Du Yu smiled slightly: "Fan Xianggong, do you want to test it?" ”

Fan Ning nodded happily, and Du Li immediately asked the iron ballista to be pulled to the test site.

Fanning specially followed behind the iron ballista, looking at the two rubber iron wheels, it was indeed very relaxed, and the iron ballista weighing nearly a thousand catties was actually pulled to the test site by the two of them.

The proving ground has been emptied and is four hundred paces long, that is, in addition to the bed crossbow, the super trebuchet and the fire harrier, all other long-range projectile weapons can be tested here.

The iron ballista was fixed on the launch pad and operated by three soldiers, and three hundred and fifty paces away were dozens of wooden figures, dressed in the armor of Liao soldiers.

"Fan Xianggong, can you start?"

Fan Ning nodded, and Du Yu immediately shouted: "Prepare to shoot!" ”

Two sturdy soldiers pull the chord at the same time, just listening to 'Click!' With a soft sound, the hook was in place.

Another soldier loaded the crossbow box into the crossbow slot, the size was very precise and just right, and he firmly fastened the box with an iron buckle, which could be completed in ten seconds if he was skillfully operated.

The iron ballista was naturally placed on the ground, at an elevation angle of thirty degrees, and the suspension knife was fired on it, and Fanning stepped forward and pulled the suspension knife, 'Boom! With a dull sound of steel strings, the iron box stopped on the firing slot, and thirty crossbow arrows flew out, turning into black dots in an instant.

Three hundred and fifty paces away in the distance, dozens of fake wooden figures fell down as if they had been swept away by the wind, and only three of the twenty fake wooden figures were left, and the other wooden people who were shot fell one after another.

Fanning stepped forward quickly, only to see that some of the dummies that had fallen to the ground had been shot, some had fallen from a strong impact, and most of the thirty crossbow arrows had been damaged by the force of the impact.

Only five of them can be reused, Fanning shook his head, "This arrow will cost at least two hundred yuan, so the loss is too great, and the iron crossbow arrow must be used." ”

Du Li nodded, "I understand, the iron crossbow is still being tested, and the sample will be taken out in a month at the latest." ”

At this time, Fanning asked again: "Is there a honeycomb crossbow that can be operated by a single soldier, and it does not need to shoot five arrows at a time, with a range of about two hundred paces?" ”

A crossbowsmith next to him said: "The individual honeycomb crossbow mentioned by Fan Xianggong, we are also developing, mainly using the rhubarb crossbow to launch, the principle is similar to the iron ballista, and now there are still two difficulties to break through." ”

"What's the difficulty?"

Du Li said: "A difficulty is that the original rhubarb crossbow is a ten-stone crossbow, weighing more than 50 catties, very heavy, now we want to use stainless steel, the middle is empty, the crossbow body can be supported as long as two fingers thick steel, as much as possible to simplify the structure, although it is made of stainless steel, but the weight is lighter at least thirty catties, the first difficulty is that the number of stainless steel is too small, the pig iron of the Song Dynasty is soft, after adding charcoal, although the hardness increases, but it is still not suitable for crossbow body steel, at present we find that there is only one place produced in the steel is suitable. ”

"Where is the steel, Uzi steel?"

Du Li shook his head and said a little hesitantly: "It's stainless steel from the North Island, but it's a pity that the quantity is too small." ”

Fanning laughed, "It's not a big problem, I'll go to the Son of Heaven to discuss how to solve this problem, what are the difficulties?" ”

"The second difficulty is that it takes a lot of strength to pull the string, in the past, the big yellow crossbow needed two soldiers to pull the string, we found a way to make it into a seven-stone crossbow, so a soldier lying on the ground can be pulled by the foot pedal hand, but the premise is that this must be very tall and strong, and the strength is equivalent to a semi-ordinary soldier."

Fanning nodded, "This method can be solved, and it will be necessary to set up heavy crossbowmen in the future, but the important thing is that a thousand heavy crossbowmen can shoot five thousand crossbow arrows at a time, and this is the key, do you understand?" ”

All the officials bowed down together and said: "We will live up to the expectations of the public and develop a single soldier honeycomb crossbow as soon as possible." ”

........

Leaving the crossbow courtyard, Fanning returned to Ouchi, but inside the carriage Fanning fell into deep thought.

The development of new honeycomb crossbows and iron ballistas certainly pleased him, but the emergence of rubber iron wheels and stainless steel crossbows made the weapons of the Song Dynasty gradually change from the wood age to the steel age.

However, the army's requirements for stainless steel are particularly high, and although Beidao has succeeded in putting its own steel into the ordnance superintendent, the output is still too small, and Beidao will soon have to use a large amount of it for its own use, which obviously cannot meet the needs of the ordnance superintendent.

The best way is to fully develop the iron ore in the southern continent, and this matter must be made to make the Son of Heaven and the Zhizheng Hall understand its strategic importance.

For a long time, the imperial court did not pay much attention to the development of the southern continent, and Fanning could not find a suitable opportunity for a while, and now the large demand for stainless steel by the ordnance supervisor has become the best opportunity.

The carriage stopped outside the imperial city, and Fanning took a sedan chair directly to the Ziwei Palace.

After waiting for a while, a eunuch came running and said, "Fan Xianggong, the official family invites you in!" ”

Fanning nodded, and walked briskly towards the imperial study in the apse.

It has been a month since the end of the Youzhou War, and the imperial court's reward has just ended, and the imperial court has taken out 1.5 million taels of silver and 500,000 horses of silk to reward the troops who participated in the war against Liao, including the Laizhou Naval Army, the Hebei Army, the Western Army, and the soldiers who fought at Lou Fu Pass, etc., and the casualties and soldiers were also doubled.

Di Qing was meritorious in guarding the Jingcheng Liao army, and was named the king of Jincheng County, Chong Ge was named the king of Yan'an County, Cao Shi was named the king of Changshan County, Yang Wenguang was named the Duke of Yueguo, and a number of generals who made great contributions such as Cao Wenjing, Yang Ying, Yao Sheng, and Miao Shunli were also awarded heavy titles.

And Fanning was also renamed the king of Chu from the king of Wu, and was rewarded with 100,000 taels of gold.

As for the Liao State, both sides maintained a certain silence, the Liao State did not send any more envoys to sue for peace, and the Song Dynasty did not send envoys to contact the Liao State, and the two sides still maintained a state of war and would attack each other at any time.

Fan Ning came to the door of the imperial study, waited for a while, and the eunuch came out and said, "Fan Xianggong, please come in!" ”

Fan Ning walked into the imperial study, but unexpectedly found that Fu Bi and Wen Yanbo were also in the imperial study, Fan Ning smiled and nodded to the two, stepped forward and bowed, "Weichen see Your Majesty!" ”

Zhao Ji smiled slightly: "Fan Xianggong, please take a seat!" ”

Fan Ning sat down on the chair next to him, and Fu Bi said with a smile: "Xiao Fan Xianggong came just in time, maybe the key to solving the problem lies in Xiao Fan Xianggong." ”

Wen Yanbo also smiled: "The boy who catches money is not a waste of fame!" ”

Fan Ning smiled slightly: "The two prime ministers won't start to call poor again!" ”

Fu Bi glared at him and said: "You calculate the war expenses in the past few years, the little savings in the imperial court's Zuozang treasury have long been tossed away, and the destruction of Western Xia is a bit of a gain, but it can't compare to the war expenses and the final reward expenses." ”

Next to him, Zhao Ji smiled and said: "Fan Xianggong, you understand now!" The two prime ministers began to play with the idea of Neiku. ”

"Your Majesty, the Inner Treasury has had a lot of income in recent years, all the income from the sale of the island has gone into the Inner Treasury, and half of the gold in Luzon Island has also entered the Inner Treasury, and the Inner Treasury has not had any major expenses in recent years, and it should have accumulated a lot of wealth."

Zhao Ji smiled bitterly: "The inner library is in the hands of the Queen Mother, and I have no choice, if you come to ask me, it is better to go directly to the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother will not give me this face." ”

Fu Bi and Wen Yanbo glanced at each other, and at the same time looked at Fan Ning, Fan Ning shook his head and smiled: "I think the income and expenditure of the imperial court should have been balanced, why do you still have the idea of the inner treasury?" ”

Wen Yanbo snorted coldly and said: "As long as the Privy Council does not mention the matter of war preparations, then the income and expenditure of the imperial court are indeed balanced." ”

The imperial study was quiet for a while, and the atmosphere was a little awkward, at this time, Zhao Ji asked, "Fan Xianggong wants to see me, is there anything wrong?" ”

Fan Ning hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, Weichen does have important matters, and it just so happens that the two prime ministers are also here, and this matter is also related to the Zhizheng Hall." ”

Fan Ning explained in detail about his inspection of the crossbow courtyard today, and finally said: "As far as Wei Chen knows, not only the crossbow courtyard needs a lot of steel, but other swords and spears all hope to get high-quality steel, but the purity of the Great Song Dynasty pig iron is not enough, and the quality cannot meet this demand, so we must transport a large number of high-quality pig iron from overseas to make refined steel." ”

Sure enough, stainless steel can bring about a large-scale improvement in war capabilities, which strongly attracted the interest of Zhao Ji, the son of heaven, and he asked urgently: "At present, the high-purity pig iron required for stainless steel, in addition to Beidao, what other overseas production?" ”

"Your Majesty, the North Island is only developed early, it does not mean that the reserves are the largest, the quality is the best, the place with the largest reserves of high-purity iron ore should be the South Continent, its reserves far exceed the South Continent, plus there is abundant high-quality carbon, Wechen strongly recommends that large-scale mining of iron ore in the South Continent and smelting on the spot in the South Continent, Wechen hopes that within two or three years, the South Continent can become the largest steel charcoal base in the Great Song Dynasty."

Zhao Ji immediately said to Fu Bi and Wen Yanbo: "I attach great importance to this matter, and I hope that the Zhizheng Hall will come up with a plan within three days." ”

Fan Ning also said lightly: "If the steel in the southern continent is mined on a large scale, then ordinary pig iron can lift the ban on Japan, and the silver of Japan will continue to flow into the Great Song Dynasty, so why worry about the lack of financial revenue?" ”