Chapter 729: The most important weapon of the country
student?
What kind of scholar?
What do I want to do as a scholar who can’t kill people with a knife?
Feng Yong looked down upon those gentle scholars.
Confucianism flourished in the Later Han Dynasty, and the intention was good.
Because Confucianism is easy to educate people and can make society more stable.
But once the aristocratic families gradually monopolized the inheritance of knowledge, the taste began to change.
More and more scholars sit down to talk, talk about ideas, meet in a flashy way, and make friends with each other.
When this trend became more and more intense, it eventually led to the style of chatting in the Jin Dynasty.
Pragmatic?
How can those worldly and dirty things contaminate my body?
Of course, this does not mean that all children from aristocratic families are this kind of waste, but the trend of flashy talk is indeed led by their class.
Otherwise, who would be in the mood to brag if their stomachs are not full?
Feng Yong said seriously, "Old general, even a Cao thief, knows that flashy talk can hinder state affairs, not to mention that the great Han Dynasty now has officials in the Ming and Qing Dynasties who govern with strict simplicity?"
The Northern Central Plains is dominated by aristocratic families, so this trend is the most serious.
From Cao Cao to Cao Pi, everyone had ordered to depose this trend.
Fortunately, today's Dahan was basically founded by a group of grassroots people.
Coupled with Zhuge Laoyao's personal practice, the simple and pragmatic style still dominates.
"Whether they are soldiers from Nanxiang or students from Nanxiang Academy, they can be civil servants, agricultural officials, or craftsmen. They all contribute to the country and benefit the people."
“What you can’t do alone is talk in vain and have no understanding of affairs.”
I like the enemy's behavior very much, but whoever comes from the Xinghanhui system will be infected with this bad habit, let's see how I beat him to death!
Speaking of this, Feng Yong pointed to the engineering battalion below that was inspecting the stability of the rock-trebuchet, "Old general, don't underestimate this kind of rock-trebuchet."
“Let me make a big statement here. With the advent of this kind of catapult, I am afraid that what we will face in the future is a new type of battlefield battle.”
Yuan and Meng used this kind of catapult to capture Fancheng and forced the surrender of Xiangyang. The fall of the two most important frontline cities in the Southern Song Dynasty marked the official beginning of the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty.
This kind of catapult is called a miracle of weapons reform.
Because it is the cannon of the cold weapon age.
And what Feng Yong holds in his hands is exactly this miraculous weapon of the cold weapon era.
That is to say, except for large cities with extremely strong walls, or cities with favorable geographical advantages that prevent this kind of catapult from functioning.
Those ordinary cities built on traffic arteries can no longer become the defender’s biggest reliance.
A small city can be defended for a few days, and a larger city can only be defended for more than ten days. One of the city walls will inevitably be broken down.
This forced the defenders to leave the city to fight in the field.
Who has the best field technology?
Zhuge's Eight Formations, three-piece cavalry suit.
Unless there is another major leap forward in city-building technology, or there is a huge improvement in city-defending technology, or the form of warfare changes again.
Otherwise, counterweighted trebuchets will always be a nightmare for city defenders in the cold weapon era.
Such as cement?
However, Feng Junhou, who had tofu cement in his hand, said that whoever dares to use this kind of cement as the main building material for building a house will have nothing to do with me if the house collapses and people die!
Hearing Feng Yong say these words, not to mention Wei Yan, who had always disliked each other, even Zhao Yun felt that these words were a bit too pretentious.
"It seems that you are really self-aware and know that what you are saying is a big lie."
Wei Yan couldn't help but laugh. He waved his hand, "Come on! Don't say any more big words like this."
“Quickly finish reading these things of yours, I have to go back and think of ways to defeat the two cities of Yuzhong Jincheng.”
Zhao Yun frowned slightly when he heard Wei Yan's words and said something fair.
“The engineering camp excelled in Longguan, Shanggui and other places last year. Even if it is not as good as what Feng Yong said, it must be unique.”
Feng Yong sneered and was too lazy to answer Wei Yan's words.
He never took it for granted that he could forcefully change the minds of these veterans with just one word.
Facts speak louder than words.
Three more trebuchets soon came up underneath, making a total of five.
Seeing that the people below were already on standby, Feng Yong asked Zhao Yun: "Where does the old general want to attack?"
“How far is the arrow tower?”
Zhao Yun pointed to the arrow towers standing in front of the city wall.
Feng Yong flipped through his book and replied: "The nearest one is one hundred and fifty steps, and the farthest one is two hundred steps."
This is designed based on the actual distance when attacking the camp.
Of course, if the two armies are in a stalemate, a trench will be dug outside the camp to avoid being suddenly rushed into the camp.
The crossbowmen guarding the arrow tower are at a commanding height and can shoot arrows easily.
If one side is unable to defend due to the terrain, the attacking side can also build an arrow tower in front of the opponent's camp to suppress the enemy's activities in the camp.
This is the most common high ground.
“Just try them first.”
Zhao Yun said.
The order was quickly passed down.
Measuring distance, aiming, adjusting the counterweight and lever length of the trebuchet...
After the Northern Expedition, the engineering battalion that was put into actual combat quickly improved the stone trebuchet in response to various problems that had occurred on the battlefield.
The advantage of the counterweighted trebuchet is that it uses a constant counterweight instead of dragging ropes that interfere with each other, so the force exerted is almost the same every time.
If the weight of the stone projectiles is controlled well, the dispersion of the impact points of the projectiles can be reduced, thereby repeatedly hitting a relatively fixed target and improving the attack efficiency.
All this data can be obtained through continuous testing.
So the various commonly used data in the commander's manual of each riprap truck is relatively complete.
There was no need to test the shot again. A stone quickly whizzed past a corner of the arrow tower, and then the second stone hit exactly, smashing one of the pillars of the arrow tower.
The most important thing is not this.
The important thing is that everyone can hear the sharp whistling sound even if they are sitting on it.
When the stone fell to the ground, there was another rumble.
Zhao Yun was so shocked that he was a little hesitant. Just by hearing the sound, he knew that this stone-throwing vehicle was extremely powerful.
A dozen stones flew out one after another from behind, and the arrow tower soon fell down.
When Zhao Yun saw all this, he finally couldn't help but stand up and look far into the distance.
Generally speaking, dozens or hundreds of cart-throwing machines are used together to achieve sufficient power—because the accuracy is really too low.
Obviously, the stone-throwing vehicle Feng Yong has on hand is not only powerful, but also extremely accurate.
“Try two hundred steps.”
Zhao Yun said impatiently.
Two hundred steps is the distance of a strong crossbow. If such accuracy can be achieved within two hundred steps, at least when the two armies are facing each other, the enemy will not be able to stay in the camp safely.
When the farthest arrow tower also fell, Zhao Yun gave a high-five and his face lit up with joy.
He turned around and said to Feng Yong: "That alone is enough to be called a weapon in the army!"
Although Wei Yan did not speak, he could not hide the look of surprise on his face.
An ordinary catapult can throw a stone weighing more than ten kilograms this far.
But the power is definitely not enough, and it requires a lot of manpower to pull the rope at the same time, and the accuracy is too poor, which is very troublesome.
Hum, not only is it more powerful than it is now, but it is also simpler and more convenient to operate than before.
Zhao Yun pointed to the city wall in front of him again and asked, "How far is it?"
“Three hundred steps.”
“Okay, keep smashing it!”
Zhao Yun ordered happily.
“Old General, if we want to smash the city wall, these catapults may not be powerful enough. There will be hundreds of them at least, and we need bigger vehicles.”
Feng Yong explained.
“Is there a bigger one?”
Zhao Yun turned his head, his eyes bursting with strange light, and his gray beard was trembling slightly, showing his master's excitement.
He looked at the stone-throwing cart below with some disbelief.
The trebuchet that must be mounted on a base is already one size larger than the common trebuchet, but there is actually a bigger one?
After receiving Feng Yong's affirmative answer, Zhao Yun laughed loudly and pointed at the city wall, "Quick, quick, hit it twice first!"
Then he narrowed his eyes again, "There seems to be a white circle on the city wall?"
"Well, that's right. That's the point they usually use to try to aim."
Feng Yong had a slightly embarrassed look on his face.
“Okay, just hit that spot.”
Zhao Yun nodded, "You smash it first, and I will take a look at it later. I will make my own judgment on whether this thing poses a threat to the city wall."
Three hundred steps away, if it can still be so accurate, as long as it lands in the same position for several days or even dozens of days in a row, coupled with the power of such a throwing car, it is really possible to break the city wall.
The stone-throwing truck below began to increase the lever and counterweight to the maximum. Even the stones weighed a hundred kilograms (Hanjin).
With the sound of wind and thunder, the huge stone hit near the white circle, making a roaring sound, like muffled thunder in the sky.
Zhao Yun set up a pavilion and saw a puff of smoke rising from the city wall.
Immediately afterwards, stones were thrown at him one after another, and they all landed at the same approximate location.
"Excellent! Excellent!" Zhao Yun repeatedly praised, "As for the city walls, they are thin at the top and thick at the bottom. Most of them can only hit the city gate."
“Now if this catapult can really break through the weak point of the city wall above, and then use a flying ladder to enter from the cave entrance, the city will be broken easily!”
On a sunny day, thunder continued to rumble. Zhao Yun was very happy. He asked Feng Yong to order to stop ejection, and then got off the high platform.
First he walked under the incomplete arrow tower and looked at the only half of the arrow tower left, and then at the stones scattered not far away and sunk deeply into the soil.
He even bent down and tried to move it, then stood up straight and said with a big smile: "Okay, okay!"
Everyone following him laughed in unison.
Seeing Zhao Yun walking towards the city wall, Feng Yong quickly advised: "Old General, this wall has been smashed, so be careful."
Zhao Yun waved his hand, "I can trust the work of the Nanxiang engineering team."
Feng Yong:…
Zhao Yun stood under the tall city wall and saw scattered stones falling at the base of the city wall.
He raised his head again and looked at the big white circle, with one word written inside: dismantle.
There are many signs of being smashed around the word "开" and around it. There are even two shallow pits, and small cracks can be faintly seen.
Seeing everyone looking up at the word "demilitarize", Feng Tibi followed slowly, "Old General, it's a bit dangerous here, let's get out of here first..."
Zhao Yun ignored him, and after a while he suddenly sighed, "I have been fighting all my life, and I thought I was familiar with the war, but I didn't expect that my vision is not as good as that of a junior."
Although he sighed, his tone was one of joy.
Wei Yan, on the other hand, looked a little ugly - the slap in the face came too fast and the taste was not pleasant.
Zhao Yun pointed to the word "demolished" and asked, "Is this city wall ever repaired?"
Feng Yong looked up and felt a little unsafe. After hearing this, he quickly replied: "Exactly."
“Is it the one that was crushed by the rock dump truck of your engineering battalion?”
"right."
Zhao Yun nodded with satisfaction, turned around, and looked at Feng Yong with great admiration: "How many riprap trucks were used, and how long did it take?"
“Uh…” Feng Yong was speechless for a moment and quickly flipped through the notebook that Amei had handed to him earlier.
Sure enough, after turning a few pages, I saw the record inside: "A total of one hundred units were used, the longest one lasted twelve days, and the shortest one only seven days."
When he saw a note at the bottom, he quickly added, "Old General, this wall is built according to ordinary city wall standards. But those that are specially reinforced have not been tested."
The city walls of the Han Dynasty were far less mature than those of later generations, and were basically made of rammed clay.
The difference lies in the thickness of the city wall and the solidity of the rammed city wall.
What is special is that very few cities are partially covered with bricks.
So now most cities can only be younger brothers in front of counterweight trebuchets!
"That's enough!" Zhao Yun waved his hand proudly, "I have never heard of anyone being able to break the city by throwing carts, and now you are the first. The rumors about Longguan and Shanggui are true!"
While everyone was enjoying the traces of the trebuchets, Jiang Wei secretly touched the city wall, and then ran to the side to see the thickness of the city wall to confirm that it was a real city wall.
Recalling the sigh of General Zhao's military talent, I saw Zhang Ni, Gou Fu, Huo Yi and others who were protecting the Qiang Xiaowei Mansion, all of them looked calm.
He finally couldn't help but look at Feng Yong with horrified eyes.
Junhou Feng trained his army well and used his troops well. In addition, he had tigers and wolves under his command, and his officers and men were responsible for their lives.
If we attack the city again with overwhelming force, who would dare to stop it if it is not a famous general in the world?
With repeated compliments, Zhao Yun took Feng Yong's hand and asked him to walk side by side with him, back to the stone trebuchet.
The soldiers had no instructions for the next step, and they all lined up in a straight line.
If it had been any other time, Zhao Yun would have had to look at these soldiers a few more times.
At this moment, his eyes were already attracted by the stone-throwing truck.
He surrounded the car, like a child who sees his favorite toy, touching here and there, then he looked up again, and gestured at the height, as if he couldn't get enough of it.
"Such sharp weapons, paired with such soldiers and craftsmen, are indeed worthy." Zhao Yun nodded, "If it were replaced by ordinary soldiers and craftsmen, would it matter?"
Feng Yong shook his head: "It can't be operated. Even if the car is dismantled and other craftsmen make it according to the pattern, the power will be reduced, and there are rules for how to operate the car."
“The same car has a very different power in the hands of the engineering battalion than in the hands of other people.”
The production and operation of a counterweighted trebuchet requires certain basic knowledge of mathematics, physics, geometry, etc.
Ordinary craftsmen can indeed make a roughly similar counterweighted trebuchet if they have a prototype trebuchet, but they definitely don’t know why they do this.
How could Feng Yong let such a thing wander outside intact?
As for the stone-making operation, it is more complicated.
Simply writing parameters, soldiers who are both literate, fluent in arithmetic, and able to understand the terminology in the manual... can only come from the engineering battalion 100% of the time.
"This thing is an important weapon of the country!" Zhao Yun patted the trebuchet and looked at the soldiers, "The camp led by Feng Junhou is actually a powerful army of the Han Dynasty!"
When the soldiers heard the words of the Han Zhengxi General, their faces almost glowed.
As for Wei Yan, his expression was much more exciting.
(End of this chapter)