As soon as the Lantern Festival passed, even if the year was over, everyone began to get busy with business, in the second year of Taijian, Emperor Chen Xu officially appointed Zhennan General Wu Mingchedu to supervise the military affairs, organize and train the new army, prepare grain and grass, and plan the Northern Expedition!

Qin County of Northern Qi and Jinling are across the river, threatening Jinling at all times, and he has always been a thorn in Chen Xu's side, and he also needs to do a big thing to divert the contradictions in the court and stabilize his throne after seizing the throne of his nephew!

Therefore, aligning operations is the best choice, which can not only recover the lost territory, relieve the worries of Jiangbei, but also greatly enhance your prestige!

Therefore, as soon as he usurped the throne and came to power, he wantonly worshiped the generals and feudal marquis, and actively prepared for military operations, the so-called army did not move the grain and grass first, and the ancient war did not mean that the war would be fought at the beginning, and a lot of preparations should be made in the early stage: the collection of pre-war intelligence, combat strategy, marching deployment, material supply, and so on.

So as soon as the New Year was over, Xiao Moke was summoned by the main general Wu Mingche to discuss the military, and Xiao Yao was actually accompanied by him! This kind of top-secret high-level military meeting, even his own son Xiao Shilian is not qualified to participate, but Wu Mingche specially asked Xiao Moke to bring Xiao Yao to participate.

When I came to the heavily guarded and heavily guarded White Tiger Festival Hall, I saw two old men in their fifties and sixties sitting in the hall. The leader is Wu Mingche, and there is also Huang Faqu, the general of Zhengxi, next to him, who is the person in charge of this military operation!

"The last general, Xiao Moke, see General Wu, General Huang!" Xiao Moke saluted.

"General Xiao doesn't have to be polite, presumably this is your righteous son, the man of the hour in Jinling City, Xiao Yao, Xiao Shilang!" Wu Mingche stroked his gray beard and asked, only to see that he looked calm, and his eyes were bright, as if he was shining with sharp light.

"Back to General Wu, this is the last general's son, Xiao Yao! Shiro, don't hurry up and see the two generals! Xiao Moke hurriedly introduced Xiao Yao.

"Xiao Yao, see the two generals!" Xiao Yao was full of anger, straightened up, and looked at Wu Mingche, and for a while, the scene suddenly quieted down.

"Good, good! Sure enough, Yu Xuanang, a heroic boy, haha! Wu Mingche suddenly clapped his hands and laughed, "Xiao Shilang! The old man has also heard some rumors from you, even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince dares to offend, and he is really not afraid of power! ”

"Yes, daring to look at the battle-hardened General Wu at a young age is indeed bold!" Huang Faqu also echoed and laughed.

"Born calves are not afraid of tigers! It is said that this Xiao Shilang, who is articulate and intellectual, knows why I asked you to come to this important military land, the White Tiger Festival Hall? Wu Mingche looked at Xiao Yao and asked.

In fact, even Xiao Moke is a little strange: if Wu Mingche was just curious and wanted to see Xiao Yao, let me take him to his house, but now he wants to summon him here, you must know that this White Tiger Festival Hall is the place where the supreme military commander of Chen State discusses military aircraft affairs!

Xiao Yao smiled and said, "The White Tiger Festival Hall is an important place for military aircraft, and it must be a big matter for me, a grass people, to come here!" I guess it should be General Wu who enjoyed the fireworks! ”

"Clever! Sure enough, it is unparalleled in intelligence! Haha, General Xiao, you have a good son! It will be a great thing in the future! Wu Mingche laughed.

"Enjoyed the fireworks? Could it be that General Wu wants to ask Shiro for fireworks? Xiao Moke's mind hadn't turned for a while.

"Father-in-law, it is a spectacular and beautiful firework to shoot fireworks upwards, but what if the fireworks are sprayed horizontally?" Xiao Yao asked Xiao Moke with a smile.

"Squirt horizontally! Ah, that's going to be a powerful weapon of fire! Xiao Moke clapped his hands and shouted.

Wu Mingche stroked his beard and said with a smile: "When the emperor ordered me to start preparing for the Northern Expedition, what bothered me the most and paid the most attention was crossing the river!" If you want to go on a northern expedition, you must first cross the river, and you must defeat the warships of the Qi State! ”

"And this is the first battle of the Northern Expedition, and it must be won! But before the battle with the Qi army, they knew that our warships were very powerful, so they did not dare to fight in close combat, if we attacked, they would definitely use bows and arrows to resist, and the Qi soldiers were all amazing arm strength, excellent archery, then our army will definitely suffer heavy casualties! ”

"Fire attack is the first choice in water warfare, relying on archers to shoot rockets alone, we have no advantage, if the Qi army also counterattacks with fire attack, then our army is in danger! It wasn't until Chinese New Year's Eve, when the emperor and I enjoyed the fireworks paid tribute by the General Commercial Bank, that I suddenly turned it off! ”

"Could it be that General Wu means that he wants to use fireworks instead of rockets to carry out fire attacks? But I've seen the fireworks, and they can only fly less than 20 zhang, and they can't shoot far with a bow and arrow! Huang Faqu questioned.

"So that's why I asked him to come to the White Tiger Festival Hall! The ancestor boss of General Motors said that this firework was made by Xiao Shilang, and General Xiao also said that Shiro was proficient in mechanical firearms, so I specially met him here, just to ask him if he could make fireworks that shoot farther than an arrow! Wu Mingche finally said his purpose.

"Yes! I can make weapons that are 100 times more powerful than fireworks! Xiao Yao immediately agreed without thinking, if you really want to sleep, someone will send a pillow!

Relying solely on the reason of making fireworks, it is difficult to increase the output of gunpowder, after all, this is only a business of the General Firm, but if it is turned into munitions and has the support of the military, then the emperor will give whatever resources he wants!

"Really?" The three generals all stood up excitedly and asked.

"Of course! Using a firework launcher cast in bronze, this weapon called artillery can shoot a fist-sized solid iron pellet 500 zhang away in an instant! And the power is amazing, sinking their ship is a breeze! Xiao Yao thought of the Napoleonic bronze cannon that was not enough to be cast at the beginning.

"Good! It's really as you said, Xiao Yao, the old man ordered you to make this kind of weapon called artillery immediately! Wu Mingche's eyes lit up when he heard that he could easily sink the enemy ship!

"General Wu, don't worry, I haven't finished talking yet, but this weapon has a big drawback! It's just that it's expensive! Because it costs more copper, it has to be cast with a lot of copper! Xiao Yao said with a smile.

"Fei Tong? How much copper do you want? Wu Mingche didn't react.

"About 2,000 pounds of copper! Of course, there are also tin and lead and other metals, because it is to be cast into a 2,500-pound bronze launcher! Of course, this is not counting the labor, fuel and other costs! Xiao Yao said sincerely.

"I want 2,000 pounds of copper! I want other metals, other expenses! How much silver does that cost! Are you kidding! Wu Mingche was taken aback on the spot, fortunately he didn't say just now that he was going to make 100 of these weapons first!

"Gunpowder is something I developed that can explode violently in an instant, and when I exterminated the Dragon Gang, my father-in-law also saw its power! The principle of fireworks is to put less than one or two gunpowder in a small bamboo tube, you can make it spray 10 zhang away, if you want to shoot farther, you need to put more gunpowder, then the launcher must withstand the power of gunpowder explosion, so you have to use bronze to cast a large copper pipe! Xiao Yao explained.

"And how much does it cost to forge a weapon like this?" Wu Mingche asked cautiously.

"Well, this, I don't know about this, I haven't made this thing either, I won't know how much it costs until it's made!" Xiao Yao scratched his head and said embarrassedly.