"Of course I think so. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Zhao Jue and others from the north also sent secret messages one after another, explaining the strangeness."
Guo Ning returned to sit down and continued: "I have been thinking about it all night. The things I thought of are really exciting and worrying at times."
"Oh? Your Majesty, please listen to me and see if my joys and sorrows are consistent with your Majesty's."
"Qing Jin, please speak." Guo Ning took a large porcelain bowl and poured a bowl of tea for Yelu Chucai.
Yelu Chucai is a descendant of the Khitan royal family. His family is also a high-ranking family in the Jin Kingdom. Now he is the prime minister of the great dynasty. In terms of daily life enjoyment, he is not exempt from vulgarity and is very standard. For someone like Guo Ning, who has a big bowl of coarse tea,
Even worse than the concierge at Yelu Chucai's house.
But he didn't care at all. He picked up the porcelain bowl and drank several sips.
"Our army's layout in northern Xinjiang is based on fortresses as locks, roads as chains, and strong soldiers boldly attack and sweep away. It is very different from the Jurchens' layer-by-layer fortification and layer-by-layer paper system. If the Mongolian army goes south,
Once they are blocked by the continuous passes from Hengdai to Youyan, they will be trapped in a dragnet composed of more than 220 strong forts."
He put the bowl on the table gently:
"Even if the Mongolian army gathers together, it will be difficult to remove the continuous iron chain. If they disperse to eat, firstly, there will be no villages and herds to plunder. Secondly, many of our forts will control water sources and grasslands. Therefore, this area
The fortress area is undoubtedly a dead place for the Mongolian army! And the longer they patrol, the more they lose the advantage of cavalry mobility, and the more they face logistical supply problems...the more dangerous they become."
Guo Ning nodded: "If this situation continues, it will be like what the art of war says: the front and rear are not in contact with each other, the numbers are not relying on each other, the high and low are not helping each other, the superiors and the inferiors are not cooperating, the soldiers are separated but not gathered together, and the troops are united but not unified.
In this way, the actions of the Mongols are actually within my control, which is a great joy."
"But I'm afraid this great news is not true. We all know that the Mongols' war strategy seems to be taught by heaven. They are best at advancing and retreating, criticizing the weak and criticizing the weak...Why did they abandon their own skills and linger in this dead place?"
Yelu Chucai said in a deep voice:
"There is no doubt that it was because of the sudden appearance of a batch of gunpowder weapons, such as Japanese iron artillery, or Japanese thunder. With this, they successively captured the refugee villages in the mountains, blocking our eyes and ears to a certain extent.
Relying on this, they took over Linhuang Mansion, an important stronghold we built with great care, and they might even be able to overturn our forts one by one, swallowing up our soldiers and civilians on the frontier and the wealth we have accumulated over the years! This is enough
The big trouble that shakes up the comparison of military strength between the two sides is naturally worry. Not to mention..."
Yelu Chucai's words paused for a moment. Guo Ning leaned back. His eyes crossed the eaves of the pavilion and into the sky. The autumn north wind was carrying clouds, rolling past the high sky, and occasionally rolling up accumulated clouds.
The fallen leaves on the top of the pavilion were swirling and flying south.
Guo Ning said slowly: "The fighting spirit of the soldiers is commendable. The interests of the army and the government and the public are also bound to the safety of Northern Xinjiang. Due to emotions and reasons, we all need to give the Mongols a head-on blow. With the elite of our army, with our
In terms of advance preparations and the strategy of reducing troops in northern Xinjiang to lure the enemy, it is natural that we should give the Mongols a head-on blow. But if the Mongols have the advantage of firearms... the battle will not be the original way.
"
Although it is people who determine victory or defeat, the role of weapons must not be ignored. Guo Ning knows the importance of firearms better than anyone else, so he is more wary than anyone about the Mongols suddenly acquiring a large number of firearms.
.
He is the commander and soul of the entire army. Even if he has doubts in his heart, he cannot express them easily. Once expressed, it will definitely shake the morale of the army. It can even be said that if the commander is shaken, the soldiers at the grassroots level may collapse. Therefore, he never mentioned this item from beginning to end.
I couldn't help but express my doubts a little bit when facing Yelu Chucai.
He looked away from the height and saw Yelu Chucai on the other side shaking his head slightly.
s??????.???
"Qing Jin doesn't think so?"
"I understand your Majesty's worries. However, is this worry true?"
"You mean..."
Yelu Chucai took out a scroll of documents from his sleeve and spread it out on the table: "Your Majesty, please take a look. The production of gunpowder weapons is inseparable from four things, namely charcoal, nitrate, sulfur, and iron. The production of these four things
The source and consumption are recorded here respectively.”
Guo Ning stretched his neck and watched Yelu Chucai pointing and explaining:
"The consumption of charcoal is included in daily needs. Excluding what is taken locally in Zhongdu and Tianjin Prefecture, the amount of charcoal transported from Shandong, Hedong and other places just for factories every year is nearly 400,000."
"Nitrogen is produced in Zezhou, Fenzhou, Daming and other places. The method of extracting nitrate was originally to boil the spring water and then scrape it. Since last year, it has been changed to kneading and mixing five egg whites for every ten kilograms of nitrate, then boiling and filtering.
For this reason, more than 40 chicken farms have been built in Zezhou alone. However, because chicken plague is prone to occur, the supply of egg whites is unstable, so we often have to make do with water glue, radish, saponins and the like."
"As for sulfur, it is very rare in the area and is abundant in the Japanese country. Most of the nitrate produced in the Japanese country was imported into the Southern Dynasty. In early April of this year, the Southern Dynasty solicited 500,000 jins of sulfur from merchants in the Japanese city, and divided it into 100,000 jins.
The order was taken into custody by officials and shipped back to Mingzhou. This transaction greatly affected our normal rhythm of purchasing sulfur and directly caused the shutdown of two major factories in Laizhou and Tianjin."
At this point, Yelu Chucai chuckled twice and continued calmly: "Fortunately, after Yin Chang took control of the political situation in Goryeo, we contacted Dongfu Temple and Tianlong Temple in Japan through the local jungle. Those two
Both families are powerful monks who have expanded sea trade under the banner of seeking Buddhism. They are expected to be able to slightly make up for the losses in the first half of the year. However, the monks of those two families are all gluttons, so they asked five of our sea ships to go there.
There is iron..."
Guo Ning really couldn't pay attention to the specific production details of charcoal, nitrate, and sulfur. Only a man like Yelu Chucai, who was able to take care of everything every day and be hands-on, could sort it out calmly. But iron is the lifeblood of the military and the imperial court has a dedicated
The staff kept an eye on it day and night, and documents were submitted every few days.
At that moment he said:
"Let alone iron. The output of vertical furnaces is variable, and there is always the risk of the blast furnace collapsing. Every time the molten iron hurts people and damages experienced craftsmen, it takes a long time to replenish it, and the compensation later is also troublesome. What's more,
Needless to say, every time a mine is mined to produce iron, the local monsters and monsters want to get involved. To proceed properly, it is impossible without cutting off dozens of heads..."
Yelu Chucai stretched out his hand to hold down the document: "In order to stably produce gunpowder weapons, we need your Majesty's attention, the attention of the princes in the court and the generals of the army, and the two ministries of industry and commerce, including water, weapons, salt and iron, and camp maintenance. The coordination of nine departments including business law, craftsmanship, etc. requires the resource output of more than 20 military states, more than 60 local government offices, and more than 800 supporting businesses and factories. Does Mongolia have these?"
Guo Ning slapped his forehead, then stood up proudly:
"Mongolia can't have it! At least, in less than half a year after the main Mongolian army returned to the grassland, they couldn't come up with such a complete system anyway! The Mongols don't have the resources, manpower and system to make gunpowder weapons, but they Such wanton use of iron artillery... there must be something wrong with it!"
"Perhaps, the Mongols obtained a batch of iron artillery from somewhere through special means, and then used them to show their strength, showing that they have the ability to swallow up many fortifications in northern Xinjiang in one fell swoop?"
"I will immediately ask Xu Jin to investigate the origin of the iron artillery in the hands of the Mongolian army."
Guo Ning paused and then said: "Let's put aside the joys and sorrows brought by gunpowder weapons and continue to think about it. The Mongols deliberately showed their strength and threatened the survival of many soldiers and civilians in the forts in northern Xinjiang. It is clear that They want to encourage our army to move northward with a strong main force. Why do they do this? Where is their confidence?"