Chapter 294 Crossbow and Physics

Li Shimin's face became more and more ugly.

Although the Tang Dynasty was famous for its military prowess, there were Tubo in the west and Turks in the north, which were like ulcers attached to the bones.

Tubo could still be excused, after all, no one could predict the climate change, and its king was more and more secretive, and its prime minister had the heart of a jackal.

But the Eastern Turks were really messed up by him.

They were forced to be at a loss for what to do after being assassinated by the Turks, and returning to their old place would become a century-long trouble.

From this, Li Jing also easily sorted out the situation in the north:

"After destroying the Turks, Xueyantuo rose, and destroying Xueyantuo led to the growth of the Turkic bandits, and the troubles in the north have never been eliminated."

And Li Jing also sighed:

"Pei Xingjian, how difficult it is..."

Before, I didn't understand why Guangmu specifically mentioned the logistics guarantee at that time.

Now it seems that most of these 300,000 troops chased the Turks on foot.

Using infantry to attack cavalry, the Turks will naturally take advantage of the mobility of the cavalry and raid the baggage train from behind.

The quality of the soldiers was uneven, there were not enough horses, the baggage was in short supply, and the food route was threatened at all times, but they still won a great victory in the end.

In this way, Pei Xingjian's military strategy can be said to be amazing.

Those who are familiar with military formations can think of it at the first time, so a smile climbed up the corners of Su Dingfang's mouth, and Li Shimin was really a little unsure:

Am I really the worst one?

Letting go of his obsession with the Turks, Li Shimin seriously praised:

"This Tang beacon is quite innovative!"

For Li Shimin, it is an innovation of the Tang Dynasty, which is very important!

Looking at the words and structural examples of the beacon on the screen, Li Jing was also very impressed:

"The place where the fireworks are fired can be called a desperate place. Dry food and clean water are prepared. In this way, even if the soldiers are attacked during their shifts, they can still hold on by cutting off the ropes and ladders."

"There are 1,800 beacons, and each beacon has five people. This means less than 10,000 people. Ten thousand cavalry are guarding it, and they can move when they smell the smoke to search for the enemy."

"Zhang Renyuan is also a smart man."

At this point, Du Ruhui has also seen a little bit of the door:

Raising an army of 300,000 will not help, it will only make the Turks surrender and rebel again, and plunder every year.

But more than a thousand beacons can lock the Turks firmly in the north of the desert and prevent them from entering the south of the desert.

From the beginning of the Tang Dynasty to the Zhenguan period, brave generals emerged in large numbers and made great achievements.

But these shining generals all have the silent efforts of Zhang Wansui.

For everyone in Ganlu Hall, the Tang beacon is just enough to be proud of.

After all, the Tang Dynasty is now ready to fight, and it is the one who beats, not the one who is beaten.

But the communication tower improved from the beacon tower surprised everyone again.

"Is this modified from the beacon tower?"

Fang Xuanling asked involuntarily, and then confirmed:

"It is indeed modified from the beacon tower, built every few miles to transmit signals to each other."

"This wooden rocker arm can be interpreted in a code book, just like the secret language of battlefield flags. It is combined with the beacon tower and has this use."

"But..." Fang Xuanling looked at the winding foreign characters on the screen and felt a little scratching his head:

"If it is Chinese characters, how should it be conveyed?"

Li Shimin has stood up and can't help but imagine, if there is such a thing from Chang'an to the Western Regions, what a magnificent scene it would be?

Du Ruhui seemed to see a clear thread, from the Han beacon tower to the Tang beacon tower, and then to this later communication tower, it was continuously improved with techniques and knowledge, and its effectiveness became better and better. Is this a kind of "science" in later generations?

This invisible but real improvement thread reminded Du Ruhui of the words in the Book of Changes:

"When you are poor, you must change; when you change, you will be able to communicate; when you communicate, you will last long."

Then Du Ruhui added his own insights:

"After a long time, you will be poor again; when you are poor, you must change again; when you are able to communicate again, you will be poor again after a long time."

"The only way that will never change is to change the law."

Yan Lide was quite pragmatic. The first thing he noticed was the words of the telescope. After all, it was he who decided to send the transparent glass to the Imperial College.

Looking at its small tube shape, Yan Lide felt that a clear research direction appeared before him.

[One of the manifestations of the Tang army becoming invincible during the Li Zhi period was the lack of generals.

Su Dingfang, Li Shiqi, Liu Rengui, Pei Xingjian, Xue Rengui, can basically all be regarded as the political legacy of Erfeng.

These veterans were promoted by Li Zhi, but not discovered by Li Zhi.

But if you look back at history, you will find that the military examination began during the Li Zhi period, so naturally there will be a question:

Couldn't the military examination in the Tang Dynasty select a talent?

Regarding this issue, Wei Yuanzhong, who suggested to Li Zhi to lift the horse ban, also criticized it, and he didn't criticize the military examination, but the entire imperial examination.

The selection of literati only looks at whether the rhetoric is gorgeous, but does not test national affairs and governance measures. The ones selected are just some boastful people!

The selection of military generals only looks at the strength of riding and archery, but does not test military strategy and marching methods. The ones selected are just some stupid big guys!

What Wei Yuanzhong said is not wrong. Let's look at the assessment items of the military examination in the Tang Dynasty. For example:

Lu Bu went to Bineng High School, and Zhuge Liang participated in it with mediocre results.

There are seven items in the military examination, namely long stack, horse shooting, horse spear, foot shooting, appearance, speech, and weightlifting. At least five items need to reach the top to be selected.

Among them, the long stack is a fixed target, with three targets of long, medium and near. Each target has a number of rings and is scored separately.

The other items can be understood by looking at the literal meaning. What about the assessment of military strategy? There is none.

Therefore, even the Song Dynasty could mention the Tang Dynasty's martial arts examinations.

When Ouyang revised "New Book of Tang", his evaluation of Tang Wuju was: not worth mentioning.

Li Zhi should also understand the issue of martial arts, but it may be due to various considerations.

Li Zhi praised Wei Yuanzhong's suggestions for the imperial examination, but then did not adopt them.

Finally, it was during the Kaiyuan period that Xuanzong filled this loophole again and reformed the martial arts.

As a result, the Tang Dynasty's martial arts examinations yielded the only talent of the Tang Dynasty: Guo Ziyi. 】

"This Xuanzong really deserves to be a half-life wise king."

Fazheng feels that what later generations said is quite reasonable, and these measures can indeed be called enlightened masters.

But the more this happens, the more divided I feel. How could such a wise man become... in his later years?

"This Li Zhi is quite comfortable."

Zhang Fei felt that he understood:

"The Emperor spent his father's money to marry his wife. He will have his descendants to make up for the trouble he left behind."

"It's been a really comfortable time."

Liu Bei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Although he felt that something was wrong, what his third brother said seemed to be right, so he could only warn:

"Third brother, please don't speak so rudely."

Then Liu Bei laughed and said:

"The military advisor has a high degree of confidence in this Tang Dynasty martial arts competition."

Kong Ming saw the light curtain and teased him. Now his lord also smiled and asked, becoming more and more rude at the moment. He waved his feather fan and said:

"If you can bring a crossbow to the competition, you will definitely be in high school!"

The Chengdu government office suddenly laughed.

Drawing a bow requires strength, and Kong Ming was busy with government affairs. Although he exercised regularly, his strength was still lagging behind that of a strong general.

Zhang Fei said happily:

"Then if I were to come, wouldn't there be a name for it?"

Fazheng helped Zhang Fei calculate with his fingers:

"Weightlifting, rifle shooting, and carbine, General Yide's performance in these three items should be pretty good."

Zhang Fei corrected him: "More than good? It must be the best!"

Fazheng nodded:

"I won't talk about the material and appearance."

"Long stacking should be good if you practice it. The exception is riding and shooting, which requires long-term practice."

Zhang Fei also counted: "There are four items in this way, and only words are left. Isn't that..."

Fazheng shook his head and laughed:

"Yide only needs three words for these words."

Zhang Fei nodded.

Fa Zheng changed his words and said seriously:

"With just a few words, the examiner will become angry and expel Yide."

Zhang Fei was stunned, while others in the government office laughed.

[With the ups and downs of the Tang army's combat power, another issue that is easily overlooked is the crossbow.

In the cold weapon era, crossbows had several labels:

Easy to use, powerful, difficult to maintain, and relatively expensive.

Therefore, this thing is destined to be controlled only by the government and funded by the government.

Even in the era of Fu soldiers, crossbows were forbidden weapons for Fu soldiers. Their status was the same as armor. After the army was assembled, the arsenal was opened and the soldiers received it.

In the Tang Dynasty's foreign wars, because the combat targets basically did not hold shields and rarely formed formations, the archers lacked the conditions to assemble and projectile.

In the same horizontal shooting situation, the crossbow is more accurate and has a longer range than the bow, so it is more popular.

This is why Li Jing stipulated that crossbowmen can shoot arrows within a range of 150, and archers need to be 60 steps closer to the enemy, because the Tang army does not play group projectiles.

During the Emperor Gaozong's reign, the number of recruited soldiers increased steadily, but the combat effectiveness of the recruited soldiers varied. They did not have the conditions for government soldiers to learn archery from an early age.

Logically speaking, in this case, more crossbows should be deployed to ensure the combat effectiveness of the Tang Army.

But Gaozong... It's fine if I don't reduce it for you. Don't even think about adding more money.

Therefore, during the Gaozong era, the quality of soldiers declined, and they were unwilling to spend money to make up for it from other places. It is not surprising that the Tang army's combat power became increasingly stretched.

The one who can compare in this matter is still Xuanzong.

During the Xuanzong period, the military system was basically in the early stages of collapse, and the main body of the army had become recruits. Under such circumstances, Xuanzong was quite willing to spend money on crossbows.

Wang Zhongsi's victory at Yu Biaochuan relied on crossbow machines, and Xiao Song's victory at Qilian City relied on a team of 4,000 crossbowmen.

During Xuanzong's Kaiyuan period, the Jianghuai crossbowmen became world-famous elite soldiers.

Whenever we talk about crossbows, we cannot avoid the divine arm bow of the Song Dynasty.

But seriously, it is never the power that restricts crossbows. Military strategists in the Tang Dynasty mentioned when talking about crossbows: they can only fire one or two shots when facing the enemy.

That is to say, the problem of slow loading speed. The evolution of crossbows has basically been improved around this shortcoming.

The first was the abdominal crossbow, in which the crossbow machine was pressed against the abdomen to wind the crossbow. Later, a belt hook hung on the waist evolved to hook the crossbow string and exert force.

Then there is the pedal crossbow, which is to install a pedal ring on the front end of the crossbow to step on the winding string. The God's Arm Bow belongs to this type.

Later, the West used physics to solve this problem and invented the winch crossbow and the lever crossbow (goat crossbow).

Later, after the steel crossbow appeared, the West improved the self-pull pressure rod crossbow on the basis of the goat crossbow, and pointed out the crossbow cavalry.

And for individual soldiers, the hand-operated gear steel crossbow was invented, which was an absolute killer in terms of lethality.

In short, the Divine Arm Crossbow is the pinnacle of Chinese classical crossbows.

However, due to limitations in scientific development, it is far from the pinnacle of the crossbow machine. 】