In Dawei, there were two institutions that Zhao Hongrun was more interested in.
One is the Weapon Casting Bureau under the Ministry of War, which is responsible for manufacturing all the weapons, armor, etc. needed for the Wei army; the other is the Smelting Bureau under the Ministry of Industry, which is responsible for smelting iron, making equipment, etc.
wait.
It is no exaggeration to say that the two government agencies, the Weapon Casting Bureau and the Smelting Bureau, possess the most advanced technology in the Wei Dynasty. Note: There is actually an internal manufacturing bureau affiliated with the Internal Affairs Supervisor, but I will not introduce it here.
.
The difference between the Ordnance Casting Bureau and the Smelting Bureau is that the technology of the Ordnance Casting Bureau tends to be military, while the technology of the Smelting Bureau tends to be non-military. I remember that Zhao Hongrun once took out the special white wax during the examination to catch fraud.
It was made by the skilled craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau.
Logically speaking, Zhao Hongrun should have transported these chariots to the Military Casting Bureau. After all, the craftsmen of the Military Casting Bureau are better at transforming such chariots into military weapons. Unfortunately, there is currently a rumor circulating throughout the Ministry of War.
He said that Zhao Hongrun insulted the Ministry of War. Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of War generally did not look at Zhao Hongrun in a kind way.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun could only transport these carriages to the Smelting Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, and ask the skilled craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau, who had had a lot of dealings with him, to transform the chariots into weapons that suit his wishes.
Like the Ordnance and Steel Bureau, the head of the Smelting Bureau is also called Bureau Chief, which is an official position with a senior rank and is held by officials from the Ministry of Industry who have mastered various skills.
The current Bureau Chief of the Smelting Bureau is called Wang Fu. He has had many interactions with Zhao Hongrun and his clan guards, and they are relatively familiar with each other.
When he heard that Zhao Hongrun had transported more than two hundred chariots to the Smelting Bureau, the Bureau Chief Wang Fu immediately came out to welcome them.
After all, Wang Fu had also heard that the imperial court was going to use troops against Chu, and he had also learned that the eighth prince Zhao Hongrun, who had facilitated the incident, was going to the front line in person. Therefore, he knew at a glance that most of these tanks would be used in Yingshui.
battlefield.
"Your Highness the Eighth Prince... Oh, no, I should call you His Highness Prince Su now."
In the courtyard of the Smelting Bureau, Wang Fu greeted Zhao Hongrun with a smile.
"Hehehe." Zhao Hongrun returned the gift with a smile, and walked with Wang Fu. He said with a smile as he walked: "Old Wang, I have got another business for you this time... Make a good transformation, and it will cost you a lot of money."
All labor and materials must be reimbursed by the household department.”
Wang Fu smiled humbly.
There is no way. After all, the Ministry of Industry is at the bottom of the six ministries, and the Metallurgical Bureau is far inferior to the Military Casting Bureau of the Ministry of War. To be honest, the status is really embarrassing.
Obviously, the Smelting Bureau has a variety of technologies, but in the eyes of ordinary people, the biggest role of this organization is to smelt iron, forge iron embryos that suit the wishes of the Weapon Foundry Bureau, and then deliver them to the Weapon Foundry Bureau, who will accept them to build weapons.
To put it bluntly, the current Smelting Bureau is purely for the Weapon Casting Bureau.
How many people know that the Smelting Bureau is also responsible for manufacturing measurement and calculation tools, and even the large tools used by the Ministry of Household Affairs to smelt and mint national currency are actually made by the Smelting Bureau?
Wang Fu circled a chariot several times, checked it carefully several times, and then hesitantly said to Zhao Hongrun: "Your Highness, King Su, do you plan to use the chariot to deal with the Chu army? But according to the official
As far as I know, both the Ministry of War and Your Majesty have abandoned chariots long ago..."
Indeed, the Wei Dynasty had long abandoned the use of chariots, and this was not something that happened to this generation of emperors. As early as the reign of the previous generation of emperors, when Korea in the north invested cavalry on a large scale as the main force in the wilderness, their Wei state
The chariot has been eliminated by history, and now it can only gather dust in the warehouse of the Ministry of War.
Once upon a time, the Wei Dynasty had thousands of chariots, but now, there are only a few two hundred chariots left in the warehouse of the Ministry of War, and they are still used for hunting in spring and autumn, and have long since disappeared from the battlefield.
After all, in the tragic defeat of Shangdang decades ago, the chariots that the Wei Dynasty regarded as important weapons on the battlefield were beaten to the ground by the Korean cavalry and their armor was discarded. They were in a miserable state.
Although people in Wei generally don't want to admit it, they have to admit that in the face of North Korea's cavalry, Wei's chariots are simply powerless to fight back.
"I know what Mr. Wang means." Zhao Hongrun smiled, patted the wheels of a carriage, shook his head and said: "These chariots are indeed useless in front of the Korean cavalry, but Chu State... has many boats.
Infantry, using these things to deal with the Chu infantry who disembarked from the ships and landed can still have some effect."
Wang Fu thought about the situation in Chu State and then nodded: "That's true...how does His Highness Prince Su plan to reform it?"
After hearing this, Zhao Hongrun looked at the chariot in front of him and thought deeply.
The history of chariots has evolved from a single chariot (couple), two wheels, and a square chariot (box) to the present day. The horses used to pull the chariot have also developed from the earliest one horse to the final four horses, which are the so-called "four horses".
Chariot".
Considering the mobility of the chariot, there are usually only three to five soldiers on the chariot. The one in the middle is responsible for driving, called the charioteer, and one or two soldiers on the left are responsible for long-distance shooting, called shooting left.
Or Shezuo, one or two people on the right are responsible for fighting at close range and protecting the people riding with them. They are called Rongyou or Rongyou.
Generally, the corps commander serves as the charioteer and commands the other four soldiers riding with him.
Five people at a time is the limit.
It is said that the Wei Dynasty once studied six-horse and eight-horse chariots, which could carry ten soldiers. However, it turned out that the effect of those chariots was not as good as that of four-horse chariots, and various problems often occurred, such as undercarriages.
The bearings broke, the wooden wheels burst, the horses could not be coordinated, etc.
So it was a pity that the idea of six-horse chariot and eight-horse chariot was abandoned after only a short-lived appearance. Only the four-horse chariot remained until it was eliminated by the cavalry.
It is precisely because of this that the four-horse chariot seems to have been developed to the extreme through the successive improvements of the craftsmen of the Wei Dynasty. For example, the bearings under the carriage were once embedded with iron sheets, and the shaft rods were also wrapped with iron sheets. However, these were later eliminated and replaced with iron sheets.
Hardwood that is extremely tough after repeated exposure to oil.
Dawei's iron smelting technology is still insufficient... It's a pity that I only know a general direction in this regard, but I don't know the specifics. It's a pity...
"First remove the tapered edges on both sides of the wheel."
Zhao Hongrun pointed to the tapered blade on the outside of the chariot's wheel and said.
It is undeniable that this kind of tapered blade installed on the outside of the chariot's wheel is undoubtedly a lethal weapon for killing enemy soldiers on the battlefield, but its weaknesses are also obvious.
"By the way, there is a baffle on the outside of the wheel."
Zhao Hongrun kicked the wheels of the chariot. In the past, these spoked wheels were the biggest weakness of the North Korean cavalry in defeating the Wei chariots.
Those cavalrymen accurately threw their spears into the spokes of the chariot while galloping, which directly caused the chariot to overturn and collapse due to inertia, allowing the North Korean cavalry to defeat thousands of Wei chariots almost effortlessly.
At first, Zhao Hongrun also thought about simply using a complete log as the wheel, but after thinking about it carefully, if that kind of log were to carry the weight of the chariot, it would be very heavy, which would be detrimental to the mobility of the chariot, so
, Zhao Hongrun had no choice but to do the next best thing and install a baffle on the outside of the wheel to cover the inside wheel as much as possible to prevent anyone from making a fuss about this weakness.
"Put two more wheels on the front."
"...Yes, that's what I mean. The horses are only responsible for pulling the chariot, there is no need for them to resist..."
"No, no, no, when I talk about a four-wheeled chariot, I don't mean that four wheels are installed under the carriage, and the two wheels in front are installed on the front side of the horse... Yes, there is also a carriage installed on the front side, that is
The position of the charioteer, leave another position to protect the charioteer..."
"The last compartment is raised higher. Well, try to reduce the weight as much as possible. Just raise it higher... That's the shooter's position."
According to Zhao Hongrun's wishes, Bureau Chief Wang Fu immediately called in the craftsmen of the Bureau to modify one of the carriages.
More than half an hour later, the chariot that had been initially modified made Chief Wang Fu feel awkward no matter how he looked at it.
First of all, the modified chariot has two compartments. The former compartment is lower and the latter compartment is higher. The former is the position of the charioteer and Rongyou, while the latter is the position of the shooter.
Secondly, this is a four-wheeled chariot. The horses pulling the chariot seem to be hidden in it. In front of them, Zhao Hongrun ordered to remove the carriage of another chariot and connect the base with the chariot.
The car is merged and the head is reinforced, giving this car a certain impact performance.
Bureau Chief Wang Fu raised his eyelids and couldn't help but remind him: "Your Highness, King Su, with such modifications, the speed of the chariot will be greatly affected... and it will not be conducive to the turning of the chariot. Furthermore, the carrying capacity of the chariot will be greatly affected."
With such a heavy chariot, the physical strength of the horses may also be a problem..."
At this time, Zhao Hongrun was instructing the craftsmen to install densely packed tapered blades on the front end of the chariot. After hearing the reminder from Bureau Chief Wang Fu, he smiled and said: "I understand what Mr. Wang means. I don't need this chariot to run fast."
How fast, all I need is... the enemy troops standing in front of it will be frightened..."
Bureau Chief Wang Fu glanced at the terrifying sharp blade at the front of the modified chariot, and his eyelids twitched.
Looking at Wang Fu's strange expression and hesitant to speak, Zhao Hongrun did not elaborate. After all, most of the cavalry in the world are still light cavalry, but Zhao Hongrun uses this improved chariot as a "heavy cavalry".
, or in other words, the crudest prototype of a tank.
Yes, Zhao Hongrun doesn't need how fast this kind of chariot is. He only needs this kind of chariot to have the ability to impact the Chu army's infantry formation, or in other words, the ability to crush ordinary infantry, causing the enemy infantry to have a psychological impact.
of fear.
As for killing the enemy, Junshui Camp also has cavalry, which is a mainstream unit on the wilderness battlefield. Why bother to go far away from the near side?
If it weren't for the limitation of power, Zhao Hongrun would like to transform the chariot into an indestructible fortress. After all, the Chu army is almost composed of infantry, so there is no need to worry about being inferior to the Chu army in terms of maneuverability.
"Don't worry, I only plan to use this kind of chariot once..."
Zhao Hongrun smiled and dismissed Wang Fu's concerns: "Let's reform it like this."
Use it once... Could it be that His Highness King Su plans to fight?
Bureau Chief Wang Fu looked at Zhao Hongrun with a worried look, and finally nodded and agreed.