Obviously, everyone didn't pay attention to Zhao Kuo's words. Of course it's not because of anything else, it's really this catapult, it's, how to say? It's not that it's a matter of power, it's that he doesn't deserve to be compared to a bed crossbow at all.

The bed crossbow, the arrow shot out with the thickness of an arm, and immediately it was the rhythm of a person turning the ground on his back, as long as he was on its route, what heavy armor, what arrow tower, he had to give way when he saw it.

Most crucially, the bed crossbow has a strong directionality. Although it is impossible to change the direction temporarily due to the bulky terrain, as long as it is within the shooting range, it can almost be said to be pointing where to hit.

But what about catapults?

Let's put it this way, these catapults are still in the most primitive stage, the size of the stone bullet is not small, and the power after throwing it is not small, it can be said that a smash is a big pit, but the problem is that there may not be anyone in this pit!

Even if there are people, and they may even be their own people, how can you let the generals use it with confidence.

No way, this is also today's catapult, the most important problem is - there is no accurate head, it depends on the will of God wherever it hits!

It turns out that today's catapults are purely man-powered stone-throwing machines, which are used to pull the tips attached to the crossbar at a distance from the catapult. The gun ends were erected on a wooden frame, one end of which was tied to a holster containing the stone projectiles, and the other end was tied with a number of ropes for the force to pull and throw the stone projectiles.

The problem is that the man pulls, this time the person did not exert the strength, and the next time the person slipped his foot, the pressure applied was different, and of course the stone bullets flew everywhere. If one is not good, and the strength is not enough, there is a risk that the stone bullet will hit your head. As the war continued, the decline in the physical strength of the soldiers was predictable, so the distance of the stone bullets became closer and closer, and even the effect of blocking the enemy army was not great.

Not only that, but from the above process, it is not difficult to find that the catapult has another serious problem: it consumes too much.

Rather than using the strength of dozens or hundreds of people to throw the stone bullet to the place where I don't know if it can hurt people, it is better to use only a few people's strength to put the stone bullet on the head of the city, and then smash it hard, maybe kill and injure a few more enemies.

The last problem is the problem of attack distance, because it depends entirely on manpower, if you want to increase the distance, you must either continue to add people, and adding people means that the number of people on the frontal battlefield will decrease; Either the projectile will be reduced, but lighter means less powerful.

Such a lack of accuracy, a lot of cost, and it can't fight for a long time, and it can't fight for a long time, and the weapons that can't fight hard are naturally not loved by any generals, regardless of offense and defense. Maybe only in the face of the ant-attached attack, there is really no way, so I will pull these guys out, and not for anything else, just to say that the rhythm of the ant-attached attack is slightly disrupted.

However, this is such a big guy that everyone dislikes a little, but in Zhao Kuo's eyes, it is the most rare treasure.

Zhao Kuo knew that with just a little transformation, it could become a "return cannon" that made Mongolia gallop through Eurasia and make countless people tremble!

This may be the power of technological progress.

Seeing that the generals were a little unconvinced, Zhao Kuo didn't explain much, just Zhao Ping was here, so he took Zhao Ping as the leader, led 30 personal soldiers, and 100 elites, and concentrated all the blacksmiths and carpenters in several nearby cities in the city, plus 500 young and strong, to set up an exclusive artillery battalion.

And all the craftsmen, workers, civilians and others who were transferred to the artillery battalion were all registered in the army, and those who dared to leak secrets were considered treason.

When everyone heard this, they were also shocked in their hearts, this general was obviously really moved, and at this time of extreme lack of troops, he actually mobilized so many forces to form the so-called artillery battalion.

You must know that there are only 3,000 young people in training, and one-sixth of them have been withdrawn at once, and what is even worse is this personal soldier and elite, which is the one that every city gate is fighting for when its head is broken.

Especially this personal soldier, a total of only 400 people, everyone knows that this team is bound to bear the heaviest burden of "extinguishing fires", which is almost the general, and it is also the last hole card of Yan and the city.

But the general took out a full thirty people without blinking an eye!

Of course, no one doubted the general's approach, for the simple reason that all those who had doubted it had already been slapped in the face by reality.

Compared with skepticism, everyone is now more and more curious about what kind of miracle this artillery camp can bring to them!

In the midst of everyone's eager eyes, Zhao Kuo chose the site for the artillery camp - just behind the south gate in a private house, all the people in the private house moved out and settled in the north of the city.

On this piece of land, except for a courtyard wall on the periphery to block the view, all the rooms are pushed and opened, and the gravel and soil blocks that are cleaned up are sent directly to the city tower as a supplement to the rolling wood and stone, and the fragile crushing and tamping foundation is crushed on the spot.

Thus, in just one afternoon, a leveled catapult position was formed. Of course, this site serves as both a catapult position for catapults and a place for the transformation of catapults.

Almost simultaneously with the demolition of houses and the leveling of land, the transformation of catapults was carried out.

Of course, such a confidential matter is not something that everyone can easily participate in. And the thirty soldiers transferred by Zhao Kuo had to keep the secret of the transformation of the catapult - except for a few masters and artillery operators who participated in the transformation design, the rest of those who dared to enter this place were killed.

Even the 300 people who operated the cannon were directly selected by Zhao Ping himself, and those who did not have a family in Zhao did not take it, those who were not from a good family, and those who were not loyal did not take it - it was comparable to the selection of personal soldiers.

Even so, Zhao Kuo was still not at ease, and even set up the camp of the artillery in a corner of the artillery array to isolate the outside world. There are pro-soldiers standing guard inside, and there are elite enemies outside, that is, Zhao Kuo himself is nothing more than this pomp.

The things that need to be transformed are all made by the craftsmen in it, and Zhao Kuo adopts the mode of division of labor and cooperation, each person only makes a part, and then collects it by the pro-soldiers, and the pro-soldiers carry out unified assembly.

One is to speed things up, and the other is to keep them secret.

Of course, it's no wonder that Zhao Kuo is so cautious, there is no way, such a technological change, even if he is cautious, it should be. Zhao Kuo didn't want to see his transformed Huihui cannon smash the boulder on his own line in the future battle. Even if Zhao Kuo actually had a way to crack these cannons in his heart.

However, technology is not enough to be one step ahead.

Finally, after arranging a series of confidential work and processes, the transformation of the catapult began vigorously.

The renovation work is difficult to say, but it is actually very simple, just like a layer of window paper, which will never be known if it is not pierced, but once it is pierced, it is not enough.

All of the above problems with catapults, whether it is the accuracy problem, the manpower consumption, or even the final sustainability, as well as the power and attack distance problems, all boil down to the problem of manpower!

Since it is a problem of manpower, let's find a way to solve it, and replace this unstable, uncontrollable, human power with more stable, more vigorous, and adjustable power!

So what kind of power can meet so many of the above requirements at the same time? Quite simply, the power of the earth!

Well, to put it mildly, it is to replace manpower with the mode of gravity.

Using the principle of levers, the original stone-throwing vehicle was modified, and one end of the original hand-pulled car was turned into a fixed wooden box with heavy objects, and the other end was equipped with stone bullets to be fired.

Before firing, the end where the projectile is placed is pulled down with a winch or directly by hand, and at the same time it is fixed with a hook, and the other end containing the heavy object is also raised at this time. During the battle, after placing the stone bullet, the hook lock is unfastened, and one end of the heavy object falls instantly, and the assembled stone bullet is also thrown.

This is the counterweight stone throwing machine that crossed Europe and Asia, smashed countless castles, city walls, and camps, and became famous in the Battle of Xiangyang, which terrified the enemy army - "Huihui Cannon". The magnitude of its power is already the best commentary on the wails of countless peoples in Eurasia.

Such a "return cannon" is not only powerful, but more importantly, it is extremely convenient and simple to operate. Compared with the manpower catapult, such a powerful catapult only needs five people to operate! Three people press the bar, two people reload.

Of course, if it is only powerful, easy to operate, and cannot hit the enemy, it is also in vain.

However, such a stone throwing car, as long as you master the ratio of a counterweight to the thrown stones, you can almost point to where to hit!

Such a simple moment analysis of the lever principle and a physics + mathematics problem of parabolic analysis are naturally impossible to stump Zhao Kuo, who has received a good nine-year compulsory education and graduated from one of the eight famous construction schools. Thinking about those late nights and deformed middle fingers, Zhao Kuo said: Who said that reading is useless?

But the problem is that even if this thing calculates the formula and gives it to these so-called masters, they can't understand it.

And Zhao Kuo, as the commander of the first army, cannot be in the artillery army and command the artillery army all the time.

Fortunately, this thing does not need to be precisely adjusted, Zhao Kuo ordered the production of three kinds of wooden cages, corresponding to the near, medium and far attack targets, respectively, according to the instructions, hang the wooden dragon, and then pile the wooden dragon full, and it is okay. Even if it needs to be fine-tuned, the ability of the master craftsman to reduce the weight if he wants to get closer, and add a few stones if he wants to be a little farther away, such an operation is still understood.

Seeing that the transformation of the "Hui Hui Cannon" had finally come to an end, the Yan army was still several miles away from the city, and even Zhao Kuo couldn't help sighing: "You can't live if you do your own evil!" ”

Some people died, but not completely......