"Shen Xiang."

"Shen Xiang."

Just when Han Wangran was dealing with government affairs, the Prime Minister of South Korea, Shen Buhai, came to the palace in person, causing the palace people who came in and out of the palace to quickly salute the old prime minister.

Hearing the movement, Han Wangran raised his head and saw Shen Buhai walking to the imperial cabinet, bowing his hands and saying, "Your Majesty."

"..."

Han Wangran glanced at Shen Buhai a few times and saw that the old prime minister was hesitant to speak, so he said knowingly: "Please step aside for now. I have important matters to discuss with Prime Minister Shen."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The palace servants in the palace bowed and retreated.

"This is a diligent and virtuous king..."

After taking a look at the various memorials placed on Han Wangran's imperial case, Shen Buhai sighed with emotion. Then he calmed down, cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I heard that you just ordered the treasury to allocate a sum of money to use

To build war weapons..."

"It's true."

Han Wangran stood up from behind the court case and raised his hand to signal the old prime minister to sit down at the seat on the side of the palace. He also sat down on the opposite side, nodded and said: "According to the news from Julu City, Wei Guo has made a new transfer.

The Yanling Army, two elite divisions of 50,000 soldiers, were stationed in Yecheng and Feicheng... Yesterday, a letter from General Le Yi was sent to Jicheng. In the letter, he said that Wei will send a large number of iron armor

Chariots and huge trebuchets were transported to the border..."

When talking about "iron-armored chariots" and "giant trebuchets", Han Wangran couldn't help but recall the last Wei-Korean war.

In that war, Wei's infantry and armored chariots formed a torrent of steel, crushing the Korean army with an unrivaled momentum. Even though the Handan army tried its best, it could not resist it.

As for the giant trebuchet, when the Wei army put pressure on Handan later, they only tried to throw one or two stone bombs. The scene at that time was really shaking the earth. Not only the people in Handan City were frightened by it, but even the soldiers

The general, even Han Wangran and the court officials were also shocked by it: that was really a terrifying weapon.

Perhaps it was out of fear of Wei's war weapons that Han Wangran made a decisive decision to increase military spending after receiving the letter from General Le Yi.

"I see."

After understanding the details, Han Xiang Shen Buhai nodded slightly. In fact, he had known for a long time that the Korean monarch in front of him had always been careful about the money in the treasury and would never waste it needlessly. He was just surprised that this monarch was so careful.

Fan actually had to spend such a large amount of money to replenish military expenditures, so he came to ask what happened, or maybe the two of them could sum it up to see if there was a better solution.

But after understanding the situation, Shen Buhai also believed that the judgment of the young monarch in front of him was completely correct: Wei was obviously deliberately putting pressure on them. If he, Korea, retreated and surrendered to Wei, then he would not be able to achieve the goal.

It played a role for Chu State in containing Wei State.

However, Shen Buhai felt really distressed to allocate such a large sum of money from the stretched national treasury, because all this money was saved by South Korea with great difficulty and planned to be used for domestic construction-such as in the fishing industry.

Yang County dug irrigation canals, increased cultivated farmland, etc.

If all this money is invested in military spending, where should we raise funds for domestic construction in recent years?

He raised this issue with Han Wangran.

Hearing this, Han Wangran couldn't help but feel a little melancholy.

To put it in detail, the three Wei-Korean wars actually caused great losses to Wei. However, as a victorious country, Wei made up for a certain amount of losses through war profits and dividends. However, as for South Korea, after losing three consecutive battles, its national power plummeted, and even more so.

Not to mention that after the third Wei-Korean war, the Wei state was very

The Qin State was despicably used to continue to consume South Korea, denying South Korea the opportunity for stable development in order to recover from the trauma caused by the war. This forced South Korea to continue to increase military spending in order to resist Qin's attack, so that in

In terms of restoring national strength, progress has been quite slow.

Now, due to the pressure from Wei's troops stationed on the border, South Korea has no choice but to allocate funds from its stretched national treasury. This is also a helpless move.

After thinking about it, Han Wangran said rather short of breath: "If it really doesn't work... we can only find another way to get some help from the nobles."

It has to be said that Han Wangran did not have the confidence to speak even if he had no money. If it were Zhao Run, the king of Wei, he would definitely not be so passive. After all, he held a lot of wealth in his hands - of course, even if Zhao Run had no money in his hands, he would not be so passive.

With his strength, no one can violate the policies he wants to implement.

To put it lightly, Zhao Run is a tyranny in which those who obey me will prosper and those who go against me will perish. But to put it more lightly, this is the true and inviolable will of the king!

A king cannot stand without people, and a country cannot prosper without a king. The benefits that a 'suitable' hero brings to the country are irreplaceable.

Compared with Wei Wang Zhao Run, Han Wangran's various actions seemed too cowardly.

Of course, this is also caused by the limitations of South Korea's national conditions: in the Wei State, since the time of the late king Zhao Si, it has been gradually strengthening the royal power, weakening the clan, and the influence of domestic aristocratic forces on the court. Waiting for Wei Wang Zhao Run to succeed to the throne, the royal power

It has completely expanded to the point where no one can limit it; but in South Korea, it is the princes and nobles who control the lifeline of the country. Although Han Wangran regained the royal power, this royal power was not enough to make the subjects of the country bend and obey orders.

.

In the final analysis, Han Wangran's reputation - whether it is good or bad reputation - is not as good as that of Wei Wang Zhao Run. Looking at Zhao Run in Wei, even if there are still many branches of the royal family and aristocratic forces cursing in private, when Zhao Run withdraws

When new policies are implemented, these people still have to obey orders.

Because if they don't obey, there is no need for the "tyrant" who says "those who obey me will prosper and those who go against me to perish" to come forward. Zhang Qigong, the most criticized "cruel official" under his king's rank, will find a way to get rid of these people.

Unfortunately, Han Wangran does not possess these favorable conditions.

After weighing the pros and cons, Shen Buhai finally agreed with Han Wangran's decision. The topic they discussed gradually shifted from "increasing military spending" to another issue, that is: if Wei really attacks South Korea, will South Korea

Can withstand attacks.

Regarding this matter, Han Wangran is still a little confident.

Because he had told Le Yi a long time ago, after leading his army to Julu City, Le Yi immediately mobilized all his forces and began to build defenses in the Wu'an, Bairen, and Julu areas, on any route and on any mountain.

Passes were set up in the pass, and the entire northern Handan County was premeditated to be used as a local battlefield when Wei invaded the country.

With appropriate preparations made in advance, local operations still have great advantages.

After the king's order was issued, many military workshops were immediately added in Yuyang County. After each workshop was completed, it was quickly put into use for forging weapons, making war weapons, etc.

It has to be said that although South Korea suffered three disastrous defeats in succession, resulting in a great loss of national power, the country's foundation is still there, and its craftsmanship and technology have been largely preserved - after all, this was the country with the strongest comprehensive strength in the Central Plains.

When these workshops began to operate, Han Wangran took the rare opportunity to leave the palace where he handled government affairs and personally inspect the weapons and war weapons forged in the workshops.

But to be honest, South Korea's current technology is mainly based on imitating the Wei State, such as the three-sided arrow cluster.

The three-edged arrowhead was originally designed by Wei Wang Zhao Run. Compared with the traditional two-edged arrowhead, it not only has higher shooting accuracy, is more stable, and is more powerful. Later, after improvements by the Smelting Bureau, in the arrow cluster, or arrow

Barbs are added to the shaft, making this kind of arrow even more sinister. Once it is shot into the human body, it will quickly cause bloodletting. What is terrible is that due to the presence of barbs, this kind of arrowhead is difficult to remove. If

If you forcibly remove it, it will inevitably take away a piece of skin or flesh, or break the internal organs, which will cause the person to die from pain.

South Korea has suffered a lot in this regard.

At first, the Korean soldiers were surprised: They were all arrowheads, so why were Wei's arrowheads so lethal?

It wasn't until they gave the Wei arrowheads they picked up on the battlefield to domestic craftsmen for study that they came up with the answer.

Since then, Korean craftsmen have begun to try to forge this kind of triangular arrowheads. Although there will inevitably be failures during the period, fortunately, South Korea has a relatively deep foundation in iron smelting and forging, and gradually they have figured out how to forge this kind of arrowheads.

method.

In addition to the three-edged arrowheads, the main thing South Korea forged after the Wei State was the chariot.

It's funny to say, because in the "Battle of Shangdang" decades ago, it was South Korea who used the cross-era cavalry to eliminate Wei's old chariots, so that Wei, which used chariots as its national symbol, lost its

Faith. But now, South Korea has to follow the example of Wei in building chariots, and let chariots reappear on the stage of war in this era.

I have to say, this is also an incredible thing.

But having said that, Wei's new tanks are indeed too threatening on the battlefield.

Once upon a time, cavalry was the king of the plains. Except for cavalry, any other arms would be frightened when encountering cavalry.

Especially infantry. On the plains, cavalry has a hundred ways to kill infantry easily.

It wasn't until the State of Wei built a new type of chariot, namely the iron Wugang chariot and the tortoise-shell chariot, that the State of Wei equipped its infantry with such chariots, so that when the infantry of the State of Wei encountered the enemy's cavalry in the wild, they would

As long as these chariots are closely connected to form a defense line, the enemy's cavalry will be unable to do anything against this iron lump.

At this time, the Wei infantry could use sniper crossbows to kill the enemy's cavalry from long range without any danger.

This severely challenged the status of the cavalry, the king of the plains.

Some people may think that equipping Wei's infantry with chariots that can withstand Korean cavalry must cost a lot, but in fact, this cost is far less than that of Korean cavalry.

After all, the cost and difficulty of training a cavalry is far higher than that of training an infantry. In addition, the cost of a light cavalry is almost as much as three to five infantrymen.

Although you can eat a lot of food, you can't feed the war horse harshly, right? Otherwise, if the war horse is thin and weak, what good will it do?

The cost gap between the two is enough to make up for the forging cost of the armored chariot, and there is even a surplus.

Soon, the first turtle-shell chariot was successfully built by Korean craftsmen.

This is not surprising. After all, whether it is a tortoise-shell chariot or a Wugang chariot, the technical content of these chariots is not that high. It is nothing more than hanging iron plates on the outside of the chariot's frame. As long as you understand roughly, Korean craftsmen

They can imitate it.

In comparison, Korean craftsmen encountered technical difficulties when they followed the example of Wei in building the "giant trebuchet".

A giant trebuchet is not simply a magnification of an ordinary trebuchet. It involves many problems, the most critical of which is the toughness of the throwing rod: soft materials cannot throw heavy objects, and

The material is relatively hard, but it is easy to break the throwing rod when throwing stone projectiles.

Korean craftsmen have been studying this problem for a long time, but they still haven't gained much yet.

They were very troubled: What kind of wood did the craftsmen of Wei choose?
To be continued...