Dardanelles Strait.

The ocean currents from the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea meet here. Under the influence of the warm and cold currents, this place becomes a natural fishing ground where fishing boats gather.

In a remote corner of the southeastern part of the fishing ground, Troy Bay is like a crescent moon, quietly facing the Mediterranean Sea with its heart half open. In the center of the bay, ships of the Qin Navy are being inspected one after another.

Black battle flag!

A mighty military formation!

Neat formation of flying geese.

When bursts of passionate war drums sounded, the shouts of the soldiers of the Qin Dynasty erupted in the center of the bay.

"Great Qin, Great Qin, the brave old Qin, strengthen our rivers and mountains; - Qin has warriors, who can compete with him for supremacy!" The pace of Da Qin's westward advance was unstoppable, and the soldiers of Da Qin also slightly modified the war hymn of the restoration of the country.

And Zhuang——, the difference between the two words shows completely different meanings.

Everything is ready, all we need is the east wind.

On August 15th, the night of the full moon, after a long five-month rest, the Daqin fleet finally set sail again. The fleet was brave, brave, and thunderous. Three arrows were fired in unison.

The flag is like the sickle of death, which makes people dare not look up.

On the tallest flagship in the center of the fleet, Navy Commander Gan Yong stood on the bow of the ship with a solemn expression. The slightly undulating waves caused the ship to rock back and forth, but this wave was not enough for Gan Yong, who was accustomed to life at sea.

In other words, it’s nothing at all?

Hu Zhuo, Lei Fei is the deputy general of Gan Yong, and Luan Bu is the rear army general, responsible for guarding the Troy lair. Such equipment makes the Qin Navy even more powerful. In terms of experience, Hu Zhui is rich enough, and in terms of bravery, Lei Fei has been proved by facts.

Calm and calculating. Luan Bu, who was born as a cloth seller, was the most calculating. As the commander-in-chief, Gan Yong stood alone for a long time and won Li Yuan's trust.

Place the couch crossbow on the deck of the seagoing ship.

This is a bold idea put forward by Qin naval generals such as Gan Yong and Lei Bei. Maritime operations are no better than land operations. There are many restrictions, such as the sea environment of the battlefield, the tonnage of the ships, the water warfare skills of the soldiers, and even the wind power at the time.

Wind direction, etc., the existence of these factors makes the outcome of naval battles increasingly unpredictable.

In this case, if the Qin Navy wants to take the initiative in the battle, relying on science and technology to create strength and improving existing weapons, especially long-range strike weapons, is the most feasible strategy. After equipping with crossbows, the Qin Navy can

Using the powerful long-range strike capability of the couch crossbow to inflict heavy damage on the enemy before the opponent launches an attack is the Qin army's preemptive strategy.

Just imagine. When the two fleets meet, one side tries to get close to engage in close combat, while the other side pulls away. It launches a large crossbow as thick as an arm at a distance that the other side cannot hit, regardless of the accuracy of this crossbow.

It's so high, just the intimidating power of passing through the air is enough to make people shudder.

"Haha, if this guy is placed on the bow of the ship, if those Roman ships are shot, they won't fall apart!" Seeing the power of the couch crossbow with their own eyes, these veterans in Huyou were beaming with joy.

In a sea battle, the distance between the ships of both sides is only a hundred feet. This is the limit of range for ordinary machine crossbows, but for the couch crossbow, which is three times as big, it is just the right distance. With the couch crossbow

With the addition of Qin, the Qin army was able to compete with the Roman fleet in the open sea without having to worry about being suppressed by the taller Romans in close combat.

One veteran is worth ten new recruits. To both sides in a naval battle, naval soldiers are more valuable than those on land.

Although Gan Yong's troops defeated Greer, this victory was only temporary. If they failed in the next battle, the Qin army's soldiers would lose their vigor, and it would take only a few decades to restore the vitality of a fleet.

It's impossible, just like the Carthaginian fleet, which never stood up after being defeated by the Romans.

Therefore, every veteran who has experienced the baptism of naval battles is a valuable asset to the Qin Navy, a new force that has been established recently and lacks foundation.

The decisive battle with Rome is imminent.

Great Qin's war machine also started rumbling. The all-out efforts of the military craftsmen have allowed one new technological achievement to be applied one after another. After the original "artillery" of the crossbow, the craftsmen of the Qin State's military craftsmen had new ideas.

.

A new batch of bronze machine crossbows have also been distributed. The appearance of this new machine crossbow is slightly different from the previous bronze crossbows. The main reason is that the arrow box containing the crossbow arrows is no longer separated, but ten in a row, automatically.

Reloading. Although the single-shot crossbow is powerful, due to the limitation of reloading time, its power cannot be fully exerted on the battlefield.

The Wuhou Repeating Crossbow, invented by Zhuge Liang during the Later Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, appeared more than 300 years in advance. This crossbow machine, which is similar to the ancient "machine gun", is a major innovation in the history of crossbow machines. It spans the important transition from single-shot to multiple-shot

Historical node. After being suppressed by the Tianlei Army for several years, the crossbow craftsmen of the Great Qin Army finally made a breakthrough.

A sea ship.

There is a certain number of people that can be loaded, especially in this era without machine power. In addition to relying on uncertain sails, the navigation of ships relies on human oars for propulsion. For this reason, the combat soldiers on each ship will not

There are too many. Under equal conditions, the captain will of course choose soldiers who are tall and round and have excellent close combat capabilities.

The emergence of couch crossbows and repeating crossbows has brought the power of machine crossbows to a higher level. The giant crossbows on the deck are powerful weapons for long-range strikes, and the application of repeating crossbows has helped the navy solve the problem of insufficient combat personnel.

Taking the equipment of a single-masted paddle boat as an example, only five crossbowmen are needed to fire fifty crossbow bolts continuously without rest. During a battle at sea, when enemy soldiers jump over the string of the ship,

Usually they will form a dense formation, but if they encounter a continuous rain of arrows at this time, it will be a dead end.

A series of new weapons were put into the battlefield, which was evidence of the strong national power of Qin. At the same time, it was also the reward of Li Yuan's emphasis on scientific and technological research and development for many years.

Xianyang, Jinyang, Hanzhong——, based on these three important military manufacturing institutions of the Qin State, Xingyang City, located in Guandong, has become the fourth military manufacturing base of the Qin State. Compared with Xianyang and other places, Xingyang is closer to

The hinterland of the Central Plains, superior geographical advantages, and abundant human resources have allowed the development of Xingyang Military Manufacturing to show a rapid catching-up momentum from the beginning.

——.

Massive migration of people.

Continuous application of new technologies.

The pace of national integration is accelerating.

Li Yuan single-handedly changed the short-lived dynasty of Qin. Now, under Qin's positive and progressive national policy, Eastern civilization is spreading to foreign lands with unstoppable momentum. Feudal society has been in existence for more than two thousand years.

, several dynasties have gone up and down. The world and scholars have compared this cycle of ups and downs to the limitations of Eastern civilization, but they do not know that the fundamental reason is actually the contradiction between resources and population.

The emergence of the New Qin Dynasty changed the original historical process. The tragic population decline caused by the four-year conflict between Chu and Han did not happen. The population of the Qin Dynasty increased a lot compared to the most powerful period under the rule of the First Emperor.

The number of Fu registered households in the Qin Dynasty was 500,000, and in the seventeenth year of the New Calendar of the Qin Dynasty, that is, 189 BC, according to the statistics of the Fu registered households in the great country, the number of Fu registered households in the original counties of Qin reached 700,000, of which

There are nearly 60 million people registered.

Among them, looking at the number of households alone, we cannot just look at the increase of 200,000 households. To truly calculate it, we must also exclude the decrease in the number of people during the war in the late Qin Dynasty. In other words, in the more than ten years after the unification of the New Qin Dynasty, the population growth

It erupted in a geometric pattern, and what is even more surprising is that this eruption did not bring any substantial damage to the social structure of Qin.

As we all know, the increase in population will inevitably bring about a large consumption of wealth. If the amount of total wealth is constant, then according to the cycle of Chinese history, a powerful country will be unable to survive and develop for more than ten years.

It is inevitable that it will gradually enter a period of stagnation in development, followed by turmoil at the peak, and then the decline of a dynasty.

Nowadays, the Qin Dynasty continues to expand, and the rich resources of the Eurasian continent have just offset the sense of urgency brought by the increase in population. A large number of immigrants have moved westward, which has alleviated domestic conflicts and kept such conflicts within a reasonable range.

For ordinary people, although it is painful to leave their hometown, a new place is a new hope, and it is this hope that supports the Qin State like a rumbling tank, moving forward indomitably.
Chapter completed!