"Are you sure? You won't admit your mistake, right?"
Wu Xian said loudly: "Your Majesty, in the twenty-seventh year of Dading, Shuhu Gaoqi came out as the chief judge of Hejian City. At that time, I was under this man. Later, he fought fierce battles with the Song army in Gongzhou, and again When they arrived in Qinzhou, they defeated the Song general Li Xiaoyi. In both of these two battles, the Song people took the initiative to provoke and attack our army in the field. Therefore, the big guys they used to defend the city were equally useless and caused us big troubles before and after. Just this kind of...the sound of their explosions, I have heard it many times before and after, it seemed familiar before, but now when I put it together, it is absolutely unmistakable!"
At this time, an officer next to him also said: "Your Majesty, the size of the iron artillery is actually not enough. We make it ourselves, and there are some big and small. But the small hole in the fuse is unique to the firearms produced on Lizhou Road. have."
"How can I see it?"
"During the first year of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Song Dynasty, the prime minister of the Song Dynasty, Han Yuzhou, provoked the dispatch of troops. Wu Xi, who was in Sichuan, responded with great fanfare. At that time, he summoned his craftsmen to urgently manufacture a batch of iron artillery for use in Sichuan siege. Because of the urgent need, the craftsmen cut corners when making the cannons. Only small holes were left to pass through the lead wires. And because Wu Xi later surrendered to the Jin Kingdom, not many of these iron artillery were used, and most of them were retained."
Guo Ning nodded slightly: "I'm going to eat, and you guys can take a look. If you are sure it's from the Song Dynasty, pack it up... Don't say anything to anyone else."
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, we won't have to worry."
The soldiers agreed, and Xu Jin walked a few steps closely beside Guo Ning.
"Wuxian is a guy who has no words and likes to talk too much. He claims to have been under Shuhu Gaoqi in the 27th year of Dading. That was more than thirty years ago! It's not likely that when he was wearing crotchless pants, Just join the army? I will tell him to calm down and stop talking nonsense all day long!"
Speaking of this, Xu Jin coughed a few times: "However, those iron artillery pieces were most likely given by the Song people. Among the soldiers accompanying this time, there were those who had fought against the Song people in Longxi and Shukou. There are fifteen in total. Among the fifteen, four have seen the Song Army’s iron artillery, and they all say that Wuxian’s judgment is correct.”
"The Song people secretly supported Mongolian weapons and ordnance... Could it be that they have turned against each other? This is not a trivial matter!"
Guo Ning laughed at himself.
Since he led his troops to Shandong and served as the military governor of Dinghai, he has had close contacts with the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty. It was first an economic tie, and later extended to a tie with many officials, businessmen and interest groups. This is similar to the relationship between the Han Dynasty in the Central Plains and the Song Dynasty. Complex emotions have nothing to do with it, but are completely cold calculations of interests.
Under this calculation, the interest groups that were really in power in the Song Dynasty got real benefits, and used these benefits to constantly influence the Song Dynasty court and consolidate their power in the Song Dynasty. Regardless of the political status of the two countries, No matter how much confrontation there is in the military, Shi Miyuan and his followers will definitely limit the confrontation to a controllable range and will not allow the relationship between the two countries to deteriorate.
Guo Ning has no doubt about this, because his Great Zhou Dynasty also relies on the benefits brought by trade. The Great Zhou Dynasty's annual military expenditures, and even the money used to redeem benefits from certain frontier ethnic groups, all come from this. .
Guo Ning couldn't think of anything that could replace this benefit. He was sure that the situation faced by Shi Miyuan was the same. Not only did this out-and-out political animal have no other choice, he would also continue to betray the Song Dynasty for his own benefit. Benefit.
But the trouble is, the Song people actually came up with a new trick to support the Mongols with weapons?
Who is leading this operation? How much support do they give to the Mongols? The Song Dynasty has no border with Mongolia at all. How are these weapons delivered to the Mongols, and who is teaching Mongolia to use them?
Is this kind of support for some forces in the Song State to act on their own, or does it represent an adjustment in the direction of the Song State's politics? If it is the former, could it be that Shi Miyuan has lost control of the situation and has always been like this? If it is the latter... Could it be that the two countries of Zhou and Song Dynasty turned against each other? At this time Once they fall out, what will happen to the southern border of the Great Zhou Dynasty?
The deeper Guo Ning went into the grassland, the more he felt that the origin of the iron cannon was the key. When the origin was revealed, he had to admit that the amount of information contained in a small iron cannon was too huge, which made him more and more hesitant.
"Out of fifteen people, four people agreed. The ratio is still a bit low." Guo Ning said.
Xu Jin replied in a low voice: "So I called another person in charge of military industry."
"Who is that person? Is that person's vision reliable?"
"That's a famous craftsman we recruited from the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty with a lot of money in the past two years. This person has a deep understanding of the firearms of the Song Dynasty. After arriving, he will definitely make a conclusion."
"When can we arrive?"
"This man is at the rear military fort. I sent someone to summon him overnight. I think he will arrive tomorrow night."
"It's a little late."
Xu Jin was a little embarrassed: "As soon as possible."
Guo Ning nodded, and then asked: "What's the news from Tianjin Mansion?"
The reason why Guo Ning called people to collect iron cannon fragments was because he had doubts about the Song Dynasty from the past few days. The source of the doubts came from a piece of news from Yelu Chucai from Tianjin Mansion.
According to the news, the end of the year is the time for many commercial banks in Tianjin to take stock and settle their accounts. According to convention, merchants will also decide next year’s investment based on one year’s business performance. Of course, all of this is under the control of Yelu Chucai and Li Yun. Under surveillance, Li Yun had already gone south to Lin'an, intending to use his head to make another fortune from the Song Dynasty.
But there was one exception, that is, a certain trading firm that had a very close relationship with Shi Miyuan in private. During this period, it privately contacted several partners in an attempt to transfer its own firm.
Maritime trade has been so profitable in the past few years. It is not an exaggeration to say that every day has made a fortune. Why should a good trading firm want to leave? This move immediately attracted the attention of Yelu Chucai. Outsiders did not know the relationship between this trading firm and Shi Miyuan. Yelu Chucai However, Cai Cai knew about it, so he immediately arranged a secret line to make insinuations and at the same time sent a letter to inform Guo Ning of the strange incident.
However, due to the continuous operation of the army, it took several days for the results of subsequent inquiries to arrive.
Guo Ning suddenly asked, and Xu Jin could only ask him to calm down.
The two of them didn't go far before they returned to the campfire. Guo Ning called for someone to bring a big bowl of rice.
At this time, each camp was eating, and the smoke of fireworks and the aroma of rice wafted in the wind. After Guo Ning and his guards ate large pieces of dried meat, other staple foods were no different from those of the soldiers, including pasta and corn. Guo Ning took some I ordered bibimbap with broth and ate two big bowls in one go.
After eating, I wiped my mouth and saw that the guards around me were watching.
Guo Ning smiled and said: "What are you looking at? Have you never seen me hungry? Add more rice, another bowl!"
Because the main force of the Mongolian army has not been able to find a decisive battle since the army left the fortress, and the weather is getting worse and worse, the soldiers are generally a little irritable. The guards also know that Guo Ning has been restless these days. He had previously sent orders to various battlefields. Collecting fragments of the iron artillery used by Meng Tatar, the fragments were delivered the day before yesterday, and Guo Ning suddenly issued an order to mobilize relevant personnel to rush to the base camp to piece together the fragments as soon as possible. Everyone felt more and more that Guo Ning must be hiding something in his heart.
Seeing that he had a good appetite now, and the doubts that had been lingering on his face were gone, the guards felt very happy. Because of the long march for several days, the soldiers were generally disgraced and tired. Many people wanted to go now After resting, seeing that Guo Ning was energetic, the soldiers all grinned happily, and several of them said in unison: "I want to eat more too! More food! More food!"
"Some cheese, too!" someone shouted to join in the fun. He was immediately shouted at and several meat bones flew through the air and hit him.
In the meals prepared by the army, in addition to a large amount of dried meat, there are also various goat milk and dairy products. However, Han people are generally not used to eating these things, especially the soldiers from the south in the army. They all say that cheese is smelly. Some people were sent to A few pieces of cheese were just thrown away. Even if I wanted to flatter the emperor at this moment, adding cheese to everyone would be too much.
Amid the laughter, Guo Ning said to Xu Jin: "This situation is wrong. I can't wait any longer."
