Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

"Although your husband and I have won consecutive battles and are invincible in the world, that is known to everyone, but now everyone does not know my reputation.

But now I can’t feel happy, instead I’m getting more and more nervous, I don’t know why, I always feel that I used to do things based on my feelings, but now I have to go through my brain three times before doing things....”

This feeling is indeed very strange. Logically speaking, according to the laws of history, people with such feats of consecutive victories should become more and more drifting. Most people in history are like that, but now he actually I found that I couldn't float even more, but became more nervous.

Could it be the sequelae of reading too many history books?

In any case, he is more nervous and careful now.

"Isn't that a good thing? People value self-examination, and many people can't see their own limitations." Zhao Shijian slowly leaned on his chest and said.

Shi Congyun relaxed and said casually, "This is also true. Admitting that one is inferior to others and admitting one's limited ability is the fundamental psychological basis for uniting and employing others."

"Well, but in my heart, you will always be the most powerful..." Zhao Shijian said in a low voice.

Seeing his charming wife, beautiful as jade, shy and cute, Shi Congyun suddenly became beastly: "Hey, that husband has given you a lot of insight!"

The two were about to have a good time, when the servant girl came in to report that someone was looking for him.

Shi Congyun was furious, and immediately said: "Whoever he is, let him go back! I'm doing something big."

Zhao Shijian grabbed him repeatedly, and pushed him out to meet people with a blushing face.

Shi Congyun was very upset, he went out to meet people with a dark face and drenched in the drizzle, but when he saw the person who came was actually Li Chuyun, when the wind blew, the sperm ran away, and most of the people were awake.

Lian smiled and asked Li Chuyun to come in and talk.

Li Chuyun's talent has already been demonstrated in the Huainan battlefield. He has experienced a lot, and his experience has taught him, so he can often say something that makes Shi Congyun feel fresh and new.

In the main hall, Shi Congyun served him tea directly. He had established a rule in the army that he could not drink alcohol when discussing matters.

Li Chuyun said directly: "The commander asked me to think about the fight against Nanping and Wuping before. I have some ideas and want to talk to the commander."

Although the Battle of Huainan was over, the veterans under his command still used to call him Marshal.

"Let's hear if you have any ideas." Shi Congyun became interested. Li Chuyun is a very measured person, so he wouldn't come to him just for something unimportant.

Li Chuyun said: "Commander, I think that if we fight Nanping and Wuping this time, it will be different from any previous battles."

"What's the difference?"

"In the past, when we fought against Khitan and Northern Han, it was a life-and-death battle. They wanted to take advantage of the new king's succession and kill me for a long time.

Fighting with Shu and Tang is to attack the city and seize the territory, and the other party also has the heart of defending the territory, even if they have lost consecutive battles, they are still struggling.

But now fighting Nanping and Wuping is a battle to destroy the country, and we must completely eradicate them! "

"You mean they will fight in the end?" Shi Congyun asked.

Li Chuyun shook his head: "Someone thinks they won't!

Marshal, their ideas are different from those of the Northern Han Dynasty. They have no deep hatred with our dynasty. Whether it is Wang Baorong or Zhou Xingfeng, the grass-headed kings of these two places, they have always been respectful to me, Da Zhou.

So they are hesitant instead. Naturally, they can attack us with all their might, but what if they can't?

If you surrender directly, you can still maintain your prosperity and wealth, but if you lose the battle, you may die.

But if they were asked to surrender directly, hand over their territory and soldiers, and not be emperors, they would be reluctant, so they must be hesitant in their hearts, and the resistance would not be as fierce as that of Tang and Shu. "

Shi Congyun understood Li Chuyun's meaning, "It is very likely that there will be no bloodshed in this battle?"

"It's hard to say if the soldiers are not bloody, but in the past, the battle was based on force to make the opponent submit, but this time I feel that it is different from the previous ones. As long as the temptation of profit is the first, and the attack is supplemented, it will be easier. .”

Shi Congyun felt a little enlightened, and he didn't agree blindly, "What you said makes sense.

But I have to think about it carefully. I can't make a hasty conclusion on such a big matter, and I can't perfuse a dedicated person like you, so I have to calm down and think about it for a while. "

"Marshal Gao Yi." Li Chuyun also knew how to behave, and he was neither anxious nor dissatisfied.

Later, Li Chuyun pointed out: "The chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Tang capital, and many things were lost. We don't even have a detailed map (map) of Nanping and Wuping. Some people think that these things are necessary to fight."

"Do you have a solution?" Shi Congyun asked. Since Li Chuyun proposed it, he must have thought of a solution.

Li Chuyun nodded, "Marshal, you can send an envoy to find an excuse to go to Wuping and Nanping. When the time comes, I will follow him and pretend to be an escort, and write down the mountains, rivers and roads of the two places."

Li Chuyun showed that he really wanted to make contributions, and Shi Congyun also felt that this was a good way, and he knew that this matter could not be delayed. It was already the end of February, and if he sent troops in June, there was not much time left.

So he made a decision immediately, "Tomorrow I will go to the official and say, if the matter succeeds, you will be the first to do it!"

Li Chuyun said happily: "Thank you, Marshal, for supporting me!"

........

In the afternoon, Li Chuyun was kept for dinner, and then he was sent away. However, Li Chuyun was very touched by Li Chuyun's discussion on the fight against Nanping and Wuping that "attacking the mind is the first, attacking is supplemented by attacking, and using lures".

In the evening, he thought about Li Chuyun's words carefully again, and felt more and more reasonable.

Wuping and Nanping are not strong enough, and they have a good relationship with Dazhou. If surrendering can guarantee their wealth, if they fight a few more battles to frighten them, then maybe they really surrendered. .

But these are just taken for granted, and the specific situation will not be known until there, but Li Chuyun's suggestion is firmly in his mind.

.......

The next day, Shi Congyun went to the palace to ask to see the officials, and explained the fact that they were going to fight without a map, and told Li Chuyun's strategy.

The officials also agree that it is very disadvantageous to fight without a map and not to know the local topography.

In the end, the officials thought about it for a while, and handed over the task to Hanlin Bachelor Lu Duoxun, who was an old acquaintance of Shi Congyun again.

Lu Duosun was also a courageous person after he was summoned. He didn't refuse after hearing what he said, and he agreed directly, which was equivalent to letting him be a scout as a scholar.

At the same time, Shi Congyun proposed to let Li Chuyun serve as his deputy, nominally to be the leader of the guards who escorted him, but in fact he followed to draw maps of the two places.

As for the reasons for the mission, there are too many reasons, so the official made up one casually, "Just say that I will reward them for their contribution to attacking Huainan, and their loyalty is commendable. matter."

The official words are very domineering. These two people did accept the princes conferred by Da Zhou, but they are only superficial relationships between monarchs and ministers, and they are not under the control of Da Zhou. They are still two independent regimes.

After this trip was arranged, Shi Congyun relaxed a lot.

So far, all the preliminary preparations he can think of for attacking Hunan and Hubei have been basically completed. The more prepared he is, the less nervous he is...

Chapter 187, Experiment

At the beginning of March, the sky turned fine, and the matter of military expansion was finally settled.

After discussing with Wei Renpu and others of the Privy Council, the officials agreed to his proposal, and two veteran generals, Li Hanchao and Wang Quanbin, were the commanders of the third and fourth chambers of the crane.

The subsequent military expansion operations will be entrusted to them to preside over them.

Shi Congyun finally found time to relax completely. Apart from going to the gunpowder factory in the north of the city from time to time, and going straight to the Si Yamen in front of the palace, he didn't have much to do.

In March, Lu Duoxun, as an envoy, set off with Li Chuyun to Nanping and Wuping, intending to take the opportunity to draw maps of the two places.

Zhang Yongde led an army of [-] to go north, out of the town of Hebei, and guard against the Khitan going south.

After that, Shi Congyun became the de facto leader of the Dianqian Division, and many things needed to be decided by him.

And because his prestige in the army is too high, everyone is very convinced. On the contrary, the decisions he made can be implemented more quickly, and the efficiency of the work below is higher than when Zhang Yongde was there. This is an unexpected result.

After being free, Shi Congyun cooks by himself, making twice-cooked pork, sweet and sour fish, stir-fried lamb liver, etc. He is not good at it, but it is absolutely rare in this era. I sent a lot to my dad.

The style of dishes and rice these days is relatively simple, not because people are stupid, there were many tricks in the Tang Dynasty.The main reason is that it is too poor now, and ordinary people can live well if they can eat white rice and noodles, and there have been years of wars and panic, so who has the heart to toss about those.

On March [-], the sky cleared up and the sun began to burn.

Shi Congyun, Luqiu Zhongqing, and Guo Tingwei went to the gunpowder factory outside the city to watch the experiment of new gunpowder.

Feng Jisheng was waiting for them outside the north gate, and then went to the river together.

In order to test the power of different proportions of gunpowder, Shi Congyun made full preparations. He asked someone to make a large pottery jar with a radius of one meter and a depth of about half a meter. He filled it with clay and dug a pit by the river to bury it.

Take one catty of gunpowder in all proportions, seal it in a small jar with mud, bury it in the clay in a large vat, ignite it with a fuse, and finally look at the effects of the clay being squeezed and destroyed to see the power of various gunpowder. .

Everyone felt that this was too troublesome, but Shi Congyun didn't think that the matter was so important that he had to be more rigorous.

In the afternoon, under the expectant eyes of everyone, the first round of explosion experiments began.

Five large jars filled with clay were buried by the river, and only the edge leaked out, and then the gunpowder craftsmen stuffed the gunpowder sealed with mud in the earthen jar.

So much clay is very hard, the workers pried it with iron rods for a long time, and Li Chuyun also rolled up his sleeves to help, and it took a long time to stuff a few clay pots into it.

Shi Congyun took the shovel and patted the clay one by one to ensure the tightest clay.

Shi Congyun didn't set fire to it until he confirmed that the clay in several large vats was very compact.

Feng Jisheng took out a fire pocket, blew on it for a while, and slowly built an open flame and ignited the fuse.

Everyone retreated dozens of steps away, all staring at the position of Mars.

After a while, there was a sound of violent burning slowly in the distance, followed by a muffled sound, the tiles spewed upwards, and the blue smoke rose slowly, gradually rising into the sky, and the surrounding thick and hard clay had little effect , but the surrounding area was blackened.

The people who were nervously waiting and watching were relieved at first, and then they became disappointed.

"This is not as good as the original gunpowder." Luqiu Zhongqing sighed, and the others didn't speak, but looked at him.

"That's right, the power of this ratio is not as good as the original formula of the Ministry of War. It should be burning slowly and not enough." Shi Congyun concluded, and after he finished speaking, everyone began to discuss.

After a while, Shi Congyun went over to take a closer look, and found that the earthen jar had been torn apart, and there was still a lot of gunpowder left at the bottom. This kind of formula had the lowest proportion of saltpeter, only [-]%, and it was obvious that it could not even burn fully. arrive.

The power of gunpowder is mainly in the very violent combustion, which produces a large amount of gas in an instant, increases the air pressure in an instant, releases a large amount of energy, and bursts out in an instant. Pottery pots cannot exert the power of gunpowder. Song people know that gunpowder can be wrapped in an iron shell. Play the power of gunpowder, but clay pots can more directly see which proportion of gunpowder burns more intensely and thoroughly.

Soon, a second ratio of gunpowder was experimented with.

This time, there was a loud noise, which instantly shattered the earthen pot and exploded a lot of clay. The blue smoke no longer rose one after another, but a neat mass. After rising slowly, the height of the treetops began to disperse. open.

The huge explosion startled everyone present, Guo Ting said immediately: "This strength can kill people!"

Shi Congyun hurried over to see that this time the clay was blasted into a hole over one foot, and many clods were blown out. There are many black deposits.

Guo Tingwei and others were discussing enthusiastically with Feng Jisheng there, but Shi Congyun frowned. The burning ratio was still not intense enough, so he even called Feng Jisheng who was excited because he had spoken to Guo Tingwei and other high-ranking officials.

"Don't be happy yet, hurry up and blow up the next one."

Feng Jisheng nodded and continued to try.

The next power is still similar to the previous one. Everyone present can see that it is far more powerful than the dispensable gunpowder used in the previous naval equipment, and they are discussing happily.

But Shi Congyun felt that it was not enough. He had seen the power of black powder and smokeless gunpowder in later generations, so naturally he would not be overwhelmed by this small scene.

Instead, he ran over every time the explosion was over, and found that there were still many unburned particles remaining in the explosion crater, which indicated that the gunpowder did not meet expectations. This ratio may not be the best, because the combustion is not sufficient.

However, he couldn't determine whether it was a problem with the ratio, or it might be that the raw materials had a lot of impurities, which caused insufficient combustion, so he was anxious to try it down.

"Marshal, next is the ratio of [-]% fire nitrate, [-]% sulfur, and [-]% charcoal powder, which is also the last one." Feng Jisheng cupped his hands and reported to him.

Guo Ting, who was next to him, said that Luqiu Zhongqing and others had already talked about it. Today, the power of this gunpowder has greatly exceeded their expectations. It is not the kind of navy equipment they saw before, but it is very weak.

Whether this thing can kill people when it blows up, they started an inspiring discussion, and finally they all felt that if the distance is close enough to kill people, that's enough. In the eyes of those who fight, anything that can kill is a good thing!

Shi Congyun nodded, "Let's get started."

Feng Jisheng agreed, proceeded to ignite the fuse step by step, and then retreated. This time, he and everyone retreated farther away, because the power of gunpowder continued to increase, and everyone retreated further and further away.

While everyone was waiting quietly with their eyes fixed on it, there was a flash of orange-red fire in the distance, which dissipated in an instant, and the clay rose from the ground like a ring, which was quickly torn into countless pieces and scattered in all directions.

Then an explosion sounded in my ears, and the ground under my feet trembled suddenly. When I regained my senses, I saw a large cloud of blue smoke slowly rising into the air in the distance, and I heard crackling sounds in my ears one after another. Earth and rocks splashed and hit the surrounding grass.

Everyone was stunned, and Lu Qiu Zhongqing, the oldest student, was so frightened that his lips turned white, his hands and feet were trembling, and he shrank back. Shi Congyun was afraid that he would fall, so he even reached out to support him.

"This...this is the Taoist fairy method!" Feng Jisheng was frightened first and said, his grandfather was a Taoist priest, and he learned the gunpowder formula from a Taoist priest, so his lips trembled when he thought of this the first time said.

"Go, go, grandpa, am I not a god!" Shi Congyun suppressed the excitement in his heart and cursed: "Where is the fairy method, it is that your previous formula was wrong, and you added too many messy things.

The way of heaven is permanent, it does not exist for Yao, and it does not perish for Jie. I just found the law in it. "

After he finished speaking, he hurried over to have a look. This time, a kilogram of gunpowder left a big pit over two feet in size. A lot of clay in the center was blown away, and the bottom of the pit was scorched black.

The burning just now must have been very intense, because the flames only flashed by for a moment, and the burst of all the energy in an instant is the most terrifying part of gunpowder.

Shi Congyun looked at it carefully for a while, and asked Feng Jisheng to continue to fill the gunpowder with the same ratio, and was going to try to explode it again.

This time, it was not used to test its strength with clay, but it was placed in an open space, and the reeds cut by the river were inserted in a circle around the side every other step, in order to try the range of the explosion.

This time there was no clay barrier, and the explosive nature of this new gunpowder was instantly reflected. With a bang, all the reeds within five steps were broken, and the broken ceramic pieces were still hitting the grass and the earth wall in the distance. , with a crack of the whip.

Several people were very excited, Guo Tingwei took the lead and said: "This kind of thing is more than enough to kill people. If it is thrown in the horse army, it can also startle the horse!"

"Put it in a clay pot, seal it with mud, ignite the lead wire and throw it into the army or the city with a catapult. It will definitely have great results." Luqiu Zhongqing suggested excitedly.

Shi Congyun shook his head, "Think about it, if you throw a few hundred steps over, if you return the earthen jar, it will shatter when it hits the ground, and all the gunpowder inside will be spilled, so what's the use.

The outer casing must be made of iron, the more compressed the gas produced by the gunpowder, the greater the power of the explosion, the outer iron casing will crack, and it can kill people more than ceramic pieces..."

Shi Congyun was also very excited and told them the most primitive idea of ​​using gunpowder, the iron cannon.

The three of them nodded and marveled as they listened, and their eyes became brighter and brighter.