"Ready! Reload your ammo! An officer in uniform on a horse shouted as he waved his sword.

Thirty guns stood side by side in front of him, and one hundred and fifty artillerymen skillfully and uniformly loaded the guns with gunpowder and iron shells, leaving a lead, adjusting the angle, and fixing the gun, and then four of the gunners stood on both sides of the gun, knelt down on one knee, and covered their ears with their hands, leaving only one gunner with a torch still standing, at this time, the officer continued to shout: "Ignition!" ”

The gunner with the torch immediately lit the artillery, then put down the torch, and like the other four team members, he knelt down on one knee and squatted on the ground, covering his ears with both hands, and after a while, countless loud noises converged into one, and thirty guns fired terrifying shells in unison, and the muzzle of the cannon was gushing out of white smoke, and the muzzle of the cannon was raised sharply, and then landed, and in the blink of an eye, the cannonball had hit 90% of the simulated city wall in the distance that imitated the city wall of Chang'an City.

Li Erma, who was watching from a distance, shouted excitedly: "Okay! ”

That wasn't the end of it, as soon as the cannon was fired, the officer shouted again: "Ready, reload!" ”

The artillerymen immediately moved quickly again, reloading gunpowder and iron bullets, leaving a lead, adjusting the angle, fixing the gun, the same movement and speed, neat and neat, with the officer's ignition sound again, the second round of artillery salvo began, this time, the simulated city wall was completely finished, the defeat was a mess, the soldiers could completely cross the wall, rush into the city to fight the defenders in the street. Instead of engaging in siege warfare with huge losses.

Li Erma's face was excited and kept shouting "Okay, good", and the accompanying officials around him also nodded, it was the same thing when he first saw it, and now the thirty artillery salvos are aimed at the simulated city wall with ninety percent strength and scale of the Chang'an City wall, and the thirty artillery cannons will destroy the city wall with two salvos, if it is used in other cities, one salvo is enough.

The artillery was as powerful as Si, and the gunners were proficient, which made Li Er's majesty very happy.

Song An, the deputy commander of the Xuanjia Army, who was in charge of training here, was greatly commended by Li Er's majesty. Think he's doing a great job. Give him a promotion and a raise, give him a large reward, and then give money to all the gunners, money to all the staff, and so on. Everyone was happy.

After the fun. Li Erqi pointed to those terrifying killing weapons and asked the ministers behind him: "Zhu Qing thinks. I Datang has this sharp weapon, will it be much easier to fight in the future? ”

Li Er's tone was a little triumphant. Considering Li Erma's strong support for this gunpowder weapon from the beginning, obviously, it is normal for people to be narcissistic, and the ministers have been slapping their sycophants one after another, slapping Li Ermaxi very comfortably, and constantly stroking his beard and being content, and then, Wei Zheng's role as a rat feces was reflected at this time.

"Your Majesty, the minister has a play." Wei Zheng stood up indifferently.

As soon as Li Erma saw Wei Zheng stand up, his face immediately changed, and he waved his hand a little depressedly, and said, "If Wei Qing has anything to say, just say it, I'll listen." ”

Wei Zheng said: "Your Majesty, although this artillery is very powerful, it is very beneficial to the army to fight on the march, but the minister also heard that the biggest need for this artillery is gunpowder, gunpowder is easy to get wet, and it is not easy to preserve, once even one spark is encountered in our army array, it will cause a violent explosion, if the gunpowder explodes in our army array, then what will happen?" And if it's raining, the gunpowder is damp and can't be used, then isn't the artillery just an ornament? ”

Li Erma breathed a sigh of relief, these problems have not been mentioned by anyone, he already knows: "What Wei Qing said is not that no one has said, for this weakness of artillery, the officials of the Ministry of Industry are trying to improve it, such as manufacturing some special equipment for storing gunpowder, there are special people responsible for keeping gunpowder, ordinary people are not allowed to approach gunpowder, etc., as for the rainy day, there are also officials of the Ministry of Industry who propose to use oiled paper to store gunpowder, these are relatively strict problems, I and all of you Aiqing are people who know what it is and don't know why, so don't point fingers and disturb those professionals! ”

Li Erma set the tone, making Wei Zheng a little stunned, but it was not so easy to make Wei Zheng shut up, seeing the establishment of the Shenji Battalion, it was simply a bottomless pit that burned money, although it was not the book of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but watching countless instructions issued by Li Erma to transfer money pass through under his hands and he had no reason to refute it, Wei Zheng was very unhappy, Datang is indeed rich, and the wealth is rich, but he can't spend money indiscriminately!

Two battlefields in the grassland, one battlefield in Liaodong, although the food is abundant and the money is enough, but the consumption is not a lot, if it is not for the armrest in the past few years to accumulate national and financial resources, it is impossible to afford it, and now it is necessary to point out a large amount of education funds every year, which Wei Zheng agrees with, the hundred-year plan, education-oriented, this is right, what is the revival of Shandong, the rise of Jiangnan, what is the vegetable basket, Wei Zheng also recognized, the development of the country, as long as it is used in the locality, it can, nothing can't, The special appropriations of the imperial court are specially supervised by the imperial history, and whoever dares to embezzle this kind of money is really looking for death.

Of course, the income of the imperial court is also very large, after the opening of the port in Lingnan, the income has increased sharply, the commercial tax has gradually increased, and gradually has exceeded the agricultural tax, the large-scale establishment of workshops in various places, the vigorous development of private commerce, the tax revenue of industry and commerce has occupied an absolute advantage, on the contrary, although the agricultural tax is also rising, it is rising slowly, far less than the speed of commercial tax, and the total tax revenue has increased sharply year after year, far beyond his imagination, if there is no strong financial support, He would not have agreed to Li Erma's strategy of opening up two steppe battlefields at the same time and the Northern Expedition of 200,000 troops.

Even if you forget it, you can still afford this money, but you have another Shenji battalion that is simply burning money, which makes Wei Zheng quite dissatisfied, although the artillery is powerful, but it is not used on the battlefield, who knows what the final result will be? How rich is Mihara County? The agricultural and commercial taxes are all the first county in Datang, and such a tax can only produce twenty artillery pieces in a quarter. And that's not even counting the other associated costs, and even the manufacture of other iron weapons has slowed down in order to support the manufacture of artillery.

The output of iron is just that, and it has not risen, but the demand for artillery is too great, and the production of many weapons has given way to artillery, and the iron of one artillery can make hundreds of corresponding weapons.

In this regard, Wei Zheng repeatedly wrote to ask Li Erma to order the Ministry of Industry to study the issue of iron production, but Li Erma Xià did not act for a long time, and today after seeing the huge power of artillery. Wei Zheng was already convinced of the tremendous power of artillery. But you can't just focus on artillery, and forget about other weapons and even the construction of farm tools, right?

Wei Zheng also went to the Ministry of Industry to find the current Ministry of Industry Shangshu and the Mo family giant Zhao Sheng, but he didn't see anyone, and the left-behind officials said that Zhao Shangshu personally went to the artillery workshop to supervise the manufacture of artillery. This was the emperor's request. Majesty's order. There's no way not to pay attention to it, and as for the rest, I can only stand aside for the time being.

So Wei Zheng is not happy. At this time, I have to bring it up, I'm not unhappy with you, I'm not happy with you for making artillery, I'm not happy that you put all your energy on artillery, and don't pay attention to other things that need attention! The typical wind is the rain, and Li Erma's Xià is particularly strict with this problem!

Wei Zheng was very unhappy, so he said: "Your Majesty, artillery is indeed good, but you also need iron to make artillery, without iron, how can you get artillery, how much iron does a cannon need?" And how many weapons can be made of this iron? Do you also know that for the sake of these artillery, even the manufacture of farm tools has begun to delay, and they are all making zuò artillery there, and the requirement of two hundred artillery pieces given by Majesty has only been completed by a quarter now, Majesty, should you consider the problem of farm tools? ”

Li Erxi blinked, began to realize that something was not quite right, and wondered: "What is the connection between the production of agricultural tools and artillery?" Is iron not enough? ”

Zhao Sheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, said: "Your Majesty, the minister has given His Majesty a lot of twists and turns, before Dr. Wei came to the Ministry of Industry to find the minister's affairs The minister also knew, but the minister was not there at the time, and the minister later learned about it and went to check it, and found that the current iron production of the Tang Dynasty is difficult to ensure the production of artillery and other weapons and agricultural tools at the same time, so it has also been given to the Majesty, but His Majesty has not been approved......

Li Erma's old face flushed, and he asked, "Zhao Sheng, how much worse is you suing me?" ”

Zhao Sheng pondered for a while and said: "From the current point of view, unless the annual iron output can reach the annual output of two hundred artillery pieces unless the manufacture of some agricultural tools and weapons is abandoned, it will definitely not be possible, it can be maintained in the short term, and in the long run, it will inevitably produce a shortage of weapons and tools." ”

Li Erqi was depressed, then waved his hand and said: "Ah, this way, Zhao Sheng, you are responsible for this problem, you must find out for me to increase iron production, this weapon has been invented, but as a result, how can iron production not keep up?" If the Ministry of Industry can't think of it, it's like recruiting excellent craftsmen with a way to do it, rewarding the iron-making masters with a lot of money, and it is necessary to ensure that the iron production is sufficient, and at the same time to complete the artillery production, ensure the manufacture of agricultural tools and weapons! ”

Zhao Sheng nodded and said, "Minister Zhao Sheng has the order!" ”

Li Er nodded at this time, and then summoned Song An, the deputy commander of the Xuanjia Army who was in charge here, and asked, "Can these gunners go to the battlefield to fight?" ”

Song An thought for a while, nodded and said: "All the training is over in accordance with the regulations, if it is placed on the battlefield at this time, it is estimated that it is okay, but there are still not too many results for waterproofing, so it must not be the gunpowder damp, otherwise, it will be very troublesome." ”

Li Ermajesty nodded, and then ordered: "In Liaodong, Suning is not urging once or twice, you have to prepare twenty artillery pieces and enough gunners here to prepare for transportation to Liaodong, the fact is that the actual combat effect of this artillery, by the way, Zhao Sheng, the research of the flowering bomb, do you have any results for the research here and the King of Wei?" Is there a sign of a flowering bomb? ”

Zhao Sheng said: "Your Majesty, the research of the flowering shell can not be successful for a while, the ministers have done their best, and the king of Wei is also very hard, but it is indeed not as fast as expected, it is estimated that it will take a while, the power of the flowering shell has been determined, but how to launch and ensure that it will not explode is still a little troublesome, compared to the solid bullet, the flowering bomb is much more dangerous, and it is more difficult to make zuò." ”

Li Ermajesty said: "This is a major national event, we must ensure the progress, of course, we must pay more attention to safety, take Suning's words, safety first, whether it is you, or the King of Wei, you must ensure safety, you also have to assist the King of Wei, and, I will give you a handwritten order, you give me a special stare at the King of Wei, absolutely do not allow him to forget to sleep and eat, what should be eaten or eaten, what should be drunk or drink, the body is the most important, if the King of Wei is thin, I want you to ask!" ”

Zhao Sheng touched the cold sweat on his forehead and accepted the order......

On the way back from Li Er's majesty, the eldest grandson Wuji came to his side and asked in a low voice: "Your Majesty, is it really okay to let King Wei be in such a dangerous place?" Is that really, that the case? ”

The meaning of the eldest grandson Wuji Li Er naturally understands, as a relative of the emperor and a long-time friend, these things can also be cared about: "You are also an old minister, you also understand some things, since ancient times, the battle for the throne has never stopped, and now I finally see the possibility of stopping, Qingque is addicted to the knowledge of things for a day or two, and the talent is different, I always feel that if it can really be like this, it is not a good policy, what I have done, I definitely don't want my sons to do it again." ......" (To be continued......)