The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 338 Strong Fortress
It just so happens that at this moment, the time has come.

Tang Hao brought everyone back to the workshop again.

Amid the puzzled comments of the crowd, Tang Hao walked forward, poked the concrete bastion with his finger, and immediately showed a look of satisfaction.

Well, very hard.

Luckily, the sun is shining brightly today and everything has dried up and is now hard and flaky!

Seeing his smile, Zhu Houzhao immediately asked, "Lord Tang, tell me, what on earth is this?"

"Your Majesty, this thing is called 'cement', and as for its use, it can be described as indestructible!"

"No matter whether we are building roads, bridges or cities, cement will be the best material. It is not only indestructible for thousands of years, but also can be used in military operations. It is as solid as a rock. The enemy cannot easily destroy it except by artillery bombardment, just like this miniature bastion in front of us!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole place was in an uproar.

Zhu Houzhao's face was full of astonishment, which then turned into ecstasy.

His Majesty the Emperor stepped forward and looked at the miniature bastion carefully, then kicked it like a naughty child. Yang Tinghe's mouth twitched at this scene, and he simply chose to ignore it.

As a result, the bastion did not move at all, but Zhu Houzhao was grimacing in pain.

Damn, this is too hard, isn’t it?

"Come on, try how hard it is!"

The furious Emperor immediately gave the order in a rage.

Tang Hao gave An Guo a look, and the latter immediately understood and stepped forward to start the test.

The simplest test is to kick with feet. After all, An Guo is a burly general in the Han army, and his strength is naturally not comparable to Zhu Houzhao. But even if An Guo kicked with all his strength, the concrete bastion did not move at all. An Guo even took a run-up and kicked with all his strength, but it only left a footprint, that's all!

Seeing this scene, Zhu Houzhao became more excited.

"That idiot, use a knife!"

When Chang Kuohai heard this, he thought, "Isn't this calling me?", so he immediately drew the sword from his waist, walked forward, gathered his strength, and with a sudden roar, slashed the surface of the bastion with the sword.

Accompanied by a loud bang, dust flew up in an instant!
The next time, everyone only saw Chang Erlangzi with a confused face and the half-broken sword in his hand!

And that concrete bastion only had a knife mark left on the surface!
Shock!

The whole place was silent!

The onlookers were all stunned.

That was Chang Erlangzi's full-strength strike!
This Chang Erlangzi could be called the second Marquis of Zhongshan. He was born with supernatural powers and his martial arts were also excellent. He was at the peak of his powers at the moment. However, he was unable to split the concrete bastion with one slash of his sword, and instead broke his own sword!
Damn, this thing is a bit too hard!
Zhu Houzhao's face flushed with excitement at this moment, and he ordered again: "Use bows and arrows!"

The young emperor always liked war, so he immediately thought of a key point.

If these concrete bastions were placed on the battlefield, they would be perfect shelters!

What is the best skill of the Mongols?
Unparalleled in riding and shooting!

These Mongolian Tatars have been practicing horse riding and archery since they were young. Both men and women are natural cavalrymen, so it is necessary to test the bastion with bows and arrows now!

An Guo immediately called over a small team of Beijing army soldiers, who stood in all directions and shot arrows to attack the concrete bastion in the center!
The arrow flew over and hit the bastion directly. Then there was a "pop" sound, and the arrow lost its power and fell to the ground, and only some white spots appeared on the concrete bastion!
This concrete bastion can indeed be called indestructible!

But it's not enough!

Zhu Houzhao became interested. He wanted to figure out what the limit of this thing was!

"Someone, bring a crossbow from the palace!"

"Your Majesty, isn't this a bit too much?"

Yang Tinghe reminded unhappily.

You bastard, do you have to destroy this bastion to be happy?

You brought the crossbow over here, why don’t you use the cannon to attack?
Besides, where did the Mongols get the crossbows?
Since the lethality of their bows and arrows has been proven, isn’t that enough?

Before Zhu Houzhao could speak, Tang Hao spoke with a smile.

"It doesn't matter, just test it."

"Finding out the limits of this concrete bastion will help reduce casualties among the soldiers!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone reacted.

This thing must be used on the battlefield first.

By then, they will serve as perfect shelters to protect the safety of the soldiers.

Zhu Di nodded with a smile and urged the soldiers to carry the crossbow.

Then he came to Tang Hao, and asked with a low laugh: "Are you sure about the bed crossbow test?" Hearing this, Tang Hao smiled bitterly and shook his head.

He really wasn't sure, after all, that was a fucking crossbow!

The Weak Song Dynasty was a dynasty in Chinese history with a highly prosperous commodity economy, cultural education, and scientific innovation, but it was also a dynasty with very weak military strength.

The combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty army was so low that it was outrageous. It couldn't deal with the powerful Liao Kingdom in the north, nor could it deal with the weak Western Xia in the northwest. In the end, it came up with humiliating things such as annual tribute and annual currency, and became the only Central Plains dynasty to pay tribute to the grassland dynasty. It didn't even care about the face of its ancestors!

Most people can only sigh when talking about the weak military strength of the Song Dynasty.

But then again, although the weak Song Dynasty was not good at fighting, it was still commendable in terms of military technological innovation. For example, the Song Dynasty army was mainly composed of infantry, so they focused on the improvement of bows and crossbows in terms of weapons innovation. The famous killer weapon was the three-bow crossbow!
The bed crossbow was a powerful crossbow in ancient times. It was pulled by a winch, had a long range, and could fire a large number of arrows at the same time, causing large-scale damage to the enemy. Its only drawback was its lack of accuracy. If the bows and arrows in the hands of ancient soldiers were equivalent to modern guns, then the bed crossbow was equivalent to modern artillery. Its lethality was such that a single crossbow arrow could kill dozens or even hundreds of enemies!
After the Song Dynasty, the Song people, who loved scientific inventions, made improvements and innovations based on the crossbows of previous dynasties, and finally invented the ultimate "killer weapon" in the era of cold weapons - the three-bow crossbow.

The three-bow crossbow is also called a bed crossbow. Its structure is roughly that three or four strong bows are installed on a crossbow bed as a connected power, and the bow is stretched and opened by an axle turntable (i.e. winch). There are seven arrow paths on the crossbow arm, and a giant arrow is placed on the middle one. The arrows of the three-bow crossbow are made of hard wood as the arrow shaft and iron sheets as the feathers. It is known as "one spear and three swords and arrows".

In other words, what it fired was not the ordinary bow and arrow we see in TV dramas, but a javelin about three feet and five inches long, with three iron feathers like a long sword at the tail. Such a giant arrow, combined with the arrows fired from other arrow channels on the crossbow, was shot out in rows, and its power was simply unimaginable.

The reason why the triple-bow crossbow is particularly famous in history is mainly because it was used in a war that changed the fate of history.

In the first year of Jingde in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao army marched south to invade the Song Dynasty. The two sides fought a bloody battle in Chanzhou City. Later, the Song army used a three-bow crossbow and shot and killed the Liao army commander Xiao Talina with one arrow. The commander was killed, so the Liao army had no intention of fighting and reached a peace agreement with the Northern Song Dynasty, which is the famous "Chanyuan Alliance" in history.

Therefore, the power of this thing is actually no different from ancient cannons.

It was precisely because of the development of firearms that the Ming Dynasty did not attach too much importance to the crossbow. After all, although it had great lethality, it was too heavy and troublesome to operate. It was not as convenient and easy to use as artillery, so it was gradually eliminated. Some of them are now used for defending the city.

Soon the crossbow was brought over and the soldiers began to assemble it.

"Hurry up and set up the crossbow, and aim at this concrete bastion!"

Following the emperor's order, generals such as An Guo and Chang Kuohai personally operated the crossbows.

After a moment, An Guo shouted: "Your Majesty, get ready!"

"Shoot!" Zhu Houzhao shouted excitedly, like a naughty kid who found a new toy.

Chang Kuohai raised the hammer and smashed it down hard. Then with a "bang", a huge crossbow arrow as thick as an arm hit the gray wall of the bastion.

In an instant, a scene that stunned everyone happened. The giant arrow that was supposed to be inserted into the wall actually flew away, rolled away, and hit the ground directly!
Everyone was stunned, staring at the concrete bastion!
"Quick! Keep shooting!"

Zhu Houzhao was so excited that his face turned red and he roared loudly.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The sound of the crossbows rang out again and again, and after half an hour, the concrete bastion was finally pierced!
However, this result is enough to make people excited!

Zhu Houzhao raised his hand with red eyes to stop the test.

Because, there is no need!

Its sturdiness is the best in the world!

Being able to block swords, bows and arrows is nothing, any ordinary city wall can do that!
But it can block the bed crossbow and its terrifying killing power. It is really shocking!

After the shock, there was ecstasy.

Zhu Houzhao looked at Tang Hao with surprise, and his fiery eyes made people feel creepy.

"Tang Hou, what are the shortcomings of this thing?"

After thinking for a moment, Tang Hao slowly spoke.

"It's not without its drawbacks, but temperature is the key."

"Because the weather is cold, water freezes easily, so the cement may take longer to solidify. Generally, the lower the temperature, the longer the cement solidifies, and the worse the effect!"

"The other aspect is that the cement cannot be damaged or disturbed during its solidification process, otherwise it will affect the shaping!"

These are not big issues and are much better than other materials!

It takes a short time to solidify and is indestructible, so a few minor flaws are nothing.

What more bikes do you want?
Wang Qiong's face was also full of smiles. With this cement, it would be easy for him to complete the task of building the side wall within three years. It might not even take three years. Two years or even one year would be enough!
Zhu Houzhao has not yet recovered from his excitement.

This thing can not only be used in people's livelihood, but it can also be a powerful weapon on the battlefield!

"Savage, savage, you really gave me a great gift!"

He seemed to see that concrete bastions were spread across every corner of the grassland and desert. Once the grassland barbarians set foot here, they were destined to become corpses!

He seemed to see that the concrete bastions that helped each other extended the tentacles of the Ming Dynasty to everywhere in the world!

This is not only a magical tool for infrastructure construction, but also an absolute weapon on the battlefield!
Tang Hao smiled but said nothing when he heard this.

The uses of cement are not just in military applications!
(End of this chapter)