In the cold weapon period, victory mostly relied on numbers, and the side with more troops had a natural advantage.
The Tang Dynasty had the largest military strength among the surrounding countries. If there were repeated crossbows to restrain the cavalry, there would be no need to worry about sweeping the grasslands.
"Your Majesty, please move." Duan Lun said.
"Let's go to the school grounds."
Li Shimin and Duan Lun came to the school grounds. Duan Lun opened the box and took out the crossbow inside.
"Your Majesty, you only need to load the crossbow arrows, click here, and the loaded crossbow arrows will be fired continuously." Duan Lun introduced Li Shimin.
Li Shimin looked at the crossbow in Duan Lun's hand with fiery eyes, as if looking at a peerless beauty.
For him, there is no shortage of beautiful women. In a sense, Zhuge Liannu is more attractive to him than beautiful women.
"Your Majesty, I will load the arrows right now." After Duan Lun finished speaking, he took out the arrows from the box and started loading them.
It is better to call it a nail than an arrow.
The whole arrow is not long, about one foot, or more than twenty centimeters.
It took him nearly a cup of tea to load the arrow.
"Your Majesty, the Zhuge Liannu is indeed very powerful, but it also has major flaws. All arrows must be finely polished. The cost of the crossbow and arrows combined is very expensive. It also takes a long time to install the arrows." Duan Lun
said.
Li Shimin didn't care. Isn't the cost of Datang's Mo Dao high?
For him, as long as it is powerful, he is not short of money now.
"Come here, set up a target."
After the target was set up, Li Shimin held the repeating crossbow, pointed it at the target, and pulled the trigger.
Swish, brush, brush~
I saw arrows shot out at extremely high speeds.
When there was no vibration from the crossbow in his hand, Li Shimin put down the crossbow and came to the target.
Of the fifty arrows, not many actually hit the target, only a sparse seven or eight.
Li Shimin didn't care about this. Fifty rounds of crossbow arrows must be used by large corps when fighting. Then they can be fired at the crowd. So what is the accuracy?
Even for archers in the army, their usual training mainly focuses on training their arm strength and the speed of shooting arrows, while their accuracy is secondary.
What he mainly looked at was the lethality of the repeating crossbow.
Range and effective range have long been understood in ancient times.
Normally, an ordinary bow and arrow can shoot a distance of two hundred paces with no problem, but the arrow no longer poses any threat.
Not to mention iron armor, even leather armor is difficult to shoot through, unless someone is unlucky and gets shot in the eye.
So Li Shimin wanted to see whether the crossbow arrows were lethal at a distance of two hundred steps.
"Not bad." Li Shimin praised it.
In ancient times, the judgment of lethality was based on whether an arrow hit the target and penetrated three points into the wood.
The crossbow arrows on the target not only penetrated the wood three-thirds of the way, but the arrows also penetrated the target.
In other words, the lethality of the repeating crossbow is indeed at a distance of two hundred steps.
"How long will it take to make 50,000 repeating crossbows?" Li Shimin asked.
He has seen its power, and he can't wait to equip the army with repeating crossbows.
Duan Lun smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, the cost of a repeating crossbow is about twenty pieces. This does not include arrows. These are secondary. The most important thing is that the workmanship of the repeating crossbow is very fine. This repeating crossbow
It took more than a dozen highly skilled craftsmen several days to make it."
Of course, this is the same as when you are just starting out. There are many things that need to be explored. Once you become proficient, you will definitely learn a lot faster.
But with the number of craftsmen in the Ministry of Works, they can't make much in a day.
Li Shimin was secretly stunned. He had heard Duan Lun say it was expensive, but he didn't pay much attention to it. He didn't expect it to be so 'expensive'.
A repeating crossbow requires twenty strings. Wouldn't it cost one million strings to make 50,000 crossbows?
Not to mention the arrows.
Although the arrows can be recovered after the war, the losses involved are not small.
Although he is not short of money, there are many places where Datang needs to spend money. Military expenditures are already large, and there are objections if other departments are added.
No wonder the repeated crossbow improved by Ma Jun was lost during the Three Kingdoms period.
Cao Cao was so poor that he had someone rob his tomb, and even found a gold captain. How could he have the money to build a Zhuge Liannu?
Naturally, the manufacturing drawings could only be sealed up, and then they were lost somehow.
"If we go all out, how many can we produce in a month?" Li Shimin asked.
Duan Lun considered it carefully and said, "A maximum of one thousand."
The most important thing for a courtier is to keep some words in mind and not to speak too fully.
Ignore you, when Qin destroyed Chu, Ying Zheng asked his generals how many troops and horses were needed to destroy Chu. Wang Jian said that he needed 600,000, but Li Xin only needed 200,000.
Li Xin got his wish and became the general to destroy Chu, but he was defeated in the end.
Although Qin was defeated because of an internal rebellion, which led to its defeat from both sides, everyone knew that Li Xin was not to blame.
But defeat is defeat. In the end, Li Xin was refrigerated and died in depression.
As for Wang Jian, he led an army of 600,000 to destroy the Chu State and was granted the title of Marquis in one battle.
Li Xin's mistake was that he made his words too full and did not consider unexpected factors.
With Wang Jian's ability, did he really need 600,000 troops to destroy a Chu State that had been beaten and moved its capital?
Sun Tzu's Art of War says: Use the right combination to win by surprise.
But most generals would not be surprised if they were not forced to do so.
Strange means danger, and Li Xin had no choice but to surprise because he wanted to steal the position of coach.
For Wang Jian, what he wanted was stability. As long as the 600,000-strong army fought steadily and the general was not a fool, he could destroy the Chu State at that time.
According to Duan Lun's estimation, with all his strength, he could make 1,500 repeating crossbows a month, which would not be a big problem.
If he can do it well, it is his normal job. If he cannot do it well, he is bullying the emperor. He naturally knows what to say.
"In one month, I will need 1,200 repeating crossbows, including arrows. If the number exceeds that, all participating craftsmen will be rewarded." Li Shimin said.
Li Shimin naturally knew that his ministers liked to keep their words in reserve, so he directly asked for 1,200.
"I accept your order," Duan Lun responded.
The quantity Li Shimin mentioned did not exceed his budget, so he naturally would not refuse.
…
Lin Xuan played with the two giant pandas in the garden for a while before returning to the yard.
I don’t know if it’s because of animal training skills, but the two giant pandas seem to have evolved. Normally, giant pandas only sleep and eat.
But these two giant pandas have been in contact with him for a long time, and their sleeping time has been reduced a lot, and they usually play with each other.
As soon as Lin Xuan entered the room, he saw Li Lizhi sitting there looking at the account book, looking a little tired.
"Why don't you take a rest? You'll just have to read these account books later." Lin Xuan said with some distress.
Li Lizhi smiled and said: "My mother-in-law asked me to take care of the house. Naturally, I have to do my best and cannot be perfunctory. It is not easy for my husband to accumulate this family property. I am just looking at the account books. What is the hard work?"
Lin Xuan touched his nose. He really didn't have to work hard. He left everything to others.
As for whether anyone would be corrupt, he didn't bother to worry about it. Most businesses were joint ventures with others, so naturally there were people to worry about.
"Be obedient, stop reading now, take a rest and spend some time with your husband." Lin Xuan snatched the account book from Li Lizhi's hand and said.
Li Lizhi's face turned red and she whispered: "Husband, I'm still feeling a little unwell, so why not let Chunyue and the others accompany you."
Lin Xuan:......
"What are you talking about? I mean stop reading and chat with me." Lin Xuan said speechlessly.
It made him very anxious.
Li Lizhi blinked her eyes, you said it was so ambiguous, do you blame me?