Since it took a certain amount of preparation time to test the weapon, at noon, Zhao Hongrun and his party had dinner in Wang Fu's director's room in the General Administration of Metallurgy.

After noon, an officer came to tell him that the weapon for testing was ready.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun and his entourage, under the leadership of Wang Fu, left the city called "Yecheng" and came to the flat land outside the city.

At this time, about five miles away from the city in the north of the city, there was a group of craftsmen from the Smelting Bureau who were already waiting there, and a team of guards from the Smelting Bureau, the number of which was about two hundred.

When Zhao Hongrun and his entourage slowly arrived at the test site on horseback, when two officials led a large group of people to greet them, they respectfully bowed to Zhao Hongrun and the others: "Under the jurisdiction of the Metallurgical Manufacturing Bureau, Chen Tang, the deputy director of the "Metallurgical City", and the director of the "Machinery Manufacturing Division" "Zheng Zhao", meet His Royal Highness King Su. ”

Zhao Hongrun turned over and dismounted, and helped these two capable talents up.

Chen Tang and Zheng Zhao, these are the old men of the Smelting Bureau, the latter is the officer recruited by Zhao Hongrun a year after he entered the Smelting Bureau, and Chen Tang is even more amazing, when Zhao Hongrun entered the Smelting Bureau, he has been in the Smelting Bureau for about ten years, in terms of qualifications, Chen Tang is deeper than Wang Fu.

"Lord Chen Tang, Bolangsha River Port, you are very good at supervising the construction of the land." After helping Chen Tang up, Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but praise Chen Tangdao.

Among the old people in the Smelting Bureau, there are not many who are as slippery as Wang Fu, and most of them are honest and introverted officials, and Chen Tang is a typical example of them.

Zhao Hongrun heard that when Chen Tang supervised the construction of Bolangsha River Port over the years, he moved his family to the river port and built a grass hut in the once barren land, where he ate and lived.

It was precisely because of the encouragement of this talented man that the officials and craftsmen who were responsible for supervising the construction of the Bolangsha River Port at that time would follow the former's move and move their families to the foundation of the river port that had not yet been completed at that time, so that the "ten-year project" of the Bolangsha River Port entered the final stage in only six years.

It is no exaggeration to say that the reason why the Bolangsha River Port was built so quickly is inseparable from Chen Di and other hard-working officials.

There is this person who serves as a deputy in Yecheng, whether it is Zhao Hongrun or Wang Fu, they all feel quite relieved - compared to the slippery Wang Fu, Chen Tang is a real senior technical official, and he is quite good at instrument manufacturing, machinery manufacturing, construction, etc., if you want to say that the only thing this person is not good at, it is mostly dealing with other court officials.

Zhao Hongrun still remembers that when Chen Tang first saw him, he was obviously an adult in his thirties, but he was trembling in front of him - at that time, Zhao Hongrun just asked a few questions casually.

However, after the tempering of supervising the construction of Bolangsha River Port, Chen Tang is much more stable than back then, but he still doesn't seem to be very talkative.

After a few words of encouragement, Zhao Hongrun set his sights on "Zheng Zhao", the director of the "Machinery Manufacturing Department" of the Metallurgical Bureau.

As the name suggests, Zheng Zhao is the official responsible for all war weapons, including but not limited to the research, improvement, and supervision of these war weapons.

Although this person is not very qualified, and has only been in the Metallurgical Bureau for a few years so far, it is undeniable that this person is also the mainstay of the Metallurgical Bureau, a technical official.

When Zhao Hongrun was greeting Chen Tang and Zheng Zhao, Jie Ziyu looked around curiously.

He found that there were two large weapons not far ahead, one of which he recognized as the famous "catapult" of the Smelting Bureau, and the other large weapon that he had never seen before.

Just as he was looking up at the unknown large ordnance that was several feet high, Zhao Hongrun had already led the officials and craftsmen to this side.

After coming to Jie Ziyu's side, Zhao Hongrun also looked up at the unknown large weapon, and his eyes were full of excitement.

Seeing this, Jie Ziyu asked curiously: "Your Highness, what is this?" ”

"Ballista!" Zhao Hongrun replied with a little excitement.

"......" Jie Ziyu looked at Zhao Hongrun inexplicably.

In fact, in this era, Lu Guo had already developed a large-scale crossbow, that is, a "bed crossbow", as the name suggests, it is a heavy crossbow the size of a bed.

But soon, the "bed crossbow" was shelved by the Lu State, for a very simple reason, because the power of the bed crossbow was too great, and the enemy of the Lu State at that time was only the Chu State.

The attrition is not at all proportional to the results.

So, in the end, Lu Guo developed the "crossbow box", a crossbow with a short range but a fast rate of fire, which was specially used to restrain the crowd tactics of the Chu ** team.

As for the bed crossbow, it is said that it was used by the Lu State to attack the city at that time, but then after the Lu State improved the "catapult (similar to a catapult, but it cannot move)", the bed crossbow was completely eliminated.

This is also something that can't be helped, after all, the bed crossbow of the Lu State is like the repeating crossbow of the Wei State, which is most suitable for dealing with heavy infantry troops.

Just like when Zhao Hongrun fought against Qin's Ge Dun soldiers in Hangu, hundreds of crossbows were fired together, so that Ge Dun soldiers, Qin's heavy infantry, couldn't even get close, and even the thick armor on their bodies, including shields, was shot by Wei's crossbows.

Come to think of it, if the enemies of the Lu State were not the lightly armored and unarmored infantry of the Chu State, but the medium armor and heavy armored infantry of the Wei State, I believe that the Lu State would not have chosen to eliminate the bed crossbow, a sharp weapon against the heavy armor troops.

And the Smelting Bureau, it is precisely because of the "Lu Gong Secret Record" that it records the powerful weapon of the "bed crossbow", so it has the heart to develop and improve.

Of course, the purpose of the research and development was not to use it against heavy armor troops, after all, Wei already had repeaters (repeating mechanical heavy crossbows) in this regard.

The purpose of the Smelting Bureau's research bed crossbow is to create the "ballista" in Zhao Hongrun's mouth in front of him.

"Guys in place!"

With the order of Zheng Zhao, the director of the "Machinery Manufacturing Division", the craftsmen who were still watching Zhao Hongrun, His Royal Highness King Su, gathered around the two large weapons.

Seeing this, Jie Zilu asked curiously, "Do you want to test the power of this ballista by comparing it with the "catapult"?" ”

Zheng Zhao smiled slightly.

In fact, the name of the meson owl is not right.

In the Metallurgical Bureau, the movable catapult is called a "catapult", or a catapult, and the one that cannot be moved is called a "catapult", and there is a difference between the two - in addition to whether it can be moved, the main thing is the tonnage of the two.

Because the catapult was easy for the soldiers to move, it was not suitable for building a large area, and most of the materials used were also made of light wood; But the stone thrower is different, it sacrifices the ability to move, the base tonnage is larger, the stone projectiles thrown are heavier, and the range is longer.

At this time, the one in front of everyone was the catapult, which was huge and cumbersome, but far more powerful than the catapult used by Su Wangjun.

"Your Highness, that's the target." Zheng Zhao pointed to the distance and gestured.

Zhao Hongrun squinted his eyes and took a look, and vaguely saw that there were two brick buildings about two hundred zhang away, three zhang high and covering an area of about four zhang square, about more than 100 zhang away from each other, bare and not even a roof.

If nothing else, these two unusually similar brick buildings are supposed to be built by the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau using bricks and cement to build them in a hurry, purely as a test target.

"This distance...... It's two hundred feet, right? Can the range be 200 zhang? Have you tested it? Zhao Hongrun asked with a little surprise.

Of course, Zheng Zhao understood that this highness was referring to the "cannon crossbow", after all, that stone thrower, with that tonnage, had a range of more than two hundred zhang.

He subconsciously shook his head and said, "If you can't even reach the range of two hundred zhang, then this ballista is meaningless." ”

After that, he realized his gaffe: this ballista was designed by His Royal Highness King Su beside him.

However, Zhao Hongrun didn't have any objection to Zheng Zhao's words, after all, he also felt that Zheng Zhao was right, if the range of the ballista was not two hundred zhang, it would be too disappointing.

You must know that even the military catapult, which is one size smaller than the trebuchet, has a range of basically two hundred zhang.

If the ballista, a siege weapon that completely sacrifices mobility, is not as powerful and ranged as a movable catapult, then this research and development will be a complete failure.

"Let's get started, the trebuchet comes first." Zhao Hongrun signaled.

Zheng Zhao nodded and ordered the craftsmen to take the lead in operating the trebuchet.

As Jie Zi watched with great interest, several craftsmen pushed a boulder the size of a millstone into the throwing basket, and then several people struggled to twist the winch attached to the rope until the thick casting rod was taut and slightly bent.

"That's enough, almost." Zheng Zhao reminded loudly, after all, after the trebuchet completely twisted the rope, its range was more than two hundred zhang.

"Put!"

As Zheng Zhao gave an order, only to hear a bang, the trebuchet's throwing rod bounced up and threw the boulder in the throwing basket.

Vaguely, the boulder flew in the air for a while, crossing a crescent-like arc, and then with a bang, smashing most of a brick building in the distance.

"Good!" Zhao Hongrun stroked his palms and praised, and then, his eyes fell on the cannon crossbow.

Under his watchful eye, the craftsmen began to operate the crossbows, and they placed a stone projectile weighing sixty pounds into the catapult slot, and then began to twist the winch to correct the direction.

"Put!" Zheng Zhao gave an order.

Suddenly, with a thud, the powerful torsion spring assembly ejected the stone projectile, and then, in the blink of an eye, the stone bullet flew over the brick building.

"Is the range more than 200 feet? …… Try again! ”

Although this attempt did not hit the target, Zhao Hongrun was not disappointed, but he was a little excited, because the power of this ballista was more outstanding than he imagined.

"Yes!"

Zheng Zhao nodded and motioned for the craftsmen to try again.

In readjusting the angle, the craftsmen repeat the previous operation.

With a loud bang, a second stone projectile ejected, interrupting the brick building in the distance in the blink of an eye.

After a small crash, the brick building was only a ruin about a foot high.

Seeing this scene, everyone nearby cheered.

And Zhao Hongrun's face also showed a satisfied smile.

Comparing trebuchets with ballistas, it is clear that the former is still more powerful, but the problem is that the former is difficult to judge because it is a parabola with a large arc.

Regardless of how well these craftsmen operate, this is because they have been dealing with these weapons for many years, but the recruits in the army cannot master them in a short time, and often they are either too far or too close to aim at the target.

In contrast, the ballista has a shallow arc of fire, which means that as long as it is aimed at the enemy's wall, it can hit the target with any random fire.

It's a pity that Wei had ended the war with Chu and Han at this time.