It is said that an envoy from Xixia came to the Song Dynasty and said that Dabai Gao's soldiers were elite. His words were quite threatening. The officials of the Song Dynasty were angry and retaliated. The envoy from Xixia took out the Xixia sword and wanted to compete with the swords of the Song Dynasty. As a result, the Song Dynasty's

The swords were broken one after another. In the end, a minister took out his own sword and won the game. Unfortunately, his sword was a Japanese sword, which made Song Dynasty very embarrassed.

It can be seen that the iron smelting technology of the Song Dynasty still needs to be developed. It may not be possible to produce iron materials that can be used to make gun barrels immediately.

"But I'm afraid it's hard to choose the right candidate?" Wang Shao hesitated. Rather than building weapons, he wanted to personally lead the army and conquer Hehuang. Wang Shao was responsible for the production of high-yielding crops such as corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

I'm afraid they don't have the time to plant. As for their own child Wang Hou, maybe he can, but if one of the Wang family is leading troops outside and the other is responsible for making ordnance inside, the court may not be able to rest assured.

"There are many talented people in the Song Dynasty. It is not difficult to find someone who is capable of taking charge of this matter. Shen Cunzhong of Qiantang and Su Zirong of Quanzhou all have this ability." The Song Dynasty has not yet been deeply poisoned by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and many Confucian scholars are very interested in science.

If you are interested, Shen Kuo and Su Song are the best among them.

Shen Kuo can be called an all-round talent and will be famous in the future. Needless to say, Su Song has also made remarkable achievements in astronomy, mechanics, medicine, mathematics, etc. It would be okay for one of them to be responsible for this.

suitable.

Others include mathematicians Jia Xian and Wei Pu, architect Li Jie, and medical scientist Qian Yi. In addition, today's famous officials Zeng Gongliang and Cai Xiang have also made outstanding contributions in the fields of tea science, water conservancy, military and other fields.

"Shen Kuo?" Wang Yu remembered what Shen Long said back then. Those who can be remembered in history must not be simple figures. "Shen Cunzhong is currently serving as the collation of pavilions and pavilions in the Hanlin Academy and is still in Beijing; Su Zirong is newly appointed as the birthday envoy of the Empress Dowager of Liao.

Since he has not returned from his mission to Liao, it might be better to let Shen Cunzhong handle this matter."

"Shen Cunzhong's qualifications are slightly insufficient. This matter cannot be decided overnight. By then, Su Zirong should have come back." Shen Long said that there is no problem with Shen Kuo's ability. Unfortunately, his old mother died of illness in August this year. According to

As is customary these days, Shen Kuo has to go home to Ding You to observe his filial piety for a period of time. If he wants to let Shen Kuo do things, he can only wait for Ding You to come back.

"When Su Zirong returns to Beijing, I will pay you a visit." Wang Yu didn't know why Shen Long didn't choose Shen Kuo. He just felt that since he said so, he must have his reason. During this time, he was busy going to Xiangzhou to look for tortoise shells, and also

I didn't have time to study the history books given by Shen Long, so I naturally didn't know about Shen Kuo and Ding You.

I heard that the yamen of Xueshi Wang's family was so respectful to Master Shen now, unlike in the legend. Wang Shao was a little surprised, but when he thought about the commotion Shen Long had just made in the ravine, he immediately

I figured it out, even the most arrogant person would become like Wang Yu after seeing this scene, right?

Back at Wang Anshi's home, Wang Anshi had come back. Hearing that Wang Shao came to visit, Wang Anshi was quite happy. After reading those history books, he wanted to meet this powerful military assistant as soon as possible, and he finally got his wish today.

They had dinner together and came to the Wang family's study to talk. Wang Shao first briefly talked about some of his experiences traveling in the northwest and his plans to pacify Xixia, and then he couldn't wait to talk to Wang Yu about what Shen Long had done today.

"There is such a magical weapon?" Wang Anshi couldn't sit still after hearing this. The Song Dynasty has always attached great importance to long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows. The proportion of crossbowmen in the army is extremely high. Unfortunately, both bows and crossbows have their own shortcomings. Bows and arrows It is difficult to train your hands, and training an archer costs a lot of money, and stringing the Divine Arm Bow is too laborious. It may not have much impact on defending the city, but it will be difficult to go out into the city to fight in the field.

Now Shen Long has come up with fire blunderbuss that are more powerful than bows and arrows, easier to use, and more convenient to fill than the divine arm bow. If the Song Dynasty army can equip this weapon on a large scale, its combat effectiveness will inevitably increase.

Shen Long took out the matchlock gun again and introduced to Wang Anshi the structure and uses of this early musket. Wang Shao and Wang Yu looked at each other and told each other about their test firing process, "Father, there is a With this thing, Xixia's wart armor can be penetrated with one shot, and it will be a piece of cake to pacify the party and recover the resurrected spirit."

Ware armor is an armor made by Xixia using cold forging technology. When making it, it is customary to leave a chopstick head-sized piece at the end of each armor piece without forging, which looks vaguely like a wart growing on the skin, so it is called wart armor; wart armor defense It is extremely powerful. Once an arrow shot through the small hole in the armor plate of the wart armor. As a result, the arrowhead was drilled and scraped, and the iron was rolled up. However, the armor plate was not damaged at all. It was rumored that it was a legend for a while.

At a slightly farther distance, the Song Dynasty's bows and arrows could not penetrate, and only the Divine Arm Bow could penetrate. The Song Dynasty's northwest frontier army suffered from this disadvantage.

"Daozhang Shen has promised to teach me the art of making fire guns to the Song Dynasty, and recommended Su Zirong to take charge of this matter." Wang Yu continued.

"Su Zirong has always liked mechanical objects. If he sees this thing, he will definitely like it." Wang Anshi and Su Song have a similar age difference, and they both passed the same subject in the second year of Qingli. They know him very well. If ordinary scholars know that he If you want to be responsible for making ordnance, you will either feel that you have got a good job to line your own pockets, or you will feel humiliated for doing such a rough job? Su Song will not be like this, he will definitely take charge of this matter.

"Then when Su Zirong returns to Beijing, the child will pay a visit." Wang Yu said.

"Well, please invite Zirong to come over and discuss it carefully." Wang Anshi suddenly frowned as he said this, "I would like to ask Taoist Shen, if you want to make this kind of fire blunderbuss, it will probably cost a lot, right?"

"This is just like the Sword God Arm Bow. The price of each weapon is definitely not low at the beginning, but later on, the more you build, the cheaper it becomes." Shen Long replied, "If you want to build a fire gun factory, I'm afraid of hundreds of thousands of pounds."

This is an understatement, for fear of frightening Wang Anshi, "Of course, these hundreds of thousands of coins were not taken out at once."

"Even so, the first payment will probably cost tens of thousands or even one hundred thousand guan, right? The iron materials, houses, manpower, oh, and the gunpowder, projectiles, all of them are free of charge!" Wang Anshi started to feel dizzy. Song Dynasty had redundant officials and troops, and there was not much savings in the treasury. It was not easy to come up with this money.
Chapter completed!