The First Happy King of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 737 Double-edged sword

Ten days later, in the depths of Mount Li.

Li Shimin brought Li Jing, Hou Junji, Cheng Yaojin and a group of old talents together in an unnamed valley.

Cheng Yaojin looked at the empty valley with a hungover look, and shouted loudly: "Your Majesty, why did you call us here so early in the morning? Are you going to hunt?"

Li Jing looked at the situation in the valley, and comforted Cheng Yaojin: "Know the festival, take it easy, since your Majesty called us here, there must be something important, otherwise, how could you come to such a remote place."

Cheng Yaojin looked displeased: "Hey, what can't be said at home, if you insist on coming to such a broken place, does your majesty want to start a new life as a bandit?"

"Okay, Zhijie, you'll know what you're going to do in a while, go and stay aside first." Seeing that Cheng Yaojin's words became more and more outrageous, Li Shimin waved him away.

After waiting for a while, countless forbidden soldiers rushed into the valley and inserted rows of straw figures onto the hillside on one side.

"Hey, what are you doing here, is there really going to be a war?" Seeing the mess in the valley, Cheng Yaojin became interested again, separated from the crowd and ran to the front.

But he found that on the side where everyone was standing, there was already a whole row of iron boxes for some reason.

"What is this?" Cheng Yaojin scratched his head and asked wonderingly.

Li Muyun wandered up from the foot of the mountain: "This is called a rocket, and it's mainly used for covering fire."

"What, what care?" Cheng Yaojin plucked his ears.

"General Cheng just watch it, the result will come soon." Li Muyun didn't explain to Old Cheng, turned his head and whistled to the bottom.

Soon a hundred or so soldiers came to the boxes, shook out the torches, ignited the fuse at a corner of the boxes, and then ran out.

"咻咻......" The sharp howling sound resounded through the valley as the soldiers left. With thick arms and long handles, strange arrows fell into the other side of the valley two hundred steps away like shooting stars. Under the suspicious eyes of the veterans, , making a deafening explosion.

The grass clippings were flying, and the straw man wearing simple leather armor flew everywhere in the explosion. The simple leather armor could not provide any protection, and the straw man inside completely fell apart in mid-air.

A phalanx, nearly [-] grass people, was wiped out in the sound of continuous explosions.

Cheng Yaojin opened his mouth wide and stared at everything in front of him in a daze, almost unable to believe his eyes.

Li Shimin's fists were tightly clenched together, and his breathing became much heavier.

The rest of the old talents one or two also had their eyes shining.

Li Muyun waited until the valley was quiet, and then came to Li Er: "Your Majesty, this is the rocket after the prisoner has been improved. Although the accuracy is not good, this thing must win by quantity. It uses covering shooting. Please cover the battlefield, and then the arrows will explode and hurt people, so it doesn’t need to be too precise.”

"This, this thing is gunpowder? Li Muyun, you kid, don't lie to Lao Cheng. I know gunpowder very well. It's useless except for blowing up city gates."

"It was not carefully developed before. In fact, gunpowder has many uses, not just for blowing up city gates."

As Li Muyun said, he waved to the big soldiers below. It wasn't long before someone ran up and handed him a black iron ball.

"What is this?" Li Er pushed Cheng Yaojin away and asked.

"I call it a meteor hammer." Li Muyun tied the black iron ball with a rope, ignited the fuze under the attention of a group of old guys, and then let go after a few rounds, and the iron ball fell into the valley in an arc. No one's corner.

A moment later, there was a loud noise, the earth splashed, and a shallow pit about half a foot was formed on the ground, and several small trees about four feet high were blown up and down.

"This..., this thing can still be used like this?" The old guys became more and more excited.

They are all old fighters, thinking about how to kill more enemies all day long, now seeing the power of rockets and black iron balls, how can they calm down.

However, Li Muyun's demonstration didn't seem to be over yet. After the rocket demonstration, thousands of straw figures stood up on the opposite hillside again. Countless black iron balls were thrown in by the imperial army, and the straw figures staggered again.

Then came the gunpowder bag, which was thrown into the straw man formation with the help of the trebuchet...

There are also large black iron balls. These black iron balls were buried in the soil, and after being ignited, the grass figures on them turned into countless grass clippings again.

Cheng Yaojin and other veterans who are not afraid of big troubles like seeing their own mothers, love these weapons and rushed to the valley to play.

Li Shimin sat down with Li Jing and others to discuss the functions of these hot weapons.

Li Muyun asked proudly: "Brother Huang, you won't say gunpowder is useless this time, will you?"

Li Shimin snorted: "Finally, you kid did something useful and didn't embarrass me too much."

"Brother Huang, look at what you said, my brother, I have never been reliable." Li Muyun smiled coyly, then turned to look at Li Jing: "Duke Wei, what do you think of these weapons?"

Li Jing stroked his beard and remained silent for a while. He had seen the power of those hot weapons just now. At this moment, he had an inexplicable feeling of being a hero.

It took a long time before he said slowly: "With some of these things, I guess it will be useless to plan or anything in the future."

Li Muyun shook his head: "What you said is not right. Weapons are dead, but people are alive. To put it bluntly, how to use these things depends on people in the end, so tricks are still useful, but with these weapons, people can live. It's just that our soldiers sacrificed less."

Li Shimin agreed: "Well, what you said is reasonable. No matter how powerful a weapon is, it is still a human being who uses it. If it is used improperly, it will hurt others."

"What does your Majesty mean to get more weapons like this in the future?" Hou Junji asked.

"This is inevitable. If you have a good weapon and don't use it in the military, wouldn't it be a waste."

"However, if these things are used for a long time, I am worried that the soldiers will lose their blood and rely too much on... gunpowder."

Hou Junji and Li Jing looked at each other, and expressed their worries.

"Hehe..." Li Shimin smiled and shook his head: "Junji, you are thinking too much. If I read this weapon correctly, it can only be equipped with a small amount of troops. The real combat power of my Tang Dynasty still depends on the swords in the hands of soldiers. .”

"This... why?"

Li Shimin did not answer Hou Junji, but looked at Li Muyun: "Tell me, how long do you think it will take to equip the troops with all these things?"

"In terms of time, it will take at least five to ten years, because the troops need to be trained. Although these weapons are powerful enough, they are double-edged swords. They can hurt the enemy as well as themselves. If they are used improperly, they will be the first to be hurt. It will be one of our own."

(End of this chapter)