Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 285 Intervening in the Japanese Civil War
As soon as the fleet left, Fan Ning was invited by Di Qing to take command of the barracks. Although he agreed with Fan Ning's plan to support the rebels in the northeastern region of Japan against the Emperor's army, he wanted to discuss the details with Fan Ning.

In the big tent, Fan Ning spread out a map of Japan. He pointed to the northeastern region of Japan where the rebellion took place and said slowly: "The northeastern region of Japan is the northern part of the Japanese island next to our Kunzhou. This area is managed by the Japanese Mixed with the Ezo natives, they are called Mutsu country and Dewa country. To the Japanese court, the Northeast region is a foreign country, and the Japanese court calls it Dongyi.”

"Wait a minute!"

Di Qing interrupted Fan Ning, "Please allow me to interject, since the Japanese imperial court regards the Northeast as a foreign country, and Kunzhou is a foreign country beyond a foreign country. How can they claim that this is the land of Japan?"

Fan Ning sneered and said: "They didn't care about Kunzhou at all before, and they didn't want Kunzhou. The key is our existence, which poses a threat to Japan. They can't tolerate it. It just so happens that Japan has also considered developing to the northeast. Wanting to conquer the Northeast region, but Mutsu country resolutely resisted, which led to the outbreak of war between Mutsu country and Japan."

After a pause, Fan Ning continued: "Actually, the natives of the peninsula regard us as the army of the Japanese imperial court. If we appear from time to time, the natives of the peninsula will naturally regard us as enemies, but it is meaningless to say this now."

Di Qing pondered for a moment and asked, "You mean, the natives in the Northeast are fighting fiercely with the Japanese court?"

"It's not entirely true. In fact, the separatist forces in the northeastern region of Japan are fighting fiercely with the imperial court. The natives are just troops hired by the separatist forces. Neither side wants the imperial court to get involved in the northeast region, so they join forces to deal with the imperial court."

Di Qing laughed, "Actually, we don't want the Japanese imperial court to get involved in the Northeast."

Fan Ning nodded with a smile, "The Northeast region is the natural barrier between us and Japan, and I hope they can continue to maintain it for two or three hundred years."

"Then how should we support the Northeast region to fight against the Japanese imperial court?"

Fan Ning thought for a while and said: "I have thought about it carefully, and I suggest supporting the Northeast Army with defensive weapons, mainly shields and leather armor, and can also support bows and arrows. When necessary, we can send a small-scale elite army to join the Northeast Army , defeated the Japanese imperial army with powerful crossbows and firearms, but the condition for supporting the Northeast Army is that they must recognize the legal status of Song Dynasty to Kunzhou."

"Do you think they'll agree?"

Fanning smiled slightly: "I think they will readily agree!"

Di Qing walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, and said to Fan Ning, "You will be fully responsible for this matter. I will fully support you no matter how many troops and soldiers you need."

"Thank you Di Shuai!"

At this time, Di Qing thought of something again and said with a smile: "I forgot to tell you, the gunpowder raw materials you asked for last time have been delivered with the supply ship, and ten gunpowder craftsmen also came with the ship, you can call them at any time .”

Fanning was overjoyed. He had been waiting for this day for months, and it finally arrived.

In fact, when craftsmen explored Kunzhou, they found a large amount of high-quality saltpeter and sulfur in the volcanic rock formations here. However, the purification of saltpeter is more troublesome, and it is not as fine as the imperial court's production. Fan Ning still hopes to use the imperial court's raw materials.

But at this time, he still can't take care of the gunpowder. He needs to establish contact with the warlords in the Northeast region first, and arrange this matter.

Returning to the official office of the Jinglue Mansion, since Zhao Zongshi had returned to the Song Dynasty, Fan Ning was actually acting as the acting Jinglue envoy and became the highest administrative official in Kunzhou.

After returning to the official room and sitting down, Fan Ning ordered Yu Xiaonian, who was in charge of the Shibo Department, to be found. After a while, Yu Xiaonian walked over quickly, bowed and said: "See Fan Yushi!"

Yu Xiaonian just came back from shopping in Nagasaki yesterday morning. He had just had a day off and was about to be caught by Fan Ning again.

Fan Ning said with a smile: "There is a very important task that Yu Shijun may need to complete!"

Yu Xiaonian immediately said: "Please tell the censor, I can leave at any time!"

Fan Ning unfolded the map of Japan, pointed to the northeast region and said, "This is the northeast region of Japan. It consists of the Deha country and the Mutsu country. The Dewa country is in the west, and the Mutsu country is in the east. family rule.

The tyrant of Dewa country is called Kiyohara clan, the current patriarch is called Kiyohara Mitsuyori, the tycoon of Mutsu country is called Abe clan, and the patriarch is Abe Yori. Now Abe clan is rebelling against the imperial court. We decided to support Abe clan in fighting against the Japanese imperial court. If Abe is willing to accept aid, we can support a thousand sets of armor, shields, and bows each, and we can also send troops to assist them in fighting if necessary. "

Yu Xiaonian pondered for a while and said, "Then what conditions do we need them to agree to?"

Fan Ning secretly praised Yu Xiaonian for his clear mind and ability to grasp the key points. He smiled slightly and said, "Our condition is very simple. We need the Abe family to admit that Kunzhou belongs to the Song Dynasty, and the armor will be given away for free!"

"But... isn't this condition too simple?"

Yu Xiaonian was a little puzzled, the Abe clan was not the imperial court, and he admitted that Kunzhou didn't have much meaning.

Fan Ning said indifferently: "This is just an excuse. The main reason is that we want to support Abe's fight against the Japanese court. Abe's rebellion is in our interest."

Pausing for a while, Fan Ning said: "If the Japanese imperial army suffers a disastrous defeat, I hope we will stop supporting the Abe family, then recognizing Kunzhou as the territory of the Great Song Dynasty is our condition."

Yu Xiaonian suddenly realized, and immediately bowed and said: "I understand, I'm going to Lutsu country today."

Fan Ning smiled and waved his hands, "Don't be too anxious, rest for two days before going. This Japanese civil war will not end in a day or two."

． ． ． ． ． ． ．

Yu Xiaonian resigned and left, Fan Ning paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back.

He happened to know that this rebellion campaign that took place in the Heian-kyo era was Ampere's rebellion on the surface, but in fact the Japanese Kanto Samurai Group represented by the Kiyowa Genji family attempted to get involved in the Northeast region, which aroused the resistance of the local warlords.

This is the famous battle of the first nine years in Japanese history. The consequence of this battle is that the Northeast region is no longer the country of Dongyi in Japan.

It just so happened that the Song Dynasty occupied Kunzhou, and the Song Army would inevitably be involved in the Northeast battle that was close at hand.

Now that Song Jun sent an envoy, Fan Ning believes that Abe Rai will send an envoy to pay a return visit soon, and then discuss the cooperation between the two parties in detail.

At this time, Fan Ning remembered that the gunpowder raw materials from the Song Dynasty had been delivered, so he left the government office and headed for the warehouse in the northwest corner of the county.

The warehouse is located in the northwest of the county, occupying 30% of the entire county. There are as many as 50 shi of grain stored here alone, [-] taels of silver, and a large amount of military supplies such as armor, pig iron, and kerosene. As well as other living materials such as cloth, tea, salt, etc., and they can no longer be stored, and a large amount of materials have to be stored on ships in the bay.

A second large warehouse is being built on the Bay Wharf, trying to complete it before the winter snow arrives.

Fan Ning came to the warehouse quickly, and now the warehouse has been handed over to him. He can enter the warehouse without showing any arrows. The chief treasurer, Yan Jing, brought Fan Ning to the firearms warehouse, pointed to a dozen large wooden boxes and said: "All the raw materials for gunpowder are here!"

The raw materials for gunpowder are mainly nitrate powder, carbon powder and sulfur, but what was sent was mainly nitrate grains, weighing as much as two thousand catties, sulfur one thousand catties, and carbon powder only a few hundred catties. There is a jar of charcoal in the compartment of the box, and the dryness is kept very good.

Fan Ning grabbed a handful of powdered nitrate and took a closer look. The Song Dynasty was already highly skilled in making nitrate, using egg whites and carrots for purification. The purity of nitrate was very high, not much different from later generations, and even surpassed the Ming and Qing Dynasties in terms of purity.

However, the Song Dynasty still lacked knowledge of gunpowder. Although the purification and ink grinding techniques were superb, they were all mixed together with a certain proportion of fine powder and placed directly in porcelain bottles. The specific gravity of the raw materials is different, and stratification is prone to occur during transportation, resulting in the burning of light nitrate powder or charcoal, making the firearm ineffective.

This is the reason why firearms did not play a decisive role in wars. They are less powerful, less lethal, and have a lower success rate. To a large extent, they only play the role of ignition.

The gunpowder should be made into mung bean-sized granules to ensure that the ingredients in each gunpowder grain are the same, and there are gaps between the gunpowder, the burning speed will be much faster, the combustion will be more complete, the gas expansion will be more intense, and the explosive force will be stronger. Strong, in addition to improving the gunpowder formula, it can completely explode the iron shell.

In fact, the Song Dynasty spent more than 100 years exploring from the early use of gunpowder to the later invention of the iron shell thunder, and Fan Ning omitted decades of time.

Fan Ning immediately ordered: "Send three hundred catties of each of the three raw materials to the official office, and send them now!"

After a pause, he asked again: "Do you have soju?"

"Yes! There is strong shochu."

"Twenty catties of shochu will also be sent!"

Fan Ning signed the receipt and then returned to the official office

(End of this chapter)