A month has passed since the victory of Yanshan, and the people of Bianliang, Tokyo are still immersed in the joy of recovering Youyan, and the major newspapers are writing all kinds of articles about Youyan at length, and the people never get tired of reading them, and the restaurant teahouse is talking about Youyan all day long.

At noon on this day, the Huang Jianzui Restaurant at the entrance of Jingcheng East Street was very lively, and the lobby on the first and second floors was full of drinkers, who were all old customers, many of whom knew each other, and chatted very casually and refreshingly.

At a small table by the window sat a young man in a gauze hat, pouring himself a drink, very leisurely, this young man was Fanning, but his appearance had changed slightly from usual, with a beard and thick eyebrows.

Fanning is of course wearing makeup, the Intelligence Department has recently invented a human skin mask, fake beard, fake eyebrows, and it completely changes a person when it is pasted on the face, Fanning has no choice, there are too many people who know him, he will be recognized wherever he goes, and then surrounded by enthusiastic people, so that he loses the freedom and fun of going out alone.

These days, he likes to go to various restaurants to drink and eat, and in order not to be recognized, he asks the Intelligence Department for a beard mask and eyebrow stickers, and no one recognizes him anymore, so that he can enjoy himself again.

Of course, there were still some of his guards, and just diagonally opposite him, two big men with strong physiques were also drinking, but their eyes were looking around vigilantly.

Fanning picked up a glass of wine, Huang Jianzui is an old brand of teahouse, the year before the beginning of the restaurant, its wine is very mellow, put a little osmanthus, the faint fragrance fascinates the drinkers, Fanning also likes its osmanthus sake very much.

At this moment, a discussion caught his attention.

"Youyan has taken it down, when will Datong Mansion and Yunzhou be taken down? In the sixteen states of Youyun, we took Youzhou, Pingzhou, Jizhou, and Yizhou...... Where else? ”

Someone next to him added: "There are also Danzhou, Shunzhou, Zhuozhou, Fuzhou, Wuzhou, Xinzhou, Ruzhou, and Ulzhou." ”

"Yingzhou, Shuozhou and Huanzhou have also been taken."

"That's right, now there is only Datong Mansion Yunzhou left, take Datong Mansion, and the sixteen states of Youyun will be complete."

"Yunzhou is not easy to take, I heard that there are 30,000 elite cavalry stationed there, and our Great Song Dynasty is not an opponent of the Liao army in terms of cavalry."

"No, it won't! We raised 100,000 horses in Kunzhou and took Hexi, and I heard that the total number of horses in the imperial court has reached 500,000, and it won't even be able to defeat 30,000 cavalry, right? ”

"It's not a problem with horses, it's a problem with cavalry, the Liao army has lived on horseback since childhood, everyone is a master of equestrianism, and the cavalry of the Song army is really no match for them on horseback."

At this time, a middle-aged man said: "I sent a letter to the Imperial Court yesterday, putting forward my suggestion, I propose to recruit a Qiang cavalry in the Hexi Corridor, I think I can fight with the Liao cavalry." ”

"Recruiting Qiang people into the army, I'm afraid of raising tigers!"

"It doesn't matter, when the war is over, just disband them."

"Let's honestly train the Great Song cavalry! The foreigners can't count on it, and I think it's the right way to develop new weapons against cavalry. ”

Fanning nodded secretly, the last man had a point, and developing new weapons against cavalry was the right way.

........

Coming out of the restaurant, Fanning got into the carriage, he tore off his beard and eyebrow stickers, put them in a box, and restored his original appearance.

The groom asked outside, "Is the prime minister going back to Ouchi?" ”

"Nope! Go to the Ordnance Prison Yard. ”

The carriage slowly turned around and headed northwest of the capital.

The Ordnance Prison is a separate weapons department, responsible for the research and development of bows, crossbows, trebuchets and ballistas, etc., located two miles northwest of the city, covering an area of about 300 acres, from the outside is a very narrow military camp, surrounded by high walls.

The carriage slowly stopped in front of the gate of the crossbow courtyard, and after a while, Du Li, the official in charge of the crossbow courtyard, came out with two practitioners, who were the eight rank cultivators and served as the head of the crossbow courtyard.

"See Fan Xianggong for his humble duties!"

Fanning got out of the carriage and said with a smile: "I didn't tell you in advance, I'm sorry to disturb you guys." ”

"Where! It is our honor for Fan Xianggong to inspect the crossbow courtyard, please do so! ”

Fanning nodded, and followed a few officials into the crossbow courtyard, followed by several guards.

Fan Ning entered the official office and sat down, Du Li let the tea boy serve tea, Fan Ning took a sip of the tea cup and asked, "How many craftsmen are there in the crossbow courtyard now?" ”

"There are three thousand eight hundred and forty craftsmen, most of whom are responsible for making bows and crossbows."

"I don't mean manufacturing craftsmen, I ask research craftsmen."

"There are three hundred and seventy-seven craftsmen, one hundred bows and crossbows, and the rest of the craftsmen are all working on ballistas, trebuchets and other related weapons."

Fan Ning put down the teacup and asked with a smile: "How did the honeycomb crossbow developed by the Crossbow Academy last time go?" ”

"Samples have been made, but some details need to be refined."

Fanning was overjoyed, got up and said, "Then take me to see it!" ”

........

The crossbow courtyard is very large, consisting of a test site, a research institute, a material warehouse, an assembly site and several major parts of the official office, Fanning came out of the official office, and the side is the test site, and a ballista is testing the launch of a large fire harrier in the distance.

The fire harrier was successfully developed in the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and it was the earliest kind of firearm, which was made of paper to carry burning gunpowder and carry out long-range fire attacks, generally thrown by hand or fired with a crossbow.

After a hundred years of continuous improvement, the Fire Harrier has been able to fly three miles away to attack the enemy's camp.

Now that the Ballista is experimenting with a large fire harrier and firing it with a ballista, Fanning is a little interested, stops and asks, "How far can this fire harrier fly?" ”

"If you launch at a high place, you can fly up to ten miles, and if you launch on flat ground, you can fly about six or seven miles, which is twice as long as a traditional fire harrier."

"Was it successful?"

"It's basically successful, if Xianggong is interested, you can go outside to demonstrate."

Fanning thought for a moment and said, "Next time!" Let's go see the honeycomb crossbow first. ”

Everyone came to the research institute and walked into a courtyard, there was a medium-sized ballista in the yard, first of all, the wheel made Fanning's eyes light up, it turned out to be a rubber iron wheel, which is also a key project developed by the Ordnance Supervisor, using iron wheels and iron shafts to replace wooden wheels and wooden shafts, and then using rubber tires, the civilian has succeeded, but the Ordnance Supervisor should be made more convenient and strong.

The ballista is also made of pig iron, and although it is not large, it has a more powerful firing power.

Du Li introduced: "This is our latest development of the iron ballista, weighing 800 catties, can shoot 50 catties of iron fire and thunder to 150 steps away, is currently the most powerful ballista in the world, although it is very heavy, but a horse can be dragged forward, but the distance is best carried by a cart or boat." ”

Fanning stepped forward to take a closer look, and the iron ballista was very well-made, with a winding copper rod on each side, which meant that two people could manipulate it.

Du Li explained: "Because the iron ballista is not large, it can only be operated by three people, two people on the steel wire string, and one person on the crossbow box, there are special requirements for the winding soldiers, and they must have a lot of strength, at least they can open a five-stone waist crossbow, otherwise they can't be opened." ”

"Mighty Soldiers can be picked, but I now wonder how to get the arrows?"

Du Li waved his hand, a craftsman hugged an iron box, Du Li handed the iron box to Fan Ning, "This box has thirty crossbow arrows, each crossbow arrow is eight inches long, it is currently using jujube wood arrow shaft, we are developing a more lethal iron crossbow arrow, please take a look!" ”

Fanning took the arrow box, saw that there was a cover in front of it, tore off the cover, and there were small holes densely arranged inside, and in each small hole there was a crossbow arrow, and the arrows were outside, six horizontal and five vertical, a total of thirty.

"How does that work?"

"Just put it on!"

Du Yu put the iron arrow box into the ballista slot, buckled it on all sides, and said with a slight smile: "This way you can fire, thirty crossbow arrows can be fired at the same time, the range can reach three hundred and fifty steps, and then take the iron box, and then replace it with another sword box, the operation is very simple and convenient." ”

Fan Ning nodded slowly, this is not only a sharp weapon to defend the city, but also a sharp weapon to deal with cavalry, and the Zhuge crossbow has the same effect, but it is more advanced than the Zhuge crossbow, so that the modular arrow box can be called a leap in science and technology, as long as the Song army has enough pig iron resources, the use of iron crossbow arrows is not a problem at all.