In a workshop deep in the black pine forest, the iron in the coke smelting steel furnace was burning red. It was hung up by just simple machinery and slowly poured more than 100 kilograms of iron into steel. After several hours of cooling, a small cast iron cannon that was more than two meters long was freshly released.

It is a bit of a cannon, but it is more like a large earth gun, but it should be a cannon by caliber. The 30 mm diameter muzzle is thin at the top and thick at the bottom, which is in line with the principle of artillery firing.

The craftsmen skillfully cleaned the burrs and corners, and a small-caliber cannon was released in a short while.

After three secret whistles, Wu Song and Luo Ping arrived at the hidden artillery workshop. Mao Hai and Wang Hong led more than a dozen guards to keep watch.

"Brother is here, and the cannons he requested have been cast ten times." Liu Yingxing said.

Wu Song said: "It's been half a month, why have you only cast ten doors?"

"It turned out that I was poured with mud model. When the mud model encountered iron, bubbles would be produced. The cast guns had more trachoma. Once the gun medicine was released, it would explode. In order to be safer, I melted dozens of cast guns and recasted the iron model for pouring. This time the effect was much better. There are too few models now, and I just waited for more models. It would be no problem to produce ten or eight gates a day."

"Pull out all ten cannons and try how much firepower is." Wu Song said.

Liu Yingxing not only knows how to cast, but also fires fire. Twenty craftsmen carried the cannons to the open area of ​​the backyard, fixed the cannons to the ground with a large iron, then used a cannon brush to clean the cannon, installed three or two taels of cannon medicine, two hundred small steel balls, and then placed more than a dozen wooden boards a hundred meters away.

"Prepare, ignite." Ten torches ignited the leads in one go, and the sound of banging sounds were connected into one. The muzzle was thick smoke rolling, the smell was a bit choking, and it was full of sulfur. When the smoke dissipated, Wu Song and Liu Yingxing came a hundred meters away to look at the wooden boards. Almost every wooden board was inlaid with dozens of small steel beads.

Liu Yingxing was very happy and said, "There is no pressure to break the leather armor at a distance of 100 meters."

"Very good, very good. It's already good to have such a result for the first time." Wu Song praised.

"According to my estimate, it is still safe to increase the dose of medicine to four liang. After all, the gunner will retreat ten feet away after igniting it with a torch."

Wu Song also discovered that the tail of this small-caliber cannon was cast very thickly, and the amount of 4 taels should be fine. However, science cannot be careless. The quality of the cannon is related to the morale of the gunner. If a cannon is at risk of explosion at any time, the gunner will be frightened when using it.

Wu Song said: "Then try it, increase the dose to four taels, and move the board to one hundred and fifty meters."

The craftsmen tinkered for a while, increased the dosage, then lit it carefully, retreated behind the bunker. This time the sound was louder, and the sound of the boom was connected. After the thick smoke, Wu Song and Liu Yingxing watched the wooden boards as the target. They saw that there were still steel beads embedded on the wooden boards, but at the same time, some of the steel beads only made a pit on the wooden boards. The farthest steel beads had hit three hundred meters away, and there was no one else's lethality.

"The gun is two meters long, with a diameter of 30 mm, and the cannon weighs 130 kilograms. The maximum range is 300. One hundred and fifty meters can break the leather armor and is named the Long Snake melee cannon, which is referred to as the Long Snake cannon." Wu Song and Liu Yingxing discussed and named the cannon.

"Mass production, I will produce 100 units in one month." Wu Song issued a production order.

At the same time, the water guards sent twenty people to learn artillery firing technology. Fortunately, this is a rare black pine forest, otherwise it would be strange to hear the sound of the cannon. Even the tigers and leopards near the black pine forest were frightened to Jingyanggang in Yanggu County.

Why did Wu Song rush to build crossbows and artillery? It turned out that the caravans that trafficked cattle and horses from Liao Kingdom suffered losses again. Tongda chariots and twenty sand ships were responsible for transporting cattle and horses from Tanggu, Liao Kingdom. Twenty sand ships transported four or five hundred large animals at a time, and could be transported once every two days. This sea smuggling trade route is a money printing machine. Liao Kingdom is already in its twilight years and has many loopholes in management. It gave Hu Cheng and Li Ying a big businessman who could take advantage of the opportunity to easily get it through the Liao Kingdom's internal support.

A small number of cattle and horses, three or four hundred at a time, were transported to the Tanggu seaside area. Ruan Xiaoqi led the fleet to the dock in the evening and transported the cattle and horses back to the port on the coast of Qingzhou. When the cattle and horses arrived at the Song Dynasty, they not only did not punish smuggling, but also rewarded them. Because the Song Dynasty was a major agricultural country and needed a large amount of cattle and horse to plow the land and pull the cart. In this way, the profits of thousands of taels of silver were made in the first round of Tongdao. The profits of Hujiazhuang and Lijiazhuang were similar. In short, the risks were high and the returns were high.

Although the Liao Navy almost does not exist, there are still risks. Where does the risk come from? It comes from a large pirate gang in the Bohai Sea called the Black Wind Pirates. Of course, there are some other small pirate groups, but the threat is not great.

Just when the Peach Blossom Festival was held in Dongping Prefecture, Du Xing and the Hu family's caravan purchased 350 Mongolian horses from the Liao family for six taels of silver. They notified Ruan Xiaoqi to load the horses and rush back in the middle of the night two days later.

I was about to reach the waters near Qingzhou, and I suddenly encountered pirates.

Du Xing said with sharp eyes: "Brother Xiaoqi, there is a fleet behind him to follow me, it is the Black Wind Pirates."

Ruan Xiaoqi said: "Don't be afraid. Now there are twenty sailors per ship, plus more than a hundred merchants from your two caravans, you are also afraid of several pirate ships."

Ruan Xiaoqi immediately ordered the horn to blow and prepare for battle. In addition to the sailors who drove the boat, all the other sailors and the Zhuangke picked up the bows and arrows and the spears were ready.

There is no place on the sea where there is no king's law. If the bandits and bandits still have any concerns, then the pirates have no principles at all. Three pirate ships rushed up, with many pirates, and the ships were large, and they were very fast, and they quickly caught up.

"Set the rockets." With Ruan Xiaoqi's order, the sailors fired the rockets, and the feathered arrows whizzed over. The pirate ship screamed and some sails burned. However, the pirates were different from the bandits who had never seen the world. The casualties of dozens of people were not at all concerned and still rushed up. With a bang, a crossbow sounded, three crossbow arrows as thick as arms shot from the pirate ship. The four sailors were killed in battle, and the crossbow arrows also shot a sail of a ship.

"They actually have a Shenji crossbow, such a powerful crossbow." Du Xing said in surprise.

Ruan Xiaoqi shouted: "There are not many pirates, so don't run away, and counterattack."

Because the giant crossbow on the enemy ship was terrifying, Ruan Xiaoqi directly ordered the fleet to counterattack. This move really worked. There were few pirate ships, almost every one was surrounded by three or four sand ships.
Chapter completed!