Zhao Yan's carriage hurriedly passed through the city of Tokyo, and finally came to the Gunpowder Department located in the west of the city, since the reorganization of the Ordnance Bureau, the original gunpowder work became the Gunpowder Department, becoming one of the four major Ordnance Supervision Bureau, and now it has been expanding, in addition to the manufacture of gunpowder weapons, there is also a role, that is, to test the power of new gunpowder weapons.

When Zhao Yan rushed to the Gunpowder Department, he saw that Shen Kuo and Su Shi were already waiting for him here, although the old enemies in history often have awkward quarrels, but both of them are people who know how to measure, so although the personal relationship is not good, it will not affect official affairs, and even cooperate very tacitly, it is estimated that this is also the reason why the enemies know each other the most.

"King Jun, you can count it, the new bed crossbow has been successfully designed, and mass production can start at any time on the side of the bow crossbow courtyard, please watch the power of the new bed crossbow today, does it meet your requirements?" When Shen Kuo saw Zhao Yan coming, he immediately greeted him with a look of surprise and said, although the new bed crossbow is Zhao Yanming's, but as an ordnance supervisor, his contribution is also not small, and he has just taken over as an ordnance superintendent and made such a contribution, which can be regarded as a complete sit in this important position.

"What new bed crossbow? The king of the county has re-named this weapon before, and in the future, when the arsenal is registered, it will be changed to the word ballista, and Shen Prison must not make a mistake, so as not to be laughed at! At this time, Su Shi also greeted him, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he was full of gunpowder, it seems that he has been in the Gunpowder Department for a long time, and his body is also infected with a temper of gunpowder.

"This official naturally knows that the new bed crossbow is called a ballista, but the ballista has not yet been officially mass-produced, and the name is the same!" Shen Kuo was not to be outdone, and replied. Don't look at his official position is higher than Su Shi, but Su Shi, the military weapon, mainly manages the acceptance and storage of weapons, and is not under his jurisdiction at all, and even he is under Su Shi's supervision in normal times, plus the tempers of the two are incompatible, so as long as they meet, they almost have to quarrel.

"Okay, okay, let's stop arguing, let's take a look at the power of the ballista first, if there is no problem. Today, I will invite the official family and a few ministers to come. Let them also take a look at the results of this period of our ordnance superintendent! Zhao Yan also knew that if Shen Kuo and Su Shi quarreled, they would definitely not be able to stop for a while, so he hurriedly dissuaded.

For Zhao Yan's face, Shen Kuo and Su Shi still have to give it. So they glared at each other fiercely. Then he took Zhao Yan to the weapon test site. I saw that there was already a ballista designed by Zhao Yan here, but compared to the one made by Zhao Yan himself, the ballista in front of him was much more professional.

I saw that this ballista was twice as large as the one designed by Zhao Yan before. The workmanship is also very fine, especially the two torsion springs at the core of the ballista, it is estimated that it is for the convenience of Zhao Yan to observe, so the outer cover has been removed, just by looking at it with the naked eye, it can be seen that the thickness and length of the two torsion springs are the same, and the materials used are also the same, which must have solved the problem of uneven strength of the two springs before.

"King of the county, please see, the bowstring of the ballista has been changed to a leather pocket according to your instructions, so that you can shoot cannonballs and crossbow arrows, now let's test the power of the ballista!" Shen Kuo pointed to the bowstring on the ballista at this time and explained.

Zhao Yan only appeared at this time, and the bowstring of the ballista had indeed been transformed according to what he said, which made him very satisfied, and nodded at the moment and said, "Since this is the case, let's try the power now!" ”

Seeing Zhao Yan agree, Shen Kuo immediately called two craftsmen, originally the ballista was mainly used to catapult cannonballs, but in order to prove that this ballista was usable, the first shot was still a crossbow arrow. The power of this ballista is much more powerful than the one designed by Zhao Yan before, even if it is equipped with pulleys, it must be pulled apart by two strong craftsmen, and when the bowstring is good and the crossbow arrows are put down, Shen Kuo personally took the wooden gas and smashed the machine behind the bowstring.

Zhao Yan only heard a "buzz" sound, and then the spear-like crossbow arrow made a sharp sound of breaking the air, and it had been shot a hundred steps away in the blink of an eye, and then shot on a brick wall that was used as a target, and was firmly nailed to it, and the tail kept trembling, it seemed that this arrow was shot very deep.

"Haha, the power is good, and the accuracy is much stronger than before!" Zhao Yan saw that an arrow hit the target, and immediately clapped his hands and praised, the craftsmen in the ordnance prison are professional, and the problem of uneven force on the torsion spring has been solved in such a short time, and it can be mass-produced immediately, no wonder the ordnance of the Great Song Dynasty has always been one of the three kingdoms.

"King Jun, it's time to test the cannonballs next, let's hide behind the wall to be safer!" At this time, Shen Kuo walked over with a few iron helmets and said, the cannonball is actually a large grenade, which needs to be ignited and fired out with a bed crossbow, but if it is not shot, it will be too dangerous, of course, the probability of this is very small, but Zhao Yan's status is noble, even if the danger is small, it must be prevented in advance.

Zhao Yan has always cherished his own life, so he is also as good as a stream, took the iron helmet in Shen Kuo's hand and put it on, and then came with Su Shi and them to a semicircular stone wall more than a dozen steps away from the ballista, this thing was specially prepared to test those more dangerous weapons.

Zhao Yan hid behind the wall, and then stretched out his head to look out from the female wall above, only to see the two craftsmen put the bowstring on again, and then took out a cannonball from the box next to them, and cut off a part of the money according to the estimated range of the ballista, so one person ignited the fire, and the other person was responsible for shooting, only to see that the cannonball flew out like lightning, and detonated at the moment it hit the target wall, and blew up a big crater on that wall with a "boom".

"Good!" When Zhao Yan saw this, he immediately shouted, he applauded the power of the ballista, and also applauded the control skills of the two craftsmen, after all, it was possible to make the cannonball explode when it hit the wall, which required extremely rich experience and high calculation, which even Zhao Yan himself could not do.

However, compared to Zhao Yan's excitement, Shen Kuo said with some hesitation at this time: "King Jun, the power of this ballista is really nothing to say, as long as the cannonball can be fired into the opponent's military formation, it can definitely make the enemy's corner chaos, but there is one point that is very troublesome, that is, the gunner needs to calculate the range before shooting, so as to determine the length of the lead, these two craftsmen know how to calculate, so it must be no problem to control it, but if it is used by ordinary soldiers, I am afraid it will take a period of training." ”

"The power of the ballista is several times or even dozens of times stronger than the bed crossbow, trebuchet and the like, God is fair, such a powerful weapon, naturally there are some limitations, fortunately, this restriction is nothing, it's a big deal to pick some smart soldiers from the army and let them learn it, anyway, it won't take much time." Zhao Yan smiled indifferently when he heard this, the weapons of later generations are more complex, and even have higher requirements for the cultural level of soldiers, compared to it, the operation of the ballista is too simple, and even if he doesn't know how to count, as long as a person operates a few more times, he can find out some experience.

Hearing Zhao Yan's words, Shen Kuo and Su Shi also nodded in unison. At that moment, Zhao Yan asked the two craftsmen to test shoot a few shells, and after confirming that there was no problem with the ballista, they rushed to the palace non-stop, after all, this powerful weapon must be seen by Zhao Shu and them with their own eyes before it can be approved for official mass production.

However, what Zhao Yan never expected was that as soon as he walked to the door of Zhao Shu's dormitory, he heard a sound of "呑" from inside, and then Huang Wude escaped with a group of palace maids and eunuchs from inside, and when he saw Zhao Yan, he immediately stepped forward with a happy face and said: "The king of the county, you came just in time, Your Majesty is thundering, and we don't dare to persuade you, you go and persuade Your Majesty, don't let him hurt the dragon body because of this!" ”

Zhao Yan was also stunned when he heard this, and then asked very puzzled: "What's the matter, it doesn't seem to be any state affairs during this time, and this is the New Year again, why is Daddy so popular?" ”

Regarding Zhao Yan's questioning, I saw that Huang Wude, the big spy leader, looked around, until the people around him retreated knowingly, and then he whispered: "Your Majesty can still be angry because of something, isn't it because of the Queen Mother?" ”

Zhao Yan also reacted immediately when he heard it, Zhao Shu's body had almost recovered during this time, but the power struggle between him and the Empress Dowager Cao had become more intense, and I didn't know what the Empress Dowager Cao thought, this time she actually held the power in her hand to the death, and as a result, Zhao Shu was angry, but there was no way, the biggest reason why Princess Shoukang has been living with Zhao Yan and not returning to the palace is that she is afraid of getting involved in the battle between the Empress Dowager Cao and Zhao Shu.

"I see, but I heard that Han Xianggong and Ouyang Xianggong have persuaded the Queen Mother and Daddy respectively, so that their relationship has eased somewhat, why is Daddy so angry today?" Zhao Yan asked again with some puzzlement at this time, although he made up his mind not to care about the power struggle between Empress Dowager Cao and Zhao Shu, it did not mean that he didn't care about this matter, in fact, for the battle between Empress Dowager Cao and Zhao Shu, he, Princess Shoukang and others were also secretly paying attention.

Hearing Zhao Yan's words, Huang Wude gritted his teeth angrily and said: "King Jun, things in the palace are complicated, but it's still the old saying, don't be afraid of no good things, just be afraid of no good people, the queen mother was originally a tolerant person, and she didn't pay much attention to power, but this time she was provoked by the villain, so she refused to let go of the power in her hands." ”

When Zhao Yan heard that someone dared to provoke the relationship between Zhao Shu and Empress Dowager Cao, he was even more shocked at the moment, and asked very eagerly: "Who is this person, who has such the courage to sow discord?" (To be continued!)

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