In the lobby of the Marshal's Mansion, Wan Yanchang read Wan Yan Wushu's letter with a gloomy face. The letter was full of accusations, and he almost pointed at his own nose and cursed.
Wanyanchang handed the letter to Wanyan Jiulisa with an unhappy look on his face, "Look at his letter. He actually said that I was lying to him and delayed him for half a month. Who do you think is being unreasonable!"
Of course Wan Yanchang was very angry. The spy he sent to Jingzhao pretended to be a boatman, but Arubu used him as a punching bag and killed one person on the spot. When beating a dog, it depends on the owner. Arubu slapped himself in the face like this.
Yan Wushu actually didn't mention a word in the letter. Do you think he is an idiot?
Wanyan shook his head and said: "Wushu is obviously shirking responsibility. Jingzhao's intelligence is very accurate. The Song army is indeed preparing to attack Bianliang from Biankou. They have entered more than two hundred ships. Is there any reason for this?
Fake?
It's just that Niugao was more cautious and let the grain ships in first. If I would do the same thing, I would send the grain ships in first. There would be no problem, and then the army ships would go in. It was Alu Bu who was impatient and failed to ambush in place, so he was exposed.
A good opportunity to annihilate tens of thousands of enemy troops was missed.
I also specifically asked the boatman spies who had escaped, and found out that the Jin soldiers were lying in ambush about a hundred steps away from the river, and there were also Jin soldiers walking by the woods, which could be seen at a glance from the boat."
"You're absolutely right!"
Wan Yanchang let out a sigh and said, "I failed to seize the opportunity and passed the responsibility to others. Isn't that what Wushu has always been like?"
He turned back and asked Cui Jiu, his staff, "This time, sir, you won't speak for Wu Shu anymore!"
Cui Jiu sighed and said: "I am just speaking from a fair standpoint. I have one thing to say. The intelligence from Jingzhao this time is very accurate. Chen Qing should be considering a sneak attack on Bianliang to contain the Fourth Prince's army. Marshal Arubu did not seize the opportunity."
It is also true that the fourth prince cannot pass the responsibility to us. If this continues, there will be no basis for trust between the two parties and it will be difficult to continue cooperation."
Wan Yanchang said coldly: "We can no longer cooperate. Aru killed my men. If he doesn't give me an explanation, how can we talk about cooperation?"
"I understand that Marshal Du is feeling humble, but we cannot reply directly to him saying that we no longer want to cooperate. If the fourth prince takes advantage of him and accuses Marshal Du of not caring about the overall situation in front of the emperor, it will make Marshal Du very passive."
"Then in your opinion, sir, what should we say?"
Cui Jiu rolled his eyes and said: "Didn't the Song army blockade the Yellow River now? Just tell the fourth prince that our ships were destroyed by the Song army and we can't transport troops south. Isn't this a good reason?"
“That’s a good reason!”
Wan Yanchang felt a little more comfortable and said to the two of them: "Both Jingzhao and Taiyuan have sent information. Taiyuan Prefecture only has 5,000 troops. This is a rare opportunity!"
Cui Jiu nodded, "The information provided by Lu Wei is relatively accurate, and Wang Shuang's analysis of the troops is also correct. It is impossible for Jingzhao Prefecture's 50,000 security troops to be sent to Taiyuan Prefecture. The information that Taiyuan Prefecture only has 5,000 troops is credible. This
It is indeed an opportunity. It may be a little more difficult to cross the Taihang Mountains."
Wanyan sighed and said, "If iron fire thunder can be made, we can blast it all the way through, no matter how dangerous the pass is!"
This sentence reminded Wan Yanchang, a few months have passed, how is the progress of Tiehuolei's imitation?
He immediately ordered: "Summon the director of the firearms workshop to see me immediately!"
Soon, a man in his forties was brought to the lobby. The man's name was Yang Jinggong. He used to be a firearms maker in the Song Dynasty's weapons supervisor. In the second year of Jingkang, he was arrested and sent to the Jin Kingdom. He has been working in the Jin Kingdom's firearms supervisor.
Basically all the captured craftsmen died, and the few craftsmen who survived also lost their ability to work and lost their use value. They were used by Jin Bing in exchange for Wanyan Nianhan. Only Yang Jinggong was the youngest at the time and had good health.
Not bad, it withstood the severe cold weather in Liaodong.
This Yang Jinggong was good at observing people's words and was also good at talking. He did well in the Jin Kingdom and became an official. He was appointed by Wan Yanchang as the general manager of the firearms workshop.
"For your humble position, please see the marshal of the capital!"
Wan Yanchang took a sip of tea and asked, "Manager Yang, I would like to know the progress of the Iron Fire Thunder imitation?"
Yang Jinggong's heart skipped a beat. He was afraid of what would happen. He was afraid that Marshal Du would ask about Iron Fire Thunder, but he had already asked about it, so he had to bite the bullet and answer: "Reporting to Marshal Du, there has been progress."
"Has it been copied yet?"
"Not yet, it still takes time and is quite difficult."
Wan Yanchang tried his best to suppress his dissatisfaction and said in a calm tone: "I don't want to hold you responsible, but you have to tell me the truth. How far has the copying gone? What are the difficulties now? What help do you need from me?
?How long will it take to imitate it?”
Wan Yanchang asked several questions in succession, each of which touched on the key points.
Yang Jinggong wiped the sweat from his forehead and said: "To report to Marshal Du, the shell has been successfully imitated, but it is also very difficult. We tried more than three hundred times before we succeeded. The materials used are also very sophisticated. After polishing, it will match the opponent's.
The shell is exactly the same, the problem now is the gunpowder."
"What's wrong with gunpowder?" Wan Yanchang asked.
"There are two main problems with gunpowder. The first is the fineness. The other party's gunpowder is ground too finely, just like flour. I really don't know how it is ground. The second is the formula. The other party's gunpowder formula is different from ours.
"
"Then how do you solve it?"
"To solve the problem of fineness, we can only purify it repeatedly and dry it in the sun. Then we ordered a copper mill, which can be used to grind it to a fine powder. It is estimated that it will be solved in a few days."
Wan Yanchang nodded. He was quite satisfied with this answer. At least the other party was trying to solve the problem and could solve it.
"Can the formula problem be solved?"
Yang Jinggong's face suddenly turned red, and there were beads of sweat all over his face. Cui Jiu also noticed that Yang Jinggong just made it easy. I'm afraid the real difficulty lies in the gunpowder formula.
"What, is it difficult?"
Yang Jinggong knelt down and cried: "Marshal Du, we have killed three craftsmen in order to test the gunpowder formula. It is really too difficult."
Everyone looked at each other, and Wan Yanchang quickly said: "Don't cry yet. Why did the craftsman die? Did it explode accidentally?"
"Two were burned to death by gunpowder explosion, and an old craftsman died from exhaustion."
"Tell me, why is the recipe so difficult?"
Yang Jinggong wiped away his tears and said: "Generally, formulas are written on paper. We can understand what materials to use and what proportions to use. But without a formula, and the gunpowder is so thin, we can't tell the proportions and materials at all. We can only go back and forth again and again."
An experiment was conducted to compare the explosive effect. It has been tested hundreds of times. The ten kilograms of gunpowder taken out of the iron fire mine only left less than one kilogram. It still did not produce the violent explosion effect, and I did not dare to try it again.
We suspect that there may be other materials mixed in, and this material is very important, or the quality of the fire salt is different."
"You mean, you can't imitate it?" Wan Yanchang understood, and his face suddenly became very ugly.
"We have not given up. What I mean is that iron fire thunder is not that easy to make. It requires many years of experiments. We have to test the formula at least thousands of times and require hundreds of thousands of kilograms of gunpowder. But now the output of gunpowder
It’s not high, but we also need to ensure the use of gunpowder barrels in combat, and we need time.”
"Just tell me, how much time will it take?" Wan Yanchang could hardly restrain himself.
"Three years or five years."
"fart!"
Wan Yanchang slapped his hand on the table and said angrily: "In three to five years, the grass on my grave will grow three feet high. How can I have so much time for you to waste? I will give you one year.
If we can’t make it within the year, we’ll all be killed!”
Yang Jinggong was so frightened that he crawled away. Wanyanchang was extremely angry. The iron fire thunder that he had spent 50,000 yuan and worked hard to get fell into the hands of a bunch of fools, and he was about to use up the gunpowder.
It's over, not even a thing has been created, and it will take another three to five years, why don't they die?
At this time, Wanyan exhorted Lisa and advised: "Let Wang Shuang and the others think of a way to get the formula as much as possible. If the officials can't do it, then we can start with the firearms maker."
Cui Jiuye said: "Maybe let the Song Dynasty put pressure. They also want Iron Fire Thunder, the physical object and the formula. We can just get it from the Song Dynasty."
Wan Yanchang nodded, "You are all right, you can give it a try. In addition, I still decided to attack Taiyuan Mansion, otherwise I will regret losing this opportunity!"