Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland

In Huangshui Village, there are bamboo buildings and stilts.

A dozen or so scattered people gathered together, looking at the figure at the central table with wonder or admiration in their eyes.

Lu Meng's fingers were flying. The precise mechanical parts on the table were like toy building blocks, fitting into place one by one. A wooden crossbow was assembled in his hands.

[Crossbow manufacturing: 19 → 20 (basic)]

The old craftsman from Huangshui Village who was waiting aside reached out to take it, inspected and adjusted it carefully, and then handed it back with a sigh:

"There is nothing wrong with the workmanship... Mr. Lu, you learn really fast."

"After all, I'm not a beginner." Lu Meng said casually, looking at the wooden crossbow and polishing off the rough parts with sandpaper.

When he was at the hub, he had already become a disciple of Lei Bai. He systematically learned the crossbow manufacturing technology from the leader of the Lang Ninja Group, and got started in a very short time.

After that, I just didn’t have the opportunity and venue to practice.

Back in Huangshui Village, Lu Meng knew that there were old craftsmen with crossbows passed down from generation to generation among the swamp people, so he came over to ask for advice and draw parallels.

Fortunately, the swamp is chaotic and disorderly, so even if you make private crossbows, no one will care about you - and large quantities of crossbows are the fastest way to arm an ordinary village.

"Mr. Lu is being humble." The old craftsman twirled his beard and shook his head.

Even if the opponent is not a beginner, his talent is beyond people's imagination.

The old craftsmen all saw it.

In just a few days, this person's level at the beginning could only be regarded as an ordinary apprentice - but if he was really an apprentice in the village, now he could hand over the inherited mantle to him. From now on, there is no need to worry about the whereabouts of hunting equipment in the village.

The old craftsman knows that this is just a thought.

With the other party's status, it would be considered condescending to come here to experience life. How could you come to take up his mantle?

In contrast, the young people of this generation in Huangshui Village are all clumsy. They haven't found a serious successor yet, and they are worried.

It's a pity that the little guys didn't seem heartless and didn't understand his worries at all.

At this moment, they were swirling around the newly made wooden crossbow.

"Mr. Lu, Mr. Lu!" A young man said excitedly, holding a wooden crossbow, "Can you give me this crossbow?"

Before he finished speaking, another young villager approached him from behind, snatched the small crossbow from his hand, and joked: "As for your stinky archery skills that can't even be aimed with a rabbit's eye, it would be a waste to give it to you... It's better to Give it to me."

Suddenly, the hands of the villager who had just spoken were empty again.

"If you ask me, both of you are bad at archery."

"Hey! Ah Li, you don't have martial ethics..."

A petite girl flashed through the gap between the spectators, proudly raising the wooden crossbow in her hand, and looked at Lu Meng, the anticipation in her eyes was self-evident.

Lu Meng: "It's not a good thing...it's okay, just take it if you want."

This was originally his training work, and it could be regarded as the village's standard wooden crossbow.

In addition, it is a new product and has not been used by crossbowmen yet. Generally speaking, it cannot compare with the crossbow tools they are used to.

Lu Meng wanted to confess that this was not a good crossbow, but considering that the old craftsman was around, the one he used was also his standard. Such words were suspected of belittling the opponent's craft inheritance in person, so he immediately changed his tune.

The old craftsman on the side didn't notice anything was wrong.

Seeing the boys and girls fighting for it, he was a little relieved. Unexpectedly, the younger generation was still very enthusiastic and scrambled to contribute to the village. These are good crossbowmen.

He didn't know that young people were interested simply because it was produced by Mr. Lu.

Like most people in the village, people like the old craftsman are not interested in legendary figures like 'Mr. Lu', thinking that it is just a popular story among a few good-hearted young people.

——But now, this person actually appeared in front of them and replaced the Stone Rat Group as the 'master' and protector of Huangshui Village. They couldn't help but disrespect him.

While the old craftsman was still sighing, Lu Meng beside him stopped him and took out a drawing from his arms:

"Master, I would also like to ask your help to see... can we in Huangshui Village make this kind of crossbow?"

"Don't dare." The old man quickly took it and looked at it carefully.

This is an external engineering drawing, and the marking styles are universal.

Although their swamp village was isolated from the world, they were not primitive savages when they were first established. The things left by their ancestors were also in the same format, and they didn't look unfamiliar.

"Well..." The old craftsman's brows wrinkled and relaxed.

"From a structural point of view, Mr. Lu, if your crossbow can be built, its strength, accuracy and range will be much better than our toothpick crossbow, but..." He considered his tone: "But it must meet its design Due to its strength, even if it uses the best yellow pear wood in our village, it will break after just a few arrows."

The old craftsman actually said it very euphemistically.

Even if he makes crossbows on weekdays, he can't use the wood just mentioned. The hunter in the village would have to go into the dense forest and carefully select to find a few trees. The energy spent would not be worth the loss.

Judging from his many years of experience in making bows and crossbows, this blueprint is a bit too ideal.

"What if it's made of steel?" Lu Meng suddenly asked.

"Steel?" The old craftsman was stunned.

Of course, using steel can significantly increase the pressure-bearing strength of the crossbow, but compared to wood, metal is more rare here.

Think about the ancestral hall in the village. The roof has been rusting for many years, but it is still a rare metal shack.

The only iron tools in the village were made into farm tools and used first for production. With the surplus, the entire village can produce more than a dozen steel knives and arm a guard force.

Not to mention being used to make precision components like crossbows, which also require molds and smelting.

"I will find a way to solve the steel problem." Lu Meng knew the other party's concerns and smiled, "I just want to know, if there are sufficient raw materials, how many such crossbows can our village produce in a month?"

In this case, the old craftsman said bluntly: "With other craftsmen, apprentices, and some old hunters who have their own craftsmanship... we can replace all the crossbowmen in our village with this kind of crossbow in one month."

"That's enough." Lu Meng nodded.

The old craftsman did not take into account the stage of learning drawings and experiments, and the actual output would not be so high... But he also did not count Lu Meng.

If Lu Meng turns on the "rapid manufacturing" module, one person can be used by three people, and he is still a skilled worker.

There will definitely be a surplus in the end.

There are two ten-man teams of crossbowmen in the village. If there are more, they will be made in a short time and no one will use them - the new crossbowmen in training may not be able to keep up with the excitement.

This kind of crossbow is not some black technology, but a military crossbow blueprint obtained from Lei Bai, a cheap teacher. Due to the materials and technical blockade, it has not become popular in the swamp. Only some major factions have armed a group of gangs through smuggling and other means, especially the Hound Gang in Shark Village.

The wooden toothpick crossbows that swamp people usually use are mostly used for hunting, and the strength of the crossbow is not high.

But it would be difficult to meet the gang members wearing leather armor for protection.

Of course, correspondingly, in the swamp environment, the performance of the military crossbow in the jungle is not good, and it can only be used in open towns.

While Lu Meng and the old craftsman were discussing technical details, a caravan mercenary dressed as a swamp ninja came to the door.

The old craftsman voluntarily stepped back and gave way to his position.

The human mercenary leaned close to Lu Meng's ear and whispered:

"Leader Lu, the man named Dr. Zhong is looking for you."