Qing Xuzi disagreed with Zheng Xianli's pessimistic view, and said with a smile:

"Liang Zai alone is not to be afraid, what is really to be afraid of is the Tang Dynasty's century-old prestige, even if the rotten ship still has three catties of nails, let alone my Heavenly Empire? In just three or five years of hard work, the people there still can't climb the sky! According to the poor road, if there is no thirty or fifty years of hard work, no one can replace my Datang in Anxi!"

Zheng Xianli nodded.

"I hope it will be as the real man says!"

Now for him, the biggest problem is the route and supplies to Anxi, because the time is urgent, so there is not much room to prepare, and the remnants of Lingwu's Tubo army must be solved as soon as possible.

Qingxuzi quickly changed the subject.

"I heard that the political affairs hall has issued an official document, and I intend to let the general sentence the military department, congratulations, congratulations!"

"It's all a matter of chasing after the wind and shadows, why should real people take it seriously?"

"No, no, this must have been approved and instructed by Doctor Qin, otherwise would you want to let an ordnance supervisor lead the army to quell the rebellion?"

Zheng Xianli thought about it for a while, and felt that Qing Xuzi's analysis also made some sense, and Huang Langzhong of the military department had also leaked a similar tone before, so he also felt that it should not be groundless at this time. As long as he can lead the troops, is he afraid that he will not have the opportunity to make meritorious contributions? Now that he has been promoted without even an inch of success, people feel very stressed.

"What, after being promoted, you still have a sad face, what is the reason?"

Qing Xuzi smiled strangely, teasing Zheng Xianli, who was stunned, only then did he react and hurriedly explained:

"It's not that Zheng is unwilling to be promoted, but he has no size, and he is only afraid of being criticized and causing trouble for Dr. Qin!"

"No, no, you and I have already reported that you and I have been officially promoted to the rank of general, so there must be a defensible reason, and there is no need to worry about the sky here alone!"

"That's good, that's good!"

"The order of the imperial court, the courtiers lead the troops to the battle, and they must be awarded the position of envoy, and the general uses the rank of squire of the military department as the envoy, and it is only two or three steps away from the general entering the phase, which is really enviable!"

As he spoke, Qingxuzi sighed as if he didn't have anything.

"In fact, it is also the envy of the poor Dao, the poor Dao is destined to be born and entered the WTO, and the poor Dao is not allowed to have any ideas......"

Qing Xuzi's self-dissection of the fog cover of Baiyun Mountain made Zheng Xianli inexplicable, and felt that he might be grandstanding again, so he didn't care.

The training of artillery is not only about firing artillery, but also about the basic steps of operating the gun most of the time, starting from cleaning the chamber and cooling the chamber, to charging and loading, all the steps must be carried out in strict accordance with the operation manual.

The operation manual was suggested by Ge Wenqing, and Zheng Xianli thought it was very useful, so he promoted it in the artillery camp. Fortunately, seven or eight out of ten of the artillery battalions were selected from the preparatory school, and the literate people accounted for the majority, and the illiterate ones were taught by the literate hands, and they had to memorize the operation manuals by heart.

Looking at the uniform and meticulous operation of the artillerymen, Qing Xuzi was very emotional:

"The general is also a good hand at training soldiers, I admire it, I admire it, I ..... it."

While he was talking, an artillery soldier made a mistake, and one of the soldiers actually doubled the gun chamber, and the gun commander found out and severely reprimanded the sloppy soldier.

Zheng Xianli did not participate in the daily training, and after all the regulations were listed, he was only responsible for the silent attention from the side.

"Some people have a bad memory and forget to fill a few spoons in the chamber of the gun*, if they fill it less, at most the range is insufficient, but if they fill it too much, the projectile will shoot out and lose its accuracy, and at the worst it is likely to explode, which will not only destroy the artillery worth thousands of dollars, but also endanger the gunner's life!"

Therefore, the operation manual of the artillery has made strict standards for all kinds of operations, but as long as it is carried out by people, there will always be such mistakes, and no matter how to avoid it, it is impossible to eliminate it. This made Zheng Xianli very helpless.

Watching the artillerymen continue to drill, Qing Xuzi seemed to be thoughtful, and suddenly he slapped his head:

"Yes, why don't the generals accurately measure the number of items that should be loaded and then set them in parchment? When operating the cannon, you only need to stuff the parchment-wrapped * directly into the barrel of the cannon, and everything will be fine, so that you don't have to count the charge from time to time......

Don't see that Xuzi usually speaks a little unreliable, but this suggestion has made Zheng Xianli's impression of him have changed a lot, think about it carefully, this is indeed a way to count in one fell swoop, if the * loaded with the gun chamber is ordered with parchment, not only can it greatly avoid misoperation, but also greatly improve the combat efficiency, not only that, from transportation to preservation, its efficiency will be greatly improved.

Qingxuzi continued:

"Poor Dao has been in charge of the firearms camp for two or three years, although it has been the role of a sparring partner over the years, but it has also summed up a lot of useful experience, for example, the transportation and preservation of this * has always been a headache, especially after the beginning of spring and summer, the heavy rain and rain rushed to the field, * most of them were damp, and the firearms camp was like a waste!"

Zheng Xianli nodded frequently, this is also a problem that has been bothering him, the * stored in the warehouse is very damp, although there is a particle method suggested by Dr. Qin, but it can't stand the humidity of the rainy day, as long as today's kung fu can make most of the * useless.

Qing Xuzi's words were obviously not finished, and after a while of emotion, he went straight to the point.

"So, after many failures, Poor Dao finally found a good way to prevent moisture!"

Zheng Xianli was overjoyed when he heard this, if Qing Xuzi really came up with an effective way to prevent moisture, the stability of firearms would not be improved a little.

After only hearing a few smacks from Xuzi, he continued:

"Speaking of which, Poor Dao also came up with this method after using parchment paper* to order, only to evenly and carefully apply grease to the cracks of the parchment paper at the time of packaging, or to apply it all over the body when the grease is sufficient, even if it is exposed to heavy rain for several days and nights, * can still be ignited......"

Before Qing Xuzi finished speaking, Zheng Xianli had already begun to rub his hands excitedly, if the firearms got rid of the big problem of dampness, it would only be a matter of time before the firearms battalion became the main force in the army. However, grease is not an ordinary thing, slaughtering livestock can get more than ten catties of fat, dozens of catties, but compared to the huge * amount, it seems to be a drop in the bucket.

"The price of sheep fat and cattle oil is high and the amount is small, and the most suitable is lard, the price is low and the amount is more, ordinary people raise two or three hundred pounds of big fat pigs, and it is very easy to boil out dozens of pounds of fat!"

At that time, people usually ate beef and mutton, among which beef was the most valuable, followed by mutton, but because the ploughing cattle undertook the grain, the imperial court ordered the world several times to prohibit the slaughter of ploughing cattle, so it was popular and unlimited only mutton was left.

Of course, mutton is not something that ordinary people can afford to eat anytime and anywhere, so the unpopular pork has become the main meat used by ordinary people to satisfy their cravings because of its low price and more meat. It is precisely because of this that it is not difficult to buy lard in the private sector, as long as it can be sold for money, it is also a large amount of income for the people's families!

Thinking of it, he was about to act, and Zheng Xianli was going to see Qin Jin, intending to discuss the purchase of lard. In addition to the need for money, there must also be the cooperation between the local government and the village elders, otherwise a seemingly simple matter can easily fail due to wishful thinking and negligence.

After Qin Jin learned about it, he naturally cooperated with Zheng Xianli unconditionally, but this matter still had to fall on the Fifth Qi, so he immediately wrote an official letter and ordered someone to send it to the Political Affairs Hall, he believed that with the ability of the Fifth Qi and the current efficiency of the Political Affairs Hall, there would be specific results in three or two days, and at most no more than seven days.

In fact, whether it is customized* or grease to prevent moisture, these methods are known to Qin Jin, but one of his thoughts is not used on this, and the other is that he also thinks that the promotion of firearms in the Shenwu Army can play a role of icing on the cake at most, after all, the long evolution process of firearms in history, as well as the unique tactical tactics that emerged with the improvement of firearms, these are not something that can be achieved overnight.

It's just that he didn't expect that Qing Xuzi and Zheng Xianli gave full play to their imagination and solved many key problems. For example, the operation manual promoted in the artillery battalion is a very successful example, once there is an operation manual, every artilleryman is skilled in strictly following the operation manual, then its role for the artillery is incalculable.

"How's the training of the artillery battalion?"

Qin Jin usually couldn't catch Zheng Xianli's people, so he just took this opportunity to personally inquire about the progress of the training.

"The biggest problem in the artillery battalion now is still the lack of personnel, once there is a combat and non-combat attrition, there is a serious shortage of supplementary soldiers!"

Qin Jin was surprised by Zheng Xianli's complaint at first, the Shenwu army had 60,000 or 70,000 people in Chang'an, how could it not be able to jump out of the qualified hundreds? But after listening to Zheng Xianli's explanation, he was not surprised, it turned out that Zheng Xianli's most demanding requirement was actually literacy!

"It's just an artilleryman, what do you need to be so literate? At most, people above the commander of the artillery can ask for literacy!"

Zheng Xianli has a deeper idea.

"Sooner or later, the artillery battalion will have to be expanded, and when the time comes, these already formed artillery units will be dispersed into the newly established battalions, and the old will soon be able to lead the new, and if you are not literate, the efficiency may be halved!"

Qin Jin smiled, he couldn't imagine that Zheng Xianli had thought so far when the artillery camp was only beginning to take shape, of course, this was also what he was happy to see.