Chapter 496: Divergence

However, the more we catch up, the farther the gap becomes, and the technologies that Dongping uses in the military and civilian fields, even if they get finished products or parts through those secret spies, are not something that the craftsmen raised by the Ministry of Industry of Northern Liao can understand. The telegraph is a typical example, sacrificing three spies, breaking into a telegraph station, dismantling the telegraph and other things, and then trying to bring them back, but the craftsmen can't do anything about the coils, metal sheets, and wood frames...... It seems that the telegraph is not the key, but the wind turbines that provide the power, the wires that connect the telegraphs, and the four-way switches are the key. However, it is not easy to get this kind of thing from Dongping again. Although the telegraph service of the Transmission Bureau is now open to the public, the security of each node is quite tight. Dongping was originally a country with strong military and strong martial arts, and now various institutions, including Yunzhou, like to hire veterans to do things, those with good minds and good literacy can naturally be competent for all kinds of work, and those who are powerful and powerful are always in charge of security work in various branches.

Situ Lian has completely given up the technology of telegraphy, and he started as a technical official who no one looked down upon in Northern Liao, and climbed step by step to today's position. He is sixty-five years old, but fortunately he has laid a solid physical foundation as a stonemason, and he can still withstand the heavy work. Moreover, he sometimes really has to thank Dongping, it is the rise of Dongping's craftsmen and technology that has greatly improved the status of technical officials in various countries at the same time, and the upper echelons of various countries are counting on them to be able to imitate and produce things that the craftsmen of Ye's workshop already feel are not technical, or at least there is a way to restrain these things, but this is not easy to say.

Situ Lian developed the first generation of the Northern Liao air defense system, which was a combination of various different equipment, the most important of which were three ordnance: ballistas, balloons, and rockets.

The Northern Liao had figured out the principle of Dongping's hot air airship, but they didn't have the technical strength to build an airship that could be well handled, but there was no problem with manned and unmanned tethered hot air balloons. Manned and unmanned balloons can fill the entire air and block the movement path of the enemy's airship, and the rapid rise and fall of some small balloons can even play the role of attacking airships. Considering that the airship should carry out a precise ground attack and not fly too high, the tethered balloon could at least prevent Dongping's airship army from accurately dropping fire and oil bombs on important targets. And among those manned balloons, there are also elite crossbowmen holding heavy crossbows, shooting airships as close as possible. Regardless of the accuracy of shooting in the float, it can at least serve as a bit of a deterrent.

Northern Liao's ability to figure out the ballista and put it into mass production was a great achievement, while Situ Lian took a fancy to the ballista's small gun carriage, easy to deploy, and able to match high elevation angle shooting. The most exaggerated anti-aircraft ballista made by his team of craftsmen could fire vertically, and the gun carriage could rotate 360 degrees, and the manpower ...... Naturally, the firing height is not as high as that, and the relatively light long-pole shell with a stabilized tail can hit a height of about 400 to 500 feet. Now, some of these ballistas have been arranged on the city walls of Yanjing, the capital of Northern Liao, mainly to train soldiers and specialize in operating such things. The style of this thing and the flat-firing ballista is so different.

If Ye Tao saw the rocket made by Situ Lian, it is estimated that Ye Tao would be amazed, this is an original thing without technical support at all. Although Yip's Workshop has something similar, the system is completely different. Situ Lian came up with a twelve-mounted rocket launcher, which could shoot rockets with a little bit of oil warheads to a height of 700 feet. It's just that the projectiles are too scattered, and multiple groups of rockets need to be launched together to cover a piece of the sky more efficiently. But there is another problem, that is, the arrow cluster of the rocket is triggered, and once it is not hit, the harm caused by falling is also huge.

After these things came out, Situ Lian had already made three demonstrations for the Western Route Army, the Eastern Route Army and the Northern Liao royal family, and the results were remarkable, causing a lot of amazement. He, who has never been very popular, has actually received a rich reward, and in the edict of the imperial court, he used such a high evaluation as "the morale of the government and the opposition is boosted". The announcement was also excited about such an achievement, and officials at all levels were more or less rewarded, and those old craftsmen and craftsmen who presided over the development also changed their status at once and were treated as guests. In the past, the Northern Liao side heard the bombing, night raids, etc. that Xiling encountered in their ears, and was afraid in their hearts. Dongping and Xiling are only facing each other now, but they have already made a move against Beiliao, if Dongping plays such a hand, what will they do? Originally, dealing with this threat was only in the planning, but now, with the complete defeat of the Western Route Army in the first round of engagement, it has advanced more than 200 miles in the direction of Northern Liao, and has firmly taken root on the front line of Zhongjun Town. And the land that has been occupied by Dongping, whether it is popular or basic production, has been completely included in the orbit of Dongping, and Northern Liao is no longer able to regain it, while the other party is closer to him. All of a sudden, it seemed that defending the sky of Yanjing had become an extremely important matter.

Situ Lian became more and more worried, although the Ministry of Industry had brought out these things, but the difficulty of mass production of these things was too high, the production capacity was low, and the cost was high, even if it was just to arm Yanjing, it would cost at least one million taels of silver. For Northern Liao, this money can play a much more cost-effective role than arming the sky of Yanjing.

has similar thoughts to Situ Lian, as well as Zhang Ci, the head of the household. Now the economy of Northern Liao has been embarrassed to a certain point, this time, when the emergency military situation of Bi Wenxin's troops in the northeast arrived, the entire north successively discovered the traces of the transit of the Dongping army, and combined with the harassment of the coastal area by the Dongping Water Division, it is not difficult to judge that there is already an army with considerable combat effectiveness operating in the northeast rear of Northern Liao. Now the DPRK and China are mobilizing a large army, trying to solve the trouble behind it before the battle with Yunzhou resumes, but that is not easy to say. Northern Liao has already mobilized 140,000 troops, most of which are the Eastern Route Army and the Imperial Forest Army, but the grain, grass and other materials have not yet been mobilized. Northern Liao was originally more lacking in grain and grass than Dongping, and lagged behind Dongping in various strategies for several years, and destroyed its own production in the wilderness, and the grain, grass and silver in the household department and the treasury of various prefectures were quite insufficient. The Western Route Army was willing to allocate a part of their war reserves to deal with the trouble behind it, but the problem was that the cost of this long-distance transportation itself was not small. When I went back, I had to mobilize grain and grass from other places and return it to the Western Route Army, so that they could fight to the death with the Yunzhou army, which was too cost-effective. Therefore, Zhang Ci also firmly stood on the side of opposing Yanjing's establishment of an air defense system, and in his opinion, one million taels of silver, even if it was all used to pay military salaries, and the purchase of grain and grass from those large families who still had grain in store could play a greater role.

In front of the two Shangshu, who had a profound impact on Yanjing's air defense plan, they unanimously went to the post to oppose it, and the situation in the DPRK and China immediately became chaotic. On the other side, there are the prime minister, the Taifu, the general of the chariot and the cavalry, who have great influence in Beijing. After three full days of disputes, the head of the country finally decided to allocate 250,000 pieces of silver for the preparation of the air defense plan and the expansion of production, and to further develop new equipment to reduce production costs. 650,000 taels of silver were allocated as military expenses for the Northeast Operation. 200,000 taels of silver were allocated to the Western Route Army to build a fortress group on the second line, and 450,000 taels of silver were allocated to the Eastern Route Army to strengthen combat readiness. This was a happy situation, but the Hubu warehouse in Northern Liao was still emptied. After such a large amount of allocation, Zhang Ci only had less than two million taels of silver left in his hand to use. When Zhang Ci was worried not about this, but about the dispute between the court and the middle of the court this time, many people saw the faces of some people who only cared about themselves, but put aside the general trend of Northern Liao. This disagreement has finally divided everyone who was still sincerely united between the DPRK and China. Thinking that there will inevitably be all kinds of unpleasant waves in the future, Zhang Ci is embarrassed. However, Situ Lian did not support the air defense plan, which made Zhang Ci very favorable. If this plan is passed, it is the Ministry of Industry that will benefit the most, even if he does not make money from it, but the influence of the Ministry of Industry will be greatly enhanced. But he actually let go of such an opportunity.

Zhang Cifu once again counted the expenses of this period of time in detail on the case, and when he saw where he could save some money, the housekeeper Lao Zhang came up,

"Master, someone is looking for you outside." Lao Zhang was holding a pot of hot strong tea in his hand, and after he poured it for Zhang Ci, he said: "He is a young student, and he is very generous, and he stuffed Xiao Song with twenty taels of silver." He waited outside, saying that he could solve a little trouble for the adults. Xiao Song couldn't understand the other party's origin, so he asked me to talk a few words. That posterity does seem to be a bit of a beginning, and his conversation is very decent. Are you going to see you? ”

"Oh?" Zhang Ci smiled bitterly and said, "I have a lot of trouble in my hands, God knows...... Now I'm fine. Alas, there is no money in hand, nothing can be done, and it will be fine. Let's meet...... Anyway, the people who came up at this time are those people and those things. ”