Chapter 218: Master Sid

It's hard to say, but the problem is that there is no way to retaliate against the whales on the other side of Whale Island, and if you want to take revenge on the whales, you must at least have a whaling boat. Lorist had been to the Ruins Islands, where the natives were all good whalers, but they drove canoes like wolves rounding up bison, attacking with spears soaked in paralyzing venom......

Unable to rally the sailors to learn from the natives of the Ruins Islands, Lorist now needed a large whaling ship, so he went to the shipyard and gathered all the leaders of the craftsmen to discuss how to build a whaling ship.

The original three training ships were no more than 24 meters long, and the returning sailors reported that the giant whale that crushed the first training ship was more than 30 meters long, so the whaling ship to be built would have to be at least twice as large as the whale to compete with the giant whale. Lorist got the idea into the sail cruiser of his own design, which had already laid the keel.

The 75-metre-long sail cruiser designed by Lorist was different from its predecessors in that there were many giant trees in the Black Forest, and it was easy to find suitable wood instead of splicing the keel, which added a lot of convenience to the construction.

Since the sail cruiser was to be converted into a whaling ship, the watertight compartment had to be doubled to prevent it from sinking by whale strikes, and one craftsman suggested that the exterior of the ship be covered with a layer of 20 centimeters thick, and the two layers were connected by long copper nails. Although the speed of the boat was slowed down and the weight was increased, the hull was stronger and less prone to cracking in the event of an impact. Lorist happily took this advice and rewarded the craftsman with ten gold medals.

The plan to convert a cruiser into a whaling ship was quickly decided by Lorliste's heavy bounty. But another problem that needs to be solved urgently lies in front of Lorlist. It's already November. Winter is coming. On snowy days, it was impossible to continue shipbuilding.

Lorist wanted to build a huge wooden house that could be built by putting a boat inside the house. However, there is no way to draw the drawings, such a huge house is simply impossible to build with the current construction level and conditions. At this time, Daddy Barleck came up with a solution, that is, there is a huge karst cave under the cliff behind the open space where the shipyard stacked timber, if the hole is enlarged, then the hull can be built in the cave, and when the spring comes, the built hull will be pulled outside and then the mast will be erected and other later work. This will take less than a month to complete.

Lorist went to inspect the cave himself, and found that it was very spacious, and immediately decided to take the advice of Papa Balek and build the hull of a whaling ship in this cave in four months of winter, not one, but two at the same time. He also told Papa Barrick that manpower was not a problem, and that he believed that those who had nothing to do at home would be happy to work in the winter to earn some money, and the family would pay for all the expenses they needed, as long as the quality and speed were ensured.

After leaving the shipyard, Lorist rushed to the Blade Mountains with his battalion of guards. This time, he was going to the Xuaniron refining base that Master Sid was in charge of.

As the saying goes, if you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your weapons, although the steel crossbows on the chariots are more than enough to carry them to the ship to deal with the whales. After all, the skin of the whale is not as tough as the fur of the monster, but the whale is huge, and the crossbow arrows of the chariot steel crossbow do seem to be a little shorter, and Lorist is not ready to shoot the whale and finish it, the whale is full of treasures, whale meat, whale skin, whale fat is the best treasure. Even the ribs of whales are the best material for making umbrella bones.

If you install a super steel crossbow on the ship, you are afraid that the whale will be killed by one blow, and the whaling ship will not be able to stand the strong vibration and crack. So Lorist went to design another ballista mounted on a whaling ship, with a cable of several hundred meters, and the crossbow arrows were in the shape of harpoons, and after shooting the whale, the whale carcass could be dragged back to the dock with a cable connected to the harpoon-shaped crossbow arrows......

Master Sid thought that Lorist was here for the 100,000 sets of standard equipment ordered by the Fisabrun family, and he patted his chest and asked Lorist to rest assured that there was no problem in making 8,000 sets of fine iron armor pieces a month, and he was only responsible for providing the armor pieces of those standard armor here, and then transporting the armor pieces to the weapons production base, and the workers there would assemble the armor pieces on the leather armor, and it would become a set of standard equipment.

Immediately afterwards, Master Sid took Lorist to see his latest achievement, that is, the trebuchet that Lorist had commissioned him to improve last time, and when he arrived, Lorist was surprised. The original design of the trebuchet he designed was actually a return gun, or a lever trebuchet, which was huge and cumbersome. What appeared in front of him now was a six-wheeled catapult, except that the torsion noose of the catapult brake had been replaced by a wire spring.

Lorist originally wanted to design a torsion noose, but he couldn't remember how the torsion noose made of animal tendons and hair was wound to start the trebuchet, so he had no choice but to choose a lever trebuchet. Unexpectedly, Master Sid actually gave him a surprise, replacing the torsion noose with a wire spring, and also made a catapult.

"Master Sid, how did you come up with the idea of using wire springs to make catapults?" Lorist was ashamed, in his previous life, it was a society with rapid development of industrial science, but he didn't expect to solve the problem so easily, and he knew that he racked his brains to recall the details of the torsion noose catapult that he saw on TV that replicated the ancient Roman period, which was really embarrassing for the traverser.

Master Sid was proud, touched his goatee and said modestly, "My lord, this is an accident. ”

Pointing to the row of hydraulic forging machines under the waterfall on the other side of the valley, Master Sid recalled: "The reset of the largest hydraulic forging press in the past has always been a big problem, and we always use a U-shaped steel circlip to reset it, but this kind of steel circlip has a lot of loss. There was a time when the steel leaf circlip could not be connected, and the original one had no elasticity, and the gap was very large, so we simply twisted it and put it in again. I didn't expect that. It's back to work. And it was used several times longer than the original circlip.

When I was asked to improve the trebuchet, I thought of this circlip with a torsion ring in the middle, so I experimented with it and found that the circlip made of steel wire worked best. But now I think it's more appropriate for adults to call this kind of wire circlip a wire spring, and it will be called a wire spring in the future. ”

"Your Excellency, look here......" Master Sid pointed to a fan-shaped metal plaque attached to the wall of the catapult, with five straight lines engraved on it, and a few lines written on it: "This is the distance we have obtained from the test." The top line indicates that the distance of the stone throwing rod is 100 meters if it is level with this line, and the bottom line means that the maximum distance of the stone throwing is about 500 meters, but this requires our special round stone projectile. Throwing irregularly shaped stones has an effect on the range......

You see, my lord, this catapult is made of steel and wood, which is firm and reliable, although the body underneath requires six wheels, but this is due to the stability required when the catapult is launched, and the weight of the chassis of the car has to be increased. Catapults are a bit slower, but they are very dexterous and convenient, whether they are marching or stationing. It's ready to throw and launch at any time, especially since it only requires three people to maneuver.

One person in the car. One person carries stone bullets, and another person fires them. My lord, you see that this iron wheel is to turn after throwing stones, put the stone throwing rod on the metal plate and the straight line that is ready to be thrown, and then let people put the stone bullet into the iron pocket on the head of the stone throwing rod, and finally pull the lever next to the iron wheel, and the stone bullet will be thrown. ”

"Master Sid, you've surprised me, you're a genius mechanical designer. So is this trebuchet ready for mass production now?" asked Lorist.

"My lord, I think there are still two shortcomings in this catapult, one is that the maximum throwing weight is only fifty catties, and the other is that the durability of the wire spring is not satisfactory. Generally, it has to be replaced after nearly 100 throws. I tried many ways to improve the strength of this wire spring, but I didn't succeed. Master Sid took the initiative to speak out about the catapult's shortcomings.

"No, Master Sid, you're doing well. The durability of wire springs is a matter of material and has nothing to do with your design. As for the maximum throwing weight, fifty pounds is already very good, because no matter how heavy it is, it will affect the agility and speed of the catapult. If these two deficiencies are not a big deal, you can start mass production of 300 catapults, and I am going to form a catapult battalion. Lorist said.

"As you are, my lord, I will arrange for the manufacture to be done as soon as possible. But my lord, aren't you going to see how the trebuchet you designed is improved?" said Master Sid.

"Oh, you've even modified mine?" Lorist wondered what Master Sid would do to make that lever trebuchet look like.

Master Sid led Lorist to a four-wheeled carriage that was loaded with things and covered with a large tarpaulin. Master Sid called five men and told them to pull the wagon to the open space next to it and assemble the contents of the cart.

The tarpaulin on the carriage was lifted to reveal strips of square wood and steel fittings. Lorist understood, this was an assembled trebuchet. Sure enough, in less than half an hour, a lever-type trebuchet with a height of five meters appeared in front of Lorist.

"My lord, the only drawback to this trebuchet you designed is that it takes time to assemble, and the operators have to be trained to assemble it in the shortest possible time. However, its advantages are also obvious, the maximum throwing weight can reach one hundred and fifty catties, and the farthest distance can reach more than six hundred meters. So I designed the trebuchet to be assembleable, so that even if it needed to be moved, it could be quickly disassembled and transferred to a wagon for travel elsewhere. Master Sid introduced.

"Yes, you have done a very good job, and you have designed it very cleverly, and with the catapult and this assembled trebuchet you have designed, I believe that there is no fortified fortress that can stop the progress of our family's armed forces. Lorist praised.

"Well, Master Sid, I'll make me ten of these assembled trebuchets, and I'm going to make a battalion out of two hundred catapults and ten trebuchets, and call it the Thunderbolt Battalion. Write a report on the cost of manufacturing catapults and trebuchets and give it to me, and I'll approve the funds right away. ”

"Thank you, sir. Master Sid said.

Schward, who was following Lorist to take notes, reminded: "My lord, has the commander of this Thunderbolt battalion you are going to form have been chosen, and is this battalion going to be classified as top secret?"

Lorist thought for a moment and came up with an answer: "Schward, record the order, transfer Ovikis, the commander of the 1st Guards Battalion of Rock Castle, as the commander of the new Thunderbolt Battalion, and order him to transfer half of the tested family soldiers from the 1st Guards Battalion to join the Thunderbolt Battalion, and the shortage of personnel will be supplemented from the veterans of other units.

Order 2, the family knight Paul Binns was promoted to commander of the 1st Guard Battalion of Rock Castle, and the battalion vacancy was replenished by the recruit battalion. In addition, this Perak camp does not need to be classified as top secret, it can be classified as secret. ”

"Yes, sir. Schward took note of the order and handed it to Lorist to sign and seal, and then stuffed it into a silver cylinder and handed it to the guards to send out quickly.

"By the way, Master Sid, I'm looking for you for something else. Lorist pulled Master Sid, who was about to leave: "The family sailor battalion was attacked by whales during training offshore, and two training boats were capsized, resulting in heavy losses. I'm going to pack up these whales, the shipyard is already building large whaling ships, but a large crossbow is needed against whales......"

"Large crossbows, my lord, you should go to Master Falin......" Master Sid wondered, Master Falin, the person in charge of the crossbow-making workshop not far away, was a professional master of making crossbows.

"Master Falin, hehe, he can't. Lorist shook his head: "Master Falin is indeed specialized in crossbow and bow making, but he is accustomed to following steps step by step, and he does not have innovative concepts in his mind, so he is complacent. So I can't entrust him with such an important matter, and the time is very tight, and it must be finalized after the spring of next year, so I think it is more certain that it will be handed over to the master. ”

Lorist's compliment made Master Sid feel very comfortable, and he smiled and said, "Since the adults look at me like this, then I will try it, but I hope that the adults can let Master Falin cooperate with my research, and with him, I can also have questions that he can answer......"

"Okay......" Lorist agreed, turned his head and ordered: "Schward, go to the crossbow factory over there and invite Master Falin here, and then bring a few guards to the crossbow factory to move the spare chariot steel crossbow and the super steel crossbow left here......"

"Yes, sir. ”

Master Sid is most interested in the super steel crossbow, and even wants to test fire it himself, which scares Lorist and Master Falin into a cold sweat, a sturdy family soldier has to rest for an hour after shooting, Master Sid, who has old arms and legs, must die on the spot when he goes up to test the shot. It wasn't until Lorist ordered one of the guards to shoot an arrow that Master Sid realized that this thing was not so easy to shoot.

"My lord, can you tell me the detailed requirements for the kind of large crossbow you want?" asked Master Sid.

Lorist picked up a pen and paper and drew a crossbow arrow first, and the people next to him who saw the crossbow arrow pattern gasped. A total of three meters long crossbow arrows have half a meter of arrows, a three-edged pointed cone with blood grooves sunk on three sides, a three-edged barb behind the arrow, and a ring behind the arrow, which is used for tethering ropes, and the entire crossbow arrow is made of fine iron.

"The large crossbow I want is to shoot this kind of crossbow against whales, it needs to be bigger than a chariot steel crossbow to fire such a long crossbow arrow. But it can't be as big as a super steel crossbow, and the shock of the shot is so strong, that's on the ship. The distance of the crossbow is between 100 meters and 150 meters, and it is required to ensure that the arrow part can be submerged into the fish, and it will not deviate from the direction when flying with a cable, so the firing force should be strong......"

Master Sid looked at the request made by Lorist on the paper and pondered for a long time: "Okay, my lord, I have a plan in my heart. I'm trying to make this crossbow for adults within three months. ”

"Alright, I'll leave this matter to Master Sid. ”

...... (To be continued.) )