There are many reasons why artillery can appear so quickly, for example, Li Yuan, because of the appearance of divine thunder, Li Yuan is very concerned about firearms; After Ye Shenren described a kind of artillery, he kept his eyes on it; There is a supreme leader staring, and it can be regarded as gathering the manpower and material resources of the whole country to complete this project. For example, Sun Xin, who worked tirelessly to translate and guide the craftsmen to operate, worked hard; Of course, the most important thing is that the manufacturing method brought by Boss Ye is complete enough, and each step is very detailed, so that the craftsmen of Datang will not take a lot of detours.

Just like the name General Shenwei, in fact, it was not what Li Yuan thought of; Instead, Sun Xin mentioned the name of the Shenwei General Cannon in his report; When Li Yuan heard it, alas, it's good! One shot is enough to sweep away thousands of armies, this name is appropriate enough! So he easily used the first bronze cannon in Datang. And the Shaofu was asked to set up a special artillery bureau to specialize in the manufacture of artillery. Even if the artillery is still in its infancy, it must be manufactured in large quantities, and this is a high-end ordnance that can be produced by Datang itself.

Nowadays, among the many contributions Ye Shenren has made to Datang, there are gunpowder, mechas, spaceships and now artillery, but among the four major artifacts, although the spaceships and mecha are powerful, they rely too much on the Shenxiao King, but the Shenxiao King is too ethereal, and he disappears every once in a while; It's really reassuring. On the other hand, gunpowder and artillery are different, both of which were produced by Datang without the assistance of gods and men. Compared with powerful but unreliable mecha and spaceships, self-sufficiency is particularly important for the Tang Dynasty. Anyway, the gunpowder and artillery are quite powerful.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you don't want spaceships and mechas, when you can get this kind of national heavy weapon from Ye Shenren, try to buy as many as possible, and you will have as many Datang as you want.

"Your Highness, the iron cannon mentioned in the book of the courtiers is very powerful and inexpensive; However, the iron material in Shaofu can only be forged, not cast; Copper can only be used to make cannons, but there is little copper in the world, even if it is royal, there is not so much copper to cast cannons. I wonder what Your Highness can teach me......"

Iron is cheap, but it has a higher melting point, there is no furnace with sufficient temperature, and if you want to melt a few tons of molten iron at a time to cast an iron cannon, the technical level of the Tang Dynasty has not yet been reached; Moreover, there are many impurities in the molten iron, and some small cannons are barely cast, because of various impurities, which will make the iron very brittle and easy to explode.

Copper is easy to cast, and it is more suitable for artillery, but it is expensive. Not to mention those Buddha statues, tools, weapons and other copper products, the biggest copper consumption is coinage, and the materials used to make money are also used to make cannons, that is, money is used to pile up cannons! A cannon is two or three tons at will, and the Kaiyuan Tongbao copper coin of the Tang Dynasty weighs four to five grams; If a two-ton cannon is used to forge Kaiyuan Tongbao, there must be 400,000 to 500,000 pieces; This is still the cost price without other metals, and if you add other base metals, you can make more money. According to this calculation, if ten cannons are down, four or five million will be gone; If you change to a larger caliber artillery, the copper will be gone.

Listening to Sun Xin's inquiry, Ye Jinyu knew that this must have been asked by Li Yuan.

In a feudal society that has not completed the purely manual work of industrial modernization, it is still difficult to achieve military modernization. However, the industrialization of modern society has been accumulated over dozens of years, and Li Yuan wants to rely on a Shenxiao King to complete this process in a very short time; Ye Jinyu wanted to say that he thought too much.

Thinking of this, Ye Jinyu said: "I don't know the method of making steel, I can only solve it by yourself; But I have brought relevant books, which must have methods on how to make steel, you can take a look at them; At the same time, choose some faithful blacksmiths in the house to study and study, and try according to the book; Of course, I'll find an opportunity to get you some tutorials; It's like learning pinyin in a bookstore, let someone explain it to you. ”

"Command!" The content of the book that Ye Jinyu said, Sun Xin didn't know it, but the Tang Dynasty had its own salt and iron control here, and Shenxiao Wangfu did not have its own iron mine or its own iron-making workshop; Some things are not easy to do. It seems that it is time to ask the emperor for an iron mountain for His Royal Highness; I just don't know if His Royal Highness has great powers and whether he has a good goal.

After talking about steel, Ye Jinyu talked about copper again.

"Copper can't be saved by the province, so we can only find a way to open it up; I told the emperor a long time ago that on the islands south of the Tang Dynasty, there are a large number of gold, silver and copper mountains; As long as Datang's Mo Dao Array appears there, there will be endless copper there. ”

Ye Jinyu remembered that when he first told Li Yuan's father and son and the national teachers and apprentices about the world situation, he said that there were many gold, silver and copper mines on the uninhabited islands of Luzon; Since Datang is short of copper, it can be mined from Luzon Island. By the way, let the citizens of the Tang Dynasty officially go to the broad road of colonization in all directions; Li Yuanji also said that he would go for his father to take Australia, which had been changed to Tuzhou, and he could leave this matter to the Qi Palace.

However, Ye Jinyu checked the mineral resources map again, and he learned that eleven of the top 20 copper mines in the world were in the Americas, and the top four were in Chile. In Asia, there are four large copper mines in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Indonesia. As for the land of China, there is not a single one, and even if there is, it is estimated that it has been hollowed out in the development of civilization for 5,000 years.

Therefore, if Datang wants to obtain a large amount of copper, it can only go out; The Americas are too far away to go for the time being, not to mention, the closest are these mines in Asia.

"Your Highness, Your Majesty has a treasure map presented by His Royal Highness, and has ordered His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who occupies the North Court, to organize prisoners of war to mine copper mines in the Western Regions. It's just that the time is still short, and it won't be effective in a year or two. ”

Speaking of which, the Tang Dynasty has just defeated the powerful Turks, and other small countries in the Western Regions that have witnessed the collapse of the Turks, can only tremble when facing the Tang Dynasty's soldiers, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the current Western Regions have become the backyard of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the mineral deposits of the steppe and the Western Regions belong to the bag, and it happens that there are a large number of Turkic prisoners of war in their hands, which can be used to mine copper ore. And that's exactly what Li Yuan did.

"It's not right, it's not right!" Ye Jinyu shook his head. How could I not know that Kazakhstan in the Western Regions and Mongolia on the steppe have such large copper mines, why don't you talk about these mines, but pick more distant islands in the South Seas. It's all out of a sentiment called nationalism.

"Those Turkic people were originally nomadic people in the north, they were born and raised in Si, and they were far more familiar with the steppes and the Western Regions than we in the Central Plains; Let them stay and work on the grassland, if there is any turmoil, they may run into the depths of the grassland and disappear without a trace; When they come out again, it will definitely be the scourge of Datang again. When the time comes, they will rebel in small groups, and send a large army, which is not cost-effective, and send a small army, and they may not be able to find them; ”

Sun Xin said: "How come? The Celestial Empire would station a large army to suppress the prisoners of war, and there would be a large army to guard them, and the Turks could not afford to turn up the storm. ”

"It is not cost-effective to have an army stationed all year round, which is far away from the Central Plains and is not a grain-producing area; Let tens of thousands of troops eat horses there, and logistics supply is probably more difficult; If this continues, it will not bring down the Empire's finances, but it will slow down the pace of the Empire's expansion. The emperor also wants to see several sons divide the world in his lifetime! What year and month will it take to dominate this planet? ”