Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 4 Who is Mr. (this chapter is free)

Contrary to what Zhao Xingde originally knew, in this era there was a Xia Kingdom that was much stronger than Dangxiang Xixia, occupying a vast area to the west of Hangu Pass. Many Persian craftsmen and architects.They introduced the architectural style built with huge stones to the Central Plains, which is very magnificent.In the past two dynasties, a large number of marble columns and relief decorations have been used outside the palace of the Song Dynasty, which has driven the entire Bianliang city to become a city where marble buildings are widely used.Looking from a distance, the white marble capital is que, and the roof is covered with gold powder, just like a fairyland.The officials of the Song Dynasty and the high-ranking officials of the entire imperial court spared no effort to excavate, polish, carve, and transport marble from all over the country to Bianliang, which is what Chen Dong called "Hua Shi Gang".

"Brother Shaoyang is right," Deng Su echoed, "Flowers, stones and firecrackers are both items from the Xia Kingdom. It is certainly annoying that flowers and stones exhaust our people's power and national use, but firecrackers deplete all armies' combat power, but it is even more annoying. It is hateful. This firecracker can neither reach far, nor is it accurate. It is even more useless when it is raining and wet. The imperial army used bows and crossbows to attack the enemy. At least three arrows can be fired. After switching to firecrackers, they can only fire one shot. It's just loud. The only advantage of switching to firecrackers is that it saves effort. But that's it, it's good to vote for those who have abandoned martial arts. Since the first emperor, many Forbidden Army archers who have switched to firecrackers, I can no longer draw the bow and 'shoot' the arrow."

"Exactly!" Chen Dong clapped the table and applauded, "The extravagance of flowers and stones makes our country have no wealth to use, and the popularity of firecrackers makes our country have no soldiers to use." At this moment, all the Tai students who had gathered in the room applauded.At this time, the concept of opposing the change of firearms was popular in Taixue, but Zhao Xingde, who knew the power of firearms in later generations, did not take it seriously. He was unwilling to argue with his classmates, but there was a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, which was unfortunate. Seen by Chen Dong, his expression turned serious, and he said, "Yuan Zhi seems to have a different insight, so I hope you can give me some advice?"

Hearing Chen Dong's sudden attack on him, Zhao Xingde quickly suppressed his smile, and said seriously: "Although this firecracker is unusable, keeping the word 'effort-saving' mentioned by the first brother is the benefit of it."

All the classmates looked at each other, and Deng Su was even more annoyed, thinking: "Yuan Zhi wants to humiliate me?" Chen Dong immediately reprimanded: "To practice morality, you must be honest and sincere when discussing state affairs, but you can't make such jokes. "Chen Dong and Deng Su are both college students who have been studying from the lower dormitory to the upper dormitory. They are nearly thirty years old, and their generosity is still no less than the juniors in their 20s. At this moment, all the Tai students are coming out to teach them on the shelf of the seniors. Zhao Xingde, he was totally different from when he pulled down to ask him to borrow the manuscript just now, Zhao Xingde couldn't help but sigh inwardly, this guy is really a born politician.

Compared with the more than [-] redundant officials who lived in Bianliang, the young imperial scholar's attention to the national fortune of the Song Dynasty was extremely intense and eager. Seeing that many classmates were looking at him, Zhao Xingde felt scalp numb and had to Coughing, he asked back: "Our country has always valued culture over martial arts, and adhered to the policy of guarding the internal and external, and it is hard to return. Compared with the tyrannical Liao Dynasty and the martial arts Xia Dynasty, can the Great Song Dynasty be stronger?"

Although the Song State claimed to have 80 elite forbidden troops, it had no advantage against the Liao people or the Xia people.Seeing all the students hang their heads in silence, Zhao Xingde continued: "Although the bow and crossbow are good, those with strong physical strength must not be able to open the bow. Although the firecracker has all kinds of disadvantages, a person with ordinary physical strength can do it with a little practice. Launch 'shot'. Compared with our country, both Khitan and Xia have strong military strength, but our Great Song's advantage is that it has a large number of registered permanent residences, and its people's strength is almost twice that of Liao and Xia combined. Compared with these two countries For example, the power of the people of the Great Song Dynasty is inexhaustible, as long as the firecrackers are continuously modified to make them more powerful than bows and crossbows, even the Youyan iron cavalry of the Liao Kingdom and the elite forbidden army of the Xia Kingdom will not be able to invade our country lightly."

All the students originally only saw that the use of firecrackers would reduce the strength of the imperial army, but Zhao Xingde changed the angle and saw that the great use of firecrackers lowered the requirements for users, thus enabling the Song Dynasty to transform the rich people's power for military resources.Some of the Tai students had expressions of disbelief on their faces, while others were full of praise.

Deng Su immediately said: "Improve the firecracker to make it more powerful than the bow and crossbow. It's easy for you to say, but it's really difficult. The firecracker was passed down from the Xia Kingdom. Up to now, in addition to the cannon, the Xia Dynasty still only uses the gods." For arm crossbows and continuous crossbows, only regiment training and city guards use firecrackers, if the power of firecrackers can easily surpass bows and crossbows, how can it be so?"

Before Zhao Xingde could answer, he heard a loud voice say: "What Yuan Zhi said is not without reason." It was Zhang Bing who spoke. Seeing everyone looking over, he continued: "Mr. Zhoushan once said, Races compete with each other, those whose fighting style is similar to their daily work and rest will win, and those whose fighting style is contrary to their daily work and rest will lose. Our own shortcomings attack the enemy's strengths. The method of making and operating the firecrackers is quite cumbersome, and the Khitan people may not have the ability to do it, but it is suitable for the meticulous temperament cultivated by our country and people through years of farming."

The gentleman referred to by Zhang Bing, whose surname is Huang, whose name is Jian, whose name is Baishi, and whose name is Mr. Zhoushan, was the number one scholar in the reign of Shengzong Yuanfu and the current official residence in Taichang Shaoqing. An important minister, in the court and in the field, he has written books for decades, has countless disciples, and has a grand reputation.

At this time, Zhang Bing quoted the old gentleman's words, but no one refuted them for a while.

Zhao Xingde also nodded, and said again: "The firecracker has another advantage in my Great Song Dynasty, that is, it is deeply in line with the way of keeping the inside and the outside under the rule of Emperor Taizu. Saltpeter and sulfur are all things that the court officials sell and buy. As long as the consumption and replenishment of gunpowder by the frontier troops in each town is strictly controlled, if there is no supply of ammunition, the firecrackers of the frontier army will be like scrap iron. "All the empress students thought about it, the imperial court was desperate to use firecrackers to replace bows and crossbows, the last point mentioned by Zhao Xingde was the key.

Chen Dong also recalled it at this time, slapping the table with a smile: "Hulu is stupid and careless, and he must not be good at such delicate things as firecrackers. After replacing bows and crossbows with firecrackers, the imperial court controls the gunpowder, so we are not afraid of the backlash from the towns." , the strength of the camps in Hebei and Hedong can also be doubled, so that the recovery of Yanyun is just around the corner."

The person at the next table snorted, and said: "Scholars are talking empty talk. The fire stick is like a treasure, and the fire gun can only be fired once when facing the enemy. To use cavalry to charge the battle, you only need to cover the vanguard with two layers. Armored, use heavy cavalry of dead men to charge hard at the firecracker formation, and only after the firearms are fired, the rest of the cavalry will rise up on all sides and fight randomly with knives, spears and sticks, and they will surely smash these local chickens and dogs."

Zhao Xingde and others didn't expect someone to speak up, they turned their heads to look together, and saw that it was one of the group wearing a dog fur hat, with a square face, beards on both cheeks and chin, extremely rough, but could not see At a specific age, he was wearing a cotton robe commonly used in winter in the Central Plains. At this moment, the hem was pulled up and tied around his waist for the convenience of traveling, but he was wearing a pair of barbarian cowhide boots, and his eyes were glaring at these scholars fiercely.

All the prison students are Zhao Kuo, who is talking on paper, and he can't see the origin of this group of people. Hearing that the man said that he would use a heavy armored cavalry to forcefully charge into the fire formation, I don't know if it is true or not. Some were dumbfounded and couldn't answer, and some who had questioned the skill of firecrackers in the first place believed that iron cavalry and bows and crossbows were the way to win, and there was an expression on their faces that I knew it would be like this.

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, but Zhao Xingde said with a smile: "The cost of one ride is enough for five infantry, if there are five thousand infantry, only two thousand heavy armored sword shield spearmen stand in front to block the enemy, and the other three thousand fire The musketeers are divided into three teams, one team fires the guns, the other waits for the enemy, the third loads the 'medicine', and the third circles bombard, even if a thousand cavalry invades, it is enough to deal with it." All the Tai students said yes.