If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

Local militia training camp.

It had been quite some time since the bandits from the Gold and Silver Cave were escorted away. Zhou Wu still remembered what Magistrate Chen had said: that he had just been promoted to Deputy Lieutenant of the Imperial Guard, and it was really not appropriate to promote him further now. The bandits had indeed made a great contribution, but the higher-ups meant that the merits should be remembered for now, and they could discuss it later when the opportunity arose.

Zhou Wu had no choice; he was just a low-ranking official of the ninth rank, half a rank lower than even a sesame seed official, so he could only accept it.

"How's training going lately?"

As the leader of the local militia, Zhou Wu naturally had to check on his men from time to time.

"Brother Wu, the soldiers of the local militia can now coordinate well on both horseback and dismount, and they are also skilled in wielding spears and swords. The only problem is bows and arrows."

"What's wrong with the bow and arrow?"

“Brother Wu, now only about one-third of the soldiers in the local militia are proficient in archery. The rest can barely draw their bows, and as for accuracy, they can’t even hope for it.”

Hearing this, Zhou Wu recalled that he seemed to have seen a post online in his previous life. At that time, a netizen asked why ancient kings did not equip all soldiers with long-range weapons such as bows and arrows, so that they could fire a volley or two before close combat in battle, which would surely eliminate a lot of manpower.

One netizen commented that not everyone can master archery. In ancient times, it took three years just to learn the basics of archery, let alone become a master archer. That's why those who could hit a target from a hundred paces away were often generals.

So it's not that everyone can't be an archer, but the investment would be too huge, and there's no guarantee of a return.

"Niu Er, how about we equip everyone with crossbows?"

“Brother Wu, the crossbow is complicated to operate and has a slow rate of fire. The archers have already fired five or six arrows, while the crossbowmen have probably only finished firing one.”

Niu Er is right, the rate of fire of the crossbow is indeed the biggest problem. Zhou Wu forgot about it for a moment, but ordinary crossbows would definitely not work. However, Zhou Wu thought of a magical artifact, the Zhuge Crossbow.

The story of the Zhuge Crossbow comes from a TV program Zhou Wu watched in his previous life called "Approaching History." The program featured a modern person who successfully replicated the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow and even simplified it. The simplified version of the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow had a simplified design and structure, but its power was not weakened. The program also revealed the design drawings at the end, but the drawings were only shown in the first broadcast and were later deleted for some unknown reason. However, Zhou Wu happened to have watched the first broadcast and, because he was interested, he remembered the simplified design drawings of the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow.

. . . . . .

After returning home, Zhou Wu locked himself in his study, trying hard to recall the design of the Zhuge crossbow. After constant recalling and repeated revisions, he finally managed to draw the design.

"Yes, this is it. It should be correct. Let's build one and see how it goes."

Zhou Wu took the design drawings and went directly to Niu Mu, a carpenter in Niujia Village. Niu Mu was a native of Niujia Village, known for his honesty and integrity.

“This isn’t complicated, sir. If you’re in a hurry, take a short break and I’ll get right to it.”

As expected, professional tasks should be handled by professionals. Zhou Wu thought he would not be able to pick up the goods until tomorrow at the earliest, but he didn't expect that he would only need to do it for a short while.

Niu Mu asked his wife to pour Zhou Wu a bowl of water, and then he started looking for wood and began to work. Zhou Wu watched as a piece of wood slowly turned into what he wanted, and he was so excited.

"It's done, sir. We were a bit rushed, so it doesn't look quite right."

It was indeed ugly, but the important thing now wasn't whether it looked good or not, but whether it could achieve the effect Zhou Wu wanted. He had Niu Mu carve a few more small wooden sticks like arrows to test the force and range first.

"You're all better now, sir."

A few small wooden sticks were no problem for Niu Mu at all.

Zhou Wu headed straight for the blacksmith shop with his belongings.

"Old Chiang, Old Chiang."

Zhou Wu was calling out from afar, as if afraid the other party wouldn't be there today.

"Yes, sir."

Old Jiang poked his head out of the shop and watched Zhou Wu carrying a package as he turned to walk into his shop.

"What brings you here today, sir?"

"Help me shoot a few arrows, these are this big."

Zhou Wu gave the small wooden stick that Niu Mu had made to Lao Jiang. This kind of arrowhead was much smaller than a bow and arrow, so it was not difficult to make. Lao Jiang immediately called his apprentices to start working, and the sound of hammering could be heard coming from the blacksmith shop.

"You're all better now, sir."

Now everything is ready, and all that's left is for Zhou Wu to test it. There are hardly any houses around the blacksmith shop, so Zhou Wu took the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow and aimed it at a big tree opposite the blacksmith shop. According to Zhou Wu's estimation, he was about 150 meters away from the tree.

The normal range of ancient bows and arrows is about 200 meters. If the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow could have a range of 150 meters, Zhou Wu would be satisfied. Although the range is not as far as that of bows and arrows, the firepower is ten times that of bows and arrows. Moreover, it does not require time and effort to train. This thing can be used directly.

"I'll try."

The simplified version of the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow comes with its own arrow casket, which can hold ten arrows at a time. Instead of using long arrows like those from a bow, the repeating crossbow uses arrows that are only the length of a chopstick.

Zhou Wu loaded all ten arrows into the repeating crossbow at once. The crossbow's firing mechanism was a pull-type mechanism; pulling it once fired one arrow at a time.

Zhou Wuju aimed his crossbow, pulled the firing mechanism repeatedly, and the arrows flew out quickly with a "whoosh whoosh whoosh" sound. Ten arrows were fired in no time.

"The accuracy was a bit off, but it didn't have a big impact since it was a group attack anyway."

There were a total of six arrows stuck in the tree trunk, which far exceeded Zhou Wu's expectations. Moreover, after pulling the firing mechanism ten times, Zhou Wu did not feel any pain in his arm. You should know that even the best archers would experience arm pain and be unable to draw the bow after shooting ten arrows in a row.

The experiment was a great success. Zhou Wu immediately modified the original design, mainly by adding a small device that would render the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow unusable by anyone trying to disassemble it. To be honest, there are no secrets that last forever, but in Zhou Wu's view, it was better to stall for time. He then had the carpenter Niu Mu and the blacksmith Lao Jiang work together to build the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow and designated this information as the top secret of Niu Family Village.

Every day, newly produced crossbows were delivered to the local militia camp so that the soldiers could take turns learning how to use them. However, the crossbows were simple to operate, and each person could learn them after shooting one round. So everyone took turns shooting, shooting during the day and shooting at night.

"Brother Wu, are you a god? How can you make something like this?"

There are no gods or immortals.

Zhou Wu chuckled in response. He had seen too many expressions of admiration these past two days and was somewhat numb to them.

What's this called?

"It doesn't have a name yet."

"How about we name it Zhou Wu Repeating Crossbow, Brother Wu?"

Zhuge Repeating Crossbow, Zhou Wu Repeating Crossbow—I wasn't used to them at first, but they're just names, so it doesn't really matter.

The local militia now has three hundred men, each equipped with a repeating crossbow. Because the repeating crossbow can quickly load arrows and has an extremely fast rate of fire, the militia is not afraid even if they face three thousand men. To be honest, if the militia had had repeating crossbows when they fought against Golden Light Cave and Silver Light Cave, Zhou Wu would not have needed to risk going to Medicine King Valley for help.

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