After finishing his cigarette, Old Chen suddenly seemed to have a divine presence. He had been listless and lethargic before, but now he was full of energy, leaving Lu Yuan and his father-in-law dumbfounded.
"Ahem! Let me say something! This thing of yours won't do! The blueprints are just like toy blueprints. To have any destructive power, it needs some more powerful propulsion mechanism, like a pneumatic valve, or something even more powerful, a hydraulic catapult!" Old Chen said, rubbing his glasses.
Lu Yuan immediately understood why the old man had said that the people he had found were all trash. It turned out that the old man had a better method. He was truly a hidden genius!
"Master Chen, please continue!" Lu Yuan looked at the old man Chen eagerly, waiting for him to continue.
The other person pondered for a moment, then took out a piece of paper and a pen and began to draw.
At first, Lu Yuan thought the other person was graffiti, but after watching for a while, he finally figured it out. The old man was actually drawing a sketch of a crossbow.
The various switches and the overall design were quickly drawn on the paper. Lu Yuan understood the intricacies of the design at a glance and immediately gave a thumbs-up in praise.
"Master Chen, I didn't realize you were such a skilled painter!" Lu Yuan couldn't help but praise him.
Old Chen's face twitched slightly, but he ignored it and continued, "However, to forge a qualified crossbow, a very high level of craftsmanship is required. I absolutely will not allow any substandard products to come out of my hands. I will make a list in a moment, and you can go and buy them. I will start making it for you whenever you find the materials!"
After saying that, he started writing down a long list of various tools and materials on the paper.
Lu Yuan took it and saw that everything was there except for the high-temperature furnace, some electric grinding tools, and some pneumatic valve switches.
After the two left the old man's house, they heard the sound of the old man eating watermelon before they even closed the door.
Furnaces are easy to buy. There's no shortage of tools these days. Many people sell things at low prices in order to get water. A furnace that originally cost several thousand yuan was bought by Lu Yuan for the price of just one bottle of water.
Next came steelmaking. Old Chen's skills were truly impressive. Piles of scrap steel were melted into molten iron in the furnace and then poured into molds. Then, the old man put on a thick leather apron and began forging.
Hearing the rhythmic sound of the hammer striking the ground, Lu Yuan and his family couldn't help but go and take a look.
"Xiao Yuan, what is this old man doing? What kind of tool is he making with all that clanging and banging?" Lu's father stood to the side, craning his neck to watch as Old Chen rhythmically hammered a piece of iron in that spot.
"Hehe, I won't tell you yet, you'll find out in a little while!" Lu Yuan didn't say what Old Man Chen was doing, just to leave his father in suspense.
"You brat, so secretive! Fine, as long as you don't destroy the house, anything is fine!" After saying that, the old man lost interest in watching the blacksmith and turned to leave.
At the time, Lu Yuan did not want to bring Old Man Chen to his home, since it would be troublesome if the many fruit trees in the house were exposed. However, there was no more suitable place to forge iron, so he could only bring the old man to his home.
However, Lu Yuan did not expect that Old Man Chen was not curious about the scene in his house at all. He adjusted his glasses and went straight into the backyard, took out his tools and started blacksmithing. Along the way, he kept muttering about various proportions and occasionally took out a small notebook to calculate.
After working for several hours, Old Man Chen finally finished the parts, and the next step was to assemble them.
The assembly process was quick, but when the first finished product came out, Old Man Chen didn't seem very satisfied with his work. After looking at it for a long time, he angrily threw the finished crossbow back into the stove.
"Hey! Master Chen, what are you doing! You just finished making it, why did you throw it away again? I thought it was fine!" Lu Yuan had been squatting for a long time, his legs were numb, and he was just about to take the crossbow to test it when, before he could even reach out, Old Man Chen threw the crossbow directly into the furnace, which made Lu Yuan extremely annoyed.
"That won't do. That's a defective product that doesn't meet my requirements. Of course, I have to recast it. You don't need to worry about me. Just go about your business. I'll call you when it's done!"
After saying that, Old Man Chen threw himself back into his hard work of blacksmithing, which Lu Yuan watched with a shake of his head.
Finally, after several hours, Old Man Chen shouted out in front of him.
"Alright, the project is complete, we can start the experiment now!"
Lu Yuan excitedly ran over with half a watermelon in his arms, then handed the watermelon to Old Man Chen and happily took the crossbow.
The crossbow in my hand was shiny and very attractive because it wasn't painted. It wasn't very big, about 30 centimeters long, 20 centimeters wide, and about 10 centimeters high. It was easy to hold in one hand.
Old Chen also thoughtfully made more than twenty crossbow bolts. The bolts were small and exquisite, only five centimeters long, but the arrowheads were quite powerful. With a gentle pull on clothing, a tear would appear.
So Lu Yuan picked up the crossbow and began to aim. The slot for the crossbow bolt was quite smooth. Because Old Man Chen had specially installed a pneumatic device on the crossbow, the bolt could be fired not only with the bowstring but also with the pneumatic device.
To test the accuracy and power of the crossbow, Lu Yuan specially found two cutting boards, each about five centimeters thick and made of hardwood, which were perfectly capable of handling ordinary chopping and hacking.
So Lu Yuan placed the wooden plank about twenty meters away, then took out a crossbow bolt and put it in the bolt slot. For the first time, Lu Yuan chose to use the bowstring.
With a gentle pull of the trigger, a "bang" was heard as the crossbow bolt flew out. Lu Yuan didn't even see the bolt clearly before he saw a cutting board fall to the ground in the distance. He picked up the cutting board and saw that it had hit the bullseye, and the five-centimeter-thick cutting board had been completely pierced through. A one-centimeter mark was also left on the second cutting board.
Lu Yuan couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement. If this were shot on a person... he couldn't even imagine it!
So Lu Yuan used the pneumatic device again, then aimed, pulled the trigger, and Lu Yuan only felt a slight recoil from the crossbow, and then saw the two cutting boards in the distance stick together and fall down.
When he picked up the cutting board, he discovered that the two cutting boards were completely stuck together, with the crossbow bolt in the middle firmly pinning them together. It took Lu Yuan some effort to finally separate the cutting boards.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
