The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Xi'an.

Of course, today's Dashun has been renamed Chang'an by Li Zicheng - Li Zicheng hoped that the Dashun he established would be as powerful as the Han and Tang Dynasties and enjoy the status of the country for hundreds of years.

Although it seems that Dashun has little hope of becoming a unified dynasty at present, whether it is to settle in the northwest or to take a step back to establish a country in the Western Regions, it is still good to enjoy the country for hundreds of years.

In the past year, Li Zicheng was first defeated at Shanhaiguan and was forced to abandon Beijing and flee back to Shaanxi. After returning, he failed to attack Hanzhong and was severely beaten by tens of thousands of Wei troops.

The successive failures actually made him sober up - he had taken Shanshan and Shaanxi before, and then conquered the capital in one fell swoop, and sat on the throne of the Ming Emperor. He was indeed a little drifting.

Now that he has come back to his senses, Li Zicheng has vaguely realized that he made many wrong decisions after entering Beijing.

Although he doesn't want to admit it, he is now consciously correcting it.

Of course, the reason why he had a chance to wake up was because the Yi army did not pursue the Shun army.

If Liu Sheng had not cared about material resources, civilian power, and the casualties of soldiers, or if he had not attacked Guangxi this autumn, if he had reserved money and food for attacking Shanxi, Li Zicheng would probably not have had the chance to reflect.

On this day, Li Zicheng, accompanied by Niu Jinxing, Li Yan and other civil servants, came to the gun bureau in the west of the city.

This gun bureau was established just a few months ago.

Speaking of which, although the Shun Army also used artillery and muskets before, they didn't pay much attention to it. In addition, they were accustomed to mobile operations and had no stable rear. Most of the guns and artillery were captured, and none of them were cast by themselves.

However, whether it was a huge defeat or a series of defeats at the hands of the Yi army, in Li Zicheng's opinion, it was all due to the Shun army's lack of firearms - especially the battle with the Yi army.

In addition to the numerous and sharp artillery of the Yi army, the soldiers of the Shun army suffered heavy losses repeatedly with their muskets and small, ten-thousand-strong enemies called grenades.

This spring, he failed to attack Hanzhong and was defeated by the Yi army. Li Zicheng originally thought that the Yi army would take the opportunity to attack Shanxi, but he did not expect that the Yi army would not.

Although he didn't know the reason, Shunjun finally had a chance to breathe.

After Li Zicheng reflected on several previous defeats, he ordered the construction of this gun station in the west of Chang'an City.

Previously, the Shun Army fought against the Yi Army in Hanzhong, Hebei, and Henan. Although they were defeated repeatedly and captured nothing, they managed to obtain a few discarded muskets and a few unexploded grenades with care.

After the Chang'an Guns and Artillery Bureau was established, the cannons and grenades were sent here for craftsmen to copy.

Li Zicheng came to the Gun and Artillery Bureau today to learn about the progress of the counterfeiting. Although the Yi army did not attack Shanshan this autumn, Li Zicheng still had a sense of urgency.

If the Gun and Artillery Bureau could successfully imitate the muskets, grenades, and artillery of the Yi army, even if the Shun army still lost to the Yi army, they would not be completely overwhelmed.

In the official hall of the Gun and Artillery Bureau.

A wooden box was presented as if it were a treasure presented by an official. After being inspected by the guards, it was placed on the table next to Li Zicheng.

"Your Majesty, this is our imitation bird gun. It is basically the same as the Weijun bird gun."

Li Zicheng picked up the bird gun and looked at it carefully against the Wei Jun bird gun, and found that they were indeed very similar in appearance.

He didn't like shooting, so he asked, "Who will try this gun?"

"Forehead!"

A guard received the mission and immediately went to the open space in front of the hall to try the gun, while Li Zicheng and a group of people waited under the eaves to watch.

Seeing that the bird cannon was indeed as good as those of the Wei army, capable of breaking through a layer of armor at a distance of more than seventy steps, Li Zicheng couldn't help but laugh happily, "Haha, it's really good - come on, give me a reward..." Li Zicheng was thinking Wondering what to reward this gun and artillery bureau for raising, I heard Li Yan say from the side: "Your Majesty, although this gun is very powerful, I don't know how much it costs. If the cost is too high, our army may not be able to equip it with much."

Li Zicheng was unhappy because his interest was interrupted.

But now he has decided to wait a little longer before finding someone who can replace Li Yan in the military. As long as Li Yan does not cross the bottom line in his heart, it doesn't matter if he loses some face.

So he put away his smile, looked at the official, and asked, "How much silver does this bird-driving gun cost?"

The promotion official seemed a little uneasy and said, "It's probably more than thirty-six taels."

"So expensive?" Li Zicheng frowned immediately.

The elevating officer complained, "Your Majesty, not only are grain prices expensive now, but iron, firewood, labor, etc. are also all expensive. Thirty-six taels of silver is already the result of our efforts to reduce costs."

Li Zicheng frowned deeper, but remained silent for a moment.

Although he left the capital and returned to Shaanxi, it was rare that there were no major disasters in Shanxi this year. However, due to the poor livelihood of the people, the harvest of food was still not much, and the price of food was still high.

Although he was the Emperor of Dashun, he had not yet reached the point of being indifferent to the fireworks of the world. Therefore, he knew that when the price of food soared, the prices of other commodities must also remain high.

If it were before a battle of stones, and thirty-odd taels of silver for a shotgun, even if he thought it was expensive, he would order tens of thousands of it to be made.

But now, even if he only builds a few thousand rods, he has to think carefully about it - because he really doesn't have much money at hand.

Although Ming Xungui and hundreds of officials received 20 to 30 million taels of silver before the capital was considered, a considerable part of it was used to reward the troops and purchase food.

Later, he escaped from the capital. Although he ordered to take all the gold and silver treasures he collected with him, he was chased and beaten by the Qing captives along the way. He actually lost a lot of them - perhaps some of them were picked up by the generals and soldiers below. In short, there is no way to trace it, it is almost as if it was snatched away by Qing captives.

Back in Xi'an, there are many places to spend money (after all, the army has hundreds of thousands), even if there are tens of millions of taels of silver, it is almost spent now.

So he thought for a while, looked at Niu Jinxing and Li Yan, and asked, "How many poles do you think is appropriate?"

Although Niu Jinxing does not control Dashun's money now, he is responsible for making money. He immediately showed a bitter smile and said: "Your Majesty, there are too many places to spend money in the government now, and the national treasury is tight. Why not build five thousand poles first?" See the effect?"

Li Yan immediately retorted, "For every 1,000 people in the Wei army, five to six hundred have muskets. What's the use of our army having only 5,000 muskets?"

Then he said to Li Zicheng, "In accordance with the construction of the minister, at least 20,000 rods must be built first, and they cannot be used separately. It is best to equip an elite firearms similar to the former Mingshen Machine Battalion."

Li Zicheng hesitated for a moment and said, "Then let's build ten thousand rods first."

After speaking, he motioned to the promotion officer to lead the way elsewhere.

Li Yan originally wanted to persuade him again - he felt that Li Zicheng had money to build the Qin Palace, so he shouldn't care about the extra money for shooting 10,000 muskets.

But Li Zicheng had gone elsewhere, and obviously didn't want to hear anyone arguing about this matter anymore, so he had to stay silent for the time being.

Then, the group went to see the "Hongyi Cannon" cast by the Gun and Artillery Bureau - after learning about it, Li Zicheng was greatly disappointed.

The Hongyi cannons made by the Bureau of Guns and Artillery are like muskets, and their blood is expensive.

If that was all, for the sake of Dashun, he would save money and build dozens more doors.

The problem is that the Hongyi cannons of the Gun and Artillery Bureau are similar to the ones they captured from the Ming Dynasty before. Each one weighs several thousand kilograms, but their range and power are not as good as those of the Yijun artillery. Most importantly, they are not as light as the Yijun artillery. (End of chapter)