Chapter 1123: Carrying on the Past and Opening up the Future (Part 13)

The atmosphere in Yizhen Institute was very depressing. After the Mao Wei incident, the security in the institute was upgraded again. Now all researchers are no longer allowed to leave the institute. The Political Affairs Hall has proposed a proposal to build a new town outside Yizhen Institute and immigrate all the family members of all researchers to this town at once to prevent things like Mao Wei from happening again.

Of course, this matter is still brewing. Tang He, who was hit hard by the Mao Wei incident, fell ill after returning to Jicheng. Now Niu Ben is responsible for the security of the entire Yizhen Institute.

But the entire Han Dynasty was not affected by this incident. No matter how big the commotion was, except for the Grand Council expressing dissatisfaction with the Supervisory Council because of this incident and proposing to cut the expenses of the Supervisory Council, no other departments and offices spoke out. And the proposal of the Grand Council eventually disappeared because Princess Ning Xin took the responsibility for this incident.

The calmness of the entire Han Dynasty may be largely attributed to Gao Yuan’s speech to all officials at a court meeting. Gao Yuan said this to Ning Xin, and this time he reiterated it in the court, but he said it more passionately.

The Han army has never relied on the sharpness of weapons to win, but more on the unparalleled fighting spirit of the soldiers. Otherwise, the Han army would It is not the same today. You have to know that from the Fufeng Army to the Zhengdong Army and now the Great Han Army, Gao Yuan's troops basically appeared in front of the world as weaklings every time. It was not until this time that they defeated the Qin Army and finally established their status as the strongest country in the world.

Another piece of news revealed by Gao Yuan in the court made the Han Kingdom even more excited. Gunpowder is only the most basic part of the research conducted by the Han Kingdom in this regard. Next, the Han Kingdom will have more important weapons. Just like when ironware first appeared, the Qin people stole only a piece of iron embryo, while the Great Han Kingdom already had a sharp sword. And the iron embryo was polished into A sword, there is still a long way to go.

In the eyes of Qin and Chu, this may just be a tone of shame after the failure of the Han Dynasty, or they may have made a step forward in the research of gunpowder. After all, Mao Wei is only the leader of a core group of gunpowder research, and he is not the real inventor of gunpowder. But both the Qin and Chu people firmly believe that as long as Mao Wei can uncover the layer of paper in front of them, then in the following time, Qin and Chu will not lack skilled craftsmen, and they will definitely be able to make what the Han people can make.

But I am afraid they never expected that the more powerful weapon Gao Yuan mentioned was not gunpowder itself, It is the use of gunpowder.

Two horses dragged a carriage covered with felt cloth and slowly drove out of a warehouse. When the felt cloth was pulled away, a black iron thing was revealed in front of several councilors in the Political Affairs Hall and important officials such as Wang Wudi of the Ministry of Finance. The thing on the carriage was obviously very heavy. If the wheels of the carriage had not been replaced with tires that the Han Dynasty had just developed, it would have been crushed long ago. This can be seen from the deep ruts on the ground.

"What is this? An iron pipe?" Wang Wudi looked at Gao Yuan with doubt: "Your Majesty, just for this thing, the Jishi City Military Square has spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in the past two years."

Gao Yuan made a gesture , motioning him to be patient: "My Minister Wang, wait a moment, and see if this thing is worth the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver you have allocated."

Ye Zhong walked in front of Gao Yuan: "Your Majesty, can we start?"

Gao Yuan nodded, "Let's start, let all the councilors open their eyes."

The horses pulling the cart were quickly pulled away, and a dozen soldiers around the carriage pulled down the iron pillars from the carriage and embedded them deeply into the ground, turning the cart into a base in the blink of an eye. It was not until this time that everyone realized that the cart was also made of iron plates.

A dozen soldiers retreated, and some researchers from Yizhen Research Institute came out of the warehouse again. Wang Wudi couldn't help but take a breath of cold air when he saw what they were holding in their hands. Isn't this dynamite?

The paper bag filled with dynamite was filled into the tube. Seeing a researcher holding a pestle-like thing and constantly tamping it in the tube, several councilors took a step back involuntarily. They were all people who had seen the power of dynamite, but seeing Gao Yuan still standing there calmly, everyone couldn't help but blush.

"This thing should have been repeatedly verified when it was in Jishi City?" Gao Yuan tilted his head and asked Ye Chong beside him.

"Yes, initially because the dynamite provided by Yizhen Research Institute, although the weight of each bag was the same , but the power of the explosion is different. We lost a lot of cannons. However, the power of each pack of explosives they provided tended to be consistent later, with a small error, so we finally tested the maximum drug resistance and the longest range of this type of cannon. Speaking of which, there is also the credit of Mao Wei, who is studying this." Ye Zhong's face was a little regretful.

"How is the manufacturing of the gun barrel going now?"

"This is more difficult. The gun barrels produced at present still need to be polished by hand, but there is still no way to prevent sand holes inside. The craftsmen are still thinking about improving the process, so we can only do it slowly."

"In other words, it cannot be mass-produced now!"

"Well, we can make two to three doors every month! You can't be careless with this thing, otherwise the person who uses it will die!" Ye Chong said. "Your Majesty, you and the others should stay away from the political affairs. "

Gao Yuan looked at the dark cannon more than ten feet away from him, nodded, and turned around with everyone to retreat. This thing was made by some military elites from the Jishi City Military Workshop under his guidance for a year. It was worked out bit by bit at first, but later he threw it behind his mind and left it to Ye Zhong to take charge of. There was really no guarantee of stability. Gao Yuan didn't want to have any accidents. There was a loud bang. , the King of Han Dynasty and a group of his important ministers were all confessed here.

After retreating tens of feet, a group of soldiers from the Young Guards Corps in front of him held up high iron shields and blocked a group of people. Ye Zhong then turned around and nodded to the researchers operating the cannon. Said: "It's time to start."

After retreating to Gao Yuan, Ye Zhong said to Gao Yuan and a group of people discussing politics: "Your Majesty, everyone, the target of our attack this time is the Tucheng city one mile away. Can everyone see it clearly?"

Everyone looked up and saw an earthen watchtower standing there a mile away.

"Is the shot accurate?" Gao Yuan couldn't help but ask.

"It should be no problem. These people who operate the cannon have fired countless cannons in the past six months. They are already very skilled at this point." Ye Zhong said.

Jiang Jiaquan, Wang Wuyi and others all watched with wide eyes as the dark guy gradually lifted his body while an operator kept shaking a handle next to him. Behind the cannon, another An operator raised his thumb and kept gesticulating at the target ahead. He kept saying some numbers, and the muzzle slowly moved up, down, left, and right. Finally, it stopped completely.

"Light the fire!" the person who was gesturing with his thumb shouted loudly.

The fuse hanging on the ground was lit, and the hissing sound reached everyone's ears clearly. Seeing several operators next to the cannon squatting on the ground almost at the same time, covering their ears, Gao Yuan also smiled and mentioned He blocked his ears with both hands. Ye Zhong on one side had experienced this kind of thing many times and had long been accustomed to it. When he stretched out his hands, there were already two more balls of cotton in his hands. He glanced at Gao Yuan and put the cotton in his hands. The group was handed over again.

Gao Yuan took it with a smile, "You should be more prepared."

"Forgot!" Ye Chong said with a smile, glanced at Wang Wudi, and then quickly looked away.

Seeing Ye Chong's expression, Gao Yuan secretly laughed in his heart. It's not that he forgot. It's because he wanted to punish Wang Wudi. Who made Wang Wudi act like an iron rooster every time when it came to appropriating money? Other political advisors only It's just a disaster.

Gao Yuan gently touched Jiang Jiaquan next to him and gave a slight gesture. When Jiang Jiaquan saw Gao Yuan and Ye Zhong, he was stunned at first, but he immediately reacted and blocked his ears tightly with his hands. The others But he was not so vigilant, especially Wang Wuyi. He put his hands on the shield of the Young Guards in front and stared at the smoking cannon. He wanted to see how much he had spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Are the things worth the price?

There was a loud rumble. Wang Wu was so shaken by the loud noise that he sat down on the ground. There was a buzzing in his ears. Apart from Gao Yuan, Jiang Jiaquan, and Ye Zhong, several other political advisors were arrested at almost the same time. They were so shocked that they took a few steps back, their faces pale.

The diffuse smoke dissipated, and a mile away, the towering earth tower no longer existed. Several operating gunners jumped up from the ground, raised their arms and cheered. Although they had practiced many times before, this time after all I was performing in front of the king and all the ministers, so I didn't know how nervous I was. It would be no fun if I messed up. Fortunately, I hit the target with one shot.

Gao Yuan glanced at the young guards in front of him. It was the first time for these soldiers to see such a scene. However, what made him feel gratified was that although these soldiers had pale faces and trembling bodies, the whole team The shape is still intact, and the shields collide with each other due to the trembling of the body, making a crisp sound.

Ye Chong walked over with a smile and helped Wang Wudi who was sitting on the ground, "Minister Wang, is your hundreds of thousands of taels worth of money?"

Wang Wu was stunned for a long time, looked at the disappeared earth building in front of him, and then looked at Ye Zhong who was as if nothing had happened, and suddenly said angrily: "Ye Chong, are you plotting against me?"

Ye Chong laughed, and was about to cover it up with clever words, when Wang Wudi suddenly laughed again, stretched out his fingers and touched his ears a few times, "But if these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were used to create this thing, then it would be It’s worth it too. If you build this thing in the future, I’ll pay you as much as you want!”

"Why are you so generous all of a sudden?" Ye Zhong's eyes widened and he looked at him in confusion.

Wang Wudi stretched out his hand and pointed at Ye Zhong: "If this thing can be used to equip the army on a large scale, how many fewer of our soldiers will die? For every one less person who dies, how much less will we have in pensions? This amount Do you want me to settle the account for you?"

Sure enough, money is still indispensable. In the eyes of the Finance Minister, as long as you can use less money, that's good.

"Come on, come on, in two or three years at most, our army will be equipped with this cannon." (To be continued)