Chapter 359 Capital Punishment

I opened the coastal military map, first pointed to the Taiwan region and said: "Li Aiqing, you see, the main tasks of your naval division in the next two are two, one is to let some officers and men of the South China Sea Fleet be stationed on the southern island of Taiwan, the Taiwan and Peng regions have been officially included in the territory of our Great Song Dynasty during the Taizong period of our dynasty, but it has always been under the rule of Fujian. ”

Li Beiyang and Lu Xiufu both knew that I attached great importance to overseas, and they did not raise any objections.

"Yes, Your Majesty, the ministers obey."

"Second, Li Zengbo has already led an army to explore the sea route to Goryeo, and another task of your sailors is to prepare for the march to Goryeo, and I plan to send troops to attack Goryeo at the beginning or middle of next year."

"Goryeo." Li Beiyang thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, hasn't the Goryeo Kingdom been wiped out by the Mongols. ”

"Yes, now Goryeo is the territory of the Mongols, Li Aiqing, Goryeo was already attached to us in the Tang Dynasty, although it was defeated by the Mongols decades ago, but there are still many contradictions within it, I plan to take Goryeo before the Mongols have a firm foothold, and like the Ryukyus, I want to make it a province of my Great Song Dynasty, and use it as a stronghold to attack the Mongolian mainland, just like the Dali Kingdom in the southwest, I not only want to include it in the territory of our dynasty, but also in the Northern Expedition a few years later, Let Goryeo be one of the armies attacking the Mongols, and when the time comes, several armies will march together, and I will make Kublai Khan exhausted and unable to do both. ”

"Your Majesty has a high opinion, and the ministers obey Your Majesty's will and prepare to go north to Goryeo."

"Okay, Li Aiqing, you can rest for a few days first, and then go to the Military Affairs Yuan to discuss the specific tasks of the water division."

"Yes, the minister obeys the order, Your Majesty, has Song Wuxin made any progress there in the past few months?"

"After careful discussion with Li Aiqing, I and Song Wuxin and others, in order to ensure the surname of the warship, the length of the Shenzhou giant ship was finally set at sixty-one meters long, and at present, the keel part has been completed, and it is estimated that it will be launched for sea trials at the beginning of next year."

Although the Shenzhou giant ship in the Northern Song Dynasty was 100 meters long, its practical surname was poor, and the sturdiness and speed could not meet the requirements of the warship, if it was used only as a transport ship and the cost was too high, there was a giant ship called the treasure ship during the Ming Dynasty, and its hull length was also more than 70 meters, but it was also not practical enough, although no warship dared to attack such a large ship, but because the cost was too high, so I finally set the length of the giant ship at 61 meters, only when the steam engine was used as the power of the ship, in order to make a larger warship at a guaranteed speed, otherwise it is just an ornament,

Li Beiyang said excitedly: "Great, with such a warship, I am even more powerful to the sailor." ”

"Well, by the way, the Powder Supervisor has successfully made twenty cannons, ten of which have been allocated to the Imperial Foresters, and the other ten have been allocated to your sailors."

"What, ten guns." Li Beiyang said excitedly again, "That's great." ”

"Li Aiqing, it's just that you still need to think seriously about how to use artillery on the ship and how to adapt to the bumpy sea."

"Yes, Your Majesty, the minister immediately organized personnel to test the cannon on the ship."

Since July, although the weather has been hot, the two division commanders of the Royal Forest Army, Wen Zhang and Zhang Shijie, have been soaked in the station of the original Youth Guard almost every day, sweating and sweating with the soldiers to familiarize themselves with the surname of the artillery.

Two hundred soldiers carefully selected from the Imperial Forest Army formed the First and Second Artillery Companies of the Royal Forest Army, which was the first artillery unit of the Great Song Dynasty Army and the first real artillery unit in human history.

When getting ten artillery pieces, Wen Zhang and Zhang Shijie, who were the first to contact firearms, were very excited, even Xie Daolin came to inspect every other day, the god of artifacts was not blown out, during the test firing, the artillery company carried out a salvo of ten guns, that kind of shock, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as the sky and the earth cracked, even if Xie Daolin and Wen Zhang are as strong as martial arts, they also sigh that it is difficult to deal with it,

It's just that the number of shells is limited, Xie Daolin and others don't dare to test firing casually, the soldiers of the artillery company are mainly familiar with the structure of the artillery and the use of artillery, and Yun Bofei is very familiar with Wen Zhang, once asked Yun Bofei, how much is the cost of a shell, according to Yun Bofei's estimate, not counting labor, the cost of a shell is about thirty taels of silver, if this is in the war, I don't know how much money it will cost, looking at the ten cannons, Wen Zhang sighed: "Commander Xie, no wonder Your Majesty said, In the end, the war is fought to see who has more money. ”

"Yes, not to mention these cannons and shells, even the thousands of muskets in my Imperial Forest Army will cost how many silver taels it will cost."

Zhang Shijie also said: "The court has invested so much, we must use firearms to the extreme, otherwise I really can't stand the emperor." ”

"Yes." Xie Daolin nodded and said, "Master Zhang is right, we can only repay Your Majesty's intentions by building our soldiers into an invincible iron army." ”

In the imperial study in the Lin'an Palace, I stretched: "Jiu'er, it took me five nights to finally finish reading all the files of the twenty-two official corruption cases mentioned by Chen Wenlong.

Quan Jiu said: "Official, the officials involved in these cases can be sentenced to capital punishment according to the law, but five of them are from Lechang County on Guangnan East Road, if these five people are sentenced to capital punishment together, will it affect the regular affairs of the local government." ”

"Then according to Jiu'er's opinion, doesn't the law blame the public?"

"Official, Jiu'er didn't mean that."

"The impact is bound to be there." I smiled and said, "Jiu'er, these five people are called the five poisons of Lechang by the people in Lechang, when these five people were arrested, Chen Wenlong told the Government Council that Wen Tianxiang and the Ministry of Officials have discussed and have sent people from the surrounding areas to Lechang County, although there was a period of chaos in the middle, but because of the strong support of the local people and the rapid arrival of replacement officials, it did not cause much chaos, basically a safe transition." ”

"That's good, Jiu'er is still worried that there are too many corrupt officials in one area, and there will be no one to handle government affairs after they are taken down together."

"Well, I thought so at the beginning, I was full of corrupt officials, if they are all caught, who will do things for me, even the government will be empty, but I thought about it carefully, if I let it go, it would be equivalent to waiting for death."

"Official, what does this mean?"

I explained: "Jiu'er, even if I am rich, even if there are no Mongols peeping on the sidelines, sooner or later I will be destroyed in the hands of this group of rats, this is like a terminally ill person, if he is not treated, there will be no difference between waiting for death, so I have made up my mind to rectify the dynasty, fight corruption and promote clean government, even if all the officials in a certain county, a certain state, or even a certain road are all arrested, it is not a big deal, at most for a period of time, there will be a state of no political axe, as the saying goes, long pain is better than short pain, rather than waiting for death, It is better to break the kettle and make a complete change, I thought at the time, if the most pessimistic situation arises, my approach may be looking for death, but in the process of finding death, there may be a glimmer of hope. ”

Quan Jiu carefully understood what I said for a while: "Official, Jiu'er understands a little. ”

"After a lot of thinking, I finally chose the one-size-fits-all approach of 'not investigating the past', in fact, there are many things that will be difficult before doing it, if you just stay on the idea, look ahead and look ahead, and don't implement it, then the more you think about it, the more difficult it will be, but as long as you make up your mind, take the first step, and at the same time, reflect while doing it, there will always be a light of day."

"Well, the official is right, if you don't try anything, there is no possibility of success."

"Yes, Jiu'er, it is impossible to think about the perfection of things in the world until they are done, even if I am a god, I can't do it."

"Officials, since you want to do it, you should do it when the harm is not great, otherwise, the more this kind of thing is delayed, the greater the price will be paid."

I praised: "Yes, Jiu'er, if at the end of last year, it took me a little effort to rectify the officialdom atmosphere, then it is very likely that it will take a lot of effort to rectify it in the future." ”

"The official family is sage." Quan Jiu took out my imperial seal and said, "Is the official family decided?" ”

"Well, I have signed this recital, and all the twenty-two people above will be sentenced to death, Jiu'er, put on the big seal."

The rectification of the trend of officialdom cannot only stay in words, nor can it adopt a step-by-step method, and those who should be given drastic medicine must be carried out immediately, otherwise, when the atmosphere deteriorates to a certain extent, it is really incurable.

On the same night, Shi Tianze, the left prime minister of the Mongolian Chinese book, hurriedly came to Kublai Khan's tent.

"Minister Shi Tianze see the Great Khan."

"Shi Aiqing, excuse me."

"Great Khan, the dog has just sent back the news, saying that he accidentally learned a news, the Southern Dynasty has developed a firearm called a musket, this kind of musket uses gunpowder as bait, it is quite powerful when fired, and the range is equivalent to that of a bow and arrow, but it takes a long time to load ammunition, and it is not as fast as a well-trained archer, and the musket produced at present has been successively equipped with the Imperial Forest Army of the Southern Dynasty, the specific situation is unknown, and the dog feels that this matter is very important, so the news is transmitted back from the Southern Dynasty for the first time."

"Muskets." Kublai Khan picked up a piece of letter paper on the table and handed it to Shi Tianzedao, "Shi Aiqing, this is information from Tianya, saying that the Southern Dynasty has developed an artifact called a fire cannon, which is also extremely powerful, but I don't know the details." ”

After reading it, Shi Tianze said: "Great Khan, the minister thinks that the emperor of the Southern Dynasty knows that his army cannot compete with the iron cavalry of our dynasty, so he wants to find a new way." ”

Kublai Khan agreed: "Well, Shi Aiqing, you and Ben Khan have the same idea, but the musket doesn't think it's strong, after all, its dressing is slow, and it can't be compared with my Mongolian archers, but the so-called fire cannon doesn't know why the power is huge, isn't it just a stone thrower, how much weight can it have, Yang Lian Zhenjia's letter only claimed that this news came from the south wind, although the south wind is only hearsay, but Yang Lian Zhenjia believes that the credible surname is very high, but it cannot be confirmed, it is said that the fire cannon is the highest secret in the army of the Southern Dynasty at present." ”

Shi Tianze didn't know who Nanfeng was, so he thought for a while and said, "Great Khan, when it comes to the cannon, the minister remembers one thing. ”