This bow is the Divine Arm Bow, also known as the Divine Arm Crossbow.

Its appearance is also thanks to the Western Xia, the Western Xia weapons are backward, in order to become stronger, we have to pay attention to weapon research and development. Weapons developed rapidly, including bows and arrows, Wang Yaochen once wrote to Zhao Zhen, saying that the first vertical iron cavalry rushed our army, and the strong injection was unstoppable.

The main thing here is that the Western Xia used tactics, cavalry impact, disrupting the Song army's formation, and then using a strong Qiang Fan to use a strong bow to use the cavalry to break away from the gap, to the Song army with arrows, the lethality is huge. It shows that the bow and arrow technology of Western Xia has advanced rapidly.

There were no regular crossbowmen, until a few decades later, the famous general of Western Xia, Renduo Baozhong assisted the Luo Jie, was defeated by Miao Lu, forced Huangshui, and could not cross, Cha Ge refused with a crossbow, and hit the deputy general of Miao Lu, the Song army retreated, so it was spared. Therefore, Brother Cha proposed to Li Qianshun to build a strong crossbow army.

The strong crossbow used by Brother Cai was not captured from the Song Dynasty, but was developed by the Western Xia itself, otherwise it would not have been possible to establish a strong crossbow army immediately at his suggestion. Forced by the Song army's strong crossbow, the research and development time was earlier, and it has been researching and developing since Yuan Hao. Because Hengshan has a lot of salt iron tea, it is convenient to have iron, and it is mostly handed over to some more loyal tribes in Hengshan for research and development.

Ling Ling and Wei Mingshan defected to the Song Dynasty, causing many tribes in Hengshan to defect to the Song Dynasty. Among them, there was a tribal patriarch named Li Ding, who was not Li Ding, a student of Wang Anshi, but Li Ding, a member of the party, who also defected to the army and joined the Song Dynasty. For them, the concept of home and country is very indifferent.

If it weren't for the fact that the Song Dynasty had been too weak, under the embarrassment of Western Xia, it was very likely that more than half of the Hengshan tribes would take the initiative to vote without fighting. Of course, Yinxia Erzhou is where the nest of the Western Xia is located, and it is still relatively loyal, which refers to the original Suizhou, as well as the Western Xia tribes near Yanzhou Huanzhou.

Li Ding handed over his previous research results to the Song Dynasty, which was a partial crossbow. Like a bow. To be exact. It is the immature Divine Arm Bow, which is very similar to the Divine Arm Bow, and also has a mechanism. However, it is only an idea, and it cannot be used in practice. Otherwise, the Tangut would have used the Divine Arm Bow a long time ago.

The crossbow and drawings arrived at the Ordnance Supervisor, and when the officials saw it, why did they look so familiar, and a small official finally remembered. This is one of the weapons that Zheng Lang painted before, a giant crossbow, but because Zheng Lang didn't know the structure of the bracket, the drawings were drawn, and they didn't take shape in the end. First, there were craftsmen in research and development, and then seeing that it was far away, the ordnance supervisor gradually became uninterested, and only one craftsman was still working tirelessly to do research and development, named Li Hong.

It was handed over to Li Hong again, and Li Hong was also in trouble at this time. In particular, the machine bracket happened to get Li Ding's drawings and partial crossbows. Complement some of the confusion in his thoughts. Soon, the Divine Arm Bow was finally developed.

When the eunuch Zhang Ruoshui heard this, he came over in surprise, took the initiative to cooperate, contributed money and materials, made repeated improvements, and finally took shape, and the longest range could reach 240 steps (370 meters). But at such a distance, the accuracy cannot be controlled, and the effective range is actually only one hundred and twenty steps, which is also an amazing distance, more than one hundred and eighty meters!

The Song Dynasty had powerful weapons, such as the bed crossbow, which had gradually retired from the army, and there were too many soldiers who needed to be fired, which was difficult to operate, and the accuracy was insufficient, and there were trebuchets with gunpowder bags, which were still very defective, and the gunpowder bags themselves had to have a lot of oiled paper and linen cloth outside for their sealing, accounting for one-third of the weight. The trebuchet also needs to be operated by many soldiers, and the fire is slow, and the rate of fire is not very fast, if the enemy is shrewd, see it coming, and lay down on the ground, and the lethality will be immediately reduced. At first, it worked, but now it is becoming less and less. It's still good to use it to blow up the city walls. Later, there was a tiger squat cannon, but the cost was too expensive, not only the cannon itself, but also the cost of the shell, large-scale use, it was really a cannon sound, gold ten thousand taels. The high cost of construction has hindered its popularity. Of course, in terms of power, it is still the greatest, even if the Divine Arm Bow is not as good as it.

The Divine Arm Bow is not as powerful as the Tiger Squat Cannon, but it is easy to operate, it can be operated by one person, and the cost is far cheaper than the Tiger Squat Cannon, and it is lighter in weight and easy to carry. It is also said that the practicality is no less than that of the tiger squat cannon, and the two complement each other, and the Song Dynasty army is more likely to win on the battlefield.

Confirming that the research was successful, Zhang Ruoshui excitedly took it to Xifu and presented it to Zheng Lang to offer treasure.

Zheng Lang looked at it, and his eyes also flashed with joy.

Through this, it is further proved that the wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated, and later generations want to imitate it, but they have not succeeded. But in the Song Dynasty, there was no own, and it also succeeded, not only succeeded, but there were three improved versions later. Han Shizhong improved it, so that its range reached the legendary 360 steps (580 meters), which was increased by one and a half times, and it was called the enemy bow. In the Zhao Dynasty, the Ma Huang crossbow appeared again, that is, a reduced version of the divine arm crossbow, using its bracket, but it was reduced, sacrificing range and firing power in exchange for the rate of fire, he did not fire a single arrow of crossbow, but this crossbow has sent three arrows. In order to defend the city, the Southern Song Dynasty introduced a more powerful divine arm bow, which sacrificed the rate of fire in exchange for the power of fire. The Divine Arm Bow can shoot three arrows, and the Divine Strength Bow can only shoot one arrow. Shoot slowly, but shoot a bullet head arrow, that is, the kind of extra-large crossbow arrow used in a miniature version of the bed crossbow, and when it hits the enemy, it can pierce all the armor, and can continue to fly forward, as for the enemy's body, there will be a large hole, and then fall, not only the enemy wearing armor, if the horse is hit, it will also pierce a large hole in the horse's belly.

said: "Zhang Neishi, you and Li Ding and Li Hong have made great contributions to the imperial court. ”

There is another surprise, the Divine Arm Bow is made by his own hand, but it has not been developed, and now he has let a Qiang chief and a craftsman develop it, which means that he is not omnipotent. It's a good thing, if a person is omnipotent, it may not be a good thing, if there are one or two more instigated demons, once the national crisis is over, it will be Zhao Ji, and he will have some jealousy of himself. Or this is what Lao Tzu said: when the moon is full, it will be lost, and when the water is full, it will be profitable.

Zheng Lang thought of a false proposition again, if Genghis Khan's army met the European longbowmen, it would be a very good situation?

Seeing the divine arm bow in front of him, Zheng Lang had an answer in his heart. Now it is a preliminary divine arm bow, there are still some defects, first of all, it has very strict requirements for arm strength, at least the soldier can reach the strength of two stones and three buckets to pull it apart, but in the later years of the Northern Song Dynasty, after many transformations, the strength of one stone and four buckets can be pulled away, that is, ordinary slightly stronger soldiers can use it. The arm strength requirement is no higher than that of a longbow. The range is longer. More firepower. The Song Dynasty was defeated by the Yuan and Mongolia, and the European longbow soldiers were also defeated by the Yuan and Mongolia.

Speaking of which, in this day and age, cavalry is still a true symbol of invincibility.

Leave aside these unnecessary thoughts. Zheng Lang took it to the palace and presented it to Zhao Ji.

On the battlefield to command, Zhao Ji may not be able to steal anything. But the meaning of the appearance of this strong bow is still known, and the ministers of the two governments and two systems are immediately summoned, and then the iron armor is placed seventy paces away, so that the guards can shoot. I didn't expect two hundred and forty steps, seventy steps would be very good, and the range of one hundred meters was already far from that of an ordinary Song crossbow.

However, several arrows were fired in succession, but none of them hit the target. Zhang Ruoshui said: "Your Majesty, let's let the ministers come, this is different from the ordinary bow and crossbow shooting method." ”

Zhao Jizhun.

After Zhang Ruoshui aimed at the target seventy steps away. Only then did he kick open the crossbow string with his foot, and an arrow was released. The first arrow missed, but the second hit the target.

Suddenly, there was a sizzling sound in the Yanhe Temple.

Its range was 240 paces, but now it is only 70 paces, and how powerful it will be to shoot at it. On the contrary, they are the best armor of the Song Dynasty, but when an arrow hits it, it still desperately drills into it, until it is halfway gone, and then stops, almost piercing both sides of the armor. Of course, if this arrow hits the enemy, most of the Daluo Immortals will also whine. I shot several arrows in a row, and they all hit one by one.

However, Zhang Ruoshui was a eunuch, and after shooting a few arrows, he stopped, kept wiping his sweat, and lost his strength.

Everyone didn't laugh, and they looked silently at the clusters of arrows that were deeply embedded in their armor. Zheng Lang stepped forward again to explain that the secret of the reason why the shooting power is so huge is that the precise combination of the bracket on the bowstring, the principle is similar to the pulley set of later generations, through this bracket, the soldier can pull a strong bow several times his arm strength, and it can be improved again. That is, if you want to pull the divine arm bow now, you must have a strong man to pull it away, including Zhang Ruoshui, although he is a eunuch, he is not small. If it is improved, even an ordinary strong man can pull it apart.

Zheng Lang did not participate and may not be able to make it, but he understood the principle of labor-saving, and sent the relevant schematic diagram to Li Hong for him to make improvements. Don't seek to defeat the enemy's bow, nor do you seek a divine bow, now the Song Dynasty has temporarily fallen to the moment of crisis between the two Song Dynasty, and what I am looking for is a horse yellow bow that should be less technically difficult.

The world's martial arts, only fast is not broken.

The same is true for bows and crossbows, which require not only range, but also speed, and the faster they are, the more lethal they will be.

Take Xiao Guan down by yourself, otherwise there will be a battle in Layue.

These masters of Western Xia, one is more crazy than the other.

When Liang arrived in the summer, the madness began.

These sharp weapons were launched one by one, at least until the Western Xia was temporarily moved, and they could play a better defensive role.

Zheng Lang said again, there is another one, that is, it is conducive to secrecy, this copper machine, but when it comes to the critical time, use something heavy, smash it a few times, and it will be destroyed. Once the machine is destroyed, even if you get this divine arm bow, it is a strong bow that may not even be able to pull Xue Rengui away, and it will have no effect at all.

Zhao Ji was overjoyed and rewarded Li Ding and Li Hong. Then he asked Zheng Lang: "How is it in Huazhou?" ”

Referring to the Huazhou Steel Prison, the offensive weapon is there, and the defensive armor is still the original armor, although it is strong, but it is too clumsy. Zheng Lang replied: "Your Majesty, it can be used to produce standard armor, but there are still some deficiencies that need to be improved, and it cannot be produced and replaced on a large scale for the time being. ”

"I'm not in a hurry, the finances haven't improved, I just want large-scale production, and most of them can't."

"Whoa." Zheng Lang replied, and wrote a quick letter to Sima Guang after he went back.

Sima Guang led hundreds of officials to inspect Yintian, but unlike the practice after the autumn of the previous year, he did not make a large-scale measurement, but sent people to notify the first-class households in various prefectures and counties, and accept it when they see it. If you hand over the number of hidden fields yourself, you will have some unpleasant things when you save them. That is, you all mean what you mean, hello, I'm good, everyone.

Hundreds of officials were eyeing each other, and in desperation, various large households took the initiative to confess more than 10,000 hectares of hidden fields. If it is one state, Sima Guang is satisfied, and eight states, but all of them are eight states where the number of hidden fields is relatively concentrated at the moment, Sima Guang is very dissatisfied. On New Year's Day, he sent officials to inform the local government that he should be a measured person and not force me to learn from Zhang. He was frightened, and handed over nearly 10,000 hectares of hidden fields.

Sima Guang reported the situation to Zheng Lang.

Zheng Lang was not too polite, and replied with a quick letter, he didn't want to take out all the hidden fields in the world one by one. Including the hidden fields of the 80 state capitals that were the most vicious last year. It may not be possible to count all the hidden fields one by one. At most, it's only eighty or ninety. But at least there has to be a degree.

The eight states were deliberately picked out by Zheng Lang, and the severity of the hidden fields is now among the top 20 states, and the area is all middle and upper state capitals in these 20 state capitals, and only two states are slightly smaller in area. If you follow the number of acres at the time of Zhenzong. As well as the newly reclaimed cultivated land, the number of hidden fields in these eight prefectures has reached at least nearly 100,000 hectares, and the actual number of hidden fields may be close to 200,000 hectares, and at least 150,000 hectares. You let them take the initiative. Only more than 27,000 hectares were confessed. How can I explain to the people of the world, to last year's eighty state capitals, the hidden fields?

Find out quickly, and wait for you to find out after you find out, and announce the accounts of the three divisions.

Before the end of the two reforms, the accounts of the three divisions were published so that everyone could see the results, and then hundreds of officials were appointed. If the two sides are attacked, the opposition will be smaller.

But the teacher moves the people. Can't just hand over one-tenth of the hidden field, how can Zheng Lang be embarrassed?

said vaguely, soft and hard, you want to be a good person, who doesn't want to be a good person, can you do it? It was last year's inventory, and there was some deterrence, if there was no last year's inventory, and you let them take the initiative to confess, I am afraid that they would not be able to explain even a few thousand acres. I don't want to make trouble, but at least you need me to find out half of the hidden fields.

At this point, it's already very heavy.

After Sima Guang received the letter, he had no choice but to send officials down to measure the acres of land. With the discovery of more than a dozen hidden fields, they were distributed one by one, including the share deeds, all of which were handed over to the banknote bank for auction. seems to be vigorous and resolute, but in fact, there are many scenes with a lot of stories in the middle. In particular, the dozen or so households handled are all large families with thin backgrounds.

Officials began to check, there were a lot of vacancies, but there were more officials, and they wanted to get the difference, and they all knew in their hearts that Sima Guang probably didn't like to be too radical, but if he didn't do anything, he would inevitably be eliminated. In addition, Sima Guang began to implement severe punishment methods, and some wealthy households were afraid and confessed more than 20,000 hectares of hidden land.

The number seems to be quite a lot, but it is still far from half of Zheng Lang's number.

Sima Guang then asked the officials to investigate, and sent officials to inform the following that this is the last chance, if you are not satisfied, you will not be able to give you face. The scope of this punishment was wider, reaching more than 30 households before and after, and there were also two official eunuch families, one of which also had a child who was admitted to the Jinshi, and at this time served as the magistrate of Jiangnan County. But he also confiscated his family's hidden fields and redistributed them. Seeing more and more people punished, the big families did not dare to sit back and wait.

Under persecution, 40,000 hectares of hidden fields were confessed one after another, and nearly 90,000 hectares were before and after. Sima Guang withdrew.

In fact, Zheng Lang asked Sima Guang to go down to investigate Yintian, the first reason was that he didn't want to make too much trouble, after all, there was still a third reform that had not been implemented, and if the owners turned against him, even Zhao Ji might not be able to keep himself. In fact, if it did not have the previous great reputation and the big black hole of the national finances, it would have been announced again, and Zheng Lang would also face the embarrassing situation of Lu Yijian's implementation of the tea policy reform that year. Secondly, let Sima Guang try to see if he could do good things without some drastic measures.

But in turn, Sima Guang is also using this inventory of Yintian, seemingly trying to influence himself. The fundamental reason is that Sima Guang may be disgusted with hidden fields, but he is even more disgusted with the redistribution of all cultivated land to households below the fourth grade. Hidden fields are not good, and redistribution is even worse, which is the most inferior strategy of countering violence with violence. At least for the big and wealthy families, this strategy cannot be used.

Yintian forced out more than 90,000 hectares, and he can explain the past. There is not much movement, it seems that Sima Guang has done a perfect job this time. But Zheng Lang is smiling bitterly, the number is explained in the past, and the controversy is not big, but where is the deterrent effect?

But Zheng Lang was not angry.

In the end, relatives and friends, fathers and sons, and brothers may not become enemies, but there are many opponents. For example, Wang Anshi brothers, Su brothers.

As a moderate, if you want to choose between them, is it so easy?

Two-sided pleaser, often end up displeasing both sides.

So he tacitly ignored Sima Guang's approach.

There are too many affairs, such as the envoys of Western Xia.

During the period of autonomy, Li Liangzuo was unreasonable and violated the Song Dynasty many times, which made the Song Dynasty's economy worse due to embarrassment, Li Bingchang succeeded to the throne, and the Song Dynasty was not canonized. Not canonized is also the lord of the Western Xia, but there are many tribes in the Western Xia that belong to the dove kind.

There are not many people who really fight against the Song Dynasty with a black force to the end, and if he is canonized, Li Bingchang will be more justified. In the first month, Xue Zongdao was sent to pay tribute and ask for a seal, and the imperial court sent Han Zhen to Shaanxi to ask for questioning for several years. Xue Zongdao apologized for his sin, and Han Zhen ordered him to return it first.

The most interesting scene appeared.

The Tangut people were honest and admitted their mistakes, and the court had face, and many scholars wrote to the court asking the court to re-canonize Li Bingchang, so that the border would be peaceful and conducive to internal governance.

Zhao agreed.

He immediately sent Liu Hang, the supervisor of Henan, to canonize Li Bingchang as the lord of the country.

Liu Hang left the capital, and saw that no one stopped him, and some scholars regretted it, thinking that it was too cheap for Western Xia, and some people admonished him, not only canonizing Li Bingchang, but also canonizing the great chiefs of Western Xia, as well as some leaders. Guo Kui wrote: "Since he is obedient to the court, he should be a great believer, and it is not appropriate to lure him to profit." ”

In this way, it is not clear to say, but to put it bluntly, it is a matter of righteousness. Western Xia repeatedly betrayed the treaty, and it was completely possible not to canonize its lord. Since you forgive, then you should not take advantage of this small advantage, and you may not be able to take advantage of this small advantage, which will fall into the demeanor of a big country.

Then no matter what happens in the future, the Song Dynasty is also at fault first.

When used in the art of war, it has become a non-moral soldier.

Therefore, in the history of facts, the Liang family sent the minister Du Luo to re-enter the book and said that the emperor ruled the world with filial piety, so how could he tempt the ministers of the small country to rebel against him?

With such a thing, Liang will not be honest. Without this, Liang would not be honest. But the nature is a little different.

Zheng Lang couldn't help it, and finally handed a secret note to Zhao Ji.

After Zhao Ji read it, he suddenly believed and doubted, so he vetoed the proposal and did not implement it.

I still don't understand, the internal is more shrewd than the other, but when it comes to foreign countries, whether it is military or diplomatic, one by one's IQ immediately drops by more than half, and it is now, in the future, it is weird. Sometimes Zheng Lang couldn't help but wonder, is this destined to be a nation that can only fight in the nest?

In March, Western Xia sent another envoy.

This time the request was even more excessive, in the last years of Renzong, Di Qing sent troops to Western Xia, mainly in the Hexi area of Linfu Road. Without him, the two states of Linfu are lonely and too thin. Only by taking down the lost land in Hexi can the two states of Linfu become slightly thicker.

In addition to the area west of the Quye River, there is also the place where the northwest of Yanzhou meets Hengshan, which originally included Tumen, Anyuan and other villages that were invaded by the Western Xia one by one.

When Di Qing occupied Youzhou, he recovered some of the encroached fortresses. But then Di Qing became seriously ill and only took back part of it, and some of it was still in the hands of the Tanguts, including Tumen. As soon as Di Qing died, the Great Wall of the Northwest collapsed, and the imperial court begged for peace and ignored it.

The Liang clan sent an envoy to exchange Tumen for Suizhou.

The monarch and the minister were stunned, a dirt gate for a big Suizhou? However, Zhao Ji looked at Zheng Lang with surprised eyes.

Zheng Lang said slowly: "If you can change, the original Xia and our border is the Great Wall Ridge (northwest of Tumen, near Hengshan), the north of Erzhai, there were 36 forts in the past, when Di Qing returned from serious illness, only more than ten forts were recovered, and most of them were occupied by the Xia State, please return them all to my court, and my dynasty will return Suizhou to your country." ”

Everyone was speechless by Xixia's repeated unreasonable requests, but after hearing Zheng Lang's words, they were dumbfounded. Originally, there were thirty-six forts, but most of them were small forts. It seems that there is a lot of quantity, but the actual area is less than one-fifth of Suizhou, how to calculate, this business is also a cost-effective business.

If it comes from the mouth of Gou He's minister, it's normal, why does it come from Zheng Lang's mouth? (To be continued.) )