Chapter 52: Artillery

In Youzhou, Yelu Hongji was sitting upright and was dealing with military affairs. Since he decided to use troops against the Song Dynasty, he hurried to Youzhou and devoted himself to the southern expedition. In a big battle, there are many things to prepare, not to mention anything else, just the mobilization of the army, the raising of food and grass, and the preparation of silver are a big business.

While busy, Han Ju came in and handed the letter of the country to Yelu Hongji, saying, "Your Majesty, this is the letter of the country in the Southern Dynasty."

"Oh!" Yelu Hongji put down the military affairs in his hand, opened the letter of state and looked at it, raised his eyebrows, suddenly raised his head to the sky, and laughed: "Haha! Haha!"

The laughter was extremely comfortable, as if there was a great thing. Han Ju saw it and was a little surprised: "Your Majesty, has Emperor Song agreed to our request?"

"You can see for yourself." Yelu Hongji did not speak and handed the Chinese letter in his hand to Han Ju.

Han Ju took it in his hand and opened it to see only one sentence on it, "Yelu Hongji: If you have plundered the Song Dynasty, you will save the property you have to plunder the Song Dynasty, and I will come to take it!"

"This, Emperor Song is too arrogant." Han Ju's face changed and he was very angry.

"What's so angry?" Yelu Hongji waved his hand calmly and smiled happily: "I think this Zhao Xu is a little interesting, not as cowardly as his ancestors. Thinking about the time of the Chanyuan Alliance, the army of the Great Liao was still on the border, and Emperor Song thought to move the capital, so he wanted to escape. If it weren't for Kou Zhun, there would be no such alliance of the Chanyuan. The army of the Great Liao would have entered the Central Plains and entered Bianjing. Kou Zhun was a character, but he was born at the wrong time and met a cowardly Emperor Song."

Emperor Zhenzong of Song established the Chanyuan alliance, which bought enough time for the Song Dynasty to carry out reforms. However, when the Liao army invaded the territory, Emperor Zhenzong of Song was frightened and wanted to escape. Kou Zhun tried hard to invite the emperor, which made Emperor Zhenzong of Song unable to do anything, so he had to go to the army in person.

At that time, the morale of the Song army was low and it was likely that it could not defeat the Liao army. It was precisely because Emperor Zhenzong of Song arrived at the border that the soldiers of the Song army were very generous when they saw the imperial guards. The sound of shouting "Long Live" in the mountains resounded throughout the world, and they fought a bloody battle with the Liao army, which stabilized the border.

If Kou Zhun hadn't invited Jun, the Liao army would have probably defeated the Song army, marched forward to the Central Plains, and entered Bianjing.

"If my opponent is so cowardly, I really think it's too boring." Yelu Hongji continued, "This Zhao Xu, although he is a woman, did not decisively kill Sima Guang, Han Qi, and Lu Gong, but he is also a little brave. Such an opponent is interesting. Unfortunately, he is too arrogant and attempts to destroy our Great Liao. Zhao Kuangyi wants to retake the Sixteen State of Yanyun and hit the periphery of Youzhou, so what can he do? He is not going to escape in a ragged donkey cart? If Zhao Xu dares to come, I will definitely tell him to be back and forth!"

Yelu Hongji is full of confidence and has a high tone.

Emperor Taizong of Song attacked Yanyun in the north. At the beginning, the Song army fought well and made progress smoothly. However, later, when the Liao army began to counterattack under the deployment of Empress Dowager Xiao, the Song army could not stand it and collapsed across the board. Although it had reached the periphery of Youzhou, it was still defeated.

This was a major failure in the history of the Song Dynasty. The Liao people would mention it from time to time to ridicule the Song Dynasty.

"Report to the emperor, good news, good news!" At this moment, Xiao Lu quickly stepped in, grinned, smiled, and walked like flying.

"What a good news?" Yelu Hongji was a little surprised, looked at Xiao Lu, who was twenty years younger, and started asking.

"Your Majesty, I have cracked a branch of Qiyun Club and copied out the thunder bullet." Xiao Lu reported with a smile.

"Pi Lie Bomb? Where is it? Come and show it to me." Yelu Hongji stood up suddenly, his eyes burst into tears, and he was very excited.

Speaking of the thunderbolt, Yelu Hongji was very depressed. If it weren't for the thunderbolt, the Liao Kingdom wouldn't have been defeated by the thunderbolt. He wouldn't have been in Youzhou at this time, but led his troops to sweep the Central Plains. He tried his best to do this thunderbolt, but he couldn't find it. Unexpectedly, he found the thunderbolt today, and he was extremely excited.

"Bring in." Xiao Lu waved his hand excitedly, and a squid army bounced in with a few thunderbolts.

Yelu Hongji took it in his hand, looked it carefully, and said with a smile: "Although the Great Liao Dynasty was defeated by Xiongzhou because of this thing, I don't regret it. With the Thunderbolt Bullet, my weapon can be achieved."

"Your Majesty, is this thing really that powerful?" Xiao Lu looked at the Pili bullet left and right, but couldn't see much, and was a little unbelievable.

"If this thing is used well, it will be very powerful." Speaking of this, Yelu Hongji raised his eyebrows and said, "Let's go! Take you to a place. I should show you my weapon."

He personally took the thunder bullet and took Xiao Lu and Han Ju out of the house. Yelu Hongji did not bring his guards, but only the ruler and his ministers to the heavily guarded courtyard.

As soon as he arrived here, Xiao Lu asked, "Your Majesty, what's the matter here? Although I am the Marshal of the Capital and I am in charge of Youzhou, I can't get in. I have been here a few times, but the soldiers here refused to let them in."

"No one can come in without my will." Yelu Hongji did not answer his question and stepped in.

As soon as I entered the courtyard, I saw a huge iron lump standing in the courtyard, and a group of craftsmen were circling around the iron lump, arguing endlessly.

The iron lump is about three feet long and about three feet thick. It is shining and looks very majestic. It is placed on the ground like an ancient ferocious beast.

"What is this?" Xiao Lu and Han Ju were very surprised. They had never seen such a large thing before. They were very curious and kept looking at it.

"See the Emperor!" These craftsmen hurriedly saluted Yelu Hongji.

"Forget it." Yelu Hongji waved his hand: "This thing is called the thunder cannon. It was originally a weapon of the Southern Dynasty, but it has not been successful yet, so I stole it out."

In fact, this is artillery. Artillery originated in the Song Dynasty. Although its use method is limited, very primitive, and does not meet the needs of the battlefield, it is a huge progress. It is an important step towards the age of cold weapons and a hot weapons.

This is the weapon that Wang Shao told Wu Ji. This is the highest secret of the Song Dynasty, and not many people know it. Unfortunately, although the Song Dynasty made good progress, it did not keep the secret and stole it for Yelu Hongji. Yelu Hongji was a smart man. After he stole this secret, he immediately gathered the top craftsmen in the Liao Kingdom and asked them to develop it. He promised that if the research was successful, he would be granted the title of marquis and kings to these craftsmen.

Artillery is known as the god of war. If it is really developed successfully, it would be appropriate to be named king and marquis. This incident reflects Yelu Hongji's shrewd side and keenly grasps the power of artillery.

"This thing has made good progress and will be used on the battlefield in a few years. With this thing, it is not a problem to capture cities and land." Yelu Hongji patted the cannon with his right hand: "For the past few years, although the Great Liao has been suppressing the Southern Dynasty, he has always been unable to take advantage of the strong cities of the Southern Dynasty. If this thing is available, these cities are just a piece of paper. Therefore, after the defeat of Xiongzhou, I decided not to use troops for the time being, just to wait for this thing. Now, Wu Ji has traveled two thousand miles across the Great Liao Dynasty and can no longer give the Southern Dynasty time, so he has to use troops in advance. Even so, it will not hinder the development of the Great Liao."

Although the city of the Song Dynasty was very strong, if a large number of artillery appeared on the battlefield, the city of the Song Dynasty was really just a piece of paper.

"Haha!" A gray-haired craftsman smiled and said, "Your Majesty, if I had not dared to have such a thought before. In the past, I wanted to put poison powder in it, smoke, and set poison on the battlefield, and smoke. Since the Battle of Xiongzhou, the Southern Dynasty used thunderbolt bombs to injure the enemy through explosions, giving me great inspiration. This thunderbolt cannon can also be done."

The artillery of the Song Dynasty did not use explosions to injure the enemy, nor did it use solid bullets to injure the enemy like in the Ming Dynasty, but instead set off cigarettes to poison. There are many formulas of their shells, which vary according to different needs.

On the battlefield, the effect of discharging poison and discharging smoke is not obvious. First, the battlefield is too big and it is difficult to spread the battlefield. Second, when the wind blows, the smoke or poison will disappear. It is better to use an explosion to hurt the enemy.

However, due to the times, although the Song Dynasty had used gunpowder on firecrackers, it had not used explosions on cannons yet, which was going to be done in later generations.

The Song Dynasty studied artillery in order to discharge cigarettes and poison. The technology stolen by the Liao Kingdom was also the same. Until the Xiongzhou War, the thunder bombs were put into the battlefield and used explosions to hurt the enemy. This gave the craftsmen a great inspiration. The idea of ​​using explosions to hurt the enemy was a huge progress.

"Emperor, I have this idea, but I have not made much progress. If I can get a thunderbolt, I will study it carefully and will speed up the progress." Another craftsman said regretfully.

They have heard of the power of the Thunderbolt, but have never seen it. If they could see the real objects of the Thunderbolt, they would definitely inspire them even more.

"Haha!" Yelu Hongji laughed happily and said, "What's the problem? I'm sending you thunderbolts. Look, this is thunderbolts."

"Is this the Thunderbolt Bomb?"

"That's how it is?"

The craftsmen then discovered that the thunder bullet in Yelu Hongji's hand was very excited. They surrounded him and took it in his hand, looked left and right, and were very excited.

"Let's try it first!" The craftsmen looked at it for a while and decided to try one.

No one has any objection to this proposal. The craftsman had heard of the name of the thunderbolt, and he spent some time knowing how to use it. He lit one in the distance, and heard a loud bang, a ball of fire flashed, sand flew away, and a pit appeared on the ground.

"It's so amazing!" The crowd looked around the crater for a while, and was so happy that they couldn't say anything.

"Your Majesty, I'm even more successful!" A gray-haired craftsman was so happy that he couldn't even close his mouth.

"Yeah!" Yelu Hongji was also satisfied and said with a smile: "You made it, and I will be the king and marquis of you, and I will never lose my words."

"Thank you, the emperor." Several craftsmen said happily, "Your Majesty, I will think about it now, and I would like to forgive you."

"Go and do it!" Yelu Hongji was still very kind-hearted and was very happy that craftsmen were obsessed with fortifications. He waved his hand and asked the craftsmen to do their work.

Suddenly, Yelu Hongji thought of a question: "You guys are careful, maybe there may be mechanisms."
Chapter completed!