Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 292 The Japanese Conspiracy
Fan Ning followed Old Craftsman Song to a large tent. There were several rows of iron shelves around the big tent. On the iron shelves were placed various iron-cased fire mines, and almost all the iron-cased fire mines had been cut open. , placed flat on the iron frame.

Old Craftsman Song was a little embarrassed and said with a smile: "The last time the censor cut the paper fire mine with a dagger gave us a lot of inspiration. We also cut open the failed iron fire mine to find the reason for the failure. We cut more than 300 pieces in total. There are only 47 iron-shelled fire mines here, and they are all relatively typical problems, and then corrected and tested, then corrected and tested again, until finally successful."

"Not bad!"

Fan Ning repeatedly praised that this research method is very good, and he said to Song Laojiang: "You must record your method, and you should use this method no matter what you study in the future!"

"Thanks for the praise from the censor, we have recorded every experiment in detail."

Old Craftsman Song came to a large table in the middle, and there was also a cut iron-shelled fire thunder on the table. Fan Ning immediately realized that this was a successful iron-shell fire thunder.

"Is that it?"

"That's it! We tried nearly four hundred times before we finally succeeded."

Only then did Fan Ning take a closer look at the iron fire mine. The shell of the fire mine was made of pig iron, slightly thicker than two copper coins, and shaped like a gourd. The top runs through to the bottom, and the gunpowder twist is inserted from the top, divided into three strands, two of which are inserted into the gunpowder, and the other gunpowder twist is inserted into the braided matchlock.

Fan Ning was a little puzzled, pointing to the braid in the middle and asked, "What is this?"

"

Fan Ning immediately understood that black powder cannot explode violently at the same time like explosives, it has a process of burning layer by layer, which is time-consuming and cannot achieve the effect of violent expansion of the gas, and it is most likely to cause the gunpowder to explode halfway through combustion .

Paper bags, porcelain bottles, and clay pots all have this problem. Insufficient combustion will greatly reduce the power. It is also easy to cause the gunpowder to burn all the iron shells but still not explode, so they thought of using a combustion accelerant.

Songming is the powder made of amber wood. It can be seen in the old red pine in the north. It is the essence left by the red pine after hundreds of thousands of years of decay. After cutting off the dead old red pine, you can see it in the cross section. The wood like bacon, that is Songming, also known as Beichenxiang, is a very precious wood, the wood inherits all the advantages of the red pine material: it is not rotten, not afraid of moisture, not afraid of soaking, the material is hard, and the color of Beichenxiang is yellow-red , The texture is beautiful.

This kind of red pine trees containing pines are widely distributed in Kunzhou and Sakhalin Island, but not in Song Dynasty, but they are distributed in the mountains of northern Liao.

Songming is an excellent fire starter and the best natural combustion accelerant, which can be obtained locally in Kunzhou.

In fact, Fan Ning thought of white phosphorus, which is also an excellent combustion accelerant. There are a lot of bird droppings on the islands around Kunzhou, and white phosphorus crystals can be extracted from it by repeated cooking. However, white phosphorus is easy to spontaneously ignite and is too dangerous. It is better to use pine Powder is better.

Fan Ning immediately became interested, and said with a smile, "Can you light one of this pine starch?"

"of course can!"

Old craftsman Song took out a twig wrapped in pine starch powder from a wooden box on the iron frame, and led Fan Ning to a stone room at the farthest corner, which was at least thirty or forty steps away from the tent, and there was no window in the stone room. After closing the door, it became pitch black. Old Craftsman Song said apologetically, "This is the test room, only here is the place where fire is allowed!"

Song Laoran ignited the tinder with a flint, and the stone house suddenly became bright. He hung the pine nuts on an iron hook in the air, lit them with fire, and saw a "boom" of burning, so fast that the pine powder did not even have time to fall down. , it burns into a ball of fire, and soon burns out.

Old Craftsman Song was very excited and was eager to try it out. At this moment, Fan Ning suddenly remembered something, and quickly stopped him, "I'll think about it, maybe the effect will be better."

Old Craftsman Song said with a smile: "It's still the high officials who have considered everything thoroughly. We will experiment with whatever the high officials explain."

"Don't worry, just experiment slowly. You can experiment for two or three years. You must create the best and most effective iron shell fire mine!"

Of course, making iron-shelled mines is not used to deal with the Japanese army. It is enough to use strong bows and crossbows to deal with the Japanese army. To deal with Japanese warships, it is enough to use rockets, kerosene, and porcelain fire mines. Iron-shelled mines are still used. To deal with the Liao Kingdom and Xixia, there is really no need to worry about this. You have to take your time. If you raise enough war horses, coupled with navy warships and sharp iron fire thunders, you will definitely be able to accomplish a lot in the future.

Fan Ning is now quite concerned about the war in Japan. Since he sent Yu Xiaonian to Mutsu Kingdom a few months ago, he has quickly reached a cooperation agreement with the Abe family. They have provided [-] pairs of leather armor, [-] shields, Two thousand spears and [-] shi of grain supported the expansion of the Abe family's army. When necessary, the Song Army also provided [-] crossbow troops to participate in the battle.

Now that it is winter, the fighting has stopped, but Yu Xiaonian led fifty experienced veterans to Mutsu Kingdom last month, preparing to use the winter time to help train the army of Mutsu Kingdom.

Judging from Yu Xiaonian's reaction, Abe Yoritoki has already recruited [-] troops. After receiving the support of the Song Army, he is full of ambition and is ready to launch an attack on the [-] imperial troops entrenched in the southern part of Mutsu Kingdom in the spring.

But putting pressure on Japan is a long-term process. Fan Ning has clearly demanded that the Song Dynasty strictly prohibit the export of pig iron to Japan. Japan’s own pig iron production is very small, and it is some iron sand obtained from mountains and rivers, and the place of production is Mutsu. .

This is also an important reason why the Japanese imperial court wants to control the country of Mutsu, to control the iron sand production areas.

Japan’s shortage of pig iron was mainly obtained through trade with Goryeo and the Song Dynasty. However, due to Japan’s great ambitions for Goryeo, Goryeo had stopped exporting pig iron to Japan, and Japan could only rely on the pig iron trade of the Song Dynasty.

Once the Song Dynasty stopped sending pig iron to Japan, without the supply of pig iron, the war between Japan and Mutsu would become more difficult.

Fan Ning does not hope that Mutsu and Japan will soon be able to separate the results of the war. It is best that the war lasts for more than ten years and seriously weaken Japan's strength. That is the result Fan Ning expects.

Winter is the day when everything is dormant. In late November, another heavy snowfall came one after another, covering the north and south of Kunzhou with a thick layer of snow. The severe cold enveloped Kunzhou, as if even time was frozen by ice and snow .

In a blink of an eye, in February of the following year, the southern part of the Japanese archipelago was the first to melt, and spring came.

Kyoto, also known as Heian-kyo, is the capital of Japan. There are conflicts of interests and interests of various forces that have caused many domestic contradictions in Japan. The owners of large manors and lords of the Zhixing Kingdom in various places hold the local real power, and the situation of the imperial court cannot be tolerated. Optimistically, the Fujiwara family has controlled the imperial power for a hundred years, and the empresses of all dynasties are the daughters of the Fujiwara family, making the Fujiwara family a de facto family of the head of the country.

In order to regain the imperial power, the Japanese emperor began to rely on the samurai forces. Under the support of the emperor, the samurai group headed by the Genji family began to rise.

They formed an army to conquer the local forces that tended to split for the imperial court, so as to continuously strengthen themselves, but it also led to civil wars in Japan.

Just after the Taiping and Tianqing Rebellions, the Hirachucho Rebellion soon broke out. Less than 20 years after the end of Hirachucho and the like, the Battle of the First Nine Years broke out. Throughout the late Heian period, Japan was in various wars Spent and lasted more than a hundred years of history until the arrival of the shogunate era.

In the early morning of this day, a general in his thirties, led by a servant, was walking quickly to the emperor's court room.

This burly general is Minamoto Minamoto, the third generation leader of the Minamoto family in Hanoi. He is currently serving as the guardian of the Mutsu country and is responsible for suppressing the rebellion of the Abe family, a powerful family in the Mutsu country. He also inherited the prestige of his father, Minamoto. Become the leader of the Kanto Samurai Group.

Minamoto Laiyi was wearing a gorgeous armor made of silver and a golden helmet on his head. He walked vigorously. The servant's pace was a little slow, which made him look a little impatient, but he tried his best to restrain himself.

At this time, the servant came to a large court room, stood in front of the door and said respectfully: "General, please! The emperor is already waiting for the general inside the room!"

Yuan Laiyi strode into the room, and a faint scent of sandalwood came to his nostrils. The layout of the room was exquisite but very simple. The sword guard stared sharply at Yuan Laiyi who walked in.

Yuan Laiyi hurriedly knelt down, kowtowed and said: "Minen Yuan Laiyi pays homage to His Majesty the Emperor!"

Sitting behind the curtain is Japan's No. 70th emperor, named Kijin, who was later honored as Emperor Goreisen. He is about 30 years old, with a thin and long face, very pale, and very soft-spoken.

"I have heard the news that Abe Yoshitoki's army captured Igawa Castle and Taga Castle, and two thousand defenders surrendered. I would like to know why the Mutsu Kingdom that has subsided has started a war again?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Abe Raishi never surrendered. He was just defeated by his ministers. Forced by the situation, he had no choice but to donate soil to become a minister. I learned from his son-in-law Ping Yongheng that the reason why Abe rebelled again was because he Received the support of the Song Dynasty."

"Song Dynasty support?"

Emperor Kihito was startled for a moment, and then understood, "Are you talking about the Song army who occupied the land of Ezo?"

"Exactly! The Song army supported Abe Laishi with a large amount of soldiers and food, which gave him the capital to rebel. If the Song army's support for him was not cut off, Abe Laishi would not be willing to retreat to the northeast and would continue to lead his army south and become a The court’s confidant is in serious trouble.”

Emperor Kihito pondered for a moment and asked, "Then what is your opinion?"

Minamoto Laiyi straightened his waist and said: "I know that Ezo is lonely overseas, and I can't support Mutsu from land, so I can only go by sea. If we can destroy the warships of the Song Army, within two years, Xia When the Song army in Yidi is unable to support Abe Lai, I am confident that I will completely kill the men of Abe's family within two years."

Emperor Kiinin was silent for a long time and said, "But I don't want a war with the Song Dynasty."

"Reporting to the Emperor, there is no need for the court to act. I know that Nagasaki lord Hirano Yoshihide has hundreds of warships and more than [-] warriors. Let him send troops to attack the ships of the Song Army, and finally put the responsibility on him. , send his head to the Song Dynasty for apology, and there will be no disputes between Japan and the Song Dynasty."

Emperor Kihito knew that the Minamoto family had long coveted the wealthy Nagasaki, and actually wanted to use this opportunity to eradicate Hiranoyoshi and seize Nagasaki harbor.

However, Emperor Kihito was also happy to see Hirano Kichi being wiped out. He pondered for a moment and said, "It's just that Hirano Kichi may not be willing to send troops!"

"Your Majesty, I heard that Hirano Kichi's only son died in the hands of the Song Army in the Tamra Kingdom. He has hated the Song Army for a long time. If His Majesty promises to return the land of the Feihou Kingdom to him and appoint him as the guardian of the Feihou Kingdom, it will be possible. With the pain of losing a child, the temptation of the benefits of the land, and the call of the guardian, I believe that he will pour out his troops."

Emperor Kihito nodded, "It's so feasible!"

(End of this chapter)