Du Wenhao saw that they looked very dazed, and added: "It is a weapon fired with gunpowder." ”

The ordnance superintendent glanced at the young ordnance superintendent behind him again. The young eunuch suddenly realized and hurriedly replied: "Yes, there is one in the western workshop." ”

"Oh. Just do it. Wait for me to see the east workshop first, and then go to the west workshop to see. ”

After he finished reading the bow and crossbow courtyard, he came to the east workshop. In addition to bows and crossbows, individual small arms and equipment were made here. Du Wenhao once again organized a temporary random inspection, and similarly, at least 30% of the weapons and equipment that have been accepted are substandard products.

He already had a plan in mind, so he didn't reprimand the ordnance supervisor who didn't know anything.

The West Workshop is a manufacturing workshop for large-scale offensive and defensive equipment, and there are relatively few unqualified products here, but it has also reached two percent.

After Du Wenhao looked at all the workshops, he was stunned and asked the young eunuch, "What about the musket?" Didn't you say that there is a Western workshop? Where? ”

The young eunuch hurriedly squatted down, opened a box, and took out a round ball made of clay: "This is, general, this thing is called a poison smoke ball, which is filled with gunpowder, ignites the wire, and throws it into the enemy line with a trebuchet, or when defending the city, smash down the tower for defense." After exploding, it can emit poisonous smoke, which can make enemies bleed from their mouths and noses, and even poison them to death! ”

Gas bombs? Du Wenhao took it over with interest and took a look: "Can you test the effect?" ”

"Good! General, please come here. The ordnance supervisor led Du Wenhao to the backyard test site. Put a few cages of chickens on the ground, and then throw a poison smoke ball, sure enough, it exploded, and there were puffs of smoke, and the chickens in the chicken coop began to be irritable, and kept bumping in the chicken coop, and after a while, several chickens fell down and kept twitching in the chicken coop.

It's just that the smoke quickly disappeared, and the chicken that fell to the ground slowly recovered, all over again.

Du Wenhao looked at the ordnance supervisor: "What's going on?" ”

The old overseer's face turned red, and he couldn't figure it out, his expression was quite embarrassed, and he looked at the young superintendent beside him.

The young eunuch was also very embarrassed, and cowered: "General...... How many shots do you have to fire in a row to ...... and have an effect, do you ...... and send a few more? ”

Du Wenhao sneered: "It's so difficult to deal with a few chickens, and it's so much bigger than a chicken, and it's in such a wide battlefield, how good can this effect be?" You can't expect the enemy to lie there and wait for you to smoke them to death with poisonous smoke, can you? ”

The young eunuch blushed and said, "This poison smoke ball can only make people bleed from their noses and mouths and lose the ability to attack, but it can't poison people at once." ”

"What's the poison formula?"

"Inside is fifteen taels of sulfur, five taels of grass aconitum aconitum, fourteen taels of flame nitrate, five taels of croton, five taels of wolf poison, two halves of tung oil, two halves of small oil, five taels of charcoal powder, two halves of asphalt, two taels of arsenic, one tael of yellow wax, one tael of bamboo ru, and one tael of maru. Outside with 12 taels of paper, 10 taels of hemp skin, 2 halves of asphalt, 2 halves of yellow wax, 1 2 taels of yellow dan, half a catty of charcoal, pounded and coated outside. ”

Du Wenhao smiled bitterly when he heard this: "These things can only make people sick and uncomfortable, as for the bleeding from the nose and mouth, it is exaggerated, not to mention poisoning people." ”

However, this idea reminded him that with his knowledge of chemistry, it should not be a big problem to make poison gas, the key is how to make it on a large scale, how to compress poison gas, how to launch, how to detonate and a series of related technologies. It's a matter of trial and error.

However, looking at the examples of Chinese and foreign warfare in ancient and modern times, whenever a new type of weapon appears, it can only take advantage of the initial period of time at most, and when the enemy army learns it later, this advantage will be gone. When the Northern Song Dynasty invented the cannon, Jin Guo quickly learned, in modern warfare, Germany was the first to invent missiles, and after World War II, many countries developed this technology and possessed missiles. In modern society, there are many examples of counterfeiting the opponent's weapons, and even high-precision weapons such as the atomic bomb can be learned quickly, not to mention these relatively rudimentary equipment in ancient times.

** It is well said that it is people, not new weapons, that determine the outcome of a war. This sentence is more suitable for cold weapons in ancient times when the weapons were not very powerful. Therefore, we want to develop new weapons, but our main energy must be focused on army reform, and building an elite division is the right way.

Du Wenhao said again: "What other firearms, show me to see." ”

The ordnance superintendent repeatedly agreed, and demonstrated the rockets and other firearms tied to bows and arrows, most of which were incendiary firearms, but the results were not satisfactory.

Du Wenhao and the others finished displaying all the firearms, but still didn't see the shadow of the musket, and said strangely: "Isn't there a musket?" Where? ”

"These are the ......, no more......" The ordnance warden replied in fear, he didn't understand what kind of weapon Du Wenhao was talking about.

Du Wenhao asked for a pen and paper and drew a schematic diagram of a flintlock pistol: "That's what it looks like." Gunpowder is loaded through the muzzle, fired, and the bullet is fired from the front. ”

The young eunuch shook his head: "I haven't seen this kind of weapon drawn by the general." ”

The Northern Song army already knew how to use gunpowder in the manufacture of weapons, but the earliest muskets appeared in the late Northern Song Dynasty war against Jin decades later, when they were made of bamboo, loaded with gunpowder, and ignited and sprayed at the enemy. Therefore, at this time, there were no muskets in the Song Army's arsenal.

Du Wenhao was very puzzled, if he didn't even have an arsenal, it would prove that the army was not equipped with this kind of weapon at all.

Develop muskets and artillery!

Du Wenhao was excited in his heart, but unfortunately, he couldn't remember the structure of the Makqin heavy machine gun, but he knew the structure of the pistol and AK rifle, because it was relatively simple, and it should be possible to build it while testing and developing, as well as artillery! However, they were worried about whether the steelmaking technology and machinery manufacturing technology of the Northern Song Dynasty could keep up with the needs. And, more importantly, they don't know how to make bullets, to be precise, the primer of bullets. I don't know how to make smokeless gunpowder, and of course I don't know how to produce **. The developed artillery can only fire black powder, which greatly reduces its power, or it can only fire solid iron balls and stone balls. It is used to siege the city and deal with the dense crowd tactical formation commonly used in ancient times, and the effect is still good.

Du Wenhao really regretted that he only studied forensic trauma in college, and he knew all about the damage caused by these weapons, but he didn't put his mind on the manufacture of guns and bullets itself, what a failure!

It seems that it is better to develop a flintlock pistol with relatively low requirements first, and it is really not possible to develop an arquebus first. One step at a time.

Seeing that there was a blank in firearms, Du Wenhao was still very happy, it would be good if he could establish a musket team, and then develop the artillery, first secretly equip it, build a mysterious division, and then use it in the key battle, and give the enemy a thunderous blow to get the greatest effect!

He quietly continued to inspect.

Came to the East Workshop Armory, there are all kinds of firearms here, Du Wenhao first tried the weight, and then looked at the style, all the styles were finished, and they all felt too mediocre and nothing new.

He held a flower gun, shook a spear in the air, and felt that if he really had to fight hard for martial arts, he would not be the opponent of those martial arts generals who had been practicing hard since childhood, and he had to win by surprise. If you can't think of a good idea for a while, you just can't decide on it first, anyway, it's not satisfactory to set the blade, it's better to be undecided. I casually took a rotten silver gun in my hand and counted it.

According to the weapons and equipment needed for this expedition to Western Xia, he made a list and gave it to the ordnance supervisor, and then left the ordnance station, and came to the Privy Council with the escort team first, showed the Empress Dowager's decree, received the military talisman and arrows, and went to the household department to distribute grain and grass.

By the time these things were done, it was already noon.

Du Wenhao sent people to inform the former commander-in-chief of the western expedition to deploy Lu Gongzhu, the deputy commander-in-chief Fudu to deploy the general Qu Zhen, and the superintendent Xuanqing envoy Li Xian to Sanya for a meeting to discuss the dispatch of troops. learned that all three of them were called into the palace by the Empress Dowager.

Du Wenhao knew that Gao Taotao must have told these people to resolutely implement their strategic deployment. He also explained to his face that the combat plan that the deputy commander did not agree with must not be implemented, and that he must report to himself for a decision on this new military law. He didn't bother to wait, he had lunch in Sanya, called the commanders of all the armies in Sanya, and a team of people and horses went straight to the first command (battalion) of Guangde infantry in Yangwu County, outside the capital Kaifeng Prefecture, to inspect.

Yangwu County Guangde First Battalion Battalion Headquarters.

The battalion commander Guo Ce is counting the goods at the door of the battalion warehouse, and the army commander has arranged a very heavy return index, and now it is almost September, but the index is only half completed......

As soon as he thought of this, his heart burned with fire, thinking that he must complete the task as soon as possible, but the strength of a commander (battalion) is only 500 at full strength, and less than half of them are currently at home! It really can't be done, only to send more soldiers to participate in the return of the trade, I hope that there is nothing else to do at this time.

As soon as I was thinking about which people to be assigned to participate in the Huiyi, the camp guard came out of breath and knelt down on one knee: "Report to the commander, the three yas are all inspected, and General Zai Zhidu will bring all the generals to our camp to inspect!" ”

"What?" Guo Ce was so frightened that he was scared, at this time, it was not a good thing to bring people here, he was really afraid of anything, so he was busy asking people to send other adjutants to come, and he ran out to greet him first.

At the gate of the barracks, when I saw that dozens of people were coming with the commanders of all the armies, their faces changed.

Without waiting for politeness, Du Wenhao got straight to the point and said: "This officer wants to meet the soldiers of the whole battalion, say a few words, and watch the brothers practice." Let's call the brothers to gather at the drill ground. ”

Guo Ce smiled and said: "General, generals, please go to the big tent and sit down for a while, and immediately send an order to prepare a banquet, and then meet with the brothers to lecture after taking the generals to eat, how about it?" ”