Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 646 The Mysterious Formula
When the Liao Kingdom went to Beijing, it has been debated within the Liao Kingdom for nearly ten days about whether to send troops to support Xixia. The supporters believe that Liaoxia’s lips are dead and teeth cold. Once Xixia is destroyed, the Song Dynasty will have no worries. It will definitely deal with Liao. Always be able to contain Da Song from the west.

The opposition, represented by Yelu Yixin and Zhang Xiaojie, believed that the war between the Liao Dynasty and the Song army had just ended, the financial resources were exhausted, and the national strength was weak. The imperial court was simply unable to support the army to send troops to Xixia. It once had the upper hand, but a few news from the border made the government and the people of Liao Kingdom wake up a lot.

"boom!"

Yelu Hongji slammed his fist on the table, gnashed his teeth and said, "Damn Song people, dare to humiliate Daliao like this. I must go to Bianliang and slaughter these despicable Song dogs!"

Just today, he got two news in a row. On the island near the Yalu River, the Song army actually stationed tens of thousands of troops, less than a hundred miles away from the seaside of the Liao Kingdom. In the first city of Atu, Gao Yuanji, the governor of the Huaihua Army, was killed on the spot, and the Jurchens entered the city. The Liao army suffered nearly 3000 casualties and looted tens of thousands of Liao horses and soldiers. What iron fire thunder, it is clear that the Song Dynasty used the hands of the Jurchens to demonstrate to the Liao Kingdom.

These two news made Yelu Hongji furious. In the room, a group of important officials were silent. Xiao Taosuwo, the governor of the Five Kingdoms, said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, at least we now understand that the Jurchen Ministry and Ke Lie The reason why the tribes can’t be wiped out repeatedly is because they have the support of Song Dynasty behind them, if we don’t wipe out these two tribes as soon as possible, with the support of the Song army, they will sooner or later become the confidant of the Liao Kingdom.”

Yelu Ruinu, Prime Minister of the Southern Mansion, also said: "The iron fire thunder in the Song Dynasty only appeared once, which means that the Song Dynasty did not really hand over this kind of firearm to the Jurchens. The Song Dynasty was just warning us not to interfere with Xixia."

Yelu Yixin, the Prime Minister of the Northern Academy, understood Yelu Hongji's worries very well. He comforted Yelu Hongji and said, "We have never discovered the Song Army base outside the Yalu River Estuary. Their sudden appearance is certainly a warning from the Song Army, but it is also a good thing. At least We know that the Song army still hides threats there."

Yelu Hongji finally calmed down. He slowly leaned back on the chair, feeling the warmth brought by the tiger skin, and said for a while: "The warships of the Song Army appeared near Juehua Island a few days ago, and it must have been an intention!"

Everyone replied in silence, Yelu Hongji sighed, "When did the always cowardly Song Dynasty become so tough, does it have something to do with their newly enthroned emperor?"

Zhang Xiaojie said in a low voice: "Your Majesty is right. Their new emperor is only in his twenties, and he wants to do great things. Coupled with the internal chaos in Xi Xia, Song Jun seized the opportunity."

"Then what should I do? So scared by the Song army, I dare not send troops to help Xia?"

Yelu Hongji has given up the idea of ​​supporting Xixia, he just can't let go of his face now, a few threats from the Song Dynasty made him stop the army, who does Yelu Hongji think of him?
Yelu Yixin rolled his eyes and stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, although we cannot send troops to support Xixia, we can persuade peace and send envoys to Bianliang. On the one hand, we can mediate the war between the Song Dynasty and Xixia, and on the other hand, we can ask the Song Dynasty to stop supporting women. Zhenren and the Kelei tribe, what I mean by this official is to exchange for the Song Dynasty to stop supporting the Jurchens and the Kelei tribe on the condition that they do not send troops to Xixia.”

Yelu Yixin's plan was very good. He openly reconciled the war between the Song Dynasty and Xixia, and the Liao Kingdom had a new level. At the same time, he secretly negotiated with the Song Dynasty, asking the Song Dynasty to no longer support the Jurchens and the Kelei tribe. Everyone agreed.

Yelu Hongji immediately appointed Yelu Ruinu, the Prime Minister of Nanfu, as a special envoy to the Song Dynasty.

Everyone retreated, Yelu Hongji felt upset for a while, got up and said: "Show me! I'm going to the weapon academy."

Not long after, Yelu Yixin accompanied the emperor Yelu Hongji to the Liao State Armor Institute. The Liao State Armor Institute is a specialized institution for the study of armor and weapons in the Liao State. In addition to Beijing, there are also branches in Nanjing and Tokyo.

The Weapons Academy located in Shangjing is the main academy, which is divided into four branches: A Academy, Knife Academy, Bow Academy, and Firearms Academy. Among them, the Firearms Academy is the only place for researching firearms in the Liao Kingdom.

The firearms of the Liao State were much behind that of the Song Dynasty. Basically, they studied how to imitate various firearms of the Song Dynasty. They made rockets, fire kites, paper fire mines and porcelain bottle fire mines, but they had to study more advanced iron shell firearms. Lei, they can't do it with their current technology, they are only good at imitation, so the Liao Kingdom tried every means to get the real iron fire thunder from Song Dynasty.

Last year, the spies from Bianliang worked hard to get an old-fashioned iron fire mine. The Liao Kingdom immediately sent it thousands of miles to the Shangjing Arms Academy. Huolei began to study the structure and gunpowder formula inside.

But from last year to now, the Academy of Arms has never been able to imitate the iron fire thunder, which made Yelu Hongji both annoyed and depressed.

Today is the third time he has inspected the Firearms Academy. It was the news of the Jurchen using Tiehuolei that stimulated him. Even though he knew that it was the fake Jurchens of the Song Dynasty, Yelu Hongji was still anxious. Coming out has become a worry in his heart.

When Yelu Hongji came to the Weapons Academy, more than a dozen officials in charge of the Weapons Academy greeted him. Yelu Hongji waved his hand, "Go to the Weapons Academy!"

Seeing the emperor's ugly face, all the officials didn't dare to say anything, and hurriedly led Yelu Hongji and Yelu Yixin to the Firearms Academy.

The Liao State Firearms Institute covers an area of ​​about [-] mu, half of which is used to manufacture gunpowder, and the other half is used to manufacture various firearms. There are more than [-] gunpowder craftsmen and more than [-] firearms craftsmen, about half of whom are Han Chinese.

The chief manager of the Firearms Institute is called Xiao Cinu, he stepped forward to bow his head tremblingly, Yelu Hongji snorted heavily and said: "I said last time that I will give you half a year to make iron fire mines, and now the deadline has passed , where is Tiehuolei? Show me."

Xiao Cinu was trembling with fright, and stammered: "Your Majesty, we have indeed created the Iron Fire Thunder, but the test has not been successful yet."

"What did not test successfully?"

"That's right. It just failed to explode the iron shell, and only a puff of green smoke came out, and it was over."

"Doesn't that mean it wasn't created?"

"Your Majesty, it is very difficult to succeed with iron-clad fire mines. As far as I know, the Firearms Bureau of the Song Dynasty started research 40 years ago. Their technology is higher than ours. It took decades. How could we do it in just half a year?" Can do it."

Yelu Hongji said angrily: "You are not researching, you are imitating, can't you even learn to imitate?"

Yelu Yixin quickly persuaded: "Your Majesty, first look at the real thing, find out the problem, and then try to solve it."

Yelu Hongji snorted and walked into the Firearms Yard. The guards had already set up tables and chairs in the yard. Yelu Hongji sat down, and the chief steward, Xiao Cinu, brought several iron fire mines carefully with his staff. One of them was It is the real object obtained from the Song Dynasty, but it was cut open, and the structure inside can be seen at a glance.

Xiao Cinu put another cut iron fire thunder in front of Yelu Hongji, "Your Majesty, this is the iron fire thunder we made. Please compare it with the iron fire thunder of the Song Dynasty."

Yelu Hongji took a closer look and found that the two iron fire mines were exactly the same, even the thickness of the iron shells was exactly the same.

"Then where is the problem?" Yelu Hongji asked.

Xiao Cinu cautiously asked: "The villain wants to know, is the Tiehuolei of the Song Dynasty real?"

Yelu Hongji suddenly said angrily: "You can't make it yourself, so you want to shift the responsibility to others!"

"The villain doesn't mean that. The villain is saying that if Tie Huolei itself is fake, there is no point in imitating it. It will only waste Your Majesty's time."

Yelu Hongji looked back at Yelu Yixin, and Yelu Yixin said without hesitation: "The Iron Fire Thunder must be real, with a serial number engraved on it, and the Song Dynasty is also investigating the whereabouts of this Iron Fire Thunder. It’s not easy to doubt that there are few people.”

Xiao Cinu nodded, "Since the iron fire thunder is real, the problem lies in the gunpowder formula. One may be that the gunpowder formula is different, and the other may be that other important items are added in it."

"What did you find?
"We found a kind of black particles in it, which can burn, and the smoke has a strange smell, but we don't know what this powder is?"

Xiao Cinu presented a small box, and Yelu Hongji took the box and looked at it. There were indeed some gray-black fine particles in it, each about the size of a sesame seed. Iron Fire Thunder will explode?"

"Your Majesty! The Song Dynasty thought it was a failed iron fire mine, but its gunpowder hadn't failed. We suspected that the black particles had failed. It accounted for [-]% of the whole gunpowder. It should be a very important explosion. material, but we don't really know what it is? Never seen it."

Yelu Yixin also said: "I heard that the iron fire thunder of the Song Dynasty must be made in Kunzhou. This kind of powder is most likely only available in Kunzhou. We must know what this powder is?"

"What about the gunpowder formula?"

"We did an experiment, and the gunpowder formula has not changed, it is the same as the paper fire mine."

Yelu Hongji immediately said to Yelu Yixin: "We must find out the secret of this black powder at all costs!"

It's no wonder that the gunpowder craftsmen of the Liao Kingdom didn't know that they hadn't even heard of natural rubber.

(End of this chapter)