In the Wuyan Institute, in front of Zhong Hua's desk, I checked the report handed by Zhong Hua, and nodded while looking at it: "Well, okay, our steel production has increased again, how many catties of soft steel and how much hard steel can we produce this month?" ”

"There are about 35,000 catties of soft steel and about 20,000 catties of hard steel, but now the lower officials are worried that the pig iron material is not enough, or let's apply to the Ministry of Industry?" Zhong Hua leaned over to me and said.

I smashed my mouth and shook my head: "No, at least not now, although the output has come up, but only the production capacity, but no quantity of products, for the Martial Arts Research Institute, it is not an achievement at all, by the way, has the soft steel crossbow been made?" ”

"It's stepping up, and there are about a day or two to make ten mild steel crossbows, and the current output is small, so there is no way to make this thing with assembly production, so I just let a few skilled old craftsmen try to make it." Zhong Hua answered my question. Xuan Ji smiled again: "Master Hongfu, no one believed that steel could be used to make crossbows, if it wasn't for the adults to explain it personally, I'm afraid that now, those old craftsmen are still unwilling to do it." ”

"This doesn't have much to do with me, the most important thing is that we must know how to innovate, know how to be good at using the wisdom of our predecessors to transform, and add our own ideas......" After I said a bunch of things, I squeezed my eyes at Zhong Hua: "Lord Zhong, my construction site there is still short of some soft steel, and it probably needs 5,000 catties, you see ......"

Zhong Hua didn't understand what I meant: "Although the adults come to get it, the adults are in charge of this matter, and now the output of this soft steel is really too eye-catching, but its use is not obvious, the adults are willing to take risks in order to use soft steel, and the lower officials are really admired." ”

"Uh-huh...... Thank you Lord Zhong for your kindness, tomorrow, let people take the money from my family's account, although this official is an experiment, but the money that should be paid cannot be less, after all, we cannot live up to the trust of Your Majesty. I nodded solemnly, almost happy in my heart.

There are many high-rise buildings in Datang, such as the Yellow Crane Tower, Yueyang Tower, which are nearly 50 meters high, and the Fan Pagoda of Guangzhou Fan Temple, which Li Xiaode told me about, are also about 30 meters high. In addition, Yuan Tiangang and they have built the Wentian Pavilion in the back mountain of Qingyang Temple last year, it is said that after it is completed, it must be at least fifty meters or more, and this son naturally cannot be left behind, besides, as the person in charge of the Datang Martial Arts Research Institute, this is also to make my due contribution to finding a way to spend the product, why not.

Besides, I adopt a fundamentally different architectural style from theirs, although it is still a classical Chinese architecture, but the design concept is postmodernism, well, a new term that I invented.

----------------------------------------------------Speaking of this, I am happy in my heart, now Datang's coal production is rising, the invention of coal furnace is not only driving the industry of digging and selling coal, but more importantly, Datang's steel production has also increased by leaps and bounds, because I, yes, because I know what coke is.

Nowadays, there are hydraulically driven piston bellows, and the coke needed for steelmaking is also available, so what is missing? There is nothing missing, plus the innovation of heavy rewards, most of the craftsmen are red-eyed and green to find a way to innovate the steelmaking technology, due to the efforts of the Martial Arts Research Institute, the joint efforts of the upper and lower collectives, including the strong and incomparable creative enthusiasm stimulated by the heavy awards, after many improvements by these masters, now, not to mention the side, just the steel mill set up by the Martial Arts Research Institute, the soft steel and hard steel that are baked every month are nearly 50,000 catties, you know, Datang used to produce only 100,000 catties of steel per year.

As for the technology of steelmaking, Datang used the method of frying steel recorded from the Western Han Dynasty, the raw material of frying steel is pig iron, and the main point of the operation is to heat the pig iron to a liquid or semi-liquid state, and use blasting or sprinkling concentrate powder to oxidize silicon, manganese and carbon, and reduce the carbon content to the composition range of steel and wrought iron. Most of the products of fried steel are low-carbon steel and wrought iron, but if it is well controlled, medium-carbon steel and high-carbon steel can also be obtained.

The original low-carbon steel was not of much use in the eyes of the ancients, making soft swords? Depend on! How can there be so many martial arts masters in the world, and using the popular steel filling method of Datang to make weapons also can't consume so much soft steel and reprocess? It can be, but, it will also consume a lot of fuel, and I am also a half-bottle water expert who has been mixed in major military-themed websites, and I have heard of the production of steel crossbow arms in mild steel, and Datang's crossbows and bows are the most complex individual long-range weapons I have ever seen in the world, so to speak, according to the current production procedures and processes of Datang, the complicated procedures of the process even exceed the production process of artillery, and the production of Datang's long-range weapons is based on the "Examination of Work" at the beginning of the Warring States period to be used as a model for material selection and production.

First of all, the six materials that "take six materials for the bow" are: dry (Zhe, mulberry, orange, papaya, wattle, bamboo, etc.), horn (horn), tendon, glue (deer, horse, ox, rat, fish, rhino), silk and lacquer. Clear selection criteria are specified for each material. The bow production process is really very particular, do the bow dry in winter, soak the horn in the spring, treat the tendons in the summer, and make the bow body together with silk, glue and lacquer in the autumn, and place the bow body in the bow box to determine its shape after winter, and then install the bowstring test in the spring of the next year, just like the treasure carving bow that Uncle Li gave to Xue Rengui, I heard the old craftsman say, just the good bow, the time spent before and after was up to three years. The production time for a normal bow is at least one year.

Sanqing Dao is on top, and it only took nine years for the Chinese to build the atomic bomb in later generations, although the current investment is not the same as that of future generations, but in terms of the number of years of production, this is just a long-range weapon with a conventional surname, which requires so much effort, and it can be imagined how much human and financial resources this has caused.

The Zhou Dynasty bow was divided into six types. Their efficacy also varies. In the late Warring States period, due to the appearance of crossbows, the status of bows was somewhat affected, so the names were not as diverse as crossbows, and most of the time they were only called "bows". The Tang Dynasty bows were divided into four types: long bows, horn bows, slight bows, and lattice bows. The longbow was used for foot combat, the horn bow was used for cavalry combat, and the slight bow and checkered bow were hunting bows and Imperial Guard bows.

However, what is more frightening is the role of the crossbow, the selection of crossbows is more strict, and the selection is very narrow, for example, the crossbow body must be made of hard mountain mulberry wood, the crossbow tip is made of sandalwood, and the crossbow machine must be made of metal, and its string is also a hybrid twisted rope. Although the production time of a crossbow is about a year, due to the narrow selection of materials and the advantages of the bow, these two ranged weapons can survive at the same time.

---------------------------------------------------- the current Datang Dynasty, the use rate of the bow and the use rate of the crossbow is about three to two, the main reason is that the structure of the bow is much simpler than the crossbow, easy to manufacture in large quantities of local materials, light weight, although the range is not as good as the crossbow, but the rate of fire is fast, well-trained archers, the fastest archery can be six to ten times faster than the crossbow, that is, an archer, You can start with the first crossbow arrow shot by the crossbowman, and within the period of time when the crossbowman shoots the second crossbow arrow, six to ten arrows can be shot in a row, and they can be shot at any time, the crossbow is weaker than the bow in this regard, however, the advantage of the crossbow is that the crossbow arrows used are much shorter than the long arrows used in the bow, and the individual crossbow arrows used by the Tang Dynasty soldiers are about thirty centimeters long, while the bow is close to one meter with long arrows, because the flight speed of crossbow arrows is faster, and there is no need for a long arrow body like a bow to fly steadily. The difference in the consumable materials alone is nearly doubled.

Another point is that compared with bows, crossbows are more conducive to aiming, with high hit rate, long range and great lethality, and are quite powerful long-range weapons in ancient times. And in the army of the Tang Dynasty, most of them are recruited by farmers temporarily, and the time for the use and training of the bow often does not meet the requirements, because the shooting skills of the bow are too complicated, a good shooter needs to go through thousands, or even tens of thousands of shots, before he can become a qualified shooter, but the crossbow is different, as long as you can follow the instructions, use the crossbow to standard the target, and buckle the plate machine to hit the best of the best.

Due to the limited mechanism of action, the bow has a poor hit rate. The bow almost completely relies on the archer's own experience to aim, although the arrow has tail feathers as a stable rudder, but the arrow's wind area is large, and the muzzle velocity is slow, the general angle bow from the loose string to hit the target two hundred meters away takes three to four seconds, and the synthetic bow and the single bow are even worse, so the combat bows used by the Tang army are all compound bows.

In order to increase the muzzle velocity of the arrow as much as possible, the elastic force of the bow can only be increased, and the result is that people must use a lot of force to open the bow, and in the process of exerting force, the arm will inevitably produce a large flutter, therefore, the accuracy of the bow and arrow becomes worse, and the method of diffuse shooting must be used to increase the chance of hitting; Secondly, the damage of arrows is small, which is simply not the same as the damage of crossbows.

If you deal with nomads who have no protection or poor protection, this shortcoming of the bow and arrow is not obvious, but when you encounter an opponent who is fully armed and protected by armor, it is difficult to cause fatal damage to the opponent, which is why this son was shot all over with arrows in the first battle of Liaodong, like a hedgehog, and can still kill the flag and capture the flag.

(To be continued)