"What a godsend! The civil strife in Goguryeo is imminent, and then I, Datang, will be able to eliminate this trouble without much effort! Li Shimin laughed and said excitedly. Today, there is good news from Dengzhou, the efforts made some time ago have finally come to fruition, and the two forces of the Yuan family and Rongliu Wang have finally come to the last step.

"Your Majesty, although this is a good opportunity to destroy Goguryeo, but soldiers, big things, everything must be done carefully!" Fang Xuanling was a little helpless, although he knew that it would not have any effect, he still persuaded with a hope of one in ten thousand.

"Fang Xiang, you are too cautious, such a great opportunity is the time to get rid of Goguryeo in one fell swoop, if you miss this opportunity, then I don't know when you will have another chance?" Without waiting for Li Shimin to speak, the secretary of the military department came out and said, and his words were immediately supported by most of the generals and some civil servants.

Fang Xuanling couldn't help but feel a little anxious when he saw that most of the people supported the war, but what he didn't expect was that at this time, Li Jing also came out and said: "Junji is right, and the old minister also thinks it's time." ”

"Senior Brother Yao, ...... you" Fang Xuanling was stunned, he didn't expect that Li Jing, who had always been in the same camp as him, would also agree to send troops?

"Xuan Ling, you are usually busy with government affairs, so you may not pay attention to some things." Li Su interrupted Fang Xuanling's words and said, "At the beginning, His Royal Highness the King of Qi offered the three strategies of Pingliao, and now the second policy of discord has played a final role, and the powerful minister Yuan family and the weak lord Rongliu Wang are about to fight, even if one of them wins, but the country will definitely be greatly turbulent, and even the vitality will be greatly damaged, such an opportunity is really rare." According to the detailed report, there is famine in many parts of Goguryeo, and the tax revenue in the country is more than one-fifth less than in previous years, and many people have fled or rebelled because they have no food, and the domestic situation in Goguryeo as a whole has become chaotic. ”

Li Jing paused when he said this, thought for a while and said: "As for the third article's strong plan, the white stacks proposed by His Royal Highness King Qi have been planted a lot this year, and the yield is less, but it can also allow some sergeants to wear cotton clothes." However, in the old man's opinion, Qiang is not only available for Bai Diezi, the gunpowder weapon that His Highness made last time, whether it is a siege or a field battle, has great power, with the help of these new weapons, coupled with the prosperity of my Tang Dynasty's soldiers, it is not difficult to destroy Goguryeo in a short time. ”

"Okay, the pharmacist's words are very good for me!" After listening to Li Jing's analysis and explanation, Li Shimin was the first to pat his palms and praise, and the others carefully analyzed what Li Jing said, and found that this is indeed the case, and now they have an absolute advantage over Goguryeo, whether it is national strength, political or military strength, it is far from being comparable to the small Goguryeo.

Fang Xuanling also felt that what Li Jing said was reasonable, but he was cautious, so he said again: "Your Highness Qiqi, although what Senior Brother Yao said is reasonable, but Lao Chen thinks it is better to be cautious, after all, Goguryeo occupies a favorable geographical position, if we are not fully prepared......

"Xuan Ling, don't persuade me anymore, this matter has been decided, the day the Yuan clan makes a move, it will be the time for my Tang Dynasty to raise troops!" Li Shimin waved his hand and interrupted Fang Xuanling's words.

Just when Li Shimin and the civil and military ministers made the decision to conquer Goguryeo, a very fierce game was being held in a large horse stadium in Chang'an City, but what was surprising was that this game was not polo, but a new sport in Chang'an. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. )