Judging from the current situation, let alone whether we can produce the earliest artillery, we must first save the lives of this group of people.
He has a small number of firearms craftsmen, and all of them are valuable. One of them is indispensable. Without one, his progress will be delayed.
If possible, Su Yonglin still hopes that this group of people can make usable artillery. Even if the quality is not that good, it can be improved, which will force the advancement of iron smelting technology.
After the special funds were allocated, Su Yonglin did not pay special attention to the people in the Ordnance Department.
He hoped that they could create a miracle and bring out the earliest artillery, but it didn't matter if they couldn't do it for the time being.
Because he was not in a hurry to use them, he obviously did not expect firearms to be of any use in the strategic decisive battle with the Jin Army. This was a duel between tactics and strategy, and a decisive battle between the courage and persistence of both sides.
So the most important thing is to take your time and improve the iron smelting technology through continuous experiments.
To cast a cannon, you must first have enough high-quality raw materials. If the iron smelting technology is not improved, the quality of the cannon tube will be very poor, and then the explosion of the barrel will be a common thing. At that time, it will be like playing a set of seven-injury boxing, hurting others first, then hurt yourself. Just out of mind.
Copper is a good raw material for making cannons. However, China itself is short of copper, and copper is an important and indispensable presence in the monetary system. Things that can make money are very expensive.
There is another problem with this thing.
Once the copper content is high when minting coins, it will cause people to hide copper coins privately and not circulate them, waiting for appreciation, causing deflation. If the copper content is low, it will cause currency depreciation, inflation, and money is worthless. .
How to balance the relationship between the copper content in coins and the economic market has been a headache for all dynasties.
Especially in this era of large-scale outflow of copper coins due to trade, if copper was used on a large scale to cast cannons and fight wars, the cost would be too high for the general court to afford.
Therefore, if we want to roll out and install firearms on a large scale and enter the era of hot weapon warfare, the key is a breakthrough in iron smelting technology.
Before all this is immature, cold weapons are better to use.
At least the production process is mature, the output is stable, and installation is not a problem.
Before that, let's focus on improving the organization and training of the army.
When Su Yonglin was building a naval force in full swing and was preparing to give Wan Yanliang a big surprise, Zhao Zuoliang also returned to Linyi smoothly.
He cooperated with the people sent by Su Yonglin to assist him, followed the plan, spent money to open up the joints, and successfully met Zhao Xiuye who was imprisoned in prison. Seeing Zhao Xiuye's miserable appearance, he couldn't help but feel distressed. He beat him.
"Let you gamble! Let you embezzle! Let you not learn well! Do you know the consequences now? Do you know?"
Zhao Xiuye was beaten to the point of losing his mind and burst into tears. In the end, he hugged Zhao Zuoliang's thigh tightly, begging desperately for mercy and admitting his mistake, and then Zhao Zuoliang reluctantly let him go.
Zhao Zuoliang took a breath and looked at Zhou Shaoning who was coming with him.
"Team Leader Zhou is laughing at him. The dog is useless. As a father, I also hate him. It's really hard to get rid of the hatred in my heart without beating him."
"This is Mr. Zhao's family matter. I will just pretend that I didn't see it and won't tell anyone about it. I will pretend that what happened today never happened."
Zhao Zuoliang nodded.
"Thank you very much. Then, please take care of the next thing, Team Leader Zhou."
Zhou Shaoning said he understood.
It's nothing more than paying someone to help and swapping the civet cat for the prince.
The specific operation is to work with everyone to find someone to go to jail instead of Zhao Xiuye. Of course, it also costs money, which is equivalent to paying to hire someone to go to jail.
After all, they are all the Zhao family. Everyone knows it well and knows that the Zhao family will definitely be released, so they don't care so much. If they cooperate with the show, they can still make money, so why not?
If something really happens, just let Zhao Xiuye come back and go to jail just to show off. Even if he can escape, a monk can't escape from the temple, right?
Under normal circumstances, for the government or prison, this is of course a profitable business.
But the problem is that none of them thought that not only the monk ran away this time, but the abbot also ran away with him.
The abbot no longer wanted the temple and ran away with him!
Zhao Zuoliang's family fled directly from Linyi overnight, quickly headed north, and soon arrived at Su Yonglin's control area. They arrived at Wuji County in early April, and then arrived at Hejian Mansion, Su Yonglin's current residence, and were completely safe.
This is something no one expected.
When Zhao Zuoliang and his family arrived at Hejian Mansion and were settled, Su Yonglin was not here. He was inspecting the construction and training of the navy in the coastal area of Cangzhou, and arranging the next tasks.
When Su Yonglin was building a naval force, he learned that Zhao Kaishan in the south was at war with Kong Yanzhou, who was left in Nanjing in the Kingdom of Jin.
The reason was that Kong Yanzhou made a sneak attack on Caozhou and Shanzhou, which were part of the Nanjing Road system, threatening Zhao Kaishan's rear. When Zhao Kaishan decided to dispatch a large army to retake Caozhou and Shanzhou, Kong Yanzhou chose to retreat without fighting.
If you retreat, just retreat, but Caozhou and Shanzhou were massacred. The land was scorched, miserable, and there were countless dead. Zhao Kaishan was so angry that he directly sent his army to Kaifeng.
As for the confidence that he dared to open an important town like Feng, it was probably Su Yonglin who gave him the confidence.
Anyway, Su Yonglin had just won a battle in the north. The central army of the Jin Kingdom could not go south. A large number of surrounding troops were restrained by Su Yonglin. It is estimated that the army in Hedong did not dare to rush south to support Kong Yanzhou. They would be very worried that they would be attacked by Su Yonglin as soon as they went out.
What's even better is that the Southern Song Dynasty and Nanjing Road border on the south. Even if the Song army does not go to war, it can invisibly contain part of the border defense forces of the Jin Kingdom, preventing the Jin army on Nanjing Road from going all out to fight against Zhao Kaishan's army.
The combination of various factors made Zhao Kaishan's timing to attack Kaifeng Mansion really perfect.
Su Yonglin was a little envious of Zhao Kaishan's situation and the opportunity to attack Kaifeng Mansion.
At this time, not only did he have these advantages, but further north, the Khitan rebels would also provide additional assistance to his military operations, making Wan Yanliang unable to mobilize troops from the north even if he knew about the crisis situation in Kaifeng.
To the west, in the Guanzhong Shaanxi area of the Jin Kingdom, there are indeed important military strongholds of the Jin Kingdom here, but to the south of Shaanxi is the Sichuan War Zone of the Southern Song Dynasty, and to the northwest is Xixia. Both of them need to be defended by border defense troops and reserve troops. Even if troops are mobilized into the Central Plains, The scale will not be large.
The military situation of the Jin Kingdom, which is surrounded by territory, really provided Zhao Kaishan with an excellent opportunity to conquer Kaifeng Mansion. It would be really embarrassing if he could not win.
But if Zhao Kaishan captured Kaifeng Mansion, how would the Southern Song Dynasty feel?
And in this military operation, will the Southern Song Dynasty send troops to help and take the opportunity to return to Kaifeng and return to the Central Plains?
Su Yonglin thought about it and felt that if the emperor was Xiaozong, it would indeed be possible, but if it were Zhao Gou...
That's really hard to say.
As far as Wan Yangou's virtue is concerned, it is already a great kindness not to cause trouble behind your back. Will he still help you?
Su Yonglin's guess was correct. When Zhao Kaishan and Kong Yanzhou were facing each other passionately, the Southern Song Dynasty really stood still, waiting to see what would happen, sitting back and watching the great opportunity to fight, but not moving.
Zhao Kaishan's chances of winning are actually not small, especially in terms of the number of troops and the war situation, Zhao Kaishan has the absolute upper hand. For a certain period of time, Kong Yanzhou cannot get assistance from friendly forces in any direction, and he is fighting alone.
However, Zhao Kaishan's army is not without its weaknesses.
The greatest weakness of this army is fatigue.
Yes, tired.
The battle of Nanle for nearly three months had completely exhausted their energy. After taking Daming Mansion, they rested for less than a month and were forced to fight south again. After marching hundreds of miles, they reached Caozhou and Shanzhou without any When encountering enemy troops, all they saw was scorched earth, which made their morale even lower.
On the way across the Yellow River to launch an attack on Kaifeng, they had to engage in a fierce battle with the Jin army who was waiting for work, and their fatigue was never effectively relieved.
Because of the long-term fighting, the Liberation Army had problems with its ordnance supply. There were not enough bows, arrows and stones. Some large ordnance parts were worn out due to overuse and could not be used in a short time. to effective repairs.
Facing the defense of the camp built by the Jin Army, the Liberation Army almost sacrificed their lives to defend it.
One hard-fought victory after another was piled up.
