It is said that once the envoy of the Western Xia came to the Great Song Dynasty, saying that the Great White Gaoguo soldiers were elite, and there was a threat between the words, and the ministers of the Great Song Dynasty did not speak out angrily to fight back, and the Western Xia envoy took out the Western Xia sword, and wanted to compete with the sword of the Great Song Dynasty, but the sword of the Great Song Dynasty was broken one after another, and finally a famous minister took out his sword and won a game, but unfortunately his sword was a Japanese sword, which made the Great Song Dynasty very faceless.

It can be seen that the iron smelting technology of the Great Song Dynasty has yet to be developed, and it may not be possible to produce iron materials that can make fire gun barrels immediately.

"But I'm afraid it's hard to choose this suitable person?" Wang Shaomian hesitated, compared to building weapons, he wanted to personally lead the troops through the river, and Wang Yan was responsible for the planting of high-yield crops such as corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, I am afraid that he would not have this time, as for his own child Wang Hou may be able to, but if one of their Wang family is leading the troops outside, and the other is responsible for building ordnance inside, I am afraid that the court will not be able to rest assured.

"There are many talents in the Great Song Dynasty, and it is not difficult to find someone who has the ability to be responsible for this matter, Qiantang Shen Cunzhong, Quanzhou Su Zirong, all have this ability." The Great Song Dynasty had not yet been poisoned by Cheng Zhu Lixue, and many Confucian scholars were quite interested in science, and Shen Kuo and Su Song were among the best.

Shen Kuo can be called an all-round talent, and he will enjoy a good reputation in the future, needless to say; Su Song has also made quite good achievements in astronomy, machinery, medicine, mathematics and other aspects, and it is appropriate for one of them to be in charge of this matter.

There are also mathematicians Jia Xian and Wei Pu, architects Li Jie, medical scientists Qian Yi, and today's famous ministers Zeng Gongliang and Cai Xiang have also made good contributions in the fields of tea science, water conservancy, and military.

"Shen Kuo?" Wang Yan remembered what Shen Long had said at the beginning, those who can leave their names in history must not be simple characters, "Shen Cunzhong is now serving as a pavilion proofreader in the Hanlin Academy, and he is still in Beijing; Su Zirong is the new birthday envoy of the Empress Dowager of Liao, and the envoy to Liao has not returned, so it may be better to let Shen Cunzhong handle this matter. ”

"Shen Cunzhong's qualifications are slightly insufficient, and this matter is not something that can be decided overnight, and by that time, Su Zirong should have come back a long time ago." Shen Long said that there is no problem with Shen Kuo's ability, but unfortunately his old mother died of illness in August this year, according to today's habits, Shen Kuo must go home and keep filial piety for a while, and if he wants Shen Kuo to do things, he can only wait for him to come back.

"Then when Su Zirong returns to Beijing, he will come to visit him in the future." Wang Yan didn't know why Shen Long didn't choose Shen Kuo, but felt that since he said so, there must be a reason for him, during this time he was busy going to Xiangzhou to find tortoise shells, and he hadn't had time to study the history books that Shen Long had gotten, so he naturally didn't know about Shen Kuo's worries.

I heard that the eyes of Master Wang's family are above the top, and now they are so deferential to this Shen Daochang, not like the legendary appearance, Wang Shao was a little surprised, but when he thought about the movement that Shen Long had just made in the ravine, he figured it out at the moment, even if he was arrogant, he would become like Wang Yan when he saw this scene, right?

Back to Wang Anshi's home, Wang Anshi has returned, heard that Wang Shao came to visit, Wang Anshi was quite happy, he wanted to meet with this military right-hand man as soon as possible after reading those history books, and today finally got his wish.

After a few people had dinner together, they came to Wang's study to narrate, Wang Shao first briefly talked about what he had seen and heard about his travels in the northwest, as well as the idea of pacifying Western Xia, and then couldn't wait to talk about what Shen Long did today with Wang Yan.

"How can there be such an artifact?" Wang Anshi couldn't sit still when he heard it, the Great Song Dynasty has always attached importance to long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows, and the proportion of crossbowmen in the army is extremely high, but unfortunately both bows and crossbows have their own defects, archers are not easy to practice, and it costs a lot to train an archer, and the bow of the divine arm is too laborious, and the defense of the city may not have much impact, and it is a little difficult to go out of the city to fight in the field.

Now that Shen Long has taken out a firearm that is more powerful than a bow and arrow, easier to get started with, and more convenient to fill than a divine arm bow, if the Great Song army can be equipped with this weapon on a large scale, its combat effectiveness will inevitably increase greatly.

Shen Long took out the arquebus again, and introduced the structure and use of this early musket to Wang Anshi, Wang Shao and Wang Yan on the side, you and I said the process of their test firing, "Father, with this thing, the Xixia Gang can also be pierced with one shot, and it is not a problem to pacify the party and collect the revival spirit." ”

It is customary to leave a piece of chopsticks at the end of each piece of armor without forging, vaguely like a long piece of skin on the skin, so it is called a lily armor; The defense of the armor is excellent, and an arrow once pierced the small hole in the belt on the armor of the armor, but the arrow was scraped by drilling, and the iron was rolled up, but the armor was not injured at all, and it was a strange story for a while.

At a slightly farther distance, the bows and arrows of the Great Song Dynasty could not be penetrated, and only the divine arm bow could penetrate, and the Northwest Frontier Army of the Great Song Dynasty did not suffer this loss.

"Daochang Shen has promised to teach me the skills of making fire guns to the Great Song Dynasty, and recommended Su Zirong to take charge of this matter." Wang Yan continued.

"Su Zirong has always liked mechanical objects, and if he sees this thing, he will definitely like it." Wang Anshi and Su Song are similar in age, and they are both in the same class in the second year of Qingli, and they know him very well, if ordinary scholars learn that they are going to be in charge of ordnance building, they will either feel that they can fill their own pockets if they get a fat difference, or they feel that they are humiliated and come to do this kind of rough work? Su Song will not be like this, he will definitely take care of this matter.

"Then when Su Zirong returns to Beijing, the child will go to visit." Wang Yan said.

"Well, please come over and discuss it when the time comes." Saying that, Wang Anshi suddenly frowned, "Dare to ask Daoist Shen, if you want to build this kind of firebolt, I'm afraid it will cost a lot, right?" ”

"This is the same as the Sword God Arm Bow, the price of each one is definitely not low at the beginning, but the later it is, the more you build, the cheaper it becomes." Shen Long replied, "If you want to build a good firearm factory, you are afraid of hundreds of thousands. ”

This is still conservative, for fear of frightening Wang Anshi, "Of course, these hundreds of thousands of guan are not taken out at once." ”

"Even so, I'm afraid the first one will cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, right? Iron, houses, manpower, oh, and this gunpowder and projectiles, all of them don't need money! "Wang Anshi's head is starting to get bigger, the Great Song Dynasty is redundant officials and soldiers, and there is not much savings in the treasury, so it is not easy to come up with this money.

Moreover, it costs a lot of money to popularize high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes, and the things that Shen Daochang took out are all good things, but Da Song can't come up with so much money to do these things! But how is it good?