The northeast of Hanjing, three thousand miles away. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The first fortress at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Beisha City.

Li Chao and Zhang Zhongjian walked side by side, the majestic war horse walked with gentle steps, and the horse's mane danced and flew in the wind. Li Chao was dressed in an iron armor and covered with a brocade coat. He hung a jade sword at his waist and pressed the hilt of the sword with one hand.

The jade-encrusted scabbard struck the saddle from time to time, and the bell rattled.

Zhang Zhongjian was straight, and his trademark curly beard covered half of his face.

They walked on the Great Black Mountain, the mountain road was not wide, it spiraled up, and the trees on the side of the road were verdant. It's a fortress that has turned a mountain into a castle, but even the strongest castle has its time to be breached. Sui conquered Goguryeo, and Laihu'er once broke through this city.

Now, after 20 years, the army from the Central Plains has once again broken through the city.

The fierce fighting is over, and there are still many places in the mountain castle filled with fireworks. The road was also littered with lying corpses. There were 5,000 defenders in Guancheng, and there were thousands of soldiers, families and people in the city, but it only took three days for Li Chao to capture this fortress.

With the artillery, Li Chao blasted all the way, and no one could stop him.

"It cost me tens of thousands of pounds of shells, and this mountain city is really strong." Li Chao said with a chuckle. "But no matter how strong the city is, it can't be stopped under this artillery fire."

Zhang Zhongjian is still thinking about the thunderous sound in his mind.

"I really can't imagine that there is such a siege weapon, let alone the Goguryeo people, even me, I was also shocked. And you actually put such sharp weapons on the ship, and now I really believe that you can easily capture South Vietnam, as you said before. It's really unstoppable! ”

Li Chao glanced at Zhang Zhongjian and said with a casual smile, "Since ancient times, attack and defense, like spears and shields, have been constantly evolving. With a sharper spear, there will be a stronger shield. Although the cannon is fierce, it is only because of the use of new casting, and the general public does not understand its characteristics. In fact, artillery still has many disadvantages, such as high casting cost, long time, inconvenient transportation, high consumption, the need for specialized artillery and so on. ”

"But you still pulled the cannon under the city of Beisha and fired two or three thousand shells, didn't you?"

"Yes, but let me tell you, our cannon is made of iron, although the cost has been reduced several times, but the life of the bronze cast cannon can be 1,000 rounds, but the life of the iron cast gun is only about 600 rounds. It took a lot of money to cast such a big guy, and the result was only 600 rounds of life. ”

The bearded guest was shocked.

"Only 600 rounds? Impossible, right? ”

"What's impossible, this thing, everywhere it is used, it is reduced. Six hundred times, this is the data obtained from the test, after six hundred times, it is almost useless, or it is not easy to blow up. ”

"What about the musket, how many shots can it fire?" Zhang Zhongjian didn't expect that the seemingly sharp firearm still had so many shortcomings.

"Muskets are even worse than artillery, with a life span of about a hundred rounds."

"Only a hundred?"

It's almost useless, so you can only go back to the furnace and recast.

Zhang Zhongjian shook his head, "In this way, I think this musket is also very ordinary, it shoots slowly, shoots closely, and can't shoot accurately, but it can't be used in strong winds and rainy days, and the cost is quite high." It's far worse than a bow and a crossbow! ”

Li Chao did not refute either, before the mass production of flintlock muskets, musketeers were indeed a relatively weak class, and they could not be compared with archers who were also ranged soldiers. Of course, the musketeer also has its uses, he doesn't need much training, and he doesn't require much physical fitness, so it can be useful to quickly form and fight.

After all, the musketeers relied on a heavy rain of bullets.

An archer has a long training cycle. And the production of crossbows is actually a little more troublesome than muskets.

The disadvantage of muskets is that they are now more expensive.

"But this cannon is really powerful, even if it only has a life span of five or six hundred rounds, has problems such as high cost and inconvenient transportation, it is still a great invention. No matter how bulky it is, it's better than a catapult. And it's much more powerful. In particular, even the ship can be loaded and used, if there is no such artillery, Beisha City will not be broken in three days, and it may not be broken in thirty days. When he came to Hu'er to capture Beisha City, he was besieged by tens of thousands of people, and it took a long time to take it, and he suffered heavy casualties. ”

Li Chao captured Beisha City in only three days, and there were not many casualties.

After blasting open the walls of the mountain city, they fought all the way in, and the defenders inside couldn't withstand the Tang army at all.

In fact, Li Chao also has a lot of soldiers and horses, and after the Lantern Festival in Hanjing, Li Chao left Beijing. With 3,000 soldiers and 300 officers and non-commissioned officers, this army sailed from Hanjing to Dengzhou.

At the landing, Li Chao pulled up the original aristocratic privateer combined fleet again, but this time there were more ships, because after half a year, the shipyard delivered many new ships.

A large number of crew members who had undergone short-term rapid assault training were also hired by the nobles.

At the beginning, the 5,000-strong Marine Corps received rich rewards after participating in King Qin, but today, most of them are still doing their old jobs.

In the half a year that Li Chao was away, they were not idle, from the mouth of the Liaohe River to the mouth of the Yalu River, they landed everywhere and plundered, and they could be regarded as robbing a lot of money.

When Li Chao arrived in Dengzhou, he called for a call, so the combined fleet gathered, and the marines of each family also regrouped.

The combined fleet has lost many of the old faces, and many nobles were purged last year, but there are also many new ones. With this huge fleet, Li Chao went directly to Liaodong.

In three days, the city of Beisha was conquered.

The Goguryeo people in the north did not see death and did not save them, but this time the Tang army moved too fast, and as soon as their messenger for help left, the Tang army took the city on the back foot.

"Will the Goguryeo people come to retake Beisha City?"

"I think it's definitely coming, meanness is a big town anyway. But I believe that the Goguryeo people will die after their heads are broken and bleeding a few times under the city. Li Chao said with a smile, "In fact, for the Great Wall of China that the Goguryeo people are building, Beisha City is not important, the important thing for the Great Wall is to prevent the line of the Liao River and block the Central Plains army advancing eastward from western Liao." The city of Beisha is already at the southern tip of the peninsula, so it is not too important. ”

"How can it not be important, this Beisha City is taken by Wen Yuan, then they don't want to take it back. If you control this city, the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula will become your base camp for attacking the Goguryeo coast, and even a base for the imperial court to attack. ”

Zhang Zhongjian's vision is still very good, and the importance of southern Liaoning is very high.

"But the Goguryeo people don't have a strong sailor, they don't have the right to control the sea, so this Liaonan can only watch us occupy it. The location of Beisha City is quite important, just controlling the southern tip of the peninsula. Now that this city is in our hands, even if the Goguryeo people send tens of thousands of troops, they don't want to take it back. ”

rode into the city.

Li Chao was a little disappointed.

Beisha City is tall and dangerous, but in this huge mountain city, in fact, some are not cities, but more like a huge encircled city, there is a small inner fort on the mountain, and the mountainside, the valley, are all villages, there are even many fields.

In terms of prosperity and liveliness, it is far less than Shimajin Port and Qingniwa Port and Shirenwang Port.

Zhang Zhongjian said with a smile, "This place can be self-sufficient behind closed doors, whether it is growing grain or raising sheep, it is good, the place is big enough." ”

"It's really big enough, surrounded by gables, and it's ten miles in circumference." Li Chao also smiled.

"In the future, this place will be used as a garrison, and a fort and arrow tower will be added to block the Goguryeo people from going south." Li Chao looked at this simple city, and immediately had an arrangement, it is impossible to build Beisha City into a prosperous city, or focus on the development of Lushun and Dalian, where there are excellent ports, relying on the port, the development of trade, industry and commerce, and even fishing are very good.

"Congratulations to King Yue, the fief of southern Liaoning is finally in hand." Zhang Zhongjian said with a smile. This land is much stronger than his fief in the state of Vietnam, and his fief of the Marquis of Vietnam is an island, although the island is also very large, but it is far away from the Central Plains. Once you go back and forth, it's almost a year.

"Well, after taking Beisha City, I can be regarded as having completed a concern, almost, I can prepare for the south."

Officers and troops will be stationed in Beisha City immediately, and the sailors of the imperial court will also be stationed in Port Arthur.

Liaonan is the fief that Li Shimin promised to Li Chao's son earlier, but this fief is not an independent kingdom, the garrison, administration, justice, taxation and other powers are all in the imperial court, and the lords and nobles enjoy the right to economic benefits. The better the territory develops, the more land is cultivated, and the more prosperous the industry and commerce, the more taxes can be extracted.

As for the rest, that's a matter for the imperial court.

"King Yue, a letter from Hanjing." A guard delivers a letter.

Li Chao took it and checked the seal, which was intact. When I opened it, the letter was sent by Cheng Qian. Since the last time he listened to Li Chao talk about the canal in Beijing, the prince has been devoting himself to this matter, and he connected the Xianghan Cao River, Jinghan Cao River, and Xiangtan Cao River painted by Li Chao, and gave a very awesome project name, Datang Grand Canal.

Parallel with the Grand Canal of Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty.

Originally, this name was really good, but because he named this canal the Grand Canal of the Tang Dynasty and compared it with that of the Sui Dynasty, as soon as it was taken out, it attracted countless objections. The Sui Dynasty Canal, in the hearts of many people, is a project that has fallen to the country.

In fact, Li Chao's original intention was to take his time, build the Cao River one by one, separate, each Cao River is only more than 100 miles, repair one after another, so good.

But Chengqian is too young after all, and he wants to make a big news as soon as he comes.

As a result, many people objected to the name of the Datang Grand Canal as soon as they heard it. Some people took a few more looks, but when they saw that this canal would cross Fangcheng Pass in the north to connect the Shahe River and Caishui Bianqu, and the Hanjiang River and Xiangtan River in the south, they immediately felt unreliable.

Build a canal in Funiu Mountain?

Connecting the Yangtze River, the Han River, the canal, and the Yellow River? How unreliable it sounds.

So everyone objected, saying that this was an unreliable project that cost people and money.

The prince is now very aggrieved, obviously he wants to do a good deed, but he has so many people who oppose it. Even many ministers tactfully advised the prince to study more and not do his job.

Cheng Qian was very distressed, and wrote to ask the master how to solve this trouble.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the canal was built, and this canal does sound very unreliable, and it is normal for some people to oppose it.

Picking up the pen, Li Chao began to reply to Cheng Qian.

If the court refuses to repair it, then repair it yourself!