Five miles outside the barracks of the Southern Navy, in an open space, Xu Hong was busy directing the craftsmen to place the bed crossbow on the big donkey cart on the ground, and several warsmiths had also begun to connect the separate winch with the bed crossbow, and several operators who came with him also took off the single clothes on their upper bodies and tied them around their waists, with a eager posture, ready to get on the winch at any time to charge up the crossbow strings of the bed crossbow.

"Don't worry, don't worry, it's not really a war, clamp the crossbow arrow tightly, the arrow slot must be tightened, otherwise you won't be able to aim!" Xu Hong was like a military strategist, trotting back and forth around the bed crossbow to command everyone, from time to time instructing the crossbowmen on the side of the bed crossbow a few times, and suddenly turned his head to shout at the soldiers on the winch, either because they were too fast, or in the blink of an eye, he scolded them for not having enough to eat.

As the muscles of the soldiers on the winch were tensed, the winch and the crossbow strings began to make intermittent 'creaking' sounds, and Xu Hong also raised his arms just right to swing at everyone, and then turned his head and glared fiercely at the operators on both sides of the bed crossbow, and scolded the two of them: "Okay, okay, what to see?" Hurry up and get on the card, get on the card! ”

Hearing this, the two operators were stunned, and then nodded again and again, and forcefully fixed the crossbow string on the teeth, and then the two of them dodged two steps to the side, and at the same time set their eyes on the shooter behind the bed crossbow.

The shooter is now standing behind the bed crossbow, and one of his feet is lightly on the pedal that can control the bed crossbow launch, as long as he steps down hard, the teeth of the crossbow string stuck on the surface of the crossbow groove will be released, and the crossbow string will be rapidly retracted due to the sudden release, and then the crossbow arrow in the arrow groove will be fired.

"Brother Li, let's start?" Xu Hong took a deep look at the launcher, and then looked at the bed crossbow, the crossbow arrows made of pure iron that were lying quietly in the arrow trough were thicker than the thumb, emitting a faint glow in the sun, but they would inadvertently make the people who saw it feel extremely harsh, and even when the busy people were sweating, they also exuded a coolness that seemed to be nothing.

Especially the extremely sharp arrow clusters that have been deliberately polished, the cold light is shining, and people can't help but shiver at a glance.

"Let's start, it's the first time I've seen you." Ding Li didn't think much about it, but after nodding his head and agreeing, the whole person was pulled aside by Qin Mo beside him, and before Qin Mo raised his hand to stop Xu Hong, Xu Hong, who was already impatient, gave an order to the launcher: "Release!" ”

"Boom!!"

As soon as he stepped down, everyone near the crossbow on the bed, including Xu Hong, shook their whole bodies violently, and when they suddenly felt like the earth was shaking, there was a sound in their ears that almost pierced their eardrums.

"Whoosh!!"

The pure iron crossbow bolt jumped out under the impetus of the extremely charged crossbow string, and suddenly tore a gap in the air, although the terrible sound of breaking the air suddenly disappeared, but there were still bursts of tinnitus in the ears of the people who remained in place, and the defenseless and without any similar experience just looked at each other in the buzzing sound in their minds, until a muffled and thick sound sounded in the distance, and everyone slowly turned their heads into the distance.

"Ranging, remember ranging!" Xu Hong, who was in charge of handling the bed crossbow in one hand, was the first to react, and when he shouted at the assistant who was still stunned beside him, the whole person had already jumped out.

Seeing this, Ding Li and Qin Mo glanced at each other, and the two of them also raised their feet to follow Xu Hong's footsteps and chased after them, and those warcraftsmen who made bed crossbows with one hand were naturally not far behind, and even many of them were elderly, and they also chased after each other, lest they fall to the end and not be able to see the first scene of the test results.

Ding Li and Qin Mo's physical fitness was naturally much better than that of Xu Hong, a weak scholar, and when the two of them rushed to the outside of the forest as the target of the experiment for the first time, they stopped and froze in place, staring at a tree trunk that was broken almost from the middle to the sides, and even forgot for a moment to check the pure iron crossbow arrow that had penetrated the trunk and nailed to another tree.

"Shhhh After Xu Hong, who was panting, felt that his chest was already very stuffy, he couldn't help but gasp, until his chest was filled with air, Xu Hong blushed and raised his hand to the cracked tree trunk, and slowly turned his eyes to look at Ding Li and Qin Mo, with an incredible expression: "This, this power is also too big, too big!" ”

"Great! It's really too big! Ding Li immediately nodded and responded excitedly, turned his head and glanced at the location of the bed crossbow, roughly estimated the distance in his heart, and then added in a deep voice: "More than two hundred and fifty steps, such a distance can still have such a killing power!" If this is to replace the tree with a human, how many people will have to be strung together by this arrow?! ”

"That's right! I once saw the bed crossbow used by the Tang army on the battlefield! I have seen it once, at a distance of three hundred steps, an iron crossbow of the Tang Army once passed through the bodies of five people in a row, even if it was the sixth person, it was easily passed through by the iron crossbow, only because there was no strength at that time to pierce the ground, however, there were already three corpses hanging on the iron crossbow! Qin Mo, who had a solemn face, nodded on the side, recalling his real experience on the battlefield for Ding Li and the others, although it was simple to say in just a few words, Qin Mo's expression was extremely serious, and even Ding Li and Xu Hong's faces gradually became solemn.

This bed crossbow is definitely a big killer, just from what he just saw and the news he got from Qin Mo's mouth, Ding Li knew that the bed crossbow must be a weapon to defend the city, as long as he thought that the towering city wall was covered with such bed crossbows, and even the enemy army a mile away could become the target of the bed crossbow, Ding Li became more and more in love with the bed crossbow that Xu Hong had just led people to make and research.

Although Ding Li couldn't predict how powerful the bed crossbow would be in siege warfare, he was already very satisfied that it could be used to perfectly defend the city.

In the blink of an eye, the craftsmen and the accompanying soldiers arrived at the scene, and they were all shocked when they saw it clearly, and with the arrival of Xu Hong's assistant, the accurate distance measured also came out.

Two hundred and seventy-two steps, a little more than four hundred meters, under the nods of Ding Li, Xu Hong and others to express their satisfaction, Qin Mo, who had already frowned on the side, suddenly shook his head and said dissatisfiedly: "It's too short, the distance is too short!" The Tang Army bed crossbow I have seen once has a range of at least four hundred paces! ”

"Huh! We shot the trunk of the tree, otherwise it wouldn't be less! Hearing that Qin Mo questioned his merits, Xu Hong was immediately unhappy, and stepped forward with a look of disbelief.

"Even if there is no tree trunk, it will not exceed four hundred meters, if you don't believe it, Xu can join the army and give it a try!" Qin Mo was not polite when he spoke, but he was indeed aiming at the truth, and immediately raised his hand and pointed to the bed crossbow in the distance, and also responded to Xu Hong not to be outdone.

"Try, try." Xu Hong was naturally not convinced, and he was about to make a bet with Qin Mo with his neck, but suddenly saw that several of the military craftsmen who were most familiar with him on weekdays were all looking at him, how could Xu Hong, who was quick-witted, not understand, and immediately comprehended, and at the same time, his tone suddenly decreased, he shook his head, waved his hand at Qin Mo with a look of not wanting to care, and explained to himself: "What if you can't do it?" We weren't really experts, and this was just the first experiment, so can you guarantee that we won't be able to build a bed crossbow at 400 paces? ”

"Don't dare, don't dare, Xu joins the army, this is heavy! Qin Mo naturally didn't dare to have this thought! Seeing that Xu Hong took the lead in showing weakness and softness, Qin Mo didn't care about it, and he also understood that what he said just now was a little reckless, and while responding, he apologized to Xu Hong slightly, which made Xu Hong and the warcraftsmen who dared to be angry and dare not speak look a little better.

"Actually, everyone has done a very good job, Xu Hong is right just now, after all, everyone didn't come out of the weapons prison, and being able to make a great contribution right now is already a great achievement, not to mention that everyone has never seen a complete bed crossbow!" At this time, it was time for Ding Li to come out and speak, smiled and waved his hand at the people on both sides, and praised the military craftsmen a little by the way, and then did not forget to pat Xu Hong's shoulder and encourage: "Good job, continue to do it, this kind of bed crossbow, we have to make it ourselves!" Moreover, we have to do it in batches! This thing is good, and it's easy to take one as ten! If you have a terrain advantage, you can do it with one hundred! ”

"Hey, that's nature!" Xu Hong was not pretentious in front of Ding Li, nodded without modesty, and smiled proudly.

After patting Xu Hong's shoulder a few more times, Ding Li turned his gaze to the warsmiths with a smile, raised his hand and pointed to the bed crossbow in place, then turned around and pointed to the iron crossbow nailed to the tree, and asked everyone what they thought: "As for the question of this range, I don't know what you have to do?" For example, where to start improving? Is it a problem with the bed crossbow, or is it this iron crossbow? ”

"The winch is not strong enough!" Before Ding Li's words were finished, a warsmith stood up as if he was in a hurry to perform, but before he could say the detailed reason, a companion beside him rushed forward, first arched his hand towards Ding Li, and then threw a disdainful glance at the former, and then said in a deep voice: "General, in my opinion, it should be the material of the crossbow string, and a better crossbow string should be chosen, otherwise there must be a certain lack of power accumulation!" ”

"General, I think it's the iron crossbow that needs more improvement!" As soon as the words fell, another warsmith took two steps forward to block the two companions behind him, clenched his fists at Ding Li, and loudly proposed: "The reason should be found in the weight of the crossbow and the tail feather, including the arrow cluster!" Because the trajectory of the iron crossbow just now obviously deviated too much from the pre-emptive! ”

As he spoke, the man stretched out his hand and pointed to the south of the group, and then continued to add: "General, please see, the target we aimed at in advance is already more than three steps away from here!" If the firing range is only increased without changing this mistake, I am afraid that even if the firing range reaches 400 steps, when it reaches the battlefield, our army's bed crossbow will not be able to accurately hit the target, and it will even become a handle for the enemy to ridicule, and it will also have a bad impact on the morale of our soldiers and soldiers! ”

"Oh?" Ding Li was slightly stunned, he didn't expect that the inconspicuous-looking middle-aged craftsman in front of him would have such insight, and while looking at the other party thoughtfully, he slowly nodded and asked softly: "What's your name?" ”

"Back to the general! Villain Moyang! The middle-aged craftsman clenched his fists again and replied loudly with his head down.

"Good name! This crossbow problem will be handled by you in the future! If there is any difficulty, just ask Xu to join the army to solve it! Ding Li's eyes turned, nodded slightly and applauded with a smile, turned his head to Xu Hong, and then looked at the other red-eyed warcraftsmen who revealed deep jealousy in their eyes, and shook his head and sighed: "In fact, no matter at any time, it is the best to see the problems that you find, and the only thing that is the most difficult is your own problems that you can't find or don't want to find!" ”

"If you can work closely together as a team without selfishness, I don't think the four-hundred-meter bed crossbow will stump you! Go for it! I believe in you! A bed crossbow of 400 steps, it's really not that difficult! Ding Li, who looked at everyone helplessly, took a deep breath, raised his eyes and looked at the Southern Navy barracks in the distance, but his eyes revealed hope for the future, and he expressed his feelings to everyone without reservation as he walked.

When the words fell, Ding Li had already walked more than ten steps away, but Ding Li's figure was suddenly, he raised his arm and waved at the military craftsmen behind him without looking back, and dropped a sentence that surprised everyone but was extremely surprised: "But don't worry, I will find an opportunity to help you get a Tang Army's bed crossbow in the next two days, and let you study it well!" ”