Chapter 155: Chase "As Han Qing said, the Shahe defeat must be blamed on Zhu."
Zhu Bayi, Lu Zeng, Huang Laowai and others were thinking about how to divert the disaster to the west and win for the Huai'an army.
It’s time to “farm”.
In the capital city, there were a few pairs of sharp eyes staring closely at them.
"It's better for you, sir, to call me Xiaosi.
It feels comfortable.
The word "Hanqing" is used when you go out to call others, so as not to lose your face."
Tuo Tuo's childhood playmate, the housekeeper of the Prime Minister's Palace, Li Hanqing, bowed.
He lowered his body, feeling frightened.
"Here we go again."
Tuotuo glanced at him and shook his head slightly, "Since you were crowned weak, no one in the whole family has ever treated you as a slave."
This is a true statement.
For Li Hanqing, his playmate and book boy, all the men, women, old and children in Tuotuo Mansion respected him greatly.
What's rare is that Li Hanqing never relies on favor and is arrogant.
He always considers himself a slave willingly, as if only in this way can he feel comfortable.
This time, he knelt down decisively again and responded with choked sobs, "My lord, I have never regarded Li Si as a slave, but Li Si cannot forget his roots.
Therefore, please don't call me Han Qing again.
Otherwise, please don't call me Han Qing again." , Li Si will no longer have the shame to stay in the house."
"It's up to you."
Seeing that he said it so sincerely, Tuotuo had no choice but to fulfill his wish, "Anyway, the name is just a title.
At home, you are my book boy, and outside, you are the number one in my house.
Butler.
Even if you occasionally go out on business, no matter how long it takes, this position will always be reserved for you."
"Your Excellency, if you treat me like this, if Li Si doesn't repay you, you will no longer be a human being."
Li Si kowtowed again, got up from the ground, and responded with red eyes.
"You've done a good enough job."
Tuotuo smiled and nodded lightly.
"The imperial court sent so many spies, and all the news they reported back was that the thieves were very powerful, and they were supported by local people, and they came and went erratically, and so on.
Only you can explain the cause and effect so clearly.
Biye gave it to Timur first.
I made everything clear in my letter.”
"The master is a fan of the authorities."
Li Si thought for a while and did not dare to take credit, so he took the initiative to explain to Timur for the defeat.
"What fan of the authorities?
He is not a warrior at all, but he just wants to show off.
I tried to persuade him, but he felt that I, as his elder brother, was delaying his future."
Tuotuo smiled again and curled his lips disdainfully.
His younger brother, Timur, was a good civil servant and a good censor, but he was by no means a good commander.
But unless the military power is handed over to him, his position as right prime minister will never be stable.
So at the beginning, he had no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils.
Unexpectedly, Timur could not even defend Bianliang, lost all his 300,000 troops, and fled back to the north of the Yellow River with only a few thousand cronies.
Now it's better, those short-sighted guys in the court can't find any excuse for themselves.
He uses power to harm the country, appoints people to be nepotistic, and raises thieves to respect themselves.
All the charges were thrown at them, no matter what.
As for His Majesty Tuohuan Timur, he had been bullied by powerful ministers since he was a child, and he was most afraid of repeating the nightmare of the past.
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Before suffering this huge defeat, I still wanted to reduce the power of the prime minister.
After suffering this huge defeat, it became more justifiable to reduce it.
"It was the red scarf thief who was so sharp with his firearms that he was caught off guard when he was hit."
As a loyal slave, Li Si would never say a bad word about his master.
After thinking for a while, the conversation turned to the Huai'an Army again.
"I believe what you said.
But how can I convince the emperor with this reason?"
Tuotuo glanced at him and sighed helplessly.
"The Huai'an thieves only sent out 3,000 men.
Liu Futong sent out 150,000, Sesame Li 50,000, and Zhao Jun used 30,000.
It is almost clear who is the main force and who is the helper.
I will tell the emperor that Liu Futong's ten The 50,000-strong army is nothing to be afraid of.
Zhu Ba11’s 3,000 soldiers and horses are the main culprit.
The emperor overturned the table with me before he even saw it."
"But this is the fact."
Li Si pointed to the secret report written by himself and insisted hard.
"At that time, Liu Futong and Master Ye had been confronting each other across the Shah River for a month and a half.
In fact, both sides had become exhausted soldiers.
Came from Huai'an That band of red scarf thieves, despite their number, Although there were only three thousand, they brought with them forty artillery pieces.
In the middle of the night, when the brothers were sleeping, a group of forty pieces of artillery came at them.
Can we not blow up the camp?
We can only blame Gong Buban.
He is an old soldier.
It is recommended that the host set up camp on the bank of the river first."
"Gong Buban is dead, people are dead, and everything is over.
But Yexian is still alive.
The emperor has been refusing to punish him, just waiting for me to confess."
Tuotuo had heard similar words several times tonight.
He glanced at Li Si again and emphasized impatiently.
"Although the man is dead, he must bear the responsibility for his crimes."
Li Si was stunned for a moment, and his voice quickly dropped, "The red scarf thief's cannon can hit at least three hundred and fifty steps away.
And his camp is far away from the river beach.
Only one hundred and fifty steps.
The red scarf thieves pulled the cannon on a boat in the middle of the night.
By quietly landing on the shore, it is impossible for the night watch brothers to find out that the emperor does not believe it.
Your Excellency, you can take the emperor to the Ordnance Bureau to inspect the cannon.
Even if it is a bronze cannon that we imitate and is loaded with black gunpowder that our subordinates sent to buy for a large sum of money, it will still work.
Three or four hundred paces away."
This is not a bad idea.
As the saying goes, seeing is worth hearing a hundred times.
Let His Majesty Tuohuan Timur see with his own eyes the power of the new artillery, and he will understand which direction should be the focus of the court's next deployment of troops.
And if you understand the power of artillery, you will know that Tamerlane's defeat is actually excusable, and your anger at yourself will be lessened.
Thinking of this, Tuotuo breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking into Li Si's eyes, he asked in a low voice, "How much gunpowder is left in the gunpowder you paid a lot of money to buy?
Can our Ordnance Bureau here imitate it?"
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"I have made it clear to the craftsmen who make gunpowder that if they can come up with the formula within half a month, each of them will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver.
If the same gunpowder cannot be prepared within half a month, it will take one day to chop one.
Heads until everyone is killed."
Li Si's expression immediately became cold, and his mouth made a sound like a poisonous snake spitting a message.
"Yeah" Tuo Tuo's eyebrows jumped slightly, and he immediately understood that what Li Si did was reasonable.
The craftsmen at the Ordnance Bureau were the best from across the country.
There was no reason why Xuzhou craftsmen could not prepare gunpowder.
All that is missing is loyalty to the employer.
I believe that under the steel knife, they can be forced to go all out.
"The undercover agents sent by my subordinates in the Red Scarf Army have already found out clearly.
The people who are responsible for preparing the gunpowder there are people close to several generals, not skilled craftsmen, so the formula is definitely not too complicated.
It's nothing more than Sulfur, nitrate, carbon The composition of the three main ingredients has changed, plus a few auxiliary ingredients, and the craftsmen have also verified it using the rinsing method.
I am afraid that the auxiliary ingredients such as kerosene, croton, and arsenic are not included in the gunpowder of the red scarf thief.
It is probably sulfur and nitrate. , three kinds of toner" "If your judgment is true, within two months, our artillery will be able to be deployed on the battlefield."
Tuotuo heard this and his spirits were greatly boosted.
His fists were clenched and waved in mid-air.
"Maybe it won't take two months."
Li Si thought for a while and responded very confidently.
"The craftsmen of the Ordnance Bureau used fine steel saws to carve out the artillery that their subordinates bought back with a lot of money, leaving it intact.
It was a replica.
Although it was heavier than the original one and easier to explode, the subordinates asked them to engrave their names on the cannon and fire the first shot themselves, so they would not seek death on their own initiative
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"
"This method is good, this method is good."
Tuotuo touched the back of Li Si's head and praised repeatedly, "It's a pity that you come from a humble background.
Otherwise, you can be an weapons supervisor."
Li Si was more than half a head taller than him.
In order to make him feel more comfortable, he deliberately bent his knees and responded with a smile, "Yes, the concierge of the prime minister's family is a fourth-grade officer.
The weapons supervisor is only a fourth-grade officer.
To be honest, Li Si is really not interested.
Li Si would rather stay with the master forever and be the concierge of the prime minister's family."
He will always be the concierge of the prime minister's house, which means that Tuotuo will always be the prime minister.
This flattery is of an unusually high level.
The Right Prime Minister of the Great Yuan Dynasty Tuo Tuo listened and was really amused and laughed loudly, "You kid, this mouth can make the dead come alive.
Okay, I will try my best to be the prime minister for the rest of my life, and let you be the fourth-grade book boy for the rest of your life.
Our Lord Servants, this life has a beginning and an end."
"Thank you, Master, for your kindness."
Li Si knelt down again, making a gesture of worship.
Tuotuo pulled him up and shook his head with a smile, "Don't bow, don't bow.
I've known you since we were young, and we're worthy of your two heads.
By the way, you just said that our cannons are heavy and easy to explode.
How big is the difference between the cannons of the red scarf thief?
Tell the truth, don't always comfort me with nice things."
"It's hard to say."
Li Si thought for a while and responded with a frown, "Sir, you may not know that the same four-pound cannon in the hands of different people will get completely different information.
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Some red scarves As for the thieves, it is said that if they fire more than a dozen rounds, the chamber will explode. .
Some people say that it is no problem to fire twenty or thirty rounds in a row.
Others say that they have never exploded.
In addition, the four-pound cannons made by the Huai'an thieves are becoming more and more sophisticated.
The less likely it is to blow up the barrel, the weight of the gun is also constantly decreasing."
"Continuously lighten how do they do it?"
He took off his eyebrows that had just been stretched, and immediately wrinkled them into a knot again.
The power of the artillery is indeed astonishing, but the cost of each cannon is also terrifyingly high.
Basically it is made of bronze containing about 90% copper.
A cannon that fires four kilograms of projectiles requires more than six hundred kilograms of bronze.
If these copper materials are used to cast copper coins, even the most standard copper, six lead and four coins can be cast into more than 200 coins.
Coupled with the fire consumption, the cost of a bronze cannon is as high as more than 300 guan, which is definitely a big money-burning pit.
The Red Turban Army, on the other hand, was able to continuously reduce the weight of the artillery while increasing the life of the artillery.
This means that every time they build a cannon, they can spend four or five less than Dayuan.
If this continues for a long time, the Yuan court will be exhausted just by consumption.
"My subordinates don't know how they did it.
I guess practice makes perfect.
According to the information sent back by the spies, last month they provided 120 cannons to the Liu Futong family alone
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