"Fire crossbow?" Ye Zier leaned over to look at Tong Huacheng and asked, "What do you think this newly made weapon in Huaidong is?" ”

In the information that Tong Huacheng sent to Yanjing in the past, there was a mention of the fire crossbow, Ye Zier was on the sickbed and had to deal with a lot of official business every day, and he did not deliberately think about what the fire crossbow mentioned by Tong Huacheng in many previous special folds, but only instructed the West Temple Supervisor to step up intelligence infiltration.

At this time, hearing Tong Huacheng's solemn mention, Ye Zier also cheered up and asked Tong Huacheng if he had more detailed information about the Fuhuo crossbow.

"How can you believe the words of gods and ghosts?" Ye Jiluo Rong frowned, but he was a little disapproving, and said, "Maybe it's a trick done by the Huaidong Military Intelligence Division?" In addition, the Huaidong Ordnance Supervision Organization is huge, and the shipbuilding, engineering, and machine manufacturing departments are also intertwined with it, and it is normal for three or five new words to pop up. Where did the Western Temple Supervisor intercept the secret letter? ”

Previously, the news about the Fuhuo crossbow was only recently reported to Yanjing by the West Temple Supervisor, and Ye Ji Luorong and Fan Wenlan had never heard of it in Luoyang.

"The few secret letters intercepted by the secret death who infiltrated the Southern Dynasty were all conveyed by the Huaidong Military Town Division to the brigade camp......" Tong Huacheng replied.

Ye Ji Luorong didn't care, but when he heard Tong Huacheng say this, his expression became solemn.

Since the garrison was not concentrated in one place, there was still a possibility that the text conveyed by the Huaidong Army Town Division to the brigade camp could be intercepted.

If the "fire crossbow" appeared in the text sent by the town division to the brigade camp, even if this new type of weapon did not reach the point of large-scale installation, it would have reached the point where the first-level generals of the Huaidong Army brigade and battalion should have a general understanding and understanding of it.

"The Danshu forbidden by the Chen Dynasty is said to be ambushed by fire," Fan Wenlan is knowledgeable, he heard the mention of "Fuhuo crossbow" for the first time, and asked suspiciously, "And the Southern Dynasty implemented a new school, merging miscellaneous studies such as engineering and Danshu into the study of things, and the Fuhuo crossbow may be related to Danshu?" ”

"It is true that as Lord Fan said," Tong Huacheng said, "judging from the information gathered so far, the Fuhuo crossbow is indeed very involved in the forbidden pill technique of the Chen Dynasty. In the information collected three years ago, there was a saying that the Fuhuo Sulfur Pill said that at that time, the Western Temple Supervisor thought that this was some kind of ciphertext used by Huaidong, and tried to decipher it, but it only appeared once, and it was impossible to decipher it, and it was also the slave who recently looked through the previous information and accidentally connected ......"

Through different eyeliners and different channels, the information collected from Jianghuai is intricate and fragmented, and it is a very difficult task to process this information and summarize it into useful information - Fuhuo Sulfur Dan may be due to the unintentional leakage of a certain Huaidong craftsman, but it is just a lonely case, there is no law to find, and naturally there is no way to find out what clues.

It's just that the information collected by the Western Temple Supervisor confirms two points, and the Fuhuo crossbow may have been secretly developed by Huaidong three years ago; By this time, even if there was no large-scale equipment of the Huaidong Army, it had reached the level that the brigade and battalion generals should generally know.

Everyone in the dormitory looked solemn.

"Did you summon Wu Mancheng to ask Lord Wu?" Although Fan Wenlan is erudite and knowledgeable, he is not deeply involved in miscellaneous craftsmanship. Of course, there are grandmaster-level figures such as Jiang Yue, Ge Siyu, and Song Shixian in the Chongxue Hall of the Southern Dynasty, and there is also Wu Mancheng, a master craftsman in the Northern Yan.

The heavy art of soldiers can be traced back to the pre-Qin Mozi's "Non-Attack" chapter.

In the early years, the Donghu tribe was only a fishing and hunting tribe, and they had to take out a large number of furs, horses, pearls and jade, etc., before they could exchange for a small amount of salt and iron materials, and the swords, armor, bows and weapons were even more scarce.

This policy has developed into the hands of Yezier, and has reached the point that "no matter whether the Han Hu or the craftsman has a skill, he can be subordinate to the official"; When it comes to attaching importance to craftsmanship and miscellaneous learning, Yanhu, who established the clan and the country with martial arts, actually has a longer tradition than Huaidong.

No matter how much attention is paid to it, the innovation of weapons is quite slow; The tactical innovation involved in the armament is even lagging behind - Beiyan, who specializes in armament and engineering affairs, will be a master craftsman, and the main job is to manufacture more sophisticated armor, and only the Huaidong Army developed by Lin Tie is a strange fetus.

Before the Huaidong Army, the hegemony between mainland forces was mainly concentrated on land; Even after the rise of the East China Sea Kou forces, the development of naval forces in Dengzhou, Mingzhou and other places was mainly based on land defense. Only from the beginning of the Huaidong Army, the large-scale construction of sea ships, the large-scale development of naval divisions, and the development of the battlefield from the land to the sea, almost fundamentally changed the traditional form of warfare.

After Beiyan occupied the north, almost one-third of its resources were invested in coastal defense, which was unimaginable in the past.

Although the stone crossbow, bed crossbow and other weapons have long existed, in the attack and defense of the city, the large-scale use of the stone crossbow, the lathe crossbow into the infantry formation for field warfare on a large scale, are the first of the Huaidong Army. In addition to the larger, stronger, and faster warships that made the Huaidong Navy Division invincible in the East China Sea, the scorpion crossbow, the heavy stone-throwing crossbow, the fire oil tank and other lighter and more powerful new weapons were also the first to be put into use by the Huaidong Army.

The Huaidong Army's many military victories were largely due to this. Including the battle of Miaotanling at the end of the Battle of Jingxiang, the Huaidong Army was able to win by surprise, intercepting tens of thousands of Northern Yan soldiers and horses in Xiangyang City to encircle and annihilate them, and to a considerable extent, it also relied on the construction of suspension bridges.

Focusing on the development of new combat equipment, the Huaidong Army has various superintendents of ordnance, shipbuilding, engineering and mechanical manufacturing; At a deeper level, it is rooted in the new school and new policy that Lin Lian has been vigorously promoting since the rise of Jianghuai.

A strong enemy is always the most powerful driving force for one's own progress; This is especially true for Northern Swallow.

After the Battle of Jingxiang, although there were quite a few people in the princes and ministers of Northern Yan who were unconcerned and resting on their laurels, in addition to Yezier, there were also quite a number of enlightened and pragmatic generals who realized where Huaidong's strategic advantage came from.

Under the impetus of Yezier, the Northern Yan also studied and imitated the new studies and new policies of the Southern Dynasty on a larger scale and in a deeper way - this is also the manifestation of the pragmatic and progressive spirit of the Northern Yan just after the founding of the country, the country's strength is still on the rise, and the officials and generals have a pragmatic and progressive spirit.

The representative of Beiyan Xinxue is Wu Mancheng, who is in charge of the master craftsman department and one of the twelve official secretaries at this time.

Wu Mancheng and Fan Wenlan are both Han people in Liaodong, their ancestors committed crimes in their early years, and the imperial court exiled them to Liaodong to reclaim the famine, married Hu Nu as their wives, and lived in Liaodong in the world, and they have already been given Hu Hua in blood. Qiuye conspired against the case, Sumen confiscated the family and exterminated the clan, the Jingbei border army collapsed without a fight, withdrew from Liaodong, and the Liaodong Han people were repatriated, and could only be attached to Donghu - therefore, the Liaodong Han people had the deepest sense of identity with Donghu, and after Donghu stole the northern land and fixed the capital of the Central Plains, Liaodong Hanchen was the most reused group by Yezier, in fact, including Fan Wenlan, Wu Mancheng and other talents in the world.

Wu Mancheng is good at craftsmanship, workmanship, calendar calculation, etc., and can be said to be the master of the Northern Yan miscellaneous craftsmanship. Scorpion crossbows, heavy stone-throwing crossbows and other new Huaidong combat weapons, Wu Mancheng listened to the oral accounts of the generals who had seen them on the battlefield, and successfully imitated them; Yezir also regarded him as a national treasure.

****************

Half an hour later, Wu Mancheng, who was asleep, was summoned into the palace with a sedan chair, and the time for a cup of tea on the road was enough for him to sober up and sane, and he was summoned into the dormitory. ”

Wu Mancheng sat down and thought about it for a long time, and said uncertainly: "There are artists in the Chen Dynasty Palace who are good at making flame spray plays and are favored, and it seems to have something to do with the Fu Yan crossbow......"

"What's a flameburst?" Ye Ji Luo Rong sat for half the night, and he was also a little impatient.

According to the records of the spectators, the fire pill was used as medicine, filled into the bamboo pipe and ignited fireworks; Used on the battlefield, with startled horses, communication. Wu Mancheng said.

"If so, it's nothing." Fan Wenlan only thought that his heart was empty, and he said with a sigh of relief.

"If it was just a surprise and a summons, the Huaidong Army would not be so solemn." Yezir shook his head. The information of the ambush crossbow was intercepted in the text sent by the Huaidong Army Town Division to the brigade and battalion level, and the relevant information had only appeared once by chance before.

This does not mean that the Fuhuo crossbow is not important, the reason why it only appeared once by chance in the previous intelligence collection can only show that Huaidong's secrecy level of the Fuhuo crossbow is very high, which makes it impossible for the Xisi Supervisor to obtain relevant information from more channels.

Ye Zier thought about it for a while, and said to Wu Wenman and Tong Huacheng: "I will be the division, and try to produce a flame-spraying show as soon as possible and present it in kind; The Western Temple Supervisor needs to send someone to spy on what the ambush fire crossbow is at all costs, so that the Huaidong Army attaches so much importance to it? After you return to Dengzhou, tell Nahe Xiongqi: Although the Huaidong Army does not have a plan to build warships, it should not be taken lightly, and if necessary, the Huaidong Army can requisition merchant ships to replenish the naval division, and the coastal defense line and the Dengzhou naval division must be especially strengthened and combat training, and there must be no negligence ......."

"When Na He Xiongqi built the Lock Coastal Defense Line, how many people scolded him for wasting national funds, and at this time, it seems that Na He Xiongqi still has foresight." Ye Ji Luorong thought of the sea defense line, and still laughed.

Although the shipbuilding scale controlled by Huaidong is nearly ten times that of Beiyan, the shipyards such as Chongzhou, Mingzhou, and Jiangning are still mainly building merchant ships, and have not stopped large-scale transformation of warships. The only warship construction plan in Huaidong, including the two Lin Zhengjun-class warships built in August, was only to maintain the normal replacement of the old and new warships of the Huaidong Naval Division.

From the information collected so far, it cannot be seen that Huaidong will not have a plan to expand the naval division on a large scale in the next year, which also reflects the success of the sea lock defense line from the side, so that the Huaidong sea division that dominates the East China Sea does not have the ambition to forcibly tear through the sea lock defense line and attack the hinterland of Yan Ji.