Liu Chengzong's requirements for the arsenal, in my opinion, are not difficult to achieve technically.
Whether it is the fire-fighting chariots that were popular in the early years, such as the swarm of swarms and the hundreds of tigers running together, or the individual launcher rockets improved by Zhao Shizhen during the Wanli period, or the special rockets that emit smoke and set fire, they have all developed greatly during this period. Complete.
As for the performance of this weapon on the battlefield, the 200,000 Japanese who landed on the Korean Peninsula during the Wanli Period had a very good user experience.
But in terms of manufacturing, there are big problems.
The arsenal of the Marshal's Mansion has military manufacturing capabilities in almost all categories of this era, except for rockets.
So I received the order and went back to think about it for two days. Then I went to Xincheng to ask Liu Chengzong for instructions: "Commander, can you ask General Cao to help with the advice?"
Liu Chengzong thought to himself, if Shicheng and I hadn't brought it up, he would have forgotten that Cao Yao understood these things. He immediately nodded and summoned Cao Yao into the government office to discuss the matter.
Cao Yao arrived quickly after hearing the summons. He was wearing a big leather robe and looked like a wealthy landlord. Before he entered the west building, a voice came in: "What does the commander want from me?"
After entering the door, I bowed to Liu Chengzong first, then I looked up and saw Shicheng and I were also in the Yamen, and said hello, "Master Shicheng is also here."
Liu Chengzong first asked him to sit down: "This is not a military meeting. Brother, sit down casually. What are you doing at home these days?"
Cao Yao smiled and sat down: "I'll accompany my aunt."
It's not that Liu Shizi wants to make things easier, it's just that he gave Cao Yao a day off. He just agreed to two months' leave, and in the blink of an eye he wants to send someone to the arsenal, so he has to say something else first.
But he didn't expect that Cao Yao happened to come to him for something. He rubbed his hands and asked, "Commander, I originally wanted to come over. Didn't the transportation company request a ban on alcohol on the day of the military meeting? I have an idea."
Liu Chengzong smiled when he saw his look and asked, "What's the matter? You bought all the wine in Xining in the past two days?"
He was not in a hurry to issue a ban on alcohol. It was easy to issue any law, but if the law was unreasonable and unreasonable, then he would be looking for people to disobey the law.
Even if there was a ban on alcohol, it would have to wait until after the Chinese New Year. If Chengyun brought this up at the military meeting, it would naturally lead to the generals seizing the opportunity to send their families to Hehuang to buy alcohol.
"ha!"
Cao Yao laughed, turned around and said, "Forget it, so many people are going to buy it. It's my turn. I won't buy it. When they buy it back, I'll go to them and ask for it."
Liu Chengzong smiled and nodded: "Brother, there has been no change at all. Please give me any suggestions."
"I think wine cannot be banned, just wine making is prohibited. And wine making does not need to be banned in the entire territory. It is prohibited in the Huanghe Valley." After Cao Yao said this, he looked at Liu Chengzong and added: "Milk wine does not require food."
Liu Chengzong said: "But the milk wine is not enough for the army, let alone the people of Hehuang."
The Marshal's Mansion has two non-business departments in Qinghai Lake. One is the Navy Yamen in charge of shipbuilding and shipping, which has developed a side business of pickling fish for sailors on Sunday; the other is Yuanma Temple on Longju Island, where Cui Cong developed Muhu Brewery. side business.
The entire coast of Qinghai Lake is covered with pastures. Goat milk, cow milk, mare milk, and camel milk are all used to make wine. Because of different purposes, they mainly produce two kinds of wine.
One is because there are too many livestock near Qinghai Lake and fresh milk cannot be stored and transported, so Cui Cong used the ancient impact brewing method to ask herdsmen to brew the milk into low-alcohol wine, then fill and seal it.
However, this low-alcohol milk wine had to be transported by boat and truck after it was brewed, and transported to seven field camps near the new city for distribution to soldiers. The sergeants drank it as a drink quickly, otherwise it would deteriorate after a month or two.
Another way to protect yourself from the cold is to distill the brewed low-alcohol milk wine multiple times to make high-alcohol shochu. Because the nutrients that easily cause deterioration are basically gone during the multiple distillations, it is more durable for storage.
The shochu brewed on Longju Island is usually distributed to the garrison in Nanshan Fort and other places in units of 100 households for cold protection, emergency relief and medical purposes.
When Cao Yao heard Liu Chengzong's words, he said seriously: "Because of this, I think this is a good opportunity for the chieftains of Kangning Prefecture to build roads. It is prohibited to make wine in Xining and make wine in Kangning."
"Corning to build roads?"
Liu Chengzong pondered for a moment and felt that this matter was ambiguous, that is, he was capable, so he asked: "Brother, what do you think? Please elaborate."
"Prefect Yang has long wanted to build a road in Kangning, but the chieftains were unwilling. Come to think of it, the chieftains can't rely on the fact that the mountains are high and the emperor is far away. If a smooth road can be built with four horses running parallel, there will be no chieftains."
Cao Yao spread his hands and said: "Kangning is poor, but it has been cultivated for several years. There are many fields. The local area is more than self-sufficient. It has abundant water and vapor and is not afraid of drought. It is a good place for wine making."
"If Xining bans wine making, the price of wine will rise a bit. Yesterday I heard from Zhang Wu that the lowest price of shochu has risen to 16 cents. At this price, regardless of the markup, Kangning winemaking will also be profitable."
Let the chieftains build a good road out?
Liu Chengzong felt that if he thought about it this way, making and selling wine might not be profitable for the Marshal's Mansion and could only be used as a strategy to maintain stability after the prohibition of wine making. However, if this could make Xikang Road more convenient, the benefits would be huge. .
In terms of money, Xikang Road can transport cashmere, and the woven cashmere clothes can be sold back to Kangning and Wuzang; but in terms of strategy, Jinchuan and other chieftains who have built a bunch of watchtowers are self-defeating.
"Yes, you can give it a try. This is not a strategy that will be successful in a short time, but the drought is not something that will end in a short time."
Liu Chengzong nodded slowly and recorded this moment. Then he smiled at Cao Yao and said, "Brother, you are very smart. Others are in a hurry to buy wine from Xining. Did you plan to ask Gama to transport wine to you from Kangning from the beginning? ?”
When Cao Yao was told the central issue, he nodded and just smiled.
He was different from Liu Chengzong. Even when he came out of Yuhe Fort, he could even sell a jug of wine to Liu Shishi. Drinking was a habit that was difficult for him to give up.
In fact, Cao Yao had a strong resistance to the alcohol prohibition in his heart, but he had just returned from Kangning Mansion and did not want to contradict Liu Chengzong over these things, so he thought about asking Ga Ma and Monk Wang to send him some wine from Kangning Mansion.
Later, I thought that we could let Kangning make wine and sell it to Xining, so that the chieftains could make some money in exchange for building roads for the Marshal's Mansion.
Liu Chengzong also knew that Cao Yao liked drinking.
Not only do we know that he likes to drink, but we also know that he is a picky drinker. When he is drunk, he will think of his brothers who died in Saarhu. While crying, he will make a small grave and pay homage to the person who saved his life in Saarhu. Liu Yujie.
He still refuses to admit it when he is sober, with a look of "I am not, I am not without you, don't talk nonsense".
Liu Chengzong waved his hand, looked at Cao Yao with bright eyes, and said with a smile: "Rather than letting the chieftains in Kangning build roads, I think the solution to the drinking problem is to win over Gansu. The wine in Gansu will be enough for you to drink."
"Gansu is difficult to capture." Cao Yao was very cautious about this topic: "To be honest, I am in Kangning, and I know best what impact the army will have on the army if it loses its horses and artillery and changes from a heavy army to a light army."
He waved his hand and said: "That bastard surnamed Hong built a fortress in Gulang Gorge. It is obvious that he wants to lure us over the mountain. If we climb over, he will fall into his trap. He will use the light army to fight the heavy army. If the three rounds of artillery are blocked, we will be finished. "
Morale is a weight. The same soldiers have different equipment and display different morale when fighting against the same enemy.
Both the enemy and us have artillery, so they can be like He Huchen's Ningxia soldiers in the battle at Huanglong Mountain, firing artillery to death. This is because people have expectations of victory and can win with all their efforts.
The enemy has cannons but I don’t have cannons. Even in the early confrontation with Li Bei, they collapsed one after another. This is still a fight with more people; but if there are no cannons, but there are armors and horses, then there is still a fight, but this is You have to pay attention to working hard. People's expectations for victory are very low, and their will to persist in fighting is also not too high.
Fighting over the Qilian Mountains meant that not only did they not have artillery, but they also did not have armor or horses. The only difference between them and the peasant army in the early years was their skills, will and physical strength - these things were not worth mentioning in front of the sheets of steel projectiles.
Cao Yao knew very well that the Ming army was an army that specialized in dealing with light soldiers, especially in Gansu and Ningxia. These two defense areas had always dealt with the Mongols, who were attacked by the Franco machine and the captive artillery that specialized in killing people. It’s gone.
"right!"
Liu Chengzong agreed very much with Cao Yao's view. He said: "This is why I asked my brother to come over. I want to design a rocket to replace artillery, and I need my brother's help as a consultant."
"Rocket?"
Cao Yao nodded slowly, thought for a moment and then said slowly: "Replacing artillery with rockets is a good idea, but you must have horses and some armor."
After talking about the prerequisites, he shook his head and said: "The power of rockets lies in the chaotic formation of hundreds or even thousands. It is easy to deal with the southwestern soldiers or Japanese Japanese who have never seen the formation of Malaysia. However, there are many reckless men in Guanxi. If I If the army crosses the mountain with a light force, they will not form a formation.”
"Only a reckless man can deal with a reckless man. Before he forms a formation, charge him with cavalry for a while, then force him to form a formation, and then use rockets to attack the enemy."
When Cao Yao talked about the rise, he danced unconsciously: "Even so, there is still the risk of a cavalry duel, but as long as you win one battle and plunder their armor and cannons, the subsequent battles will be fought... If If you can bring armor and war horses to the other side of the mountain, you can try rockets."
Snapped!
Liu Chengzong applauded and said: "Brother, you are right. Zijin Liang has organized the Three Tribulations Association in Gansu in recent years, and he has done a pretty good job. He can help us get thousands of war horses, thousands of armors, and three Thousands of camels.”
Cao Yao's eyes lit up: "The official army has three horses and seven steps. A full battalion with 900 cavalry is good, but the risk is still very high, and we must fight quickly."
After that, he looked at Master Chengwo and said: "Master, there is nothing difficult to make a rocket. The only thing is that the medicine needs to be compacted, the hole for the medicine wire needs to be drilled straight, the lead wire needs to be braided with three strands, and 37 scoops of standard rocket charge are used. The support needs to be hammered 3,700 times. If it is pressed firmly and drilled straight, the fire will be sprayed straight and the rocket will fly straight and accurately."
Cao Yao said with a silly smile: "I didn't expect that we can all afford rockets."
Rockets are not cheap. On the contrary, as a one-time use weapon, they are extremely time-consuming and require high manufacturing requirements compared to other weapons, and are less cost-effective.
Its manufacturing requirements are high, not in terms of craftsmanship, but in terms of cost, because this thing is not like a gun. Guns have multiple uses, so it is relatively difficult to cut corners. It requires comprehensive attention from all aspects of manufacturing, supervision, and use. Will not pursue it.
Rockets, on the other hand, depend entirely on appropriations. Each appropriation can cost one cent of silver, five cents of silver per projectile, or even one penny per projectile.
If you want to verify its merits, you can only play it out.
Therefore, the Shaanxi Ordnance Bureau no longer makes rockets very much. If they do, they don't have that much money. If they force craftsmen to make them, the products they make will not achieve the desired effect, and it will be wasted.
"To make rockets, you need to use paper, gunpowder, paper money, loess, drill bits, slide barrels, and vertical drilling machines. You need to prepare more drill bits. When drilling the powder line, the drill bit will heat up. When I was in the firearms camp, I often heard people Talk about the craftsman changing the drill bit and drilling and exploding the cartridge."
Cao Yao reminded Shichengwo emphatically, opened his hand and said: "If you drill five rocket launchers, you have to change the drill bit."
Liu Chengzong saw that he was speaking eloquently, so he quickly asked: "Can my brother make rockets with explosive warheads?"
"Blooming warhead?"
Cao Yao was stunned for a moment, shook his head and said: "The blooming bullet cannot fly very far if it is loaded with rear powder, and the cost is too high. I really don't know this, but thinking about it, the blooming bullet is just the same as ever, and you can always try it more often." Make something more appropriate.”
"I do know how to use the medicine after arson. It is actually four small cartridges. They are installed in front of the cartridges backwards. The leads are connected to the front cartridges. A small amount of horizontal medicine is put in it, so that it breaks through the paper and sprays fire in all directions."
As he spoke, he smiled and said: "This is easy to use. It can hit the camp into a ball of fire, and hit the military formation to hide all over the ground."
"As long as you have this in hand, the military formation can carry two more rounds of artillery. If there are enough, thousands or hundreds of them can be thrown over, enough to disrupt their military formation, and maybe even blow up their gunpowder, and the horse army can rush over and kill them. Can break the formation."
After Cao Yao finished saying everything Liu Chengzong wanted him to say, he paused, the smile on his face slowly disappeared, and asked: "Do you really want to take the risk and meet them at the northern foot of Qilian?"
"Brother, do you still feel something is wrong?"
"I don't want others to be ambitious and destroy my own prestige. It's just that this man named Hong is clearly trying to lure the enemy. He wants to lure us and others to cross the mountain lightly to fight with them. He dares to do this. He must have something to rely on. If the army goes there and faces the Seven or Eight A battalion besieged...it’s hard to say.”
Cao Yao let out a long sigh: "Actually, I think that since he is playing tricks and putting on such a posture, there is no point in us playing tricks on him. We might as well be big fools."
"We stationed heavy troops and heavy artillery to fight with him in the Zhuanglang Valley. When the enemy came from Songshan, we destroyed the Songshan army. If there was a castle, we used heavy artillery to knock down the battlements. The Gulang Gorge is difficult to walk, and we cannot station a large army. , they can’t even gather a large army.”
"We attack and they defend. If we defend for a long time, we will lose. Anyway, it will take half a year before the drought comes. Half a year is enough to break through the Gulang Gorge. With the heavy troops of the Commander-in-Chief, Liangzhou is just around the corner."
After that, he changed the topic: "Even if we can't break through, we won't suffer too much loss."
When Liu Chengzong heard this, he couldn't help but smile on his face: "Brother, you think so too? Then if Xie Erhu leads the Mongolian cavalry to appear in Gulang Gorge, people named Hong will think that the main force of our army is not in Gulang Gorge; Zhang Tianlin appears in Qilian again At Beilu, if you use rockets to win a battle, people surnamed Hong will definitely think that those who have climbed over the Qilian Mountains are the main force of our army, right?"
Cao Yao was stunned: "What does this mean? Where do you want to fight from?"
"Xie Erhu was restraining Gulangxia, Zhang Tianlin was disrupting the northern foot of Qilian, and the defense on the north side of the Great Wall was lax, where the wind and sand were strong. The leader of the Chahar Camp, Guitu Taiji, knew the location of the river outside Gansu, and asked him to lure Yang Yao to cross the border. If the sand crosses the wall, Gansu will surely be in chaos."
"If Wang Ziyong can help me switch to the city, I want to go to Jiayuguan."
Liu Chengzong leaned back in his chair, raised his hand and tapped his knuckles twice on the table: "I want to walk from Jiayuguan to Shanhaiguan."
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Good morning!
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