As the emperor of a huge country, Li Shimin was far from what the old peasants in the countryside thought: he only had to carry a golden hoe and dig in the ground every day, and then he could eat delicious scallion pancakes and sleep comfortably on the fire kang.
In this complicated country, from the court to the localities, from home to abroad, there is almost nothing that can make Xiao Lizi worry-free.
As the Son of Heaven, I should indulge my desires! If anyone advises me, I will kill them! Isn’t it wrong to kill five hundred people?
Only the idiot Li Chengqian could say such idiotic things! And when a truly wise monarch makes any decision, he always deduces it backwards and forwards, is cautious, listens to many opinions, and assesses the situation before making a decision.
Can be executed with caution.
Just like when Li Shimin first heard about Chen Dade's experience in Korea.
Extremely grief-stricken and angry, he slapped the case on the spot and roared angrily: "To the four counties of Goryeo, I will send tens of thousands of soldiers to attack Liaodong. I will definitely kill the ugly people of Dongyi and save my people from fire and water!"
At that time, he really wanted to send troops immediately to completely wipe out Goguryeo!
But later, under the influence of complicated situations at home and abroad, Li Shimin still compromised. No matter how unwilling he was, he had to give up the plan reluctantly.
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In the cold weapons warehouse, the depressed monarch and his ministers lost interest in talking.
In the end, Li Shimin forced a smile, patted Xiao Han on the shoulder and said, "Okay, don't be angry with yourself! What you owe us will be paid back one day."
“One day, I’ll get the capital and profits together!”
Hearing this, Xiao Han loosened his clenched fists and nodded heavily!
Before fighting against the outside world, you must first settle the inside! Once you have dealt with the scoundrels in the country, it will not be too late to deal with the disobedient monkeys outside!
Not wanting to think about these humiliating and angry things, Xiao Han took a few deep breaths, adjusted his mentality, and began to lead Li Shimin to visit the weapons displayed here.
"This is thunder! It can be hidden in the bushes. As long as someone accidentally touches this long line, it can be activated without anyone stepping on it directly.
"This is a fire tube. It can spray out fire oil. It is extremely powerful, but the disadvantage is that it is too close."
Xiao Han walked through the weapons like a treasure, until he stood in front of a cannon equipped with two huge wheels, and Xiao Han stopped.
"This is a breech-loading cannon, which is extremely expensive to make! And it can only be hand-ground by experienced craftsmen, so the output is extremely low!" Xiao Han patted the thick, dark gun barrel, and his tone suddenly felt a little emotional.
"Oh?" Li Shimin noticed something strange about Xiao Han. He also stepped forward to look at the cannon carefully.
"What's the difference between it and the cannons on the Chang'an City Wall?"
"There is a difference, how can there be no difference?" Xiao Han smiled bitterly, shook his head and said: "This is a breech-loading cannon. As the name suggests, it abandons the cumbersome steps of loading shells from the front and adopts a new mode of loading from the rear.
Such an improvement can make its firing speed more than three times that of ordinary cannons! But the disadvantage is that the cost is too expensive! It needs to wait until the technology matures before it can be assembled into the army."
"It's expensive? It's just an extra small door. How expensive can it be?"
After listening to Xiao Han's introduction, Li Shimin's eyes naturally fell on Cannon's butt.
Sure enough, the breech of the gun, which was supposed to be cast in one piece, now had a hole dug out. Next to the hole, there was a heavy iron block the size of a human head hanging there.
"Your Majesty, don't underestimate this small door." Seeing that Li Shimin was a little unimpressed, Xiao Han could only sigh faintly and said: "You don't know that in order to make this small cannon breech, countless skilled craftsmen were used and it cost a lot of money.
After a lot of effort, we finally succeeded in making it!"
"Is it that difficult for this little thing?"
After hearing what Xiao Han said, Li Shimin finally put away his contempt and looked at the iron piece seriously again.
This piece of iron is completely black and has a cone shape! There are also lines all over the cone surface! At first glance, it is neither exquisite nor beautiful, and it does not look like it is valuable at all.
"It's difficult, it's really difficult!"
Seeing that Li Shimin was still a little suspicious, Xiao Han smiled bitterly again.
He may still be a little unclear about other weapons, but this breech-loading cannon was originally developed at his request. How could he not know the hardships involved?
Don't think that this breech-loading cannon is just a matter of making a hole in the butt of the front-loading cannon.
The last craftsman who thought this way should be as tall as a man by now with the grass on his grave!
This is not shocking, but a fact!
Because it is easy to open a hole in the butt of a cannon, but how to seal the hole is not easy at all!
The unlucky craftsman at the beginning, after getting Xiao Han's instructions, simply imitated the door at home, patched an iron plate over the hole, and then added a door latch.
The result is obvious. The terrifying power of gunpowder is obviously not something that a door bolt can resist, even if this door bolt is made of the best stainless steel in the prison.
So with a deafening roar, the first breech-loading cannon in history exploded!
The huge explosion force not only took away a master craftsman on the spot, but also seriously injured seven ordinary craftsmen! The broken cannon block flew three miles away and was deeply embedded in a wall. It has not been removed yet.
"Since then, it has become a common occurrence for the breech-loading cannon to explode! Those craftsmen tried all kinds of methods, and finally invented this threaded breech!"
He briefly explained the development process of the breech-loading cannon to Li Shimin. After Xiao Han finished speaking, Li Shimin's eyes finally became serious when he looked at the cannon again.
"Has the sacrificed craftsman settled down at home?" Li Shimin asked softly, stretching out his hand and imitating Xiao Han's example, gently stroking the cold cannon body.
Xiao Han nodded when he heard this and replied: "It's settled. The firearms camp will provide pensions to those who died in the line of duty! Moreover, at the beginning of its establishment, the firearms camp set a rule. If someone died in the line of duty, the person who died in the line of duty would be compensated.
The parents and children's support responsibilities will be fully borne by the Firearms Camp.
"That's good...that's good!" Li Shimin nodded, looking at the hard-won cannon with complex eyes and said: "The contribution they made is no less than that of killing generals and capturing flags on the battlefield, or even more!
"
"Yes!" Xiao Han glanced at Li Shimin and saw his thoughtful look. He just wanted to take the opportunity to ask if he could build a stone monument for these craftsmen so that they could leave their names in history.
But suddenly I heard a commotion outside the warehouse!
It seems that there are also exclamations such as "the water has leaked".
