Yuyue Mountain is located in the west of Jiayu County more than ten miles away, here the mountain is deep and the forest is secluded, the waterfall is strange and stonely, and can stand on the top of the mountain to enjoy the magnificent waves of the Yangtze River, the scenery is particularly beautiful, it is the most famous scenic spot in Jiayu County, you can often see three or five groups of scribes or the county people who take the ox cart to drag the family to come here to play.

There is a huge cave at the foot of the mountain in the south of Yuyue Mountain, the entrance of the cave is as high as three zhang, the depth is several miles, it is called the Flying Fish Cave, the Chen brothers test the earth-shaking thunder is carried out in this cave, the Chen brothers are the former Hao Da Hao Er, they have been expelled from the ordnance supervisor because of the 'death' in the battle of Western Xia, Li Yanqing had to use the power of the county order to create a household registration for them out of thin air, renamed Chenjiang Chen Hai, in the official records, their brothers are from Yule Township, make pottery for a living, there is no bad record.

Although the Black-Hearted Dragon King has been destroyed, the two of them have not lost their jobs, but continue to develop firearms in the Baihua Manor leased by Baoyan Zhai.

Artillery has long existed, also known as thunderbolt cannon, the Song army in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty has been equipped, the miniaturized thunderbolt cannon is the fire, but regardless of the gun, the fire is good, it is a shell made of paper, the lethality is too weak, if you can make a shell with pig iron, the damage of the iron piece after the explosion is great, it can affect dozens of steps, and the people and horses are injured, it will be an extremely sharp individual weapon.

But it is very difficult to miniaturize the earth-shaking thunder, mainly because the amount of gunpowder is not enough, it is difficult to blow up the iron shell, so they tried countless times and failed, and then the Chen brothers can only make ideas from the shell, they first succeeded in making porcelain fire, the porcelain bottle is easy to break, and the porcelain piece can also hurt people, but the problem also comes out, the porcelain piece cannot penetrate the iron armor, and it is fragile when carrying.

The Chen brothers had to refocus on pig iron, and after countless failures, they finally made a small sky-shaking thunder that could be carried by individual soldiers, and named it Iron Fire Thunder.

Li Yanqing took Zhang Bao, Zhang Ying, Yang Guang and more than a dozen soldiers to follow the Chen brothers to the Flying Fish Cave, where they tested firearms, and the county town could not hear the sound, which was very secretive.

More than a dozen soldiers stood guard outside the cave, and no visitors were allowed to enter the cave, Li Yanqing took Zhang Bao, Zhang Ying, and Yang Guang to the depths of the cave, where there was a large open space, and the surrounding area was very empty, and the Chen brothers used this place as a firearms testing ground.

"Let's get started!"

The Chen brothers put a box on the ground, and when they opened the box, there were three one-handed iron fire thunderbolts inside, which looked like a small eight-sided purple gold hammer, and there was a wooden handle underneath, Li Yanqing actually drew a sketch of a grenade for them, but they couldn't make the shape of a grenade, so they made an eight-sided purple gold hammer.

Li Yanqing picked up a 'small hammer', weighing about three catties, he estimated that he could throw it thirty steps away, he handed the small hammer to Zhang Bao, who had the greatest strength, "You throw it and try it, see how far you can throw it?" ”

Zhang Bao took the hammer and threw it into the distance with all his might, only to hear 'Knock!' With a crisp sound, it was about thirty steps away, Zhang Bao ran to pick it up, Chen Da took it and looked at it distressedly, fortunately, it was not smashed and broken.

"County Jun, the reason why it is made into a ball is to charge it to the greatest extent, and the iron shell is also relatively thin, originally we could have made it a little smaller, but no matter how small the amount of medicine is, the iron shell will not be able to explode, but if the iron shell is too thin, the lethality will not work, so this is the limit."

Li Yanqing nodded, he looked at the fire rope again, the fire rope was under the wooden handle, usually wrapped in a semi-circular wooden shell, and when he used it, the wooden shell was unscrewed off, and the fire rope rolled into a ball came out.

"Yang Guang, go and tie the test specimen to the iron pillar!"

The test specimen is a little pig, wrapped in iron armor, mainly to see if the exploded iron piece can penetrate the iron armor, the little pig is in the cage on Yang Guang's back, he muttered in his mouth and ran to more than twenty steps away, there is an iron pillar, he tied the little pig to the iron pillar, the little pig screamed in fright.

At this time, Chen Hai smiled and said, "Will the county gentleman try it first?" ”

Li Yanqing lifted an iron fireball and unscrewed the lid at the lower end of the wooden handle, Zhang Bao was about to step forward to light the fire, but Li Yanqing waved his hand, "Since it's a single weapon, let me do it myself!" ”

He took out a fire fold from the iron can he carried, and shook it in the wind, the fire fold immediately ignited, igniting the fire rope below, Chen Hai hurriedly said: "When the fire rope is about to reach the handle, you must throw it, and then find a cover to cover it or lie down!" ”

The fire rope sneered and burned, and when it was about to reach the handle, Li Yanqing threw the iron fire thunder towards the iron pillar, and he immediately hid behind a big rock, and for a moment, only to hear 'boom! There was a loud bang, not as earth-shattering as the earth-shattering thunder, but it was no less thrilling, and at the same time a crackling sound was heard, which was supposed to be the sound of a piece of iron striking the rock wall, and the surrounding area turned grayish-white, and the air was filled with a pungent smoke of gunpowder.

After a while, the smoke dissipated, Li Yanqing walked forward quickly, the little pig no longer barked, and countless small holes were pierced by broken iron pieces on the iron armor wrapped around it, Yang Guang untied the iron armor, and the little pig inside was blurred in flesh and blood, I don't know how many pieces of iron pierced through the body, and it had already died of anger.

Li Yanqing was overjoyed, this was indeed a sharp weapon against the cavalry, at this time, the Chen brothers came up and said: "The biggest problem now is that the iron shell is not easy to make, it is made by blacksmiths with iron sheets, and the output is very small. ”

"Isn't it poured all in one?"

Chen Hai shook his head, "The iron shell is only slightly thicker than the walnut shell, and it is about the same as the orange peel. ”

Li Yanqing took a closer look at the splicing part again, the splicing was perfect, and he asked with a deep groan, "What are you going to do next?" ”

"The next step is to continue to improve, and the fire rope is not very stable, so we have to find a way to make a wooden tool wrapped in the fire rope."

"If you have time, help me make an iron pipe, about two feet long, the wall of the pipe should be thick, the hollow part is about the same thickness as the wine glass, if it can be cast in its entirety, it is best to use two halves if it cannot be cast."

Speaking of this, Li Yanqing took out a piece of paper from his arms and handed it to them, "This is a pattern, be careful not to spread it!" ”

Of course, Li Yanqing wanted to make a musket, this is something he has been thinking about for a long time, in fact, ten years later, the Song army invented the musket, which was only used to breathe fire, and then after decades, it gradually invented the assault rifle on the basis of the musket.

It's just that the early assault gun is made of bamboo and paper tubes, the actual combat effect is not good, the range is short, the medicine is slow, it is very easy to damage, in fact, even if it is a firebolt, both the range and the killing effect are far inferior to the crossbow arrow, but the firebolt still has an advantage, it can shoot dozens of iron bullets together, shot out within thirty steps, as long as the direction is not bad, it is difficult for cavalry and war horses to escape, can make up for the lack of crossbow arrows in the enemy's close range.

The assault rifle developed for decades, until the metal pipe appeared, and the fire gun was born in response to the situation, Li Yanqing wanted to step over the fire gun and directly enter the era of the fire gun, when they developed the earth-shattering thunder shell, they constantly modified the mold, and they were able to cast a complete large iron shell with molten iron, so as long as they continued to improve, there was hope for casting an integrated iron pipe.

Moreover, after the invention of firearms, there will be clever craftsmen who will continue to follow up and research, invent sharper firearms, and even large-caliber artillery will be slowly developed, so that the Song army, which lacks war horses, can also rely on firearms to fight with powerful cavalry.

At noon, Li Yanqing returned to the county seat with his subordinates, and as soon as he entered the county office, Mo Jun ran out, "The county gentleman is back!" ”

"Is there anything urgent?"

Mo Jun said in a low voice: "Someone from the capital is here, and I have been waiting for the county gentleman for almost an hour." ”

Li Yanqing was slightly stunned, someone from the capital, who could this be?

"Who is it?"

The person who came did not say, but the intuition of the subordinates ..... I'm afraid he was sent by the prince. ”

Li Yanqing's heart jumped, and then he asked, "Does Yang Ju know?" ”

"He went to Jiangxia and said that he would not be able to come back until tomorrow, and Ding Xiao happened to ask for leave today."

Li Yanqing nodded, "Where is he now?" ”

"Now he is waiting in the official room of his subordinates, and his subordinates dare not let him go to the county monarch's official room for the time being."

Mo Jun did a good job and didn't let anyone wait in his official room, so Li Yanqing praised and said, "You are very cautious!" ”

Li Yanqing has long known that Yang Ju has received the task of monitoring him from the imperial court since last year, and he has not taken it to heart, this is an unspoken rule of the imperial court, the Song Dynasty has a system called arrangement, the household registration of the convicted official is moved to a certain place, there will be a special person to monitor his every move, and he must regularly report to the supervisor and explain his behavior, which is to some extent equivalent to the parole of later generations.

Although Li Yanqing was only deposed, not to mention the arrangement, but he is still different from ordinary officials, the imperial court cannot ignore him and let him be free, almost all degraded officials will be monitored by local officials, and if there is any outrageous behavior, it will be reported to the imperial court in time.

Li Yanqing also knew that this was not Yang Ju's original intention, but Yang Ju was selected by the imperial court, but he had a good relationship with Yang Ju, especially after he solved the financial crisis of the county government and concealed the matter of borrowing money to buy a boat for Yang Ju.

Li Yanqing also understood in his heart that the earth-shaking thunder was just a firearm, it didn't matter, and it had almost no impact on the pattern of the imperial court, and Yang Ju could afford to take responsibility if he didn't report to the imperial court, but today it was actually the prince who sent someone, this kind of thing was too involved, I am afraid that Yang Ju would not dare to hide it for him no matter how bold he was, so he must not let Yang Ju or Yang Ju's henchmen know about it.

Li Yanqing explained a few words to Mo Jun, and then walked quickly towards his official room.