"Rumble..."
Inside the school grounds of Yanjing City, a roar of thunder startled Yaoshi Guo who was hiding behind a large wooden shield and heard the sound.
In fact, similar gunpowder weapons were also available in Guo Yaoshi's army. This weapon is called the Thunderbolt Cannon or Thunderbolt.
According to historical records, this kind of thunder and iron gun contains medicine, is lit with fire, and the cannon fires. Its sound is like thunder, which can be heard hundreds of miles away. It covers an area of half an acre, and the fire ignites armor and iron.
This kind of weapon was not only available in the Song Dynasty, but also the Liao Kingdom, the Jin Kingdom, and the Dabai Gao Kingdom in the northwest all had similar firearms.
However, due to the immature cast iron technology of this era, the gunpowder formula was not optimal, and the refining technology of fire saltpeter was not up to standard. There was a big gap between high-quality fire saltpeter and low-quality fire saltpeter, and granular gunpowder was not invented. As a result, the quality of the thunder is extremely unstable. Sometimes it can explode, sometimes it can't, and more often it can't explode.
Because the cast iron shell was difficult to process (it was too thick to explode or had too few fragments, and it was too thin to produce), craftsmen in the Song Dynasty invented porcelain-cased bullets and paper-cased bullets. However, because the porcelain shell and paper shell cannot withstand the huge air pressure generated by the deflagration of gunpowder, they cannot be used to make bombs and can only serve as the shells of smoke bombs and incendiary bombs.
However, the power of smoke bombs and incendiary bombs was not enough to reverse the weakness of the Song Army and change the declining national destiny of the Song Dynasty...
As for the use of castable but expensive copper to make disposable bomb casings... Although the Song Dynasty has historically ranked first in copper production in the world (the absolute production is more than other countries in the world combined), Because the commodity economy in the Song Dynasty was very developed, and copper was the raw material for coinage.
So the Song Dynasty, which was obviously rich but was short of money everywhere, was certainly not willing to use copper that could be used to mint money to make bomb casings.
If it weren't for Zhao Huan's "whimsical" idea to have 10,000 copper kettles built and sent to Daming Mansion, it would have been difficult for Zhao Kai himself to push the copper kettles to explode the thunder... The civil servants below would definitely object strongly!
But the power of this copper shell thunder is indeed powerful enough!
Pharmacist Guo followed Guo Tiannu out from behind the shield car and walked more than a hundred steps to the explosion site. When he saw it, he couldn't help but gasped. Around the explosion point, within a radius of ten or twenty steps, wooden figures lay scattered on the ground, and all of them were injured.
Guo Tiannu knelt down and supported a wooden man covered in iron armor with all her strength. Then he took a closer look and found a hole in the armor that was big enough to stick two fingers through.
The goddess pointed at the gap and said to Medicine Master Guo: "Dad, look, if this hits a living person..."
"If you don't die, you will be disabled for life!" Medical Master Guo whispered, "How about we look at other wooden people?"
"Okay, let's look at it one by one." Guo Tiannu knew that her father was extremely serious about military issues.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have asked people to prepare a dozen wooden figures put on iron armor and place them around the explosive pot.
However, the more careful Medical Master Guo is, the more he knows how powerful this copper-shelled frying kettle is - the shell of this copper-shelled frying kettle is easier to shatter than the iron shell, and the destructive power caused by hitting the target is greater than that of the iron shell. The paper shell and porcelain shell fragments are much larger... enough to break armor and kill!
In order to increase the destructive power of the bombing pot, Zhao Kai also had some iron sand mixed with gunpowder and stuffed into the bombing pot. This frying pot exploded just right, enough to knock down a dozen people!
"Dad," when Guo Tiannv lifted up the last wooden man lying on the ground and let Pharmacist Guo examine it, she reminded her with a smile, "When the kettle goes off, it doesn't matter how good your martial arts is or how much you wear on your body, even if you can wear a The iron pagoda and the hard soldiers with two or three layers of armor will also die!
This thing is to exchange gunpowder and copper for human life. Who has the most gunpowder in the world? Who has the most copper? The copper produced by the Song Dynasty in one year was enough to cast a million fried pots! The output of gunpowder may be less, but it is still enough to fill a hundred thousand pots... Dad, you have to think clearly! "
Pharmacist Guo looked back at his daughter, "Don't talk about the useless ones...how many fried pots are there in the official family now?"
"More than ten thousand!" Guo Tiannu said, "Dad, do you want to see it?"
Pharmacist Guo turned his gaze away from his daughter and said, "Goddess, what benefits can you get from running around for him?"
"Female concubine!" Guo Tiannu said two words with a smile.
Pharmacist Guo nodded, "It's not bad... Then let me vote for the Song Dynasty again!"
"It's the Liao Dynasty!" Guo Tiannv corrected, "The next time is the Song Dynasty. You can catch up with Zhao Yuanfu, the founding hero of the Song Dynasty."
Pharmacist Guo sighed: "I hope I can die as well as Zhao Wei Gong!"
The Zhao Yuanfu mentioned by Guo Tiannu, whose name is Zan, Kuangzan, and whose courtesy name is Yuanfu, is the grandson of Zhao Dejun, a great traitor in the Later Tang and Later Jin Dynasties. His father, Zhao Yanshou, was also a great traitor who defected to the Khitan. And this Zhao Zan is amazing. He served in the Later Tang, Khitan, Later Han, Later Zhou, Song Dynasty... a proper Five Ministers! It can be said that the first surrenderer in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms! Surrender came and went, and finally he surrendered to a family of founding heroes to protect the official position of the military governor and the title of Duke Wei. He died in peace and was buried in splendor. Zhao Guangyi also stayed away from court for two days to express his condolences because of his death.
It is really a role model for future generations of capitulators!
However, Pharmacist Guo first served in the Liao Dynasty, then joined the Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty for the third time, the Liao Dynasty for the fourth time, and the Song Dynasty for the fifth time. The historical position of the Five Ministers has also been pre-arranged... I wonder if Zhao Kai will take the opportunity to give himself a few days of vacation when Medicine Master Guo dies?
It seems that Pharmacist Guo's "bereavement leave" will last for some time, but Gao Qiu and Taiwei's "bereavement leave" will not be far away.
Just when Medical Master Guo followed Guo Tiannu to leave Yanjing City and went south to Daming Mansion to plead guilty and surrender to Zhao Kai and Yu Liyan, Zhao Kai finally approved the official death of Captain Gao Qiu!
Captain Gao's "death diagnosis certificate" was rushed to Dengzhou for 600 miles, and then Zhao Mingcheng personally crossed the sea to deliver the "news of his death" that Captain Gao had been "looking forward to" for almost a year. Kou Daying.
The Shizikou Camp has long been a busy construction site!
The camp for tens of thousands of people is located on a flat land surrounded by a series of hills on the north bank of Shizikou, and is under construction. The civil servants who were recruited from Dengzhou, Laizhou and other places received double the labor money and had enough food and drink supplies, so they were very enthusiastic about working.
In just a few months, piers, fences, government offices, and streets filled with watchtowers and watchtowers had been built. The camp walls were built with straw bags and sacks filled with soil, and a trench was dug outside.
However, these seemingly solid defense facilities are only the city defense in the core area of "Fuliao City" in Shizikou. What is really used to stop the golden thieves is the outer perimeter of Fuliao City - a 17-mile-long, moon-shaped comprehensive defense system built along the half-circle of hills outside the core of Fuliao City.
The so-called comprehensive defense system is of course not a simple city wall, but includes trenches, fences, sheep and horse walls, castles built on mountains... They were built on every hilltop outside Shizikou. A mountain city that can be maintained independently!
At the same time, these mountain cities can be connected together to form a system, which is very cleverly constructed.
In addition to this continuous defense system, they also built a series of branch cities outside Shizikou, such as Golden Mountain City, Jiguan Mountain City, Houshi Mountain City (203), and Tieshan City...
The person responsible for building this defense system was Gao Qiu's third son, Gao Yaoqing, Lu Qian and Lin Chong, the three heroes who had defended Yanjin.
The three of them were not willing to lie down and die as equals last time. This time there were so many favorable conditions, including money, people, and skills (with the counterweighted cannon), so of course they were even less willing to lie down and die. .
Besides, they are already senior officials now... If they work harder, they may become important ministers and heroes in the future. Thinking about it makes them very motivated!
Gao Yaoqing, who had just returned from the construction site of "203 Heights", walked into the somewhat crude Xuanfu Division Office and saw his two brothers, Gao Yaokang and Gao Yaofu, coming towards him crying and shouting.
"Sanlang, daddy... daddy's old injury has relapsed. The wound burst open and bleeds profusely. He is gone!"
"Sanlang, you came late and didn't even see your father for the last time!"
What? Dad is bleeding profusely? Gao Yaoqing hadn't reacted yet, and was still wondering: Can the dead bleed? What color blood?
At this moment, the yamen was already bursting into tears!
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"
"Lieutenant, why are you gone?"
"Lieutenant, wuwu..."
At this time, Zhao Mingcheng, who looked sad, appeared out of nowhere, took Gao Yaoqing's hand and said: "Yameni, you have to express your condolences... Your Majesty has worked hard for the country, and you have led the army, and you have accidentally killed yourself." He was a target in the middle of nowhere, but in the end he was no longer involved in the king's affairs. He is actually a loyal martyr to the country, and he is an example for me to follow!"
The story about Gao Qiu's death was of course made up... but it will be written down in the history books in the future! This is because Gao Qiu's three filial sons did not want their father to die in peace and insisted on arranging a drama of loyalty to the country.
For this reason, they also discussed with Ma Kuo, Niu Gao and others, and had a not too fierce fight with Jin Bing outside Huacheng Pass. At the end of the battle, Gao Qiu's flag was suddenly played, scaring Wu Qimai and hurried back to guard the soldiers. camp.
However, not long after the battle ended, news about Lieutenant Gao Tailiuya began to spread widely in front of the army...
But being hit by a stray arrow does not mean that you will die immediately. You must die with the permission of the emperor!
So Gao Yaoqing finally came to his senses and cried loudly: "Dad, why did you go? The baby is not alive anymore. The baby is going to fight the gold thief to avenge you!"
Zhao Mingcheng hurriedly comforted the senior officer in the yamen and said: "In the yamen, I am sorry for the change. The most important thing now is to pay tribute to the old Taiwei. Then I will report to the Mingsheng. I also need to prepare a suicide note for the old Taiwei and explain everything before the Liaodong Army." Ichiban.”
As he spoke, Zhao Mingcheng took out a suicide note he brought from Dengzhou - of course it was not written by him, but by Zhao Kai himself!
