Chapter 323 Development of Firearms!

Changqing Prefecture, in the Zhenwu Army camp.

After listening to Shen Jianzhong's account of what happened in Fengzhou, Chen Dechang fell into silence. After a while, he raised his head and asked in confusion:
"Sir Shen, I know it makes sense, but has the Cui family really decided to support Ye Mingsheng?"

Chen Dechang's question was within Shen Jianzhong's expectations. He smiled bitterly and said:

"Master Chen, the question you asked is the one I was thinking about all the way back!"

"According to the information I received, Cui Dakai did appear in Fengzhou during that period. I have read the letter that Cui Shao wrote to Ye Mingsheng and can basically confirm that it is Cui Shao's handwriting. Although the letter was taken back by Ye Mingsheng, I have released some news through some channels to see how the Cui family reacts..."

"The Cui family has remained silent until now, which is very telling. If the incident is fake and Ye Mingsheng staged it himself, then the Cui family, who were used by him, will definitely not sit idly by!"

"In my opinion, there is a high probability that the Cui family has some ideas about Ye Mingsheng. Even if they haven't reached the stage of a direct alliance yet, they should be interested in starting contact."

"Fortunately, Ye Mingsheng himself is also wary of the Cui family and is very cautious about joining forces with the Cui family. However, if we force Ye Mingsheng, it is very likely that he will be pushed to the Cui family's side, which will be very unfavorable for us."

Listening to Shen Jianzhong's explanation, Chen Dechang sighed slightly, still somewhat unwillingly saying:
"30,000 taels of silver, 100,000 shi of grain, and a bunch of other conditions. Ye Mingsheng is such a greedy bastard. How could I have trusted this sinister guy?"

"Alas... the money and food of the Zhenwu Army have already been distributed to various cities. If we withdraw more of them now, it will definitely affect the war preparedness and the morale of the officers and soldiers on the front line..."

Hearing what Chen Dechang said, Shen Jianzhong frowned slightly. He naturally heard the hidden meaning of this old man's words!
But at this moment, everyone was in the same boat, and Shen Jianzhong was too lazy to argue with him. He pondered for a moment and said:
"We can take the thirty thousand taels of silver that Ye Mingsheng wants, and I can also negotiate with the Dalongchang Trading Company, but the Supervisory Department does not store food and fodder, and has no craftsmen, so you, Lord Chen, have to prepare these two things!"

Seeing that Shen Jianzhong was willing to pay, Chen Jianzhong, who had originally had a bitter face, immediately softened a lot. After thinking for a while, he pretended to be very embarrassed and nodded and said:

"We still have some food and fodder in our camp. If we gather them together, it should be enough for 100,000 dan. As for the craftsmen, we can just grab some from the city..."

"Then let's do as Lord Shen wishes! Thank you Lord Shen for your understanding of the righteousness!" At the end, Chen Dechang bowed to Shen Jianzhong.

"Master Chen, your words are really embarrassing for me. We are all working for the Prime Minister. I will definitely not refuse anything I can do!" Shen Jianzhong hurriedly bowed in return and said:
Chen Dechang was the commander of the Zhenwu Army, a third rank, while Shen Jianzhong was the pacification envoy of the Supervisory Office, a fourth rank. The two men were two levels apart. Not only that, Chen Dechang also had the title of Marquis Guangshun, and his status and position was far higher than Shen Jianzhong!
According to the rules of officialdom, Chen Dechang could call Shen Jianzhong by his name, and now Chen Dechang calling him "Sir Shen" was already a great courtesy to Shen Jianzhong and gave Shen Jianzhong a lot of face.

Although Chen Dechang gave him face, Shen Jianzhong also kept his own status and position very upright and did not overstep the line at all.

After discussing what to give to Ye Mingsheng, Chen Dechang changed the subject and looked at Shen Jianzhong and asked:
"Master Shen, what do you think of Ye Mingsheng's plan?"

Seeing that Chen Dechang was asking knowingly and deliberately testing him, Shen Jianzhong's eyes flickered a few times and he whispered:

"I can get the Khitans to send out troops!"

"Oh?"

Hearing what Shen Jianzhong said, Chen Dechang immediately became interested, and his old eyes glowed with light. He knew that Shen Jianzhong would never agree to Ye Mingsheng's conditions so easily...
Under Chen Dechang's gaze, Shen Jianzhong continued to preach:

"Ye Mingsheng has the smallest power, so all he wants is for us and Song Wenhui to fight to the death in the front, while he stands in the back and takes advantage of the conflict!"

"But he forgot one thing. There's an old saying that goes 'The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it!'"

"Your Excellency might as well agree to his plan first. Ye Mingsheng has no more than 25,000 soldiers and horses under his command. If he wants to be the one who fishes, he must mobilize all his forces to have a chance of defeating Song Wenhui!"

"If Ye Mingsheng attacks Fengzhou with all his strength, Fengzhou will be empty. By then, I will lure him with benefits and explain the pros and cons to him. I will definitely make the Khitans send troops to attack Fengzhou!"

"Once Fengzhou was destroyed, Ye Mingsheng immediately became a lost dog, a rootless duckweed!"

"Most of his men have settled down in Fengzhou. Even if Ye Mingsheng wants to occupy Dongning and take his time, his men will be eager to return and force him to return to Fengzhou. By that time, our army will have digested Song Wenhui's surrendered soldiers, and we will attack Ye Mingsheng from both sides with the Khitans. This thunderous momentum will surely win the battle!"

Hearing Shen Jianzhong's detailed plan, Chen Dechang's face showed some excitement. However, he was experienced and thought things through very carefully. After thinking for a while, he continued to ask Shen Jianzhong:
"Sir Shen, your plan is based on Ye Mingsheng defeating Song Wenhui with a fatal blow, but what should we do if Ye Mingsheng fails in his sneak attack?"

"Master Chen, don't worry, Song Wenhui will lose. From now on, he is just a dead body in a tomb, waiting to die!" Shen Jianzhong smiled mysteriously and said meaningfully:
Looking at Shen Jianzhong's smile, Chen Dechang seemed to understand something and asked tentatively, "Master Shen, do you have any other tricks?"

Facing Chen Dechang's gaze, Shen Jianzhong said confidently:
"Of course, when the Prime Minister set up this plan to unify the north, he was naturally confident that he could capture Liaoyang. However, now that an unexpected person, Ye Mingsheng, has appeared, this situation has become more uncertain!"

“But no one can stop this trend in the world. No matter whether it is Song Wenhui, Ye Mingsheng, or Cui Shao, they are nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot or an ant trying to shake a tree…”

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With the departure of Wang Muzhi and Shen Jianzhong, the troop deployment crisis came to an end, but Ye Mingsheng's daily life did not return to its usual calm.

As the smell of gunpowder in the air of Liaoyang became stronger and stronger, Ye Mingsheng's work schedule also changed greatly. Compared with his previous inspection visits to the North City Camp once every ten days or half a month, Ye Mingsheng's frequency of visiting the military camp has increased significantly recently, and he basically goes there every other day.

In addition, Ye Mingsheng also stopped his usual leisure activities, such as going to the teahouse to drink tea and listen to opera, and riding horses, and devoted his limited time to the development of the Artisan Camp.

With Ye Mingsheng's abundant resource support and the knowledge in his mind, the craftsmen's camp has made rapid progress in the research and production of firearms. Not only has it produced 500 Po Lu guns, but also thousands of three-barreled guns!
They have even independently mass-produced the Tiger Crouching Cannon and developed an improved version of the bird gun - the Weiyuan Gun!

This is also the reason why Ye Mingsheng did not ask Shen Jianzhong for more money and food during the previous negotiations, but asked for craftsmen. Ye Mingsheng needed a large number of craftsmen to carry out production.

Ye Mingsheng, who knows well that technology is the primary productive force, is really eager to recruit talents from these craftsmen and gives them the best treatment.

Ye Mingsheng knew very well that in today's chaotic world, the army was the guarantee of his power, and military power was his amulet...
Therefore, Ye Mingsheng attaches great importance to the construction of the army, which includes the loyalty of the army and the combat effectiveness of the army!
Loyalty and combat effectiveness complement each other and are indispensable!
If the army has no loyalty, no matter how strong its combat effectiveness is, it will be useless!
They can just use some tricks to win you over or divide you, without going to war, and your head will be cut off by your own people and given to others.
An army cannot win a battle without combat effectiveness. Even if it is very loyal, it will perish sooner or later if it is defeated repeatedly!

Therefore, while firmly grasping the military's financial and personnel power and brainwashing the soldiers with personal worship, Ye Mingsheng did not dare to neglect the development of firearms.

In today's world, he was born in a poor family, had no family support, and only had Fengzhou. In terms of the number of soldiers and horses, and the amount of money and food, he would never catch up with others...

Fortunately, although the number of soldiers and sufficient money and food have a very important impact on the army's combat effectiveness, they are not the only influencing factors!
Firearms were the only thing Ye Mingsheng could think of. They were the magic weapon in his hands to defeat the enemy. In order to make up for the shortage of manpower and money and food in his army with firearms equipment, Ye Mingsheng was very generous with his artisan camp. He basically spent nearly one thousand taels of silver every month on the research and development and production of firearms.

The huge investment also brought Ye Mingsheng rich returns. Based on Ye Mingsheng's guidance, the artisan camp was able to manufacture tiger squat cannons and improved versions of bird guns.

Although the tiger squat cannon was not a new thing in this era, since the craftsmen who could make it were generally in the hands of the imperial court, the tiger squat cannon was mainly equipped to the imperial guards.

Therefore, it is still very rare in Liaoyang, a remote border area, and craftsmen who can make it are even rarer.

Previously, the tiger squat cannons of Ye Mingsheng’s troops were all provided by Chen Dechang. However, as Ye Mingsheng and Chen Dechang fell out, the supply of tiger squat cannons for Ye Mingsheng’s troops was cut off. If one gun was broken, there was one less gun············

But the gunner operating the Tiger Crouching Cannon is a skilled worker. In order to help him improve his skills and accuracy, you have to feed him shells and let him conduct actual combat training. There is no other way. Only in this way can you unleash your power in a real battle and kill more enemies!
Ammunition is easy to deal with, as Ye Mingsheng has no shortage of it, but the problem is that the Tiger Squat Cannon itself is subject to wear and tear. The more you train and fire, the better the gunner's skills will be, and the more the wear and tear of the Tiger Squat Cannon will increase. The probability of it breaking down will also increase significantly. In one month, the Fengzhou Army lost eleven Tiger Squat Cannons.

Faced with this situation, Ye Mingsheng obviously had no good solution. He could only increase investment in the Artisan Camp, recruit more talents with huge sums of money, and let the Artisan Camp sign a military order to complete technical research and development within a time limit and start mass production...
Under the pressure exerted by Ye Mingsheng and the temptation of huge sums of money, the craftsman camp was very competitive and completed the task within the specified time limit. Now they can manufacture twenty tiger squat cannons every month and provide them to the army. The existence of these tiger squat cannons can be said to have greatly guaranteed the training quality of the Fengzhou Army.

Compared to the mass production of tiger squat cannons, the Artisan Camp did something more important and developed an improved version of the bird gun!
Compared with the three-barreled gun, which is the main firearm of the Zhou army, the bird gun is indeed more advantageous in some aspects.

From the perspective of later generations, the three-barreled gun is a matchlock gun, which is composed of a one-way open metal tube as the body tube, a small hole is set at the rear end of the launch tube for ignition, and a wooden stick or spear shaft is connected to the tail end of the launch tube, which is convenient for the shooter to hold, aim and control the launch.

The bird gun is a matchlock gun. It is indeed much stronger than the three-barreled gun in terms of shooting accuracy, range and power.

However, the three-barreled gun is not just a firearm. After shooting, it can also be used as a blunt instrument and is widely used...
In addition, compared with the bird gun, the three-barreled gun has a simple structure and is cheap to manufacture. Therefore, from the perspective of large-scale deployment, the three-barreled gun is also desirable.

Under the guidance of Ye Mingsheng, the craftsmen camp in Fengzhou combined the advantages of the bird guns equipped by the Great Zhou Dynasty and the Japanese iron cannons to create an improved version of the bird gun, which Ye Mingsheng named Weiyuan Gun.
Compared with ordinary bird guns or Japanese iron cannons, the Weiyuan gun not only has a significant improvement in range and power, but also has made great progress in firing rate. The Weiyuan gun can fire two bullets in the time it takes a bird gun or iron cannon to fire one bullet.

In addition, the Weiyuan gun has another advantage in manufacturing, that is, Ye Mingsheng optimized its structure, so that it requires fewer hours in the production process and the cost is also very cheap. Basically, one can be made with three taels of silver.

If the Eagle-beak Gun was the weapon that Ye Mingsheng prepared to use to deal with the enemy's cavalry, then the Weiyuan Gun was the nightmare that Ye Mingsheng prepared for the enemy's infantry...
Ye Mingsheng has already prepared six thousand taels of silver and plans to mass-produce two thousand Weiyuan guns to initially replace the three-barreled guns commonly equipped in the Fengzhou army and improve the army's combat effectiveness!

(End of this chapter)