Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 815 Generation Gap! Do you even know what a generation gap is?!
Emperor Jingtai didn't want to continue talking to this sharp-tongued and slick brat. He found it hard to believe that someone like Xia Lin, who embodied the meaning of integrity so perfectly, could have taught such a two-faced person.

Xia Lin, however, kept smiling as he looked at Zhang Jianzhi. He knew that the boy was just talking nonsense because he had guessed the identity of Emperor Jingtai.

However, his words and phrases were consistent with his slick nature. But as slick as he was, when it came to whether he was courageous or not, he was incredibly courageous. You must know that the Shenlong Incident was one of the three major turning points of the Li Tang Dynasty. Without the Shenlong Incident, the Li Tang Dynasty would have ended after three generations and been replaced by the Wu Zhou Dynasty. Even though he was eventually persecuted by the Wu family and died in anger, he was still a person who left a strong mark on history.

However, it seems unlikely that Wu Zetian will become emperor now. She should have entered the palace as a concubine at fourteen, but instead, she spends all her time with Xia Lin's son. Although the terrifying power of time and space has ultimately entangled her with Li Zhi, Li Zhi is not the same Li Zhi, and the Tang Dynasty is not the same Tang Dynasty. After all, the Zhenguan Emperor is now a pirate king, defeating the Japanese invaders with overwhelming force. He famously fought the Battle of Abushan with only 800 men against 7,200, achieving a complete victory. He also famously destroyed the enemy palace with only 80 men in the Battle of Nagaoka, and in the Battle of Heian-kyo, he annihilated the country with just three ships, defeating the emperor and his entire family of thirteen amidst a thousand troops with only sixteen horsemen.

In any case, although Li Shimin was brave in battles within the country, he always encountered opponents like Liu Heita who could hold his own against him and even defeat him so badly that he would overturn the table and slam the table. However, when Li Shimin led troops into battle abroad, his casualty ratio was comparable to that of Qi Jiguang.

The latest news about Li Shimin is that he wrote a letter saying that his advance fleet discovered a large island south of Nanyang. He had nothing better to do than go and take a look. He warned Xia Lin not to take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Chang'an, otherwise he would join forces with the Thirty-Eight Families at sea to launch a surprise attack on Xia Lin.

As for which very large island he went to, nobody knows. In any case, apart from a few escort ships protecting merchant ships that were selling Japanese slaves, the rest of the Invincible Fleet's main warships have all followed Li Shimin south.

However, judging from the dates, Xia Lin felt that this bastard had discovered Australia...

Li Shimin went to become the Pirate King at this crucial juncture, so what will happen to Wu Zetian later... she will most likely become the Crown Princess of the Li Tang Dynasty.

In terms of background, Wu Zetian was not bad, and now she also had the connection with Xia Lin. In terms of ability, she was originally an extremely intelligent person. Now that she no longer needed to maneuver in the palace, she put all her brainpower into all sorts of strange places, such as rubbing off those who had bullied her in the past, and playing dumb to deceive others at various pretentious literary gatherings. Overall, it was very much in line with what people her age would do.

Back to Zhang Jianzhi, perhaps it was fate's way of getting to him, but he couldn't stand Xiao Wu. He would secretly tell Xia Lin that Xiao Wu had a demonic aura that was frightening.

Now that his sister is about to become the Crown Princess of Wei, it's likely that these two from the same family will have quite a bit of fighting in the future.

"Your Majesty, Commander-in-Chief."

At this moment, a general, holding the sword at his waist, strode over and said, "This humble servant is late. Please forgive me, Your Majesty and Commander."

"It's alright, it's not a military order." Xia Lin waved his hand: "Have you prepared the formation I asked you to prepare?"

"Everything is ready. Your Majesty and the Commander-in-Chief, please proceed to the drill ground."

Emperor Jingtai looked at Xia Lin with surprise: "What are you up to this time?"

"You'll know when you go there."

"Hey..." Emperor Jingtai pointed at Xia Lin: "You're really like a narcissus that doesn't bloom, all you do is pretend."

"Walk and walk, where the hell did you learn all this from?"

Pulled and dragged by Xia Lin to the training ground, Emperor Jingtai stood there without seeing anything interesting, so he asked curiously, "Did you ask me to come for a walk?"

Xia Lin didn't answer, but waved his hand behind him. Then, three cows slowly walked out, pulling a cart behind them. On the cart was something covered with a red cloth, which aroused people's curiosity.

"What is this?"

"Go up and take a look, and you'll find out."

Emperor Jingtai, filled with curiosity, tore off the red cloth, revealing twelve neatly arranged empty tubes, each with a base. Inside each tube were objects resembling cannonballs.

"What is this? A cannon?"

"Yes, cannon."

"Tch..." Emperor Jingtai scoffed, "What's so special about that? Don't think you're some kind of genius. The artisans in the capital have already improved your broken cannon to the seventh generation."

"Oh?" Xia Lin's eyes darted around, then he patted the twelve-tube rocket launcher in front of him: "This thing also has a name: the Annan Happy Cannon."

"Why? What does it have to do with Annam?"

Xia Lin remained silent, only instructing his men to set up the rocket launcher and aim it towards the firing range. "Trying to create a spectacle with fireworks, is that it?" Emperor Jingtai, arms crossed, still looked disdainful. "This tiny thing, you're aiming at the firing range from here? The firing range is at least thirteen or fourteen li away, isn't it?"

Hearing him speak, Xia Lin was too lazy to refute him. He simply gestured for the carriage outside to enter. Emperor Jingtai lifted the curtain and climbed into the carriage, muttering, "You really have a disease where you'll die if you don't pretend."

Even so, he still followed Xia Lin to the firing range. After the soldiers at the firing range settled them in a safe area, a signal flare that could make the whole sky as bright as day was suddenly fired from a hilltop about two miles away.

As the signal flare soared into the sky, Emperor Jingtai stared through his binoculars for a long time, muttering, "Hey, my eyes are almost blinded, but I still can't see anything..."

As he was speaking, several meteors flew across the sky, their sparks stretching long in the air. Then, one after another, they exploded into flames on the hilltop that had been used as a target. These mere dozen or so flames even created patches of mud and debris. The thunderous roar could be heard even two miles away, leaving people speechless.

Emperor Jingtai nearly threw his telescope away upon seeing this, but he calmed down in the next moment and turned his head to ask, "Is this the strange-looking cannon from earlier?"

"Exactly."

Xia Lin's appearance was flamboyant. He was waiting for Emperor Jingtai to be so shocked that he would prostrate himself in awe. Then, with an uneasy heart, he grabbed Xia Lin's arm with a fearful look and said, "Master Wolong, can this plan bring the Han dynasty back from the dead?"

But after waiting for so long, all he got was Emperor Jingtai's reply: "Nothing special. Back when I used heavy cannons to bombard the Turkic cavalry, that was truly exhilarating. This thing is far inferior to those heavy cannons in every way. Its power is less, its range is slightly less, and it's even less aesthetically pleasing."

"I don't know."

Xia Lin rolled his eyes dramatically: "Come on, brothers. Let's show our inexperienced Emperor what true terror is. Everyone, get to work! Don't embarrass me in front of him!"

Soon, the soldiers on the firing range ran down, and then a dozen soldiers came over carrying cannon barrels on their backs.

Emperor Jingtai looked at the soldiers' attire and said, "What's this? Oh! You've dismantled the cannons, right? Not bad, not bad. This idea is indeed good. Breaking up the cannons will increase our mobility."

Born into a family of horsemen, he was completely ignorant of poetry and literature, despite his fondness for them. He claimed to dislike swords and spears, yet he was naturally adept at them. What would take others a long time to process, he could understand at a glance. It could be said that if he hadn't insisted on being a scholar-general, his military expertise would have been extraordinary.

But everyone has their own destiny, and some things are truly inexplicable.

"You think that's all?"

Xia Lin smiled coldly, pointed his hand, and the dozen or so soldiers carrying cannons put down their cannons, placed some pieces of wood on them as padding, and then took out cannonballs from the cloth bags on their other shoulders and assembled them neatly. Then, they pointed downwards with torches, and the thing actually flew out. Immediately afterward, another round of artillery fire blew in...

But that wasn't all. They then simply threw the cannon barrel aside, took the individual shells from the vehicle, laid them out on the ground, adjusted the angle slightly, and finally gave them a bang with a hammer. Surprisingly, the shells flew out with a whoosh.

In a short time, three rounds of firepower covered the hilltop, and bright red flames bloomed like lotus flowers...

"Good guy!"

Emperor Jingtai's eyes lit up immediately, because he understood all too well what this thing represented.

Xia Lin then demonstrated to him various uses of this thing, including a single soldier firing a hundred cannons simultaneously.
It is a single-barrel, portable, detachable, rackless, easy-to-manufacture, robust, easy-to-operate, low-requirement, powerful, deterrent, and versatile ammunition type. Most importantly, it is inexpensive and readily available.

This thing is simply a game-changer, a pure military game-changer. No wonder he smiled and even offered to sell cannons in large quantities when it was said that both the Northern Han and the Tang Dynasty were copying cannons.

The key point is this: other people's cannons are already quite impressive if they can hit ten miles, but this can hit several miles more than others, and it is so light and compact. If the scouts were equipped with this, dozens of fast horses could each carry two of these things, and they could destroy them as soon as they are spotted. The enemy might still be cooking when they are suddenly hit by a barrage of meteors.

The most terrifying thing is that after the enemy is hit by the Meteor Shower, they don't know which direction to look for the person. This is simply terrifying. Any army equipped with this would be considered a top-notch force.

"Is this production capacity acceptable?"

“The formula isn’t difficult; it’s just that the primer process has been changed, and an accelerant has been added,” Xia Lin said. “It will be faster, making it harder for them to dodge. If you factor in their deployment time, they could have fought more than a dozen rounds in half an hour. I don’t know how they’ll survive.”

Emperor Jingtai squatted there studying the launching principle of this thing, and the more he thought about it, the more ingenious it seemed. If such a thing could cover a large area of ​​the battlefield, what would be the point of fighting? They could just sit there and wait to die.

(End of this chapter)