Aztec Eternals

The next month will be uneventful.

The rain is still falling, and there are few sunny days. Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is mid-July, the midsummer when everything is flourishing.

The city of Xilotepec still did not surrender. Their food can last at least another ten months. Outside the Mexica camp, a steady stream of food was transported from the lake. The warriors stayed in the camp, competing with each other in martial arts, and teaching the recruits fighting skills along the way.

Xiulot and the carpenters have been cutting the hard rosewood with great difficulty. Make the gun mount of the catapult, and polish the long tip of the gun. Of course, the most difficult thing to make is the rotating gun shaft. At the connection between the gun shaft and the gun mount, the craftsmen have been dealing with it for a long time. Bertard and some of the following warriors helped.

Then the different parts were finally assembled, and the carriage was reinforced by the army carpenters. Next was the first test of the cannon. The rope connecting the cannon tip and the cannon shaft fell apart quickly. The cannon fell from a height of four meters and was deeply inserted into the soil, which shocked everyone into a cold sweat.

Xiulot had to go to Avette. Avit provided the glue for building the pyramid for Shulot's big toy, and recruited several senior carpenters from the eastern Mexica city-state.

Senior carpenters dedicated their wisdom to the coyote priest. They studied for several days and improved the overall connection of the catapult with tenon joint technology. Finally, after a month of hard work, a real catapult was completed.

The afternoon sun was warm and comfortable, a rare sunny day.

Avit stood on the sidelines of the school field, looking at the catapult that was four or five meters high not far away. Craftsmen and peasants were busy under the catapult. He smiled and said, "Why did you pull me over in such a hurry, is your big toy ready to play with?"

Xiulot looked excited: "Avit, this will be an epoch-making weapon that will forever change the way we attack city-states. I call it a human-powered catapult, no, it has no wheels, it should be A human-powered trebuchet."

Afterwards, Xiulot watched the craftsmen finish loading and shouted, "Launch!"

With an order, more than 20 strong men pulled the more than 20 ropes connecting the short shaft of the cannon tip, and then the cannon pin and the cannon shaft rotated. When the long axis of the cannon tip is close to the highest point of rotation, about ten meters above the ground, a stone weighing more than ten kilograms flies out of the bullet pocket at the top of the long axis with a swish, draws a parabola, and smashes it far away. Towards the end of the school yard, a cloud of dust was thrown on the ground.

Avit stared at this scene with his mouth wide open, shock froze on his face. The stone the size of a human head was thrown over a distance of more than two hundred steps, and the huge kinetic energy could instantly kill any warrior it landed on, regardless of martial arts or armor.

Xiulot "appreciated" Avette's expression. It was the first time he'd seen gaffe shock on Avit's face. He was excited and had a great sense of accomplishment. This is the first product he completed that transcends the times, and it is also the first transcendence of history.

At the same time, he also had a kind of understanding: For the outstanding people of this era, he does not have strong military strength, nor does he have extraordinary wisdom, and he is still learning to grasp the human heart and the current situation. All he can really rely on is his emphasis on science and technology and productivity, his prediction of future development, and his memory of historical trends.

"Okay." He smiled self-deprecatingly: "A part-time scientist, craftsman, priest of a prophet."

Avitt's shock lasted for six seconds, which was the longest time he had lost expression control.

Immediately, he walked to the trebuchet with a serious face, carefully observed the mechanical structure, and confirmed that the weapon could be fired repeatedly. Then he walked to the point where the stone fell and measured the launch distance.

"Fourteen catties, two hundred and twenty steps." Shulot heard Avitt calculating and researching.

Then Avit called a skilled hunter to measure the effective killing distance of the hunter's sling on the five-meter platform. "The range of the slingshot on the city wall is close to 120 steps, and the leather armor is slightly damaged, and the hit rate is extremely low."

At this time, Avit said to Shulot excitedly: "Test it, how much is the heaviest stone that this machine can launch at a distance of 120 steps."

The two began to test stones of different weights, and finally found that the weight of the 120-step shot was more than 40 catties, which is about 9 liters, the size of three human heads.

Then, the two tested the destructive power of throwing stones at this distance. The potential energy of a stone weighing more than 40 kilograms was nearly ten meters plus the kinetic energy of the initial velocity. This power can make obvious marks on the earth and stone city wall, but it cannot cause structural damage to the ten-step wide city wall.

In other words, if you want to smash down the city wall, the human-powered catapult-type one can't do it.

However, for the wooden structures on the walls and inside the city, this power is destructive.

After getting the detailed weapon data, Avit left in a hurry.

After a while, the commander-in-chief Totek was pulled over by Avit. This cold and tall Mexica ace warrior watched the "big toy" loaded with 40-jin stone bombs with an unshakable face, and then with a huge roar, his rigid face was stunned and shocked for an instant. It took more than ten seconds.

"God bless." Totek looked at where the stone fell, and the stone bullet sank into the ground as deep as a palm. "Is this a weapon of God? According to legend, the giant of the first era used this weapon to kill the sun?"

Shulot looked helplessly at Totek, who was about to worship beside the catapult. This kind of trebuchet is estimated to be as powerful as the Thunderbolt chariot in the Battle of Guandu, and it is far from the large-caliber short-barreled guns that the Spaniards besieged the Moors in this era.

"It's all due to lack of culture." Xiu Luote thought. So decades later, the Aztec warriors would also mistake the cannons and matchlock guns of the Spanish colonists for divine punishment, and fall into a fantasy panic.

In fact, these weapons do far less damage to personnel than brutal melee combat, and the blow to morale is inversely proportional to cognition. "Fortunately, there is me now!"

In any case, this is the first large-scale siege weapon in Central America, with epoch-making power.

Totek immediately mobilized village warriors and craftsmen, and then forcibly recruited excellent carpenters from nearby city-states. Under the strong supervision of the Eagle Warriors, human trebuchets were manufactured on a large scale.

The nearby rosewood was immediately destroyed. In order to improve the cutting efficiency, Totek also recruited all the copper axes in the Praetorian Guard. Then, the sound of clanging construction resounded through the camp.

Hulot's big toy soon became famous all over the army. Officers at all levels came to watch the catapult launch, leaving all kinds of shocked faces. Even King Tisok came to inspect once, and he was shocked for six seconds just like Avitt, making Shulot exclaim that "he is indeed a brother".

Half a month later, outside the east gate of Hilotepec City, at a distance of one or two hundred steps from the city wall, more than fifty trebuchets were lined up in a row. Shulot gave an order, the drums sounded, and a thousand strong men yanked the ropes on their backs. The wooden tips of the catapults were raised high, and more than fifty huge boulders flew out loudly, breaking through the air under the horrified eyes of the defenders. It came, and landed with a loud bang. Where it landed, the ground shook, the houses were destroyed, and a cloud of dust was raised.

"Stone Throwing Commander" Shulot stood on the earthen platform two hundred steps away, observing the results of the bombardment. He asked Tisok for this position on the grounds that he could make better use of the trebuchet. In fact, he just wanted to evaluate the power of his masterpiece nearby, and feel complacent for a while.

"The launch angle is 60 degrees from the front. Well, it can only guarantee that the stones shot are within 60 degrees from the front. It's okay, it's okay." Shulot wiped the sweat that didn't exist on his forehead. "Perhaps it would be better to round the stone, but that would be too labor-intensive. Forget it, you don't expect precision strikes anyway."

Xiulot paid attention to the opponent's casualties again: "A lot of houses were smashed, and about three or four hit the city wall? The hit rate of the city wall is 5%, and the opponent's death is estimated to be four or five. It is estimated that as the number of shots increases, the opponent will Adapt quickly, with negligible casualties."

"Sure enough, the small trebuchet is just a morale-depressing and long-range weapon." Xiulot thought, "Technology research and development must continue."

The ruthless bombardment continued, the boulder fell to the ground, the sound was like thunder, and the city-state warriors on the city wall looked ashen, their majestic bodies trembling. Many militiamen prostrated themselves on their knees, praying to the "behemoth" roaring ahead, even many samurai and militiamen on their own side were no exception.

As for the inventor and commander of the "behemoth", Shulot, the warriors and the militiamen have a lot of strange and god-like emotions. Of course, this kind of emotion will gradually fade away, but the seeds of respect have been planted, and there is more recognition and obedience in people's hearts.

The continuous bombardment lasted three days. During this period, Otomi nobles and priests continued to climb to the top of the city, and then left in a panic with horror on their faces.

Three days later, the gate of Xilotepec was opened again, and a group of messengers hurried out. This time, the messengers carried boxes of gifts and tributes.

Note: One step here uses the ancient Chinese system of 1.3 meters, which is the sum of the distance between an ancient man's step forward with both feet.