Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

In the Northern Han Dynasty court in Jinyang, there are many people who have written a letter discussing that the Great Zhou Dynasty will attack the Northern Han Dynasty. People used various signs as evidence, and some said that the main attack direction of Zhou Jun had turned to the north. It is also said that Da Zhou did not take back the military power of the generals of the Forbidden Army, but just wanted to continue to use force.

In short, after the Great Zhou successively annexed large tracts of land in Shu, Southern Tang, Nanping, Wuping, etc., it is now a superpower in the south, and its national strength and population have already appeared to compete with Daliao; in contrast, the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty is really too small... The territory is too small, people, food, money, and materials are all scarce, and cannot support large-scale long-term wars. Moreover, the Great Zhou Emperor Guo Blacksmith was a pure martial artist with a great reputation.

Liu Jun, the lord of the Northern Han Dynasty, faced a great threat of force and could hardly sleep or eat.

The ministers wanted to share the worries of the sovereign. Someone suggested to talk to Da Zhou Guo, but after all, even Liu Jun himself felt that there was no way to talk.

The grievances between Hedong and the Central Plains are too deep; the grievances between Northern Han and Zhou are also too deep. Zhou Taizu Guo Wei rebelled and wiped out the (later) Han Dynasty; and the founding emperor of the Northern Han Dynasty was the younger brother of the (later) Han Gaozu. The Northern Han Dynasty claimed to be the "emperor nephew" to Daliao and sought asylum from the Liao Kingdom, and the camp they stood in was completely hostile. Plus there are more old grudges: the Battle of Gaoping when Chai Rong came to the throne, the Northern Han Kingdom has always supported the hostilities of Shu, Southern Tang, etc....and the hatred of fighting between the two sides for many years.

Sometimes, for the benefit of the two countries, even the enemy country can talk. However, it is true that some countries cannot discuss the relationship between the Northern Han Dynasty and the Great Zhou Dynasty. Only by fighting...

So some ministers suggested that Zhao Kuangyin be reused, thinking that Zhao Kuangyin was a good general and was familiar with Zhou's military politics and tactics. But Liu Jun quickly refused, saying that the Northern Han Dynasty did not lack good generals, such as "Yang Wudi" (Yang Ye), who were all one-in-a-million battlefield fighters... In fact, Liu Jun did not fully trust Yang Ye, because Yang Ye's younger brother served as a defensive envoy in the Great Zhou Dynasty;

But Liu Jun believes that Zhao Kuangyin is more difficult to control than Yang Ye because: Yang Ye is a pure general, and Zhao Kuangyin is like Guo Shao. Liu Jun really didn't want to see Zhao Kuangyin gain power in the Northern Han Dynasty.

Although Liu Jun was worried, he hadn't reached the point of burning his eyebrows... After all, whether Zhou Jun would use troops against the Northern Han Dynasty was still in the speculation stage. There was no sign inside or outside Tokyo that Zhou Jun was mobilizing troops and horses to prepare for military use.

...Besides, although the Northern Han Kingdom is small and strong, it is not a country that is easy to bully. Liu Jun was busy trying to find a way to prepare his armaments. When he heard that Zhao Kuangyin's men had captured the armor-making craftsman, he sent someone to take over the captives and take charge of the matter.

Liu Jun had seen that kind of armor with his own eyes, so he paid special attention to this matter, and the person he sent was Li Xin, a member of the Privy Council.

Li Xin was a very capable civil servant. When he met the captives, he knew that the craftsman surnamed Lu had no goods in his stomach. He didn't even have a name.

Li Xinxin let out a "thud" in his heart, knowing that this task was going to be difficult. If a person has something hidden in his stomach, as long as he falls into his hand, there are a hundred ways to make him spit it out; but if that person has nothing in his stomach, how can he spit it out?

"It's about Li's residence, do we want to bring torture tools in?" asked a subordinate official.

Lu Da's body trembled when he heard it, and his face turned pale.

Li Xin raised his head slightly, his bright eyes swept across Lu Da's face, and said, "Not for now."

"Here." The subordinate staff responded with cupped fists.

Li Xin unhurriedly flipped through the file in his hand, and read the things about this person recorded on it. In order to save his life, Lu Da betrayed a Fangtou of Jiafang, surnamed Sun, and killed the whole family of that Fangtou... Seeing this, Li Xin thought of Lu Da's expression just now, and he was convinced in his heart that this person was not a hard-headed person.

"Is the death of Sun Fangtou's family related to you?" Li Xin asked, his tone not vicious.

Lu wailed and nodded. The servant next to him scolded: "No long mouth?" Lu Da hurriedly replied: "Yes, it's about..."

Li Xin turned his head and glanced at Chief Xu, who was too busy to speak. Li Xin said again: "If you flee back to Zhou State now, will the government want to settle accounts with you?"

Lu Dao: "Yes."

Li Xin beckoned: "Take off his shackles."

Lu is very busy to thank Dade, thank you so much.

Li Xin said again: "You stay here for the time being. Now think about what you saw in the armor workshop. As long as what you said is useful, you will have food and water today. Do you understand?"

Lu Da hurriedly nodded, thought for a while, and gestured: "A big hammer, iron! Bang Bang Bang..."

Li Xin frowned, but still picked up a pen to record it.

Lu Da reached out and rubbed his temples, thinking hard: "There is such a big one, it weighs at least a few thousand catties! The iron chain is pulled up and down again, and there is an anvil underneath...the armor is hammered out from below!"

Li Xin asked, "How many thousand catties, nine thousand, three thousand?"

"Two or three thousand catties, or one or two thousand catties? Anyway, it's heavy!" Lu Da frowned.

Li Xin asked, "Do you remember anything?"

Lu Daedao: "There are wheels on the wall, and iron chains lead to the next door. I have never been to the next door..."

Li Xin nodded, didn't ask any more questions, and said, "You two just watch, and I'll give him water later." After saying that, he got up and left, walked to the door, and ordered his subordinates: "Go and hire some blacksmiths first."

...

"Drive!" Guo Shao yelled, carrying a Futou, and led a group of people to ride horses in the Imperial City Beiyuan. A city wall appeared ahead at the end of the meadow.

It seemed to be a small city there, with brick-clad walls and wall stacks built on top of it, but the city walls did not consider the military defense function, and were relatively thin and short. It was the experimental workshop set up by the Military Weapons Supervision. Now Guo Shao has done a good job of keeping secrets. This small city has only one gate, which is almost isolated from the outside; moreover, the small city itself is within the walls of the imperial city, and it is even more difficult to contact the outside world.

Moreover, the world has no place to know about it. The only people who know about it are the Military Weapons Supervision and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

This place is now developing firearms according to Guo Shao's wishes.

The firearm has been tested for the first time, and the military supervisor Zan Jurun wrote a memorial today, but Guo Shao was not very satisfied... It’s not that Zan Jurun was not capable enough, or the article was not well written, but actually the memorial was very beautiful and detailed; but it always lacked strict logic.

So Guo Shao decided to take a trip to see the situation himself.

As soon as you enter, there are some temporarily built houses, which are the living quarters of the craftsmen, and then you enter another door, and you arrive at the workshop area soon after. There are all kinds of tools, iron materials, charcoal, and bellows used by blacksmiths inside. Guo Shao felt a sense of familiarity and intimacy when he arrived.

A group of dozens of people knelt down on the ground and shouted: "Your Majesty will live forever."

"Get up." Guo Shao said casually.

Zan Jurun and two civil servants stood beside Guo Shao, leading him to see things. When I arrived in a room, I saw a row of large and small metal tubes of different colors on the chopping board.

Zan Jurun said: "Your Majesty, it was all made according to your will. Look, this one is a cast iron pipe. Five of the same iron pipes were cast in total. After casting, the inner wall was slowly drilled and smoothed, but the molten iron was cooled slowly, and there were bubbles. The iron pipe was relatively narrow, and the size of the lead shot was just right when the gun was tested...the chamber was blown. The cast iron is too brittle, and the inner wall is not smooth."

Guo Shao nodded slightly.

Zan Jurun pointed to another larger one: "This is also a cast iron pipe, but the pipe wall is thicker, the caliber is larger, and it is shorter and thicker. The test gun is not damaged, but it can only be fired ten steps away, and it cannot penetrate wooden boards. I secretly think that this thing is not practical, it is worse than the shuttle gun (javelin), and it is troublesome."

He changed another one and said: "This thing is made of wrought iron after repeated forging, with an iron rod as the core, forged and wrapped; then drilled and polished smooth. The size of the lead shot is suitable. I tried it with gunpowder, and the forging joint of the iron pipe was opened..."

Zan Jurun reported several kinds of metal pipes in succession. It's all Guo Shao's idea...Because Guo Shao can't remember the craftsmanship of the gun barrel at all, so he adopted the classification test method: as long as there are methods that can be thought of, try to make one, and then test the performance one by one.

The technology of casting and forging is completely a craft that blacksmiths can easily do in this era. The only novelty is the method and concept of the classification experiment.

Zan Jurun talked for a while, pointing to a green pipe: "It is made of bronze, and it is also the best one. First, it is cast in bronze, and then it is smoothed with an iron drill. Bronze is softer than iron, and it is easier to drill... But there are often some debris in it, and it still can't be made too smooth. The gunpowder lead shot is the furthest. It can penetrate thin wood at forty steps, and it can penetrate iron armor at twenty steps.

Guo Shao heard that it was the best thing in comparison, so he picked it up and looked at it. Once held in the hand, it feels very heavy, and then it is relatively thick and short; the caliber is not large, and the wall of the tube is very thick. He looked at it for a while, and always felt that something was wrong. He has never seen a real gun|gun, but he has seen gunpowder|guns for shooting birds, and he has seen the appearance on TV; it is completely different from this one. In his impression, the musket is much slender, not such a thick stick.

As for why this copper pipe is a bit short, Guo Shao also worked as a blacksmith, so he knew the craft well, casting such a small-caliber pipe as a whole could not make a sand mold that was too long.

And I heard from Zan Jurun that it takes forty steps to penetrate thin wood, and twenty steps is more lethal, and there is no accuracy... Guo Shao feels even colder. Thinking about his own archery, he can probably maintain his accuracy when shooting a hundred steps! This gap is too far.

But when I think about it, ordinary sharpshooters are not as good as myself with bows and arrows, and they are only a few dozen steps away to maintain their accuracy and lethality, so I feel a little relieved.