"Selling newspapers ~ selling newspapers ~ , there was a drastic change overseas, the coast of Zhancheng was invaded by the Rakshasa army, and a large amount of territory was lost, and the leader of the Rakshasa army then requested to attach the Great Song ......" The newsboy shook the newspaper in his hand while running on the street and shouted, whenever the pedestrians on the road waved to them, these newsboys would immediately stop and hand over the newspaper in their hands, and by the way, they took a few pennies handed over by the other party, and then said a few auspicious words before rushing away.

Zhao Yan in the carriage was holding a bun in one hand and a newspaper in the other, quite like an office worker in later generations, but he would only go out so early today, and he didn't even bother to eat breakfast, because there was news from the ordnance supervisor that the musket he had developed was finally successful, so he went out in such a hurry.

While eating the buns bought on the side of the road, he looked at the newspaper in his hand, the newspaper introduced in detail the strength of the Rakshasa army, and their sudden attack on the city, and occupied most of the coastal area of the city, this attack was launched very suddenly, even the officials of the deep-water port in Jiaozhi of the Great Song Dynasty did not know in advance, and it was not until later that the news spread, which attracted everyone's attention.

Zhao Yan looked at the report in the newspaper, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face, originally he founded the newspaper just to let the imperial court have a tool to control public opinion, but he didn't expect that the newspaper had much more functions than he expected in advance, such as the Rakshasa Army's air raid on the city, Zhao Yan could use the newspaper to help him spread some news, such as the Rakshasa Army already has the strength of the sea overlord, which can be seen from the fact that they have beaten the city in a very short period of time.

The reason why Zhao Yan spread the strength of the Rakshasa Army was naturally to let the Great Song Dynasty know that the Rakshasa Army already had the strength to divide the land as the king, so as to attract their attention. In addition, at the end of this report, there is a flotilla of the Rakshasa army appearing in Guangzhou, and asking the imperial court for the attached news. Zhao Yan only learned this news from Princess Dening's letter.

It's also a coincidence to say that Likong led the fleet of the Rakshasa Army to appear in Guangzhou, on the one hand, to show his strength to Da Song, and on the other hand, according to his and Zhao Yan's plan, he officially made an attached request to Da Song, but he didn't expect that Princess Dening happened to be on the dock at that time. As a result, he witnessed the whole process, and even met with Kong afterwards, speaking of which, Haimao Xing and the Rakshasa Army are also commercial competitors with each other, and Princess Dening and Kong have also admired each other's names for a long time, but they have never met, let alone know about Kong and Princess Bao'an.

Likong has completed the plan he set with Zhao Yan three years ago, and the next thing is to see the reaction of the imperial court, judging from Zhao Yan's analysis, the imperial court will agree to the request of empty attachment nine times out of ten. And will also give the empty seal a noble title, when the time comes, you can take this opportunity to ask Zhao Shu to marry Princess Bao'an, Zhao Yan and Princess Bao'an will also cooperate with the empty at this time, it can be said that the whole plan has a great chance of success.

Thinking of the above, Zhao Yan couldn't help but show a smug expression, the whole plan took three years, although there were some twists and turns, but it was still very smooth to achieve the original desired goal. It wasn't an easy task for anyone, but they did it. The next thing to do is to see how he convinces Zhao Shu.

The Gunpowder Department is still in the western suburbs of Tokyo City, Zhao Yan has come here is already three poles, and the craftsmen in the Department have also begun to be busy, Zhao Yan is very familiar with this place, so he went directly to Qi Yu when he entered the Department, last time Qi Yu and their craftsmen have developed artillery, although the current artillery can only shoot solid bullets. The range is also limited, but Zhao Yan believes that after frequent improvements, one day the artillery can reach the power of later generations.

Because the iron quality of the Great Song Dynasty is not very good, Zhao Yan pointed out that the artillery they studied was the child and mother cannon, and the so-called child and mother cannon were actually similar to the principle of the musket. Therefore, after the successful development of the sub-mother cannon, Qi Yu and the others immediately began to study the musket, and achieved success in such a short period of time, which made Zhao Yan also very excited, especially when he thought of the scene where the soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty had a musket in their hands on the battlefield, and then lined up to shoot forward, and the enemy fell like mowing grass, Zhao Yan couldn't help but feel a little enthusiastic, but he also knew that before the bullet appeared, the use of muskets was greatly restricted, coupled with the problem of cost, Therefore, the picture he imagined was unlikely to appear in a short period of time.

Zhao Yan hurriedly came to the courtyard where Qi Yu was studying, and as soon as he entered the door, he saw that Cao Chong, who was in charge of the Gunpowder Administration, was also here, and Cao Chong was able to take charge of the Gunpowder Administration because of Zhao Yan's suggestion, and he was Cao Ying's cousin, so he was also very enthusiastic when he saw Zhao Yan, and immediately stepped forward to salute, and Zhao Yan also smiled and chatted with him.

"Cousin, did you come here to see the musket here from Qi Yu?" Zhao Yan asked again at this time, Cao Chong is in charge of the entire Gunpowder Administration, and his usual affairs are no less than Su Song and Su Shi, and Zhao Yan rarely sees him when he comes to the Gunpowder Administration, but today he appeared here with Qi Yu, so Zhao Yan asked like this.

"The king guessed right, I really couldn't spare time for the last artillery test firing, so I missed the opportunity, and I don't want to miss it again this time when the musket was successfully developed." Cao Chong also smiled at this time, Qi Yu is now a very famous firearms master in the Gunpowder Administration, so he has a new invention, and Cao Chong also wants to come and see it.

"Hehe, muskets and artillery are the two most promising weapons of firearms, this cousin must keep in mind!" Zhao Yan smiled again at this time and said, although Cao Chong did not say it explicitly before, but Zhao Yan could also feel that he did not attach much importance to the study of artillery and muskets, if it were not for Zhao Yan to insist on supporting Qi Yu, I am afraid that artillery would also be difficult to study, but now Cao Chong has seen the power of artillery, although there are still various deficiencies in artillery, but he can already see the potential in it, so he paid attention to Qi Yu, and this time he came in person, which shows his attention.

"Thank you for worrying about the king, the next official must remember it in the future!" Cao Chong also said solemnly, and at the same time he was more convinced of Zhao Yan, of course, it was Zhao Yan who gave him the correct gunpowder formula, which greatly increased the power of gunpowder, and later invented the ballista, and even the invention of artillery had the shadow of Zhao Yan, which made Cao Chong already regard Zhao Yan as an authority on gunpowder in his heart, and he did not dare to have any doubts about his words.

Just as Zhao Yan and Cao Chong were talking, Qi Yu also walked out of the room at this time, and saw Zhao Yan and Cao Chong hurriedly stepping forward to salute, and then excitedly introduced: "King Jun, the musket has been successfully studied, and now it is also sent to the test site and is preparing for a test launch, should we go to the test site now to have a look?" ”

"Of course, let's take a look, I can't wait." Zhao Yan said loudly with great excitement, he couldn't wait to see with his own eyes what the first musket in history looked like and what was its performance?

At that moment, Zhao Yan and the three of them rushed to the test site, only to see a group of craftsmen who had already begun to prepare there, and when they saw Zhao Yan and them, these craftsmen also immediately saluted, and then Zhao Yan saw that in the hands of one of the craftsmen, he was holding a musket, only to see that this musket was about three feet long, and it looked similar to the musket that Zhao Yan saw in historical pictures, but there were some more decorative patterns on the barrel, which looked very beautiful, it seemed that Qi Yu and they also cherished this artillery very much, otherwise they would not have taken the time to make the musket so beautiful.

"King Jun, this cannon is designed according to your requirements, you need to clamp the fire rope on the gun when you use it, then load the gunpowder and bullets from the front, add gunpowder to the ignition pool, pull the trigger and use the fire rope to trigger the gunpowder, so as to fire the bullet and shoot it." Qi Yu picked up the musket at this time, and then gave a brief introduction to Zhao Yan and Cao Chong, in fact, these Zhao Yan knew better than the craftsmen present, so his words were mainly to Cao Chong.

Zhao Yan also nodded with satisfaction when he heard this, and then reached out to take the musket, but he didn't expect his hand to sink, he didn't expect that this musket really had weight, and it was really difficult to hold without a little strength, but for an adult man, it could be bearable. At that moment, Zhao Yan looked up and down the musket several times, and found that the workmanship everywhere was very good, and there were already traces of gunpowder firing on the musket, in fact, Qi Yu would definitely test shoot it after the manufacturing was completed, and only if it was successful, it would be taken out for Zhao Yan to see.

"Yes, the workmanship of this gun is very good, the only drawback is that it is too heavy, of course, this is not a big disadvantage, in the future I will find a way to improve the iron quality of our Da Song, as long as there is good steel, you can make the barrel thinner, so as to reduce some weight." Zhao Yan praised it at the moment, and then put forward a shortcoming.

The quality of the steel of the Great Song Dynasty has always been a heart disease of Zhao Yan, and it was precisely because of the steel that it was not good in the past, so it could only make the mother and son cannons, and the quality of the weapons of the Great Song Dynasty was not as good as that of Dali, Zhao Yan also felt a little embarrassed to say it, and it seemed that he would have to focus on improving the steel quality of the Great Song Dynasty in the future.

"What the county king said is that we did thicken the barrel because of steel!" Qi Yu also immediately said when he heard this, whether it is the research of artillery or muskets, it is now in trouble because of the quality of steel, so he hopes to improve the problem of poor steel quality sooner than anyone else.

"Well, there will be good steel in the future, let's try the power of the musket first!" Zhao Yan said solemnly at the moment. Hearing Zhao Yan's command, Qi Yu also immediately took action, while Cao Chong looked curiously at the weapon in front of him, which didn't look very conspicuous, guessing what kind of power it had, and how could it make Zhao Yan pay so much attention? (To be continued......)