It was obvious that everyone did not take Zhao Kuo's words to heart. Of course it's not because of anything else, it's actually this catapult, how should I say it? It's not a question of whether it's powerful or not, but it's simply not worthy to be compared with the Bed Crossbow.
The bed crossbow shoots out an arrow as thick as an arm, and immediately it is like a person flipping on their backs. As long as they are on its path of travel, no matter what heavy armor or arrow tower, they must give way when they see it.
The most important thing is that the bed crossbow has extremely strong directivity. Although it is impossible to temporarily change the position due to its bulkiness, as long as it is within its shooting range, it can almost be said to hit wherever it points.
But what about the catapult?
Let's put it this way, these catapults today are still in their most primitive stage. The size of the stone bullets is not small, and the power after being thrown is also not small. It can be said that a big pit will be created when it is hit. But the problem is, inside this pit, There may not be anyone!
Even if there is someone, maybe even one of your own, how can the generals use it with confidence?
There is no way, this is also today's catapult. The most important problem is - it has no accuracy, and it depends on God's will wherever it hits!
It turns out that today's trebuchets are human-powered trebuchets that use human power to pull the tips connected to the crossbar at a distance away from the catapult. The gun tip is mounted on a wooden frame. One end is tied with a rope to hold the leather sheath containing the stone bullets, and the other end is tied with many ropes for human power to pull and throw the stone bullets.
The problem lies in the manual pulling. This time the person did not exert any strength. Next time the person's foot slipped and the pressure applied was different. Of course, the stone bullets flew everywhere. If one person is not good enough and does not exert enough strength, there is still a risk of the stone bullet hitting his head. As the war continues, the physical strength of the soldiers decreases predictably, so the distance of the stone bullets becomes closer and closer, and even if it blocks the enemy, it will have little effect.
Not only that, but it is not difficult to find from the above process that the catapult has another serious problem: it consumes too much.
Every time the cannon is drilled, dozens of people are required to pull the rope. Although Minzhuang can pull the rope, it is still thankless. Instead of using the strength of dozens or hundreds of people to throw the stone bombs, I don’t know if it will be possible. Where it hurts people, it is better to use the strength of only a few people to put the stone bullets on the top of the city and then smash them down hard. Maybe a few more enemies can be killed.
The last problem is the attack distance. Since it all depends on manpower, if you want to increase the distance, you must either continue to add more people. Adding more people means a reduction in the number of people on the frontal battlefield; or you must remove the items being thrown. Lighten, but being lighter also means a reduction in power.
Such a weapon with insufficient accuracy, high cost, and the fact that it cannot fight for a long time, does not last long, and does not hit hard will naturally not be loved by any general, regardless of offense or defense. Perhaps only when facing an ant attack, and there is really no other way, will these guys be pulled out, and for no other reason than to slightly disrupt the rhythm of the ant attack.
However, this big guy that everyone disliked was the most rare treasure in Zhao Kuo's eyes.
Zhao Kuo knew that with just a few modifications, it could become the Mongolian "Return Cannon" that galloped across Eurasia and made countless people tremble!
This may be the power of technological progress.
Seeing that all the generals looked a little disbelieving, Zhao Kuo did not explain much. Zhao Ping happened to be here, so he led 30 soldiers and 100 elite soldiers with Zhao Ping as the leader and concentrated them in several nearby cities in the city. All blacksmiths and carpenters, plus five hundred young men, formed a dedicated artillery battalion.
All craftsmen, workers, civilians, etc. who were transferred to the artillery camp were registered in the military. Anyone who dared to leak the secrets would be considered treason.
Everyone was shocked when they heard this. The general was obviously serious. At this time when there was an extreme shortage of troops, he actually mobilized so much force to form a so-called artillery battalion.
You know, there are only 3,000 young men in training, and one-sixth of them have been taken away at once. What's even more terrible is the soldiers and elites. Every city gate has their heads broken and they are fighting for it. Yes.
Especially the soldiers, with a total of only 400 people, everyone knew that this team was bound to bear the heaviest burden of "putting out fires". It was almost the general and the last trump card of Yan Yucheng.
But the general took out thirty people without blinking an eye!
Of course, no one doubted the general's actions. The reason was very simple. Everyone who had doubted it had already been severely slapped in the face by reality.
Compared with suspicion, everyone is now more and more curious about what kind of miracle this artillery battalion can bring them!
Under the eager eyes of everyone, Zhao Kuo chose the site for the artillery camp again - in a group of private houses behind the south gate. All the people in the private houses were moved out and resettled in the north of the city.
On this piece of land, except for the outer circle of courtyard walls to block the view, all the rooms were pushed and opened. The cleared gravel and soil, the hard ones were directly sent to the tower to be used as rolling logs and stones. The supplement is to smash and ram the foundation on the spot. As for the beams left by the demolition of the house, it can be used as the material to transform the "return gun".
So, in just one afternoon, a flat catapult position was formed. Of course, this place serves not only as a projectile position for catapults, but also as a transformation site for catapults.
Almost simultaneously with the demolition of houses and leveling of land, the renovation of catapults was carried out.
Of course, not everyone can easily participate in such a confidential matter. The task of the thirty soldiers mobilized by Zhao Kuo was to keep the secret of the transformation of the catapult - except for a few master craftsmen and gun operators who participated in the transformation design, everyone who dared to enter this place would be killed.
Even the 300 people who drilled the artillery were directly selected by Zhao Ping himself. Those who had no family members in Zhao were not selected, those who were not good family members, and those who were not loyal were not selected - comparable to the selection of personal soldiers.
Even so, Zhao Kuo was still worried, and even set up the artillery drill camp in a corner of the artillery array to isolate it from the outside world. There were soldiers on guard inside and elite troops outside to defend the enemy. This was what Zhao Kuo himself was doing.
Everything that needs to be transformed is made by the craftsmen. Zhao Kuo even adopts a division of labor model. Each person only makes a part, and then the soldiers gather them together, and the soldiers assemble them uniformly.
Firstly, it was to speed up, and secondly, it was to keep it secret.
Of course, this is no wonder Zhao Kuo is so cautious. There is no other way. With such technological changes, no matter how cautious you are, you should be cautious. Zhao Kuo didn't want to see the huge boulder hit his front line by his modified return cannon in future battles. Even though Zhao Kuo actually had a solution to these cannons in his mind.
However, with technology, just being one step ahead is not enough.
Finally, after a series of confidential work and procedures were arranged, the transformation of the rock dump truck began with great fanfare.
The renovation work sounds difficult, but is actually very simple. It is like a layer of window paper. If you don't pierce it, you will never know what's going on. But once it is pierced, it feels like it is nothing more than that.
All the above problems with the catapult, whether it is accuracy, manpower consumption, or even final sustainability, as well as power and attack distance, all boil down to the problem of manpower!
Since it is a human problem, then find a way to solve it and replace this unstable, uncontrollable human power with a more stable, stronger, and adjustable force!
So what kind of power can meet so many of the above requirements at the same time? Very simple, the power of the earth!
Well, speaking in human terms, it means replacing human power with the mode of gravity.
Using the principle of leverage, the original trebuchet was modified. One end that was originally pulled by human power became a fixed wooden box containing heavy objects, while the other end contained stone projectiles to be fired.
Before launching, the end where the stone bullets, etc. are placed, is pulled down with a winch or directly by manpower, and is fixed with a hook. At the same time, the other end with the heavy object is also raised at this time. During the battle, after placing the stone bullets, unlock the hook, one end of the heavy object falls instantly, and the assembled stone bullets are also thrown out.
This is the counterweighted trebuchet that traveled across Europe and Asia, smashed countless castles, walls, and camps, and became famous in the Battle of Xiangyang, making the enemy fearful - the "Hui Hui Cannon". Its power is so powerful that the lamentations of countless people on the Eurasian continent are the best annotation.
This kind of "return gun" is not only powerful, but more importantly, it is extremely convenient and simple to operate. Compared with human-powered trebuchets, such a powerful trebuchet requires only five people to operate! Three people press the lever, and two people load the ammunition.
Of course, if it's just powerful, easy to operate, and can't hit the enemy, it's all in vain.
However, with such a stone-trebuchet, as long as you master the ratio of a section of counterweight to the stone being thrown, you can hit almost where you want!
Such a simple torque analysis of the lever principle and a physics + mathematics problem of parabola analysis would naturally not be difficult for Zhao Kuo, who had received a good nine-year compulsory education and graduated from a famous eight-year-old construction engineering school. Thinking about those late nights at the desk and the deformed middle finger, Zhao Kuo said: Who said reading is useless?
But the problem is that even if the formula is calculated and given to these so-called masters, they still can't understand it.
As the commander-in-chief of the first army, it is impossible for Zhao Kuo to stay in the artillery army and command the artillery army all the time.
Fortunately, this thing does not need to be adjusted accurately. Zhao Kuo ordered three types of wooden cages to be made, corresponding to three attack targets: near, medium, and far. When used, wooden dragons were hung up according to the instructions, and then filled with wooden dragons. , that’s it. Even if fine-tuning is needed, the ability of a master craftsman to reduce the weight if you want to be closer, and add a few stones if you want to be farther away, this operation is still understandable.
Seeing that the transformation of the "Hui Hui Pao" finally came to an end, the Yan army was still several miles away from Yanyu City. Even Zhao Kuo couldn't help but sigh: "You will not survive if you do your own evil!"
Some people died, but not completely...
