Bai Yijie said on the side: "Very good, I will write a note with you later, you go to the treasury of the Dutong Division to receive the application of things, from now on, your living and research expenses are responsible for the Dutong Yamen, and there will be a heavy reward for each successful research, left and right, this Master Pei will be brought to the Yamen to entertain the good students!" ”

Zheng Yunming considers how to motivate these craftsmen to invent with both material and spiritual rewards. Bai Yijie was thinking about something else.

Since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, it has faced the war competition with the foreign countries established by the surrounding barbarians, and the battle on the battlefield is only one aspect, or even a small proportion, and the other parts of the competition include the reserves of national strength, the formation and training of the army, the wrestling of intelligence, and the contest of armament and armor, and the competition of strong armor and soldiers, in essence, is to compete with the strength of craftsmen.

The craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty are no less than any civilized country in the current world, and the policy of the barbarian states to deal with the craftsmen of civilized countries is to plunder. Every time an enemy soldier enters the army, skilled craftsmen are far more popular than treasures and women. Especially a talented genius like Pei Gen is the most important thing in the eyes of the enemy. Bai Yijie believes that if in order to get a craftsman like Pei Gen, even if he pays the lives of a hundred Mongolian soldiers, he will definitely not hesitate.

Wokotai will not be stingy, and Bai Yijie will not be stingy either. He gave the order to die to the Beiwei army, and he would rather fight to the death than ensure the absolute safety of the craftsmen in Jinghu.

Unlike the ministers who were far away in the high halls and temples, the young and low-ranking officials led by Bai Yijie had to face all kinds of practical problems, and they had a much deeper feeling for craftsmen, officials, and country gentry.

He said to Zheng Yunming: "The national soldiers are inferior to the people, they will be inferior to the people, and the firm patience is inferior to the people, so we must surpass the Mongols in the weapons and city walls." People like Master Pei Gen are our knack for defeating our enemies. Naturally, this stuff is also included."

As they spoke, the two of them had already walked up to the two large bodies. The trial production of General Tie encountered many twists and turns, and it has not been successfully researched until today. The two metal cannons that are now placed in front of Zheng Yunming are mixed with bronze. The style is roughly modeled on General Zhu, but it also uses a different bore wall at the front and back like Pei Gen's firecracker. And it is equipped with a fire door cover. The difference is that the top caps of the fire doors of these two bronze generals are made of iron sheets, and the names of the foundries are engraved on them.

General Tong was three feet four inches long, with a muzzle diameter of six inches and six minutes, and a total weight of one hundred and eighty pounds. To Zheng Yunming's delight, even if they didn't mention these craftsmen, they still came up with a way to strengthen the strength of the body tube, that is, to build copper hoops on the body tubes as reinforcing ribs, and there were a total of five copper hoops on the copper general as reinforcements, the back tail was closed in a semicircle, and the fire door was opened above the medicine room.

The Great Song Dynasty finally entered the era of metal firearms from the era of bamboo and wood cannons. Zheng Yunming looked at the cannons that were already a little similar, and wondered what kind of effect these weapons, which appeared two hundred years in advance, would have against the strongest cavalry group in history that was at its peak?

He didn't feel relaxed at all, even with these sophisticated firearms, in another time and space, Ming Taizu's expeditionary force was still broken by the Mongolian cavalry that had long since lost its peak near Helin. And even later, in the face of the 20,000 cavalry of the Warat Division, the hundreds of thousands of troops of the orthodox emperor Zhu Qizhen, who had an elite Shenji battalion, also collapsed.

Rather than saying that firearms are a panacea to resist cavalry, it is better to say that compared to the cold weapons that are already very proficient in the current use, these newborn murderous monsters are arrogant and difficult to control, and there are all kinds of harsh restrictions on the time, place, climate and method of training, manufacturing, and use.

"Show the Commander Bronze how to cast it!" Bai Yijie ordered, and immediately several craftsmen and gunners trained in advance came over to prepare for the drill.

"That's it." Zheng Yunming waved his hand and said, "Didn't you already perform in front of the envoy in the morning?" I heard the voice, and sure enough, the momentum was ten times greater than that of General Bamboo. How much can you cast before the autumn? ”

The leading craftsman replied respectfully: "After making these two guys, everyone is familiar with the process a lot, according to this progress, it should be possible to cast fifteen before the autumn, no, twenty."

"What are these enough for?" Zheng Yunming frowned: "Can't you speed up?" Divide the craftsmen into two shifts and cast day and night! ”

Bai Yijie said: "Even if you rush to cast day and night, there are only so many craftsmen who know how to cast, and there is always a limit to people's physical strength, and it is impossible for them to rush to work in twelve hours." ”

Zheng Yunming smashed his fist in annoyance, turned around and asked Yang Luo, "How many bronze generals do you need for Xiangyang's city defense?" ”

Yang Luo stuck out his tongue: "That's not a small number, just to garrison four city gates and four corner towers, the total number of at least three hundred general cannons is needed, and at present, General Zhu is arranged to guard it, and the newly created copper general can only be arranged as a killer weapon in the most critical place." ”

"That's exactly what I'm worried about." Zheng Yunming shouted: "Return to the capital of the Yamen, and then bring in the Ge system, the Lu system and the generals, and we will be equipped with all kinds of firearms immediately, but how the firearms should be used still needs to be carefully studied and carefully deployed." ”

There is a peach tree in the backyard of the deputy capital of Jing'e, which is said to have been planted during the Five Dynasties, and now it has been crowned with a pavilion. On weekdays, if Zheng Yunming is a convener to talk about something casually, he will order someone to arrange a seat under the peach tree, and everyone will sit anywhere and talk in a simple and relaxed atmosphere.

Now gathered under the tree are the top commanders of the two armies under the command of the deputy capital of Jing and Hubei.

"Since Chi You killed soldiers, the world only knows that Lu Dao fights with swords, spears, bows and arrows, how can he ever know how to use Lu Dao firearms?" In front of Zheng Yunming were rows of pottery dolls, as well as models of artillery fired from clay: "All the methods of using firearms in our army are slowly explored by everyone in actual combat. ”

Wang Dengdao said: "Now the tactics of using firearms in the army are gradually taught to friendly troops, and there are two most likely ones. One is the strategy of defending the city, where the distance of firearms is determined before the battle, and stones are piled up to make markers, or a benchmark is set at the head of the city. As soon as the enemy is in range, all firearms are fired immediately, and then reloaded, with the archers continuing to kill and injure the enemy during the reload interval. ”

"One is the field tactic, before the army engages, a two-wheeled cart equipped with General Zhu is used to line up in front of the formation, and after the two sides are close to the firing range, a salvo is fired, and then the chariot retreats, and the two sides engage in battle."

"Neither tactic is very efficient." Zheng Yunming held his forehead with his hand: "When defending the city, General Zhu can shoot at most two rounds and three rounds at most, not to mention field battles, at most two rounds can be fired. Firearms are the cutting-edge weapons of the Great Song Dynasty, and they are also the best weapons of our dynasty, and the envoy has put forward a slogan, which is to equip Jinghu with at least 10,000 handcuffs and 500 bronze generals and iron generals within three years. In the future, firearms will account for at least one-tenth of the combat power of the military, and their role may be even greater. It is not advisable to study the tactics used in firearms. ”

"Let's talk about it, have you ever figured out what kind of tactics are suitable for the use of firearms?"

"It's too simple." Ge Huai's loud voice shook everyone's eardrums: "According to me, what is General Zhu and that?" Oh, firearms, before the battle, let those who are not afraid of death take it, and when the battle comes, no matter how the enemy provokes, don't move, whether it is archery or light horse harassment, all as if he is a straw man, until the enemy brigade is really close, less than twenty steps without fire, and when the distance of twenty paces, all the fucking squirts over, and it is strange not to scare a few Tartars to death! ”

Although his words were vulgar, he could not be regarded as the experience of the actual combat school, and all cutting-edge weapons, especially the firecracker artillery, which had a greater prestige than the actual killing effect, were most wonderful than concentrated use to form a very deterrent group firing effect in front of the enemy, which was very obvious in the earlier defensive battle of Shatou City and the battle of Wulipo.

Lu Qingchun, who was sitting at the bottom, raised his hand and said: "Deploying the Iron Gun Team and the Bamboo General Army in front of the palace army formation as a sharp weapon to stop the enemy's pursuers will definitely scare the opponent's pursuers!" "He was originally the general of the rear army, but now he has filled the position of commander of the same army, and he is still the commander of the rear army in the Tulong Army, and his primary consideration is not to attack but to retreat.

Zhang Shun, the general of the general shooting army, said in a deep voice: "General Zhu is just that, according to the situation of the iron gun fired in the morning, although the effective killing of the iron gun is similar to that of the wooden bow, but its shooting relatives cannot be guaranteed at all, I personally let it go, at most it can only be guaranteed within dozens of steps, and it will be a thousand miles away." ”

"It's the most suitable for defending the city." Yang Yu was appointed by Zheng Yunming to supervise the transformation of Xiangyang's city defense, and after Zheng Yunming's suggestion, many buildings suitable for firearms were built in the city defense facilities, so he considered the use of firearms in defending the city more than others: "With the city wall as a support, you can avoid the disadvantage that firearms are not good at hand-to-hand combat to the greatest extent, and at the same time, the enemy wants to attach to the city and is bound to gather under the city, so that firearms can carry out intensive strikes at close range, and there is no missing bullet, which is the time to show their strengths." ”

"At present, more than 40 enemy platforms have been built on the city, each of which is equipped with a fixed artillery mount, and General Zhu can use it as soon as he places it, and there is no need to temporarily put a bulky wooden frame on the city wall like in Shatou City, and a few soldiers are needed to resist the rack when firing. In addition, there is a gun hole in the pheasant moat, through which the gunners can shoot at the castle. ”