Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 1013 Punch Hammer
And some key departments in the base are even more heavily guarded, and idlers cannot get close at all, such as the large courtyard of the Weapons and Equipment Research Department and the gunpowder weapon factory.

In addition to a dedicated open department of the Ministry of Security, there are more spies secretly deployed, and there is a battalion of troops stationed here on the periphery.For more than a year, with the continuous expansion of Wugong County, the Security Department has cracked several spies who attempted to sneak into the factory every once in a while, and there are many of them who are skilled in light work and martial arts.

Today's Wugong County is even more extraordinary than usual. His Majesty the Emperor of Xiangfu Kingdom will come to inspect, so martial law has begun in Wugong County. The streets are full of soldiers with guns and sabers. Vigilantly looking for suspicious persons.

More than 100 officials, including the county magistrate of Wugong County, the local branch of the Ministry of Security, the general manager of the equipment production base, and the weapons research department, have been waiting here early.At that time, he was a master craftsman in the Weapons Department of the Huaxia Weifu in the Great Song Dynasty. Now Liu Dongming, the envoy of the Weapons Research Department, is full of joy. Now he no longer needs to study the robes of a military officer of the sixth grade, let alone make equipment by himself. He only needs to organize and supervise the research and development of various research departments under him, coordinate the deployment of manpower, funds, materials, etc. .Constantly updating and improving existing equipment and inventing new weapons and equipment is his only goal now.

For Liu Dongming, it took him a long time to complete such a role change. Compared with the rough hands and feet and troubles at the beginning, he is now more than capable. This reminds him of what His Majesty said to him back then, do It is much more difficult to be a qualified envoy of the research department than to be an excellent master craftsman.In comparison, the former has made a much greater contribution to Xiangfu country than the latter.It is because he has seen the truth clearly, so he has been studying and studying day and night, studying and understanding. Today he has finally successfully transformed from an excellent master craftsman to a qualified leader And the organizer, now he has a lot of master craftsmen under his command. In terms of craftsmanship alone, he is much better than when he was at his peak. This also makes him very fortunate. If there is no successful transformation, then Liu Dongming today will never No. 1 in the Weapons and Equipment Research Department.

While feeling emotional, some subordinates rushed over and said from a distance: "My lords, Your Majesty's ceremonial car has arrived outside Wugong County!"

Everyone hurriedly adjusted their official uniforms, adjusted their expressions, and got ready to welcome His Majesty the Emperor.Because Ye Chen has issued a relevant decree long ago, similar inspections are not allowed to meet them from afar, otherwise these people must have traveled more than ten miles away to meet them.

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Ye Chen is very satisfied with the current situation of Wugong County. Everything is so well-organized, busy and orderly. In the past few months, the production efficiency of Wugong County has been greatly improved. Also greatly improved.The only big problem now is that the iron ore is a little far away from Wugong County, and the back and forth transportation affects the production efficiency of some weapons and equipment and increases the cost.

Ye Chen's first stop was the Ordnance Factory.Yu Wen, head of the equipment department, came with Ye Chen.

Yu Wen, Liu Dongming and others accompanied Ye Chen, watching with Ye Chen and explaining for Ye Chen at the same time.

"Your Majesty, this is the factory for the production of giant guns, crossbows and fast crossbows. The giant guns and crossbows are huge in size and cannot be carried and transported. We have been studying whether we can reduce the power, effective shooting distance and accuracy without weakening. The size and operation steps of small guns and crossbows, after a period of trial and error, the giant guns and crossbows we have made have been greatly improved compared with before, and now we will operate the gears on the basis of the gears used last time. The personnel has been reduced to two-thirds of what it was before, and the body size has also been reduced by about one-third." Liu Dongming said proudly, pointing to a new giant gun and crossbow installed beside him.

"Very good!" Looking at the giant gun crossbow that has shrunk a lot in size, Ye Chen is very satisfied. The giant gun crossbow is a sharp weapon for city defense, siege and field battles. In the early stage, the number of operators decreased a lot due to the use of gears, but The huge size is still very inconvenient to carry. Now, after reducing the size, the convenience of using giant guns and crossbows on the battlefield has been greatly improved.

"Your Majesty, there has always been a problem with the fast crossbow, that is, the winding is slow, and it will cause great damage to the soldiers' fingers when winding, so I have made certain improvements to this problem." Liu Dongming took the entourage handed over A quick crossbow, Ye Chen curiously saw that the appearance of this quick crossbow has changed a little.

Liu Dongming smiled and stretched out his hand to recruit a drill soldier who had been arranged in advance. The soldier took the improved version of the fast crossbow, hung the string on a device around his waist, stretched out his feet, and the fast crossbow was already opened. He took four crossbow bolts, put them all into the hook slots, buckled the buckle, put them flat in his hand, and handed them respectfully to Ye Chen. Ye Chen picked up the crossbow, aimed at the opposite wall, and lightly hooked the trigger. The lightning shoots out and sticks into the wall, the momentum is still there, and the tail of the arrow is still buzzing.

"Okay!" Ye Chen blurted out praise, seeing that the time it took for the soldier to wind up was extremely short, Ye Chen naturally knew that if it was the previous quick crossbow, only a very short crossbow in the army would be able to achieve it. This can only be done by soldiers with extremely strong arms, and this soldier obviously does not belong to this category. This improvement can obviously greatly increase the shooting speed of the crossbow.The shooting distance of the fast crossbow is not as long as that of the strong bow, and it is mainly used for close-range coverage shooting. Such a fast winding speed, coupled with four bursts, is equivalent to allowing soldiers to shoot two or three more rounds of crossbow arrows in the same time. , The significance of this on the battlefield is huge, and in some cases it is even enough to change the outcome of a war.

Seeing the huge innovations of the two military weapons one after another, Ye Chen couldn't help being interested, looked at Yu Wen and Liu Dongming, and said with a smile: "If this is something, you might be embarrassed to invite me over, what else is good, you guys Don't hide it, take it out together!"

Yu Wen smiled slightly, Liu Dongming scratched his head embarrassingly, and said, "Your Majesty, there are still a few good things that have just been developed, and there are only samples, and I am going to invite His Majesty to taste them to see if they can be mass-produced? "

"Let's go and have a look!" Ye Chen took the lead and said to Yu Wen as he walked, "Yu Wen, it seems that you have really brought me a lot of good things recently!"

Yu Wen said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Liu Dongming has worked hard as an envoy of weaponry and equipment research. He has worked hard day and night to achieve such achievements. He must be a capable official. Moreover, the efficiency of the base has greatly improved in recent months. I am preparing to I ask the general to praise Liu Dongming and the Weapons and Equipment Research Department!"

Ye Chen smiled, and said: "Whether to reward or not, let's wait until I see your really good things!"

Yu Wen first showed Ye Chen the hammer driven by hydraulic machinery.Ye Chen naturally knew the importance of the impact hammer for large-scale forged armor. This was one of the two good things he decided to take a look at for himself immediately after receiving Yu Wen's report.

In front of Ye Chen was a guy the size of an adult's bed. Seeing the hammer falling heavily with the sound of the wind, under several blows, a steel plate was beaten to a thickness of only two inches. Ye Chen couldn't help but nodded slightly, expressing his satisfaction. .Although there is still a gap than what I expected, it is already very good to be able to do this, and with the passage of time and the accumulation of experience and knowledge, these skilled craftsmen will naturally find ways to improve a little bit, Ye Chen is not stingy With his own praise and affirmation, he nodded and said, "You guys have done a good job."

After being praised by Ye Chen, Yu Wen, Liu Dongming, and a group of master craftsmen and officials of the arsenal were overjoyed, especially the craftsmen who participated in making this pair of armor were trembling with excitement.

"Preach my will! The master craftsman who is in charge of the research on this hammer confers an eighth-rank official position. The reward is 1000 taels of silver." Ye Chen said with a satisfied smile.

"Thank you yet." Yu Wen and Liu Dongming, envoy of the Weapons and Equipment Research Department, quickly winked at a master craftsman behind him, and the 30-year-old master craftsman, who was almost fainted from joy, knelt down excitedly and shouted Said: "Little Jiang Siwa, thank you Your Majesty, long live your Majesty, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live, long live your majesty."

The name of this master craftsman is Jiang Siwa, who was originally a highly skilled craftsman in the Jingzhao Mansion of the Song Dynasty. He heard that the craftsman of the Xiangfu Kingdom can be an official, and in addition, he accidentally came into contact with the physics textbooks handed down from the Xiangfu Academy. With great courage, he sold his family property in the Song Dynasty, and traveled thousands of miles to the Xiangfu Kingdom. After attending the physics class at Xiangfu College for several months, he joined the weapon production base. He didn't want to study and tinker in just half a year. Out of the hammer, a humble craftsman in the Song Dynasty became a high-ranking official, and it was awarded by the legendary emperor himself.

Ye Chen was very satisfied with Jiang Siwa's reaction, and after letting him stand up, he said: "With this big guy, it is possible for us to equip our soldiers with steel plate armor on a large scale. The load is much lighter, and their protection has been greatly improved. Jiang Siwa! Your credit for getting an eighth-rank official position is well-deserved."

In the past, because the production of plate armor was too time-consuming and labor-intensive, so far the equipment production base has been building day and night, and only a small part of the soldiers of the nine legions have been equipped.It is mainly distributed to officers or special combat departments, and soldiers still use old-fashioned armor. Although this old-fashioned armor is lighter than the armor of Song and Liao, it has stronger defense.And it is not difficult to make, but the cost remains high, and the soldiers wear it, weighing tens of kilograms, which also greatly limits the soldiers' combat capabilities.If plate armor can be used to equip troops on a large scale, a set of armor can be reduced by almost half, thus saving a lot of physical strength under the same circumstances, and this saved physical strength is reflected in the battlefield, which is more vigorous combat effectiveness and endurance.

(End of this chapter)