A certain person is the Heavenly Killer Li Gui.

Chapter 180 How can everything in the world be perfect?
Originally, Li Gui didn't want to expand outward so quickly. He first cleaned up the three states under his command, and then fought off several rounds of encirclement and suppression by the imperial court. It took several years to push forward the imperial court step by step with a steady attack.

But man is not as good as God.

When he was doing nothing on Liangshan Mountain, he had no trouble. Now when he wants to do something, endless troubles come to him.

In order to facilitate the siege of the city, Li Gui set up an artillery army and put Ling Zhen under his command. He gathered the power of a state to build more artillery specifically for the siege of the city.

Unexpectedly, when Ling Zhen was called over to talk, Ling Zhen smiled bitterly and said:
"I'm afraid this won't work out."

"Brother doesn't know something."

"This artillery cannot be made with ordinary iron materials. It requires a lot of refined iron."

"Basically all the refined iron in Dongping Mansion has been bought to cast cannons. Even if my brother wants to cast more, there is no refined iron available."

After Ling Zhen's explanation, Li Gui realized that although a cannon made of ordinary pig iron could be used, it could not meet Ling Zhen's standard of shooting fourteen to five miles with a cannon and accurately hitting the enemy.

If Li Gui wants to make cannons in batches, he must have his own iron ore available.

But within the Song Dynasty, there were six main places where iron ore was produced:

Xuzhou, Laiwu in Yanzhou, Guzhen in Cizhou, Qicun in Xingzhou, Qinxian and Guozhou in Shanxi.

The iron ore output of these six places accounted for [-]% of the entire Song Dynasty.

After hearing this, Li Gui slapped his thigh and shouted:

"It's hard to tell if it's far away, but Yanzhou is right next door. Someone can just go and take it!"

Ling Zhen smiled bitterly again:

"Brother kept things simple."

"This cannon-making requires not only iron materials, but also the quality of the coal. The formula of gunpowder also requires a large amount of saltpeter, sulfur and other substances, which are not produced locally."

Li Gui took a deep breath and felt more and more troubled.

"Straight thief!"

"How cumbersome it is!"

Li Gui racked his brains, but he couldn't figure out the blast furnace for iron making, the method of making coal, etc. He only remembered that the saltpeter seemed to be able to clean the toilet. As for the sulfur, he didn't know where to get it.

Sure enough, if you don’t study mathematics, physics and chemistry, traveling through time will be in vain.

"Brother Ling, do you know how many of those things there are?"

"Someone asked someone to buy some to use first."

Ling Zhen said:

"That saltpeter is sold by the government. The nobles in the capital often use it to make ice in summer, and the Taoist priests often use it to make elixirs."

"Now that we have rebelled, the saltpeter merchant will definitely not come over. There is no place to buy it. We can only find some craftsmen who can make saltpeter to make it ourselves."

"As for the sulfur, there wasn't much of it in the Song Dynasty. Most of it was bought from Japan."

"Huh? Japan?" When he heard about Japan, Li Gui suddenly remembered that there was not only sulfur there, but also silver mountains!

Thinking of this, Li Gui's heart became eager, and he hurriedly called Meng Kang again and asked how long it would take to build the ship.

Meng Kang smiled bitterly and said:
"Why is my brother so impatient?" "The wind and waves on the sea are very strong. If the boat capsizes, the entire army will be wiped out. No matter how good the water is, there will be no escape."

"That's why the construction materials of this sea-going ship need to be selected from the best. It will take a long time and there is no rush."

"And there are not enough boat builders. The boat builders in the city can only build river boats at most and have little experience with sea boats. I need to teach them step by step, which also takes a lot of time."

When Li Gui heard this, he became anxious.

"The development of this kind of land is really too slow!"

"Or we can ask the imperial court to help build it, and when it is completed, I can grab a ready-made one. Wouldn't it be convenient?"

"The same goes for the artillery. Let the imperial court cast it. A certain family only needs to wait for him to finish it and go and have a go."

"Not only do we need to grab artillery, but we also need to grab craftsmen and technology. In short, we can grab anything useful!"

"A certain company doesn't know anything about construction, and it doesn't do anything to cultivate talents. It just practices appropriationism!"

Ling Zhen and Meng Kang were stunned, speechless and speechless.

Li Guiwu was thinking there, how to make the court obedient and build what he needed for his family.

Meng Kang no longer had any hope for Brother Li Gui's whimsical ideas. He was only thinking about where the two Xu Nings who went out to look for the shipbuilders had gone and when the shipbuilders would bring them back.

Xu Ning and others have actually returned. Not only did they bring back the miracle doctor An Daoquan, but they also brought back a group of shipbuilders.

But just as everyone was halfway there, they heard the news of Li Gui's rebellion.

The shipwrights didn't know that Li Gui was their employer, but seeing the war ahead, everyone was worried about the danger.

They were here to make money, not to sell their lives, so they stayed and refused to leave. They wanted to wait and see which way the wind was blowing before deciding whether to stay or go.

Xu Ning had no choice. He and Song Wan only had a dozen minions around, so he couldn't take out a knife and force them to leave. He had to find a place to stay in Shanzhou first and have people quietly return to Liangshan to send them off. After hearing the news, I asked my brother Li Gui to make the decision.

But who knew that this situation would change so quickly.

They only stayed in Shanzhou for a few days, and Shanzhou no longer had the surname Zhao.

After a night of shouting for death, the city head changed into the king's flag and became Liangshan's territory.

The shipwrights were scared and wanted to leave, but at this time, how could Song Wan be willing to let these cooked ducks fly away?
He went directly to the state government office, revealed his identity, and transferred [-] sergeants from the new magistrate Pei Xuan to "escort" the group of shipwrights back to Liangshan.

Li Gui was overjoyed and asked An Daoquan to look at Wang Jin and Qin Ming's injuries. As expected, they could be cured. He then asked An Daoquan to stay in Liangshan and provide them with supplies as needed.

Looking at the shipwrights again, I saw that the leading craftsman was named Ye Chun. He was originally from Sizhou and was good at shipbuilding. Xu Ning found him and spent a lot of money to invite him over.

Now that this group of people also knew who their employer was, they just complained secretly in their hearts. They were obviously just honest shipbuilders, but they turned into rebels unknowingly. Who can they ask to explain this?
But they also know that people have to bow their heads when they are under the roof, so they dare not complain, let alone mention leaving, and do things honestly and obediently.

After Li Gui comforted them, he handed over all the shipwrights to the leadership of Meng Kanglai, who began to build large ships and sea-going ships.

He will build when he needs to build, and grab when he needs to rob, and he must grasp it with both hands, and he must be strong with both hands.

As long as there are sea ships, let the naval forces go to sea to visit Japan.

As for Yanzhou, since there is not enough sulfur and saltpeter, the iron ore matter is not urgent at the moment, so there is no rush to fight. We will first clean up the gentry and powerful people in the three states.

But how can things in this world be as expected? Brother Zhu Fu from Yishui County sent a message from Fei Ge. They also have problems there, and Yanzhou can't survive without fighting.

(End of this chapter)