The process of retrieving information is often long and tedious.
Moreover, there is always an inevitable deviation between theory and practice, and Li Yu is unsure how much of the results derived can actually be effective.
However, these studies have indeed brought him quite a few ideas. The Black Dragon in the swamp remains mysterious to him, but at least Li Yu is no longer completely ignorant about it.
Once the layers of myth and fictional literature that clothe it are peeled away, it turns out to be just a powerful creature.
And as long as it is a creature, it has weaknesses and a health bar.
Of course, recognizing weaknesses and health bars is one thing, but how to effectively hit the weaknesses and deliver an output is quite another.
Li Yu had once harbored a doubt in his heart after downloading and browsing the app "Forging House" launched by the Equipnt Departnt and had even consulted Hephaestus later on.
"Why aren’t there any weapons class equipnt in there?"
The hybrid handso guy had answered at the ti, "Please, we are a completely lawful and legitimately operated joint-stock company; of course, we won’t develop and produce weapons, especially not weapons of mass destruction, as that is illegal, you know.
"And considering the company’s main business, we send employees to other universes to produce and collect faith, not to engage in cross-plane conquest or colonization, therefore after research and discussion, the board does not think it necessary for the company to develop weapons.
"Look at the weapons currently in the hands of humans. Our ancestors once ruled Earth with cold weapons, standing at the very top of the food chain, and when we obtained firearms, we were basically killing each other with those firearms," Hephaestus took the opportunity to deliver a political statent.
"That may be so, but there are still tis when violent ans are needed," replied Li Yu. "After all, there are always people in this world who do not speak reason, and there are quite a few of them."
"All right, you’re right. If the company were to issue a million AK47s to each employee in the business departnt, I believe that would greatly enhance your work efficiency. But unfortunately, the board does not approve of such practices," the hybrid handso guy shrugged.
...
Thus, Li Yu had more or less given up the possibility of acquiring weapons through company channels. Although so of the equipnt in "Forging House" seed, in his view, to be no less powerful than modern weapons, such equipnt often commanded an outrageous price.
Unless, in the later stages, he had so much faith he had nowhere to spend it, from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, purchasing such equipnt obviously did not make as much sense as purchasing other types of equipnt, and Li Yu did not have so much faith at the mont.
So, it is up to Li Yu himself to figure out the weapons issue.
And on the sixth day after Jude and Juan returned from the swamp, Li Yu received so good news.
After more than a month of hard work and nearly a thousand Gold Coins spent, Li Yu also dispatched fifty people to assist Fitzwilliam, and the shipwright finally constructed the first Sea King Spear!
This giant crossbow was originally mounted on warships for use in naval combat with staggering power, able to easily pierce through the smaller warships that dared to approach, one of the two main reasons the Weiting Family’s fleet dominated the seas.
The finished product looks a bit like a combination of a Song Dynasty Bed Crossbow and a Roman crossbow, with a massive crossbow fra fixed by a support, a high-quality refined iron bar installed between the machine’s axles, and a square wooden beam with an arrow groove on top of the iron bar.
According to Fitzwilliam, the core craft of constructing the giant crossbow lies in the torsion spring.
The strength of the torque spring determines the maximum power a bow crossbow can deliver.
The torque spring used on the Sea King Spear is a composite material, the recipe and production process have always been the secret family recipe of the Weiting Family, known only to successive Family Heads and the main shipwrights responsible for shipbuilding.
Unfortunately, so of the materials are difficult to gather in the Western Territory, and Fitzwilliam could only substitute with other materials, resulting in the Sea King Spear being sowhat weaker than the original version.
But afterwards, the Shipwright did a test fire with specially made iron arrows, or more appropriately called iron spears, which could travel nearly four hundred ters, and if the arrow shafts were switched to wood, they could fly an additional two hundred ters.
This result greatly exceeded Li Yu’s expectations.
Although the Sea King Spear is not as outrageous as the legendary three-bow Bed Crossbow with an effective range exceeding one thousand ters, many people were skeptical of the range data given in the "Song History".
After all, the average handgun bullet can travel about one thousand ters.
It’s a pity that the production techniques for the three-bow Bed Crossbow have also been lost, otherwise, Li could have printed a copy to give to Fitzwilliam for reference, and it might have even helped the Shipwright gain so extra experience.
However, the current stage Sea King Spear was already sufficient for use, and Li Yu found it hard to imagine any creature in this world that could withstand the Crossbow Arrow fired from such a giant crossbow with just flesh and blood.
Even a giant dragon covered in scales, provided it was close enough, would lose at least half its health if it took a direct hit from one arrow.
But such heavy weaponry is not without its drawbacks, first of all being almost immobile due to its huge size, it could only be fixed in place, and the Weiting Family typically mounted these giant crossbows only on battleships and the walls of ports.
Moreover, because of the massive recoil, even so small warships were unable to mount the Sea King Spear, not to ntion moving it around with a oxcart.
Beyond that, reloading was another issue. Winding up the crossbow alone required eighteen people, and even after firing an arrow, it took at least three minutes to reload and rearm, and even longer when including aiming and adjusting the position.
With the speed and intelligence of that dragon, it would certainly not give the Crossbowman that much ti. If increasing the number of giant crossbows could solve this drawback, then the next problem was what really troubled Fitzwilliam.
Similar giant crossbows, placing too much emphasis on power, naturally fell short when it ca to accuracy.
The Sea King Spear was initially devised to combat other ships because only targets of such size were possible to aim at, and the Family would spare no Gold Coins in training a group of excellent crossbown from an early age, especially for operating the giant crossbow.
Since the Weiting Family was defeated too quickly in that rebellion and didn’t even have ti to deploy their fleet, most of these n survived, but afterwards they either joined the Imperial Navy or were poached by naval forces of Foreign Countries.
Regardless of what they did next, they were not likely to co to the Western Territory.
As for the mbers within the Weiting Family, including Fitzwilliam, none knew how to operate the Sea King Spear.
And it was only towards the end of the work period that the Shipwright rembered this issue, feeling sowhat guilty, as the giant crossbow was sothing Li Yu had paid a great deal of money for him to build, but it was likely to be of no use.
However, after hearing this, Li Yu did not bla him; on the contrary, he praised his craftsmanship and handed out an additional reward to everyone involved in constructing the giant crossbow. Then he asked the Shipwright to continue building the second giant crossbow, while Li Yu himself took on the task of resolving the issue with the crossbown.
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