Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Zhou Xian couldn't get up early in the morning, and Guo Shao had already gone to Jinxiang Hall at dawn.

When the sun rose, Li Chuyun and other generals bid farewell in the study room, bent down and took a few steps backwards before turning around and going out. The eunuch Cao Tai opened a dossier decorated with silk, rubbed his fingers over the words on it, read it carefully, and said softly beside Guo Shao: "Your Majesty, Zan Jurun, the envoy of the Hakka Province and the chief military officer, should wait outside the hall for summons."

"Xuan." Guo Shao said immediately.

Every day, I am busy in the morning, and I can be free after lunch. Once back in Tokyo, it is like this almost every day. Guo Shao doesn't feel tired either, this kind of work and rest makes him feel at ease... because he understands that he has not yet finished his major task: regaining the lost land, unifying the world, and stabilizing the rule.

Guo Shao is not sure how to realize the dream in his heart. But as long as he works hard every day and spends time and energy on it, he will not panic or regret. This is a long march, not a certain period of enthusiasm and determination, but a long and persistent trek!

Guo Shao started as a bodyguard, and now he has traveled more than half of the way, and because of the opportunity that cannot be copied, there is no reason to stop halfway; too many people have died for the great cause he claimed, and it is impossible to give up.

He sat in front of the imperial case, and looked at all the records of the Liao Kingdom presented by the minister. Guo Shao has never been very used to this kind of half-written articles written vertically without punctuation, and it takes a lot of effort to read, but it's nothing, it just takes more time.

"Chen Zan Jurun kowtows to His Majesty, my emperor will live forever." A minister in front knelt down in front of the case.

"Pingshen." Guo Shao raised his head and said. His eyes were bright, but his expression was peaceful.

Zan Jurun climbed up, held up a memorial in both hands, and waited for the eunuch to come to get it, and said, "Your Majesty, the Military Weapons Supervisor has cast a total of 327 Longxiao cannons from last year to this year, and more than 200 of them have been broken during the attack on Jinyang.

Guo Shao nodded and said yes, one of the advantages of artillery is durability. The current method is actually less durable than catapults; catapults are easily damaged after a battle, but they can be reused after repairing. The barrels of the cast iron guns are all broken, so they can only be scrapped... As for the reason, it must be a material problem.

The problem is that Guo Shao doesn't know much about metallurgy. He has dabbled in the structure of metal materials such as austenite before, but he is not very proficient.

Zan Jurun said: "I have ordered the Beiyuan workshop to test-cast the Longxiao cannon with bronze, and try again after the casting is completed. My minister's suggestion is to stop making cannons in the Bianshui workshop area first, and wait for the test of new cannons."

After hearing this, Guo Shao immediately said, "As envoy Zan asked."

He immediately picked up the brush and calculated on the paper. According to the previous weight of Longxiao Cannon, which weighed 600 catties, it might be slightly heavier after switching to bronze (copper has better heat dissipation, and the barrel will be thicker and longer), and 100 cannons need 60,000 catties of copper.

Guo Shao first thought of copper, because he knew that China was short of copper ore, especially in ancient times, because only open-pit mines could be mined. What is the order of magnitude of 60,000 catties? Will it cause difficulties?

At this time, the copper coins weigh between one and two coins, and 60,000 catties of copper are equivalent to six million copper coins, which is only six thousand coins. Although there is a shortage of copper at this time, the imperial court casts millions of coins, and the copper cannon consumes not a lot of copper.

After Guo Shao made such a calculation, he will not mention the matter of copper materials at the moment, and the officials will definitely find a way to solve it.

Zan Jurun took out another wooden object and offered it: "This is made by Beiyuan craftsmen according to His Majesty's will."

Guo Shao took the wooden object from the eunuch, which was a mechanism for a matchlock gun. At that time, he just gave Zan Jurun a rough description of his intention of lighting the fire with a match. Unexpectedly, they made a model so quickly. Sure enough, the officials would be very active in handling things that the emperor personally asked.

Some things are not driven by the will or needs of those in power, and technological progress will be very slow. Thousands of years of technology have not made much essential progress.

Guo Shao held the model in his hand, quickly found a place similar to the trigger, and pulled it with his fingers. The wooden bar with the rope on it immediately pressed down and touched the upper part of the wooden pole;

"Huh!" Guo Shao immediately uttered a voice in surprise.

After hearing this, Zan Jurun was even more contented.

Guo Shao took it in his hand and thought about it. This mechanism mainly has two connection points and two twisted wooden bars. The tail of the lower wooden bar is the trigger, and the middle can be rotatably connected to the rivet; the head is connected to the upper bending mechanism that clamps the matchlock, and the connecting part can be rotated and moved. Fixed riveting between the upper and lower wooden strips.

He squeezed the trigger slowly again and found that the lower bar was riveted through the tail, pushing the upper bar. The upper wooden bar is curved, and when pushed, it is pressed down like a chicken pecking rice; to touch the position of the "fire door" to achieve the purpose of ignition.

The lower wooden bar is pressed on a reed, so it is very elastic when it is buckled, and it can return to its original position as soon as you let go... The reed is not a spring, but it is actually very simple. It is a wrought iron metal piece similar to a "V". A slight pressure will not deform the metal and can return to its original position.

Guo Shao observed it for a while, and felt that the ancient craftsmen were very capable in making this kind of mechanism. They don't understand "mechanical principles", but with experience and craftsmanship alone, there are a large number of organs in Qin Shihuang's mausoleum that can be made.

"Just forge the mechanism according to this model, and try to install the firecracker." Guo Shao said immediately.

Zan Jurun bowed and said, "I obey the order."

Anyway, the Beiyuan workshop area is for experimenting with firearms. A small amount of production will continue to be tried, and it will not consume too many resources... This mechanism seems to be the same at first glance, but Guo Shao guesses that there will be problems in the actual production of matchlock guns, so he can only gradually explore. Because in the past few years, he has tried to manufacture new armor and weapons, and according to experience, countless problems have appeared. Even the most backward equipment has too many specific difficulties from scratch; there is always a gap between actual operation and imagination.

Guo Shao left the model behind, raised his head and said, "As soon as the Military Weapons Supervisor makes any progress, he will report it."

After hearing this, Zan Jurun bowed and said, "I accept the decree, please leave."

After Zan Jurun left, the eunuch Cao Tai reminded Wang Pu and others to be summoned according to the arrangement, and reminded Guo Shao to discuss the deployment of the "Soldier Cao Division" to send undercover agents to the Liao Kingdom.

Cao Si, who started his army last year, sent many spies to the Liao Kingdom as a businessman; this year, there has been new progress after the Battle of the Northern Han Dynasty. The spies who originally mixed into the Northern Han Kingdom, because the Northern Han Kingdom was defeated and some officials fled to the Liao Kingdom, a large number of spies from the Northern Han Dynasty also transferred to the Liao Kingdom.

Guo Shao waited for Wang Pu to present a new specific plan. He picked up the model and played with it for a while, and then buried himself in the idea of ​​the howling cannon that Zan Jurun reported just now.

In contrast, Guo Shao placed greater hopes on the artillery battle.

Fire | guns are not very useful in the near future. I remember that there was a debate between the British longbow and fire | guns. At that time, fire | It can be seen that the firecrackers will not fundamentally improve the combat effectiveness of an army.

But the artillery is different. In the process of attacking Jinyang, the howling cannon played an important role. Guo Shao not only paid attention to the technology of casting cannons, but also summed up the artillery tactics explored in actual combat... According to the idea of ​​attacking Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, quickly capturing Youzhou City is a crucial part. Guo Shao has long been examining the feasibility of the upcoming war.

...

In a few days, the Dragon Boat Festival will arrive. There was a dragon boat race on the Bian River, and there were many people inside and outside Tokyo. Guo Shao took the empress, concubines, civil and military officials to watch it.

When he returned to the imperial city, Guo Shao watched the lantern dance on the Imperial Street from the Xuande Gate again.

The sound of "kuang kuang..." gongs and drums, and the loud cheers of the people can be clearly heard even from the tall city towers, and the atmosphere permeates every corner of the city. In this situation, Tokyo has a scene of peace and prosperity.

In the past ten years, wars are still frequent in the world, and the burden on the people is still extremely heavy; but from Taizu Guo Wei to Chai Rong, Guo Shao, and the Great Zhou Dynasty, they have been attacking all directions from the Central Plains, and the wars have hardly spread to the Central Plains, and the population has increased.

While watching the scene in front of him, Guo Shao thought: Population is the foundation of the prosperity of all countries at this time.

In addition to the impact of war, climate is also a factor.

People in the city celebrated the festive season happily, but Guo Shao sat under the yellow umbrella, very quiet.

On a whim, he vaguely felt a sign, an unfounded guess: after the middle of the tenth century, the world might enter a period of good climate... The economic prosperity of the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty would have been difficult to achieve without the smooth weather of agriculture; even the tribes on the grasslands from the east to the west also rose in turn, which was also a stage of population accumulation and growth, and the Mongols even swept the world. .

Any nomadic empire cannot be strong without enough population. And the grassland economy is very fragile, any natural disaster may lead to a large reduction of herdsmen, or even the destruction of the entire tribe.

Guo Shao's gaze slightly looked to the north from the bustling Royal Street. In a place where he could not see, the powerful Liao Kingdom, which rose first, was threatening everything here; what's worse, the Jin Dynasty lost its gate first, and now Hebei is in Pingchuan, facing the northern iron cavalry with open chest.

Can't stop here! If the opportunity at this time is missed, it will cause even greater troubles. Under the wheels of war, the creatures and the prosperous world are worse than ants.

At this moment, Guo Shao not only felt the pressure, but also faintly excited. The possession of violence and power can really make people obsessed. He has been fighting all these years and has invested too much enthusiasm in the war itself.

!!