After understanding Yang Lin's depression, Zou Run thought for a moment and began to prescribe the right medicine.
"I have a plan that will help my brother go to Liao to buy horses and recruit with twice the result with half the effort."
As he spoke, he revealed all his plans.
It turned out that last year Wanyan Agu launched an army to rebel against the Liao Dynasty, defeated the Liao soldiers all the way, and won great victories in Ningjiang Prefecture and Chuhedian. Immediately in the first month of this year (AD 1115), the country "Dajin" was established, the reign was named "Shouguo", Duining Prefecture was built, and the title was added to the title of Great Sage Emperor. This year is the first year of the founding of the Jin Dynasty.
Just after the New Year, Aguda couldn't wait to attack the Huanglong Mansion of the Liao Dynasty. Huanglong Mansion was at this time the place where Jin and Liao forces gathered heavily, and a big battle was about to begin. In his previous life, Zou Run liked to read books to pass the time. Although he didn't know the historical details, he also knew that the Liao Kingdom was about to suffer a great defeat. By then, the Liao Kingdom's troops would be defeated everywhere. As long as they were prepared in advance and spent a lot of money to recruit a group of soldiers on the battlefield It was really not difficult for the Liao cavalry to be defeated by the Jin army.
After hearing this, although Yang Lin was curious about how his village leader could know about the Liao Kingdom even though he was thousands of miles away, there were too many unexplainable things that happened to Zou Run, and he didn't care about this one more thing. He just agreed immediately.
But despite the promise, Yang Lin was still in low spirits.
Zou Run smiled slightly and immediately administered a dose of tiger and wolf medicine to his "root cause".
"My brother is just doing his job. I will go down the mountain in a few days and find a few more leaders to join the group. If there are any suitable ones, I will let them replace my brother. At that time, I will teach my brother to lead a battalion of infantry and be a proper official." The captain of Erba Jing is the same."
"Is the village leader saying this in front of you?!!"
Yang Lin was finally overjoyed and asked loudly. However, he immediately realized that it was inappropriate and wanted to change his words eagerly, but could not think of a suitable wording. This made him anxious.
After covering it up for a long time, I finally managed to squeeze out the word "um" from between my mouth and nose. She looked very much like the young daughter-in-law of the east of the village who had not yet left the palace.
After taking care of Yang Lin, Zou Run recruited Ling Zhen to discuss the establishment of his firearms camp.
The two were walking in the back mountain. Behind them was a valley, where a group of people were digging something with hammers and other tools.
This place is the gunpowder research and development base designated by Zou Run himself.
Judging from the current maritime situation, it could be as early as two months or as late as autumn. Sooner or later, the navy will have to meet with the imperial court. Time no longer allowed for the slow development of high-tech firearms, and even relatively simple artillery. Zou Run had no choice but to work on primitive gunpowder weapons.
For example: rockets and thunder.
The former is to cast the arrowhead or arrow shaft into a hollow shape, stuff it with gunpowder, ignite the fuse and then shoot it. In this way, the so-called rocket has both the physical lethality of traditional arrows and the fragmentation effect of gunpowder explosions. The lethality is at least tripled.
The latter is similar to the most primitive version of grenades and hand grenades in later generations. However, the size of Zhentian Lei is much larger than that of later grenades, but its lethality is far inferior. The effect can only be achieved when the enemy forms a dense formation. optimal.
Ling Zhen can make and use both of these weapons, and he can even use primitive gunpowder weapons such as fireballs, tribulus fireballs, poison smoke balls, etc., but Zou Run only wants the former two. The purpose is to put the new black powder into the troops as quickly as possible and strengthen the navy's water combat capabilities in the shortest time.
Just imagine, two ships meet at sea, and fire rockets from a long distance, both blowing up and burning. After the enemy ship finally gets closer, enduring huge casualties, our army suddenly throws out a few rockets when the other party gathers its soldiers and prepares to join forces for hand-to-hand combat. When the Thunderbolt hits the opponent's crowd, the effect will be exciting just thinking about it.
"Brother, I told you the formula of black powder before when I was in Tokyo, but that was just a rough idea. In fact, black powder is just a major category, and it can be subdivided into smaller items such as ignition powder, explosive powder, and propellant."
After Zou Run finished speaking, Ling Zhen behind him immediately became energetic. He didn't expect that there was so much knowledge in it, so he quickly asked for advice. Zou Run didn't hold anything back, and he broke apart and crushed the knowledge learned by later generations. speak.
"Mononitrate, disulfide and charcoal, this is just the most basic ratio. My brother must have known it before during the trial production in Jiazhangku."
Ling Zhen nodded slowly at this. The black gunpowder he originally produced according to this method could only be used as a material for setting off fireworks, and the effect when used in weapons could only be said to be average. But Ling Zhen was Ling Zhen. On this basis, he decisively changed the formula and finally trial-produced powerful explosive black powder. However, he also suffered unfair injustice and fell into a political whirlpool without realizing it. .
"The sulfur ratio is increased to 70%, and the explosion of gunpowder can be accelerated to the maximum. The finished product configured in this way is excellent for blasting mountains and mining, but it cannot be used as propellant. And if the charcoal ratio is increased , gunpowder tends to burn slowly, so it can be made into ignition powder for igniting fires, which is most suitable for large-scale arson. Only the propellant that can ignite projectiles and shells needs to be accurately proportioned according to the material properties, which requires consumption. It’s a lot of labor, time and material work, and it can’t be rushed.”
"The propellant that fires projectiles and cannonballs?"
Ling Zhen nodded frequently after hearing the previous words, but only for Zou Run's last words, Ling Zhen seemed to understand but not understand, as if he suddenly had a clue, but couldn't figure it out, and immediately asked eagerly:
"How can you use black powder to fire projectiles and so-called cannonballs?"
Zou Run smiled slightly and stopped by a stream beside the valley. He squatted down and found a piece of sand. He used branches as pens and began to write and draw on the sand.
"This thing is called a musket. It can fire projectiles and kill people from a hundred steps away. Even if you are wearing heavy armor, it is difficult to withstand the defense. Unfortunately, it requires extremely high casting skills and cannot be obtained in a short time..."
"This thing is called an artillery piece. It can launch solid iron bullets weighing several kilograms several miles away. No matter whether it is a man or a horse, everything that is blocked by it will be powder. It requires a lot of craftsmanship, but it is slightly simpler than a musket..."
Ling Zhen, known as the best gunner of the Song Dynasty, seemed to have a door to a new world opened in front of his eyes. A new world slowly unfolded in front of him. His eyes closely followed the branches in Zou Run's hands, absorbing them like crazy. Something new that can change the pattern of war in the entire world.
Unconsciously, the red sun set in the west and the sunset glowed brilliantly. Zou Run straightened up his stiff body, rubbed his sore waist, and seriously told Ling Zhen:
"Today's words can come out of my mouth and into my brother's ears, but they must not be known to a third person. For subsequent tests, this valley will be a forbidden area for Dengyun. No one is allowed to enter or exit without your permission. I I will also mobilize a troop of soldiers and horses to listen to my brother’s control. I must keep this in mind.”
"Master, please rest assured. This is the skill of the gods. The Dharma is not taught to the six ears, and the Tao is not taught to the inhuman principles. Ling Zhen can still save it. I will be careful in the future. Start slowly with gunpowder and advance slowly. Ignoring the rest, for the sake of counterfeit naval warfare, we must develop new rockets and thunderbolts in batches first!"
It saves trouble to talk to smart people. Ling Zhen is worthy of being a person who has been in the officialdom. Once he meets the right master, all aspects of his enthusiasm are stimulated. Even the ability of "guessing out the meaning" cannot be taught to himself. , and can even draw inferences from one instance.
Zou Run was overjoyed, cupped his hands towards Ling Zhen and said:
"In that case, I'll leave everything to my brother."
