On this day, the fat man came back from the north.
He did not disappoint Simon and brought back everything Simon asked for - fire arrows, small clay pots, pitch, spare parts and whale oil.
"Thank you for your hard work. Go take a nap in the tower. When you wake up, go roast a rabbit by the firepit." Simon patted the fat man on the shoulder. He was much more haggard than before departure, and it seemed that he had been worried a lot along the way.
The corner tower was completed, but this did not mean that the workers were liberated. In the past two days, Simon asked the workers to polish all kinds of wood non-stop according to his requirements, making them into the styles and sizes Simon needed.
Now that Fatty has brought back the parts, he just needs to assemble these things together, and the trebuchet is complete.
"Master, this is incredible. Your trebuchet looks like a work of art made by the chief engineer of the Italian Kingdom." When the trebuchet on the turret was assembled, Ryan was amazed. said.
Simon didn't know if Ryan was exaggerating in praising him, but he was quite satisfied with the trebuchet.
The counterweight trebuchet was too bulky and unsuitable for installation on the tower, so Simon still chose the torque trebuchet.
This is much more refined than Simon's first work, a simple catapult that was hastily made in Isselburg and even the bark of the tree was not cut off in many places.
"Great, now let's test it and see what kind of terrifying beast the enemies who besiege us will face in the future." Simon said, stroking the stop bar of the catapult, and tied the stop bar in the middle to protect the throw. The cushioning pads of the arms crackled.
"Crunch, crunch..."
Two strong workers worked hard to turn the cross lever on the side of the trebuchet.
The iron rotating shaft, handmade by the old blacksmith of Abeldoorn Port, is strong and reliable, and the rope is stretched tightly. The power arm lay flat with a sharp creaking sound.
The catapult was aimed in the direction of the Rhine. There is a large grassland near the river, and now the grass is covered with a cold "white coat".
This place is perfect for testing the range of the trebuchet.
Gabriel rode his horse to the river and called back the good old Vito who was fishing. Seeing that everything was ready, Ryan nodded to Simon.
"put!"
"clatter!"
Accompanied by the high-speed lifting of the throwing arm and the dull sound of the impact of the cushion cushion, a stone bullet the size of a basketball was thrown fiercely.
Everyone watched intently from the turrets and village walls, and saw the stone bullets drawing a graceful arc in the air, and then, a small piece of snow mist flew up on the grass beside the river.
"Let's go, Ryan, let's see how far we have flown." Simon waved his hand, and walked down the village wall with Ryan, heading towards the village gate.
The rocks flew nearly 170 meters.
This distance is already very good for a small trebuchet on the turret. After all, this stone bullet was the roundest stone that the workers could find temporarily on the bank of the Rhine River near the village. The uneven appearance would make the stone bullet full of variables after it was launched.
Specialized trebuchet stones had to be carefully polished one by one by masons.
"Master, all we have to do next is constant debugging. However, the trouble is that we need a batch of polished and rounded stone bullets." Ryan said enthusiastically.
His pleasures were simple and unpretentious - sophisticated machinery and majestic architecture.
"We have a long time to come. We can first pick out relatively rounded large stones and baskets of small pebbles by the river to use as ammunition." Simon stood on the turret, looking at the workers and villagers picking up stones by the river, and kept thinking. He said slowly.
Simon's heart has calmed down a lot since the turret and trebuchet were officially completed. The sense of urgency and pressure that had been weighing on his heart like an anvil before was relieved a lot.
Ryan heard Simon's answer and nodded in agreement, but he frowned in confusion as he looked at the busy villagers and workers bent over, as well as the baskets of stones loaded on the wagon.
"Sir, I admit that the more ammunition the trebuchet has during the war, the better. However, the number of stones you asked the workers to pick up is also too many. Looking at this posture, do you want to clear all the stones along the river? "
"To be honest, I do have this plan. This trebuchet gave me a lot of inspiration, so some time ago, I asked Bill, the archery team and the shepherds to make a simple but very practical weapon for the villagers. Made of stones For ammunition, the unarmed villagers can defend their homes when the village is besieged." Simon smiled mysteriously, which made Ryan confused.
"What kind of weapon uses stones as ammunition and can be used in large quantities by the villagers to defend the village?" Ryan said to himself, lowering his head and thinking.
He seemed to have caught the answer in the fog. The vague name surfaced little by little, ready to be called out: "Sling?"
"That's right!" Simon nodded in agreement.
"It turns out to be it, the long-range weapon that killed giants!" Ryan sighed with a laugh.
In the Bible, David killed the giant Goliath with a sling.
The sling is very simple to make, requiring only a rope and a small piece of leather spring nest.
In addition, the use of the sling is also very simple.
The user only needs to grab the end of the rope and swing it around the head at high speed. When the speed reaches the maximum on the fourth or fifth circle, the user can release the rope, and the stones in the leather bullet nest will fly out in the tangential direction. Smashing towards the enemy with powerful kinetic energy.
Simon does not require the villagers to be very accurate when the time comes. What he needs is that the villagers can use slings to throw dense stones when the enemy charges outside the wall, which will damage the enemy's morale and body. Of course, it would be best to kill him directly.
The power of the sling cannot be underestimated.
If you throw larger stones, although they cannot be thrown very far, they are very lethal. Three to four shots can break wooden shields and skin shields. If this power hits someone's head, the unlucky guy will most likely be killed on the spot.
After all, in ancient Greece, slingers were used to deal with heavy armored infantry. The huge bludgeoning damage caused by high-speed flying rocks is not something that chain armor can withstand.
Later, due to the improvement of armor technology and crossbow technology, as well as the demise of the Roman legions, the established weapons of slingers and slings gradually faded out of people's sight. Only shepherds and some mountain people in the southern areas use it.
Although using slings now is ineffective against soldiers wearing heavy armor and mail, for most of the conscripted soldiers in the army who have incomplete armor and shields, this is still a cost-effective and highly threatening item. weapons.
Simon bought a lot of ropes from the grocer in Bruen's caravan last time, and then used some of the leather accumulated in the wooden castle warehouse as materials, and made nearly sixty slings in total.
The next period of time was to organize these villagers who had nothing to do in winter to learn how to use slings under the guidance of the old shepherd and Bill.
………………
The closest village in Berg County to the Brockhofer Ferry is the village of Lohausen, not far from the Rhine.
Feful, the lord of Lohausen village, is a fat knight.
Because Lohausen Village is close to the ferry, many caravans will pass through here, and over time, a small market will be formed here.
Feifer, the lord of Lohausen Village, made a lot of money from collecting taxes and running his own bathhouse, so it is not surprising that he has such a fat body.
Like the neighboring Hatuariya County to the north, this place is also a white world shrouded in ice and snow.
Vendors and villagers going to the market came and went in the small market next to the simple wooden wall of the village, selecting or selling goods. The sounds of sellers asking for prices and buyers sitting on the ground bargaining could be heard constantly.
A continuous white air and the rhythmic sound of forging came from the blacksmith shop. The horses in the stable lowered their heads and enjoyed the hay and wheat bran that the groom had just added to the trough. The strong smell of alcohol and the bustle of the tavern floated over. On the street, it drifted out of the village wall and merged into the light snow and fog outside the village.
A strong wind blew by, and the scattered snowflakes in the sky unknowingly became much larger, and the snow fog also became thicker.
At this time, Lohausen Village was undoubtedly the warmest haven for merchants and adventurers.
"Ta da, da da..."
The sound of horse hooves could be faintly heard in the raging cold wind. The soldiers standing guard in front of the gate of Lohausen Village wrapped their cloaks tighter to keep out the cold.
They guessed which poor guy was still riding on the snowy field at this moment. Listening to the faint sound of rushing horses in the snow and fog, they must have been frozen and couldn't wait to come to the village tavern for a drink. There's hot cider.
When the figure driving the horse appeared in front of the two gatekeepers from the snow and fog, the two guys who had been smiling and joking just now were dumbfounded, and froze in place with their mouths wide open.
The men on horseback were scouts at Brockhofer Ferry Outpost. At this time, he had completely lost the arrogant look he usually had when he came here to drink. His face was gray, his lips were purple, and the leather padded armor on his body was full of filth.
"Barry, what happened?" The older guard quickly woke up and rushed to greet him. But at this time, the scout seemed to have exhausted the last bit of strength in his body and fell off his horse.
"My God!" the guard exclaimed. Only then did he see an arrow stuck in the back of the scout lying on the ground. His back was already soaked in blood.
"Pull, sound the alarm, Count Loon's army has crossed the river bank and is coming this way..."
The scout's weak voice was difficult to hear in the roaring wind, but fortunately, the older guard listened to his last words before he exhausted the last bit of life fire, and then stood up with a look of disbelief on his face.
"What's wrong? Our outpost at Brockhofer Ferry was robbed by forest bandits?" The young guard had obviously never been to the battlefield and seen blood. At this time, he was looking away, trying not to look at the scout's body. .
"No, it's Count Loon! His army has crossed the river bank and is heading this way. You go to the village right away and ring the alarm, and I'll go find the lord!"
The older guard knew with his toes that there was no way that Count Luo Wen's army was here as a guest, so without saying a word, he turned around, picked up his legs and ran towards the village gate.
"How could they recruit troops to attack in such a bad snowy day?" The young guard looked shocked, but now there was no time for him to think about this problem slowly.
"Ding dong, jingle dong, jingle dong..."
"What's the sound? Is the mayor of Lohausen Village a stupid wild boar? The market has only been open for a while, and it's already closed before it gets dark?" In the small market, a businessman cursed and complained. Apparently, he mistook the alarm bell for the market closing bell.
"What the hell? Which bastard rang the alarm bell?" On the bed in the tower bedroom, the fat Sir Favre was having sex with a young and beautiful woman. When he heard the alarm bell faintly coming from the entrance of the village into the bedroom, he was furious. He got off the bed, lifted up his pants and walked to the window, "If the naughty little kid from the Woodcutter Ruhe family rings the alarm again this time, I swear I will send him to hell with my own hands!"
However, he found that what was different this time was that on the road leading from the village entrance to the tower, a guard with anxiety written on his face ran over.
