Zhao Xingde looked up and saw a pile of earth piles of more than ten meters long and two meters high, with flags piled up around the earth pile. There were also various targets scattered around the earth pile. Thousands of soldiers baled straw arranged neatly in front of the camp, and there were horses arranged with grass dolls on the left and right of the square formation. The north wind blew the flags of various colors, as if there was really an army in front.

"It seems that this is the target that will be tested for the power of the cannon later." Zhao Xingde said in his heart. He placed his hand on a cannon, and the smooth surface showed the exquisite casting skills. Obviously, the gunner was very careful in maintaining it. Not only did he polish the cannon brightly, but he also carefully applied a thin layer of grease.

Zhao Xingde noticed that the patterns on these cannons were simple and consistent, unlike the iron barrel cannons I saw in the Imperial City of the Song Dynasty, each with unique and exquisite patterns. This shows that the artillery in Xia Kingdom was cast with a unified mold, or even cast with the same mold. The quality of the cannons was guaranteed, and the cost of casting was greatly reduced.

"You two, be careful." The gunner not far away warned loudly when he saw Zhao Xingde's hand on the cannon. Zhao Xingde turned around and apologized to him, and took his hand back. Although Zhao Xingde retracted his hand, the gunner still shouted to the side: "Stand farther and be careful of the explosion!!" He was a solid figure, wearing a short jacket and pants similar to a craftsman, and like a craftsman, he was covered with various gadgets. He rushed to the front of the cannon in three or two steps and glared at Zhao Xingde and Wang Tongdeng.

When did Wang Tongdeng eat this kind of deflation? He angrily said, "Your grandma's." This gunner was just a rank of official title, but shouted at Chehou, which was really annoying.

The gunner replied without hesitation: "If you want to save your life, don't touch it randomly!" While taking out a piece of silk cloth from your pocket, he carefully wiped the place Zhao Xingde had just touched. The marching department arranged for these sergeants who were about to enter the artillery battalion to visit the familiar artillery first, but the original gunners and artillery casting craftsmen looked at these sergeants like thieves.

Most of the ordinary artillery battalions were stationed in cities and fortresses, with only gunners. The newly established artillery battalions were composed of three parts, one was the test gunners brought out by the cast artillery masters, who were transformed from craftsmen to sergeants. The other was the elite gunners who had originally stationed the city. The last part was the elite sergeants in the field legion. The reason for this was that precious artillery needed protection, so each artillery battalion was also equipped with an infantry and cavalry barracks to protect it. Just as the Liao people arranged the Iron Wall Camp next to the artillery battalion.

Seeing that he was despised by the gunner, Wang Tongdeng couldn't help but walk forward, put his hand on the cannon's gun, turned to Zhao Xingde and smiled: "We are ordered to come to watch the cannon, and we must do our business carefully so as not to be able to see clearly and understand it at all." While speaking, he also knocked on the bronze cannon twice, pretending to say, "No, barely available."

Zhao Xingde smiled unconsciously. Although Wang Tongdeng was suspected of causing trouble, the old gunners were too scared to exclude the sergeant who had newly contacted the artillery. Several sergeants had an argument with the gunner. He smiled and said, "Be careful, the cold weather is cold, be careful to stick your hands to the copper cannon." Wang Tongdeng smiled and said, "That's it." He picked up his hands and held them in front of his chest. The gunner got angry from his heart, raised the brush to brush the cannon chamber, and brushed a few times in the place where Wang Tongdeng had just touched, and said in a rough voice: "Doway, dodge." The brush was raised and swung high from Wang Tongdeng, and a piece of sewage with oil stains sprinkled on his military bath.

"So bold!" Wang Tongdeng shouted angrily, reached out to grab the gunner's collar, raised his fist and wanted to beat him up.

The gunner widened his eyes and shouted: "Don't you want to stay in the artillery battalion after beating the robe?" Although Wang Tongden's title was higher than him, elite gunners were more scarce than good at rushing to kill sergeants. If there was a conflict, the Firearms Department would likely transfer the sergeants away without replacing the gunner. The elite gunners were usually monitored and protected by the Military Information Department.

Looking beside him, a group of people walked along the cannon rows. Some were wearing military robes, while others were wearing narrow-sleeved short jackets, and they saw a conflict here. The first one shouted, "What's going on?" He walked over. The man was in his fifties, with a square face, his face and chin shaved as blue as a face. Under his lying eyebrows, he was afraid of a pair of fierce eyes like a falcon. Wang Tongdeng looked at the emblem on his military robe. He turned out to be the general of the Shangqing. He immediately let go of the cannon and said loudly: "Sir, this man is rude first, and I only want to reason with him." He said that, and showed the stain on his military robe to everyone.

The gunner shouted, "It was clearly that he was touching the cannon. I just washed the cannon body and accidentally splashed some water on him. But he wanted to hurt people. Master, please make the decision for the villain!" He was a gunner trained by the master craftsman who cast the cannon himself, and he felt that he was even better than usual gunners. Seeing this, he immediately called for injustice. There were few gunners in the artillery camp, so he was not afraid of making a big deal. If it was a big deal, the rash officer would leave.

Unexpectedly, the master craftsman didn't look at him at all. Instead, he stared at the gunner's back, and his eyes showed surprise, his hands trembled slightly, and he seemed very excited. It turned out that this person was Chunyu Zhen, the artillery casting master who Zhao Xingde had met when he was in Xianyang. Following Zhao Xingde's instructions, he finally succeeded in the test and greatly reduced the weight of the cast iron cannon. Because the weight loss was extremely amazing, it attracted the attention of the Ordnance Department. The Ordnance Department immediately allocated a large sum of silver to him, asking him to focus the more expensive and easy-to-use copper cannons.

After receiving the funding of the Ordnance Department, Chunyu Zhen was like a tiger. After reducing the weight of the bronze cannon with a diameter of four inches and ten kilograms to less than three thousand kilograms, he greatly reduced the weight of the cannon with a diameter of three inches and five kilograms. What is even more gratifying is that he first used iron molds instead of sand mud molds, and each casting mold could be used multiple times. In this way, the bronze cannons cast were of the same size and were very suitable for unified calculation of various parameters, which was very beneficial for establishing a large-scale artillery army. Therefore, the Ordnance Department attached great importance to Chunyu Zhen. Not only did he ask the Bachelor's Office to promote him as a master, he also specially selected a group of elite gunners for him to train. The establishment of the new army artillery battalion this time is of great importance, and he also specially invited the master of artillery to guide him.

Chunyu Zhen stared at Zhao Xingde for a moment, but he was too excited and couldn't speak. At this time, everyone realized that the two of them were familiar with each other. Zhao Xingde was a little embarrassed, bowed and smiled and said, "Mr. Chunyu, I'll leave in Chang'an, long time no see!"

Chunyu Zhen woke up from his memories and sighed with emotion: "It's indeed a long time no see, Mr. Zhao, I'm so hard to find you!" He just recalled that when he failed to test the cannon casting, he lost all his money and almost committed suicide, Zhao Xingde helped, not only gave him the trick of casting the cannon, but also took out 10,000 jin of silver. He then left afterwards, without leaving his address. After Chunyu Zhen successfully casting the cannon, he had searched for Zhao De in Dunhuang, but there was no news. After more than three years passed, he almost gave up the hope of finding Zhao De, but he unexpectedly met him on the cannon test field.

Chunyu Zhen was filled with mixed feelings and forgot about the occasion. In addition to the General of the Firearms Division, dozens of officers and seven or eight craftsmen from the Firearms Division, the Marines Division, and the Ordnance Division all looked at the two men in strange ways. Zhao Xingde did not want to show up in front of others, intercepted Chunyu Zhen's words, smiled and clasped his fists and said, "I met Mr. Chunyu for a long time, and even lost my sense of measure and delayed the artillery exercise. I hope you all forgive me." He said while winking at Chunyu Zhen.

Chunyu Zhen suddenly felt relieved. Zhao De seemed to be quite unwilling to know that he had the art of casting cannons. Since he had been searching for Zhao De, he had thought about his words and deeds that day and was particularly impressed by the sentence "A man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure." He was also a smart man, but he usually devoted himself to casting cannons, which made him feel a little confused. After Zhao Xingde's reminder, Chunyu Zhen also smiled and said, "That's right, I'm forgot about my feelings for a while, so I'll forgive me for my crimes." His tone of speaking was very different from Zhao Xingde. As the number one artillery casting master in the Xia Kingdom, even the generals of the Firearms and Ordnances Department would give him some slight face.

General Wang Yunzhong of the Firearms Division smiled and said, "The reunion of old friends is a gratifying event." He looked up and down at Zhao Xingde and asked, "What's your name? Which army is from?"

Zhao Xingde bowed solemnly and said, "The last general Zhao De was originally the centurion of Chengying Army. He had met the general."

"Oh, from Chengying Army." Wang Yunzhong nodded slightly. He looked at the title emblem on Zhao Xingde's chest and smiled, "Yes, he is already a Marquis of Che." He asked Wang Tongdeng again, "Where are you?"

Wang Tongdeng also bowed solemnly and said, "The last general Wang Tongdeng was originally the centurion of Chengying Army."

"Okay," Wang Yunzhong turned around and smiled at the other officers, "The two centurions who were born in Chengying seem to be hidden in the artillery camp." The officers laughed together. The eyes of Zhao Xingde and Wang Tongdeng were more kind.

The original artillery of the Xia Kingdom was heavy and was not used for field battles. However, with the strength of the Xia army, few strong enemies could face the city. Therefore, the gunners of the Xia Kingdom had almost no chance to make meritorious battles. Over time, the artillery battalions were lazy and despised by the various armies. However, since the founding emperors of the Xia Kingdom had attached great importance to firearms, and even listed the artillery battalions separately and were under the jurisdiction of the Firearms Division of the General's Mansion. In the past, the Firearms Division only had ten city artillery battalions under the jurisdiction of the general's defense artillery battalions, which was not only far less powerful than the generals in the heads of the various army departments, but also not as good as the generals of the frontier army. Even the commander of the Imperial Guards was unwilling to be promoted to this position, so they had to promote the generals of the Firearms Division from the Ordnance Division and the general commander of the army. The captains of the artillery battalion themselves often had no chance to become a general because of their meager military achievements.

Now the General's Mansion has established an artillery battalion for field battles. Emperor Chen Xuan attaches great importance to it. Wang Yunzhong also regards this as a good opportunity for the Firearms Corporation to turn over. As long as the artillery can go to the battlefield, there is a chance to make meritorious. The Chengying Army, which has always been above the top, is willing to stuff the soldiers over, which is enough to prove that the artillery battalion is widely favored. Thinking of this, Wang Yunzhong couldn't help but feel a little proud. He patted Wang Tongdeng and Zhao Xingde on the shoulders and encouraged him: "Do it well, you will have a great chance to make meritorious in the artillery battalion."
Chapter completed!