Chapter 262 : Everything is ready, I only owe Dongfeng!
Trebuchet is a large-scale long-range projectile machinery. There are many types of this type of machinery. According to the power source alone, it can be divided into catapult machine, torque machine, human machine, and counterweight machine.
Catapults and torque machines were not in Lin Shuhang's consideration range. Although these two trebuchets also had good range and power, they were relatively difficult to make and were far less simple to make than man-made machines and counterweight trebuchets.
The performance of human-powered trebuchets and counterweight-type trebuchets is almost the same. Both trebuchets of the same size can achieve staggering power and range, making it difficult to choose between them.
But you can't have your cake and eat it too. In order to choose the most suitable trebuchet, Lin Shuhang decided to make a scaled-down sample of each trebuchet, and then put the two samples together to compare with each other to see which type of machine was better.
The power is high and the transmission distance is long, whichever solution is chosen for giant production.
There is no shortage of experts among Lin Shuhang's fan base. Under the enthusiastic guidance of those outside the audience, Lin Shuhang spent most of the day making two trebuchet samples out of wood.
One is a human-powered trebuchet, and the other is a counterweight-type trebuchet.
Both trebuchet samples were built in a 1:1 ratio according to the dimensions recorded in ancient books, and the finished product height is about 15 meters.
Compared with Lin Shuhang, who is nearly 60 meters tall, the two trebuchet samples only reach his knees and look as small as two toy cars, giving him an Ultraman-like sense of sight. The painting style is still very funny.
In Lin Shuhang's eyes, these are two "toys", but in the eyes of ordinary humans, these two trebuchets are already quite huge. After all, they are three or four stories high, and they look quite shocking.
After careful inspection, there were no major problems with the two trebuchet samples, which made Lin Shuhang completely relieved.
In this way, Lin Shuhang began a comparative test of the range of the two trebuchets on the giant grassland.
The first to be tested was the counterweighted trebuchet.
The projection force of a counterweighted trebuchet does not come from the torsion of the rope like the trebuchet and ballistae. The projection force of this instrument comes from the gravity of the heavy counterweight. In other words, the heavier the counterweight object, the heavier the machine.
The stronger the projection ability, the farther the range.
This projection force has almost no upper limit. As long as the counterweight object is heavy enough, even the huge Earth can be thrown out of the solar system.
Since about the middle of the 12th century, trebuchets have replaced other types of trebuchets and become the mainstream siege equipment in the Western world.
The preference of military personnel in the Western world for counterweight trebuchets has reached fever pitch.
First, because this kind of equipment is powerful, has a long range, and is easy to operate. It can throw stones weighing hundreds of kilograms into the enemy's city from a distance. It is 5 to 6 heavier than the stone bullets that can be launched by catapults and torque machines.
times the weight.
Of course, in addition to this, another important reason is that there are not too many military personnel to operate this kind of equipment. Compared with man-made catapults that often require hundreds or thousands of people to operate, it can save several times or even tens of thousands of people.
Ten times the manpower.
We all know that the Western world has a small population. If a war can gather 10,000 combat soldiers, it can be called a large-scale battle, and it will be gloriously recorded in the annals of history. In the future, it will be made into a movie or something, which will make the prince's blood boil.
Unlike the Asian continent, which has a large population, a war involving 10,000 people is just a village-level conflict in the eyes of some countries, and is simply not worth mentioning.
For example, China's Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and other dynasties. Every war that can be recorded in the history of these dynasties involved hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of combatants.
The war involved more combatants than the entire population of the European continent, which was simply unimaginable to the Western world.
Because of this, Western countries with smaller populations like to use counterweight trebuchets in combat. In a word, although human-powered trebuchets are more powerful and have a longer range, they do not have enough military personnel to operate them, which is not in line with Western national conditions.
of.
After testing, Lin Shuhang found that when the projectile weighed 60 kilograms, the maximum range of the counterweight trebuchet reached about 200 meters, and the longest range was no more than 250 meters.
To be honest, Lin Shuhang was not very satisfied with this distance, because the Crazy General's weight was around 60 tons, and his own weight was approaching the 40-ton mark.
The range of a counterweighted trebuchet depends on the weight of the counterweight. The heavier the counterweight, the farther it can be projected.
If the proportions were converted to a giant version, the counterweight trebuchet that could successfully project himself and the mad general to the other side of the rift valley would have a counterweight of an astonishing 20,000 tons!
20,000 tons is not a small value, it is almost the weight of a mountain. The amount of the project is so large that Lin Shuhang cannot bear it at this stage.
Next came the test of the human-powered catapult.
As the name suggests, a human-powered trebuchet is a device that uses purely human power to project objects.
This kind of equipment first appeared in China during the Warring States Period, and the ancients called it a gun carriage.
The whole body of the gun carriage is made of wood. A rotatable shaft is placed horizontally above the gun carriage. The long rod fixed on the shaft is called a "tip" and acts as a lever.
Those with only one wooden pole are called "single tip", and those with multiple wooden poles are called "multi-tip". The more tips, the heavier and farther the stone projectiles can be thrown.
The wood selected for the tip needs to be specially processed to be as strong and elastic as the bow arm. In addition, since the trebuchet is manufactured using the lever principle, the length of the tip and the ratio of the force arm and the resistance arm must be carefully calculated.
After testing, Lin Shuhang found that compared to the counterweight trebuchet, the range of the human-powered trebuchet is still very impressive. A 60-pound stone bullet was projected 500 meters away, which is farther than the range of the counterweight trebuchet.
More than double.
“I feel like the human-powered trebuchet is still reliable!”
After some comparisons, Lin Shuhang finally chose a human trebuchet for giant-scale production.
According to the data obtained from previous tests, the length of the swing arm of a giant trebuchet that can project himself and the mad general to the other side of the rift valley must be at least 400 meters!
This length is undoubtedly staggering. It is 74 meters higher than the 324-meter-tall Eiffel Tower and is equivalent to the length of a large aircraft carrier.
It is not difficult for Lin Shuhang to build such a long trebuchet arm. This is the Titan continent, a magical place where a thatch can grow to more than ten meters high. It is not a big deal to find some giant prehistoric trees hundreds of meters high.
It was a difficult task, but this was not about building a model. It was about building a giant machine that could project a 60-ton object a thousand meters away. The structural strength of its arm was the biggest difficulty Lin Shuhang faced when he was manufacturing giant plates.
Because the structural strength of wood is not as strong as steel, the 400-meter boom is easily deformed and broken during projection. Once deformed or even broken, the result will be fatal.
Of course, you can also ensure the overall structural strength of the arm by increasing the thickness. This will not cause the arm to deform and break, but the impact on the weight will be too great, and unreasonable weight will seriously reduce the trebuchet.
The overall output efficiency affects the flight trajectory and range of the thrown object.
But in this case, Lin Shuhang couldn't care so much. He could only change quality through quantity.
After a lot of hard work, in the evening, a shocking behemoth stood on the edge of the cliff of the prehistoric Great Rift Valley.
This is the giant version of the trebuchet that Lin Shuhang used to launch himself and the crazy general. It is a giant machine made of giant trees and straw ropes.
The arm of this giant human-powered trebuchet reaches an astonishing 450 meters!
This length is 113 meters longer than the 337-meter-long USS Ford nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is shocking.
There is a huge bamboo basket tied to one end of the trebuchet arm. This candlelight will be used to hold Lin Shuhang and the Crazy General.
The other end of the arm is tied with a "cannon rope" woven with straw ropes. The cannon rope is 2,000 meters long and is used by those prehistoric giant zebra horses.
Small trebuchets generally have 1 to 10 ropes, large trebuchets have more than 100 ropes, and super giant trebuchets are even more shocking, such as this super trebuchet that Lin Shuhang customized for himself and the crazy general.
A giant trebuchet with as many as a thousand cannon ropes densely packed on its arm.
Each of these cannon ropes will be pulled by 1 to 2 giant zebras.
When the trebuchet is thrown, more than 2,000 prehistoric giant zebras will pull these cannon ropes together, ejecting Lin Shuhang and Crazy General, who weigh dozens of tons, to the other side of the Great Rift Valley.
"We still need to make some more protective equipment!" Lin Shuhang said.
You only have one life, and it is impossible to restart the game after death. Before implementing the "Slingshot" plan, all-round safety considerations must be taken.
In order to ensure that he and the crazy general would not be thrown to death when launching the slingshot, Lin Shuhang decided to make some necessary protective equipment.
After some detailed consideration, Lin Shuhang designed two sets of protective equipment with different purposes for himself and the Crazy General.
The first is a paraglider. When you and the crazy general are launched into the air by a "slingshot", you can use the paraglider to fly a certain distance to make up for the lack of power that may occur when the "slingshot" is launched.
The second is the airbag, which can help you and the crazy general achieve a soft landing and avoid injuries when you land.
Making a paraglider is not complicated. There is a vast forest not far away. The forest is full of various giant plants. The leaves of some plants can be used to make paragliders.
Making airbags is even simpler. There are giant thatches more than ten meters high on the grassland. You can use these thatches to make a sufficient set of "grass ball" clothes for yourself and the crazy general.
As long as the clothes are thick enough, even if you fall directly from a height of several hundred meters, it won't be a big deal.
Just do it, Lin Shuhang immediately led the mad general to make protective equipment.
Soon, the required protective equipment was produced by Lin Shuhang and Crazy General.
"Everything is ready, all we need is the east wind! Crazy General, collect yourself, we are about to start flying across the Great Rift Valley!"
Under the afterglow of the setting sun, Lin Shuhang and the Crazy General started the crazy "Slingshot" plan.