The prince, the middle brother, laughed: "Mother, you may have thought too far. Aren't laws and orders much better than divine orders?" It turned out that before the Dahua Reform, the Yamato Kingdom implemented a tribal system, that is, the royal family and the large and small clans. Nobles (i.e., biechen, lian, banzao, guozao, village head) all have their own tribesmen. The tribesmen pay various tributes and perform labor services to the clan nobles in the form of village communities, and the nobles protect these tribesmen. , the state has no right to intervene.
It is not difficult to see that under the tribal system, each clan noble is a small king, and the emperor is more of a religious leader than a political leader. For example, Emperor Saimei successfully defeated other competitions by praying for rain when he first ascended the throne. The one who becomes the king. The actual ruler of the country is the strongest, that is, the clan nobles with the largest number of tribesmen, not necessarily the emperor himself, such as the Otomo clan, Soga clan, etc. These powerful clan leaders are also a direct threat to the Imperial family.
There are no written rules for the operation of high-level power in the Yamato country, and it is full of blood and conspiracy. Even the emperor himself, who is known as the "man-god", is often killed.
Therefore, the Dahua reforms carried out by Prince Nakadai, drawing on the systems of Korea and Sui Dynasty, abolished the bureaucracy system. The emperor himself and many clan nobles no longer directly occupied land and people, but instead granted official positions of different ranks. The power of a noble is no longer determined by the number of people and land it owns, but by the level of official position.
The power of the emperor as the head of state has been greatly enhanced, completely overwhelming other clan nobles. However, from another aspect, the emperor has also lost his original status as a "living god" from a certain perspective and has become a part of the emperor's country and must be controlled by laws. Due to the restrictions, the economic source of his family was actually weakened due to the loss of many farms and people directly occupied. Emperor Saiming, as a politician with rich experience, felt this keenly.
"Yes!" Emperor Qiming sighed: "As a dying person, I really shouldn't think so much!"
The eldest brother, the prince, heard his mother's desolate words and was about to give him some advice, but Emperor Qiming sighed: "It's windy outside, please help me go in and have a rest!"
"Yes!" The eldest brother, the prince, responded, carefully helped Emperor Qi Ming into the house, and waited for her to lie down. After she fell asleep, he exited the house, summoned an attendant, and said in a deep voice: "Give the order, go down, Let all countries speed up the transportation of military supplies to Chikushi, and cross the sea to attack Silla next year!"
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Si Xiang City.
Liu Renyuan and Liu Rengui stood side by side on the city wall, the wind blowing the flags above their heads, making a rustling sound.
"Everything is ready!" Wang Wenzuo bowed to Liu Renyuan. He still remained wary of the stranger next to him - although the other person always smiled, he could feel the flame hidden under his smile. If you are not careful, you will burn others.
"Brother Zhengze?" Liu Renyuan asked for advice from his colleagues before nodding to Wang Wenzuo: "Where is the target?"
"Over there, just at the corner of the city wall, there are several barrels. Do you see them?"
Liu Renyuan narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction of Wang Wenzuo's finger. He asked in an uncertain tone: "How many of them? It's almost two hundred steps, right?"
"Almost!" Wang Wenzuo glanced at Liu Rengui. He remained silent and just stared at the targets seriously: "Can we start?"
"Let's get started!" Liu Renyuan nodded majestically, and then he smiled at Liu Rengui and said, "It's a kid's thing, let's see what tricks we can play with it!"
"This trick can kill people!" Liu Rengui smiled and turned his attention to the Scorpion Ballista not far away. He saw a few soldiers turning and aiming skillfully, and then they began to turn the handle. The strange The machine made a crisp metal collision sound, then flapped the trigger, only to hear a muffled sound; then continued to turn the crank, flapped the trigger again, and the cycle continued. After a while, someone at the corner of the city wall raised a red flag and waved it vigorously.
"Stop shooting!" Wang Wenzuo stopped the soldiers, ran to Liu Renyuan and Liu Rengui, bowed and said: "Captain, envoy, it has been completed, please go over and check!"
"Are these all shot by the powerful crossbow?" Liu Rengui bent his knees and pulled out a throwing spear from the ground. The wooden handle of the throwing spear had been broken, and the head was submerged in the soil. There was a wooden barrel with half of its side missing next to it.
"Exactly!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "I just shot a total of thirteen shots, and there were seven barrels!"
Liu Rengui didn't say anything. He picked up the broken wooden barrel and weighed it twice. The wooden barrel was used to transport wine on sea ships. It could withstand wind and waves and was very strong. But now it seemed as if it had been thrown down from a city wall more than ten meters high. Became fragments. He raised his head: "Do it again!"
"Ah?" Wang Wenzuo didn't hear clearly.
"Do it again!" Liu Rengui repeated.
"Yes, yes!" Wang Wenzuo hurriedly shouted to the soldiers on the side: "Bring in a few more barrels!"
A few minutes later, the three men stood in front of the broken barrels again. This time the gunners were more accurate. They only used nine thrown spears to break six barrels.
"Hehehe!" Liu Renyuan's laughter was as loud as before: "Brother Zhengze, it seems that we can clear out the rebel strongholds around Sixian City this time!"
"What the Protector said is true!" Liu Rengui nodded, and turned to Wang Wenzuo and asked: "Captain Wang, I just saw that your crossbowman just kept turning the handle, but never cocked the crossbow or loaded the crossbow bolt. What's the reason for this? ?”
"Reporting to your Majesty, this powerful crossbow has an internal mechanism. It can be automatically cocked when the handle is turned. It also has a crossbow box. Every time an arrow is fired, an arrow will fall from the crossbow box. There is no need to reload it!"
"Well, it turns out to be a repeating crossbow!" Liu Renyuan said with a smile, "How many are there in total?"
"Twenty bodies!"
"What if we rush production? How many can we produce in a month?"
Wang Wenzuo had been waiting for this sentence for a long time. He hurriedly pretended to be embarrassed: "Reporting to the Protector, if you want to make this repeating crossbow, you must first have copper, lead, tin, beef tendon, wood and other various materials." Kind of material——"
"This is natural!" Liu Renyuan said with a smile: "Since I want you to make it, you don't need to worry about the materials!"
"Wait a minute!" Liu Rengui was much calmer: "This is a weapon of the military. If the manufacturing method is leaked, I am afraid it will cause great harm. It must be in a secluded and secret place and use precise and reliable people. Wang Xiao Lieutenant!"
