The rise of the prince

Chapter 596 Straight Steel Man + Big News

Di Zhi talked a lot about the tactics of the new army, and he was obviously very interested in it.

Zhao Si led people to hook rifles in the backyard of the palace every day, while Di Zhi was obsessed with the application of the new army. Zhi lives directly in the barracks and conducts training every day. Even Wei Yubai told him in private that Di Zhi is really dedicated to his work, but the training is too intense and the soldiers can't bear it.

This probably has something to do with Princess Yongming. After the matter was settled, Princess Yongming came to the palace to find Di Zhi several times. Li Xingzhou was not easy to get involved, and they talked about it by themselves every time, but they knew it with their feet, and they were sure. Not a good thing to say.

It's not easy for him to interrupt, it's all their own words, and the words of the matchmaker ordered by the parents are still the main way of marriage in this era.

Later Di Zhi simply hid in the military camp, neither came to the palace nor returned home.

Di Zhiben had a hut in the capital. It was an old house rented and bought that others could not live in. People had died in it, and others dared not live in it.His family's ancestral home was in Jiangzhou, and the Imperial Army had deducted their salary, so he didn't have much money, so he could only live like that.

Later, because of his meritorious service in rescuing Jia and his achievements in fighting chaos in the south, he became the deputy commander of the new army, one of the four branches of the forbidden army, and was added as a fifth-rank general.

He moved to a new house, but all kinds of sycophants came to please him.This is the ethos cultivated by the old imperial guards. The three yamen raised the army not only withholding their salaries, but also relying on bribes to please their superiors. The reason is very simple. They have nothing to do with each other.

After getting dizzy from dealing with it, he simply moved back to the house where people died.

After that, the number of people who came was really less.
When he heard him talk about this, everyone in the new army almost died laughing, but Shen Lin still advised him that the house where someone has died cannot live in it, because it is very cloudy and bad for health, so he should move out.

Afterwards, Di Zhi moved out, but he moved back to the house of the dead in the past few days.

Obviously it was to avoid Princess Yongming. Sure enough, the lethality of a woman is comparable to that of a reinforced company.

"The advantage of the new army lies in the fact that it can make a big difference with a small one, and that it can become flexible. My lord, if the 3000 soldiers in full armor are heavily armed, against the [-] musketeers of the new army, I think the outcome will only be between five and five. In the state generation, cavalry has a better chance of winning in the Central Plains. But if you give me [-] people, I would rather have musketeers.

Because if it is cavalry, it is okay to fight in the open field, but if it encounters a ravine or a river beach?Musketeers can still fight, but cavalry can't.

And when it comes to siege and defense, the musketeers are good at everything, but the cavalry is not good, and they are far inferior to the musketeers when they get off their horses.

In addition, one man, one harness and armor, plus food and horse feed, can raise three or five musketeers for one such heavy cavalry.

I think the new army must develop this advantage in the future. The so-called firepower and lethality are only superficial factors, but universal.Don't distinguish between light cavalry, heavy cavalry, spearmen, sword shieldmen, longaxemen, archers, crossbowmen and so on.

It is a kind of soldier, try to have all the things that soldiers can do, attack the city, defend the city, suppress from a distance, and fight at close range. This is the soldier that the new army wants. Large-scale army, streamlined personnel, conducive to scheduling.

Ordnance is easy to maintain and repair, and the logistical pressure will be greatly reduced.”

They talked as they walked, and Di Zhi was eloquent. The more he talked, the more he was amazed by Li Xingzhou. He really is a talent.

The victory of hot weapons can be said to be a technological victory, but in the final analysis it is an economic victory, and Di Zhi can see the key at a glance.

This has been the law of military development for thousands of years. Even in the era of air supremacy, interceptors, fighter jets, bombers, reconnaissance planes, attack planes and other messy types of aircraft seem to be blooming, but in fact, logistics are difficult and maintenance is difficult. , the command is difficult, the combat system is complicated, error-prone, and the most important thing is that money cannot keep up.
As soon as the heat was over, various countries began to engage in joint fighter jets, which are multi-functional joint fighter jets that integrate ground attack, air combat, reconnaissance, and interception.

This is the trend, integration, one arm with multiple functions, and cost reduction are always the golden rules of war.

The appearance of the musketeer is like this. He integrates open field battles, mountain field battles, long-range, short-range, siege, and city defense, which greatly reduces logistical pressure, command pressure, and economic pressure. It can be scaled and mass-produced. This is The root of the Gunners' victory.

Li Xingzhou patted Di Zhi on the shoulder, and was about to agree with him on what he said, when he suddenly heard a female voice.

"Hmph, just talking about war on paper! It's so logical, it's a mess, the soldiers in front are bleeding to serve the country, why don't you go to battle and kill the enemy?"

Li Xingzhou paused, and when he looked up, it turned out to be his sister-in-law Li Qi, Princess Yongming, Di Zhi's nominal fiancee.

Di Zhi's face was embarrassed, and he lost his previous look in an instant.

"Why don't you talk anymore! Didn't you say that you are a tough man, and you will die for the righteousness of your family and country, and for King Pingnan? Why don't you talk now!" Princess Yongming stood in the middle of the corridor, Talk very aggressively.

Di Zhi, who was talking eloquently just now, was speechless at this moment, and didn't dare to open his mouth to speak.

Li Xingzhou was keenly aware that there seemed to be an unusual meaning in Princess Yongming's angry words. From his experience, it was very likely that Di Zhi said something that should not be said, otherwise Princess Yongming would not say anything when she was dissatisfied with him. National righteousness.

Di Zhi stood there obediently and was scolded for a long time. Gillian, Yue'er and Qifang finally came out and pulled away the angry Li Qi.

Gillian and Princess Yongming are good friends, so it is not surprising that Shihui invited her.

Li Xingzhou and Di Zhi, who looked like he wanted to die, followed behind, "Did you mess with her?" Li Xingzhou asked.

"No!" Di Zhi looked desperate and wronged.

"Taking her all right to talk about the righteousness of the family and the country, there is no such curse."

Di Zhi thought about it seriously: "Once again she came to the palace to look for me, saying that she obeyed the arrangement of the family, but it was a helpless act, which made me give up. She would never look down on a rough warrior like me, so..."

"So what?"

"So I told the princess to reassure her. The subordinates are rough warriors. They don't understand the love of children. She can do her own thing and don't care about me." Di Zhi said seriously.

"and then?"

"Then she left." Di Zhi said naturally.

Li Xingzhou covered his face. The so-called straight man of steel is probably like this. The words of Princess Yongming are obviously angry with him, but he has no choice but to make arrangements with his family. It means that she has accepted her fate, and she wants to see Di Zhi's reaction. If anyone understands For a woman, it's enough to coax a few words and say a few nice words, but I met Di Zhi
It would be good to allocate [-]% of the brains used in the military to emotional intelligence.

"I have nothing to say." In the end, Li Xingzhou could only make a concluding comment, while Di Zhi was still in a daze.

Li Qi stayed at the palace for dinner at night, Di Zhi made excuses to run away, but was dragged by Li Xingzhou to stay.

The atmosphere at the dinner table was weird, and Li Xingzhou felt that it could be rescued, so he urged Di Zhi to apologize to Yongming, and reminded him softly of the righteousness of his family and country that he said at the beginning.

Di Zhi suddenly realized that he understood.

He understood for a long time, raised his wine glass and said: "Sorry, I'm incompetent, let the emperor stay behind and can't fight the enemy, let the princess down."

All of a sudden, the atmosphere froze, and Li Xingzhou also understood, he understood what a fart!

Forget it, let him fend for himself.

Before you know it, summer comes. In mid-May, the palace has successively produced three boring knives, all of which can be used on the first-generation steam engine to bore the cylinder of the second-generation steam engine. This time the cylinder Designed in a cylindrical shape.

The outer material is directly forged and cast, so that it can withstand high pressure and high temperature. The key problem is to open the hole. The cylindrical shape eliminates the stress acting on the four corners. However, once the access holes of the cylinder are manually excavated, the material will inevitably bend, resulting in The service life is greatly reduced under stress.

At this time, it was the turn of the first-generation steam engine to appear.

Only three first-generation steam engines were built. It took a year from the design, but due to the stress, the service life was short, the vibration was large, the machining accuracy was low, and the power was low. Half-man-height guys look more like toys.

But it is not used elsewhere, but as long as it is equipped with a boring tool to form a boring machine, it can bore out the cylinder bore without deforming the cylinder, and manufacture the second-generation steam engine.

This work has already started under Qiu'er's leadership.

The three self-moving iron guys in the palace also became stars. Many craftsmen and stewards came to watch from time to time, and there were even rumors that King Pingnan raised an old fairy who could use fairy magic to make the iron lumps run.

The other is colored glaze, colored glaze wares are sold directly by various branches of the Prince's Mansion, and it's cool to be the first one to eat crabs. Although Li Xingzhou has repeatedly emphasized that it is not a rare item, the first batch still sells for a good price of several hundred taels.

The reason why Li Xingzhou sells directly is because he is afraid that unscrupulous businessmen will drive up the price of glass, which will lead to the economic bubble created by the Wangfu in Xixia, and eventually lead to the destruction of countless families.

Speaking of Xixia, because the rebel army was victorious, Emperor Li Ji had already fled to Xiliang Mansion, and sent envoys to Kaiyuan early to ask to see the emperor, saying that Xixia was affiliated with Jingguo, and hoped that Jingguo would help put down the rebellion.

Li Xingzhou almost laughed out loud, this child is so innocent, do you know who made you miserable, how could he help you.

The emperor was also happy to part, but he tacitly expressed his sympathy with a heavy face, and then told the Xixia envoys that there is no way to do this, we are also fighting the Liao Kingdom, it is not that we will not help, but we really have no resources to spare.

In late May, heavy rains fell, rivers swelled, and many roads and bridges were washed away. There was a disaster in the south. Fortunately, it was not serious. In fact, even if it was serious, the court would not be able to spend much money.

On May 24th, it was still raining heavily outside. Li Xingzhou and Wen Daoli were explaining to the emperor what the Privy Council knew about the northern war situation in the Imperial Study Room. In fact, they thought that the roads and bridges were destroyed by the continuous rainstorm, and the road was too far away after the army entered the Liao Kingdom. There has been no news from the Privy Council about the Northern Front for nearly twenty days.

So the emperor was also very worried, and asked again and again, Li Xingzhou had no choice but to tell him what he already knew. The young eunuch of Guilin and Mr. Fu'an, the head of the inner court department, held up a map, and Li Xingzhou marked the locations of the various troops on the map and explained it to the emperor.

"Shanhaiguan in the north of Yanshan Prefecture is guarded by Jin people, Jiayuguan in the northwest is also guarded by Jin people, the sea is in the east, Qigouguan in the west is occupied by Wei Chaoren, and Yuzhou in the southwest, Anding, is occupied by Yang Wenguang.

The surrendered general Guo Yaoshi quickly took control of Nanjing City with a surprise attack and more than [-] vanguards. The Chinese army Yang Hongzhao is leading the army to the north to support. In general, Yanshan Mansion has fallen to death." Li Xingzhou said, writing on the map with his pen. The emperor marked them one by one, so that even a fool can see that Yanshan Mansion, that is, Nanjing in the Liao Kingdom, has been surrounded and impenetrable.

After reading it, the emperor nodded, feeling a little happier, as if he had relieved a lot of worries.

Then the emperor was still worried, and asked Wen Daoli to put himself in the shoes of the Liao people and think about whether he still had a chance of winning. After all, Wen Daoli was an old man who had fought against the Liao people before.

Wen Daoli thought about it for a long time, then cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I have little knowledge, but after thinking about it, there is only one thing, and that is to concentrate our troops and defend Yanshan Mansion to the death. Yanshan City is an important city in the north. There is still a chance of consuming food and grass with our Jingguo army.

But to defend, they first had to recapture Nanjing City. The surprise attack on Nanjing was the vanguard, and with the casualties during the attack, I estimate that there could be more than a thousand defenders.But more than a thousand people are enough, they don't need to defend to death, they just need to defend until Yang Hongzhao's army goes north.

At this point, the minister was worried about Yang Hongzhao. Yang Hongzhao has always been cautious in marching and fighting. This is a good thing, but sometimes it can be a bad thing. If he is still cautious and goes north this time, it may give the Liao people a chance to hide in Nanjing. "

The emperor frowned: "What if we take it back?"

"In fact, it doesn't affect the overall situation. It is still besieged by a large army. The Liao army can only fight with us, but they must not be able to consume it. King Pingnan added more than one million taels to the treasury in Jiangzhou. The million taels alone, In addition, collecting food from various sources can consume the Liao Kingdom to death, so from Cheng's point of view, this time Yanshan Mansion will definitely be taken."

The emperor glanced at him with relief: "Not bad."

Afterwards, many details were explained, and finally the emperor left him and Wen Daoli to have dinner in the palace.

The next day, the heavy rain was much lighter, but once the summer rain started to fall, it was not continuous rain, no matter how small it was, it was heavier than other seasons.

He didn't go to the court, nor did he go to the yamen of the Privy Council. He slept with Gillian and Shiyu in his arms at home.

At noon, the rain became lighter, and the officials of the Privy Council came to see him in a hurry despite the rain.

Li Xingzhou had just arrived at the main hall, and the old gatekeeper, who was half wet, hurriedly said: "My lord, the battle report is coming from the north, here is the battle report! And there are sixteen fast horses, all of which came in in the rain, and they are all soaked. Hurry up, my lord." Go and see."

Li Xingzhou hurriedly asked people to prepare coir raincoats and horses. Once sixteen horses arrived, it must be big news.

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(End of this chapter)