After sending Yang Yingchao away, Wang Zezhi planned to go out of the customs to Guihua City to have a look.

It's been a long time since he went back to Datong Mansion, and he wants to see how the Naturalization City is developing.

"Report, Pingding Prefecture Cowherd asks to see."

As soon as Wang Zezhi ordered his personal guards and was about to leave, someone came to report.

The cowherd who went to Nanzhili to get horses is back.

There is a persistent pursuit of the king of war horses, and the more mounts the war horses have, the better.

"Let him in."

Before leaving the customs, there was not much delay in seeing the Cowherd, and Wang Zezhi did not set off for the time being.

When the cowherd came to the General Military Department, he was a little cramped and squeaky and didn't speak for a long time.

"How did you become like a girl when you went to the south, if you have anything to say, don't squeak."

"You're a girl, your whole family is a girl, bad luck, I fell into blood mold." The Cowherd was stimulated by Wang Zeyi, took the tea from his subordinates with a big grin, stepped on the chair with one foot and drank it.

"It's a long story, but it's a long story short, our Niu family spent a lot of effort to buy back 10,000 high-quality war horses from Jiangnan, and we were angry when we said it.

We crossed the Yellow River through Henan, and as soon as we arrived in Shanxi, we met Song Tongyin, the governor of Shanxi who was patrolling the Yellow River.

If it weren't for the fact that our Niu family still had some connections in the court, my little life would not be guaranteed. ”

It is generally believed that it is impossible for the south to have high-quality war horses, but this is actually a misunderstanding.

After Genghis Khan founded the country, horse farms were opened all over the country, and Jiangnan was no exception.

Due to the fertile water and soil in the south of the Yangtze River, the war horses raised in the south are stronger than those in the north.

Wang Zezhi was not calm when he heard this, it turned out that the eight thousand elite horses in Song Tongyin's hands were formed by confiscating the war horses of the Cowherd.

He gritted his teeth and said, "This dog officer confiscated all my horses?" ”

Wang Zeyi slapped the table and startled the cowherd.

"Yes, it's the dog officer, he confiscated all the war horses I got for you, what do you say? Hey..."The Cowherd rubbed his fingers and said with a grin.

"Hey, he's the governor of Shanxi, holding me hostage, and I can't help it, so you can admit it." Wang Zezhi blinked indifferently, picked up the tea brought by his subordinates and drank it.

"Don't, look, I've got another 3,000 horses, hehe... Adding some silver to the original price of the horse at least made me lose less so much. "The Cowherd played the nature of a profiteer and began to bargain with Wang Zezhi.

"Oh, that's what you do, you made a lot of money if you didn't capsize, and if you capsized, you have to admit it, you came here and asked me for silver, it's not appropriate."

Besides, if you often walk by the river, how can you not get your shoes wet, this is a risk you have to take. ”

Wang Zezhi did not plan to give up this money, and strongly objected.

"Don't mind, you don't know, this south is not very peaceful, not to mention the thieves along the way, even the layers of exploitation of officials and military masters are enough for me to drink a pot, besides, the road in the south is not easy to walk, either floods or mudslides.

I'll tell you, if I make these two trips, it's a big loss.

In the future, if you just add money to me, I won't go, I am looking at the friendship between the two of us, so I specially ran for you for a second trip, and made up for 3,000 war horses to come back. ”

The cowherd was anxious.

What he said was the truth, the road was indeed not easy, otherwise he would not have brought back the war horse until August.

"Okay, you've talked about it, I'm not a stingy person, a horse will add ten taels of silver to the original price, but there is one condition, that is, I bother you to run again and get more war horses back."

When the cowherd heard that Wang Zezhi was willing to add money, he immediately smiled, but when Wang Zezhi finished speaking.

His face immediately collapsed.

"Oh, this business in the south is really not easy to do, and the people in the south are not brighter than the people in our north, I didn't tell you, I also received more than a thousand sick horses, and I lost it."

"Knowing that it is not easy for you, in this way, if you run again, I will add fifteen taels to a horse." Wang Zezhi patted the cowherd's shoulder and said temptingly.

The cowherd frowned and fell into thought.

"A big man hurry up, a horse plus twenty taels, if you don't agree, I'll find someone else." Wang Zezhi pretended to be unhappy, and with a wave of his sleeves, he planned to leave.

"Deal, deal, don't go, I have something to tell you." The cowherd's eyes lit up and he hurriedly chased after him.

Wang Zezhi ignored him, rode his war horse to greet the guards, and prepared to go out of the customs to Guihua City.

"Next time."

"Don't go, look, I brought you something good, and a foreigner." The Cowherd shouted as he pointed to a strangely dressed, European-looking man and a wheeled cannon.

Originally, Wang Zezhi had just mounted his horse, and when he saw the cannon, he immediately jumped off his horse.

"My good man, the early cannon of Europe."

In Europe during the Chongzhen period, the main opponents of artillery were fortresses, elite infantry and enemy warships.

Faced with the threat of artillery, Western countries launched a spear and shield contest.

In the second half of the 15th century, the rudiments of Italian bastions began to appear, and by the 16th century, they became popular elsewhere in Europe, and they were called "Italian" castles.

The evolution of shields also contributed to the evolution of artillery technology, and the monarchs of various countries burned their money on artillery.

As a result, this cannon with a long barrel, a small firing elevation angle, a low and flat trajectory, a direct aim for shooting, and a high muzzle velocity of the shell was produced.

Europeans called this cannon with a long barrel cannon, and the length of the barrel at that time was 16~22 times the caliber.

Bronze long-barreled cannons of smaller caliber and long-barreled cannons forged from wrought iron appeared in Europe, which replaced the previous mortar cannons and also adopted a forward carriage to facilitate rapid movement and passage through undulating terrain.

In the early 16th century, the Italian N. Tartaglia discovered the law of the maximum range of artillery shells fired at an angle of 45 degrees in a vacuum, which laid the foundation for the theoretical study of artillery.

Around 1600, some countries began to use medicated cartridges to increase the speed of launch and the accuracy of shooting.

During the period of bronze naval artillery casting in Spain, Galileo's ballistic parabolic theory and Newton's research on air resistance promoted the development of artillery.

During the reign of King Gustav II of Sweden, the mobility of artillery was increased by reducing the weight of artillery and standardizing it.

At this time, Europe had begun to replace the bulk gunpowder inside the ignition hole with a tube filled with gunpowder, simplifying the process of aiming and loading.

The development of European artillery technology has far surpassed that of the Ming Dynasty at this time.

It is the most powerful red-coated cannon in the Ming Dynasty, which was salvaged from the British warship sunk in the waters of the Ming Dynasty, and then it was cast after transformation.

Don't blame Wang Zezhi for his gaffe, if this kind of cannon is bought back in large quantities, it will be an artifact to crush the enemy in the Ming Dynasty at this time.