Goryeo sent an envoy by sea, who has landed in Dengzhou and sent a memorial to Tokyo first.
Guo Shao saw that it was written in neat Chinese characters. First, it claimed that Goryeo's rituals, music and clothing all followed the Tang style, the same as the Central Plains. Hearing that the emperor of the Central Plains had defeated the Liao Kingdom, he was very happy and sent a letter of congratulations. Then he cursed the Liao Kingdom at length, and the phrase "a country of beasts" left the deepest impression on Guo Shao.
If these insults were to reach the Khitan royal family, I wonder what Xiao Siwen and others would think.
In the early stage, the imperial court took the initiative to send people to contact Goryeo, in an attempt to let Goryeo attack Liao from both sides. However, the efficiency at this time was too slow. When the Zhou army had already captured Youyun, Goryeo had just successfully established friendship with the Great Zhou.
Because the Goryeo envoys had landed, the officials in the court were preparing for the emperor to ask about Goryeo matters, and for a while many people were talking about Goryeo.
Gossip is the same regardless of time and place. What people talk about most is not Goryeo’s national policies or customs. The first thing Guo Shao heard was a piece of gossip: the queen of Goryeo King Wang Zhao was his sister.
The father of the king and queen is Wang Jian, the founder of the Goryeo Dynasty. The queen is a princess and takes her mother's surname, Huangfu. They are half-siblings.
Guo Shao was very curious. Not to mention in this era, even in modern times, brother-sister marriage is not allowed. However, he soon thought of a TV series in a certain country in the future, and suddenly he understood.
At the end of the third year of Xuanren, envoys from Goryeo came to the court and presented a rare sword as tribute.
The eunuch moved the sword to Yangde Hall, and because it was a rare item, he was very careful. At that time, Lu Duosun, the Minister of Rites, had just received the Korean envoys and came to see the emperor.
Unexpectedly, Guo Shao had no interest in the sword. He was playing with a matchlock rifle that had just been delivered by the Armory and did not even glance at the sword.
This musket is made very finely, with the tail inlaid with fine wood and carved with gilded auspicious cloud patterns. The barrel is straight and smooth, smeared with butter, and carefully polished inside and out, and the inside is drilled and smoothed with an awl.
The matchlock was soaked in wood ash, and the mechanism and reed of the firing device were forged from brass, all of which were made with great finesse and ingenuity.
Because this item was a gift to the emperor, it was decorated with great care, almost like a work of art. However, the mass-produced firearms would not be so exquisite, otherwise the cost would be too high.
When Guo Shao saw this thing, he simply couldn't let it go. No sword could arouse his interest at all. Even if the sword could really cut through iron like mud, it was still just a knife, and it was a rare thing that could not be reproduced in large quantities.
He noticed that the threaded connection at the bottom of the musket was probably made by carving the thread out of wood, then making a sand mold to cast the iron core, and then forging the tail. This structure makes it easy to disassemble the barrel and clean the residue.
There was also a stack of files from Jiangning Prefecture on the table, reporting that the new ships had been roughly completed, a total of three ships. Guo Shao had ordered the Jiangning Shipyard to transfer the ships to Dengzhou, Shandong after the sea trials; the Imperial Guard Navy sent some soldiers to take over the ships, and when the Korean envoys returned next year, they could use these ships to send them back. He also ordered the Ministry of Works to send people to Dengzhou to build a new port.
Lu Dosun glanced at the Goryeo sword placed on the table, bowed and said: Your Majesty, Goryeo seems to be rich in swords.
Guo Shao raised his head and said: Oh, I have never heard of it.
Lu Dosun said: They once paid tribute to the Liao Kingdom, and they also gave swords as a gift.
Guo Shao knew that Lu Duosun was trying to use this as an excuse to get some ideas out of his mouth, so he put down his matchlock gun and listened with great interest.
Lu Duosun continued: However, after the Liao Kingdom destroyed the Bohai Kingdom, the relationship between Goryeo and the Liao Kingdom deteriorated. This was because Goryeo had been plotting against the Bohai Kingdom for a long time and had moved its population to manage the Western Capital Pyongyang; but unexpectedly, the Liao Kingdom took the initiative and swallowed up all the land of the Bohai Kingdom. The Liao Kingdom was powerful, and it became more difficult for Goryeo to obtain the old land of the Bohai Kingdom, so it was angry with the Khitan.
Guo Shao nodded and said: So that's how it is.
At this time, the Liao Kingdom was defeated in Youzhou and lost a large area of Youyun, but its strength was still very strong; having Goryeo to contain it from both sides was also a benefit.
Lu Duosun said: This time, the Goryeo Kingdom sent an envoy to ask our dynasty to send troops to recapture Yingzhou and jointly attack the Khitan. In my opinion, after seeing the defeat of the Liao army, the Goryeo Kingdom once again coveted the old Bohai territory and still had ambitions.
When Guo Shao heard about the ambition, he played with the firearm in his hand and glanced at the file of ship information on the table. He couldn't help but smile: It is understandable that leaders of various countries strive for self-reliance and have an enterprising spirit.
However, the imperial court has no intention of raising troops to fight the Liao Kingdom again recently. Minister Lu can reply to the envoys of the Goryeo Kingdom that the matter will be discussed later.
Lu Dosun clasped his fists and said: I obey your order.
Guo Shao turned around and looked at a large, simple picture hanging on the wall. Recently, due to the visit of Goryeo envoys to Beijing, he also had some personal understanding of the situation of Goryeo.
This area had more space in the early ancient times, but the situation became increasingly worse as time went on.
At the turn of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Goguryeo was a relatively powerful country. It must have been because it posed a threat to the border between Sui and Tang dynasties that the Sui and Tang dynasties did not hesitate to mobilize their armies to attack it several times.
However, after the Tang Dynasty, the Khitan rose in the northeast, and the grassland forces that had always threatened the Central Plains in the north also moved in winter. Not only did they threaten the Central Plains, but they also compressed the space of Goryeo. From this point on, they faced not only the Central Plains dynasty, but also the nomadic peoples, which would become an important factor threatening their survival.
In the future, the threat from the nomadic and hunting peoples will continue to be in the east, and Goryeo will have an additional maritime threat from Japan. It can be said that they are sandwiched between various forces. They are a very tenacious group of people who can hold on.
Guo Shao said: In the past, our dynasty wanted to recover Youyun, so we wanted to use Goryeo to contain it; now Goryeo wants to occupy the old land of Bohai, and wants our dynasty to send troops to Liaodong. Each country is planning for its own.
In the Yangde Hall, there were only two people, Guo Shao and his ministers, and only one official and a few palace maids. Guo Shao asked openly: "It seems that the Goryeo Kingdom was established after the destruction of Silla and Baekje. Is there any internal enemy in the country?"
Lu Duosun said: After the Wang family established the country, they implemented the policy of extending favors and winning over people internally. I heard that the country was stable.
Guo Shao nodded thoughtfully.
Recovering Youyun had a huge impact. However, the speed of information transmission was limited at that time, and no changes were felt when the victory was just won. But as time went on, the influence of Zhou and Liao gradually became apparent.
At the beginning of the fourth year of Xuanren, the emperor's envoys from Fusang Province in Heian-kyo sent a letter of credence and paid tribute. In order to create a political performance of attracting all nations to pay tribute, the Tokyo Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Guests wrote a letter to give generous gifts in return. The tribute system was indeed a loss for the Central Plains dynasty in terms of wealth, but if it were not so, other countries would have no motivation to actively pay tribute.
Guo Shao ordered the envoys of Fusang to discuss the establishment of trade between the two countries. Although there were wars in the Central Plains before, the private maritime trade had never been cut off. He also secretly ordered the Military Department of the Privy Council to send spies to infiltrate the caravan and go to Fusang to understand the situation in the distant place.
Although diplomatic relations were a major issue, Guo Shao's attention was not on this, and he just dealt with it casually. He had been thinking about the reform of military power.
The matchlock guns were also produced in batches. Guo Shao not only read the reports, but also went to the parade ground to observe in person.
The ones who officially tested firearms were more than 100 people from the Shenhuodu of the Huben Army. This small group of people had never been expanded in the Huben Army because they had no combat record. However, the organization was retained and the troops that were previously established by the emperor's own order were not disbanded, and no one withdrew them casually.
The people of Shenhuodu had been using bronze muskets for two years and were now very skilled. Matchlock guns and bronze muskets were completely different things, but the mechanisms and usage steps were the same. Modern firearms were originally based on bronze muskets, with the barrel being the only major improvement.
The soldiers took the small bamboo tube from their belts, bit open the stopper with their teeth, poured the weighed gunpowder into the muzzle, and used a cleaning rod to force the softer lead bullet into it. Then they shook some of the gunpowder in the small gourd into the firing pool and were ready to fire.
The drill ground was filled with crackling noises, smoke, and the targets in the distance were full of holes. Firearms do work. After all, gunpowder burns and increases pressure in a closed space, which will shoot lead bullets out. Everything is an objective law, and there will be no exceptions.
The new firearm has an effective range of fifty steps, and can penetrate most mail armor within thirty steps. As for accuracy, the direction will not be wrong anyway, and it is much more accurate than the bronze gun with a large hole.
Because Shenhuodu needs three rows to shoot in turns, the organization is different from the ordinary army, which has four teams and more than 20 people in each team. Shenhuodu has only three teams. The military organization is formulated according to tactics. Once the weapons and tactics change, the organization will change; perhaps the military system will also gradually change.
The range of this thing is much shorter than that of a foot bow and crossbow. For example, a master of arms like Guo Shao can shoot a hundred steps away with a foot bow and still be accurate. It is complicated to operate and has a slow shooting speed. But compared to the combat effectiveness of the foot bow, its armor-piercing ability at close range is stronger than that of a crossbow.
As for the range, it exceeds that of horse archery.
After several months of improvement and testing, the military equipment supervisor Zan Jurun wrote in his memorial that the weapon was between the bow and arrow of infantry and cavalry. It was strong in penetrating armor at close range, so it was long; it was slow and complicated to shoot in battle, and its accuracy was uncertain, and it was not as flexible as the bow and arrow of cavalry, so it was short.
However, Guo Shao had a different view. The biggest advantage of this thing was that after a group of farmers understood the formation and military discipline, they would immediately have strong combat effectiveness.
They may not be able to defeat the elite troops who have fought hundreds of battles, but the price for the Great Zhou to have an imperial guard of hundreds of thousands of elite infantry and cavalry was that it took decades to destroy the entire world.
Guo Shao was very happy after watching the performance of Shenhuodu. When he returned to Beiyuan, he picked up a stone by a lake and threw it on the lake. The stone jumped lightly on the water, creating several ripples.
The ministers who accompanied him were all very happy, but they might feel that Guo Shao's behavior was a bit frivolous at this time.
At this time, Guo Shao pointed to the water and said: Our artillery creates a hole every time we smash it, but we can actually try other methods.
Zan Jurun said: The stone cannon shells are too heavy. If the angle is too small, they will fall to the ground in front of you.
Guo Shao said: Then let's think of a way. We are not going in the right direction to make the shrapnel bomb, I am afraid it will be useless unless we make a howitzer.
Several people couldn't answer.
Guo Shao ignored it and stared at the ripples on the lake for a long time. His mood was just like his mood at the moment, light but not calm.