"There's more good stuff?" Lü Yi's eyes lit up.
Liang Xiao whispered to Yue Qingtian, "Have someone bring a few over."
Everyone waited with bated breath. Moments later, several strangely shaped crossbows and a box of specialized bolts were delivered.
The crowd peered at them, bewildered.
By the standards of the Great Gan Kingdom, the crossbows had a stock exceeding four feet and a string exceeding three feet, making them much larger than ordinary crossbows, almost resembling bows!
"Is this what you call a Divine Arm Crossbow?" Lü Yi picked one up, examining it closely.
Liang Xiao nodded. "The Divine Arm Crossbow is actually a type of heavy crossbow. The soldiers of Yan Prefecture used it when they routed the barbarians, and its effectiveness was excellent."
The Divine Arm Crossbow of the Song Dynasty possessed astonishing power but was now nearly lost, with later generations only able to replicate it based on its principles.
As one of history's most brilliant weapons, Liang Xiao was, of course, not ignorant of the Divine Arm Crossbow. Combining modern physics knowledge with excavated relics of Ming Dynasty imitations, he drew new blueprints, which were then handed over to Zhang Yang and others for adjustment, and finally manufactured by the Armaments Directorate.
The Ming Dynasty imitations of the Divine Arm Crossbow were far less powerful than those of the Song Dynasty, but Liang Xiao had done his utmost to make them approach the original Song Dynasty standard.
"Are you sure this isn't a bow?"
Lü Yi grew more curious. As he nocked a bolt onto the Divine Arm Crossbow, his expression changed. "This draw weight must be at least a hundred and fifty jin, right?"
Everyone was startled.
A hundred and fifty jin was already beyond the strength of an ordinary person!
Liang Xiao explained, "In fact, the Divine Arm Crossbow is a large crossbow that bridges the gap between a regular crossbow and a siege crossbow. The best Divine Arm Crossbows can have a maximum range of two hundred forty to three hundred paces, with an effective range of one hundred twenty paces."
The crowd took a deep breath.
Compared to the purple fir longbows, the Divine Arm Crossbow's range seemed slightly less, but the power of its bolts within the effective distance was greater than that of the longbow.
In essence, crossbows excelled in bursts of power, while longbows were superior for sustained fire.
Lü Yi gritted his teeth and nocked a bolt onto the Divine Arm Crossbow. He then aimed at a distant target and fired.
It was close to the bullseye!
"The longbow still looks more practical!" Lü Yi sighed.
Liang Xiao explained, "The Divine Arm Crossbow can be operated by a team of three: one to pull the string with full strength, one to load the bolt, and one to shoot. However, a longbow can only be used by one person and demands too much strength from the user, making it unsuitable for mass deployment. Furthermore, the Divine Arm Crossbow does not require precious materials like purple fir."
The crowd suddenly understood.
As long as there were enough soldiers, the Divine Arm Crossbow could be equipped in any quantity, its strength lying in numbers and explosive power!
With a similar draw weight, it was undoubtedly much easier for one person to string the crossbow with both hands than to string a longbow with one.
The scene of countless crossbow bolts combined with the volleys of longbow arrows must have been spectacular. The barbarians, before even entering the range for a reciprocal volley, would have to endure several rounds of sustained fire.
Now, everyone profoundly understood why the barbarians had suffered seventeen thousand casualties.
Faced with Liang Xiao's trap, the Que Yue formation, and the volleys of powerful bows and crossbows, the barbarians' defeat was entirely justifiable!
"Why does this Divine Arm Crossbow look different?" Lü Yi picked up another one.
The crowd looked closely and realized that these Divine Arm Crossbows were of two slightly different designs.
Liang Xiao replied, "The other type is a later improvement. The one the commander just used is slightly more powerful."
Upon realizing his own mind had become more agile, Liang Xiao's first thought was to improve the Divine Arm Crossbow. He urged the Armaments Directorate to make urgent modifications, and they subsequently produced two thousand units, whose range and power were indeed slightly superior to the original Divine Arm Crossbows.
The improved Divine Arm Crossbows now numbered nearly four thousand, with an additional ten thousand of the original design.
Lü Yi finally grasped the essence of the matter and gave Liang Xiao a thumbs-up, a silent acknowledgment.
The material requirements for making Divine Arm Crossbows and longbows did not conflict. Both could be produced concurrently, each with its own advantages, allowing for the more efficient equipping of the Great Gan soldiers!
Fourteen thousand Divine Arm Crossbows, paired with fifteen thousand longbows, would significantly enhance the combat power of the northern frontier defense forces.
Throughout history, when recruiting soldiers, as long as national strength permitted, the strongest individuals were always prioritized for archery units.
Cavalry possessed great mobility but was too expensive to maintain. The training cost of one cavalryman could train numerous infantry.
Archers were cheaper than cavalry, and arrows were essential battlefield weapons.
To capture Helan Mountain, heavily defended by the barbarians, relying solely on the existing northern frontier troops would be extremely difficult and result in immense losses.
These new weapons, hastily manufactured by the Great Gan Kingdom, were the key to victory and minimizing casualties.
The emergence of the Divine Arm Crossbow and the longbow significantly boosted the morale of the Yun Prefecture soldiers.
The Armaments Directorate and Yan Prefecture's steel mills were still churning out weapons, which were being transported to the northern frontier in batches.
As the Yun Prefecture soldiers had recently received their rewards, they were sending money home. Coupled with joint training and acclimatization with the Yan Prefecture soldiers, and the further freezing of the Tianjiang River, Liang Xiao did not launch an immediate offensive.
Meanwhile, in Da Liang, Emperor Mu Cheng and Qin Feng were deeply troubled.
Because the Great Gan Kingdom had acquired a vast quantity of purple fir wood from their own country, Da Liang's available purple fir was dwindling.
Upon hearing that the Yan Prefecture garrison had defeated the barbarians using "giant bows" and "giant crossbows," Qin Feng realized something was amiss. He could only cut his losses, while simultaneously ordering his own kingdom's Armaments Directorate to attempt the production of "giant bows" using purple fir.
Mu Cheng was even more enraged, commanding the Ministry of Justice to investigate who had allowed the Great Gan Kingdom to procure such a massive amount of purple fir.
In stark contrast to the anxiety of Da Liang's emperor and his officials, Liang Xiao and Lü Yi remained composed. The morale of the Yun Prefecture soldiers was soaring, and their training enthusiasm was unprecedented.
Upon learning that the Marshal was selecting elite crossbowmen and archers, everyone began undergoing strength and endurance training and tests, hoping to be chosen.
Liang Xiao, standing on a high platform, gazed at the soldiers training below with a calm demeanor.
The Great Gan Kingdom, from its inception, had been compelled to adopt a "recruitment system" rather than a "fubing system." This was an unavoidable circumstance.
The nation possessed only thirty percent of the land, but in reality, there was a significant amount of undeclared land. Consequently, the true proportion of land controlled by the state might only be twenty percent, or even less. This was precisely why the founding Prime Minister, Zhuo Mingfeng, had vehemently insisted on maintaining the thirty percent red line, demonstrating exceptional foresight.
The fubing system, when combined with the "equal land system," could maximize the fubing system's effectiveness.
The equal land system involved the central government gratuitously distributing land to peasant households. After a certain period of cultivation, a portion of this land would belong to the household. Upon the peasant's death, most of this land would revert to the government.
The equal land system provided fubing soldiers with the fundamental means of subsistence, significantly boosting their morale and combat effectiveness, but it had one prerequisite.
The nation needed more farmland.
The Sui and Tang Dynasties represented the peak of the fubing system, with armies surpassing even the martial Han Dynasty in combat effectiveness, reaching a point where even incompetent commanders could lead their troops to victory.
However, by the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, even he had to introduce a recruitment system.
This was because, with the nation's economic development, land annexation became increasingly severe, making it progressively difficult for the state to reclaim land.
To maintain the fubing system, the nation needed to continuously provide land for distribution to farmers, which required constant territorial expansion, thereby forcing continuous warfare or reclamation of wasteland.
Simultaneously, strict limitations had to be placed on the annexation of land by powerful families, rigorous control over official conduct and military discipline, and the assurance of economic prosperity and continuous national growth were necessary to sustain increasingly substantial fiscal expenditures.
Ultimately, even the most powerful dynasties could not sustain the combination of these two systems.
The result of land annexation was the bankruptcy of the fubing system and the rise of the recruitment system.
However, the recruitment system also had its own problem: the soldiers' motivations for enlistment changed, and they were no longer as fearless in the face of death.
Furthermore, in the Great Gan Kingdom's previous recruitment system, soldiers' stipends were pitifully low, even more absurd than in the Song Dynasty as Liang Xiao understood it. Soldiers had neither the land expectations of the fubing system nor the ideal stipends of the recruitment system, and naturally became even more afraid of death.
This was the true underlying problem of the Great Gan Kingdom!