The first question is agriculture, and the second question is work, but they are all general knowledge questions, and Fu Bi knows all about these contents.

Fu Bi handed the question to everyone and asked, "You should all know the answers to these two questions!" Who's going to talk about it? ”

A group of officials looked at each other, many people's faces were swollen and red, and no one could really answer, Fu Bi was stunned, "You don't know?" ”

An official raised his hand and said, "I know how the linen kaftan is made, but the cotton cloth really doesn't know." ”

Another official said: "Our family used to grow wheat, I know the yield of wheat per mu, I heard my father say, about more than 200 catties, I don't know anything else." ”

"You haven't been in the field yourself?"

The official shook his head, "I started studying at the age of five, and I studied until I was admitted to the imperial examination at the age of twenty-four. ”

Fu Bi asked again, "How many of you are from the countryside?" ”

More than half of the dozen officials raised their hands, and Fu Bi was a little annoyed, "Could it be that you are all like him, you have never touched farm work?" ”

Everyone was silent, which was regarded as acknowledging Fu Bi's conclusion.

Fu Bi snorted, picked up the pen and wrote down the answers, the answers to these two questions he knew, because he had been a county magistrate, concerned about the suffering of farmers, in addition, he visited the textile workshop a few years ago, and knew the textile process of cotton cloth, including rolling, pulling thread, spinning, weaving, these processes are not quite the same as hemp weaving.

Although cotton cloth is very popular now, almost everyone wears it, but how to weave it, there are really not too many people who know, the second question is not completely understandable, but if the first question cannot be answered, it is excessive.

After a while, hundreds of papers were collected, and there were all kinds of answers, but none of them were completely correct, and almost half of the students handed in blank papers.

Fu Bi let out a long sigh, "That's it! ”

He shook his head and turned to leave Taixue.

On their return, Fu Bi and Fanning were in a carriage.

The two sat down, and Fu Bicai said earnestly: "You set up an engineering college before, which is actually a big concession from the imperial court, why are you still not satisfied?" I don't know what to say about you, how many people's interests have been affected by your change, aren't you afraid that thousands of local old pedants will poke you in the backbone? Why did Wang Anshi go to you and give you the dominance, you! Still too young. ”

Fan Ning smiled, "Wang Anshi didn't plan to give me the dominance, this is my condition for supporting him, this matter must be handled by me, this is related to the Han nation, I don't want to be a few hundred years later, only to suddenly find out that the Western Yi people have come far ahead of us, as for some rotten Confucians want to scold me, let them scold, sacrifice the future of the nation for the interests of some rotten Confucians, I can't do it." ”

"But you already have an engineering school, isn't that enough?"

Fanning shook his head, "Most of the students in the engineering college are young craftsmen, and they learn how to make good utensils, not to create, and even many of them are illiterate, which is regrettable.

And our scholars are the smartest, the most creative group, they will record the accidental discoveries of many craftsmen, to study, to understand the truth thoroughly, generation after generation of accumulation, one day they will build their own ploughing machine, one person can cultivate hundreds of hectares of land, they will build a flying machine in the sky, from the capital to Luzon Mansion, an hour will come, will invent the most powerful firearms in the world, launched from Bianliang, can directly blow up the Shangjing of Liao. ”

Fu Bi was dumbfounded when he heard this, "Will these appear?" ”

"It will definitely appear, maybe our generation will not see it, but it will definitely appear in the future."

Fu Bi let out a long sigh, "You have a vision that ordinary people don't have, maybe you're right, although I voted against the reform law, since it must be implemented, then I also hope that it can succeed, just like you said, in a few hundred years, my children and grandchildren will also be able to sit on flying machines and travel in the sky." ”

.........

The boiling education reform law has finally ended, Zhao Ji also specifically found Wang Anshi, all the law reform plans have been temporarily frozen, and the entire imperial court has to focus on dealing with the threat of Liao.

Zhao Ji immediately issued an order, and Fan Ning concurrently served as a privy envoy, and was fully responsible for the war preparations of the Liao State.

The time had gradually come to December, and on this morning, Fanning came to inspect the Firearms Bureau, which is located outside the northern city, covering an area of nearly 1,000 acres after two expansions, including a small hill tens of feet high, in which many firearms tests were conducted.

In fact, the most powerful iron fire thunder in the Song Dynasty has been made in Kunzhou, and no one in the Beijing Firearms Bureau understands its structure, formula and production process, which is the will of the first emperor Song Renzong, he is very aware of the intelligence ability of the Liao State, as long as the firearms are made in the capital, the Liao State will soon learn to get started, and under the temptation of the heavy profits of the Liao State, few people can resist.

Soon after the introduction of various firearms of the Song army, they also appeared in the Liao State, which is very revealing, and the Iron Fire Thunder was born for more than ten years, but the Liao State has never been able to make it, which shows that Song Renzong's decision-making is still very wise.

Fanning came to the Firearms Bureau today because the Ordnance Supervision and Crossbow Institute invented a powerful ballista that can catapult a weight of 50 catties to a distance of 200 steps, which is equivalent to a medium-sized trebuchet.

The ballista was first used to catapult stones, so it was called stone artillery, also called thunderbolt artillery, and it was renamed artillery after a large number of firearms were used in the Song Dynasty, and the artillery of later generations is not the same thing, it is just a ballista.

Compared with trebuchets, the biggest advantage of the ballista is that it occupies a small area and shoots accurately, but the weakness is also obvious, the range is only about 100 steps, compared to the trebuchet with a range of three or four hundred steps, its power is much smaller, but it does not need to be accurate when defending the city, and many large cities have wide heads and can install trebuchets, so the ballista gradually loses its effect.

However, after the advent of iron fire thunder, the accuracy of projection is relatively high, especially in the water battle of large ships, which requires a high-power firearm with high shooting accuracy, whether it is iron fire thunder or fire oil tank, it must be accurately projected to the opponent's ship, and it must be projected at a long distance, the ballista is very suitable, but its range is too short, so it is of great significance to study a long-range ballista for the warship and even the city.

On the test ground of the Firearms Bureau, a strangely shaped ballista is placed on the grass, this ballista is about a foot long, and its principle is a large crossbow, which uses the slowly accumulated elastic force to shoot stone projectiles.

The special feature of this ballista is that there is an iron winch on both sides, and three people at each station pull the iron winch together, and the secret of the improvement of this ballista is that it uses a highly elastic rubber belt instead of the ribbon of the principle, and the ejection capacity is greatly increased, and the firing range has also doubled, generally between one hundred and fifty steps and two hundred steps,

A soldier put a fifty-pound iron fire mine in the shooting pocket, this is just an expired iron fire mine, no need to ignite, the soldier pulled the copper rod below, only listen to 'bang!' With a loud bang, the iron fire thunder was shot out, and it struck a large plank a hundred and fifty paces away with precision.

The surrounding officials looked at Fanning, Fanning nodded and said: "The range has indeed increased, but I still have a small question, for example, the other party's plank is a ship, I hit it, and you have seen it, it did not shoot through the hull, but fell into the sea, unless it is very accurate and waterproof, it explodes at the moment of falling into the water, and the air waves and water waves overturn the big boat, but do you think it is easy to achieve?" ”

The officials of the crossbow courtyard were obviously prepared, and an official stepped forward and said: "There are two plans, one plan is what Xiang Gong said, try to explode before falling into the water, and the impact of the explosion can still hit the other party hard, but this requires the precision control of the Firearms Bureau, which is more difficult, and the other plan is to install sharp spikes in the shell of the iron fire mine, like thistle terrestris, so that it can be nailed to the ship board when it hits the ship." ”

Fanning turned around and asked, "Is there such an iron fire thunder?" ”

A Firearms Bureau official nodded, "Yes!" ”

He immediately sent someone to fetch a special iron fire thunder, on which there were indeed three one-foot-long iron spikes, very sharp, the official said to Fan Ning: "This is called a long nail mine, which was originally used to deal with the city gate, which can be nailed directly to the city gate, and can also be used against the ships of the Liao State." ”

Fan Ning nodded and smiled: "The ships of the Liao Kingdom don't need this kind of long nail mine, ordinary iron fire mines can penetrate it, I just consider using it in naval battles in the future." ”

Fanning thought for a while and said to the officials of the Ballista: "The ballista is generally not placed on the deck, but in the cabin, I suggest adding a tube in front of the ballista, the tube extends out of the cabin, and the iron fire and thunder are shot out directly through the tube, is it feasible?" ”

Several officials thought for a moment and said, "It shouldn't be a big problem!" ”

"There are also safeguards, if the ballista fails to eject, or if the ejection fails, there must be a way to quickly send the burning iron fire mine into the sea, and must not blow up your own ship."

"This ..... Let's go back and think about it! ”

Several officials had big heads, and they immediately thought of a backup ejection, but it was possible, but it was necessary to think about it.

"Xianggong, it may take a month or two."

"All I need to do is install the ballistas on thirty ships by May next year, and I don't care about anything else."

.........