Chapter 506

Outside the west mountain.

Countless stones piled up like mountains. In order to build the city wall, Merton had already placed a huge order with the brick and clay merchant and agreed to deliver it at this time.

However, it is impossible for these businessmen and civilian men to enter the military camp. They still need Qin Huaiyu's three hundred person team to transport them to the valley.

Qin Huaiyu took the lead and tried his best to transport the brick truck to the valley. Although with the support of Qianjin arm, the soldiers had no pain in moving bricks.

But the mountain road is hard to walk, Merton

Qin Huaiyu led his own team of 100 to transport a large number of bricks and stones accumulated outside the general camp to the valley.

"Hoo!" the three of Qin Huaiyu gasped and pulled a cart of bricks to the valley. They were relieved. When they saw Merton standing on the side of the pitching machine doing nothing, they immediately burst into flames.

"Hum!" the three people glared, snorted coldly, and turned to accept their life to pull the bricks.

Merton laughed and looked at the catapult in front of him with a look of wonder. The catapults equipped by the 16th guard are the most advanced catapults that will be used to supervise the production. They are about one foot high, almost all wooden structure, and a long crossbow arm extends far.

"This is a catapult. It can throw a hundred kilograms of boulders. Once hit, people will smash the broken bones," Xue Rengui said.

Merton said excitedly, "try some."

This huge weapon is no less than the cannon of later generations, and Merton is naturally excited.

Suddenly, several hundred horses came forward to operate and put a huge stone of hundreds of kilograms into the bowl.

"Launch!" shouted Xue Rengui.

Buzz!

With the string sound of the rope tightening, hundreds of kilograms of boulders flew out in an instant.

The boulder drew an arc, and a big tree in front of it was destroyed in an instant.

"How far is it?" asked Merton.

"Offering wine, sir, a total of 200 steps!" Xue Rengui said with his hand. Soon, a ranging soldier came back, which was almost the same as what Xue Rengui measured.

Merton waved his big hand and said, "change it into a stone of fifty kilograms."

Soon, a small stone flew out and broke half of a tree, but it didn't break the tree.

"260 steps!" Xue Rengui reported again.

"Change a twenty pound stone," Merton said again.

"Hoo!" a basket of big stones roared past, smashed hard on the trunk, and a large number of leaves and bark fell.

"280 steps! But the power is too small." Xue Rengui shook his head and said.

Merton frowned and said, "so the best distance is only 260 steps at 50 Jin!"

Although the two hundred and sixty steps are not close, the distance is still too short. The greatest function of the catapult is to attack the city. If there is a divine Archer standing high, the range can easily reach 300 meters. Although the bow and arrow can not threaten the catapult, the soldiers of the catapult must suffer heavy losses.

"Are you going to replace stone with gunpowder?" Xue Rengui said with a flash in his eyes.

He has seen the power of gunpowder explosion. Once the gunpowder bomb is thrown into the enemy's wall by a stone catapult, although it has no impact of boulders, I'm afraid everyone will shudder at the power of explosion.

Merton nodded and said, "yes, so everyone in the firearm prison is the most precious wealth. Losing one is a great loss for the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the location of the catapult must be within the reach of the enemy."

When most people see gunpowder, they think of artillery. Compared with the best projection equipment in ancient times, the combat effect of early artillery has been significantly backward for a long time, and the early artillery fired solid bullets, which were not strong in lethality.

If the catapult is used to cooperate with the gunpowder bomb, the operation is simple, and its effect may be immediate. It can be said that it is comparable to the power of later artillery.

Xue Rengui couldn't help but look at Merton and said, "but even throwing a 20 kg stone is only 280 steps."

Merton had a flash of inspiration. He thought that there was a king of the catapult in later generations, that is, the return cannon.

In the later Song Dynasty, it took decades to endure the death of the Jin Dynasty, and held a stalemate with the Mongolian cavalry. As a result, under the bombardment of the Huihui artillery, the strong City Xiangyang, which had been in stalemate with Mongolia for six years, soon fell. Then, under the bombardment of the Huihui artillery, the city wall could no longer stop the pace of Mongolia, and the whole song dynasty fell down.

Merton picked up the pen and paper and continued to improve the catapult in front of him. Soon, the prototype of the later Huihui gun slowly appeared in his pen.

"Zhang Mu!" Merton waved and summoned Zhang Mu, who was commanding the right guard to dig earth.

"Young master, what can I do for you?" Zhang Mu hurriedly came over and said.

Merton handed the drawing to Zhang Mu and said, "give the task of building the city wall to other craftsmen. You go to Mojia village to transport a set of woodworking machinery to the firearms supervisor and make it in the fastest time."

Zhang MUNAI is the son of Lao Zhang tou. His craftsmanship is natural. When he saw Merton's drawings, he couldn't help nodding. Asked: "young master, how much do you need? When?"

"The more, the better! It must be made before the big martial arts show." Merton ordered.

"Yes!" Zhang Mu immediately took orders.

"Great martial arts!" Xue Rengui said in surprise.

Merton nodded and said, "the western expedition is coming. Your majesty will naturally have a great martial arts show before the expedition. General Li is ready to select the five guards for the expedition. Then your majesty will come to the scene in person. That will be the time for our firearms supervisor to shine."

Merton turned his eyes to the wall under construction. He expended so much energy that it was not only the power of gunpowder, but also the arrow pointing to the great martial arts show.

"All right! Keep testing the catapult?" Merton continued.

Xue Rengui was stunned and said, "don't you plan to use a new type of stone throwing machine to sacrifice wine?"

Merton shook his head and said, "the catapult seems to be powerful, but the accurate head doesn't dare to compliment. I'm afraid the effect will be greatly reduced."

Xue Rengui immediately puzzled and said, "but the stone flying out is beyond our control."

Merton shook his head and said, "we can't control the stone, but we can control the strength, direction and even landing point of the stone. This is ballistics, which is an extremely advanced mathematics."

"Arithmetic?"

Xue Rengui was suddenly stupid. He was good at asking him to fight. If he wanted to test knowledge, his eyes would be dark.

Merton suddenly had an idea. He thought of a suitable candidate, Zu Mingjun. I'm afraid he's no longer suitable for studying ballistics.

The rest of his light drifted past Qin Huaiyu, who was selling coolies. Merton showed a strange smile at the corners of his mouth. In his heart, he secretly said that he would either deceive Zu Mingjun, or how could it be said that brothers shared weal and woe?

When Merton thought of this, he immediately wrote a letter to Xue Rengui and said, "immediately use the post station to whip up the whip, send this letter to Qiu county, Fanyang County, and give it to Zu Mingjun, tell him that there is an ancient computational knowledge that needs to be studied, and ask him if he is interested."

Merton didn't deceive Zu Mingjun at all. Ballistics is popular in the world even after a few years. If Zu Mingjun started ballistics, I'm afraid it's impossible to become famous.