Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 185

The clothes are wet with apricot blossom rain, and the face is not cold with willow wind.

In the spring, there was a light rain on the girders, and the water in Bian began to rise. Not only the Crane Army, but also the Yulang Army were expanding the army. Busy training also started there.

Fortunately, many people were prisoners of the Southern Tang Dynasty and joined the Zhou army, and not all of them started training as recruits, so the training of the Yulang army was much easier.

There are more and more fleets and soldiers coming and going on the Bian River. People passing by can see it, and everyone feels that there will be a big move next.

At the end of February, Feng Jisheng had prepared the first batch of gunpowder in three different proportions according to Shi Congyun's request. Shi Congyun excitedly wanted to go to the river to test the power, but it was delayed because of the continuous light rain.

This is also a weakness of the early gunpowder, which is restricted by the weather.

But Shi Congyun is very optimistic about the prospect of gunpowder, because the world is in chaos at this time, and there will be wars to be fought in the future. As long as there are wars, the progress of military technology will far exceed that in peacetime.

Everything has two sides.

War is not only the destroyer of human civilization, but also the biggest driving force for technological progress.

Because war is a "place of death and life", if you lose, you will lose everything. Therefore, under the pressure of a huge war, the more urgent people want to win, they will ignore the investment and stimulate their potential to develop anything that helps to win. .

The most obvious is the Southern Song Dynasty. By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, the popularity of firearms had developed to a point beyond the understanding of ordinary people.At that time, the Mongol Empire stretched from the Sea of ​​Japan in the east to Vienna (now the capital of Austria) in the west. After suffering a lot of defeats and dying a profuse sweat, the Southern Song Dynasty was finally destroyed, in which gunpowder played a big role.

If you can't fight normally and are forced to a dead end, then you start to think of ways, and the power of gunpowder is also reflected.

According to Li Zengbo, Minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, in Baoyou’s five-year investigation report on the weapons storage in Jingjiang (now Guilin, Guangxi), there are more than 1000 iron cannons in Jinghuai, and Jiangling Mansion can manufacture 2000 to [-] iron cannons every month.

According to the "Jingding Jiankang Chronicles", Jiankang Mansion (now south of Jiangning County, Jiangsu Province) can "create and repair 750 pieces of fire attack equipment" in two and three months.

It is this huge base of gunpowder weapons that enabled the Southern Song Dynasty to resist the Mongolian Empire, which was much stronger than itself, for more than 40 years.

However, the firearms of this period as a whole are in a state of combination of cold and heat.

Probably because of the limitations of thinking, or the limitations of gunpowder power and casting technology, most of the time people think of using the impact of gunpowder explosion, light, heat and sound to kill the enemy, rather than thinking about transforming the energy of the explosion Kill enemies for kinetic energy.

The Song Dynasty also had gunpowder kinetic energy weapons, the musket, which is the earliest musket in the world. It can be said to be the ancestor of the musket, but its power is not ideal.

Why is it not ideal, airtightness may be one of the reasons
However, Shi Congyun also saw a big problem from the gunpowder formula Feng Jisheng wrote down for him.

He took the formula paper sent by Feng Jisheng, read it while reading it, while Zhao Shijian was in charge of copying it, and wanted to put it back into his "file".

"The Gunpowder Law:

sulfur"

As he said, Zhao Shijian recorded it seriously.

There are some things he knows and some things he doesn't know.

After reading it, I couldn't help complaining. It's no wonder that the gunpowder in this period will be less powerful and the production capacity will not increase.

Some he can understand, such as turpentine and tung oil.

After all, the flame nitrate and sulfur at this time are mined from nature, they are not pure, and it is difficult to fully burn with impurities, so flammable materials such as turpentine and tung oil are used to promote their full combustion.

And Zhuru is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine. Do you want to study medicine?
And what are the ashes, soliciting business for the Taoist temple?

Do you add some arsenic to blow up and poison the enemy?

Yuanshui is the favorite mercury of Taoists, and cinnabar is also the favorite of Taoists for alchemy, but adding this thing to gunpowder is completely metaphysical, which makes people puzzled and unreasonable.

In this way, it is a trivial matter that many impurities affect the power of gunpowder. The key is that the ingredients are complicated and the process is complicated, which means that mass production is difficult!

At this time, there was no scientific thinking, so Taoist priests and high-ranking officials of the Ministry of War probably felt that the more complex, mysterious, and exotic the formula, the better.

The rarity is the most precious, and it also gives people the feeling of being tall. The mysterious Yuanshui, the ashes in the incense burner, the cinnabar, and some traditional Chinese medicine are very compelling.
But from Shi Congyun's point of view, it is meaningless if things for war cannot be mass-produced!
This formula, let alone the power, is simply a nightmare in the production room.

Over there, Zhao Shijian finished transcribing the ink, and clamped it to the window with wooden clips to dry the ink.

After that, I will pack it up for him and put it in the cabinet at the back of the house. Every time he has a sudden thought or remembers something, he will write it down like this and save it later. He is afraid that he will forget it when he gets excited.

Shi Congyun looked at this complicated formula and shook his head. Specifically, he still planned to wait until after the experiment to read the follow-up.

What he asked to keep was flame nitrate, sulfur and charcoal powder, and other messy things, but he didn't dare to take it for granted, and waited until the time to see it.

After a while, the handwriting was dry. Zhao Shijian touched it with his hand and found that the ink was not lost. Then he carefully put the paper in the cabinet behind him and covered it with a thick flat stone slab.

Only then did he turn around and ask him, "Do you even understand Taoist gunpowder?"

"That is, there is nothing in the world that I don't understand." Shi Congyun was proud.

Zhao Shijian didn't refute him this time, but sat down in front of him, and said with some concern: "I don't understand that either, but I always feel that you can't be addicted to seeking immortality. Who can tell whether such ethereal things are a blessing or a curse? Woolen cloth."

Shi Congyun was taken aback for a moment, then laughed loudly, stretched out his hand and pulled the little girl to his lap: "You don't think I want to cultivate immortality, what are you thinking about.

There is such a beautiful daughter-in-law in the family, and there is endless money to spend, even if I ask my father to cultivate immortals, what we do is not less happier than immortals. "

A few words made Zhao Shijian's face flushed, he lightly squeezed the soft flesh around his waist, and then asked: "Then why do you learn these things, maybe you want to use them in war."

Shi Congyun nodded, "This thing is very useful, but they like to engage in metaphysics, so these things are messy and need to be rearranged and experimented."

Zhao Shijian sat quietly on his lap and listened to him.

"The officials are going to let me fight Nanping and Wuping. The battle may not be as difficult as Huainan, but I am still nervous. No one can say for sure about wars." Shi Congyun said with emotion.

"Although your husband and I have won consecutive battles and are invincible in the world, that is known to everyone, but now everyone does not know my reputation.

But now I can’t feel happy, instead I’m getting more and more nervous, I don’t know why, I always feel that I used to do things by feeling, but now I have to go through my brain three times before doing things.”

This feeling is indeed very strange. Logically speaking, according to the laws of history, people with such feats of consecutive victories should become more and more drifting. Most people in history are like that, but now he actually I found that I couldn't float even more, but became more nervous.

Could it be the sequelae of reading too many history books?
In any case, he is more nervous and careful now.

"Isn't that a good thing? People value self-examination, and many people can't see their own limitations." Zhao Shijian slowly leaned on his chest and said.

Shi Congyun relaxed and said casually, "This is also true. Admitting that one is inferior to others and admitting one's limited ability is the fundamental psychological basis for uniting and employing others."

"Well, but in my heart, you will always be the most powerful." Zhao Shijian said in a low voice.

Seeing his charming wife, beautiful as jade, shy and cute, Shi Congyun suddenly became beastly: "Hey, that husband has given you a lot of insight!"

The two were about to have a good time, when the servant girl came in to report that someone was looking for him.

Shi Congyun was furious, and immediately said: "Whoever he is, let him go back! I'm doing something big."

Zhao Shijian grabbed him repeatedly, and pushed him out to meet people with a blushing face.

Shi Congyun was very upset, he went out to meet people with a dark face and drenched in the drizzle, but when he saw the person who came was actually Li Chuyun, when the wind blew, the sperm ran away, and most of the people were awake.

Lian smiled and asked Li Chuyun to come in and talk.

Li Chuyun's talent has already been demonstrated in the Huainan battlefield. He has experienced a lot, and his experience has taught him, so he can often say something that makes Shi Congyun feel fresh and new.

In the main hall, Shi Congyun served him tea directly. He had established a rule in the army that he could not drink alcohol when discussing matters.

Li Chuyun said directly: "The commander asked me to think about the fight against Nanping and Wuping before. I have some ideas and want to talk to the commander."

Although the Battle of Huainan was over, the veterans under his command still used to call him Marshal.

"Let's hear if you have any ideas." Shi Congyun became interested. Li Chuyun is a very measured person, so he wouldn't come to him just for something unimportant.

Li Chuyun said: "Commander, I think that if we fight Nanping and Wuping this time, it will be different from any previous battles."

"What's the difference?"

"In the past, when we fought against Khitan and Northern Han, it was a life-and-death battle. They wanted to take advantage of the new king's succession and kill me for a long time.

Fighting with Shu and Tang is to attack the city and seize the territory, and the other party also has the heart of defending the territory, even if they have lost consecutive battles, they are still struggling.

But now fighting Nanping and Wuping is a battle to destroy the country, and we must completely eradicate them! "

"You mean they will fight in the end?" Shi Congyun asked.
Li Chuyun shook his head: "Someone thinks they won't!

Marshal, their ideas are different from those of the Northern Han Dynasty. They have no deep hatred with us. The Caotou King Gao Baorong and Zhou Xingfeng of these two places have always been respectful to me.

So they are hesitant instead. Naturally, they can attack us with all their might, but what if they can't?

If you surrender directly, you can still maintain your prosperity and wealth, but if you lose the battle, you may die.

But if they were asked to surrender directly, hand over their territory and soldiers, and not be emperors, they would be reluctant, so they must be hesitant in their hearts, and the resistance would not be as fierce as that of Tang and Shu. "

Shi Congyun understood Li Chuyun's meaning, "It is very likely that there will be no bloodshed in this battle?"

"It's hard to say if the soldiers are not bloody, but in the past, the battle was based on force to make the opponent submit, but this time I feel that it is different from the previous ones. As long as the temptation of profit is the first, and the attack is supplemented, it will be easier. .”

Shi Congyun felt a little enlightened, and he didn't agree blindly, "What you said makes sense.

But I have to think about it carefully. I can't make a hasty conclusion on such a big matter, and I can't perfuse a dedicated person like you, so I have to calm down and think about it for a while. "

"Marshal Gao Yi." Li Chuyun also knew how to behave, and he was neither anxious nor dissatisfied.

Later, Li Chuyun pointed out: "The chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Tang capital, and many things were lost. We don't even have a detailed map (map) of Nanping and Wuping. Some people think that these things are necessary to fight."

"Do you have a solution?" Shi Congyun asked. Since Li Chuyun proposed it, he must have thought of a solution.

Li Chuyun nodded, "Marshal, you can send an envoy to find an excuse to go to Wuping and Nanping. When the time comes, I will follow him and pretend to be an escort, and write down the mountains, rivers and roads of the two places."

Li Chuyun showed that he really wanted to make contributions, and Shi Congyun also felt that this was a good way, and he knew that this matter could not be delayed. It was already the end of February, and if he sent troops in June, there was not much time left.

So he made a decision immediately, "Tomorrow I will go to the official and say, if the matter succeeds, you will be the first to do it!"

Li Chuyun said happily: "Thank you, Marshal, for supporting me!"

In the afternoon, Li Chuyun was kept for dinner, and then he was sent away. However, Li Chuyun was very touched by Li Chuyun's discussion on the fight against Nanping and Wuping that "attacking the mind is the first, attacking is supplemented by attacking, and using lures".

In the evening, he thought about Li Chuyun's words carefully again, and felt more and more reasonable.

Wuping and Nanping are not strong enough, and they have a good relationship with Dazhou. If surrendering can guarantee their wealth, if they fight a few more battles to frighten them, then maybe they really surrendered. .

But these are just taken for granted, and the specific situation will not be known until there, but Li Chuyun's suggestion is firmly in his mind.

The next day, Shi Congyun went to the palace to ask to see the officials, and explained the fact that they were going to fight without a map, and told Li Chuyun's strategy.

The officials also agree that it is very disadvantageous to fight without a map and not to know the local topography.

In the end, the officials thought about it for a while, and handed over the task to Hanlin Bachelor Lu Duoxun, who was an old acquaintance of Shi Congyun again.

Lu Duosun was also a courageous person after he was summoned. He didn't refuse after hearing what he said, and he agreed directly, which was equivalent to letting him be a scout as a scholar.

At the same time, Shi Congyun proposed to let Li Chuyun serve as his deputy, nominally to be the leader of the guards who escorted him, but in fact he followed to draw maps of the two places.

As for the reasons for the mission, there are too many reasons, so the official made up one casually, "Just say that I will reward them for their contribution to attacking Huainan, and their loyalty is commendable. matter."

The official words are very domineering. These two people did accept the princes conferred by Da Zhou, but they are only superficial relationships between monarchs and ministers, and they are not under the control of Da Zhou. They are still two independent regimes.

After this trip was arranged, Shi Congyun relaxed a lot.

So far, all the preparatory work he can think of to attack Hunan and Hubei has been basically completed. The more prepared he is, the less nervous he is.
(End of this chapter)