Demoness, Where Are You Fleeing To?

In a large military camp in the south of Beijing, guns and artillery fired in unison, and white gunpowder smoke filled the surrounding areas.

Li Xuan was inspecting here, and he felt that the strong smell of gunpowder smoke was extremely pungent.

However, with his level of cultivation, he can already adjust his five senses at will.

Li Xuan adjusted his sense of smell to the lowest level while thinking about when the smokeless gunpowder would be mass-produced.

The so-called 'smokeless gunpowder' is a type of gunpowder that was only invented in modern times. Its explosive power is generally two to three times that of black gunpowder, and it can burn quickly with almost no smoke.

This not only greatly increases the power of the musket, but also helps the soldiers aim and shoot.

Like the black powder they use now, often after a few rounds of shooting, the soldiers cannot clearly see the situation ahead...

They could only line up and fire volleys, forming a dense barrage. As for whether you can hit it or not, it all depends on God's will.

But if you switch to smokeless gunpowder, there will be no problem.

This thing is actually very simple to make.

Li Xuan has seen a popular science video before. He only needs to put a ball of good skimmed cotton into a 1:2 mixture of concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid. After soaking for twenty minutes, he takes out the cotton and washes it until it becomes neutral. When dried, it becomes nitrocellulose. Also known as collodion, it was the first generation of smokeless gunpowder.

This smokeless gunpowder has actually been made by Li Xuan. I wonder if it is a strange relationship in this world. It is very powerful, five times more powerful than black gunpowder.

But Li Xuan has not yet been able to mass-produce it. He does not know the large-scale preparation method of concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid.

Leng Yurou's expertise is in machinery and equipment, and she has a bad eye for chemistry.

Li Xuan had no choice but to hire several casual alchemists with high salaries to help him study this thing, but so far, no results have been produced.

There are actually better alchemists from Zhengyi Sect and Quanzhen Sect, but Li Xuan doesn't dare to use them.

Li Xuan naturally trusted Xue Yunrou, but he could not trust the entire Taoist sect.

Smokeless gunpowder is still very important. It can create guns with longer range and greater power. Li Xuan must firmly master the formula of smokeless gunpowder.

Just as Li Xuan was thinking about it, the young master Yu Jie beside him brushed his beard and said, "What do you think, His Highness the County Prince?"

Li Xuan came to his senses immediately. He glanced ahead and said with a smile: "The formation is neat and can change freely. In terms of battle formation, it is no less than the Shenji Camp! It can be seen that Master Shaofu is running the army well. Next, the Tenth Regiment Battalion can work more on the speed of reloading. If they want to form a field battle on the grassland, their rate of fire will be a little slower.

Then some cavalry troops will be transferred from the Three Thousand Battalion to let them experience the feeling of cavalry charging into battle. Also, try to let them practice their riding skills as much as possible. I do not require them to be able to ride into battle, but they must have the ability to march quickly on horseback. "

What he was inspecting at this time was not the Shenji Battalion, but the Tenth Regiment Battalion controlled by Young Master Yu Jie.

Two months ago, the Artifact Alliance delivered another 44,000 'Rune Flintlock Rifled Guns' and 320 'Field Smoothbore Cannons' to the imperial court.

At this time, all the guns and artillery of the Shenji Battalion were fully equipped, and these guns were allocated to the Tenth Regiment Battalion by the Ministry of War.

Young Master Yu Jie immediately equipped four full firearms regiment camps, and then practiced intensively.

He asked Li Xuan to come over today because he wanted Li Xuan to check and fill in the gaps for these four all-firearms regiment battalions.

After all, in today's world, Li Xuan is recognized as the great master of the art of war, the originator of all firearms warfare, and has great authority.

"Rate of fire?"

Yu Jie frowned: "I've asked them to practice hard, but they haven't been able to reach the target. I wonder if there is any secret?"

He also felt that the reloading speed of the Tenth Regiment Battalion was too slow. The reloading speed of only nine rounds per 100 breaths was far from the standard set by Li Xuan.

After Li Xuan heard this, he burst out laughing: "How can there be any secret? It's just that you can make perfect, live ammunition shooting. When our Shenji Battalion was practicing reloading, we would fire twenty rounds a day, and the Tenth Regiment Battalion would It only happens once every five days, right? Master Young Master, you still can’t bear to give up money.”

Yu Jie was thoughtful, thinking that the bullets were very valuable, and it would cost money to repair the rifling after it was worn.

But recently the imperial court has become rich, and very rich.

Yu Jie nodded slightly without caring, "I don't have to worry about it."

He then asked with a strange expression: "This time I invite Prince Fenyang to come over, but there is another matter. I heard that the Ministry of Industry's daily output of silver coins has reached 370,000, and the Ministry of Household's daily production of silver coins from the market Recover three hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver and one million catties of copper coins?"

Li Xuan looked at him sideways with some confusion: "Master Young Master, speak directly if you have anything to say."

Yu Jie really spoke frankly: "Yu believes that the imperial court may place an additional order for another 200,000 'Rune Flintlock Rifled Guns' and corresponding artillery."

Yu Jie certainly couldn't keep such a large arms purchase all to himself. But even if he only gets half of it, he can turn all his "Tenth Regiment Battalion" and "Fifth Army Battalion" into muskets.

He thought Li Xuan would definitely agree, but Li Xuan's facial muscles twitched slightly: "Two hundred thousand rods? That's 120 million taels. How can the court get this money now?"

"Why can't you get it out?" Yu Jie looked a little worried: "Ask the Ministry of Industry and the Internal Affairs Bureau to buy two more coin minting machines, and you can have as many silver coins as you want. You have collected so much copper, which can be used to mint Guns forge cannons.”

In this era, the best material for making guns and cannons was copper.

Although bronze is heavier than iron, it is not easy to rust, has good ductility, is not easy to explode, and is easy to process. The gun barrel can also be made thinner, significantly reducing weight.

Even the 'Rune Flintlock Rifled Guns' and 'Field Smoothbore Cannons' built by the Shenji Battalion are embedded with copper tires and wrapped with steel.

Of course, the bronze and iron they use are of special craftsmanship and formula.

Li Xuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry after hearing this. He thought to himself that the imperial court could print as many silver coins as it wanted, but it was my 'Artifact Alliance' that suffered the loss.

He was shooting himself in the foot. Starting from the New Year, the Ministry of Household Affairs began to use "silver dollars" to pay the bills of the Artifact Alliance.

The imperial court issued an edict stating that the Reform Silver Dollar should be worth one tael of silver, and the Artifact Alliance had to recognize it.

But Li Xuan was very evil when he originally set the fineness of the silver dollar. The silver dollar contained only 75% silver, and the other 25% was aluminum and copper.

Then when the Ministry of Finance paid the money to the Artifact Alliance, Li Xuan felt particularly awkward.

It felt like he had ripped off his own wool. He and Leng Yurou had to recognize it. If even the Artifact Alliance did not recognize the imperial court's silver dollar, then how could it possibly be possible for this silver dollar to circulate throughout the world?

However, Leng Yurou does not plan to take any more orders from the court in the short term. She plans to spend the tens of millions of 'silver dollars' in her hand first.

Otherwise, this business will be a loss no matter how you look at it.

What's more, Li Xuan has other uses for the current production capacity of the Artifact Alliance, and it is extremely urgent.

Li Xuan sighed: "Master Young Master, this is not how the accounts are settled. If Young Master has time, you may want to read the "Political Commentary" written by this king."

It is actually an ancient Chinese version of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," but Li Xuan did not copy it.

He believes that there are many things wrong with The Wealth of Nations and that it cannot be completely capitalist.

There are also some theories that are out of date in this era, or even shocking, so they are slightly modified in the words, or even omitted directly.

"If Mr. Shaofu understands this, you will know that this coin cannot be issued indiscriminately, otherwise the money will become less valuable. The reason why the Jin Dynasty treasure banknotes in the past were devalued to be worthless is because of the excessive printing and issuance by the imperial court. The depreciation of currency is not conducive to the issuance of new currency. In the end, the people will suffer."

Li Xuan's idea was to limit the imperial court's issuance of silver coins to 20 million yuan and aluminum coins of various values ​​to a total of about 40 million yuan within these three years, thus maintaining the people's hunger for new coins.

Although the imperial court had issued an edict stating that copper coins and silver coins would be abolished within three years, Li Xuan knew that it would be impossible to do so given the current transportation conditions in the Jin Dynasty.

This edict is just to create a sense of urgency among the people and help them issue new coins.

After three years, when the people adapt to the silver dollar and aluminum coins, the monetary system will be stable.

Young Master Yu Jie's face suddenly darkened slightly.

Naturally, he had read Li Xuan's "Political Commentary" and was amazed by Li Xuan's talent. He also knew that the excessive distribution of money would not be beneficial to the people of the world.

But firstly, he thought that with the size of the Artifact Alliance, he could fully absorb the money; secondly, there was a reason why he was so eager to fully arm the Tenth Regiment Battalion and the Fifth Army Battalion.

"I heard from Princess Jianguo that your Royal Highness thinks there will be a battle between the Mongols and our court this year?"

"There is such a thing."

Li Xuan looked indifferent: "Isn't this obvious? It's freezing this year. If the Mongols don't go south, it will be a very sad day. I endured the first year, but I can't bear the second year. If he doesn't come, The Great Khan of Wala cannot sit firmly in his seat."

First of all, the Great Khan of Wala, the Mongolian National Preceptor, was actually a little stronger than the leader of the tribe.

This person's strategic decisions must take public opinion into account to a large extent.

When tribes of all sizes on the grassland have the idea of ​​going south to grab a wave, no matter how reluctant they are at first, they must comply with their ideas.

"What's more, if he can't win another great victory like Tumubao, how can he rebuild his prestige and help him usurp the throne and become the Great Khan of the entire Mongolian Empire?

I heard that after returning to the grassland in April last year, there has been no new Mongol Khan, and the governance of the two Tatar and Wala tribes has been decided by him. But after all, this is not justified, and many people in the grassland are dissatisfied. "

Yu Jie couldn't help but nodded slightly. He agreed with Li Xuan's judgment.

Although Li Xuan had a great victory over Mengwu a year ago, he escaped alive. But those who participated in this battle at that time were basically the Tatar tribe and the three guards of Duoyan.

Those Oara tribes were not very convinced. They believed that the victory of the Jin people was more due to the stupidity of Tuotuo Buhua, the great khan, and the Jin people's trickery.

These Wala people have not yet experienced the power of full musket warfare.

"According to Yu Mou's guess, this must be an unprecedented war, and it will definitely be fully mobilized, and the scale will be far greater than last year's Battle of Datong. But he must be familiar with the art of war, and he will never fight a decisive battle with our army. The main goal must be to invade from all sides and force me to divide our troops."

Yu Jie looked grim: "If we don't have 300,000 musketeers, how can we protect so many new guard posts outside the city wall, as well as the herdsmen who have defected to our government?"

If the Jin Dynasty was only defensive in this battle, then the Great Wall should be safe and sound.

But the situation outside the Great Wall will return to that of a year ago.

Yu Jie had no choice but to accept the newly restored land of the Jin Dynasty and lose it from his hands.

"So I asked the Shenji Battalion and the Tenth Regiment Battalion to practice riding skills, preparing to use them as mounted infantry. By then, their mobility should not be inferior to the Mengwu Iron Cavalry."

Li Xuan thought for a while and felt that these words were not enough to convince Yu Jie.

So he retreated to the left and right again, letting everyone retreat fifty feet away.

Li Xuan then took out an artifact: "What a coincidence, I was just asking the Ministry of War to place an order with the Ordnance Supervision and Internal Arms Bureau to customize this kind of firearm."

After Yu Jie took it, he looked at it carefully and then became confused.

The gun Li Xuan took out was very short, less than the length of a human forearm, and there was a strange wheel in front of the gun handle.

While Yu Jie was studying it carefully, Li Xuan's lips slightly raised and he said, "I call it a revolver. The effective range of this gun against the second martial artist is less than ten feet, but it can fire continuously in an instant." Six guns. Its price is much cheaper, UU Reading www.uukanshu.net only costs eighty taels of silver."

Since the gun body is shorter and does not require an effective range of several hundred feet, the cost is much cheaper.

And the manufacturing process is much simpler. It can be made by the Armory Supervisor and the Internal Weapon Staff Bureau, but the materials for making the gun must be obtained from the Artifact Alliance.

A bright color appeared in Yu Jie's pupils. He did not believe Li Xuan's words. Instead, he loaded the ammunition one by one and walked to the shooting range to test it himself.

Just after six consecutive gunshots were fired from Yu Jie's hand, the current young master looked at Li Xuan with a surprised look on his face: "How many orders are you planning to place?"

"One hundred and fifty thousand!"

Li Xuan compared a number: "Twelve million silver dollars are needed. I think this number is more acceptable to the court officials."

Yu Jie understood in his heart that these 150,000 revolvers could just equip the 30,000 cavalry troops of the "Three Thousand Battalions", as well as the 120,000 cavalry troops of the Northern Zhili, Datong, and Jizhou Guards.

"Too few!" Young Master Yu Jie shook his head: "Just set it at 250,000! Yu thought that the Shenji Battalion and the Tenth Regiment Battalion could also equip some!"

He believed that this kind of revolver was not only suitable for mounted combat, but also especially suitable for close range infantry combat.

Li Xuan looked a little strange, even though he had left the business to the Arms Supervisor and the Internal Weapon Staff Bureau.

But the problem is that the key materials for this revolver still have to be provided by the Artifact Alliance.

Yu Jie seems to have made up his mind and will not give in anymore, but how should he deceive Leng Yurou and his sister-in-law about the tens of millions of silver coins with a fineness of 75%?

Li Xuan thought about the tens of millions of taels of silver in his hand again, and couldn't help but sigh secretly.

I thought to myself that being selfless for the country and the people to this extent is really rare in the world.

Now he just wants to do his best to stabilize prices. As long as prices do not fall, the actual value of this money will not shrink.