Early in the morning on June 20th, Chen Gui ran to Wende Hall.

Zhao Ning was eating noodles. When he saw Chen Gui coming, he didn't ask whether he had eaten or not, so he ordered: "Go and prepare some noodles with Mr. Chen."

"Thank you, official." Chen Gui said, holding a document in his hand, "Guan, this is the "Detailed Description of the Manufacturing of the Tiger Crouching Cannon of the Navy of the Song Dynasty."

Zhao Ning put down his chopsticks and looked at it with interest.

He looked very carefully.

The rules are also written very carefully, with extremely detailed notes on the operation method, range and potential risks of the Crouching Tiger Cannon.

Not long after, the noodles arrived.

The monarch and his ministers were eating noodles in Wende Hall.

"All fifty bronze cannons have come out?"

"It's all done." Chen Gui said cautiously, "However, there is still a risk of explosion."

Bore explosion is a probabilistic risk. Science cannot absolutely avoid risks, but it can reduce the probability of risks.

"Let the navy use it first. Prepare enough artillery shells. According to your idea, secretly build a firearms supervisor in Hangzhou to manufacture this kind of artillery so that the navy can be supplied at any time. However, it must be kept secret."

"Yes, officials, don't worry, I will make arrangements."

Zhao Ning suddenly remembered something and asked: "Regarding the manufacturing of bows, arrows and crossbows, what is the annual output now?"

"Reporting to your Majesty, a total of 80 million arrows were produced last year, nearly 30 million more than during the Xuanhe period, which is enough to meet the current needs of arrows across the country."

"Where's Rocket?"

"The rockets are limited by raw materials. There are only one million rockets a year."

"That's enough for the time being." Zhao Ning nodded and asked, "How about the fire blunderbuss?"

"We are currently manufacturing the first batch. Two thousand have been produced, and we are still testing the proportion of explosive chambers."

Huo Gun was not in a hurry.

Because the power of the first-generation firecrackers was actually very limited, not as powerful as the crossbows.

The reason why we need to invest in mass production is actually to promote the scientific research of gunpowder.

Many technological breakthroughs start from the military.

"Then first send the bronze cannon to the Shipping Department of Hangzhou and hand it over to Qian Yuqing."

"Your Majesty, don't worry, I will make arrangements."

Shortly after Chen Gui resigned, Wang Huaiji brought some memorials over.

"There are quite a few memorials today." Zhao Ning said curiously.

"Officials, this is a memorial from Lu Fayuan, the prefect of Chengdu. It is an urgent report."

"Oh?" Zhao Ning took it, opened it, and immediately frowned.

He glanced at Wang Huaiji, who quickly avoided Zhao Guan's eyes.

Zhao Ning opened some other memorials.

In the end, he read it for a total of twenty minutes, and fifteen minutes of the memorial's content was actually similar to Lu Fayuan's.

They all expressed their insights on the unfavorable situation in the southwest war in their memorials.

That posture was just short of calling Fan Zongyin a complete stupid pig in his memorial!

It seems that as soon as they pass by, they can push across the Wumeng Mountains, step on the Dali Kingdom, and overturn the mountains and rivers in the southwest with just one breath.

If Zhao Ning hadn't told Fan Zongyin to stand still, he might have been deceived by these memorials.

The minister of household affairs of the imperial court went south, summoned an army of hundreds of thousands, and mobilized countless resources to attack Dali.

In the face of opposition from countless people in the court, the vanguard was defeated, and the main army was blocked on Wumeng Mountain and could not move forward.

What will happen when such a report is sent to the capital?

This was to tell Zhao Guanjia that the Southwest War had a bad start at the beginning, and there would be more and more problems later.

Zhao Ning read one memorial after another.

He looked indifferent and could not tell his attitude towards these memorials.

After reading it, he put the memorial aside without saying anything.

"You go down first."

"Yes." Wang Huaiji walked out.

After Wang Huaiji went out, he went to a hidden place and said to a young chamberlain: "The officials have not expressed their position on the situation in the southwest. Go and inform them."

"yes."

At noon, the hall kitchen (where the prime minister and senior officials eat).

Cheng Zhen, the right-hand man of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, sat next to Cai Mao, the left-hand prime minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. He lowered his voice and said: "Ms. Cai, the official family has not made any statement."

"Why are you anxious? Just because you don't express your opinion doesn't mean you don't have any ideas. This war in the southwest is more expensive than fighting in Hebei. The transportation of food and materials is a huge consumption. I have calculated that at least 50,000 yuan will be spent a day. Now the court is strongly supporting

How can the northern route, including Han Shizhong, have so much money to attack the southwest!"

"What Mr. Cai means is that the officials will soon lose their composure?"

"Just wait." After saying that, Cai Mao started eating again.

What Cai Mao said is actually correct.

If Fan Zongyin really wanted to lead an army of more than 100,000 or 200,000 people to attack Dali, the military expenditure would definitely be higher than any local battle fought in recent years.

Because there are so many mountain roads in the southwest, if you recruit people in Shu, people may not be willing to go if you give them less money, and the mountain roads consume more food than the plains.

For example, a 200,000-strong army may consume 400,000 dan per month on the plains, and 500,000 dan on mountain roads.

Because walking on mountain roads, the people not only eat more, but also lose more food on the road.

The price of food in the southwest is higher than that in the southeast and Gyeongsang Province, about 800 yuan per stone.

According to Cai Mao's calculation of military expenditure, it would cost 1.5 million guan a month.

This kind of expenditure is higher than what Yue Fei currently spends in Hebei, and much higher than what Han Shizhong spends in Liaodong.

Everyone has an account in their mind. After spending so much money to go to Dali, why not throw the money into Hebei, Liaodong or Shaanxi?

Didn’t Dali just fail to follow the etiquette of emperors and ministers of the Celestial Dynasty?

The Song Dynasty still does business with Dali every year. The trade is a surplus, and the Song Dynasty makes money.

Now early in the morning, Song Dynasty not only stopped making money, but also spent 1.5 million yuan a month on it.

Normal people know that this kind of behavior is stupid.

However, Cai Mao's calculation was wrong, because Fan Zongyin only claimed to have an army of 200,000, but at most only 50,000 or 60,000 were able to support him to death, and a considerable part of the local army was composed of civilians.

Moreover, we stopped at Wumeng Mountain, where we pretended to be a good person.

The main force that really attacked Dali was Wu Lin.

Once an elite force penetrates deep into the enemy's country, and the enemy's main resources are concentrated in the Wumeng Mountain area, the rear is empty.

This battle cannot be described as spending money.

This principle is similar to the plank road built openly and secretly built in Chencang.

What's interesting is that there are a lot of people in the court who are against the war, and they have already set countless pairs of eyes on Fan Zongyin.

There are also a large group of people who want to take this opportunity to start a political struggle in the court, make the matter bigger, and throw water on Zhao Ding, who supports Dali.
Chapter completed!