In the court of the Northern Han Dynasty in Jinyang, there were many people who wrote books to discuss that the Great Zhou was going to attack the Northern Han Dynasty. People use various signs as evidence, and it is said that the main direction of the Zhou army's attack has turned to the north. It is also said that the Great Zhou did not take back the power of the generals of the forbidden army, because he wanted to continue to use force.

In short, after the Great Zhou successively annexed large areas of land in Shu, Southern Tang, Nanping, and Wuping, it is now a superpower in the south, and its national strength and population have rivaled that of the Great Liao; In comparison, the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty is too small...... The territory is too small, and the people, food, money, and materials are all very poor, and they cannot support a large-scale long-term war. Moreover, the Great Zhou Emperor Guo Blacksmith was a pure martial artist and had a good reputation.

Liu Jun, the lord of the Northern Han Dynasty, faced a great threat of force, and it was difficult to sleep and eat.

The ministers wanted to share the worries of the lord of the country. Someone suggested talking to Da Zhouguo, but even Liu Jun himself felt that he couldn't talk about it.

The grievances between Hedong and the Central Plains are too deep; The Northern Han Kingdom and the Zhou Kingdom also had too deep grievances. Zhou Taizu Guo Wei rebelled and destroyed the (later) Han Dynasty; The founding emperor of the Northern Han Dynasty was the younger brother of the (later) Han Gaozu, and the Northern Han lord always believed that the Guo family had plotted to seize their Liu family's country, which was completely a feud. The Northern Han State proclaimed itself the "nephew emperor" to the Great Liao and sought refuge in the Liao State, and the camp it stood on was also completely hostile. In addition, there are more old hatreds: the Battle of Gaoping when Chai Rong ascended the throne, and the Northern Han State has always supported the hostilities of Shu, Southern Tang, etc...... and the hatred that has been fought by both sides for many years.

Sometimes, for the sake of profit, even enemies can talk between two countries. However, there are some countries that really can't talk about each other, and the relationship between the Northern Han and the Great Zhou is just that can't be discussed. Only by fighting......

So some ministers suggested reusing Zhao Kuangyin, feeling that Zhao Kuangyin was a good general and familiar with the military politics and tactics of the Zhou State. But Liu Jun quickly politely refused, saying that there was no shortage of good generals in the Northern Han Kingdom, such as "Yang Invincible" (Yang Ye), these are all one-in-a-thousand battlefield generals...... In fact, Liu Jun didn't fully trust Yang Ye, because Yang Ye's younger brother was a defensive envoy in the Great Zhou; Compared with Zhao Kuangyin and Guo Blacksmith's grudge, Yang Ye is not as good as Zhao Kuangyin in terms of position.

But Liu Jun believes that Zhao Kuangyin is more difficult to control than Yang Ye in that Yang Ye is a pure military general, and Zhao Kuangyin is a person like Guo Shao. Liu Jun didn't want to see Zhao Kuangyin grow in the Northern Han Dynasty.

Although Liu Jun was worried, he had not yet reached the point of burning his eyebrows...... After all, whether the Zhou army was going to use troops against the Northern Han Dynasty was still at the stage of speculation, and there was no indication inside and outside Tokyo that the Zhou army was mobilizing troops and horses to prepare for the use of force.

…… Moreover, although the Northern Han Kingdom is small and strong, it is not a country to bully. Liu Jun was busy trying to find a way to prepare for weapons, and when he heard that Zhao Kuangyin's people had captured the craftsman who made the armor, he sent someone to take over the prisoners and take charge of the matter.

Liu Jun had seen that kind of armor with his own eyes, and he attached great importance to this matter, and the person who sent it was Li Xin, a member of the Privy Council.

Li Xin was a very talented civil official, and when he met the place where the prisoners were held, he knew that the craftsman surnamed Lu had no goods in his stomach, and this person did not even have a name, and he was called Lu Da.

Li Xin "chuckled", knowing that this errand was difficult. If a man has something hidden in his stomach, if it falls into his hand, there are a hundred ways to make him vomit it; But if the man has nothing in his stomach, how can he vomit?

"Li Fushi, do we want to bring the torture instruments in?" A leader of the officials asked.

Lu Da's body trembled when he heard this, and his face turned white.

Li Xin raised his head slightly, his bright little eyes swept over Lu Da's face, and said, "Don't use it for the time being." ”

"Whoa." The officer replied with a fist.

Li Xin looked through the file in his hand unhurriedly and read the things about this person recorded on it. In order to save his life, Lu Da betrayed a head of the armor workshop surnamed Sun and killed the whole family of the head of the fang...... Seeing this, Li Xin remembered Lu Da's expression just now, and was already convinced in his heart that this person was not a hard-boned person, he had been forced to the end of his rope, and it was useless to persecute him too much.

"Is the death of Sun Fangtou's family related to you?" Li Xin asked, his tone not fierce.

Lu Da looked sad and nodded. The servant next to him scolded: "No long mouth? Lu Da hurriedly replied: "Yes, it is related to ......."

Li Xin turned his head and glanced at the leader of the servants, and the man was busy bending down and not speaking. Li Xin said again: "If you flee back to Zhou now, will the government want to settle accounts with you?" ”

Lu Dadao: "Yes. ”

Li Xin beckoned: "Take away his shackles and shackles." ”

Lu Da is busy and thankful, and he is very grateful.

Li Xin said again: "You stayed here for the time being, and now think about what you saw in the armor workshop." As long as what is said is of little use, there will be food to eat and water to drink today. Do you understand? ”

Lu Da hurriedly nodded, thought about it, and gestured: "A big hammer, iron!" Bang bang bang bang ......"

Li Xin frowned, but still picked up the pen and recorded it.

Lu Da stretched out his hand and rubbed his temples, thinking for a long time: "There is such a big one, at least a few thousand pounds!" The chain was pulled up and down, and there was an anvil underneath...... The armor is pounded out from below! ”

Li Xin asked, "How many thousand catties, nine thousand, three thousand?" ”

"Two or three thousand catties, or one or two thousand catties? It's heavy anyway! Lu Da frowned.

Li Xin asked, "Do you remember anything?" ”

Lu Dadao: "There are wheels on the wall, and the iron chain leads to the next door, and I haven't been to the next ......"

Li Xin nodded, didn't ask any more, and said, "You two just look at it, and give him water to drink later." Then he got up and left, went to the door, and said to his men, "Go and hire some blacksmiths first." ”

……

"Drive!" Guo Shao, who was carrying the head, shouted, and led the group to ride horses in the North Garden of the Imperial City. A wall in front of it appeared at the end of the meadow.

It seemed to be a small city, with brick-clad walls and battlements built on it, but the city walls were relatively thin and low without considering the military defense function, and that was the experimental workshop set up by the Ordnance Superintendent. Now Guo Shao has done a good job of secrecy, this small city has only one gate, and the inside is almost isolated from the outside; Moreover, the small city itself is within the walls of the imperial city, and it is even more difficult to contact the outside world.

Moreover, there is no place for the world to know, and only the two yamen of the Ordnance Supervisor and the Ministry of Internal Service know about it.

This place is now developing firearms in accordance with Guo Shao's wishes.

The firearms have been tested for the first time, and the ordnance supervisor Zan Jurun wrote a piece of music today, but Guo Shao was not very satisfied...... It's not that Zan Ju Jun is incompetent, or that the article is not well written, but in fact, the cantata is very beautifully written and detailed; However, it is always a shortcoming of strict logic, and the thinking habits of the ancients did not have the method of dividing into categories, which may be the reason why they have not seen it.

So Guo Shao planned to go on a trip to see the situation in person.

Upon entering some of the makeshift houses, which were the living quarters of the craftsmen, then entering another door, and soon arriving at the workshop area. There are all kinds of blacksmith tools, iron, charcoal, and bellows in it, and Guo Shao has a sense of familiarity and intimacy when he arrives.

A group of dozens of people knelt on the ground and shouted, "Your Majesty has no borders." ”

"Get up." Guo Shao said casually.

Zan Jurun and the two civil officials bowed down and stood beside Guo Shao and took him to see things. When I arrived in a room, I saw rows of metal pipes of different colors on the board.

Zan Jurun said: "Your Majesty, it is all made according to your will. You see, this one is a cast iron pipe, and there are five of the same iron pipes. After casting first, the inner wall is slowly drilled and smoothed, but the molten iron is slow to cool and there are sand hole bubbles. The iron pipe is relatively narrow, and the size of the lead shot is just right when testing the gun...... Blown up. The cast iron is too brittle, and the inner walls are not too smooth. ”

Guo Shao nodded slightly.

Zan Jurun pointed to another, bigger one: "This branch is also a cast iron pipe, but the pipe wall is thicker, the diameter is larger, and it is short and thick. It wasn't bad, but it was only ten paces away, and it couldn't wear a plank. The thief thought that this thing was not practical, worse than a pike gun (javelin), and it was troublesome. ”

He changed another one and said, "This thing is made of wrought iron after repeated forging, with an iron rod as the core; Then the drill is smooth. Lead shots are the right size. I tried it, and the iron pipe forging joint was propped up......"

Zan Jurun reported several kinds of metal pipes in a row. It's all Guo Shao's meaning...... Because Guo Shao couldn't remember the process of the gun barrel at all, he adopted the classification test method: as long as he could think of a method, he tried to make one, and then tested the performance one by one.

The techniques of casting and forging are completely easy for blacksmiths in this era. The only novelty is the method of classification experiments and the assumptions.

Zan Jurun said for a while, pointing to a blue-gray tube: "It is cast in bronze, and it is also the best branch." First cast with bronze molding, and then the latte drill drill is smooth, bronze is softer than iron, and it is easier to drill...... However, there is often some clutter in it, and it still can't be made too smooth. When sending ** lead pills, you can hit the farthest, you can wear a thin plank in 40 steps, and you can wear iron armor in 20 steps, and you don't have any accurate head...... It's still much inferior to a bow and crossbow. ”

Guo Shao heard that it was the best thing in comparison, so he picked it up and looked at it. When I hold it in my hand, I feel very heavy, and then it is thicker and shorter; The caliber is not large, and the wall is very thick. He looked at it for a while, and he always felt that something was wrong. He has never seen a real fire gun, but he has seen a ** gun that shoots birds, and he has seen it on TV; It's not at all like this. He had the impression that the gun was much more slender, not such a thick stick.

As for why this copper pipe is a bit short, Guo Shao is also a blacksmith, and he knows the process, and he can't make a too long sand mold for casting such a small-caliber pipe as a whole.

And I heard Zan Jurun say that it takes forty steps to wear a thin plank, and twenty steps can be more lethal, and there is no accuracy...... Guo Shao's heart was even more cold, thinking about shooting arrows by himself, shooting a hundred steps can still roughly maintain a crosshair! This gap is also too far.

However, when I thought about it, ordinary marksmen were not as powerful as their own bows and arrows, and it was only a few dozen steps away to maintain their accuracy and lethality, so I felt a little relieved in my heart.