Wei Xiaobao's Three Kingdoms Adventure

Chapter 130 New Weapons Appear

Zhuge Liang, Lu Fan and Liu Ye discussed in the tent for several days to come up with a strategy to defeat the enemy.

Wei Xiaobao had nothing to do, so he ran to Wanjiang Port to find Zhao Yun and pestered him to learn archery.

Zhao Yun asked curiously, "You always slack off when I ask you to practice spearmanship. Why did you take the initiative to learn archery?"

Wei Xiaobao said, "That Tang Zhou has been learning archery from Lü Bu, and he's been causing me a lot of trouble. You were almost injured by his arrows when you were fighting Gan Ning. Last time, when my third brother and I were capturing Taishi Ci, if my third brother hadn't been quick, I would have been shot through the head by Taishi Ci. Zhou Yu's navy is so powerful, ever since you, my eldest brother, led the archers to defend Wanjiang Harbor, he hasn't dared to come here again."

So I thought that if I learned the bow and arrow well, I would have more ways to save my life in the future."

Zhao Yun found a longbow from the army and handed it to Wei Xiaobao: "Try this bow first."

Wei Xiaobao tried to draw the bow like Zhao Yun, but he couldn't pull it fully even though he tried his best.

Zhao Yun shook his head and said, "This bow weighs less than a stone. It's hard for you to pull it. I'm afraid you won't be able to learn the bow and arrow well."

Wei Xiaobao was not convinced, so he handed the bow to Zhao Yun and said, "Try to pull it for me."

Zhao Yun held the bow in his hand, took a deep breath and slowly adjusted his breathing, holding the bow with his left hand and pulling the string with his right hand.

The bow was getting fuller and fuller, and the bow body had been bent to its limit, but Zhao Yun still did not stop exerting strength with his right hand.

With a snap, the bow broke.

Even though Wei Xiaobao was not proficient in archery, he knew how terrifying Zhao Yun's strength was.

Zhao Yun said, "To be an archer, a soldier must be able to draw a bow like this one. Otherwise, they will be useless on the battlefield, as their arrows will only hit their own heels. Besides being strong, they must also be accurate, and they must not miss the target at a distance of a hundred steps."

Wei Xiaobao sighed and said, "No wonder archers are so difficult to train. Is there any simple way?"

Zhao Yun said, "The crossbow is simple; all you need to do is aim. It's just that loading and stringing the arrows takes up too much time. The Qin State conquered the world with its crossbows. One of the main reasons was that the Qin army was so numerous, and the crossbowmen attacked in batches. While one team fired, another loaded their arrows, and a third stringed their arrows. This cycle continued, allowing them to continuously suppress and damage the enemy."

With our current military strength, if we use crossbowmen, the enemy cavalry will be right in front of us before we can fire the second arrow.

The same goes for the navy. Zhou Yu's navy is well-trained and skilled at exploiting wind direction and strength to gain advantageous positions. They can even approach our warships directly and board them to engage. Using crossbowmen would be even more disadvantageous."

Wei Xiaobao nodded: "No wonder Zhou Yu's navy is so difficult to deal with."

Suddenly, Wei Xiaobao remembered a weapon he had heard of in the teahouse, the Zhuge Crossbow.

Wei Xiaobao asked tentatively, "Brother, do you have a crossbow that can fire arrows continuously?"

Zhao Yun shook his head and said, "The bowstring of a crossbow is much stronger than the arrow itself. To string it, a soldier has to sit on the ground, hold the crossbow trigger with his feet, and then pull the string with both hands. This requires soldiers who have undergone long-term training and have sufficient strength and skills. Second brother, you are too fanciful."

Wei Xiaobao shook his head. "It's not that I'm imagining things, I've heard of such weapons. If our warships were all equipped with soldiers armed with these crossbows, even if Zhou Yu's warships were running at the fastest speed, they wouldn't dare approach."

After saying that, Wei Xiaobao jumped on his horse.

Zhao Yun hurriedly asked, "Are you not going to learn archery anymore?"

Wei Xiaobao said, "I'll go find the military advisor and ask him if he has any idea for making such a weapon." Zhao Yun laughed and said, "You, you're trying to be lazy and take shortcuts even in archery."

After Wei Xiaobao returned to Lujiang City, he went straight to Zhuge Liang's military camp.

When Zhuge Liang saw Wei Xiaobao coming in, he pointed to the blueprint on the table and said, "Bozhi, come and see the new warship that Ziyang, Ziheng, and I have researched."

Wei Xiaobao looked down at the blueprint and saw that there was a small building on top of the warship, which was three stories high.

Lü Fan said, "This type of tower ship was already manufactured in Jiangdong. The military advisor modified it, adding sentries and oars to make it more maneuverable."

Liu Ye said, "The military advisor's insights into mechanical devices are truly admirable. Ziheng is also an expert in shipbuilding. With this ship, we will be able to defeat Cheng Pu and Zhou Yu's navy in no time."

Wei Xiaobao asked, "Military Advisor, how many people can fit on such a large ship? Do we have that many soldiers?"

Zhuge Liang nodded. "Bozhi's concerns are exactly what I'm worried about. The tower ships require more than ten times the manpower of the assault ships. Now we have to order Zilong to speed up the training of the archers to meet the needs of war."

Wei Xiaobao said, "I just came back from Wanjiang Port. I went to learn archery from my eldest brother. You don't know how difficult archery is until you learn it. It requires not only great strength but also good accuracy. I'm afraid it's not an easy task for us to train so many archers in a short time."

Zhuge Liang said, "I have thought of this problem and am preparing to send a letter to my lord, asking him to select soldiers with exceptional arm strength from Xiaoguan, Pengcheng, Xiaopei, Xiapi, and Shouchun to come to Lujiang for training."

Wei Xiaobao said, "Military Advisor, my elder brother mentioned the Qin crossbow to me. I wonder if it can be used?"

Zhuge Liang gently waved his feather fan and said, "Although crossbowmen don't need as much arm strength as archers, they are not as convenient and fast as archers."

"What if we could invent a crossbow that could fire arrows continuously?"

Liu Ye laughed and said, "Bozhi's thinking is too simple. Once the crossbow string is fired, how can it be re-stringed without human power? And how can it fire continuously?"

Zhuge Liang paced back and forth, then returned to his seat and kept writing and drawing on paper.

Wei Xiaobao, Liu Ye and Lu Fan stood aside and watched.

After a while, Zhuge Liang handed the finished blueprint to Liu Ye. "Zi Yang, you are also well versed in mechanical engineering. If we follow this method, can we achieve the continuous firing that Bo Zhi envisioned?"

Liu Ye held the drawing and examined it carefully, and did not speak for a long time.

A while later, Liu Ye sat before the crime scene, constantly deducing on the blueprint, and even took out a blank sheet of paper to redraw it. Then he stood up excitedly and said, "Brilliant, brilliant! It's absolutely brilliant! Such an ingenious design actually solves the problem of continuous firing. The military advisor's attainments in the art of mechanical devices are truly impressive."

Lu Fan hurriedly asked, "Zi Yang, what's so wonderful about this?"

"The repeating crossbow designed by the military advisor is triggered by a connecting rod. This not only saves effort, but also allows the string to be wound while the connecting rod is pulled, thus achieving continuous firing."

Zhuge Liang said, "If we fix the repeating crossbows on the tower ship, with three people in each group, two of them will be responsible for connecting the rods, and one will be responsible for loading the crossbows. This will increase the power of the repeating crossbows."

Although Wei Xiaobao couldn't understand the blueprint, he roughly understood it after Liu Ye and Zhuge Liang's explanation. He thought to himself, "Although it's not as powerful as Xiao Xuanzi's red cannon, it's enough to deal with Zhou Yu's small broken ship."

(End of this chapter)