At the end of April of the fourth year of the Great Song Dynasty, Jiangnan, Lin'an.

The streets of Lin'an are still as bustling as ever, as if they have not been affected too much by the sea ban. The merchants and people of Lin'an City wore bright and elegant clothes, and they were surging shoulder to shoulder in the streets. On several rivers connecting the Grand Canal, ships laden with goods are connected by oars. Rice grains from Jianghuai, eastern Zhejiang and Jiangnan, medicinal herbs, furs, and jade from the north and Goryeo, as well as weapons and armor made of the famous Nanfen steel - this is the favorite of the leaders of the Jiangnan regiment training now, wearing a Nanfen steel armor, on the battlefield will have a few more lives! The silk, lacquerware and paper produced in Lin'an were transported through these rivers, and the quantity was so large that the inland river cargo ships were about to sink into the water!

But where are these goods shipped? Jiangnan East Road, Zhejiang East Road, and Huainan East Road are in greater demand for silk, lacquerware, and paper these days?

In stark contrast to the scene of the canal water oars, it is probably the coldness on the surface of the Qiantang River in the south of Lin'an City. If you had come here a few months earlier, you would have seen a different kind of pomp. Merchant ships from Zhoushan lined up on the wharves on the banks of the Qianjiang River, waiting one by one to load and unload. But now, on the Qiantang River, except for a few small wooden boats for fishing, they are probably patrolling naval warships. Because of its proximity to Haikou, Lin'an City is threatened by the invasion of the Ming army at any time, and it is not possible to defend it strictly.

It is precisely for this reason that in recent times, the voice of moving to Hongzhou (Jiangnan West Road) has gradually begun to louder in and out.

Jia Rudao knew that this must be Jiang Wanli's instigation behind his back. Jiang Wanli is the leader of the Jiangxi regiment, and Hongzhou is in Jiangxi. Once the administrative office was moved to Hongzhou. 6,000 Taiyong, how can they fight against 80,000 Ganyong?

But they don't move there. With Lin'an, a terrain close to the sea, who knows when thousands of steel-armored soldiers will come across the sea. Suddenly appeared outside the city of Lin'an? Relying on Jia Yidao's 6,000 Tai Yong and 1,500 Zhuban Zhi in front of the palace, and some troops belonging to the Sanya New Army, there are more than 30,000 people in total, can they really hold Lin'an City?

This matter, even the Emperor Taishang in the North Ney Deshou Palace did not believe it, and when Jia Rudao met him today, Zhao Yun did not mention the matter of moving here. And when today's son's father, His Royal Highness King Rong seems to mean the same thing.

Although Hongzhou is not an impregnable fortified city, it is safer than Lin'an! Live in Lin'an City. I can't even sleep well, for fear that as soon as I close my eyes, I won't be able to open them anymore - in my sleep, I will be killed by the Ming army that invaded Lin'an!

In fact, Jia Rudao himself was not at ease, but he was really unwilling to move to Hongzhou like this!

The traitor went out of the north and sat in the sedan chair, full of thoughts about whether he could move or not. Relocation is advantageous in all respects. There is only one thing, the court is not controlled by traitors......

Then. The sedan chair stopped suddenly, and Liao Yingzhong's voice came from outside: "Taishi, it's already here." ”

Jia seemed to respond, and the sedan curtain had been lifted. Jia Rudao subconsciously drilled out. This Taishi Gong, who was in charge of the power of the Southern Song Dynasty, has really aged rapidly in the past two years, and his beard has turned white by more than half. The red glow on his face and the look of confidence disappeared even more, and all that was left was exhaustion.

He looked up. Realizing that it was not West Lake, he asked, "This is ...... Where? ”

"This is Qianjiang Wharf......" Liao Yingzhong had already arrived at Jia Nidao's side. Reminded in a low voice, "Aren't you coming to Qianjiang Wharf to inspect Haiphong?" ”

"Haiphong?" Jia Yidao seemed to wake up from a dream, and pressed his hand on his forehead, "I actually forgot...... What an old fool! ”

Liao Yingzhong said: "The Taishi is busy with all kinds of things, and it is not surprising that he can't think of it for a while. ”

Jia Rudao nodded, looked around, and said, "What are you inspecting?" ”

Liao Yingzhong couldn't help but twist her eyebrows, this Jia Yidao's memory was really getting worse and worse, and she forgot all about it. He raised his hand and pointed to a castle near the pier, which was guarding the mouth of the Qianjiang River.

"Master Tai, you are here to see Qianjiang Fort and the newly cast bronze big gun."

"Yes, yes, it's a bronze big gun!" Jia Rudao completely remembered why he didn't know Ge Ling, but ran all the way to the Qiantang River. It turned out that although the scholars and doctors of the Great Song Dynasty were light on martial arts, their interest in advanced weapons was very high. They will not be like the Manchu Dynasty's rotten wood, twenty years after being taught by the British to use strong ships and cannons, to use the archery and horses handed down by their ancestors to fight against the British and French Mine's rifles in the Battle of Bali Bridge.

In the Lin'an Revolution more than four years ago, Jia Rudao and the Southern Song Dynasty court had already learned the power of bronze cannons, how could they be indifferent? In fact, after Jia Rudao took control of the Southern Song Dynasty, he ordered the Imperial Weapons Institute and the Ordnance Supervisor of the Ministry of War to go all out to develop the firecracker.

However, the development process was not as smooth as that of Mongolia - after all, they did not know the general direction of the development of H weapons in later generations, and they also knew the general appearance and size of the bronze cannon, and also knew the structure of the gun carriage (Chen Dexing liked to play with models in his previous life, and there were model bronze cannons in his home).

Moreover, copper was a very scarce thing in the minds of the scholars of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty had a developed industry and commerce, and the number of handicraft products produced far exceeded that of the previous dynasty, and the output of agricultural products was also very high. However, the minting of copper coins is far from keeping up with the development of productive forces, so there is a shortage of copper coins. Therefore, Jia Rudao and the officials of the Southern Song Dynasty court initially wanted craftsmen to cast iron cannons (this detour Europeans have also walked through in history, after all, iron is cheaper than copper). But the difficulty of cast iron is much higher than that of bronze, and the melting point difference between the two is more than 700 degrees! As a result, the Southern Song Dynasty's artillery casting activities made slow progress in the early stage and suffered a series of failures.

In the end, the craftsmen of the Southern Song Dynasty finally persuaded the civil officials to let them use bronze to cast cannons. This was hardly difficult for the metallurgical industry of the Southern Song Dynasty - in fact, Chen Dexing's artillery and craftsmanship also came from the Southern Song Dynasty.

However, the idea of casting cannons in the Southern Song Dynasty is still not immune to the influence of the defensive national policy for three hundred years. Contrary to Kublai Khan's Yuan artillery team, which paid too much attention to mobility, the Song artillery team hardly considered cannon maneuverability, but only pursued the power of the cannon with all its might—in fact, the Southern Song Dynasty did not have enough animal power to pull the cannon. Horses are almost precious animals, and there are some cows, but most of them are buffaloes that are cultivated land, and they are not very suitable for pulling carts. The livestock used for land freight transportation in the Southern Song Dynasty were mainly donkeys, which could not pull heavy cannons at all.

Therefore, the Southern Song Dynasty, which gave up mobility, simply cast the cannons to be huge. And they did not distinguish the cannon model by caliber or bullet weight, but by the gun weight. Among them, the lightest cannon also weighs 3,000 kilograms, and the projectile fired weighs about ten kilograms, which is as powerful as the 3-inch cannon of the Ming army. However, the weight of the cannon (excluding the gun carriage) is several hundred catties heavier than the 3-inch gun, which is mainly because the gunsmiths of the Southern Song Dynasty increased the barrel wall in order to pursue the success rate of casting cannons.

"Returning to the Taishi, this time the newly cast big gun of the Weapons Supervisor weighs 9,000 catties, and can launch a projectile of 28 catties, and the range of the projectile can reach five miles, which is indestructible and indestructible! If the thief's sailor dares to come, the humble position will definitely make them have no return! ”

A Taiwanese general, dressed in a scarlet civil official uniform with a sword hanging from his waist, stood on top of the rammed earth and brick-clad fortress, pointed to six huge firearms on stone gun mounts, and said to Jia Yidao with confidence. There were also more than a dozen green-robed clerks and military generals wearing red battle jackets and Fan Yangli on their heads. Its Chinese members were all officers of the Taiyong Left Battalion stationed at Qianjiang Fort. The Southern Song Dynasty regimental training paid attention to scholars in charge of soldiers, so most of the officers were scholars, but they were all civilian officials. Jia Rudao is a native of Taizhou, and his 6,000 Taiyong are naturally all Taizhou scholars, and many of them are from the Jia family. Naturally, he was firmly controlled by Jia Yidao.

The military attachés were officers of the Sanya New Army, which was expanded on the basis of Li Tingzhi's Wurui Army and some of the generals of the Sanya Army after the disbandment of the Sanya Army, with a number of as many as 60,000 and is now stationed in Lin'an, Qingyuan, Shaoxing, Pingjiang, Jiankang, Yangzhou and other places.

This army is jointly controlled by Jia Nidao and Li Tingzhi, and Han Zhen, Jiang Cai, and Sun Huchen, who served as the "management of the army", are all confidants of Jia Nidao and Li Tingzhi. However, no matter how confidant he is, the Sanya New Army is ultimately the force of the imperial court, which is directly managed by the Privy Council, and it is still different from Tai Yong, who only listens to Jia Yidao's orders.

"Taishi," Han Zhen, who was the official envoy of Guangzhou and served as the official of the Imperial Horse Military Administrator Office (the name of the Sanya Army), crossed his hand at Jia Rudao, and his tone was quite confident, "With these six doors of nine thousand jin guns and the other ten doors of six thousand jin guns, this Qianjiangkou should be safe." Moreover, this Qianjiang Fort is backed by Lin'an City, and it is not easy for thieves to attack from the side. If you can cast more big guns, they will be widely spread on all sides of Lin'an City, and then tens of thousands of soldiers will be trained to acropolis. Then Lin'an can't be broken by a million soldiers! ”

Jia Rudao just nodded slightly, noncommittal. Lin'an can indeed be guarded, but it is also a big story that it cannot be broken by a million soldiers. Not to mention anything else, the food supply for more than one million people in Lin'an City alone during the war is a great trouble!

If the Son of Heaven is not in Lin'an, it will be a big deal to eat Yizi, and he will compete with the Ming army to see who can survive whom.

But if the Son of Heaven is in Lin'an...... How small is the courage of the Emperor of the Zhao family, will Jia Yidao still know? If there are really 100,000 Ming troops besieging the city and deploying artillery to attack day and night, I am afraid that in less than a month, the Taishang in the north, the Son of Heaven in the palace, and the father of the Son of Heaven, King Rong, will all be scared to death!

Thinking of this, Jia Rudao let out a long sigh.

Lin'an may be kept, but it must be moved!

And where can he, who is the master of the court, go? (To be continued......)