The weather was clear and cloudless, with a gentle breeze blowing. It was a perfect day for work.
When Shulot walked out of the gorgeous main hall, noise and bustle came from all directions. He heard heated arguments, coordinated shouts, and the sound of tools cutting wood. The air smelled of wood and leather.
The young man looked around and saw that the palace of Prince Texcoco had completely changed. The beautiful garden was leveled and work tables and equipment were placed; the exquisite houses were renovated and various raw materials and tools were piled up; pits for drying wood and earthen kilns for firing utensils were built in the corners; the only What remains unchanged is probably only toilets covered with hay and plaster. Maybe you can try to pile saltpeter.
Shulot strode forward. Along the way, everyone bowed their heads and saluted. The young man waved his hand and motioned for the craftsmen to continue. He had already told everyone to put the work at hand first and there was no need to pay homage. In the Divine Enlightenment Hall, craftsmen shuttled back and forth, sweating profusely, and warriors wore strong armor and were heavily guarded.
The center of God's place of revelation is the great temple of His work. Other areas are divided into north and south, with the inner layer to the north being military research and the outer layer to the south being civilian technology.
After a while, Shulot came to the weapons research area in the northeast. A master carpenter in a simple robe is busy attentively.
He operated a large bow with a bow arm. He placed a short, thick arrow with two feathers on the arrow path in the center of the bow arm. Then he pulled the bow string forcefully, fixed it on the slot behind the bow arm, and finally flattened the bow string. Bow, aim at the human-shaped grass target thirty meters away, and pull the trigger under the bow arm. With a "buzz" sound, the short and thick arrow traced a slightly swaying trajectory and pierced the left shoulder of the human-shaped straw target, penetrating nearly half of it.
Shulot watched the master carpenter's operation and nodded slightly.
"Kushinji, you did a good job! You are worthy of being a family of craftsmen passed down in the name of carpenters."
Hearing the sound not far away, the master carpenter Ku Xinji turned around. He was tall and strong, with an old and serious face, without a trace of smile. His hair was also graying, and he looked more like a seasoned warrior, obviously having received an orthodox warrior education.
Seeing His Highness, Kushinki simply performed the courtesy of a warrior. Immediately, he replied loudly, with dissatisfaction in his voice.
"Your Highness, how does this crossbow you are talking about maintain stable shooting? In order to shoot the arrow flat, it can only use two unstable arrows. The arrow body is thick and short, and it has already deflected like this at a distance of thirty meters! How can you say the range is hundreds of meters?"
Facing the imposing master carpenter, Xiulote was speechless. How could he remember the specific crossbow design.
Yes, this is the most important research project in the weapons area, the crossbow. Kushinki is the main person in charge of weapons research.
In the Nahua language, Kushinki means professional carpenter, an inherited honorary title recognized by the royal family. The craftsman family in the capital continues from generation to generation, and only master carpenters with important positions in the main branch of the family and superb skills can inherit this name.
As a master carpenter, Cushing basically worked in the craft center and had a respected position. Since he was a child, he had outdone Kuaud, an old carpenter from the family branch. As a result, Kuod returned with the king this time, and because he presided over the development of the longbow, he became the director of craftsmen, and even the master craftsmen were under management.
Looking at the proud face of his old brother, Ku Xinji couldn't help but sigh. Just as Shulot was setting up a new craftsman center, he took the initiative to apply to join. The master carpenter came to submit, and the young man was extremely happy, and he also gave him the important task of weapon research.
Current weapons research includes: the development of wooden crossbows, the improvement of spears and throwing guns, the research of burning rockets, and the trial production of gunpowder on Tianhuo Island.
It only took Kushinki two days to modify the production process of the three-meter bronze spear.
The spear head of the bronze spear weighs about half a catty and has blades on both sides. It can be chopped slightly outside the thrust. The difficulty of the spear shaft lies in the wood processing. Use hardwood as a pole, which has low elasticity and is easy to break. It needs to be soaked in oil to increase rigidity. Every time the length of the spear body increases by one meter, the difficulty of processing increases exponentially, and the labor cost also increases rapidly.
In terms of the alliance's current productivity and battlefield needs, a three-meter spear is sufficient.
Later, the master carpenter improved the throwing gun into two types: heavy throwing gun and light throwing gun according to Xiulote's requirements. The boy's inspiration naturally came from the ancient Roman legions who were good at using javelins.
The length of the light throwing gun is between 1.5 and 2 meters, and the diameter is about 3 centimeters. It uses flint as the tip and is assisted by a spear thrower. The shooting range is 30 to 40 meters. It focuses on killing lightly armored militiamen or conducting tactical harassment. It is low cost and will be deployed in large numbers for lightly armored javelin skirmishers.
The length of the heavy-duty spear is one meter to one and a half meters, thicker and heavier, with an extremely sharp obsidian as the tip of the gun. The optimal shooting distance should be twenty to thirty meters. Schulot considered casting a lead ball on the front end of the throwing gun to increase its weight and shooting power. In future planning, every Mexican warrior should have two heavy throwing guns, focusing on shooting at the enemy warrior phalanx in cloth and leather armor, and then charging and engaging after throwing them at close range.
Shulot had tested the power of the heavy javelin: it could penetrate the leather armor within twenty meters and immediately render the target incompetent. Or stick it on the shield, forcing the opposing warrior to abandon the shield. Once you have enough metal, you can completely move closer to the Roman legions.
As for the flaming rockets, they were prepared for the water war against the Tarascans, but they were still just concepts. Craftsmen tested different burning materials while waiting for gunpowder to be made.
The young man's ideas came from the Battle of Tang Island during the Song and Jin Dynasties. The power of early gunpowder was more focused on combustion than explosion. Tying gunpowder wrapped in paper tubes to arrow shafts to propel arrows and set fire to burn enemy wooden ships should be a relatively safe and reliable naval battle plan that has also been tested in actual combat.
When the purity and power of gunpowder are further improved, simple copper-hooked wooden cannons can be put on the agenda. With sufficient copper ore, you can try to make more difficult bronze cannons. As for the more difficult matchlock gun, it will take a long time and technological progress.
Shulot's thoughts returned from the detailed plan. The current focus of weapons is the research and mass production of crossbows.
The young man has investigated the samurai directly under the royal family and found that there are always only a few samurai who can skillfully use bows and arrows. Only a few thousand bow samurai can be recruited out of 50,000 people. After all, it takes several years to practice the longbow. To quickly increase the long-range strike power, in addition to recruiting tribal hunters who are good at shooting, they can only rely on crossbows that are easy to operate and aim.
A week ago, Shurot briefly described the concept and structure of the crossbow to Kushinki: adding a crossbow arm to the bow. The front end of the crossbow arm is fixed with the bow body, leaving a groove-shaped arrow path for placing arrow clusters in the middle, and a crossbow machine is installed at the rear end. The upper part of the crossbow is the hook for hanging the string, and the lower part is the connected trigger, which controls the release of the string.
This is all the young man knows, and the rest must be explored by the master carpenter himself. Kuhinji held his breath in his heart and worked day and night. In just a few days, he was able to make a simple crossbow, but this weapon seemed far less than Kuod's longbow.
Facing the master craftsman who asked dissatisfied questions, Shulot was speechless. He took the simple wooden crossbow from Kuxinji and looked at it carefully.
The curved length of the crossbow arm was about 1.5 meters, and it was also made of a single wood. The boy smelled it and thought it was fir. The bowstring is about 1.23 meters long, feels rough, and is made of silk and linen fabric. The groove-shaped arrow path is horizontal, so only the left and right crossbow arrows can be installed. The wooden crossbow was under tremendous force, and it looked like the hook had been slightly deformed.
Shulot tried to string it again. The pulling force of this simple wooden crossbow was only about seventy or eighty pounds. It was not as good as the Mexican longbow, but it was still stronger than the Tlaxcala bow.
Then, the boy aimed at the human-shaped straw target thirty meters away and pulled the trigger. This time, the crossbow arrow drew a downward trajectory and pierced the target's right leg. Next to him, Kuhinki's face darkened, and sharpshooter Bertard also raised the corners of his mouth.
Looking at this scene, Shulot fell into deep thought. Facing the familiar crossbow, he closed his eyes and began to think of vague details in his memory, from museums to film and television works to books he had read. Everyone was silent and solemn, with expectations and awe in their eyes, waiting for His Highness to communicate with the gods and once again receive "divine revelation" from heaven.
After a long time, the boy finally opened his eyes. He looked at the master carpenter, his eyes were clear and bright, and he smiled slightly.
