Spear

The young supervisor said with some embarrassment: "This..., there is really no. The military weapon station does not practice pills, so there is no need for an alchemist."

Du Wenhao thoroughly inspected all military weapons stations last time, but he did not find any firearms manufactured. Since there were no firearms, there was naturally no need to install gunpowder.

Du Wenhao asked: "Do you know who the best alchemist is?"

The two looked at each other and said in unison: "Sima Tianshi!"

"Sima Tianshi?" Du Wenhao felt that the name was very familiar, and seemed to have heard it somewhere, and asked, "Which Taoist temple is he in?"

The young supervisor replied: "No longer in the Taoist temple, in..., hehe, he has already returned to heaven..."

"Return to heaven?" Du Wenhao immediately remembered, "The dog-headed military advisor of Prince Yong?"

Du Wenhao dared to say this, but the young magistrate did not dare to nod, and he smiled embarrassedly, saying that he was right.

Du Wenhao said: "He is the best alchemist?"

The young supervisor nodded and said, "Yes, the alchemist in the capital said so. I heard that he was the one who was the one who was the one who had worked hard to invite him to the mansion to help practice the elixir."

Du Wenhao smiled bitterly and said, "But he has been executed, who else is besides him?"

Shaojianqi said: "Does the Duke of the State want to refine elixirs?"

"Well, no, I want to configure gunpowder. It is the kind of gunpowder that sets off fireworks."

"Oh, then there is no need to find an alchemist. Just find a craftsman who makes fireworks!"

Du Wenhao slapped his forehead: "Yes! Why am I so stubborn? I don't practice alchemy, so why do I find an alchemist? Should I find a fireworks craftsman! - Which fireworks workshop in Beijing is the best craftsman?"

"Hehe, the prince, the best firework craftsman, is naturally from the palace workshop."

The palace has a special fireworks workshop, which is specifically responsible for the production of royal special fireworks. The craftsmen inside are all top firework craftsmen recruited from all over the country. They really took a long time to turn around, but they turned out to be right in front of them.

Du Wenhao asked these craftsmen to wait first, and hurriedly left the military weapon station and went straight to the royal fireworks workshop.

The dignified priest came in person, and it was really full of glory. Du Wenhao explained his purpose, and the workshop owner immediately called the best firework craftsmen.

Du Wenhao picked two and told the workshop owner that they would be transferred to the military weapon office to work. How dare the workshop owner object to the decision of the priest? He agreed with a smile.

Du Wenhao brought the two firework craftsmen back to the military weapon station.

Du Wenhao convened the Military Arts Office Sgt. The Bow and Crossbow Court Bureau, the East and West Workshop Bureau, and the blacksmiths who were previously selected, and the two new firework craftsmen gathered in the meeting in the meeting hall.

Du Wenhao said solemnly: "Today, I will set up an institution in the Military Weapons Institute, called the 'Weapons Research Institute', with Li Hong, a judge of the Bow and Crossbow Academy, as the director! This institute specializes in the development of various weapons and equipment. I will set up a yard in the Military Weapons Institute to develop offices for you. It is completely closed."

These people are all engaged in weapons production, so how can they not know the power of advanced weapons? It’s just that few people did this before. Now that the priest personally arrested this, he couldn’t help but smile on his face.

Du Wenhao continued: "Your future job is to develop weapons. I will give you enough good treatment and honors. The monthly salary is temporarily collected at five times the military craftsman. With a new invention, I will reward you with a lot of money, just like Li Hong invented the Divine Arm Bow."

In the Song Dynasty, military craftsmen were craftsmen, and the social status of craftsmen was very low, similar to slaves, especially military craftsmen. The status of soldiers was very low. In addition, the status of craftsmen was even lower, and they were beaten and scolded at every turn, and their monthly salary was also very low. Now Du Wenhao gave them five times their monthly salary and invented another prize. This was simply a matter of falling from the sky, and everyone was excited.

Li Hong bowed and said, "Dude, you gave us such good treatment. If we don't do it well, I'm so sorry for you!"

Du Wenhao smiled and said, "However, your work is highly confidential and cannot be known to outsiders, so you will be restricted to freedom to a certain extent. I hope you can understand this. Your family can move to the military weapon office to live. I will build a special house for you and a special private school for your children. However, your work must be strictly confidential, only for a few of us who knows. Who wants to leak it out is a death sentence! Do you understand?"

All the craftsmen nodded frequently and agreed.

Du Wenhao smiled and said, "Okay, now I will give you the first task. I designed a gun and a cannon. You can help me build it and improve it. Now I will draw the drawings for you to explain the design principles, and you can build it according to my design."

Du Wenhao ordered the young supervisor to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and then drew a schematic diagram of the front-mounted smoothbore flintlock rifle and the rear-mounted smoothbore flintlock rifle, as well as a decomposition diagram of each component. He also drew a schematic diagram of the back-mounted paper-shell bullet.

Du Wenhao has visited the Military Museum and saw the structural diagrams and physical objects of the flintlock rifle after being loaded. In addition, he studied forensics and has a relatively good understanding of gun knowledge. He designed the paper-shell bullets of the flintlock rifle after being loaded with modern gun structures.

Then, a schematic diagram and sectional view of the cannon was drawn. In order to prevent the explosion of the chamber, he drew a stone base to fix the cannon body and let the stonemason chisel out.

After the drawing was completed, Du Wenhao asked the craftsmen to look at the drawings on the table, explained the principles of firearms and cannons, and asked them if they could build such guns and cannons.

The structure of the flintlock rifle and cannon is relatively simple, so it is naturally difficult for these exquisitely crafted blacksmiths. However, they were very novel about Du Wenhao's idea of ​​using gunpowder as power and launching projectiles. They muttered about its feasibility, but they did not dare to say it out. After asking about the purpose of the use and several places they didn't understand, they all nodded together.

Du Wenhao said: "How many days will it take?"

Several blacksmiths looked at each other, and the old blacksmith in the lead said, "How many will the general build?"

"Make four guns first, two front and rear mounts each. You can build one cannon first."

"The gun will take about three days, and the cannon will take some effort, about ten days."

Du Wenhao nodded: "Okay, don't do anything else these days. Focus on making these guns and notify me after making them.—

Everyone agreed repeatedly.

Du Wenhao returned to the third yamen and reported the battle report. This was the first battle report he had reported after the soldiers sent the Xixia.

The battle report confirms the statement of the Xixia spy. It describes the implementation of the step-by-step battle technique. Thousands of battle camps were deployed on the front line of the Huanqing Jingliu Division, concentrating 50,000 troops at the back, divided into two levels. The first level is a fast-mobile cavalry team, and behind it is three assembly points. The enemy raids from any place, and the smoke from the battle camps rises, and an army will immediately face it.

The disadvantage of the number of troops in Xixia was that he did not dare to fight with the Song army. He used roundabout tactics and wanted to advance from places where there were no battle camps on both sides of the front line. However, within the farthest distance that the Xia cavalry could advance in these places, all of them had already carried out a solid wall and clearing the fields. After the Xia army advanced, they could not find the looted villages and border residents, and their troops could not be stationed and occupied, so they could only retreat.

In the face of the steadily advancing the Song army's battle camp, the Western Xia army used up all its methods and failed to repel the Song army's advancement step by step. Unexpectedly, they had to retreat step by step.

At the end of the battle report, it was mentioned that the Xia army was small and scattered, and it was rare to find fighter jets. I hope they could approve their cavalry advantages, make progress and detour, and fight one or two annihilation wars.

Du Wenhao immediately ordered that the assault was not allowed, and that the strategy of step by step must be strictly implemented and steadily advance. If any person violated the order, he would be executed regardless of whether he made meritorious service or not!

Despite the death order, Du Wenhao still thought it was obvious that the people of Xixia were deliberately showing weakness and leading the Song army to attack the battlefield, so as to concentrate superior forces to eat the attacking Song army. He must not be deceived, so he sent a Du Yuhou as a special envoy to supervise the battle.

After finishing his work, he transferred to the border map to check the deployment location of our army's war camp and the speed of advancement. At present, he was very satisfied. He took the map into the palace, found the Empress Dowager Gao Taotao, and reported the military information of the war report.

Gao Taotao heard that he had advanced one mile and repelled dozens of attacks from the Western Xia army. Under the powerful crossbow shooting of the Zhanzhai, hundreds of people were injured and killed. After looking at the map Du Wenhao, he was very happy and demanded that he resolutely continue to implement the established combat policy.

Three days passed quickly.

On the morning of the third day, the military weapons station's minor prison came to report that the gun had been built.

Du Wenhao and Wang Runxue were studying military arts. After receiving the report, Wang Runxue heard that Du Wenhao had invented a new weapon and wanted to go with him to watch the fun. Du Wenhao agreed and hurried to the Military Weapons Testing Site with Wang Runxue and the Guards.

On a table, there were three flintlock rifles. On the surface, the craftsmanship level was still very good. After all, these were the top craftsmen of the Song Dynasty.

Next to it is the equipped gunpowder and paper shell ammunition. Next to the table is a wooden fixing frame for testing the gun to fix the gun body. Fifty steps ahead is a human-shaped target. A few steps behind are surrounded by sandbags with a half-person-high bunker.

Du Wenhao first picked up the flintlock rifle and checked the closing condition of the subsequent bolt and the trigger safety. Then he loaded a paper shell into the bolt, then fixed the gun to the firing rack, tied the trigger with a thin rope, and then pulled the impact.

He pulled the rope and retreated behind the piled sandbags, and asked everyone to squat behind the sandbags. With a soft sound, he heard a light crack. The anticipated gunshot did not sound. Du Wenhao pulled it again, and there was another light crack, but there was still no gunshot.

I pulled it a few times in a row, but I still couldn't fire it.

Du Wenhao threw away the rope in a disgusting manner, stood up, walked to the gun, first took out the paper shell, and pulled the trigger several times empty, but did not see Mars. It was obvious that there was a problem with the flintlock impact.

He fixed the second rear flintlock rifle on the firing rack, loaded the bullets, tied the ropes, and then let everyone hide behind the sandbag bunker.

As soon as Du Wenhao pulled the rope, he heard a loud bang. Du Wenhao happily swung his fist: "Do it!"
Chapter completed!