Song Yi

Chapter 426

Chapter 426
The military supervisor was also sweating on his forehead, and said in a low voice: "General, it's very hot here, why don't we go to the flower hall to talk. I will report to you the situation of the military department..."

Du Wenhao said: "Don't worry, let's check the quality of these bows and crossbows first. This morning, the Empress Dowager has decreed that I will be the envoy to recruit [-] troops to conquer Xixia. This official The second time I came to the armory, I wanted to customize a weapon, and secondly, I wanted to see how the weapons in our armory are. After all, these are food guys for the frontline soldiers to save their lives and kill the enemy. Maybe one of the soldiers will be killed, so don't be careless."

"Yes, yes," the military inspector wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, "This, it's so hot, General, let's go to the flower hall, I have some gadgets in my humble position, I would like to invite adults to appreciate them..."

Du Wenhao knew that this old boy wanted to bribe, and he had already said very clearly, but Du Wenhao pretended not to understand, waved his hand, turned to Xu Huaqiang and said: "You guys also saw how to test it just now, look It looks like they are tired, come and check them out."

Xu Huaqiang waited for the guards to agree, stepped forward, picked up the crossbow and tried to shoot.

In the cold sweat of the Military Weapons Supervisor, the test shooting ended quickly, and even if you didn't look at the result, you could guess it from the cold sweat on the Military Weapons Supervisor's frightened face.

Du Wenhao smiled faintly, picked up an arrow from the arrow cluster, touched the arrow with his finger, then stroked the arrow back and forth in the palm of his hand, looked at the military supervisor and said: "Master Qi, the four bows that were tested One of the three crossbows failed to meet the standard, and almost [-]% of them were inferior products. The arrowhead of this arrow can't even scratch the palm of my hand, so how can it penetrate the thick armor of the enemy army? Such a cluster of bow and crossbow arrows Do you think it is appropriate to hand it over to the frontline soldiers of our army?"

The military inspector's knees softened, he knelt down on the ground, kowtowed and said: "General, this humble job..., it's a last resort."

"Finally, it's a last resort. If you can't say it, you don't have to be an official. Don't say it, I'm afraid you may not be able to keep your head!"

Of course the military inspector knew that Du Wenhao's words, as the chief executive, were definitely not threats.Suddenly frightened out of his wits, he tremblingly said: "General, please forgive me! It's like this..." The military supervisor swallowed hard, and continued tremblingly: "Every craftsman in the office must be required by the regular class (labor quota) , these numbers were determined by the late emperor. On average, each person made at least one bow every day, at least one crossbow every two days, and at least 150 arrows a day. [-]% of those who passed were no less than [-]%. However, The craftsmanship of the military craftsmen is uneven, and there are too few who can meet the standards. If they fail to pay the number, they will all be punished. As a last resort, we have to relax the standards."

Du Wenhao thought for a while. At that time, the late Emperor Song Shenzong wanted to use a large-scale army against Xixia, so he naturally needed a lot of military weapons and equipment. What he said was true, and his tone eased, and said: "From now on, all weapons that have not yet been released must be strictly controlled." According to the standards, I will organize re-inspection of the weapons in the arsenal. If found to be unqualified, all of them will be eliminated! Moreover, a strict responsibility system must be implemented, and the weapons must be numbered. Whoever made them will be held accountable except for quality problems. responsibility!"

The military supervisor repeatedly agreed with a bitter face.

Du Wenhao said: "As for the quantity requirement, I will report it to the Empress Dowager and modify it as appropriate. Now we have not used large-scale troops against Xixia, and we don't need so many low-quality weapons for the time being. Now weapons and equipment must first obey the quality, and then Quantity can only be discussed. A lot of useless scrap copper and rotten iron are not as good as a small amount of elite weapons. In the future, we will build an elite army, not a large number of redundant soldiers! Therefore, the number of weapons can not be too many, but the quality must be Fine and fine! It’s best to invent some advanced weapons for me. ——What are our most advanced weapons?”

The Military Weapons Superintendent looked at the Young Supervisor in fear again, obviously he didn't know much about the Military Weapons Supervision, and he didn't know how he was an official.

The young supervisor hurriedly said: "In terms of bows and arrows, our divine arm bow is unparalleled in the world. Neither the Liao army nor the Xia army has mastered it. It is a recent invention. The range can reach 240 steps (370 meters)! It can be fired by one person and can easily penetrate. Yumu. Within the shooting range, the hard armor against Xixia's heavy cavalry can be easily shot through! It's a pity that the battle of Yongle City didn't have time to have a lot of equipment, otherwise, we wouldn't lose to the Tartars!"

Du Wenhao was overjoyed: "So powerful? I've heard of this magic arm bow, but I haven't seen it before. Where is it?"

The young supervisor walked to a box, opened the lid, took out a crossbow and handed it to Du Wenhao.

Du Wenhao took it, a little puzzled: "The God Arm Bow should be a bow and arrow, why is it a crossbow?"

"Reporting to the general, it's just called a god arm bow, but it's actually a crossbow."

"Oh, it's really so powerful. Come on, let's test it out. Bring some other bows and crossbows to do a comparative experiment."

Du Wenhao took the magic arm bow and returned to the bow and crossbow academy to inspect the workshop.He personally went into battle with the sword in his hand, and shot an arrow at a 45-degree angle with the magic arm bow in his hand. Sure enough, he landed far away at the end of the proving ground.Judging from the side distance sign, it is almost 250 steps!
Du Wenhao stepped on the crossbow again, and loaded the bow and arrow himself. He felt that the operation was relatively simple, but the speed was slightly slower than that of the bow and arrow.After all, it is a crossbow, and you need to use both hands and feet to reload the arrow.

After loading the arrows, he asked someone to hang a pair of heavy armor on a human-shaped wooden stake at a hundred paces away, and shot five arrows in succession with the divine arm bow, and none of them missed the target.Going closer to check, it was found that all five arrows had pierced the heavy armor and penetrated into the wooden pile behind!
Du Wenhao nodded again and again, put down the God Arm Bow, and replaced it with a yellow birch bow, a black lacquer bow, and a jumping stirrup crossbow, and tried shooting.The furthest range is less than two hundred steps, which is obviously not as good as the God Arm Bow.Moreover, the two bows could not penetrate heavy armor at a distance of a hundred steps, and the crossbow could barely penetrate, but its strength had weakened, and it could not penetrate the wooden board behind.Whether it is the longest range or penetration, it is far worse than the god arm bow.

Du Wenhao happily placed the bow on his divine arm: "This thing is really good, who invented it?"

"Li Hong—that's the old soldier who was whipped just now."

"It's him?" Du Wenhao was very surprised, "What position does he hold in the armory?"

"I don't have a job, but make bows in the God Arm Bow Workshop."

Du Wenhao couldn't laugh or cry, such an expert in military invention was only used as an ordinary craftsman, and said angrily: "He has invented such a good weapon, he should be promoted to an official, and he should be rewarded heavily. It's fine if you don't promote him to an official." , and beat him, don't you think it's too much?"

The military inspector hurriedly laughed and said: "The general doesn't know something. This old man is stubborn and disobedient. After he invented the magic arm bow, the emperor praised him very much and gave him a lot of silver and taels of brocade. He has some credit for it." , began to booing in the workshop, asking for an increase in the monthly salary of the armorers, asking for a reduction in production time, asking for this and that, and if he disagreed, he ordered the armorers to go on strike, and tried to escape several times. That’s why the punishment was used like this.”

Du Wenhao asked in a cold voice: "How much is the monthly salary of a military craftsman?" He knew that the military supervisor would not be able to answer this question, so he simply asked the young supervisor directly.

The young supervisor hurriedly replied: "A general soldier's monthly salary is [-] wen, and the monthly grain is [-] shi. Every spring and winter, there are five bolts of silk and silk, and one catty of cotton."

This treatment belongs to the sergeant rank of the Lower Forbidden Army, which is the lowest level in the military salary.Du Wenhao sighed in his heart, and asked again: "How long do they work every day?"

"It starts at [-]:[-] in the morning, ends at [-]:[-] in the evening (that is, from [-]:[-] am to [-]:[-] pm), and rests for half an hour at noon for dinner."

Du Wenhao said with a sullen face: "That means working five and a half hours (eleven hours) a day, such a heavy workload, such low salary, and not being able to go in and out casually, and maybe even be whipped, his grandma They are more vicious than bonded workers, according to me, it is normal for people to run away! If you don’t raise the pole and revolt, you are already worthy of you!"

This was said by Zai Zhi, which shows that the Zai Zhi in power is extremely dissatisfied with the work of the Military Weapons Supervision.The military inspector's face suddenly changed color.There was cold sweat on his forehead.

Du Wenhao went on to say: "In my opinion, Li Hong is very righteous! He asked for an increase in monthly salary and a reduction in working hours, which is right! And he is speaking for everyone! He invented such a good bow and crossbow. Hero! Even the late Emperor was full of praise and generously commended him, but you guys tied him up and whipped him. That’s how you treat heroes? Huh?"

The military inspector bowed to the ground: "Convicted of the crime by humble position."

"Convicted? I don't think so! Do you know what your crime is?"

"Humble job..., low job shouldn't punish Li Hong..."

"Hmph! Where did he work before?"

"At the Divine Arm Bow Workshop."

"This is your crime!" Du Wenhao pointed to the military supervisor and said, "Knowing people and doing them well is the first priority of a person in charge of an organization. We must use talents where they can best use their talents! Li Hong invented Such an advanced and sophisticated divine arm bow shows that he is quite experienced in developing weapons, so he should be placed in the research institute and let him develop more and better weapons. You are better off, use him as an ordinary craftsman and let him It is your dereliction of duty that your ingenuity is wasted away by ordinary work!"

"Yes!" The military supervisor bowed and bowed, his face pale.

Du Wenhao said coldly: "There is no department in our military department that specializes in the development of new weapons?"

"This..." The military inspector didn't know whether he was frightened, too nervous to remember, or because he got used to it, and turned his head to look at the young inspector again.

Du Wenhao said angrily: "What did you do? How many departments does the Military Weapons Supervision have? You don't even know if there is an organization that develops weapons and equipment?"

"Humble job... low job..." The military inspector's feet were trembling, and he just wanted to kneel down and kowtow.

The young supervisor hurriedly bowed and replied: "Reporting to the general, the base has not set up a workshop for the development of weapons and equipment."

"Hmm!" Du Wenhao frowned and thought for a moment, then said to the young supervisor: "Send someone to my Wuweitang later, and take a pack of my Wuweitang's Jinchuang medicine to Li Hong, and give him 50 yuan in addition. The two silver coins are considered as compensation for the loss given to him by the Military Weapons Department. You should say more good things and apologize! Tell him, let him recover from his injuries, and when he recovers from his injuries, this general will be of great use to him!"

The young prisoner hurriedly bowed and agreed.

Du Wenhao then went down to inspect. He came to the bow and crossbow arsenal, where boxes of bows and crossbows were placed, waiting to be shipped to the front line and various places.Dozens of artisans are packing clusters of bow and crossbow bolts.

Du Wenhao scanned all the weapons in the finished product warehouse, felt a little puzzled, and asked the military supervisor: "Don't you have muskets?"

(End of this chapter)

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