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"Your Majesty, this is also normal, since Li Shimin can kill Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, he can kill Li Yuan and other brothers. According to Cheng Zhijie, Li Shimin may have been mentally abnormal. But because of the life-saving grace of him, he remained loyal to him. Qin Qiong bowed down and said.

Yuming nodded, and then asked, "Did Cheng Zhijie say where did Li Shimin flee?" ”

He said that Li Shimin had entered a secret passage in the palace, which led to the outside of the city, and now Li Shimin may have fled to Zhongnan Mountain. Because only there are high mountains and dense forests, so it is easy to hide. Qin Qiong replied.

"The order went down: immediately send people to Zhongnanshan, as well as all towns and villages in Guanzhong, and post Li Shimin's portrait throughout the country. Anyone who kills or catches Li Shimin will be rewarded with 1,000 taels of gold, and anyone who reports a valid line will also be rewarded with 10 taels of gold! Yu Ming said with a solemn face.

"The last general obeys!" Qin Qiong nodded, and then went down to make arrangements.

Yu Ming walked out of the Wude Palace, which was still smoking, and looked at the soldiers of the Zhou Army who were busy taking over the defense in the palace, and said with a long sigh of relief: "The world is finally unified, but Li Shimin has not been caught yet." However, as long as you hunt carefully, it must not be difficult to find this person. Moreover, the power of the Li family has almost been wiped out. Even if Li Shimin runs to safety, it will probably be difficult to raise troops again and turn over......"

The fire in Chang'an was extinguished in just one day, and after the Zhou army took over the city's defense, normal order in the city was quickly restored. The big merchants, celebrities, and nobles in the city all came to see Yuming and expressed their allegiance to the Zhou Dynasty. And Yuming also encouraged him, saying that he would not pursue the past, even if they supported the Tang Dynasty, as long as they were loyal to the Great Zhou now, they would not blame the past.

After all, most of these people are from Guanlongmen Valve, and they are from the same faction as their own family. And in his own Great Zhou court, the Guanlongmen valve was the weakest faction among them. If there was a need for balance, he would rather like to establish a factional situation in which the Guanlongmen Valve, the Shandong Shi Clan, and the Jiangnan Shi Clan were fully established.

Then, after the electoral system is popularized, the DPRK and Chinese officials will formally form a party and compete for the post of prime minister.

"I don't know how Zhou Tao, Song Jingang, and Hu Sizheng fought in their war against Japan. There should be a preliminary result now, right? Yu Ming looked at the eastern sky and muttered.

……

At the same time that the Zhou army launched the battle against Guanzhong, Zhou Tao was also preparing to start an expedition to Ryukyu in Jiangdu, and before leaving, when he had the last meeting before preparing to go to sea, he excitedly got into a person from outside the conference hall, and then said with a happy face: "Brother, I have developed it!" What the emperor said about the trigger fuse, I finally got it! ”

This man was in his twenties, his face was covered with black smoke, and his green shirt was full of burnt holes, looking embarrassed, but his face was happy.

He is Zhou Tao's younger brother Zhou Qiang. Since the sailors were to be concentrated in Jiangdu, he also followed him to Jiangdu, and used this month's reorganization time to continue to study the artillery and shells that Yuming said.

"Good! Take me to see it! After Zhou Tao heard this, his face was overjoyed. It was the best news he'd ever heard.

Together, they went to the shooting range by the river, where seven or eight crockpots and a catapult launched by a winch were placed.

Zhou Qiang saw that Zhou Tao seemed dissatisfied when he saw this pile of things, and hurriedly explained: "Brother, what Your Majesty said about using gunpowder to launch cannonballs, and the method of making cannonballs into cones with copper shells or iron sheets is indeed ingenious!" It's just that in this way, the cost of shells has increased a lot, and our R&D expenses have not yet been allocated by the Ministry of Finance. In addition, the barrel is still a little bit off to be developed, so I haven't done research on firing yet. Now we have to use clay pots as shells for shells and ship-borne catapults for launch. If the barrel problem can be solved smoothly later. I'm going to take the next step of development right away! ”

Zhou Tao looked at him in sloppy clothes, and his expression was embarrassed, but his expression was still persistent, and he was also very heartbroken.

At this time, he patted his younger brother on the shoulder and said movingly: "Brother, you have done a good job!" If you really study the artillery and shells in its entirety, then we will definitely win this war against Japan. ”

Zhou Qiang was encouraged, and he also patted his chest and said: "Brother, don't worry, even if you don't eat or sleep as a younger brother, you must get this artillery out for you...... Let's take a look at these ones first! ”

As he spoke, several soldiers had already placed a cannonball made of crockpot on the catapult, and then turned the winch to tighten the rubber band......

"Put!" Zhou Qiang shouted.

With a "tom", the gray crockpot immediately flew out of the catapult, crossed a gray arc in the air, and crashed into a pile of stones more than ten feet away.

"Boom!"

A loud bang was followed by a deafening bang, and the explosion and the ensuing wave of air startled everyone who were onlookers.

When the smoke cleared, I saw that the pile of stones that had been piled up in the shape of a conical had been blown flat. The scene was filled with a pungent smell of Liuhuang, and the ground turned charred black. Within a radius of more than ten zhang with the explosion point as the center, there were scattered stone fragments.

The explosion of this crockpot bomb was so powerful that everyone present was shocked.

Song Jingang, Hu Sizheng and the others were dumbfounded, if this crockpot bomb fell on the ship and exploded, wouldn't it blow up a big hole in the hull and deck? Even if it is a large warship, as long as it hits a few such bombs, it will definitely sink.

However, Zhou Tao did not look ecstatic, he frowned and said, "Brother, how many such shells have you made?" ”

Zhou Qiang heard the meaning of his words, and hurriedly replied: "There are probably more than forty more!" But I can't guarantee that all of them will be as powerful as they were just now. Because there are fewer craftsmen from the former Weapons Manufacturing Bureau who came to Jiangdu with me, and many of them are not skilled workers. In addition, there was an explosion in the manufacturing process, which killed several craftsmen, causing many craftsmen who originally participated in the development to be afraid of being blown up, so they did not dare to continue to participate in the development...... Alas, I have betrayed the trust of the emperor and my eldest brother, and my research has slowed down. Please also punish my brother! ”

Zhou Tao also knew that he had done his best, so he hurriedly said: "Brother, I don't blame you, but now the attack on Ryukyu is imminent, and I will go on the expedition tomorrow." These **** people said from the Jiangdu Naval Division that the strength of the Japanese naval division is not weak, and their country is surrounded by the sea, so the naval division is good at naval warfare. However, although our army has a large number of strong ships and men, most of the officers and men of the naval division fight in the rivers and lack experience in fighting at sea. If you fight head-on, you will suffer heavy casualties even if you win. So, I think we can only work on this newly developed artillery......"

He thought for a moment at this time and then said: "Brother, you don't have to worry about the cost, the emperor once explained that he will allocate as much money as you need for artillery research and development." You can immediately create a budget and ask for an emergency appropriation directly to the emperor. As long as you have money, are you afraid that you won't be able to recruit enough craftsmen? At most, it's just a high salary...... In addition, those soldiers who are ingenious, bold and careful, and have certain manufacturing skills can also be selected from the army to join the development. After all, it is not easy to manage the craftsmen outside, and it will also leak secrets! ”

Speaking of this, Zhou Taofang said to everyone present with a serious expression: "Everyone has remembered clearly: don't mention anything about the development of our army's artillery and artillery shells!" If anyone accidentally says something and misses his mouth, don't blame me Zhou Tao for turning his face and not recognizing people! ”

When everyone heard this, they immediately straightened their waists and said, "Don't worry, the governor!" Even if this is rotten in the stomach, the subordinates will never talk about it to anyone! ”

Zhou Taofang smiled and nodded, and then said to Zhou Qiang: "Brother, you have worked hard these days, I hope to come up with a safe way to use this artillery shell in naval battles." ”

Zhou Qiang hurriedly stood up straight, nodded with a solemn expression, and said, "Brother, don't worry!" I'm going to try my best to get the guns on the battleship as soon as possible! I also hope that they will be able to do their best in war......"

The expedition was about to begin, and the shells naturally did not have time to improve. Zhou Taoxing ordered all the more than 40 bombs to be put on the battleship, which may be able to play a miraculous effect when the naval battle is at a critical time.

At this time, all the recruits recruited from all over the south of the Yangtze River also arrived. Their arrival made Zhou Tao's confidence a lot more sufficient, after all, these recruits have rich experience in sea navigation.

Zhou Tao calculated that his strength was already firmly above the Japanese fleet stationed in the Ryukyus, and the number of ships alone was twice that of the Japanese sailors. Not to mention the recapture of the Ryukyus, it is more than enough to fight to the Japanese mainland.

After setting sail, Zhou Tao and Hu Sizheng, Song Jingang and other generals discussed on the ship for a whole day before finally finalizing the final battle plan.

The proposed battle plan was to besiege Ryukyu in two parts, with the main fleet led by Zhou Tao and Hu Sizheng attacking Ryukyu from the west.

The detachment was led by Song Jingang and King Tokuaki of the Ryukyus, and stayed in the waters northeast of the Ryukyus.

According to the assumption, under the attack of the superior forces of the main fleet of the Zhou army, the commander of the Japanese naval division would not fight hard with the Zhou naval division as long as he was not an idiot, let alone trapped in the isolated island of Ryukyu, and he might flee to the northeast and strive to escape back to Japan. At this time, Song Jingang led the detachment to intercept it, and under the front and rear attacks, the Japanese sailors were outnumbered and besieged, and the whole army was destroyed.

After this plan was drafted, it was unanimously agreed by everyone. The whole army was gearing up, and when they reached the Ryukyus, they launched a general attack.

...