Zhao Tong disagreed with Wei Yuan's statement at first, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed to make sense.
Now Wei Yuan has made it clear that he is not prepared to hand over the eight giant crossbows. Considering that the Western Jin Dynasty's currently stretched treasury does not even have enough money to train a new army, it may not be possible to replace the eight giant crossbows in three to five years.
In other words, Hanyang Pass will become a decoration for a long time, and the only way to resist the Wu Clan is Wei Yuan.
Zhao Tong knew that Wei Yuan could not be persuaded, so he could only stamp his feet and sigh, and then said: "Then you can give our family a solid foundation so that we can go back to work. Where do you plan to expand your territory?"
Wei Yuan took the map, pondered for a moment, and said: "If I say that there will be no eastward expansion, my father-in-law will not believe it, and neither will the king. But my next main goal is to conquer the Wu clan to the west, and the scope of activities in the east will be Hanyang.
It is limited to the pass and will not cross Hanyang Pass.
But there is a premise, that is, Hanyang Pass cannot block the flying boat caravan coming to Qingming, nor can it set up a card to collect taxes, otherwise others may be fine, but the guarding envoys and deputy envoys will most likely have accidents."
Zhao Tong was taken aback and said: "This is impossible! The guardian envoys and deputy envoys are all officials of the imperial court, and their official positions are from the fourth rank to the fourth rank. How can you attack them?"
Wei Yuan said with a smile: "Even if tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of the soldiers here die, the big shots won't even frown. Look, I killed 300,000 Xu family members in one battle. Didn't they come back later? But I killed more.
A few fourth- and fifth-grade people, kill a few more Dharma minister elders, and the sword falls on the heads of those big shots, which will ensure that the number of people who want to fight with me will be reduced by half. Besides, they were all killed by horse bandits, what does it have to do with me?"
Zhao Tong smiled bitterly and said: "Enough is enough, otherwise it will be too much and our family will not be able to speak for you."
"As long as the Xu family doesn't go crazy, I won't embarrass my father-in-law. Besides, the one who has a life-or-death feud with me now is the Witch Clan."
"That's good, let's go back and recover."
After Zhao Tong left, Wei Yuan opened the imperial edict and read it hastily. The imperial edict reprimanded Wei Yuan for using the army without authorization and arresting people across the border. The wording was quite harsh and scolded Wei Yuan bloody, but in reality
There are no punitive measures at all.
Wei Yuan casually threw the imperial edict into the trash can and returned to the main peak.
Now his residence on the main peak has been renovated and expanded several times. The main hall in the front yard is the place where the Taichu Palace cultivators conduct routine meetings. The sand table map of the boundary is placed in the left wing, which is where Wei Yuan and others discussed the development strategy.
On the ground. In the right wing room is a shelf full of maps, covering the entire human domain.
Wei Yuan came to the sand table map, carefully looked at the terrain trend in the northwest, thought about where to build a new city, and then placed the giant crossbows on it.
The maximum range of the giant crossbow can reach two hundred miles, the crossbow arrows can be tracked, and the power can kill ordinary magic figures. It is a big killer. It is best at dealing with large air targets such as flying boats.
Of the eight giant crossbows that were dismantled this time, Wei Yuan only planned to place two in the direction of the Wu clan, then four in the direction of the Xu family, and two in the center of the boundary for defense.
Wei Yuan stood in front of the sand table for two full hours, drawing a northwest marching route, and then made multiple marks. Where to build a city, where to set up relay camps, how many routes the army would set out in, and even how many people would be on each route.
, the speed at which it advances is marked.
In front of this route, far beyond the sand table, is Wei Yuan's final destination: the Land of Rain with Red Leaves.
After formulating a strategy, Wei Yuan received a notification that eight giant crossbows had been transported back.
Wei Yuan immediately called Yu Zhizhuo to receive the giant crossbow.
After hearing the news, Yu Zhizhuo immediately put down all the work he was doing and called all the Tiangong Hall juniors.
The convoy transporting the giant crossbows slowly entered Qingming. There were more than 80 trucks. Once the giant crossbow was disassembled, it would be loaded into ten large trucks.
According to the scheduled plan, Wei Yuan transported four giant crossbows to Xuanwei San and Xuanwei Four respectively. The remaining four were transported to the center of the realm. Both of the two acropolis pointed to the east. Anyone who went out of Hanyang Pass wanted to attack the realm.
If you want to enter the area, you have to pass around these two acropolis.
Wei Yuan had already ordered people to build two high platforms in the two acropolis in advance as platforms for launching giant crossbows.
When dismantling the giant crossbow, Wei Yuan had already ordered people to draw detailed drawings of each part as well as the location and order of installation. The most important component of the giant crossbow is the fuselage made of four identical bottom beams, followed by the four bows.
Arm. The main formations are all engraved on the bottom beam, and the four bottom beam formations are different from each other.
Yu Zhizhuo observed and recorded at the same time. Several junior brothers divided their labors and measured all the parts with tools, and then recorded them on the drawings. This way, after thorough research, Qing Ming can also make his own giant crossbow.
The giant crossbow fuselage array is mainly used to increase the range, tracking, breaking, killing and other arrays are engraved on the crossbow arrows. Hanyangguan is equipped with ten crossbow arrows for each giant crossbow, and these are naturally moved back by Wei Yuan
.
Everyone was busy for most of the day, and Yu Zhizhuo finally finished the drawings of all the components of the giant crossbow and recorded all the formations. Then several Tiangong Hall disciples began to instruct the monks to reassemble the giant crossbow. Yu Zhizhuo sorted it out
All drawings, while constantly calculating something.
Wei Yuan asked: "How? Can we make it?"
"No problem. These giant crossbows are very old designs. The main reason is that the materials are rare. There is a lot of room for improvement in the design. Give me some time and I should be able to build a better one."
"Where are the expenses?"
Yu Zhizhuo silently calculated it and said: "No more than two hundred thousand taels of immortal silver, including fifty arrows."
Wei Yuan was surprised and said: "So few? The Western Jin Dynasty spent 1.5 million taels to build this giant crossbow!"
"How is it possible?" Yu Zhizhuo's first reaction was disbelief, and then he realized it and sighed: "No wonder the treasury is always empty. It would be damned if the treasury were full."
Wei Yuan also reacted. Although there are countless such things in history books, when Wei Yuan actually encountered them, the huge price difference still made him dumbfounded.
Yu Zhizhuo's improved giant crossbow only costs 200,000 taels, so how much is the original giant crossbow worth?
"Uncle Yu, how much do you think these giant crossbows are worth?"
Yu Zhizhuo has been refining weapons for many years and has already reached the level of a master. What kind of material has he not seen before? He estimated for a moment and said: "Twenty-two thousand taels, no more."
Wei Yuan could only sigh: "How dare you make money!"
A giant crossbow costing 120,000 yuan was sold to the imperial court for 1.5 million yuan, an increase of more than 11 times. For comparison, Wei Yuan sold a pair of breastplates for 20 taels, and the Zhao army charged
Fifty taels, only an increase of one and a half times. Perhaps this is why the Zhao State was much stronger than the Western Jin Dynasty.
However, even though he knew that the purchase price of Zhao's military was fifty taels, Qingming's breastplate could only be sold for twenty taels. The thirty taels between twenty and fifty were not something Wei Yuan could earn. These thirty taels
Wherever it went, the price difference of more than 1.3 million for the giant crossbow also went wherever it went. It was nothing more than Seven Surnames and Thirteen Hopes.
"Are we going to build a few? Give me a month and I can complete the design of the new crossbow." Yu Zhizhuo was eager to get started. He was naturally interested in such giant war equipment.
Wei Yuan shook his head and said: "We have limited resources now, so we should make flying swords and guns first."
Yu Zhizhuo glanced at Wei Yuan and said meaningfully: "I understand."
The gun and the giant bed crossbow actually represent two directions. The bed crossbow is a defensive weapon, while the gun is used for offense.
As the giant crossbows were transported back, tens of thousands of captured soldiers also arrived one after another. The process was still a bit complicated. These prisoners were captured by the Zhantian Gang. Soon Weiyuan's army arrived, defeated the Zhantian Gang, and drove them away from the horse.
Rescued from the gangsters.
But the kindness of Lord Jieduzhi must be repaid, and there are only two ways to repay kindness, either with money or with flesh.
Most of these top soldiers are new recruits who have just become full-time officers. How can they have money? Those who have money have already donated to become officers. So in the end, they can only choose to pay in flesh and serve the Lord Jiedushi for ten years. Of course, if
If you really can't do it anymore, you can redeem yourself in advance. You can discount it by fifty taels of silver every year and pay as much as you want for the remaining years. It just depends on whether there is a sponsor who is willing to pay this money.
In fact, smart people have heard about the relationship between the Zhantian Gang and Qing Ming, but just because they are smart, no one tells it.
Based on the status of the Jiedushi Master, being willing to perform such a scene for everyone to see is considered to be a serious matter. If he does not know what is good and what is wrong, if he really offends the Jiedushi Master, he may be thrown into a mine and mined to death.
Although the more than 40,000 defenders at Hanyang Pass have been mixed with water, their overall quality is still higher than that of the Xu family's private army, let alone other officers and soldiers. The officers in the team have been screened out and paid a ransom fee.
They have all been released, and now all that remains are pure cast soldiers.
There are still hundreds of thousands of refugees on the road, and Wei Yuan estimates that within a few days, the population of Qingming will exceed one million. He really managed to survive this time, and most of the prisoners from the first battle with the Xu family have returned.
Before I had time to digest it, there were now hundreds of thousands more people, and thousands more refugees were joining in every day.
The more than 500,000 people who joined in the later period were all strong men and women in their prime, and they had not yet had time to cast their bodies. When they broke through the realm of casting and were equipped with all the equipment, their combat power would more than double?
Wei Yuan decided to lie dormant quietly for the next period of time, absorbing this population, increasing his strength, and waiting until the next grain production season at the latest, when the army would attack.
Chapter completed!