Chapter 84: Pulley Crossbow

"Your Highness, would you like to test the bows and arrows as well?"

Xu Lie and Lv Chang walked over at this moment, both having taken off their helmets, their heads covered in sweat.

"Of course." Zhao Xu nodded. His purpose in doing this was not just to verify the performance of the Armor, but more so to let the soldiers have an understanding of what they were wearing.

In this way, they would be able to estimate what kind of damage they could withstand on the battlefield in the future.

"Shoot arrows directly at me." Lv Chang patted his own chest, looking fearless.

Upon hearing this, the soldiers' hearts immediately jumped into their throats.

This was truly no different from actual combat.

The corners of Xu Lie's mouth lifted; without saying more, he drew his Curved Bow and nocked an Arrow from thirty meters away.

With a "whoosh" sound of piercing through the air, the Arrow struck Lv Chang.

Just like with the Scale Armor, the Arrow left a dent on the Plate Armor before falling to the ground.

Seeing this, the soldiers cheered excitedly, wishing they could immediately receive and put on the Armor.

"Hmm, the armor-making techniques that Your Highness imparted to the Armory Bureau are truly peerless. With such fine Armor, we will certainly make the Northern Di suffer a bloody defeat in this year's Autumn Hunt," Chang Wei praised.

It had to be said that there were too many things about Yan Wang that made them admire him.

"This is nothing yet; there will be many more things in the future to open your eyes," Zhao Xu laughed.

Chang Wei's curiosity was immediately piqued, "Your Highness, what are they?"

Zhao Xu smiled without answering, keeping him in suspense, "You will know before long."

Having said that, he stood up and said to Chang Wei, "Distribute all the Armor."

"Yes, Your Highness." Chang Wei responded and turned to leave.

Zhao Xu's gaze then turned toward the soldiers on the Drill Ground.

The Prince's Personal Army was at full strength with twenty thousand men, and adding the previous County Soldiers, the force he could mobilize now was twenty-three thousand.

According to his current plan, he wanted to establish a Cavalry of five thousand, but due to a lack of horses, he could only have one thousand five hundred for now.

But this would constantly increase later as horses were purchased.

After deducting the number of Cavalry, the rest were all Infantry.

Among them were four thousand Heavy Spearman, two thousand Light Spearman, eight thousand Heavy Shield-Bearer, and four thousand Light Shield-Bearer.

After accounting for these soldiers, there were still three thousand five hundred men left.

"Cavalry, Spearman, Shield-bearer," Zhao Xu muttered.

To him, the army still lacked a key type of unit, which was the Archer.

However, for him, it was truly too late to train Archers now.

Because in ancient times, the training of a professional Archer often required five years.

After all, bows were difficult to draw, and being able to draw them and then shoot accurately was even harder.

So after much thought, he decided to equip his archers with a type of Crossbow.

This type of Crossbow was called a Pulley Crossbow.

In ancient times, Crossbows were also very difficult to draw, so sometimes soldiers needed to pull with one hand and push with one foot to get the bowstring into position.

But coming from the modern era, Zhao Xu knew that contemporary armies would also prepare some Crossbows.

To make the Crossbow easier to use without weakening its power, pulleys would be used to reduce the effort needed to draw the string.

This type of Crossbow had a pulley at each end of the crossbow limb, with the bowstring wrapped around the pulleys once.

Nowadays, the Armory Bureau was already able to refine steel of various strengths.

It was fully capable of producing sturdy pulleys that could withstand the force of the string without deforming.

The things he had been drawing these past few days were these Pulley Crossbows.

In ancient times, the craft of the Crossbow was already mature; one only needed to add a pulley.

More importantly, compared to bows and arrows, the Crossbow had many advantages.

For example, high precision, great power, and long range.

Of course, there were disadvantages, such as not being able to use it flexibly on horseback, and the reloading speed being relatively slow.

However, his Pulley Crossbow could improve the reloading speed by at least double.

If it was previously three shots per minute, it should be able to achieve six now.

Such a long-range Infantry unit equipped with Pulley Crossbows would definitely give the Northern Di Cavalry a big surprise.

Thinking of this, he and Xu Lie went to the Armory Bureau.

"Hehe, this subordinate was just feeling idle; now I finally have something to do."

At the Armory Bureau office, Wang Ying became excited the moment he saw Zhao Xu's blueprints.

Now that the craftsmen had mastered the smelting and armor-making techniques, he only needed to supervise on a daily basis.

These past few days, he had felt much more bored than before.

Having said that, he looked carefully at the blueprints and immediately showed an expression of surprise.

"Wonderful, truly wonderful," Wang Ying sighed while looking.

Zhao Xu sat on a chair, drinking tea.

In fact, ancient times already had some primary applications of pulleys, such as rollers.

So after Zhao Xu brought out this design, with Wang Ying's familiarity with various technologies, he immediately understood the brilliance of this Crossbow.

"Can it be manufactured?" Zhao Xu spat out a tea leaf and asked.

"No problem, Your Highness. The Armory Bureau has craftsmen specialized in making Crossbows; this subordinate just needs to cast these small wheels," Wang Ying said without lifting his head, still looking at the blueprints.

Zhao Xu nodded; the craft of the Pulley Crossbow was not complicated, and he trusted Wang Ying.

"The Armor, Crossbow arrows, Long Blade, and Shield-bearer equipment must be expedited; there is not much time left," Zhao Xu reminded Wang Ying.

"Yes, Your Highness. I have already followed your instructions and had the craftsmen work in three shifts," Wang Ying said.

Since doing this, the efficiency of the Armory Bureau has improved significantly.

Rising to walk outside the office, Zhao Xu looked at the busy craftsmen and felt a bit more at ease.

In Yan Commandery, almost everyone who saw him felt that he was confident of success regarding this Autumn Hunt.

But in truth, only he himself knew that he was very panicked.

Although the Autumn Hunt was not a full-scale invasion by the Northern Di,

in recent years, the number of Northern Di troops entering Yanzhou to plunder had been increasing every year.

What was even more infuriating was that in the current situation, once the Northern Di began their Autumn Hunt, the Yuan Family would likely just watch him get beaten by the Northern Di.

And the Imperial Army at Yanguan might not necessarily come to help him either.

After all, Yanguan could not afford even the slightest mishap; the only thing he could rely on was himself.

Yet he only had this few soldiers.

If they were all wiped out, he would be back to square one overnight.

At that time, let alone the Yuan Family, the Zhang Family would certainly not give him another chance to make a comeback.

Precisely because of this, he had to arm his Personal Army to the teeth; they were truly his treasures.

After staying at the Armory Bureau for a while, he returned to the Prince's Mansion.

At this moment, the front of the middle courtyard of the mansion was very busy, with cart after cart of garlic being transported to the middle courtyard.

Feng'er was standing there with her hands on her hips, giving directions.

This little girl was becoming more and more like a housekeeper.

"Feng'er, don't forget about the matter of purchasing flower petals," Zhao Xu reminded her before entering the gate.

"Your Highness, this servant remembers," Feng'er said in a sweet voice, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Zhao Xu nodded; besides military equipment, Zhao Xu naturally had not forgotten to expand his commercial territory.

Not earning Silver when it is available is for fools, especially since there would be many places needing Silver in the future.

Yan Commandery was situated in such a chaotic place as Yanzhou, and there would be no shortage of wars in the future.

And war is fought with money.