Fifty-seven

Chapter 59: Handguns and Cannons

Duan Mingyu was so thrilled by the breakthrough of the ballista that his gaze towards the siege engine was as affectionate as if it were his own son. "Master Fan, fire a test shot from my son—err—the ballista, and let me witness its power!"

"You got it, Young Master, just watch and learn!" Fan Fu waved his hand confidently, and immediately a few workers carried two massive logs toward the distance.

After walking about three hundred paces, the men set the logs upright on the ground and then scurried back in a hurry.

Fan Fu retrieved a long arrow measuring roughly a meter and a half. Duan Mingyu looked at this arrow in astonishment. A typical arrow consists of three parts: the arrowhead, the shaft, and the fletching. The arrowhead, also known as the tip, was mostly made of iron, sharp at the front and broad at the base, coming in triangular, conical, or rhombic shapes. Its edges were thin and sharp, with grooves on the sides. The shaft was made of wood, fitted beneath the tip, and cylindrical in shape. The fletching was usually crafted from the wing feathers of large birds of prey like eagles or falcons, attached to the tail end of the shaft to ensure the arrow flew steadily to hit the target.

However, the arrow in Fan Fu's hand was rather peculiar. Its entire body was made of sheet iron, and it lacked any fletching. To call it an arrow was flattering it; apart from the tip, nothing about it resembled an arrow at all—it was practically an iron spear! What surprised Duan Mingyu the most was that there appeared to be a fuse trailing from the end of the shaft.

Duan Mingyu asked, "Master Fan, this arrow of yours seems a bit unorthodox."

"Young Master truly has a discerning eye! This arrow of mine is quite ingenious. It is cast and wrapped in sheet iron with a hollow interior. Following the gunpowder formula you provided a few days ago, I specially packed the shaft with gunpowder. Young Master, please look at this fuse; as long as it is lit before launch, hehe, once the arrow is fired, it not only kills the enemy on impact, but also carries the gunpowder right into the enemy formation. Tsk tsk, gunpowder combined with sheet iron delivers a twofold lethality! Hahahaha." Fan Fu stroked his beard in satisfaction, talking proudly with a triumphant air.

Luo Hou chimed in, "Master Fan, I have served as a soldier for several years after all. While I haven't studied military machinery, I do know that the heavier the arrow, the greater the launching force required. Can your ballista provide that kind of power?"

Xu Zuye also echoed, "Indeed, and such an arrow and ballista are cumbersome and difficult to adjust in direction. The battlefield situation changes in a flash; when would there ever be time to maneuver such a heavy ballista?"

"Heha, Instructor Luo, Brother Xu, you need not worry. As craftsmen, we naturally take such matters into thorough consideration, otherwise wouldn't we be endangering the lives of our own brothers? Look here, my ballista differs quite a bit from others. It relies on three strong iron springs for propulsion, and I have also added a full eight tendons of cattle. Through the tension of the springs and the torque of the tendons, it is entirely sufficient to guarantee the launching force. As for the directional issue, while Master Fan cannot easily move the entire ballista, I have hung eighteen iron hooks in front of it to position and aim the arrow. Haha, what more do you two have to say?" Fan Fu once again boasted with his head held high, practically beaming with joy.

Luo Hou and Xu Zuye cupped their fists in unison. "We are thoroughly convinced!"

Duan Mingyu laughed heartily. "As the saying goes, knowledge has no order of precedence, and mastery resides in specialized trades. You two need not feel inferior on this account. Come, Master Fan, fire a test shot for us first!"

With that, Duan Mingyu grabbed Wan Yanyan and bolted away in a flash, immediately covering his ears.

"Wait for me!" Yang Zhaoniang hurriedly followed the two and took cover to the side.

Luo Hou, Wang Aiqing, Xu Zuye, and the newly arrived Xie Xiande also scrambled far out of the way.

Signaling that the crossbowmen standing by could begin, Fan Fu unheroically fled the scene as well.

The two crossbowmen skillfully loaded the long arrow, estimated the trajectory, hooked the arrow onto a slightly left-leaning iron hook directly in front, pulled out a box of newly invented matches, lit the fuse, and then pulled the firing trigger.

The crowd watched as the long arrow dragged a wisp of black smoke and shot forward with lightning speed.

With a sharp thud, the long arrow pierced straight into the two massive logs. The spectators could just see the protruding tail feathers, while the arrowhead poked out from the other side. Immediately following that came a deafening explosion, and the massive logs were blown into a sky full of flying splinters.

A collective intake of sharp breaths echoed among the crowd.

Looking at the spot where the logs had stood, a large crater four meters in diameter had been blasted into the ground.

Duan Mingyu exclaimed in shock, "This is ridiculously overpowered!"

Fan Fu stepped forward and asked, "Young Master, are you satisfied with this power?"

Duan Mingyu nodded his head like a chick pecking at rice—err—like a chicken stewing mushrooms. "Satisfied, extremely satisfied!"

"However, Master Fan, how many of these can your ballista fire at once?"

"Eleven. Why do you ask?"

Duan Mingyu cleared his throat and said, "I thought the repeating crossbow you mentioned was a small bow for individual infantry combat. I didn't expect Master Fan to deliver such a massive beast."

"Oh, is that what Young Master meant? The small repeating crossbow was finished long ago. Look, Young Master." Fan Fu produced a crossbow with the flair of a magician.

Fan Fu continued, "This crossbow is about the length of an arm, very suitable for individual combat. It can fire fifteen shots in succession. Just as Young Master instructed, every repeating crossbow is manufactured according to a template, so whenever any single part breaks, it can be replaced immediately." With that, Fan Fu continuously pulled the trigger, and fifteen short arrows embedded themselves neatly into the ground, halfway deep into the earth. The force behind them was undeniably formidable!

Duan Mingyu was overjoyed inside. *Haha, I've got both handguns and cannons now!*

Yet at this celebratory moment, Fan Fu remarked, "Young Master, this repeating crossbow is easy to build, but this ballista is difficult. Because the ballista's force is so violent, nothing can hold its various parts together securely enough. Therefore, it has to be built as an integrated whole; if a single part is wrong, the whole thing must be remade from scratch. Furthermore, the ballista is heavy and cannot be used for long-distance rapid marches. This is indeed a thorny problem!"

Duan Mingyu laughed heartily and patted Fan Fu on the shoulder. "Master Fan, if that's the only issue, it's no big deal. You can use screws and nuts to connect the various parts of the ballista together. This way, you can adopt an assembly-line production method for the individual parts, and then fasten them with screws and nuts. Hehe, this will also allow the ballista to be dismantled and assembled at any time. The soldiers can each carry a portion of the parts, and long-distance rapid marches will no longer be a problem."

"Young Master, I wonder what these 'screws and nuts' are. Why has Fan Ming never heard of them?" the artisan dedicated to scientific research asked Duan Mingyu modestly.

"Well, these two little gadgets are things I tinkered with when I had some spare time. A screw is like a man's thing, and a nut is like a woman's thing. As long as you carve spiral threads onto both of them, they combine seamlessly, and no matter how much strength you use, they can never be pulled apart." Duan Mingyu wiped some saliva from the corner of his mouth. "Do you understand?"

"Your subordinate understands. I wonder if Young Master means..."