"Official, it seems that Mongolia's new musket can be mass-produced." The director of the Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of War, who is in charge of intelligence work, made a concluding remarks at the end of the report.

The soldiers and others attending the meeting all looked at Zhao Jiaren nervously, and the progress of the Mongolian musket made them feel heavy pressure. Everyone knows the goods, and this musket can definitely be used on the battlefield in real combat.

"It's just a heavy musket." Zhao Jiaren replied flatly. As far as he knew, this heavy musket was the main firearm in the early days of the Spanish Grand Phalanx. For this kind of thing, Song Jun has no reason to be afraid at all.

Seeing Zhao Jiaren's rather disdainful expression, Chief of Staff Zheng Jie hurriedly said: "Official, our military department thinks that if it is a field battle, of course there is no need to be afraid of this. But what if the Mongol army used this kind of thing to defend the city? ”

Zhao Jiaren said with a smile: "When the Mongolian army is at its strongest, it is when they are most capable of field battles. Can a single fortification weapon change the decline of the Mongols? ”

After finishing speaking, Zhao Jiaren suddenly understood something, and he questioned: "You don't want me to find a weapon to restrain the Mongolian army, do you?" ”

Zheng Jie wanted to answer honestly, and that's it. As a result, I felt that I was kicked twice by Chen Zaixing, the person in charge of the school in the army. I just don't know why, Zheng Jie temporarily swallowed the words that almost blurted out back into his stomach. In this moment, Zheng Jie suddenly understood what Chen Zaixing meant. Now where will the Zhao official family deal with these trivial matters. Moreover, the new musket of the Mongolian army has no way to change the current situation in which the Song army is strong and the Mongolian army is weak.

After receiving the new information, the Ministry of War has already done a response analysis, and in the field, the movement of this musket is basically zero. The formation of the Mongol army was very simple, just pull out the cannon and carry out a fierce bombardment of the dense phalanx of the Mongol army. According to the intelligence of the Song army, the Mongolian army's artillery technology has never been breakthrough, and the range of the artillery they can produce is only 80 steps (120 meters). As the main force of the Song army, the five-pound cannon had a range of more than 160 steps (240 meters) easily. The freshly finalized 10-pound bronze cannon (12-pounder gun) can accurately fire shells to 300 paces (450 meters).

The only difficulty was that the Mongol army used a lot of this musket when defending the city, with the current siege methods of the Song army. The entire movement of the Song army was within the range of the muskets of the Mongol army.

Confirming that he was cowardly, Zheng Jie's mind was running urgently, and finally he held back a sentence, "Official, we will definitely find a way to restrain the Mongolian muskets." ”

Then Zheng Jie saw Zhao Guanjia staring at him for a while, and then Zhao Guanjia said coldly: "Haven't you thought about it, is it only a matter of time before the Mongolian army makes muskets?" ”

"This ......, we thought the Mongol army was stupid and couldn't build it." Zheng Jie told the truth.

These words made Zhao Jiaren feel speechless. When he was young, he also thought that the Mongols and the Manchus had defeated the Song and Ming simply by brutality and barbarism. Now in the Great Song Dynasty, Zhao Jiaren found that the equipment and training level of the Mongol army surpassed that of the Song army. Compared with the Mongol army, the Song army was considered to be the poorer side.

As for the per capita living standards of the people on both sides, it was also the level of the Han people under Mongol rule that surpassed the Song people. There are only 10 million Han people killed in the north, and the entire north feeds this 10 million people, which can be described as vast and sparsely populated. Moreover, at that time, Guo Shoujing, a water conservancy master, also desperately built various water conservancy facilities, which greatly improved the irrigation level in the north and increased the agricultural output of the Great Yuan established by Kublai Khan.

In order to correct everyone's wrong thinking, Zhao Jiaren said: "The Mongols are not as stupid as you think. Even if they are stupid, they know how to use craftsmen, and more than half of those craftsmen are Han Chinese. In addition to the Han Chinese, there are also skilled craftsmen from various countries. So don't think of those craftsmen as Mongols......"

The people in the military department are quite lacking in this basic knowledge, although they also have the knowledge they should have, but the basic concept cannot be compared with Zhao Jiaren at all. After listening to Zhao Jiaren's words, the intelligence bureau hurriedly added: "What the official said is right. The reason why we were able to get the information so quickly was because of the Han craftsmen. The relatives of these craftsmen are all Han soldiers who have been captured by us, and they have seen the might of our Song army, and they are willing to abandon the darkness and turn to the light. ”

After listening to the explanations of the authorities and those with practical experience, the mood in the military department was much more relaxed. Everyone also began to speak.

Looking at his subordinates, Zhao Jiaren couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Among the friends he knew, there were all kinds of historical black, and the vast majority of them were disgusted with Mongolia and the Manchus. In addition, there is no shortage of Tang Hei, Song Hei, and Ming Hei.

Back in this era, Zhao Jiaren can be regarded as a certain degree of Song Hei. And the friends of the Ming and Hei told that the Manchus attached great importance to military construction. In addition to the emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, the Manchus were very keen on the study and use of firearms. The same firearm, when used by the Ming army, is basically the same as waste. When it was used by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Ming army was defeated.

In addition to these, the Manchus also attached great importance to equipment. When the two sides fought, the Manchu side was cotton armor with wrought iron sheets in a one-color cotton cloth, which was extremely strong for the defense of early muskets. The equipment of the Qing army and the Ming army is the same as that of the Qing army.

Therefore, when Ming Hei discusses the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the basic argument is to blame. At that time, the Ming army was not simply lost in hand-to-hand combat, or lost in heroism. Compared with the Qing army, the Ming army actually had an all-round disadvantage.

Looking at the Song Army now, Zhao Jiaren feels that the Song Army has carried out a large-scale rectification in his hands, but the feeling of a weak army still exists. One of the most obvious signs is the 'purpose-oriented' value choice in Fang Cai Zheng Jie's words.

For Zheng Jie, what he is seeking is victory. To put it mildly, Zheng Jie only pursues victory. If possible, Zheng Jie hopes that every battle will have zero casualties. At first glance, this attitude is the standard weak army mentality. At least Zhao Jiaren saw all the records of the People's Liberation Army, the German Army, the Soviet Army, and the American Army, and these great armies would not have such stupid thoughts. Those brutal battles and great victories made the commanders of these armies understand the laws of war.

Just as he was thinking about it, Zhao Jiaren heard Zheng Jie ask a little uneasily: "Official, what is our arrangement for this year." ”

"Implement the military tun in Henan." Zhao Jiaren replied.

"Huh?" Zheng Jie was stunned. He couldn't understand why Zhao Guanjia used such a leap of thinking to answer the question. Then he heard Zhao Jiaren ask: "Chief of Staff Zheng, are you thinking about what weapons to use to suppress the Mongol army?" ”

"Yes." Zheng Jie replied.

After listening to this answer, Zhao Jiaren was finally able to confirm that his judgment of Zheng Jie was correct. This guy is nowhere near the level of a famous player. Sun Tzu said: Therefore, those who are good at fighting are invincible, and they will not lose the defeat of the enemy. Taizu said: If you can win, you will fight, and if you can't win, you will leave. Taizu also said: You beat yours, I beat mine.

After Zhao Jiaren understood these basic concepts of war through practice, he explained them to all the soldiers. Mongolia has heavy muskets, and there is no need for the Song army to brave the Mongolian army's bullets and bullets to attack the city.

There were many ways to restrain the Mongol army. What Zhao Jiaren could easily come up with included taking advantage of the Mongolian army's confidence in defending the city in turn, and implementing siege reinforcements in turn. If the Mongol army did not come to the rescue, the Song army could still solve the Mongol army by means of a long-term siege, food and water cuts.

War is a dynamic development of the two sides fighting wits and courage, and when the time comes, it is good to decide on tactics according to the actual situation. Zheng Jie's performance is to hope that everything is under control. Zhao Jiaren knows celebrities with this kind of habit and has a nickname called 'Chang Kaishen'. This big man, who once had an army of 8 million, was beaten to the point of losing his armor in three years in front of the mobile and realistic People's Liberation Army, and ran to a small island to survive.

At this time, Zhao Jiaren felt that criticism was probably of little use, so he put down Zheng Jie's question and said to himself: "Don't think about the Mongolian musket first." Let's solve our own problems first. Sun Tzu said that it is the reason why the victorious soldiers win first and then seek battle, and the defeated soldiers first fight and then seek victory. The biggest gap in our army now is the food supply in the north. ”

Math is a good thing. Zhao Guanjia took out the plan for the future Northern Expedition. The food supply alone made the military department feel strongly uneasy. 300,000 combat troops and 300,000 transport troops need 300 million catties of grain. These are just eaten. In addition to this, there is a full set of equipment for 300,000 combat troops and preparations for adjustment of damaged equipment. It is impossible for 300,000 transport troops to carry it on their shoulders. These 300,000 transport troops need a lot of animal power. Donkeys, mules, these animals and transport vehicles need to be prepared.

After calculation, the money needed to conquer Hebei is no longer something that can be solved by paying tens of millions of dollars. That is, the war is very smooth, and the cost of this war can easily exceed hundreds of millions of dollars.

Zhao Guan's family played with the numbers, and most of the guys in the military department who hadn't considered these were dumbfounded or bowed their heads silently. The fact that war is such an expensive activity leaves them speechless.

After looking at these people, Zhao Jiaren sighed. He now somewhat understood why in many wars, such as the Battle of Wild Fox Ridge, Jin Guo chose the most stupid tactics. Put hundreds of thousands of troops outside the mountains, on the edge of the steppe. This was due to the fact that the Jin State wanted to be able to deal with the Mongol army in one fell swoop, and for the Jin State, they could not bear the heavy burden of a long war. So you can only choose one game to determine the winner.

So Zhao Jiaren did not choose this approach this time. He decided to honestly overwhelm the Mongols by strength. At this time, the war between the two major powers that ranked first and second in strength on the entire planet could not be played with the slightest trick.