Chapter 148: Showing off the craftsmanship [two in one]
Early the next morning, Zhao Hongrun led the envoys from various countries out of the city and arrived at the southwest suburbs of Daliang City.
To the southwest of Daliang City, lies the now-famous "Smelting City", which can be regarded as a craft city affiliated with the Smelting Bureau. In recent years, spies and spies from various countries have wanted to sneak into this city and steal goods.
Various craftsmanship techniques from the Wei State were adopted.
But unfortunately, the defense of Yecheng is too tight. Except for the internal chaos in the court during the reign of "former prince Zhao Yu", which was taken advantage of by Xiao Luan's army, there has not been any similar theft so far.
thing.
After the new king Zhao Run came to power, Yecheng's defense force became even tighter, basically eliminating the possibility of spies sneaking in.
This smelting city is today’s destination.
With envoys from various countries, Zhao Hongrun got into the royal chariot outside the city, and under the protection of groups of imperial guards, headed toward Yecheng in a mighty manner.
It is worth mentioning that because they are also curious about Yecheng, this team also includes Zhao Jiang, Wu Ji, Yan Mo, Shao Hu, Jiang Bi and other leading generals of the Wei State. As for the status of these generals,
The purpose is nothing more than to take the opportunity to get familiar with the foremen of the Smelting Bureau and prepare for grabbing arms orders in the future - there is no way, because of the new policy implemented by the imperial court, these troops need to negotiate replacements with the Smelting Bureau or the Ordnance Casting Bureau.
Regarding armaments, the imperial court will gradually withdraw its hands from this matter in order to reduce the expenditure pressure on the Liang court.
At first, the envoys from various countries did not know their destination today, and they were just taken away by Zhao Hongrun in a daze. But when they got off the carriage at the foot of Yecheng City, they looked up and saw the words "Wei Ye Made" clearly engraved under the city gate tower.
When the words "Bureau" were written, the envoys from various countries couldn't help but perked up.
Yecheng in the Wei State, Hufang in the Chu State, Xuexian and Qufu in the Lu State, and Wu'an in South Korea. These are all famous craft cities in the minds of important people from other countries. Of course, there will be no shortage of spies from other countries.
The spy's peek.
Let’s not mention other countries, let’s just talk about Yecheng of Wei State for the time being.
In recent years, Wei's intelligence has been leaked from time to time. The reason is the opening of the "Bolangsha River Port".
Bolangsha River Port was certainly a stable and huge source of funds in the eyes of the imperial household department, but in the eyes of the Ministry of Punishment and other judicial offices, including the current left captain and right guard of Tiance Mansion, it was inevitably a harbor of filth and evil.
A place where snakes are mixed - to put it bluntly, the policy of "welcoming merchants from all over the Central Plains to Wei for trade" at Bolangsha River Port, from another perspective, has inevitably become a protective umbrella for spies and spies from other countries, allowing the latter two to pass through this place.
Through several channels, he easily got into Wei State.
As long as you have the "Document Allowing Business" issued by the "Bo City Order", unless you commit a crime on the street, the Wei guards who maintain security at Bolangsha River Port have no right to arrest you - of course, this does not mean that Bolangsha
The secret forces in Hong Kong will not follow you because of suspicion, such as the Green Crows, or the ranger group of Bolangsha.
This decree provided strong protection for merchants from various countries when they were in the Wei State, but it was inevitable that they would be exploited by spies and agents sent by various countries. In fact, these merchants from various countries who came to Bolangsha Port for business may themselves be members of various factions.
Here comes the spy.
This is why the security of Bolangsha River Port is considered "extremely poor" in the eyes of the officials of the imperial court's Ministry of Punishment - this extremely poor does not mean that the public security on the surface is so bad, but that even the Ministry of Punishment has no difficulty guaranteeing it.
How many spies from other countries are mixed in the daily flow of people coming and going in Langsha Port City.
The most embarrassing thing is that if you encounter a businessman from another country holding a "document of permission to do business", even if the Ministry of Criminal Justice suspects the other party, it has no right to arrest him. It can only send people to follow him secretly, hoping that these spies will show their feet.
As for these spies who sneaked into the Wei State through Bolangsha Port City, they paid attention to this city on many occasions when they went to Wei State to do business under the pretext of doing business.
But unfortunately, Ye Zao's defense power can be said to be almost impeccable!
"That's..."Wei Liannu"?"
Han Chao, the envoy from South Korea, was the most sharp-eyed. He suddenly saw the entire row of Wei State's repeated crossbows on the wall of Yecheng and couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
Although he has not personally witnessed the true power of the Wei State's continuous crossbow, as far as he knows, the "Wei State Repeating Crossbow" - to be precise, the "Wei State's Forged Heavy Mechanical Repeating Crossbow", is currently the most powerful and has the longest range in the entire Central Plains.
, the most accurate mechanical crossbow. In front of Wei Liannu, Lu's mechanical crossbow box was just a joke.
South Korean General Bao Yuan understands this very well. After all, he was almost shot and killed by this kind of weapon on the battlefield. Although God blessed him and he survived, his right leg was injured by this kind of Wei Liannu.
The crossbow bolt pierced him, leaving him with a disability. His right leg is still weak and weak, and it will be difficult to regain his former bravery.
Although he sighed day and night for this, when Bao Yuan recalled the soldiers under his command who were directly shot by this Wei Liannu, he only felt the joy and lingering fear of the rest of his life.
Those who had similar feelings to him were Weiyang Jun Ying Hua and Yangquan Jun Ying Bo of Qin.
In the "Battle of Sanchuan between Wei and Qin", the Wei army defeated Qin's 200,000 troops in front of Hangu. The core force of Wei at that time was this Wei Liannu.
In front of these powerful Wei's repeated crossbows, Qin's regular army, the "Gedunshi", seemed to line up and were killed one by one by Wei's repeated crossbows, without providing any assistance to the Qin army.
Although the leading general in that battle was "Wang Lu", and neither Weiyang Jun Ying Hua nor Yangquan Jun Ying Bo were in the army, but through the mouths of those defeated soldiers who fled back to Qin after the defeat, Qin still had
I learned about this terrifying weapon of war in Wei State.
That defeat is a nightmare that the people of Qin still don’t want to recall. In fact, the losses and morale of that war were greater than the last time Zhao Run led his army to directly attack the Qin mainland and kill Xianyang City, the capital of the King of Qin.
It would even shock the people of Qin.
After all, the soldiers who were lucky enough to escape back to their home country in the "Battle of Sanchuan of Wei and Qin" are still frightened to this day. From time to time they say things like, "I don't know what happened, but I just saw the soldiers in front of me falling down piece by piece."
.
The remarks made by these defeated soldiers at that time caused quite a negative impact within the Qin State.
Of course, that is the past. With the current relationship between Wei and Qin, Weiyang Jun Ying Hua and Yangquan Jun Ying Bo still hope to purchase some Wei Liannu from the Wei State and transport them to Yanmen to deal with Han General Li
Where is the harmonious Yanmen Army?
However, they also understood that even with the current relationship between Qin and Wei, the Wei State would not easily agree to sell it to them, such as the Wei Liannu, a secret war weapon of the Wei State. Therefore, they planned to go to Qin Shaojun Ying.
Ying Ying's way, after all, as far as they knew, the new king of Wei, Zhao Run, was quite doting on Ying Ying, their princess.
At this time, envoys from other countries discovered that there was something like a wooden road sign erected on the ground not far in front of them.
Looking both ways, they found such wooden signs erected at regular intervals.
Out of curiosity, several envoys from various countries stepped forward and stepped in front of the wooden sign.
At this time, they discovered that there were several lines of Wei characters engraved on this wooden sign.
The first line is engraved: The important area of the Smelting Bureau ahead, no one is allowed to enter!
The second line is engraved: Anyone who crosses the line will be shot!
These engravings were specially painted with ink and cinnabar.
"...It seems like this is a warning to 'uninvited guests'."
The envoys from various countries understood at a glance: the neatly arranged Wei Liannu on the wall of Yecheng did not seem to be a decoration only used to intimidate Xiaoxiao.
But, where does the line come from around here?
South Korean general Bao Yuan looked around, but saw Han Chao next to him coughing and pointing at his feet.
Bao Yuan looked down and discovered that there was a piece of wood buried on the ground about a finger above the ground. It was neatly connected in a line, and it was unknown where the two ends led to.
What's terrible is that at this moment, his feet, one on each side, are stepping on both sides of the wood.
"...No, it won't happen, right?"
Swallowing his saliva, Bao Yuan couldn't help but look back and glanced at the numerous Wei Liannu on the walls of Yecheng, his expression particularly ugly.
Although he knew deep down in his heart that the Wei State could not shoot him as an envoy for no reason, the psychological scars left by that time still made him feel a chill down his back when he saw those Wei Liannu.
People who have not experienced it personally cannot understand the fear and helplessness they feel when facing this kind of war weapon.
In unison, the envoys from various countries, including Han General Baoyuan, took a few steps back and stood outside 'that line' one by one.
As the saying goes, gentlemen do not stand under dangerous walls. There is no need for them to use their lives to test whether the warning on this wooden sign is true.
Perhaps noticing the actions of the envoys from various countries, Zhao Hongrun quickly smiled and reassured: "Don't worry, everyone, I sent someone to inform Yecheng this morning... What's more, my royal flag is here, how can the guards in the city not do it?
Unprovoked shooting?”
As soon as he finished speaking, a rumbling sound was heard from the gate of Yecheng.
Everyone turned around and took a look, only to find that the city gate was slowly opening.
It is worth mentioning that the city gate of the Metallurgical Bureau is not a wooden gate that opens left and right, but an iron gate that opens up and down. Its function is that if the enemy forces attack the city gate, the noose only needs to be cut off inside the city.
By lowering the gate, even if the enemy forces outside the city try their best, they cannot break through the city gate, which greatly improves the defense capability.
"Everyone, the people who came to greet us are here."
Following Zhao Hongrun's chuckle, Wang Fu, director of the General Administration of Metallurgy, led the heads of various departments who were in the city at the moment, including Li Jin, the director of the Bingzhu Bureau, and the rest of the Bingzhu Bureau, and slowly walked out of the city, toward the
Come this way.
"I will pay my respects to Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty, please excuse me."
After greeting each other, Zhao Hongrun raised his finger and pointed to the envoys from various countries on the right, and said with a smile: "Today I hope to take the envoys from various countries to visit Yecheng. I wonder if the city is well prepared?"
The so-called 'preparation' actually refers to putting away those secrets that cannot be leaked, such as the assembly line forging operation currently used by the Ordnance Casting Bureau. This kind of secret can greatly improve the efficiency of the operation and can be learned as soon as it is learned.
So that it can be leaked to people in other countries.
As for the rest, like the process of forging war weapons, there is no harm in letting these envoys from various countries take a look. Anyway, these envoys from various countries cannot remember all the war weapons that are precision-made and have complicated parts. Even if they can remember them in full, there is no such war weapon design.
The specific parameters on the drawings cannot be copied.
Counterfeits that do not consider size matching, even if they can be barely cast, are just fake products.
"Your Majesty, don't worry, I have made arrangements."
Wang Fu, director of the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, replied cryptically to Zhao Hongrun.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun nodded and said with a smile: "Then I would like to have Wang Qing lead the way, and introduce Yecheng to me and to the envoys from various countries along the way."
"Yes." Wang Fu accepted the order with his hands raised, and raised his hand to invite Zhao Hongrun and the others inside.
When he was about to enter Yecheng, Wang Fu seemed to suddenly think of something. He stopped and said to Zhao Hongrun: "Your Majesty, I suddenly remembered something and need to give you instructions, especially the envoys from various countries."
Of course Zhao Hongrun knew what was going on and nodded.
Seeing this, Wang Fu glanced at the crowd behind Zhao Hongrun and said sternly: "To the generals of our Wei Dynasty and the envoys of other countries, this smelting city is an important place for our smelting construction and development, because it sometimes attracts Xiaoxiao's peeps.
There are also spies trying to sneak into the city, so many agencies have been set up in the city... I hope you generals and envoys from other countries will not touch anything casually."
"A mechanism?" Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu said with a smile: "Is it a dangerous mechanism?"
After hearing this, Wang Fu did not explain too much, waved his hand and smashed a square brick on the brick wall of the city gate hole. Suddenly, a well-shaped iron gate fell from the top of the city gate hole, and the sharp point at its lower end fell.
, deeply penetrated into the ground.
Immediately, the brick walls on both sides of the city gate, from the inconspicuous dense holes, shot out countless small arrows as thick as chopstick heads and as long as one finger, and there was a dense and numb sound of ding-ding-ding-ding.
, nailed into the masonry on the opposite side.
This scene caused the envoys from various countries to cry out.
"..."
Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu opened his mouth and forced out a smile: "It's really a very dangerous mechanism..."
As he spoke, he swallowed and couldn't help but look at the brick walls above and on both sides of the city gate a few more times.
According to Zhao Hongrun's understanding of Xiong Hu, this guy is definitely not thinking about how to secretly learn this mechanism technique. He is definitely thinking about his own life safety - considering issues such as "in case these mechanisms fail".
On the other hand, Prince Xing and Uncle Ji, a veteran minister from the State of Lu, stepped forward boldly at this time, carefully looked at the organs exposed in front of them, and exchanged opinions with each other in low voices.
Also, the people of Lu are no strangers to the art of mechanism, or to put it simply, the art of mechanism was spread from the State of Lu.
No, Mr. Lu asked Wang Fu excitedly: "Director Wang, can you tell me what exactly these small arrows rely on to shoot out? I think this thing is quite similar to our country's crossbow box."
Similar, but the power seems to be greater than it."
"Well..." Wang Fu blinked and shied away: "After today, if the young master is interested, how about you and I discussing it? Now, I should enter the city."
Young Master Xing wanted to ask again, but his veteran uncle Ji Shu cryptically stopped him.
Compared with Mr. Lu Zixing, Uncle Ji knows how to watch people's actions and knows that the Director Wang in front of him has no intention of revealing the secret. With the current relationship between Wei and Lu, do you still expect the Wei man in front of you to tell the secret to the two Lu people?
Unless the State of Lu abandons the State of Qi and completely falls over to the State of Wei, then we can still consider it.
After a while, under Wang Fu's order, the guards inside the city gate closed the well-networked iron gate again with a noose. Seeing this, Wang Fu led Zhao Hongrun and his group inside.
On the way to the depths of the city, Wang Fu gave a general introduction to the internal structure of Yecheng to his Wei generals and envoys from various countries: "...This is the east gate. Under normal circumstances, you can only go in and out.
The east gate will only be opened when the ore needed by our department comes. Therefore, most of the warehouses near the east gate are stacked with various types of ore..."
Listening to Wang Fu's introduction, the envoys from various countries also looked around the city.
They discovered that the defense in Yecheng was indeed very tight, with one guard post at five steps and one sentry at ten steps. Not only were there guards with weapons everywhere, but there were also obstacles such as antlers and horses all over the place. It was even tighter than the front lines of the battlefield.
.
Stopping at the nearest guard post, Wang Fu explained: "Whenever someone enters the city, they will first search here. If someone counterfeits tokens and documents and tries to sneak into the city... Haha, they will suffer the consequences.
"Having said this, he pointed to both sides of the sentry box, where there were many equipment that looked like the crossbow boxes of the Lu State's organs.
"Of course, it won't be necessary this time."
With a smile, Wang Fu signaled the guard box in front to open the roadblock so that Zhao Hongrun and the others could pass through.
After walking for a while and gradually getting deeper into the hinterland of Yecheng, Wang Fu introduced: "The north of the city is where the guards and their families live. The officials of our Metallurgical and Military Casting Bureaus, craftsmen and their families also live in the north of the city...
I won’t take you to visit.”
After a pause, he continued: "The center of the city is the warehouse of our Smelting Bureau. All kinds of weapons, armors, crossbows and even war weapons produced by our Smelting Bureau are kept in their original state.
Samples, and related design drawings..."
Having said this, he paused again. After glancing at the envoys from various countries, he reminded in an unclear tone: "That warehouse contains at least 70% of our city's organs. If someone who doesn't know the details breaks into it,
, there is no need to dispatch the guards in the city, just send someone to collect the corpse the next day... It is not that Wang cannot trust the envoys, but for the sake of the safety of the envoys, he still hopes that the envoys will not act casually out of curiosity.
Touching anything over there, maybe just touching a stone lamp over there, will trigger mechanisms one after another..."
As he spoke, Wang Fu led everyone to the center of the city.
At this time, even Zhao Hongrun was a little surprised, because he discovered that an inner city had been erected in the city at some time, which had never existed before.
When the envoys were not paying attention, Zhao Hongrun asked Wang Fu in a low voice: "When was this inner city built? To build an inner city?"
Wang Fu explained cryptically: "In the 24th year of Hongde's reign, when His Majesty was in Shangshui County, a little... well, a small change happened in our Smelting Bureau..."
"Twenty-four years of Hongde? Oh...that's it."
Zhao Hongrun suddenly realized.
He had heard a little bit that when the former prince Zhao Yu was in power, he sent imperial guards to forcibly take over the Smelting Bureau without his permission, causing chaos in Yecheng at that time.
During the chaos, a group of thieves took the opportunity to sneak into the warehouse of the Manufacturing Bureau and stole many precious craftsman's notes and design drawings.
Later, it was discovered that this group of thieves were Fu Weijun, or the remnants of the Xiao family, hiding within the Imperial Guard.
After this incident, when Zhao Hongrun later became the prince and took charge of Yecheng again, the craftsmen of the Yecheng Bureau built an inner city, moved the warehouses here and surrounded them with high walls, and set up many buildings here.
To prevent the manuscript information and design drawings in the warehouse from being stolen again.
Because of Zhao Hongrun's relationship, envoys from various countries had the opportunity to enter this inner city and visit many war weapons displayed in several warehouses.
Take Wei Liannu for example. In fact, today's Wei Liannu has been improved to the fourth generation. Of course, Wang Fu sent people to remove the fourth generation samples long ago, so that currently in the warehouse, only the first generation and the second generation are available.
Generations, three generations.
The first generation Wei Liannu, the most primitive version, could not adjust the shooting angle left and right, and the entire base was also very bulky.
As for the second-generation Wei Liannu, the Manufacturing Bureau refined the parts, removed all unnecessary designs, and gave the Liannu the ability to adjust the firing schedule.
As for the third-generation Wei Liannu, it is the regular model commonly used by the Wei army. The shooting range was strengthened on the basis of the second-generation, but there was not much improvement other than that, because the Smelting Bureau had not yet overcome the problem of "how to use the company's crossbow" at that time.
The crossbow can adjust the shooting angle up and down."
It was not until the fourth generation, the latest generation, that the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau finally overcame this problem.
Similar to the improvement of Wei Liannu, such as the Wugang chariot, the tortoise-shell chariot, the trebuchet chariot, and even the sled chariot used by Zhao Run to defeat Qin, etc., the Smelting Bureau improved them all.
However, what surprised and expected the envoys from various countries the most was the crossbow independently developed by Wei State.
Because in Wang Fu's introduction, ballistas may gradually replace trebuchets, which made it difficult for envoys from various countries to believe it.
It's no wonder. After all, in the Central Plains, catapults have a history of at least two hundred years. They have always been a weapon for armies of various countries to attack cities and fortresses. But now, what kind of ballistae has the Wei State built? It actually boasts that it can
How is it possible that riprap trucks will be eliminated?
"How it is, you will know once you try it."
Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly.
On that day, craftsmen from the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau tested the power of trebuchets and ballistae outside the city, blasting a wall as thick as Daliang City with holes in it.
"Boom——"
In front of the envoys, the city wall collapsed.
At this time, the envoys from various countries did not remember to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of trebuchets and ballistae. They only knew that Wei's war weapons had just destroyed a wall as strong as the city wall of their royal capital.
, in less than half an hour.
what does that mean?
This means that as long as Wei is willing, Wei's army can conquer the capital of any country in the Central Plains!
The countries in the Central Plains will have nothing to do about this.
Witnessing this shocking scene, the envoys from various countries were a little confused for several hours afterwards. Even when they visited the Weapon Forging Bureau to forge weapons and armor, they could not lift their spirits. They all seemed to be thinking about how to defend against Wei.
This unrivaled siege weapon.
In the afternoon of that day, Zhao Hongrun left Yecheng with the envoys from various countries and came to a track carriage in the south of Yecheng.
Only then did Zhao Hongrun tell the envoys from various countries that the destination he was taking the envoys to visit today was not Yecheng, but the rail carriage south of Yecheng - where they would take the rail carriage to Xiaohuang County.
In Xiaohuang County, there is the experimental field of Wei State Smelting Bureau.
In fact, that is what Zhao Hongrun really wants to show off.
Just like what Zhao Hongrun was thinking last night: Since we want to frighten other countries, we must frighten them in all directions, so that the kings and officials of the various countries can fully appreciate the power of Wei State and firmly remember the power of Wei State in their hearts.