Great Tang princess

Chapter 171 Mechanical Compound Bow

In the third year of Shangyuan, the spring plowing ceremony was not held, because when the emperor's Luanjia arrived in Dongdu, it was already the tenth day of February, and he completely missed the opportunity to hold the spring plowing ceremony.

However, it is impossible for the ministers to just sit back and relax, because on the day they arrived in the Eastern Capital, the Queen of Heaven ordered that on February [-]th, they should attend the consecration ceremony of the Lushena Buddha in Fengxian Temple, accompanied by all the officials.

I feel that the ministers in ancient times were really troublesome. Whatever the emperor and queen want to do, you have to accompany you if you are asked to accompany you.

Although it was said that Li Yuechen would go there at that time, she was just a reporter in the past, recording things and publishing them in newspapers at that time.

Speaking of newspapers, in order not to stop publishing, Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Yiyang came here first when they came here this time.

With only two carriages, it can still be reached within ten days.

Just when I came to the newspaper office, I saw Shangguan Wan'er handing over a piece of paper: "Your Highness."

Li Yuechen took it over and took a look, but was slightly stunned in place.

Wang Bo died.

For this person, Li Yuechen still has an impression. When he was three or four years old, he was still working in the palace. At that time, he was the editor of the second brother Li Xianfu.

But later he was fired by his father Li Zhi because of certain things, and he hasn't heard much about him since then.

For this name, Li Yuechen vaguely remembered that he had seen it in a textbook, but he couldn't remember the specific things.

And the news sent by the branch office roughly recorded the cause and effect of the incident.

It seems that it was because Wang Bo secretly hid the official slave who committed crimes, and then he committed suicide privately because he was afraid of leaking the news.

But things were brought to light, so he committed a capital crime.It seems that he was saved from death when he caught up with the amnesty at that time.

It just seems that because of this incident, his father was demoted to Jiaozhi as a county magistrate, which is a more remote place than Lingnan, almost no different from exile.

Last year, he went to visit his father, but on the way back, he encountered a storm and unfortunately drowned.

Seeing this, Li Yuechen couldn't help but sighed. He really didn't expect that this talented man who left his name in history would end up like this.

Along with this news, there is also a parallel essay, "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng".

After reading this article, Li Yuechen recalled that he was the author of this article.

Even after more than a thousand years, this article still has a considerable reputation.

Seeing this, Li Yuechen shook his head slightly: "It's a pity, a generation of geniuses!"

Wang Bo, Li Yuechen's understanding of him is that he is talented, but also somewhat arrogant.

And speaking of it, it seems that there is something lacking in human feelings... or in terms of strategy. It can be seen from the "Xiying King Chicken" written when I was a child, and I am not very suitable for being an official.

But judging from his articles, it seems that he also has some common problems unique to religious people, that is, he despises the mundane world.

For example, Buddhism pays attention to cause and effect, and the suffering in this life is due to the causes of past lives.

Another example is that in Western countries, I occasionally heard some Christian propaganda. They emphasized that people are born with sins, so they must atone for their sins.

Although Li Yuechen is also in religion now, he doesn't quite understand this kind of thinking. He is in the mundane world, but he despises the mundane world.

Of course, everyone has a different understanding, and of course Li Yuechen would not say these words.

After lowering his head and sighing, Li Yuechen got up and said, "This article should be published in the newspaper. It's so famous, it shouldn't be buried in the dust."

"Yes!" Shangguan Wan'er agreed, and immediately went to prepare the next issue of the newspaper.

After Shangguan Wan'er left, Li Yuechen was not in a hurry to leave, and just checked the pile of news from all over the country to see if there was anything worthy of attention.

Not to mention, the feeling of randomly picking out a piece of paper from a large pile of papers is quite good, a bit like swiping Weibo.

After reading a few articles, I felt that they were not interesting, so I got up and interrupted to leave.

However, when he lowered his head inadvertently, he found a piece of paper with a message: King Qi dismissed the official.

Qi Wang Li Shangjin, his own half-brother.

But Li Yuechen has never seen him since he was born.

In fact, although Li Hong is the eldest among the brothers and sisters, it is based on the ranking of the first sons.

If you count all the sons of father Li Zhi, Li Hong is actually the fifth son.

The eldest and second child died before Li Yuechen was born. The third child, Li Shangjin, and the fourth child, Li Lian, were both vassal kings in other places, and they were not allowed to leave the fief without permission.

So these years, Li Yuechen has never seen them, and Li Zhi has never called them into the palace.

If we deduce it based on the attitude of my father towards my mother these years... Li Yuechen's conclusion is that not calling them into the palace is actually a kind of protection to a certain extent.

Even if they are bastards and are not welcome, they are still their own sons after all.

But at the same time, the old man is also very clear that once he shows a little concern for these two sons, Wu Zetian will never let them go!
Li Yuechen can basically guarantee that although the couple is true love, they are not in love, and they are very sober in key matters.

For my mother, these two bastards are quite a threat to her!

Let's put it this way, if one of these two becomes the emperor in the future, then she will definitely end up in a terrible end!
Not only her, but even her children will be liquidated one by one.

and so……

Li Yuechen squinted at the note in his hand and fell into deep thought.

After a few seconds of silence, she crumpled the note in her hand and accurately threw it into the charcoal brazier not far in front of her.

Although she has no grievances or enmities with these two brothers, she must stand firmly behind her mother and support her.

This news came at the end of last year, and up to now, Dad has not made any special reaction, so his attitude is also very obvious.

As long as the lives of these two sons can be saved, it is enough, as for the others, do whatever you want!

In fact, this was done for the stability of the royal family. Even he could not allow the bastard to threaten the status of the first son.

……

The newspaper on February [-]th did not publish anything about King Qi, but only made a lot of reports about Tianhou leading all the officials to Fengxian Temple to preside over the consecration ceremony.

It is worth mentioning that the newly excavated Lushena Buddha in this era looks much more magnificent and gorgeous than in the future.

On the same day, when Tianhou led all the officials over, the abbot and monk of Fengxian Temple led a group of disciples to greet him outside the door.

The old monk was a bit chubby, and he smiled kindly.

After the consecration ceremony was completed, Wu Zetian told the old monk a few more words, probably saying to work hard, not to disappoint my expectations, and so on.

The old monk quickly and respectfully agreed.

It is worth mentioning that monks in this period did not call themselves "poor monks", but "poor monks".

Of course, this is not a self-proclaimed Taoist priest. The word Tao itself has various meanings.

Therefore, monks who are called awesome by others generally say "the eminent monk who has attained the Tao" instead of "the eminent monk who has attained the Buddha".

However, this issue of the newspaper did not trigger discussions on this matter, but Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng".

With the release of the newspaper, this article was sought after by a large number of literati. At the same time, after hearing the news of Wang Bo's death, many people spontaneously mourned him.

Especially when the kid in charge of selling newspapers passed by the wine shop, and after someone bought the newspaper, Dang even spilled the wine in his hand on the ground.

There were even people who felt so sad that they started to cry on the spot.

……

At this time, Li Yuechen had already gone to the blast furnace experiment field in Mangshan to see how their recent achievements were.

After saluting with smiles on their faces, the craftsmen who took the lead couldn't wait to talk.

Through recent experiments, two of the blast furnaces have been able to produce high-quality steel stably
Although this quality is the same in Li Yuechen's opinion, it is indeed much stronger than before.

In addition, as long as a batch of blast furnaces are built, high-quality steel can be continuously produced.

Regarding this, Li Yuechen shook his head lightly.

This is not just a problem with the blast furnace, but also requires an increase in the output of iron ore.

In today's era, only some open-pit or semi-open-pit iron mines can be mined, and there is no way to carry out deep mining work.

Li Yuechen shook his head slightly, and smiled at the craftsmen: "The idea is good, but...the road is long and difficult."

Hearing this sentence, the craftsmen looked at each other, wondering what the princess was referring to.

However, they didn't bother with this issue too much. One of the craftsmen continued: "The new material that His Highness asked me to try last time has also been made."

While speaking, he took out a steel ingot weighing about ten catties.

Li Yuechen took it and weighed it slightly in his hand. Is this manganese steel?Whether it has reached the standard of the future is really a lot to say.

"What is the specific situation?"

"Returning to Your Highness, the hardness is very high, whether it is used to make weapons or armor, it is a good material... It's just that the processing is too cumbersome and requires more manpower..."

Li Yuechen nodded: "You guys keep trying, try more ratios of various materials, and see if you can continue to improve."

"Yes!"

This is something to be happy about. Manganese steel should be much better than contemporary steel. If the output increases in the future, it can be used in various industries.

In addition, during this period, metal products were basically operated by the imperial court, which should be able to bring extremely considerable income to the royal family.

After thinking about it, Li Yuechen made a decision: "Then build a few more blast furnaces here, and I'll give you a new recipe, try it out and see if you can make cement, it's a kind of gray powder..."

"Yes!" The craftsmen agreed.

After explaining the cement formula and asking them to write it down, Li Yuechen got on his horse and returned to the palace.

Today's Li Yuechen seldom travels in a carriage, and most of the time he still rides a horse by himself.

But in this way, Fulai and the guards in charge of protecting her will have to ride horses.

So for convenience, Li Yuechen reduced his bodyguards from 60 people to 20 people.

The old man didn't say anything about it. After all, according to Liu Rengui's statement, the princess's strength is now one of the best even in the most elite army, and she still has the ability to protect herself.

The only thing Liu Rengui felt a little regretful about was that the current princess hadn't really been on the battlefield, so she couldn't be considered a top-notch expert.

Because Mangshan was at the back of the palace, Li Yuechen went back to the harem directly from the back instead of going from the front.

Just after returning to Anfu Palace, Xiao He ran over before he had time to get off his horse: "Your Highness, just now the Military Weapons Supervision sent someone to deliver a message, saying that there are results. If Your Highness is free, you can go and have a look."

"Then let's go now." Li Yuechen nodded, without getting off his horse, he turned his horse's head and ran to the Military Weapons Supervision.

I mentioned to them last year whether iron can be used to make bows, but it took almost a year before the results were produced.

When the military inspector arrived, the craftsmen immediately took out a bow and handed it over: "Your Highness, pure steel is not suitable for bows, so..."

Listening to the explanation on the other side, Li Yuechen looked at the big bow in his hand and understood what they meant.

After experimenting, they found that steel could not be directly used to make the bow body, so they still adopted the method of compound bow made of multiple materials.

According to the ideas provided by Li Yuechen, the bow body and the bow limbs were made separately.

The bow body is made of pure metal, and the bow limbs are made of various other materials such as steel and horn.

Although it looks a bit nondescript, the craftsmen all feel that it is already very powerful to make such a bow.

"What is the pulling force of this bow?" Li Yuechen turned his head and asked.

"Return to Your Highness, after our tests, it takes [-] catties to pull it apart." The craftsman replied.

Bows in this era are actually not counted by "stone" in TV dramas, but more "jin".

It is also very simple to calculate the bow force of a bow, fix the bow, and then hang a heavy object on the bowstring.

Until it is fully drawn, then calculate the weight of the object on the bowstring, which is the force required to draw the bow.

One hundred and sixty catties, this is no longer a bow that ordinary people can draw, and it cannot be used by those who are not strong.

Li Yuechen nodded, and immediately tried to pull it,
Seeing her slowly draw the bow to full capacity, the craftsmen next to her opened their eyes wide, and some even opened their mouths subconsciously, as if they had seen a ghost.

Although there have always been rumors in the palace that the princess was born with supernatural powers, few people have actually seen it with their own eyes.

Now they watched the princess draw a [-]-jin bow with their own eyes, and judging by her expression, she didn't seem to be struggling!

It wasn't until this moment that they truly understood what innate divine power is!
And Li Yuechen felt that although it was a bit strenuous, she hadn't reached her limit. Even with a heavier bow, she should be able to draw it.

Slowly retracting the stretched bowstring, Li Yuechen nodded: "Okay, not bad! I'll draw a design for you and make a new bow!"

After returning to Anfu Hall, Li Yuechen couldn't wait to find a pen and paper, and began to draw the design of the mechanical compound bow.

Li Yuechen feels that the possibility of making it in this era is still very high.

As long as the research is successful, it will be more convenient to practice bow and arrow in the future.

(End of this chapter)