Mo Zhai made hand crossbows and bed crossbows, and immediately gained favor from Xiang Wu, but Xiang Wu had no intention of introducing Mo Zhai to King Ning of Chu, and even wanted to hide it from other princes.
Weapons like crossbows appeared very early. It was invented by a Chu man named Qin. However, the crossbow invented by Qin was relatively primitive and small in size. It was originally intended to be used for assassination.
The person who really mass-produced crossbows and equipped them with soldiers for battlefield use was Zhiyao.
Zhishi's crossbows did not have high precision at the beginning. Later, they improved the trigger and other parts, and the components began to become more detailed, and more crossbows appeared.
The range of some crossbows is actually shorter than the arrows shot by bows, and they are classified as ordinary hand crossbows.
A medium-sized crossbow called a crossbow with a range of about two hundred steps.
Some crossbows require you to use your feet to stretch the bow string, and the range can reach more than 400 steps, which is called a crossbow.
Further up are the bed crossbows and cart crossbows, but they are also subdivided. The general bed crossbows and cart crossbows have a range of about 250 steps, while the super heavy bed crossbows and cart crossbows have a range of up to 420 steps.
Ten steps.
As for accuracy? After a certain range, whether you can hit the target or not depends entirely on the target. There is also the term "effective range." Since the hit rate can be guaranteed, it mainly depends on human operation.
The hand crossbow made by Mo Zhai has a range of about 60 steps, which is actually longer than the light crossbows of the original country. The problem is that the effective range is extremely short, only about 20 steps.
Regarding the bed crossbow, Mo Zhai improved it on the original basis and added a winch structure, which increased the speed of loading arrows, but the range was still shorter than the ordinary bed crossbow of the original country.
There is no way around this. The Mo family is only a small family, and it only took a short time to obtain the support of the Song Dynasty in terms of national strength. It is quite impressive that Mo Di can imitate the bed crossbow.
Mo Zhai still wanted to optimize it, but the Song Dynasty fell too quickly and did not give more time.
"I wonder when to introduce the King of Chu?" Mo Zhai had asked Xiang Wu the same question at least ten times.
Xiang Wu was trying to operate the bed crossbow, and felt that the winch was simply a good thing. It could not only be used for the bed crossbow, but could also be used in many other aspects of people's livelihood.
This is normal.
Historically, winches were indeed first used in the military industry, and then became popular among the people. For example, people set up a simplified version of the winch above a well to collect water, and it was used for one or two thousand years.
Once again, Mo Zhai did not receive a reply from Xiang Wu. He thought of the reminders from some tribesmen and decided to bid farewell to Xiang Wu.
What Mo wants to do is beyond the resources of a family. If you want to make a small fuss, you don't have to come to Chu State to seek refuge. You can stay at home and take your time.
When it comes to things like technological progress, the resources required are usually not small, and it is simply not something ordinary people can afford to carry out trial and error again and again during this period.
Mo Zhai didn't know the status of the Xiang family in Chu State, let alone how powerful the Xiang family was. What he wanted was to devote himself to the national defense construction of Chu State, and then use his creations to prove on the battlefield that the Mo family was not lagging behind others at all.
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To prove the greatness of the Mo family, Mo Zhai not only needs resources, but also needs the participation of other people. Even if these people have relatively average abilities, some inspirations cannot be born behind closed doors. Perhaps they can be derived from some of the ideas of those people.
New inspiration.
After Xiang Wu read it, he told his entourage: "Let's transport it away first."
Hearing that sentence, how could Mo Zhai not know what it meant.
Mr. Xiang did not ask Mr. Mo to hand over his technology. He made it clear that he wanted to take the physical object and imitate it first. Once he could not imitate, he might ask for the technology. Once Mr. Mo did not hand over his technology, something else might happen.
"Wu is already contacting Zuo Yin, and he will be introduced to the king soon." Xiang Wu said to Mo Zhai.
If Xiang Wu hadn't asked someone to transport the bed crossbow, maybe Mo Zhai would have believed it.
Xiang Wu asked: "I wonder if Sir can make other things?"
Mo Zhai said calmly: "Naturally."
Xiang Wu looked overjoyed and asked, "Is it possible to build a gun carriage?"
This cannon is of course the one next to the stone character.
Xiang Wu's target was the trebuchet of the Yuan Dynasty.
The Chu State was imitating many things from the original country, and some simpler items were copied. After comparison and verification, some of them were better than the genuine ones, and most of them were inferior in performance to the genuine ones.
What they imitate are small gadgets, mostly tools.
In terms of military industry, the Chu State first imitated hand crossbows. Since many parts could not be standardized like the original country, the quality of the crossbows produced varied, and the failure rate was a bit scary.
The Chu State retreated to the next best thing, and simply chose an extremely simple hand crossbow. Its shape was similar to the crossbows of the European Middle Ages, and it had little lethality if it was fired more than thirty steps.
Although it seems relatively inferior, the most important thing is that it does not require a long period of learning to form effective combat power like an archer. Furthermore, there is no limit to the number of shots an archer can take.
Archers actually need training? To be honest, archers are not easy to train. It usually takes about three years, and accurate shooting relies heavily on talent.
The so-called training of archers is not only about mastering archery skills, but also about following the command to shoot the ballistic arrows.
For example, when shooting, you should know what the angle of elevation is, whether you can shoot arrows very quickly in the shot, whether the hit rate of the horizontal shot meets the requirements, not to mention the control of the force at long distances.
The Chu State knew very well that it would never be able to defeat the original state with conventional tactics. The public and local feudal lords reached a consensus and could only continue to expand the recruiting class and try to replace quality with quantity.
In this case, a sufficient number of crossbows can be produced and then equipped to farmers or slaves, so that they can be used on the battlefield without much training.
Of course, not all farmers or slaves are equipped with crossbows, and they will definitely be equipped with other weapons. The Chu State learned from the Yuan State and made a large number of knives, and also began to use a large number of iron weapons.
Because the Chu state lagged behind the original state in terms of iron smelting and forging technology, the knives they made were thicker and looked like a modern large-backed sword, weighing more than three kilograms in modern times.
Due to the fact that the Chu State did not master the metal formula and excellent forging technology, their iron weapons still had brittle weaknesses, but the elites of the princes and local feudal lords still used bronze weapons.
And because the iron smelting technology was not up to standard, the Chu State did not manufacture iron armor in large quantities like the original country. Their best armors were still bronze armor and leather armor, with leather armor being the most numerous, and then bamboo armor being manufactured in large quantities. Already.
Did the Mo family master the iron smelting formula? They only get involved in technology from this generation, most of which are related to carpentry. How could they master technology similar to that of the original country?
Therefore, Mo Zhai responded to Xiang Wu's constant questions no matter what, but in fact he didn't know how to answer them.
Why is Mo Zhai like that? He knows that it is difficult to escape from the control of the Xiang family. Once the escape is discovered, he will either be killed or imprisoned.
Then, Mo Zhai wants to make more noise. Being satisfied means that the Xiang family is strong enough. It may be a temporary shelter if he cannot escape. Once the Xiang family cannot satisfy the Mo family's resource consumption, will the Xiang family want to
Inviting people to join the team? The movement is big enough, the more people know about it, and enough resources are invested in it, Mo Zhai does not actually have to work for Chu Wangning.
Things went as Mo Zhai expected. As resources were invested more and more, the Xiang family could no longer cope. One day, Xiang Wu came to Zhuangzi with a stranger.
"This is the leader of the Liang family." Xiang Wu introduced.
Liang Lu seemed to be an unsmiling person. He did not say hello to Mo Zhai. He first walked around among the many finished instruments, looked around, and also operated some of the instruments himself.
"Most ordnance committees are actually much inferior to the original army." Liang Lu expressed his opinion.
Mo Zhai did not refute, and said truthfully: "The Yuan Kingdom is a powerful country in the world. It has been ahead for more than 20 years, and the Mo family is only catching up."
Only then did Liang Lu have a smile on his face, but he quickly returned to his expressionless expression and said, "It's hard to fight against the original army with this. I wonder if Mo's weapons are different from those of the original army and can be used on the battlefield?"
Mo Zhai nodded to one of his tribesmen.
The tribesman went into the house and took out a crossbow machine.
This crossbow machine looks obviously different from other crossbows. It has some extra boxes and an up and down cocking device. It looks a bit weird in appearance.
Mo Zhai invited the two of them to an archery target, and operated the crossbow machine to continuously pull the handle-like device up and down at the target. A short arrow could be shot every time, and the target about ten steps away was quickly inserted into the target.
Full of crossbow arrows.
This is obviously a repeating crossbow!
Xiang Wu and Liang Lu were obviously stunned.
"The range of this crossbow..." Xiang Wu paused and thought for a moment before continuing: "How far can it reach?"
Mo Zhai walked over and picked off the short arrows from the target, then took off the crossbow's quiver. He carefully inspected the used short arrows and discarded them if there were few bends. He then put the ones that seemed to be in good condition into the quiver.
among.
Xiang Wu and Liang Lu, who were watching the whole process, were not stupid. They understood that this kind of repeating crossbow had higher requirements on arrows, so they frowned.
At present, except for the original countries that have special facilities for processing arrow shafts, other countries still make arrows purely by hand, not to mention the speed is extremely slow, and the quality is difficult to guarantee.
If the continuous crossbow has high requirements for the quality of arrows, it will not be difficult for the original country. If you want to mass-produce crossbow arrows with excellent quality in Chu State, the number of master craftsmen must be invested, which will inevitably affect other industrial production.
Mo Zhai fired again and selected the target of twenty steps and thirty steps respectively.
When this type of repeating crossbow shoots at a twenty-step target, the arrowhead only bites in a little, but it can still be nailed to the target; when it is replaced by a thirty-step target, even if ten crossbow arrows hit, it can still be nailed to the target.
There are only two on the target.
If you are knowledgeable, you can see that after about fifteen steps, the power of the repeating crossbow has been greatly reduced, and after twenty-five steps, it will become light and flimsy.
So, if this type of repeating crossbow wants to kill the enemy, it can only be chosen within fifteen steps?
This discovery made Xiang Wu and Liang Lu go from being surprised to becoming a little unconcerned, and they no longer even thought about ordering Mo Zhai to hide the crossbow.
Countries can imitate the original country, and it will be easier to imitate other countries with the original country's science and technology.
The Chu State is unable to mass-produce large quantities of crossbow arrows suitable for repeating crossbows. The original country's arrows are of excellent quality, so there must be no related production problems.
In this way, the repeating crossbow made by the Mo family is easy to use and will definitely appear on the battlefield. If it is lost and obtained by the original country, it will definitely be copied by the original state. The repeated crossbow will be a disaster for the Chu State.
Of course, Mo Zhai knew the shortcomings of the Liannu. Seeing the changes in Xiang Wu and Liang Lu's expressions, he said: "It's not just like this. If there is what the original country calls 'steel', the lethal range may be up to thirty steps." ?”
Steel? The original country can already produce steel, but the output is still relatively low. Naturally, it is also subject to technology, and then it is related to the quality of the minerals.
Iron ore is also divided into good and bad. The quality of the iron ore in Zhuxia is actually not very good, and the quality of the coal is also relatively average. As a result, the progress of some related technologies has been relatively slow.
"If I can create this thing, I can have another wonderful thing. I guess the owner of the Xiang family knows that the Xiang family cannot support it alone, so the owner of the Liang family came here today?" Mo Zhai said.
Xiang Wu and Liang Lu looked at each other, and they could understand that Mo Zhai wanted to express his meaning, but did not give any response.
When Mr. Mo first arrived, he still had a chance to escape, but his value later was very important, so it was obvious that there was no possibility of escaping.
Mo Zhai wanted to make a noise to attract the attention of other families. If other families knew about the Mo family, the Duke of Chu would not be blind or deaf.
As long as the Mo family shows their worth, the Chu State is already facing the crisis of annihilation. I wonder if the Xiang family will kill all the Mo family members because they don't want the Mo family to serve the Chu state, right?
By that time, the Mo family has a high chance of gaining bilateral support from the Chu Dukes and local feudal lords, which is far more support than simply relying on the Dukes or a few local feudal lords.
The Xiang family and the Liang family were family friends, so Xiang Wula Lianglu joined the group.
Mo Zhai took some things for granted. The situation in Chu State was not the same as that of other countries in the Central Plains.
The Yuan Kingdom is indeed very powerful, a discerning person should know it at a glance.
Although they clearly knew about Chu State, their clans and local lords were still wary of each other and showed no signs of sincere cooperation.
Under this current situation, how could it be possible for an outside family to show value and resolve the conflict between the Chu Dukes and the local feudal lords?
Similar things happened more than once in the Chu State. The fact that their capital city was captured by the Wu army was a reflection of the continued internal fighting despite deadly threats from the outside.
Xiang Wu and Liang Lu left on that day, and the resources that should be given to the Mo family increased, but they were far less than what Mo Zhai expected.
Gradually, Mo Zhai realized that he did not understand the situation in Chu State, and he understood the truth, that is, the nobles of Chu State were short-sighted and had no overall sense of the overall situation.
"If this continues, even if things turn around, how long will I have left?" Mo Zhai has been thinking about this question recently.
One day, Zhuangzi was attacked by a group of strangers.
When Mo Zhai thought he was a Duke of Chu, he discovered something. After understanding the value of the Mo family, he couldn't help but think about how to persuade King Ning of Chu to give him enough support.
When they saw the intruder and heard what they said, everyone in the Mo family was completely confused.
