Zhao Xin didn't expect that he didn't come up with a solution, but under this suggestion, he saw the clouds, yes, under the premise that there is no way to make a breakthrough in steel, using copper is the best choice.

The history of copper smelting in China can be traced back thousands of years, although it is said that with the large-scale popularity of iron, the status of copper is declining, but its smelting has never stopped.

From the sword coins of the Warring States period to the copper coins of Brother Kong Fang, copper has been a symbol of coins for a long time, coupled with various bronze utensils in daily life, the application of copper is quite extensive, and its smelting is relatively mature.

Perhaps, in the Dinghai Navy, you can find a lot of craftsmen who smelt copper, and even in the near future, a large number of artillery will be born in the Dinghai Navy to equip the troops.

Zhao Xin, who was extremely excited, did not even approve the report at the first time, but asked people to call the person who made the report.

In fact, the person who put forward this opinion, after putting it forward, has no bottom in his heart, the reason is very simple, what is copper, that is the monetary unit of the Northern Song Dynasty, the purchasing power of a penny, quite high.

In fact, Dinghai currency is already being used to replace the status of copper coins, Dinghai coins are more exquisite, the currency value is higher, and it is not easy to counterfeit, these are all advantages, but how long has the Dinghai Navy been established, in this time, these people in the Northern Song Dynasty have not forgotten what days they lived before.

A piece of artillery, not to mention 3 inches, can be said to be 9 inches, such a huge artillery, the total weight is more than 12 tons, that is, 240 stones, such a huge number, put on the grain, it is also as high as hundreds of pieces, not to mention copper.

Consistent copper coins, according to the weight, should be more than 8 catties, that is, a stone is about 12.5 guan, 240 stone, which means thousands of guan, and, this thing is made, whether it can be used, is also an unknown.

Even before, after investing so much effort, even making it by hand, the overall production cost did not exceed much, and it was controlled at hundreds of times, and it suddenly increased several times, which may be a solution, but it is more of a waste of money.

Zhao Xin is generous in research, which is famous, but this is not a new achievement, copper smelting, that is the old technology from many years ago, is it really possible?

This young man named Lu Xin entered Zhao Xin's office with a little apprehension, looking at the wide and majestic office, he didn't even know where to put his hands and feet.

Lu Xin is a typical example of knowledge changing fate, he himself is a farmer in a poor mountain village, since he was a child, he has been facing the loess with his back to the sky, and at the age of 21, he is not married, his family is poor, there are a few old people who can't work, and there are a series of younger brothers and sisters below.

It can barely maintain, renting land, plus odd jobs, plus the collection of younger brothers and sisters, the family is hungry and cold, and can still survive, but the disasters all over the two Huai have completely destroyed the last hope of the family, and the family has embarked on the road of escaping the famine.

Even in the rich Northern Song Dynasty, escaping from the famine was very miserable, on the way, the old man who was weak couldn't hold on and died, and the younger brothers and sisters also died 3, and in the end only Lu Xin and 4 slightly older brothers and sisters survived.

If it weren't for the appearance of Zhao Xin, perhaps the two biggest ones might have survived, and the rest might have died in the long disaster, after all, the government's soup kitchen was only for emergencies.

Zhao Xin took over all the victims of the disaster with a large amount of money, and gave the victims security, Lu Xin was the first batch of people to board the Dinghai Navy, in the Dinghai Navy, he not only solved the problem of food and clothing for the whole family, but also began to study.

Starting from night school literacy, Lu Xin knows very well who gave him his current life, even if he doesn't need publicity, he also studied hard, and finally, he stood out among all the tens of thousands of people and became a researcher at the Institute of Materials.

Although Lu Xin is not the leader, he has the lowest status when it comes to entering the materials laboratory.

Although the foundation is not particularly solid, it is very studious, and the inspiration is particularly good, and a lot of problems have been solved, so as to gain a firm foothold in the Institute of Materials.

However, what he didn't expect was that Zhao Xin did not blame him, but encouraged him, and after Wen Yan encouraged him, he gave a reward.

From assistant researcher, promoted to main researcher, he can lead a project, and now there are no other projects in the Dinghai Navy, the most important thing is artillery, and the copper process of artillery is Lu Xin's project.

In addition to the promotion of status, there are also salary levels and bonuses, Zhao Xin is very generous, and raised Lu Xin's salary standard from 300 yuan to 500 yuan, and similarly, as a researcher, he can lead a project, and the monthly allocation for this project has also reached 70,000 yuan.

This number cannot be said to be the highest in the entire Dinghai Navy, but it can be regarded as the first-class and highest in the Materials Research Institute, and the research projects have also been selected, mainly the copper project.

When Lu Xin proposed the copper project, Zhao Xin had already made a choice, and in the future, copper will be the most important project in the entire materials research institute.

When Lu Xin left, it was still a little foggy, and he was like this, from an assistant to the main person in charge, just because he put forward a suggestion, this suggestion, has not completely solved the problem of artillery.

Lu Xin didn't know, but Zhao Xin knew that the proposal of copper as a material had actually solved the problem of artillery.

The history of copper smelting in China can be traced back thousands of years ago, in the time of thousands of years, to the present, it can be said unceremoniously that no matter which classification of copper, whether it is bronze, brass, or even ordinary metal copper, the Northern Song Dynasty can be smelted.

There is no forging relationship, which is very different from the previous steel.

On the other hand, others may not know whether copper can be used as a material for artillery, but Zhao Xin knows that he studied the history of the Song Dynasty, and during the Song Dynasty, firearms began to appear, but it was the Ming Dynasty that really used firearms.

Zhu Yuanzhang, almost relying on the firearms battalion, defeated the Yuan Dynasty and expelled Yuan Meng from the Central Plains.

Sometimes, the price depends on whether it is worth it or not, the value of artillery is not something that money can measure, if you have enough powerful artillery, this will play a revolutionary role for the navy.

The same thing, in different environments, the price is completely different, in a specific environment, 100,000 guan can sometimes decide the fate of a country, in another environment, maybe 50 million, but it is just a cost.

For the Northern Song Dynasty, 2 years ago, or 3 years ago, someone told Renzong that he would definitely be willing to spend 20 million guan to solve the Western Xia, or the Liao State, this is just a year's income, and it is a big deal to tighten his belt or find an opportunity elsewhere.

The financial resources of the Northern Song Dynasty, these money, squeezed out, and even some big businessmen borrowed money, which can be solved.

20 million, solve the Western Xia, 50 million solve the Liao State, if the Liao State and the Western Xia are solved, then the world will be peaceful, and when the time comes, the development of the Northern Song Dynasty will definitely be another concept.

Even, if the Liao State is really short of money, it will sell the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun with 30 million, or even 40 million, not to mention that the Northern Song Dynasty has money, even if there is no money, it will be bought if it smashes the pot and sells iron.

It's a pity that history has no ifs, and the situation before Zhao Xin didn't cross is that it is 20 million guan, even if it is more, it can't be solved.

The military weakness is ultimately reflected in the economy, that is, the constant spending of money, the continuous spending of money.

Some people have always said that the weakness of the Song Dynasty is the relationship between the old coins, but during the period of the Northern Song Dynasty, whether it was the old coins for the Liao State or the old coins for the Western Xia, how many were there.

At best, hundreds of thousands, this is really a drop in the bucket compared with the cost of the war, not to mention the large-scale war with the Liao State, let's just say that in Western Xia, the cost is large.

However, history, in this era, has changed, because of Zhao Xin's incurrence, espionage and the use of the longbow, the Western Xia was solved in advance.

Historically, the Western Xia has always existed, and it has always affected the entire Northern Song Dynasty, just in the northwest, the money spent is an astronomical amount, not to mention tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars.

So much money, there is no solution, it's not that there is less money, this money is really a lot, if it is used reasonably, the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty will increase a lot.

It's a pity that after spending so much money, it didn't have any effect, but dragged the Northern Song Dynasty into a nightmare, but it didn't work in the right place.

Several military and political officials in the northwest have all gone in the wrong direction, going farther and farther, and spending a lot of money, but they have not solved practical problems.

After Zhao Xin arrived, by borrowing strength, he just started a dead room, and he could add fuel to the fire between Liaoxia, and with the help of some equipment, he put himself at a disadvantage in Liaoguo, but he had the upper hand.

Sometimes, the change of the situation is so subtle, at the critical moment, as long as the basic association is done, but at that time, Zhao Xin, the initiator, did not expect that he would destroy Western Xia all at once.

This is an inevitability in a series of accidents, but if it weren't for Zhao Xin's promotion, Xixia would have been destroyed like this.

In itself, Liao Xingzong didn't plan to do anything with Western Xia, but just taught Western Xia a lesson.

However, in the war, there was a real fire, from a lesson to a large-scale war, Yuan Hao did not choose to bow his head and submit to the soft, let Liao Xingzong be angry, and end the war, but made a wrong choice and chose to defend the city.

Defending Xingqing Mansion is a correct choice in itself, theoretically, even with the help of the Northern Song Dynasty, it is not easy to fight down, and the Western Xia, which is strong and clear, may suffer a small loss to survive this catastrophe, and even fight the Liao State and the Northern Song Dynasty with a backhand.

But the appearance of Zhao Xin, got a weapon that did not belong to this era, the appearance of the longbow, and even when attacking the city, it was able to threaten the archers on the city outside the city, as for gunpowder, it was even more unheard of, and the powerful fortifications, in front of gunpowder, were like paper paste, unable to resist, and finally Yuan Hao endured the bitter fruit of the destruction of Western Xia with grievances.

Longbow, gunpowder, these two, should not have appeared in this era, but they appeared, this kind of thing, at a critical moment, played a strategic role.

Now the Northern Song Dynasty has basically popularized the longbow, and gunpowder has also begun to be installed, one represents the long-range combat effectiveness, which will make the forbidden army of the Northern Song Dynasty more sharp when attacking, and the other represents the strong ability to attack fortifications, which makes the city wall of any era become the same as paper.

A simple longbow and a gunpowder, under the premise that they have not formed a generation gap with the weapons of this era, have such terrible abilities, artillery, is another level,

Cannon, in a sense, is a generation gap with the era of cold weapons.

With artillery and without artillery, these are two completely different concepts.

Some people say that the early artillery, they were very powerful, and they might not be able to kill a few people with one shot, but he was a deterrent, a long-range weapon, and it was also ultra-long-range, one side had it, and the other side did not, so it was at an absolute disadvantage, and under the premise of this disadvantage, he had to solve it, and he had to solve the artillery.

With a clear goal, the attacker has a goal, then the defender does not have the same goal, as long as the cannon is the core, the longbow is used as a barrier and the attacker, and the heavy infantry and heavy cavalry are assisted.

Especially the former, the heavy infantry is developed on the basis of infantry armor, using many new equipment of the Dinghai Navy, it can be said that it is armed to the extreme, and even because of the existence of longbows and artillery, it will not consider attacking at all, as long as it does a good job of defense, which is even more powerful.

Not to mention the same number, or even a greater number of heavy cavalry, in the face of the infantry armor, there is no way to break through in a short time, and this time will be their blood and tears.

From the beginning of the cavalry attack, the killing has begun, first artillery, between 300 meters and 1500 meters, and then the longbow, within 300 meters, really to the inside, the infantry armor will not attack, but the longbow will, every moment is dying, the other party is like a rock, so the result of the war is already doomed.

Artillery is no longer a simple weapon in the ordinary sense, but an important factor, with artillery and without artillery, the combat effectiveness of a unit is absolutely completely different.

This is the power of artillery, but also the meaning of artillery, in the past, it can only be made by craftsmen and by manual methods, but now, after the emergence of copper, the quality of copper cannons may be a little worse than steel cannons, but now the Dinghai Navy should solve the problem of whether there is or not, and then it is the problem of improving quality and range.