Chen Jinshan led people to start preparing.

The powder pack was filled first, then a wooden stopper was pushed in to seal it, and finally ten lead pieces were put in it and tamped.

The range of the scattershot was less than 100 zhang, so the target was set at a distance of 80 zhang.

After firing three rounds, the result was very unsatisfactory, the power of this scatter bomb is reasonable, it can penetrate two layers of iron armor, but it is too scattered, a total of thirty rounds of lead, only five of them hit the pigs and sheep.

Maybe when the goal is closer, the effect can be improved a little, but Zhao Mengqi still feels that the actual combat significance is too small.

It seems that if you want to kill people from a distance, you still have to rely on shrapnel or simply use grenades, that is, flowering shells.

But the inner diameter of this straight cannon is only one inch and seven minutes, that is, less than six centimeters, not to mention that such a small flowering bullet cannot be made now, even if it is made, it will not be able to contain much gunpowder, the power is too small, so it can be obtained with a mortar cannon.

In the face of reality, Zhao Mengqi had to give up his unrealistic assumptions, "Try Iron Bullet."

This time, the target was placed in two hundred zhang, with a radius of three zhang, not only pigs and sheep, but also more than a dozen thick wooden shields with large door panels.

Unlike before, after the reloading, Chen Jinshan shouted to Shi Cheng, "Battalion Commander Shi, please help adjust the head."

Shi Cheng stood on the gun position, stretched out his hand, clenched his fist and raised his thumb, squinted one eye, and gestured towards the target, and then asked people to move the gun carriage and adjust the gun muzzle.

After everything was ready, Shi Cheng was also responsible for igniting the fire.

Lighting the fire rope, he just ran back more than a kilometer, lying on the spot, and even raised his head to look.

When the cannon sounded, this time even if everyone's eyes were wide open, they didn't see the afterimage of the cannon muzzle flying out, but they heard a whistling sound in the air.

In an instant, a huge shield in the target circle exploded, fragments shot out in all directions, and the surrounding pigs and sheep screamed continuously, and behind the shield, a bloody path was also plowed out.

Everyone was shocked, this iron bullet is obviously much stronger than a scattered bullet, and everywhere it goes, it is devastating!

It's finally decent.

Zhao Mengqi breathed a sigh of relief, "Try again!"

In the next quarter of an hour, five more shots were fired, and one of them was missed, and the other shells were widely scattered, but they all fell within a target circle of about ten square meters, which was indeed controllable in terms of accuracy at this time.

At least Wu Qian and Ma Guangzu praised each other again and again, looking at the stupid and stupid straight cannon, as if they were looking at the bride who had just married into the door.

At this time, Zhao Mengqi also had an accurate positioning of this straight cannon, and instructed Chen Jinshan and other craftsmen, "This cannon uses scattered bullets too much, so only iron bullets will be used in the future, and then try to reduce the weight of this cannon, it is best to control it within two hundred and fifty catties, and the gun carriage also needs to be improved, and on a solid basis, try to make it as light as possible."

Speaking, Zhao Mengqi thought of the Ming Dynasty Tiger Squat Cannon, "As for the scattered bombs, a new cannon can be developed, about two feet long and two inches in diameter, because it does not need to carry too high a chamber pressure, so the body wall can be made relatively thin, and the weight can be controlled within fifty catties, so that a person can carry it, and when using it, the tail of the cannon hits the ground, and two iron claws are used as support......

As he spoke, he drew a figure on the ground, "In this way, when it can be loaded with more than five catties of scattered bullets, there is no need to pay attention to the range, and it is used to deal with the dense array of the enemy's charging formation, when it has a miraculous effect, well, it looks like a squatting tiger, so it is called a tiger squatting cannon."

In this way, the direct cannon, the mortar cannon, and the tiger squat cannon can form a prototype of a system with far, medium and near reach.

Cannons with larger calibers and longer firing ranges also need to be studied as technology accumulation, but in the short term, mass production and installation will not be considered, unless there is a sufficient supply of copper materials, or iron cannons make progress.

In addition, concepts such as sub-mother cannons, breech guns, rifling, full loading, individual muskets, etc., Zhao Mengqi has long communicated with the craftsmen, as a long-term goal, let them study slowly.

Next, I looked at a few more new weapons.

The iron egg used before now has an improved model, reducing the weight to one catty, making it cylindrical, and adding a wooden handle, and the name is more serious, called a grenade.

There are also five, ten and twenty pounds, which can be thrown with the help of bed crossbows and stone throwers

After all, it will take a long time for the artillery to be truly installed, and the already existing armaments in the Song army can also be used.

The stone throwing machine is also a new type, the previous manpower pulling type, changed to a counterweight type, and can be modified on the original stone throwing machine, the advantage is that it can be reset with a winch, saving a lot of operators.

This drawing was given to Ma Guangzu and asked him to modify and manufacture it in Jiankang Mansion without worrying too much about leakage, anyway, the Mongols would get this technology soon.

The last thing on display is a rocket, which is not unusual, the principle is simple, and it is also available in the Song army, but most of them are tied to the barrel of the arrow for boosting.

However, Zhao Mengqi is a Tufa Katyusha, or an intensive super jumping monkey.

A hollow cylinder is made of thin iron sheet, filled with iron particles and three catties of gunpowder as a warhead, followed by a bamboo tube two inches long and two inches thick, which is also filled with gunpowder to make a launch part, and at the same time a hard flap is added to stabilize the flight state, anyway, the appearance is still very similar to the rockets of later generations.

The outside of the launch stand is square, and there are 20 iron cylinders lined up inside, and after loading the rockets into it, the fuses are connected, and when they are ignited, the rockets fly out one by one.

This time it was fired at the surface of the lake, and a relatively large elevation angle was deliberately adopted.

The rockets dragged white smoke through the air, their trajectories somewhat distorted, and the twenty rockets flew more and more scattered.

After flying to fifty or sixty feet, some of them are still in the air, while others are plunged into the lake, and then they explode one by one, and the sound is amazing, and it is very beautiful.

The surface of the lake was churning and rippling, but the lake was smoky and miasma, and after a while, there were even more than a dozen fish with tumbling bellies floating to the surface.

Seeing this result, Zhao Mengqi touched his nose, this thing is estimated to be not even one percent of Katyusha's, but it is still much stronger than a swarm of bees in the Ming Dynasty.

A single quasi-head is really too scoreless, if it is used intensively, it is still quite lethal, the key is that this thing is cheap, twenty pieces are only five dollars, and killing an enemy is worth the cost, whether it is injured or killed, it is a big profit.

"This... Rocket artillery, far more powerful than mortars, when a lot of manufacturing!"

Wu Qian tugged at his beard and widened his eyes, as if he was still reminiscing about the scene of the explosions just now.

"If 100 rocket launchers are placed at the head of the city, thousands of enemies can be destroyed at once! Good! Great goodness! It's about making more, and the more the better!"

Ma Guangzu has seen so many new weapons today, but he is still excited at this moment, "The day when my Great Song Dynasty rises is just around the corner!"

Zhao Mengqi couldn't help but pour some cold water on him, "Firearms will become the master of the battlefield, this is inevitable, but it still needs a long time of development, now we are limited by technology and raw materials, it is basically impossible to produce it on a large scale in three or five years, take this copper material as an example, if it weren't for the previous raid of the Liu family and the seizure of tens of thousands of catties of copper ingots from the Japanese Kingdom, these experimental cannons may not be able to be made."

Ma Guangzu was stunned, "Doesn't this cannon have to use copper? Is it okay to use iron?"

Zhao Mengqi had to explain, "It's not impossible to use iron, I'm sure that the artillery in the future will basically be steel, but at present, the quality of steel is not up to the requirements, so only copper can be used."

"What requirements? Isn't iron a better weapon than copper? Aren't all swords made of iron today?" Ma Guangzu was still puzzled.

Zhao Mengqi smiled bitterly, "Ma Xiang, you don't know, the reason why I stipulate that the personnel must be withdrawn to a safe area during the gun test is because the artillery is easy to explode, that is, it explodes like a flowering shell......

It took a lot of words to make Ma Guangzu understand why it was impossible to use iron casting cannons at present, and Zhao Mengqi continued.

"If you want to have enough copper, the first thing is to try to restore the amount of copper mining in the Great Song Dynasty, which requires adjustments to the imperial court's policy."

"Second, to obtain raw materials from other countries, such as the Japanese country is rich in copper and sulfur, our dynasty should strengthen the trade with the Japanese to obtain, for example, Dali is also rich in copper, and now it has been destroyed by the Mongols, if our dynasty can recover Dali, not only can we obtain copper by ourselves, but also reduce the source of copper for the Mongols, after all, after the artillery appears on the battlefield in the future, the Mongols will learn sooner or later."

Zhao Mengqi brings a sentence of Dali here, because he already has a strategic vision in this regard, but it is big

Many people within the Song Dynasty were opposed to taking the initiative to use troops abroad.

For example, not long ago, Li Zengbo, who was in charge of the defense of the southwest, proposed a plan to undermine the "belly" strategy implemented by the Mongols, asking Chengdu to appease the deputy envoy Yu Xing to select elite troops, cross the Dadu River from Lizhou, and find an opportunity to attack Dali City.

Originally, this plan was very feasible, but after the gentry in Sichuan heard about it, they attacked it and said that this plan was "operating outside the territory and putting the cart before the horse", and they also wrote to the court for impeachment.

So Li Zengbo had to give up this plan, and could only wait for the Mongols to outflank him and stab the Song chrysanthemum.

Judging from this situation, Zhao Mengqi estimated that if he wanted to use troops in the direction of Dali, he would probably be opposed by many people, and now he said that this is to bury an introduction for the future, so that Ma Guangzu can stand on his side.

"Third, reform the currency of our dynasty and withdraw copper coins from the market, so that the shortage of copper in our dynasty will be alleviated, this plan, I have already started to work, Ma Xiang, you were in charge of the household department before, so I need your support and assistance."

This last article is actually Zhao Mengqi's main purpose, to persuade Ma Guangzu to support his currency reform.

After hearing these three points, Ma Guangzu's eyebrows tightened more and more.

It can be said that each of them is related to national policy and involves all aspects, especially the last one, which can plunge the whole country into turmoil if not careful.

And King Yan obviously knew the stakes, but he still planned to do so, and he didn't know whether to say that he was brilliant or bold.

If he expresses his support, it is equivalent to being completely tied to King Yan's chariot.

King Yan, is it really the hope of the Great Song Dynasty?

Ma Guangzu thought about it for a long time, and finally subconsciously looked at Wu Qian, but saw him nodding meaningfully.

At this time, Zhao Mengqi added, "Please rest assured, no matter which plan it is, I will carefully implement it after careful planning."

"Okay...... Ma Guangzu let out a long breath, "For the sake of the Great Song Dynasty, the old minister will accompany His Highness to fight."