On the wide grassland, a large group of horses were moving quickly, each wearing horse armor, running unstoppable. Suddenly, thunder sounded, shaking people's hearts. Sparks burst out from the horses, and a large amount of flames and smoke covered the horses.

There were no more horses galloping, and when the smoke dissipated, there were only broken limbs and broken arms on the ground.

Hundreds of horses were finished just like that, and the armor on their bodies was broken and could not resist the flames and smoke at all.

Shibi Khan opened his eyes, sat up sweatyly, looked around, and found himself in a big tent.

After thinking about it carefully, I turned out to have a dream.

No, it’s not a dream, it’s just what you see and hear during the day that comes back to your mind.

The entourage serving on the side saw Khan awake and quickly stepped forward to greet him. Shibi Khan drank warm water and lay down again, but could not sleep.

In the past few days, the Emperor of Zhou invited him to participate in the hunting. The hunting was actually a demonstration. The other party wanted to show him the majesty of the Zhou army. Shi Bi Khan was unhappy with this, but he could only force his smile.

Although he was dissatisfied, he had to admit that the Zhou army was indeed strong and powerful. But Shi Longsui, the general of Zhou who was respected by the Turks, was over 60 years old and had gray hair, but he still had a strong bow and a horse spear.

Shibi Khan was very familiar with Shi Wansui. When Zhou State sent troops to help his father return to the grassland to stabilize the situation, the commander of the Zhou army was Shi Wansui. This person was very capable. Although he was very old, he was extremely brave and had a strong ability to lead troops to fight.

With such a general who is good at fighting, the Zhou army is certainly not easy to deal with. Then, the Zhou army showed a weapon to Shibi Khan and the nobles, and its power shocked everyone.

The weapon is called the "cannon", with a range of more than one mile. The objects emitted can explode and burst into flames and smoke.

Several cannons fired together, which could knock a group of horses covered in horses to the point of being dead. In other words, the charging cavalry group was as powerless as a sheep in front of such weapons.

Such cannons were equipped with large fortresses of Zhou State. With such weapons, the defenders could rely on a few troops to resist the siege of the enemy several times.

This means that the fortress group built by Zhou State on the grasslands has become stinky and hard stones, and the Khanate cannot pull them out in a short period of time, and more and more fortresses will embezzle a large number of grassland pastoral areas.

Just as the Zhou State was already doing, with fortresses as the core, each pastoral area was designated. The herders of Zhou State could herd herdsmen as much as possible, but if the Khanate tribes wanted to herd sheep in these places, they had to pay taxes.

This was a blatant invasion of the Khanate's pastoral area, but Shibi Khan was powerless because the Zhou army had powerful cannons. With the advancement step by step, the Khanate was unable to counterattack.

The only hope is to win the field battle and annihilate the cavalry of Zhou. In this way, fortresses without reinforcements will be surrendered only if they run out of food under the siege.

Only in this way can the Khanate have the opportunity to turn the adverse situation around.

But when I thought of the white-haired but energetic Shi Wansui and many ingenious Zhou army generals, Shi Bi Khan suddenly felt powerless.

The opponent has many cavalrymen, no shortage of horses, and has strong field combat capabilities. If you really want to fight...

At worst, you can retreat north to see how far you can chase!

Thinking of this, Shibi Khan felt a little relieved. The grassland was very large and divided into south, north, and west of the Great Ridge. Even if the Zhou army was rampant in the grasslands in south, he would have to take his troops to north of the Ridge. On the way to pursue the opponent, he would easily make the mistake of going deep into the army alone.

If you really want to fight, you must not fight head-on. You can find a way to move, then mobilize the opponent's cavalry to pursue it, and then wait for an opportunity to defeat it, so that you can have room for peace talks next.

If you really can't defeat it, you can only retreat north.

Or, let it last a few years to see if the Zhou Dynasty was in a civil strife.

The more Shibi Khan thought about it, the more he became more and more energetic, and even thought of a possibility: if he could capture the cannons of the Zhou army and the soldiers who could operate the cannons, would he be able to reversely pull out the fortress of Zhou?

It is not necessary to capture it, but you can also buy the garrison generals of a certain fortress in Zhou State to benefit and make the other party defect. This is not impossible...

Yes, when the Zhou Kingdom built so many fortresses on the grassland, there were always several guards of the fortresses. They were dissatisfied for various reasons. Then, as long as the Khanate promised high officials, generous salaries, beauty, gold and silver, they would definitely win them over!

......

In the tent, Yuwen Wen was talking with Shi Wansui and several other generals on the candle. Based on what they saw and heard during this period, he discussed what policies to implement on the grasslands in order to weaken the Turks and resolve the threat.

Today's artillery demonstration was effective, which made Turkish Shibi Khan and a group of nobles look bloodless after seeing it. Yuwen Wen and the generals saw it and were very satisfied with the deterrent effect of the cannon.

However, if the fortress group on the grassland is equipped with cannons, will the cannons fall into the hands of the Turks because of the rebellion of the guards of a certain fortress?

This is a very likely thing. After all, as long as the Turkic side is willing to use high officials, high salaries, beautiful women, and treasures to lure them, there may be any guardian who is obsessed with ghosts for a while, and they will become traitors and surrender to the enemy with cannons.

This is Shi Wansui's concern, and other generals also have similar concerns, so Yuwen Wen needs to give the generals some popular science: how cannons are made...how cannons are made.

According to normal historical development, the manufacturing of artillery is first casting, that is, first making a mud model, then pouring the molten metal into the model, cooling it and forming.

The model was made of clay at first, but later it was made of iron. In addition to the model method, there were also the loss of wax method, the welding method, etc.

In the era of the Industrial Revolution, steam engines appeared and boring machines appeared. Therefore, the production of artillery turned into boring the cannon directly into a solid metal rod with a boring knife.

This is the history that Yuwen Wen knew. Now, the process of Zhou Guo’s military weapons to produce cannons is to use a boring machine to bore the quality, and the quality is absolutely guaranteed and it is difficult to explode the chamber.

Of course he could not say it out, and he would not reveal too much about the production of artillery to the generals, but he would tell everyone very directly: the Turks would never steal the artillery process of the imperial court making artillery.

So even if you get a few cannons and imitate them, you can't imitate them at all.

The Turks were originally Rouran's slaves, so they had good iron smelting ability. If they really got the cannon, they would probably try to cast the cannons using the model method. That doesn't matter, because if the other party really wanted to do this, the cannons made would inevitably be easy to explode and would be difficult to practical.

First of all, the cannon made by the Model Method cannot ensure that the barrel is smooth and has no sand holes or bubbles, so its service life is very short and it is easy to explode.

Secondly, the production of iron cannons is very difficult and the requirements for iron quality are also very high. Therefore, most of the cannon materials in Zhou State are mainly bronze, that is, bronze cannons. The copper production in the Turks may not be much higher.

If the other party is whimsical and wants to make cast iron cannons, that's great, and he will definitely go on the evil path: in order to strengthen the cannon body and thicken the cannon barrel, the cannon is overweight and cannot be put into field battles at all, and can only be used to defend the city.

The Turks were a nomadic country and basically had no large cities. What is the use of the city defense cannons that were cast through hard work?

The Zhou State Fortress is equipped with heavy cannons. Even if the opponent gets a few balls, if he moves with the army, it will seriously slow down the marching speed and there is no gunpowder supply, so it will be useless when he holds it in his hand.

It is a dream to turn the tables by getting a few cannons.

Therefore, Yuwen Wen believed that we should not give up because of the choke. Although there is indeed a certain risk in advancing the fortress, a certain fortress defender rebelled and surrendered to the enemy with cannons, it was useless for the Turks to get cannons.

The key to the problem is that the cost of promoting the fortress is extremely high. The court must first invest a lot of manpower and material resources to build the fortress group. This is just the beginning. The subsequent annual maintenance costs must be added, which are huge expenses.

If soldiers are transferred to guard various fortresses, they must be rotated regularly, otherwise the garrison soldiers will stay away from their hometown all year round and their dissatisfaction will increase day by day, and sooner or later something will happen.

Relying solely on shepherds in the fortress area and taxing the Turkic tribes, these incomes are simply a drop in the bucket compared to the huge investment in the early and subsequent periods, and they are completely ineffective in making money. In the long run, the court was unable to bear it.

Therefore, Yuwen Wen felt that when the first stage of the fortress group is completed, the second stage of action can begin, that is, to allow "vibrant social organizations" to participate in the promising project of grassland development.
Chapter completed!