Zhou Xian couldn't get up early in the morning, and Guo Shao had already gone to Jinxiang Palace at daybreak.
When the sun rose, Li Chuyun and other generals bid farewell in the study, bowed and walked back a few steps before turning around and leaving. Eunuch Cao Tai opened a volume decorated with silk, rubbed the words on it with his fingers, read it carefully, and whispered to Guo Shao: Your Majesty, the guest minister and military equipment supervisor Zan Jurun should wait outside the palace for an audience.
"Announcement." Guo Shao said immediately.
Every day, he was busy in the morning, but he had more free time after lunch. Once he returned to Tokyo, he did this almost every day. Guo Shao did not feel tired. This kind of work and rest made him feel at ease because he knew that his big task was not yet completed: to recover the lost territory, unify the world, and consolidate his rule.
Guo Shao is not sure how to realize his dream. But as long as he tries his best every day and spends his time and energy on it, he will not be afraid or regretful. This is a long march, not a moment of enthusiasm and determination, but a long-term and unremitting trek.
Guo Shao started out as a guard and has come to where he is now. He has already come more than halfway, and since he has an irreplaceable opportunity, there is no reason for him to stop halfway. Too many people have died for the great cause he has declared, so he cannot just give up.
He sat in front of the imperial desk, looking at the records of the Liao Kingdom presented by the ministers bit by bit. Guo Shao was not used to this kind of semi-literate article written vertically without punctuation, and he read it very slowly and laboriously, but it didn't matter, it just took a little more time.
"Your Majesty, I, Zan Jurun, kowtow to you. May your Majesty live forever." The minister in front of him knelt before the desk.
Stand up. Guo Shao raised his head and said. His eyes were bright, but his expression was calm.
Zan Jurun climbed up, held up a memorial with both hands, waited for the eunuch to come and take it, and said: "Your Majesty, the Military Equipment Bureau has cast a total of 327 Dragon Roar Cannons from last year to this year. More than 200 of them were broken and scrapped during the attack on Jinyang, and the rest will not be used for long. The officials of the Military Equipment Bureau suggested that the military funds be used to rebuild the cannons in case of deployment. But I think that the Dragon Roar Cannon is not durable, and the casting method must be improved."
Guo Shao nodded in agreement. One of the advantages of artillery is durability. The current method is not as durable as a catapult. A catapult is easily damaged after a battle, but it can be repaired and used again. The barrel of the cast iron artillery is broken and can only be scrapped. As for the reason, it must be a material problem.
The problem is that Guo Shao doesn't know much about metallurgy. He has dabbled in the knowledge of the structure of metal materials such as austenite before, but he is not very proficient in it.
Zan Jurun said: "I have ordered the Beiyuan workshop to use bronze to test-cast the Dragon Roar Cannon. I will try it after the casting is completed. My suggestion is to stop making cannons in the Bianshui workshop area first and wait for the new cannon to be tested."
After hearing this, Guo Shao immediately said: Let's do as Envoy Zan requested.
He immediately picked up a brush and did some calculations on paper. Based on the previous weight of the Dragon Roar Cannon, which was 600 kilograms, it might be possible to use bronze, which is slightly heavier and has better heat dissipation. The gun barrel would be thicker and longer, so 100 cannons would require 60,000 kilograms of copper.
Guo Shao first thought of copper, because he knew that China lacked copper ore, especially in ancient times, because it could only be mined in open-pit mines. What is the order of magnitude of 60,000 kilograms? Will it cause difficulties
At that time, the weight of copper coins ranged from one to two coins. Sixty thousand catties of copper was equivalent to six million copper coins, which was only six thousand strings of money. Although copper was in short supply at that time, the court minted coins in the millions of strings, so the copper consumed by copper cannons was not the bulk.
After Guo Shao made this calculation, he stopped talking about the copper material. He believed that the officials would be able to find a way to solve the problem.
Zan Jurun took out another wooden object and presented it to him: This was made by the craftsmen of Beiyuan according to your majesty's order.
Guo Shao took the wooden thing from the eunuch, which turned out to be a matchlock gun mechanism. At that time, he roughly described to Zan Jurun the intention of using the matchlock to light the fire. Unexpectedly, they made a model so quickly. Sure enough, officials would be very enthusiastic about things that the emperor personally asked about.
If there is no will or demand from those in power, technological progress will be very slow. There has not been much fundamental progress in technology for thousands of years.
Guo Shao took the model in his hand and quickly found a place that looked like a trigger. He pulled the trigger with his finger, and the wooden bar with the rope on it was immediately pressed down and touched the upper part of the wooden pole. The trigger was very elastic and returned to its original position when it was released.
Hey! Guo Shao immediately made a sound in surprise.
Zan Jurun looked even more pleased after hearing this.
Guo Shao held it in his hand and pondered it for a while. This mechanism mainly has two connection points and two twisted wooden strips. The tail of the lower wooden strip is the trigger, and the middle can be rotatably connected to the rivet; the head is connected to the upper curved mechanism that clamps the fuse, and the connection part can be rotated. The upper and lower wooden strips are fixedly riveted.
He slowly pulled the trigger again and found that the lower wood bar pushed the upper wood bar through the tail riveting. The upper wood bar was bent and was pushed down like a chicken pecking at rice, so as to touch the position of the fire door and achieve the purpose of ignition.
The lower wooden bar is pressed on a reed, so it is very elastic when it is pulled, and it can return to its original position once you let go. The reed is not a spring, but is actually very simple. It is a V-shaped wrought iron metal sheet. Slight pressure will not deform the metal and it can return to its original position.
Guo Shao observed and felt that the ancient craftsmen were quite capable of making such mechanisms. They did not understand the principles of mechanics, but they were able to make a large number of mechanisms in Qin Shihuang's mausoleum based on their experience and craftsmanship.
Let's forge the mechanism according to this model and try installing the musket. Guo Shao said immediately.
Zan Jurun bowed and said: “I obey your order.”
Anyway, the Beiyuan workshop area is used to test firearms. Making small quantities and trying them out over and over again will not consume too many resources. This mechanism looks like it at first glance, but Guo Shao guessed that there would be problems in actually making a matchlock gun, and he could only gradually explore. Because in the past few years, he has tried to make new armor and weapons, and according to experience, countless problems have arisen. Even the most backward equipment has too many specific difficulties from scratch; there is always a gap between actual operation and imagination.
Guo Shao left the model, looked up and said: As soon as there is any progress in the Military Equipment Bureau, report it to the emperor.
After hearing this, Zan Jurun bowed and said: "I obey your order and I will leave."
As soon as Zan Jurun left, the eunuch Cao Tai reminded Guo Shao that he had to summon Wang Pu and others according to the arrangement, and reminded Guo Shao that he was discussing the deployment of the Bingcao Division to send spies undercover to the Liao Kingdom.
Last year, the Military Department sent many spies to the Liao Kingdom in the guise of merchants. After the Northern Han campaign this year, there was new progress. The spies who had originally infiltrated the Northern Han Kingdom, because some officials of the Northern Han Kingdom were defeated and fled to the Liao Kingdom, a large number of Northern Han spies also followed and moved to the Liao Kingdom.
Guo Shao waited for Wang Pu to present a new specific plan. He picked up the model and played with it for a while, then buried his head in the idea of the whistling cannon that Zan Jurun had just reported.
In contrast, Guo Shao placed greater hopes on artillery battles.
Firearms are not very useful in the near future. I remember there was a debate between the English longbow and the firearm. At that time, the technology and tactics of the firearm were relatively mature, but they had not yet completely surpassed the bow and crossbow, otherwise there would not be such a debate. It can be seen that firearms will not fundamentally improve the combat effectiveness of an army.
But artillery is different. During the attack on Jinyang, the whistling cannon played an important role. Guo Shao not only attached importance to the technology of casting cannons, but also summarized the artillery tactics explored in actual combat. According to the idea of attacking the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, quickly capturing Youzhou City is a crucial link. Guo Shao has already examined the feasibility of the upcoming war.
A few days later, the Dragon Boat Festival arrived. There was a dragon boat race on the Bian River. There were many people from both inside and outside the capital. Guo Shao brought the empress, concubines, civil and military officials to watch. The guards were huge and they enjoyed the festival with the people.
When he returned to the imperial city, Guo Shao watched the lantern dance on Imperial Street from the Xuande Gate again.
The sound of gongs and drums and the cheers of the people could be heard clearly even from the high towers, and the atmosphere permeated every corner of the city. In this scene, Tokyo seemed to be in a peaceful and prosperous era.
Over the past ten years, wars have continued to occur frequently throughout the country, and the burden on the people has remained extremely heavy; but from Taizu Guo Wei to Chai Rong and Guo Shao, the Great Zhou had always attacked the four directions from the Central Plains, and the wars had hardly affected the Central Plains, and the population had increased.
As Guo Shao watched the scene in front of him, he thought: Population is the foundation of prosperity for all countries at this time.
In addition to the impact of war, climate is also a factor.
While people in the city were celebrating the festival with great joy, Guo Shao was sitting under a yellow umbrella, very quiet.
He suddenly had an idea and vaguely felt a sign, an unfounded guess: the world might enter a period of good climate after the middle of the tenth century. The economic prosperity of the Song Dynasty would be difficult to achieve without good weather and harvests in agriculture; even the tribes on the grasslands from the east to the west rose up one after another, and it was also a stage of population accumulation and growth. Even the Mongols swept the world.
Any nomadic empire cannot be strong without a sufficient population. The grassland economy is very fragile, and any natural disaster may lead to a large reduction in the number of herders or even the destruction of the entire tribe.
Guo Shao looked slightly towards the north from the bustling Imperial Street. In the invisible place, the powerful Liao Kingdom was rising first and threatening everything here; even worse, the Jin Dynasty lost its national border first, and now Hebei was flat and open, facing the northern cavalry with its chest open.
We cannot stop here. If we miss this opportunity, it will cause greater troubles. All living things in the world are no better than ants under the wheels of war.
At this moment, Guo Shao not only felt pressure, but also a faint excitement in his heart. Violence and power can indeed make people obsessed. He has been fighting for many years and has invested too much passion in war itself.