Poor Family

  Chapter 606 Song and Jin contend for Yan (2)

This firearms workshop is the largest workshop under the Liao State Gunpowder Bureau. It looks like an ordinary courtyard, surrounded by open spaces, planted with vegetables, and the walls are very high. There is Qiankun, there are wing rooms on both sides after entering the gate, and the craftsmen have to change their clothes before they can continue to enter. No craftsman is allowed to carry fire, and those who violate it will be executed.

Walking into the inner courtyard, I found that this is a huge courtyard, covering at least ten acres, with a front yard, a middle yard and a back yard, and two warehouses on the left and right, one is a gunpowder warehouse, which stores gunpowder and crafts All kinds of raw materials for gunpowder, and the other is the firearms warehouse, which stores various finished products, but a large number of firearms are not stored here, but are placed in the military warehouse, where only some samples are placed.

  At present, the firearms workshop is led by Chen Da and Chen Er, and ten high-level Chinese craftsmen are here to make all kinds of urgently needed firearms.

  As soon as Li Yanqing entered the front yard, Chen Dashi greeted him, and said with a mysterious smile, "I'll show Tongzhi something,"

   "What is it?"

   "Follow me, please!" Chen Da didn't answer, but took Li Yanqing to the gunpowder warehouse.

  The gunpowder warehouse is composed of five rooms in a row. The room is very dry, with a thin layer of dust. Chen Da pushed the innermost room, "This is it!"

Li Yanqing walked into the room. The room was very spacious, at least sixty square meters, narrow from east to west, and long from north to south. There were more than a dozen rows of iron shelves inside, and all the iron shelves were filled with a kind of dark oblate objects. It looks like a big pumpkin.

"This is."

  Looking at this familiar object, Li Yanqing was a little stunned. Isn't this just a thunderbolt?

Chen Da laughed and said: "These are the shells of Zhentianlei. I was also shocked yesterday. Later, I asked the gunpowder maker and found out that the Liao Kingdom is also developing Zhentianlei. They are actually imitating Xixia's Zhentianlei. , but not yet.”

  Li Yanqing picked up a Thunderbolt casing weighing more than 20 kilograms. He patted the iron casing and made a bang sound. Li Yanqing asked, "Where did it fail? Is it the iron casing?"

"No! No! The iron shell is completely qualified. It has been carefully appraised by the humble staff. It is exactly the same as our Zhentianlei. They just don't know the gunpowder formula. They have been trying repeatedly for the past two months, and they are almost successful, but Yanjing was taken by us. Captured."

Li Yanqing secretly felt lucky. If the Liao army developed the Thunderbolt before the city was destroyed, the result might be different. There is also a gunpowder formula dedicated to the emperor Zhao Ji, which was forgotten by Zhao Ji and put on the shelf. Making new firearms for the Military Weapons Supervisor will definitely be obtained by the spies of the Liao Kingdom, so the outcome of the Liao-Jin War may be different. All kinds of mistakes caused the Liao Kingdom to miss the sharpest firearms in the world.

   "How many iron shells are there in total?"

   "There are 500 of them in total. The Liao Kingdom made them a month ago, and we will wait for the gunpowder to be successfully prepared."

   "How about the gunpowder?"

   "The gunpowder has been formulated, and the quality of the nitrate grains is not bad, a little worse than the nitrate grains from the Beijing Gunpowder Bureau. I'm afraid it won't work for making iron fire thunder, but it's perfectly fine for making sky-shattering thunder."

When Li Yanqing came to the middle courtyard, he saw that Chen Er and ten gunpowder craftsmen were sitting at a big table nervously preparing gunpowder. Look, the nitrate grains are about the size of sesame seeds. They are indeed slightly larger than the nitrate grains of the Beijing Gunpowder Bureau, and the uniformity is not enough, but overall it is not bad.

  Li Yanqing turned around and asked, "How many thunderbolts can you make today?"

   "Probably about a hundred pieces can be made."

  Li Yanqing also knew that the gunpowder workshop could not see fire, and generally did not operate at night, so he thought for a while and said: "Then let's make a hundred pieces first! Continue tomorrow after dawn, and try to make another fifty pieces before noon tomorrow."

Chen Da pondered for a while and said: "If it is urgently needed, there is no way. We will prepare the gunpowder first, and then change the place to fill the gunpowder and fill the matchlock, so that we can hang a big lantern in the yard. We will work all night tonight and try to get it tomorrow. Make two hundred pieces before dawn."

  Li Yanqing was overjoyed, "If this is the case, then please!"

Zhong Shidao is not only the commander-in-chief of the three armies, but also the temporary magistrate of Yanshan Prefecture, but Zong Ze is in charge of the specific government affairs. Since Zhang Shuye and Liu Kai have returned to the court to start negotiations with the Kingdom of Jin, Zong Ze has to take care of the logistics Military affairs, but also government affairs, made him extremely busy.

  In the afternoon, Yue Fei quickly walked out of the government office. He is currently serving as a soldier and joins the army. Zong Ze also entrusted him with full responsibility for the arrest of the spies of the Kingdom of Jin in the city.

  Outside the government office, Wang Gui smiled at Yue Fei: "I thought you were in the barracks, so I ran to the barracks to look for you. Your colleagues said you were in the state office, so I came here in a hurry."

  Yue Fei smiled and said: "This time, the commander-in-chief is going to recommend you as the sixth-rank Zhaowu captain with your credit. Congratulations!"

  Wang Gui was overjoyed, "Really?"

   "I read the draft, and it's true. Niu Gao's is a little worse. The commander recommended him as the captain of Zhengqipin Zhiguo, but it's not bad."

  Wang Gui was overjoyed, and hurriedly said, "Shall we have a drink to celebrate?"

  Yue Fei shook his head, "Be careful, you boy! The commander-in-chief just issued an order to prepare for war. If you dare to drink and be seen by the military judge, you will fly away if you are a sixth grade."

   "It's not to drink, let's drink tea, it should be fine!"

   "Another day! There are too many things today."

  As soon as Yue Fei said this, a couple of civilians who looked like a husband and wife ran over and asked Yue Fei nervously: "Are you trying to catch spies from the Kingdom of Jin?"

  Yue Fei nodded, "Do you have any clues?"

   "Our family opened an inn. There were more than a dozen people living there a month ago. We always thought they didn't know each other, but yesterday we found out that they were actually a group of people. They just pretended not to know each other."

   "Are they staying in the hotel at the same time?" Yue Fei asked again.

   "No! No! They all come to the hotel at different times."

   "Where is he now?"

   "Still in our inn, but they seem to be getting ready to leave."

  Yue Fei thought for a while and said to Wang Gui, "Ah Gui, can you do me a favor."

  Wang Gui waved his hand cheerfully, "No problem, I'll help you catch people."

   “But they may be understaffed.”

   "You can have as many people as you want, just wait, I'll be right back."

  Wang Gui rushed back, and in a short while, he brought more than 300 soldiers, ran to him and said with a smile: "If you still think there are too few people, I will go to the barracks and drag you a thousand more."

   "Enough! Enough! Let's go."

Yue Fei picked up a spear and led the crowd towards the west of the city. After a while, they came to an inn, a small two-story inn. Wang Gui waved his hand, and everyone immediately led a hundred The soldiers ran to the back door.

  The shopkeeper of the inn whispered: "They all live on the second floor, the row on the left."

   As soon as the words fell, a sharp arrow whizzed towards the shopkeeper from the window on the second floor. Yue Fei had quick eyes and quick hands, and swung his spear, "Damn! ’ A sharp arrow bounced off, Wang Gui was furious, he kicked open the door, and rushed to the second floor with his knife in hand, Yue Fei was in a hurry, and hurriedly chased after him, "Ah Gui, don't kill them all!"

   There was a sound of shouting and killing in the inn, and the soldiers rushed in, and there was a lot of shouting and killing. After a while, there was no shouting in the inn.

  Wang Gui dragged a man out of the inn, and Yue Fei also grabbed another man. Except for these two, the soldiers transported the other dozens of corpses out of the inn.

Although these people were brave and good at fighting, they were far from the opponents of Wang Gui and Yue Fei. Yue Fei's marksmanship was superb. He assassinated most of the people and left two survivors. The soldiers stepped forward and tied the two survivors behind their backs. Shutting up and covering his head with a black cloth bag, Yue Fei said to the shopkeeper and his wife: "You can come to the state government to receive the reward later, one thousand taels of silver, not less than one tael."

  The shopkeeper and his wife were very grateful, thanking them again and again, Yue Fei then ordered the soldiers to take them back to the state government office for interrogation.

  . ． ． ． ． ． ． ．

Night fell quietly, but the city was still busy installing various defensive weapons, mainly trebuchets and artillery. All weapons are in place.

The trebuchet is not a giant trebuchet, but it can barely be considered a large trebuchet. It is one foot five feet high, and the throwing rod is three feet long. It can throw stones weighing fifty catties two hundred steps away. Originally used to shoot stones, it is a sharp weapon against enemy nest vehicles.

But after the popularization of firearms in the Song Dynasty, artillery was mainly used to shoot thunderbolt cannons, and another sharp weapon was used to deal with nest vehicles, that is, fierce oil fire cabinet, which is a kind of fire-breathing weapon. There are also five on the top of Yancheng City .

  However, the sharpest weapon of the Song Army is the Thunderbolt, which replaced the Thunderbolt Cannon. In addition, the Iron Fire Thunder is also a sharp individual firearm.

On the top of the city, Li Yanqing silently stared at the camp of Jin soldiers in the distance. In history, the Song army did not fight the Jin soldiers. I don't know if this battle will be the occasion for the Song and Jin countries to tear up the alliance and enter into an all-out war. start.

   "What is Yanqing thinking?" Zong Ze appeared beside him and asked with a smile.

  Li Yanqing hurriedly saluted, and said: "The humble official is thinking, will the Jin Council attack the Song State in an all-round way?"

Zong Ze stepped forward and looked at the camp of Jin soldiers in the distance, saying: "Wanyan Yanxi has not yet been destroyed, and he is watching the Yinshan area. Once the Jin Kingdom and the Song Dynasty fight on a large scale, he can take the opportunity to take back Xijing. The Jin people will not do this." It is such a stupid thing, and Xixia has not been conquered, they still have a lot of things to do, this time is just a test for each other, to make money for the next negotiation between the two countries, if Jin Guo really wants to invade Song Dynasty, it will be a few years later gone."

  Li Yanqing secretly admired Zong Ze's vision. Historically, it was indeed a few years later that the Kingdom of Jin began to attack the Song Dynasty. Li Yanqing asked again with a smile, "I heard that Yue Fei captured the spies of the Kingdom of Jin today?"

   "Wang Gui told you! Thanks to his help."

Zongze smiled and said: "There are sixteen spies from the Kingdom of Jin. They plan to cooperate with the Jin soldiers to seize the city, but originally they are dealing with the Liao Kingdom, but there must be brave men under the heavy reward, so I sold them for one thousand taels of silver. It’s a good deal, no matter how you look at it.”

   "Then they planned to attack the city tonight?"

   "They probably haven't planned yet, but the soldiers found the armor of the Song Army in their room. It is estimated that they want to pretend to be the Song Army to participate in the battle of defending the city, and then look for opportunities to cooperate with the Jin soldiers to seize the city."

  Li Yanqing nodded silently, Zong Ze patted him on the shoulder again and said with a smile: "Go to rest early! Get enough energy to prepare for tomorrow's battle."

  (end of this chapter)