Yang Guang received the news from Li Jing and came to the steam engine manufacturing center in the firearms workshop.

At this time, Li Chun was hurrying up his time to study Daxing's steam engine, which could be used by warships.

This is also a huge problem for Li Chun, but it is necessary to overcome the problem, and Li Chun is very excited now.

Yang Guang pulled him over and said: "Li Chun, Li Jing has received news from the navy, he has tried the current firearms and cannons, and the power has increased a lot compared to before, and he is very satisfied with the power of the cannons." ”

"Your Highness, after thickening the cannon and the barrel and length, the power and attack distance of the cannon fire have been greatly improved, theoretically speaking, if you continue to lengthen and thicken, you can continue to increase the power."

"This method of enhancing power can only be used in a certain range, too long and too thick can only increase the cost, and it will become a burden in the future, I think the power and cost of artillery are now in a relatively good range, and it is a better choice to improve and strengthen the existing artillery."

Li Chun thought carefully: "What His Highness said is true. ”

"And this time Li Jing came back with a full affirmation of the power of the artillery, but he gave an improved plan for the warship."

"What did he say?"

"In addition to carrying artillery, our warships should not be very different from the old warships in other aspects, once approached by the enemy's warships, and boarding the ship, the guns on our warships will not be able to exert their power, and in order to better attack the opponent's warships, we have to get as close as possible."

In his mind, the future water war should be a case of little or no short-handed encounters such as boarding ships and seizing ships, and we must rely on artillery and other equipment to divide the victory or defeat, because this is the largest part of our army that is now ahead of the enemy, and we must make use of our strengths and avoid weaknesses."

Li Jing's meaning is naturally not that the current warship is not good, but that it is not good enough, or that it can be better.

"What is Li Jing's suggestion?"

"Use more iron parts on the ship to increase the strength of the hull, cover the surface of the ship with iron sheets to increase the ship's defense ability in the event of a blow, and increase the impact force of the ship in the event of a collision."

Li Chun frowned slightly: "Your Highness, adding so many iron parts will dramatically increase the weight of the warship, reduce the carrying capacity and speed of the warship, if the speed of the warship is not fast enough, it will become the target of the opponent's attack, but it will be easier for people to board the ship and seize the ship." ”

Yang Guang patted Li Chun on the shoulder and said, "Li Chun, isn't this the purpose of letting you build a large steam engine?" As long as there are large steam engines, the heavy warships will be faster than the current warships. ”

Yang Guang smiled slightly: "Do you think that Li Jing has been in the navy for some days, according to his intelligence, would he not have thought that the warship would be too heavy and too slow, and it would become the target of others' siege?" ”

"He's not that stupid."

Li Chun was said by Yang Guang, and after thinking about it carefully, it seems to be true.

Yang Guang explained to him: "Maybe even Li Jing himself has not noticed it, he is already thinking about the problem with the idea of assuming that the steam engine has been successful." ”

"I built it with him for the future with a large steam engine that can drive a warship, then our warship can go without wind, can go upstream, and the huge force is greater than hundreds or thousands of people rowing together, he is now training in the navy, and he directly counts these things, the key indicators he conceived of the next generation of warships are right, we need to build warships with steel, such warships are not targets besieged by people, but steel fortresses steaming on the river and sea."

The steaming steel fortress on the river and the sea, such a description made Li Chun reverie.

Above the river and sea, a huge steel warship stands on the rippling water. Steam rose from its massive chimney as if it were a living beast, and the rich smell of iron ore filled the air, making people take a deep breath.

The countless huge guns on the warship, the roar of the machines, and the constant refueling of coal and water keep the giant in a state of rage.

Li Chun found it hard to imagine that if such a monster was really created, what kind of strength other countries would use to fight against the Great Sui in the future.

Incredible, this is the first word that pops into Li Chun's mind.

Li Chun smiled bitterly: "Your Highness, Li Jing seems to be too confident in me, although the small steam engine can be used now, but if I want to drive the steam engine of such a huge warship, I still have no bottom in my heart." ”

"What do you think is the biggest problem right now?"

"Your Highness, I have built the appearance of a large steam engine in my mind, such a big machine is really running, for all the parts, the strength requirements are very large, the current technology, I am afraid that if it is installed, it will be damaged if it is rotated twice."

The principle of the steam engine Li Chun and others have figured it out very clearly, the principle is of course simple, and with the experience of small steam engines, the team already has a foundation, but the strength of the materials required to build a large instrument is not comparable to that of a small instrument.

Li Chun's worries are very reasonable, he can't just come out as an empty shell, and the warship is going to fight, and the use of the warship that needs to be considered is more extreme than ordinary rotation.

Yang Guang understood that the biggest problem now was the strength of the material, and once again launched his own coin scattering policy.

"Li Chun, starting today, I will appoint you as the chief designer of the steam warship, and what you need to be responsible for in the future is not the special work of the steam engine, but the overall construction of the steam warship, the mine, the smelting workshop, the forging workshop, all the places you need will cooperate with you unconditionally."

Li Chun looked at Yang Guang in surprise, he was not yet twenty years old, Yang Guang handed over such rights to him, the craftsmen he could mobilize under his hands were less than four or five thousand people, counting the miners' equal labor crops, which was also very stressful for him.

Yang Guang looked at Li Chun's face and asked with a smile: "What?" Don't dare? ”

"Your Highness, there is nothing that I, Li Chun, dare not dare, Your Highness trusts me so much, but I am afraid that I will disappoint Your Highness if I don't do it well."

Yang Guang said earnestly: "There is no certain reason for success in research, and it is often dozens of failures in exchange for one success. But I'm willing to pay for failure, and to pay for failure is to pay for tomorrow's success. ”

Li Chun immediately said: "Your Highness, you can trust me Li Chun, and I, Li Chun, will go all out to build a steam warship for Your Highness." ”

"This is the heart of young people."

Yang Guang patted Li Chun on the shoulder: "As the chief designer, you have to consider the overall situation in many things, including me, everyone has to listen to your decision-making technically, I can only give opinions, but you are the one who makes the final decision." ”

"Your Highness...... I ......"

"Just do it, just tell me now, what are you going to do next?"

Li Chun did not rush to answer, but thought for a few minutes, sorted out the language, and said to Yang Guang: "Your Highness, I will divide the construction of the steam warship into three parts at the same time, so as to speed up the construction, the first is the planning of the large steam engine, responsible for the design of the large steam engine and experiments, the second is the improvement of steel parts, and the third is the construction of the warship. ”

"Reserve the space needed for a large steam engine in advance in the warship, and start building the rest first, so that you can use the existing warship to renovate it first, gain more relevant research experience, and pay for failure with the least cost."

Yang Guang nodded with great satisfaction: "Very good, I knew to consider the cost issue from the beginning, and it seems that I really didn't find the wrong person." ”

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your trust."

Yang Guang smiled and said: "You developed warships and steam engines for me, and Li Jing trained me in the navy, so I was much more relaxed, and others would still think that I was very comfortable with this hands-off shopkeeper." ”

"Your Highness laughed, only His Highness can do this, how to say it easily."

"Oh? Why? ”

"First, His Highness is the only one in this world who has so much money to do this, and is willing to spend so much money to do this, so His Highness has to do it."

"Second, only His Highness is willing to trust us to do this, and you are the only one in the entire Great Sui who is willing to do this."

"Third, Your Highness said that you are willing to pay for the failure of the research, I have little knowledge, I think you are the only one in the past and present."

Yang Guangda laughed: "Li Chun, how can you learn the way that others flatter now." ”

Li Chun smiled embarrassedly: "Your Highness, people say that I Li Chun is stupid, and I always have unrealistic ideas in my head, if I don't work under His Highness, I'm afraid that I can mix two acres of thin fields in this life, even if I am thankful, without Your Highness, there would be no me Li Chun." ”

Yang Guang nodded with satisfaction: "Do things well, I won't treat you badly, and there must be your Li Chun's name in the history books." ”

……

Half a month passed in a flash, and the northern and western lines came at the same time.

One good news, one bad news.

News from the northern front, Goguryeo tore up the city occupied by the Great Sui before the treaty of cooperation, and now the city is besieged, and the Youzhou army is urgently dispatched, but a photo does not take any advantage, the Goguryeo team has firearms and equipment, although the number is not very large, but about half of the elite army is equipped.

The Great Sui army obviously did not expect the Goguryeo army to have so many firearms, so it suffered a big loss when it fought head-on.

It was written in the Di newspaper that the Youzhou army was preparing for a second attack, and Goguryeo was attacking the city before it was full fire, which was an attitude of annihilating all the soldiers in the city.

Accompanied by the palace newspaper, the eunuch who came to deliver the letter said in a panic: "Your Highness, Your Majesty invites you to enter the palace to discuss after reading the palace newspaper, let's go quickly." ”

"What's the hurry, my father asked me to go to the palace to discuss after reading the newspaper, I haven't finished reading it yet, wait a minute."

Yang Guang looked at the news from the Western Front, which was the news that the Great Sui and Tuyuhun had started a war

However, Yang Guang saw a piece of news that he didn't know before, Tuyuhun's prince was actually in Yang Xiu's hands for some reason.

The two armies are fighting, holding the other party's prince, which is extremely oppressive psychologically, and the other party will definitely throw a mouse bogey, but looking down, Yang Guang couldn't help but cry and laugh.

Yang Xiu directly escorted the other party's prince directly to the middle in front of the two armies, let others see it, let the other party also see it, and showed it as if humiliated.

When our soldiers learned that the other side had captured the other party's crown prince, the military might was naturally greatly boosted, and the morale of the other party's soldiers was greatly reduced.

In the military newspaper that came back, Yang Xiu, the king of Shu, was praised in capital letters, praising the sky, what kind of soldier saint, military god, and words that can be blown are basically used.

Obviously, this military newspaper was personally approved by Yang Xiu himself, otherwise it would be more than that.

Yang Guang shook his head and smiled bitterly, when he first saw that Yang Xiu had the other party's prince in his hand, he immediately thought that it was the other party's prince who surrendered, or at least the cronies around the prince, otherwise he hadn't fought yet, how could the other party's prince appear in Yang Xiu's hands.

When he saw the military report for the first time that Yang Xiu had the other party's prince, Yang Guang was shocked, and thought that Yang Xiu was going to cooperate with him to overthrow the rule of King Tuyuhun together.

As long as the main ministers of Tuyuhun see that the general trend has gone, many will definitely have different intentions to take refuge in the prince of Tuyuhun, and then the justifiable prince of Tuyuhun will take the throne and cultivate some of the ability of my dynasty by his side, and finally negotiate with the Great Sui garrison to guard the Tuyuhun trade artery, although it is not nominally occupied by Tuyuhun, but in fact it controls its tower.

Although it will not be as simple as it is said in practice, and it is also very troublesome to weigh the interests of the various nobles within Tuyuhun, but to be able to control the prince of Tuyuhun will have the best person to govern Tuyuhun, which is really a godsend.

However, what Yang Xiu wants is not to actually control Tuyuhun, but to occupy Tuyuhun in name, he is going out to fight for his prestige, and this battle is so beautiful, it is exactly what he wants.

After reading this good news, a bad news, Yang Guang got up and said to the eunuch: "Let's go, let's enter the palace." ”

The eunuch nodded hurriedly.

In the emperor's study, Yang Jian is still writing, his calligraphy attainments are good, and the characters are written vigorously, but throwing away the emperor's aura, this character can only be regarded as a good level.

"I've read all the newspapers, there is another war on the Western Front and the Northern Front, what do you think?"

Yang Guang Jushi replied: "Goguryeo on the northern front is now equipped with a lot of firearms, and Erchen thinks that they may have begun to imitate our firearms, otherwise they will be picked up from the battlefield, there should not be so many." ”

"This is also what I am most worried about, so the situation in Goguryeo is even more serious than in the Di Bao, you can go for a trip."

"Father! If you want to solve the problem of Goguryeo, which now has firearms, I am afraid that it is not enough to do it with the Youzhou army, and it is also necessary to mobilize all the troops in Shandong and other places. ”

The emperor nodded: "Suspend the war on the southern front against Nanchen, and solve the trouble of Goguryeo first." ”

(End of chapter)