Chapter 1338

With the war machines in hand, traditional bows and arrows felt far less powerful. On top of that, the enemy was sure to be prepared, so once the arrows ran into rows of iron shields, they were almost useless.

As for the stones launched by the catapult, he had an idea too: mix crushed stone and clay into a giant stone shell, pack gunpowder in the center — wouldn't that make a crude version of a scatter-shot?

Coat the outside with fuel oil, and you've got a fire-stone scatter-shot! Oh-ho!

This would be far more powerful than a plain stone shell, and more than enough to catch the enemy off guard — but where on earth was he supposed to get the gunpowder materials?

"Someone come. Tell them I need the materials for black powder, and ask Lord Xuan to think of a way and get me a pile of it."

"Yes, my lord."

Time drifted by slowly. Lin Cheng worked on his design drawings, utterly absorbed, eyes glinting, in high spirits — thoroughly enjoying himself.

But the black powder materials Lin Cheng wanted gave Lord Xuan Wuji quite a headache. He could only turn to the capital of the nearby Kingdom of Chiripelli — get as much as they could, however much there was17.

Right now they and the capital were grasshoppers on the same rope: if the imperial army went down, the capital would surely go down with it. They had no choice.

At night, the black powder materials from the capital were delivered near the temporary armory. Lord Xuan Wuji and the others came to invite the tirelessly working Lin Cheng to join the evening banquet, and at the same time to check on the progress.

"Blade Chariot! Four-wheel drive, two internal-combustion engines linked on a single shaft driving four rotating blades, each spinning at over 120 revolutions per minute — a battlefield harvester. After testing… ordinary battle armor can be torn apart with ease.

"Heavy Crossbow Bolts! They come with tail chains that can block large-scale arrow rain… and then the heavy crossbow bolts — swap the heavy crossbow bolts for rotatable spinning blades, low-altitude gliding! The power is just as formidable. Xiangyang catapult — you all know what that is. I have some ideas about the stone shells: mix clay and crushed stone, pack black powder and a moisture-proof fuse inside, coat the outside with kerosene."

"Fire, explosion, plus flying shrapnel! Triple the fun! Satisfied, gentlemen?"

The corner of his mouth lifted into a confident smile, and Lin Cheng cast a slightly teasing gaze at the people before him.

"Very good, very good indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing them in action. When do we start training?"

Lord Xuan Wuji and Lei Yi exchanged a glance, both showing their satisfaction.

Even if these were only the earliest prototypes, they gave them enough courage and confidence. With finished products in hand, could a successful counterattack really be far off?

"We can start training the soldiers to use them at any time. How many days do we have left?" Lin Cheng asked.

He wasn't worried at all about whether they would work; even if minor errors showed up during use, those could still be improved.

"Tomorrow, the day after — by that time, I'm afraid we'll be seeing them."

Who "they" referred to — Lin Cheng knew perfectly well.

"I'll speed up the manufacturing. You all take these machines and hurry off to train."