Iron Dynasty

Your Majesty, Cao Zhengyang has explained everything.

Entering the imperial study, Li San handed a confession to Xiao Ming.

Since Cao Zhengyang was arrested, they have been interrogated one after another for a month. At the beginning, Cao Zhengyang's mouth was very hard, and he refused to admit that he was instigated by the Cao family to deliberately destroy. Even if Li San used some criminal methods, Cao Zhengyang still refused to say it.

In the end, Li San had to put Cao Zhengyang in the confinement room, and wake him up whenever Cao Zhengyang was about to fall asleep. After insisting on this for three days, Cao Zhengyang, who could not stand this mental torture, finally vomited it all out. .

It really was an order from Cao Kun. Xiao Ming glanced at the confession and said, Cao Zhengyang made it clear that it was Cao Kun who sent him the message.

In addition, Cao Zhengyang also explained some important information about the state of Chu.

The Merchant Council was established a month ago, and now Cao Kun is the chairperson. Cao Zhengyang's elder brother, Cao Zhengtong, is the long history of the Wei palace. According to Cao Zhengyang, the Merchant Council is planning to gain military power. If they succeed, the Chu king will become It's a puppet. Li San was also a little shocked by these news. In his opinion, a businessman's pursuit of government affairs has shocked the world, and now he is trying to get his hands on the army.

Xiao Ming was also a little surprised, The King of Chu must be crazy. Once he gains military power, the state of Chu will be the Cao family's final decision.

The state of Chu knows the West better than we do, and the Cao family has talked to the King of Chu more than once about the monarchs of the West. Between life and death, he may trust the Cao family more. Li San said cautiously.

Xiao Ming sighed, the problem now lies in this place, no matter how he shows his goodwill, the King of Chu has always refused to believe him. He now firmly believes that even if he surrenders, Xiao Ming will eventually kill him. He can only say that Chu is too smart .

He said: You're right, now the King of Chu doesn't believe me anyway, so he won't surrender to me at all.

Li San laughed when he heard the words, and he said: Your Majesty, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The King of Chu has some scruples when we do it. If the Cao family controls the Merchant Council and gains military power, then the Emperor will not have to worry about the King of Chu, no matter what the King of Chu is against. Or not, there are good reasons for us to go south, if the emperor wants to make Chu State appear as quickly as possible, perhaps the emperor can send secret guards to assassinate the king of Chu.”

Xiao Ming also thought of this. Now that Li Chuyuan, the heir of the King of Chu, is in Qingzhou, once the King of Chu died, Li Chuyuan must return to the throne. This is the rule of the Great Yu Kingdom.

The King of Chu may be willing to share his rights with others in order to steal his life, but Li Chuyuan will not agree, after all, he is the next King of Chu.

I thought the same thing, since the King of Chu let me not live in peace, why did I let the King of Chu live in peace? As long as the King of Chu dies, I can let Li Chuyuan go back to fight the Cao family. I can't say that Li Chuyuan would still ask me at that time. Send troops to rescue him, what do you think?

Xiao Ming made up his mind, as the so-called soldier, the major event of the country, the place of life and death, the way to survive, must not be ignored, and war cannot be willful at any time. The contemporary United States is in the Vietnam War, and the failure of North Korea is enough to illustrate this problem.

Advanced weapons may not necessarily be able to achieve victory in war, or even victory has to pay a heavy price.

And this is not what Xiao Ming wants to see, so even if Dayu Kingdom is equipped with advanced firearms, he still decides to fight every war, and does everything he can to reduce losses, or directly defeat the enemy without fighting.

Your Majesty is wise, in this way, it will buy time for the deployment of the army, reduce casualties, and at the same time be well-known in the division. Li San said.

Xiao Ming continued to read the news revealed by Cao Zhengyang. In addition to the parliament and the army, the Cao family and France were also hooking up and buying a lot of Western firearms.

At the same time, other merchants who supported the king of Chu also spared no effort to help the king of Chu, trying to get rid of his rule.

It looks like I'm going to have a serious talk with Li Chuyuan, and by the way, I'll fan him on fire. Xiao Ming said with a smile.

After a pause, he said, Are you confident in assassinating the King of Chu?

Li San laughed twice, he said: Your Majesty, it is said that Song Changping is developing a musket that loads ammunition from the butt of the gun. This musket can be fired in any position, and its accuracy and rate of fire are better than those of the conscripted musket. If It is not a big problem if the emperor can give a musket like this to a lower official.

It is not surprising that Li San knew this secret, because Song Changping, Lin Wentao and others were all under the surveillance of the secret guards, and it was normal for Li San to get some information.

Even if there is any movement on Song Changping's side, Li San will know, even before he knows.

As soon as he finished speaking, a little eunuch came to the door and whispered a few words to Qian Dafu. Qian Dafu smiled and said, Your Majesty, this really means Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrived, and Song Changping asked to see him outside the palace.

Xiao Ming squinted at Li San and said, It seems that you already know.

Li San smiled and scratched his head.

After waiting for a while, Song Changping came to the door of the imperial study. When he saw Song Changping holding a musket in his hand, he was surprised: Song Changping, isn't this a breech gun?

Song Changping nodded, and he said, Exactly, Xiaguan has already tested it on the school grounds. This musket can be fired directly with paper-shell bullets, but because of the complex locking structure, I am afraid it will be difficult to refit the muskets in large quantities, after all. There are only 63 parts on the locking mechanism, and many parts have different shapes, in order to produce such parts, a more precise machine tool is required.”

Xiao Ming understands, Song Changping is not here to take credit this time, but to complain. In fact, the latching structure requires high machining accuracy. This kind of accuracy requires a high-precision lathe to achieve, otherwise mass production will not be possible. .

It is thought that the difference in the size of the parts cannot be assembled at all.

As if to explain the breech gun in his hand, he said: This gun was polished by the subordinate himself and took a month to assemble. Even so, the combination of some parts is not very suitable, but in general, Barely usable.

Xiao Ming took the breech gun. The locking structure of this gun was provided to Song Changping. Generally speaking, this gun is somewhat similar to the Sharps breech gun. The trigger guard acts as a lever to drive a liftable blocking block to move up and down to open and close the chamber.

The most difficult part is one of the hinge structures. This structure has many parts, which is also the processing difficulty that Song Changping said.

Originally, I was ready to find you after I was busy with the currency. Xiao Ming said: This gun is only used as a sniper rifle in the army for the time being. Since it is difficult, I will artificially manufacture a small amount of equipment for the army. I asked Lin Wentao to think about this precision. The lathe thing.