Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 54 Building Weapons

Early the next morning, a low-pitched horn sounded in Dazhai.

With the continuous sound of horns, five or six thousand remnants of the Chu army got out of the grass sheds and wooden houses, and gathered in the open space outside Dazhai like ants looking for food.

The more than 2000 remnant soldiers who came from Jiangdong showed no signs of instability.

After all, Jiangdong's children are loyal to the entire Great Chu, not Xiang Han. In the eyes of these recruits who have just joined the army, the general is undoubtedly a bigger general than Xiang Han. The general wants to kill Xiang Han. What can the little soldiers do to stop them?Therefore, more than 2000 Jiangdong remnants calmly accepted the fact that Xiang Han was killed.

As for the soldiers loyal to Xiang Han, there are only a few dozen people, so what kind of climate can they achieve?
After nearly [-] remnants of the Chu army had assembled, Jing Qian and Gao Chu unceremoniously began to select people.

The trapped camp is the main field force of the Chu army, so Jing Qian was the first to come up to pick people. This guy honestly selected a thousand soldiers from among the veterans who escaped from Gaixia. The general's personal soldiers will not be spared, as long as they are attracted to him, they will still choose to leave. Although Huan Chu, Ji Bu and others are reluctant to give up, they can only recognize it with their noses.

After Jingqian had selected people, Gaochu was next. The Nufeng Battalion did not need to engage in close combat with the enemy, so Gaochu did not choose people from the veterans, but selected 2000 recruits from the more than [-] Jiangdong recruits. A tall, strong man with a strong physique is also a prerequisite for becoming a longbowman. If you are too short and too weak, you cannot hold a longbow.

As there was no candidate for a lieutenant to go to the camp first, Xiang Zhuang had no choice but to pick someone himself. He also selected more than 200 elite soldiers from the Gaixia veterans, plus the original 200 soldiers under the command of Jing Qian and Gao Chu, it was just right. A total of 500 people were assembled, and he personally served as the captain of Xiandeng. At the same time, he appointed Gongsun Sui as the left Sima of the Xiandeng camp to act as the captain.

In the end, it was Jing Qian again, who selected a thousand auxiliary light soldiers for his pawns!

When Jingqian is finished, Xiangzhuang will distribute the remaining 700 people evenly and reorganize them into the front, rear, left, right, and middle armies. Huan Chu, Xiao Kai, Zhong Limei, Yu Ziqi, Jibu's five generals led an army, but it was said that it was an army, but in fact there were only more than 500 people, which was only the strength of one department.

After the deployment of troops, each army and battalion began intense training.

It is now the middle of March, and the weather will soon turn warmer. There is not much time left for the Chu army. The Chu army must complete the training within ten days, and then they will cross the Dabie Mountains and start a long-distance expedition!

##########
In the dead of night, the row of thatched huts by the river was brightly lit with jingling sounds.

Behind the row of thatched huts, a furnace about two feet high was built on the back of the mountain. A dozen joints were left at the bottom of the furnace slightly above. A dozen huge cowhide air bladders passed through the brick holes and these The interface is connected, and at least two brawny men with bare chests and belly are standing beside each cowhide wind bag, desperately inflating the wind bag.

I don't know how long it took before a strong man strode forward and pulled out something at the bottom of the furnace with iron tongs. In an instant, fiery red molten iron gushed out from the bottom of the furnace and slowly flowed into it again. In the grooves of the pre-built sand molds, when the molten iron gradually cools down, it becomes a handful of ring-shaped blanks.

Next, several strong men sent these cast blanks to various thatched sheds for the next step of forging, and several other strong men lifted the top cover of the furnace and put the excess or damaged iron Swords, iron armors, iron helmets, iron halberds, and iron cauldrons were thrown into the furnace one after another. After it was full, dozens of strong men began to inflate the airbags again.

In that row of thatched huts, more than a hundred blacksmiths of the Chu army were working hard to forge ring-shoulders. Shouchun was flooded, and the Chu army only grabbed two things. It took a lot of manpower and material resources to finally transport the wind bag, anvil, hammer and other equipment into the mountain.

Yu Ziqi was sweating profusely, and he was using the small hammer in his hand to guide the sledgehammer in the hand of the strong man opposite, struggling to hammer the rough embryo of the horizontal knife on the anvil. To improve the fighting power as much as possible, Xiang Zhuang decided to build more ring-shoulders, and he also planned to equip all the generals with horizontal swords!

At this time, due to the defects of metallurgy technology, the Huan Shou Dao at this time cannot be compared with the later Han Dynasty Huan Shou Dao in terms of processing technology and material quality. However, due to its unique thick back shape, when facing a double-edged thin sword However, he had the upper hand, and when the swords slashed at each other, nine times out of ten it would be a double-edged thin sword, not a thick-backed single-edged ring-shouldered sword.

Even the double-edged epee of the generals of the Han army was defeated by ordinary ring swords!

As for Xiangzhuang's so-called Daheng Dao, the processing technology is far from that of Tang Dao of later generations. However, although Xiangzhuang's Daheng Dao is simple in workmanship, it is longer, wider and thicker, which makes up for it. The difference in material hardness and toughness, compared with the swords, halberds and spears of the Qin and Han Dynasties, Xiangzhuang's big horizontal knife is definitely a magic weapon!

Of course, no matter how crude the craftsmanship of the Daheng Dao is compared to the Tang Dao, it is not something that ordinary blacksmiths can master, so Yu Ziqi has to handle the hammer himself. The general can sleep, but he still has to forge iron here, more often, he looks like a blacksmith.

While they were busy, Xiang Zhuang suddenly walked in surrounded by Gao Chu and Jing Qian.

Yu Ziqi hurriedly put down the hammer and bowed to Xiang Zhuang. Xiang Zhuang waved his hand to indicate that there is no need to be too polite, then he took out a white cloth from his sleeve and handed it to Yu Ziqi. I drew a drawing, which looks like a pointed and thin spear, but it is different from a spear. The spear has no barbs, but this thing has barbs.

At the moment Yu Ziqi was a little confused and said: "General, what kind of weapon is this?"

"This is called a javelin." Xiang Zhuang explained, "It is cast according to the pattern, and a wooden pole is connected to it later."

As a traveler, Xiang Zhuang certainly knows about javelins. In the West, whether it is ancient Greece or ancient Rome, javelins are important infantry weapons. However, in China, due to the appearance of strong crossbows, javelins have become a weak weapon. Because whether it is range, rate of fire, penetration or hit accuracy, the javelin is far from being comparable to the crossbow.

However, javelins still have advantages over crossbows, that is, they are cheap and easy to carry!

Given the current conditions of the Chu army, they have neither the technology nor the ability to make strong crossbows, so the javelin has become the first choice. Xiang Zhuang has decided to list the javelin as the standard weapon of the Chu army, at least light soldiers must be equipped!
After the Chu army is equipped with ring-shoulders, large shields, halberds, javelins, and longbows, the field mode is basically formed.

The field mode of the Chu army is basically like this. When the enemy infantry enters within a hundred steps (one step is about 1.4 meters), the longbowmen of the Nufeng Battalion will carry out the first round of killing; when the enemy infantry enters within twenty steps At the same time, the auxiliary light soldiers in the camp will use javelins to carry out the second round of killing; Waiting for opportunities to attack with long halberds, while auxiliary light soldiers continue to shoot and kill the enemy with javelins.

Yu Ziqi collected the pattern, and said to Xiang Zhuang: "General, this pattern is quite simple. As long as it is cast into shape, it doesn't need too much forging, but it takes some effort to sharpen it. However, one day It shouldn't be difficult to make fifty, but I don't know how many will the general need?"

"Fifty sticks are not enough, I need five thousand sticks, and I need it in ten days!"

"That's it, then more manpower will be needed to sharpen the forged gun heads."

"That's no problem, how many manpower do you need? You can go to various armies to choose, including the personal guard!" After saying this, Xiang Zhuang said, "However, the construction of the javelin must not affect the horizontal knife and the ring-shou knife. Because the importance of these two weapons is far above that of the javelin!"

"Promise!" Yu Ziqi bowed and said loudly, "Within ten days, ten thousand three-edged arrow clusters, five thousand javelin tips, three hundred ring-headed knives, and twenty horizontal knives! I will never disgrace my life!"

Xiang Zhuang patted Yu Ziqi's shoulder, and said apologetically, "General Ziqi, I can only work hard on you."

Yu Ziqi said: "As long as Da Chu can be revived, what's the point of dying in the blacksmith's shop?"

"Okay, I've written down what General Ziqi said!" Xiang Zhuang nodded, and said solemnly, "I will definitely give you a great credit when the Great Chu is revived in the future!"

After finishing speaking, Xiang Zhuang turned around and left.

Seeing Xiang Zhuang's figure go away, Yu Ziqi's eyes quickly dimmed. In all honesty, he didn't think there was any possibility of Da Chu's revival. However, no matter what happens in the future, Yu Ziqi will never betray Da Chu!
##########
When Yu Ziqi and the blacksmiths were busy making weapons, Gao Chu and his Nufengying were also making longbows.

Gao Chu was bare chested and exposed, his muscles were knotted, and he was sawing with Jing Qian a hundred-year-old mulberry tree as thick as two hands. The longbow has extremely high requirements on materials. Such a thick old mulberry tree can be used to make long bows. The bow has only a small part close to the wooden heart, so it can only make two bows at most, but the outer part can be used to make the shaft of the javelin.

Several veterans who used to be bowsmiths are carefully cutting bow materials beside them.

Speaking of it, new wood is not suitable for making bows, but time is tight, and I can't take care of so much. Even if the longbow made is not satisfactory in terms of lethality and range, it is better than nothing.

Not far away, bundles of javelin shafts have been piled up like a mountain. Each shaft is seven feet long, about two inches thick in the middle, and slightly thinner at both ends. More than a hundred female soldiers twisted brown thread and hemp thread from sheets of brown leather and bundles of stored hemp, and then wound them repeatedly to form strands of brown rope and hemp rope.

Farther away, the bows that have been sharpened are being stuck in specific slots, and the two ends are tied with hemp rope, and bent into different arcs. This is the last process before the longbow is strung— —Taming the bow.

(End of this chapter)