"Your Majesty, this is the crossbow arrow redesigned by the craftsman supervisor and the Mohist mechanics."
Xu Feng offered a pair of crossbows with both hands, and Wang Pu picked up the crossbow. This crossbow machine is heavy to start with and difficult to make.
"How far can this crossbow shoot?"
"Your Majesty, you can shoot one hundred and twenty steps, you can penetrate armor in eighty steps, and you can penetrate iron armor in forty steps." Xu Feng said.
"How about Fujijia?"
"You can wear rattan armor in thirty steps."
Thirty steps is about thirty meters. From this distance, the Vine Armor Army can almost charge forward with a single charge. If a shield is added and the Vine Armor Army charges, the crossbow array will be almost unstoppable. The power of this crossbow is still a little weak.
"In addition to this kind of crossbow, haven't you also made several other crossbows? Take them out and try them out."
"Your Majesty, in addition to this kind of crossbow, the craftsman supervisor also has a bed crossbow, which requires ten people to operate. It has a range of 500 steps, but the winding is very slow. There is also a repeating crossbow that can shoot three crossbow arrows at a time. .”
Wang Pu looked at these crossbow arrows and felt that the crossbow arrows had great potential. He immediately ordered the craftsmen and Mohist mechanics to continue studying and improving the crossbow arrows, and established a reward system to reward craftsmen who improved the crossbow arrows.
The Huai State attaches great importance to the improvement of technology. During the Zijue era, craftsmen who could improve their crafts were highly rewarded, including rewards of food.
Therefore, after hearing Wang Pu's order, the craftsmen supervising the craftsmen became excited and made up their minds to improve the crossbow machine one by one.
Besides these weapons, armor is the most difficult to craft. Although the Huai Kingdom's rattan armor has strong defense, it is not that no one has imitated it. Among them, Chu State spent a lot of effort to imitate rattan armor.
After all, rattan armor seems too simple. You just need to weave old vines from the mountains into armor and then dry it in the sun.
The Chu State did indeed do this at the time. They tested it and found that the defense was indeed good. Then they began to equip the army. Only later when they fought against the Huai State army did they discover that although their rattan armor had good defense, it was easily damaged. .
The Huai Kingdom's rattan armor has a very strong defensive power, and the rattan armor is extremely tough, while the Chu Kingdom's rattan armor will break after being resisted once or twice, and a pair of rattan armor will be useless.
The state of Chu suffered a great loss because of the rattan armor.
Huai's rattan armor not only has high defense, it can even deflect weapons. The big difference is because Huaiguo's rattan armor needs to be soaked in tung oil.
The production of rattan armor is not much cheaper than iron armor, and the production of rattan armor is more cumbersome. The braided rattan needs to be soaked in tung oil for one month, then dried, soaked again, and repeated nine times. It takes almost three years to make a qualified pair of rattan armor.
After being soaked and exposed to the sun several times, and then wrapped in a layer of rhinoceros skin, a pair of rattan armor is completed.
The manufacturing technology of rattan armor has always been kept secret by the Huai Kingdom's official office, and because of the Huai Kingdom's wars, the rattan armor army has never been defeated for hundreds of years, so the rattan armor has never fallen into the hands of the enemy. In addition, the Huai Kingdom's secret guards Protection, this is why rattan armor has always been the unique armor of Huai Kingdom.
After Huai State reorganized its army and prepared for war, the newly recruited soldiers were trained. After completing the training, Wang Pu would send his generals to lead these soldiers south to attack Baiyue.
These soldiers are not considered elite without being tested on the battlefield, and the battle to attack Baiyue was not intense. At the same time, because of the crushing weapons and equipment, Huai soldiers had an advantage, and it was very suitable for training soldiers.
While the Huai State was preparing its military equipment, it was also developing towards the south and conquering the land of Baiyue. Plunder the barbarian population and enrich the population of Huai State.
After five years of cultivating farmland for the Huai Kingdom, these barbarians will be assigned a piece of land and become civilians. In this way, Huai State continued to explore the south, training soldiers and developing land, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone. This method has also steadily improved the strength of Huai State.
The power of Wei's reform attracted the attention of the world. Especially in the battle between Qi and Chu, the king of Qi was directly captured. He forced Qi to cede a large area of land and was able to return home.
But not long after Qi Hou returned home, he died of illness. Of course, there were rumors in the Qi State that the Marquis of Qi finally died of anger because he was captured by the Wei State.
After the death of Qi Hou, his son Zhao ascended the throne. After Lu Zhao ascended the throne, Qi was in a precarious period. After Lu Zhao stabilized the state affairs, he then learned from Wei and began to implement reforms.
Lu Zhao wanted to recruit talents and saw that both Huai and Wei had established academic palaces, so he followed suit and established Jixia Academy.
After Jixia Academy was established, it immediately attracted a large number of scholars. Because the State of Qi is located in the east, it is an important vassal state in the Zhou Dynasty. It is an important cultural holy place in the Zhou Dynasty. At the same time, it borrowed a lot of the system of the Huai Kingdom Academy, and the Jixia Academy quickly prospered.
Because Huai State attaches great importance to Legalism, many schools in the Huai State Academy went to Qi State to seek re-employment.
Through Jixia Academy, Qi Houzhao collected many talents. Then with the assistance of these talents, reforms began to be implemented in Qi.
Qi's reform was because the families of ministers in the country were not weak, so they were unable to learn the hegemony of Wei. And because Guan Zhong's reforms had a profound impact on Qi State, Qi State began to carry out reforms and restructuring in accordance with Guan Zhong's laws.
At this time, the countries in the Central Plains have discovered that if you don't change the law, others will change the law. When they become more powerful, you will be out of luck. Therefore, these big countries also began to change their laws.
All countries have to revise their laws, and Qi is no exception. After learning from the laws of Huai State, the State of Qi made some adjustments, and then integrated these laws, implemented the laws of the State of Qi, and began to supervise and punish unjust officials so that they would not dare to act recklessly. An inspection censor was set up to combat the unhealthy tendencies of officials like Ayi in the officialdom.
Although all countries have carried out reforms, the intensity of the reforms varies, which also results in differences in the future paths of each country.
Chu State also initially completed its reforms and began to expand southward. At the same time, it also strengthened Badi's military strength.
After the Chu State lost the east of the Dabie Mountains, the Han River Plain was threatened by the Huai State, so it valued Badi very much. After the Qin State lost the land of Xihe, it also valued the Shu land. Qin and Chu became tense again over the ownership of the Bashu land.
It's just that Qin was afraid of Wei, and Chu was afraid of Huai. Qin and Chu didn't dare to quarrel with each other, so they could only fight in a small area.
After Wei defeated Qin, Chu and Qi, he integrated the three Jin states to dominate the world. But the Marquis of Wei was not proud. He knew that although Wei was strong now, it was also full of crises. After all, Wei's land was not large. After annexing the land of Xihe, Wu Qi began to develop northward, defeated the northern Yidi, and occupied a large area. Land, Wei thus gained a vast strategic space.
Because of the success of Wei's reform, the states of Zhou and Zhou began to implement reforms one after another. For a time, Legalism was sought after by the world, and Legalism officially became the most prominent school in the world. Taoism, Confucianism, Mohism, and political strategists were all suppressed.
(End of chapter)
