At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 367, The Huns and Artillery on the Rise
In the eighth year of the Han Dynasty, on May 5th, Chang'an City.

Han Xin, the governor of Monan, once again came to Chang'an City to sue, and brought with him the Aries King, Lu Ying, and Niu Ke, the leaders of the Aries tribe. This time, the person who received Han Xin was still Tang Cheng, a member of the Taiwei Mansion.

The imperial army first took away the great nobles of the Huns such as King Aries, and Tang Cheng took Han Xin to the Taiwei Mansion.

On the way, Tang Cheng looked at Han Xin with admiration and said: "The Governor is really our number one general in the Han Dynasty. The Aries tribe with hundreds of thousands of people was actually captured and annexed by the Governor. Such a record is comparable to that of Wu'an Lord Li Mu."

Han Xin is about the same age as Tang Cheng, but Han Xin has already become a general, while Tang Cheng is still a soldier with 400 dan, and there are hundreds of soldiers like him in the Taiwei Mansion. Tang Cheng was envious of Han Xin's ability to make great achievements at such a young age.

Han Xin said calmly: "It's just a coincidence. And the Aries tribe is not a powerful tribe."

Tang Cheng said enviously: "The last general really wishes he could become a centurion under the governor's tent."

Tang Cheng only joined the Han army after the war. He wanted to join the army and make achievements because he was educated and became a member of the Taiwei's family.

After the Han unified the world, Xu Fan began to formalize and educate the Han army. Especially after Xu Fan learned about later generations, he began to form an organization such as the General Staff to coordinate and manage the entire Han army. This required even more educated soldiers to join the army. .

Tang Cheng joined the army because he was educated and good at arithmetic, so he planned to join the army to calculate the food and grass supplies, calculate the consumption of food and grass during the march of the army, ensure the smooth flow of food roads, and ensure that there would be no difficulties in the supply of the army.

Although Tang Cheng, who joined the army, could stay in the safe city of Chang'an, he could not go to the front line to make contributions.

But this runs counter to his goal of making contributions. Shouldn't joining the army lead the charge? Why did he have to hold an abacus and desperately calculate the food and grass needed by the army?

Han Xin said: "If Tang Shenjun really wants to go to the front line, he can write to the emperor. Your Majesty has always been a reasonable person."

Tang Cheng thought for a while and said firmly: "I'll give it a try tomorrow."

Han Xin asked: "How are the tickets for the ranch sold by the emperor? Are there really people who want the land in the desert?"

The issue of ranch tickets had such a huge impact on the Han Dynasty that it even overshadowed Han Xin's hot spot of annexing the Aries Department. Han Xin also attaches great importance to this matter. If the ranch tickets are sold well, maybe this year the Han Dynasty can launch the Northern Expedition against the Huns.

But if sales fail, the supplies that the Han Dynasty has raised will obviously not be able to satisfy hundreds of thousands of people in the Northern Expedition to the Desert, and they will reluctantly launch a war. The largest number of confrontations between the two sides is in Monan.

The greatest possibility is that the Northern Expedition will be postponed for more than a year, and the Huns will become stronger.

Tang Cheng said: "The sales are very good. 1000 tickets have been sold now. Now the whole Chang'an City is talking about the ranch tickets."

Han Xin was shocked and said: "1000?"

A piece of property invoice is worth 100 million gold, and 1000 pieces is equivalent to 10 gold. Han Xin could only secretly say, as expected of Chang'an City, there are many rich people.

Tang Cheng looked envious and said: "The Jing family sold 100 copies in one breath. They are truly worthy of being a great noble of our Han country."

Han Xin nodded with understanding and said: "If the Jing family could really spend so much money, they would have been the great nobles of Chu State in the previous dynasty."

Han Xin was originally from Chu. Of course he knew the strength of the Jing family, but he was a little strange and said, "I will remember that Jing Tao is General Xiaoqi. He can definitely establish a country in Mobei. Why spend this unjust money?"

Tang Cheng said: "It is not as good as Monan to build a country in Mobei. Moreover, the Han Dynasty still has rich Nanyang. The vassal states can only establish one. This is a family's inheritance for thousands of years. How can we choose to build a country in a desolate place like Mobei? Most of them The generals all want to go to Southeast Asia to establish feudal states.

Mobei is not bad for making money. Land is cheap anyway, and you can get your money back by raising cattle and sheep for a few years. You can also use Mobei pasture to subsidize your country. "

Then Tang Cheng whispered: "The main people buying ranch tickets are the princes and nobles of my Han Dynasty."

Yes, after the Han court introduced ranch tickets, the first people to react were the nobles of the Han Dynasty. These guys used various methods one after another. The Eight Immortals crossed the sea, and each showed their magical powers to get close to the emperor and the prime minister. They always talked about themselves. Your Majesty has gone through life and death to conquer the world. Now that there is such a good thing as ranch tickets, the court should take care of me and other heroes.

Others don't know the strength of the Han army. Do these nobles with military backgrounds know that the imperial court has invested a lot in military equipment over the years. Coupled with the imperial court's huge supplies, the grain collected in the major granaries of the Han Dynasty has exceeded 3 million stone, what kind of material warehouse does the Han have? There are more than ten million pieces of various kinds of fabrics in it, as well as mountains of salt, sugar, iron ingots and other precious strategic materials. The arsenals in various places can arm millions of troops.

Although the Han Empire was only established less than ten years ago, it has strong soldiers, abundant supplies, and high morale among the people and the military. Everyone in the world is eager to make contributions immediately. The Han Dynasty is many times stronger than the violent Qin in all aspects. They are not just a Huns. It was believed that the Han Dynasty was at risk of defeat.

The ranch tickets issued by the Han Dynasty can be said to be earned if you buy them. It seems that the court intends to only issue 100 million gold per-acre tickets to meet the needs of the war. Who knows if you can buy them too late. The most indispensable thing in the Han Dynasty is money. Man, if you drop a brick in Chang'an City, you can hit a person with a net worth of more than one million.

Therefore, these nobles showed their wounds in front of Xu Fan at every turn, showing that they had contributed to the Han Dynasty and shed blood.

Xu Fan was speechless at them. None of them wanted to go to Mobei to found a country, but they also wanted to make money from Mobei. Xu Fan could only say that as long as they have money, ranch tickets can be given to them first.

After the nobles of the Han Dynasty have finished buying, it will be the turn of the Han Dynasty's workshop owners, big merchants, and finally the wealthy landlords and old wealth. However, they are still on their way to Guanzhong, and this wave of enthusiasm will have to wait for a while.

Han Xin was relieved to know this. If the ranch tickets were sold well, the Northern Expedition against the Huns could be advanced.

Han Xin came to Chang'an and stayed at the General's Mansion.

Xu Fan immediately summoned Han Xin and once again asked carefully about the situation of the Battle of Baiyue Mountain. He also wanted to hear Han Xin's opinion on the Huns' combat effectiveness.

Han Xin told Xu Fan the whole battle about the battle, and he neither thought highly of nor despised the Huns' fighting power.

Instead, he said: "Although Mao Dun is smelting steel in Mobei, the Huns' armored cavalry may be around 1 people. Only these 1 people can compete with our elite men. The Huns are recruiting with all their strength, and they can recruit hundreds of thousands. Cavalry, but the combat effectiveness of these cavalry cannot be compared with the armored cavalry of my Han Dynasty. The 2 armored cavalry of my Han Dynasty are enough to sweep away hundreds of thousands of Huns cavalry. "

"But Modu is fully arming the Huns. Mobei Royal Court's sheep have almost been sold by Modu. Now the Huns are arming 5000-1 armored cavalry every year."

Xu Fan asked: "If our army enters Mobei this year, will it be able to wipe out the Huns?"

Han Xin continued: "It's not easy either. The general believes that Mao Dun will not confront our army head-on. The Huns moved their main troops to Mobei to avoid the sharp edge of our army, and the Huns are also better at guerrilla warfare." , Mao Dun is a desert hero, he cannot give up the advantages of the Huns and fight with me. "

Xu Fan knew the power of guerrilla warfare all too well. Mobei was the home base of the Huns, and they were fully capable of fighting guerrilla warfare against the Han.

Xu Fan sighed and said: "I am also most worried about this. If Mao Dun fights guerrillas with my elite cavalry in the desert, the desert is so vast that it will be too difficult to capture the main force of the Huns. If the war drags on until October in the desert, When the climate turns cold and heavy snow falls, the cold weather in the desert will become the Huns’ biggest ally.”

Napoleon traveled across Europe, but he fell under the severe cold. All the hundreds of thousands of troops he had assembled were buried. At this point, his career plummeted, and he was finally exiled.

Such a thing also happened in the Eastern Han Dynasty in later generations.

Many people don't know that when he was young, the famous Hunjun Lingdi sent a general to lead 5 cavalry into the desert, but was finally defeated by Tan Shihuai, the overlord of the desert at that time.

At that time, Tan Shihuai led the Xianbei people in a frontal battle and was defeated by the Eastern Han army. So they changed their tactics and did not engage in direct confrontation with the Han army. Instead, they lured the enemy deeper and retreated all the way to the Beihai area until heavy snow fell. In the end, the 5 elite Han troops were annihilated by the Xianbei people. Not a single one of the elite soldiers was left alive. , this battle also completely interrupted the Ling Emperor's ambitions, turning him into a faint king who only knew how to eat, drink, play and enjoy himself.

The situation in Mobei at this time was different from what later generations thought. The temperature in this era was higher than that in Xu Fan's later generations, and the water vapor in Mobei was more than that in many northern areas in later generations.

This resulted in Mobei being able to withstand a larger population. Historically, in the face of Emperor Wu's powerful attack, the Huns resolutely retreated to Mobei and hid away from the front of the Han army.

Regardless of the fact that Emperor Wu gathered all the money in the world and launched the unprecedented Mobei War, it only severely damaged the Huns, but did not destroy them. Strictly speaking, the Mobei War was a lose-lose battle.

Although the Huns were paralyzed by Emperor Wu's beating, the Han's internal organs were also damaged, which greatly intensified the conflicts between various classes.

After the Battle of Mobei, the Huns were still the overlords of the desert, and their dominance lasted even longer than the Western Han Dynasty. It was not until the late Eastern Han Dynasty that the new desert overlord Tan Shihuai led the Xianbei people to replace the Huns.

At this time, the Xiongnu were in the ascendant period of their nation. Xu Fan did not doubt that they had enough resilience to resist the Han, but Xu Fan did not want to continue to tangle with them. Han Xin said: "Your Majesty wants to solve the serious problem of the Xiongnu. The Battle of Mobei must focus on killing the Huns' population. The main force of the Huns can escape, but their women and children cannot escape. If I, a big man, can kill these hundreds of people, If ten thousand women and children are captured, the Huns will surely perish.”

Xu Fan said: "The imperial court has also prepared some secret weapons, which I hope will be effective against the Huns."

On May 8, the eighth year of the Han Dynasty, Ji Xin, the general of Zhenbei, and Lu Chen, the governor of the Liaodong Protectorate also arrived in Chang'an City.

Xu Fan led three-year-old coaches Ji Xin, Lu Chen, and Han Xin to a new arsenal in Dahan.

Ji Xin and the others looked at the iron cylinders strangely. Ji Xin touched them, looked at the barrel carefully and said in surprise: "It's actually bronze!"

Bronze was still a symbol of wealth in this era, and this layer of bronze alone showed the high price of this strange weapon.

Xu Fan said with a smile: "This is called an artillery piece. The outer layer is bronze and the inside is pig iron. It costs 10 yuan to cast such an artillery piece. This bronze artillery can shoot 10 kilograms of projectiles 400 steps away."

"Artillery?" When Ji Xin and the others heard this, they probably understood what kind of weapon it was. It was a variant of the stone cannon.

Just how to launch projectiles?
"These are iron cannons of the same color. Although they have a short lifespan and are heavy, they are cheap at only about 2 yuan. They can shoot 10 kilograms of projectiles to a distance of 300 steps. They are a very good long-distance weapon. "

Yes, Xu Fan also made artillery. In fact, it was a bit late. There was no way. The Qin-Han War was too fierce. Xu Fan had no time to recall black gunpowder. When he remembered it, he felt that it was not very useful. After all, the Han Dynasty already had Western Region artillery at that time, and the original artillery was really not as powerful as the Western Region artillery.

Therefore, artillery Xu Fan has never been able to come up with it. After Xu Fan became the emperor, he inspected an ore field in Chang'an one day and found that mining was not only dangerous, but also extremely hard work. Xu Fan thought of using gunpowder to mine. It seems that gunpowder was used to mine in the first place.

So Xu Fan asked someone to get the standard proportion of black powder.

Almost everyone in the Celestial Dynasty knows about black gunpowder, and Xu Fan has read a lot of novels and knows which raw materials should be used for this ratio. But there are only three raw materials in total, and six recipes can be used to find the best ratio of black gunpowder. .

After using black gunpowder to mine, the efficiency has indeed increased by more than ten times. A large area of ​​ore can be blasted out by laying a few blast holes. The emergence of black gunpowder has greatly reduced the construction costs of Dahan's various infrastructures. Made a huge contribution to the development of Dahan.

And Xu Fan thought that since he had all the black powder, he might as well get some cannons. At first, Xu Fan got bronze cannons. After all, bronze cannons were not only of higher quality than iron cannons, but also easier to make. In the end, only one bronze cannon was cast. The cannon cost 7 yuan worth of bronze raw materials, plus the cost of casting. The price of a bronze cannon is yuan, which is more expensive than ten stone cannons, and it may not be as powerful as the stone cannon. .

The most important thing is that the Han Dynasty cannot afford to cast cannons like this economically. The Han Dynasty's industry has developed rapidly in recent years, and more and more money needs to be circulated in the world. However, the Han Dynasty now implements three types of coins, copper coins that are circulated among ordinary people. , gold circulated among nobles, and paper money circulated among merchants.

The rapidly developing economy, coupled with the rapid decline in prices, mainly the rapid decline in the prices of grain and cloth, has put Dahan in a state of deflation.

At this time, the Han Dynasty did not want to increase the amount of currency investment, but used precious money to cast bronze cannons. This was extremely harmful to the Han Dynasty's economy.

So Xu Fan thought of the copper-core iron cannons of later generations. This method reduced the bronze consumption by half. But after casting a few guns, Xu Fan simply used iron to cast the cannons. The inside of the cannons were made of mature materials with good ductility. The iron core is made of iron and the outer layer is made of solid pig iron. Although the iron cannon cast in this way is heavier than the bronze cannon, has a lower range than the bronze cannon, and is not as durable as the bronze cannon, the price is only one-seventh of the bronze cannon.

The most important thing is that precious bronze is saved, and casting cannons will no longer affect the economy of the Han Dynasty.

After seeing the artillery factory, Xu Fan took Han Xin and the others to another arsenal. Han Xin and the others found that this was also an artillery factory, but the artillery produced by this artillery factory was different from the previous ones. These artillery were shorter, the barrels were thinner, and they were heavier. lighter.

Xu Fan smiled and said: "This is called a mortar. This kind of artillery can fire 20 kilograms of black powder and has a range of 100 steps. All humans and animals within a one-foot radius of the shell will be killed."

Han Xin and the others looked at this stubby mortar and found it hard to imagine its power.

So Xu Fan took Han Xin and the others to a test range.

Ten artillery pieces were lined up.

Xu Fan then ordered the test crew to quickly load gunpowder and projectiles.

After doing all this, Xu Fan gave the order: "Fire!"

The test crews lit the fuses one by one.

"Boom boom boom!"

Ten loud sounds were like ten thunders, frightening Han Xin and others into panic.

"Bang bang bang!"

Ten streaks of smoke appeared at the shooting range 400 steps away.

Then the gunner quickly cleaned the barrel of the gun to cool down the artillery. One gunner filled the gunpowder wrapped in silk, and the other loaded the 10-pound shell into it and inserted the fuse. The eight gunners worked together and quickly completed the preparations for an artillery firing, and then looked at Xu Fan to wait for orders.

"fire!"

"Boom, boom, boom!" Thunder exploded again.

This time Han Xin and the others were much better.

Ten streaks of smoke appeared again at the shooting range 400 steps away.

Han Xin looked at it and said, "How long does it take for the artillery to fire?"

Xu Fan said: "One stick of incense can fire more than ten shots."

Han Xin said: "This is more convenient than the stone cannon and requires fewer manpower."

There are only eight gunners per artillery piece. A stone cannon requires hundreds of people to serve it, and a stick of incense can only be fired twice at most. Although the artillery is not as powerful as the stone cannon, it is extremely light and can follow the army in battle. Relatively speaking, the stone cannon is more powerful. Suitable for passing fixed targets.

After Ji Xin and others saw the artillery, they were not too excited because they felt that the power of the artillery was not as good as the stone cannon, but it was more maneuverable. But what they had to deal with was the Huns' cavalry, which was pulling thousands of kilograms of weight behind them. With artillery, what mobility does the army have? Therefore, in their opinion, the price/performance ratio of artillery is not too high.

Xu Fan said: "Look at the power of mortars."

Xu Fan said it was a mortar, but it was actually a later-generation flying thunder cannon. The projectiles fired were explosive packets composed of 10 kilograms of black powder and 10 kilograms of small stones.

Of course, this was more dangerous. Xu Fan asked Han Xin and the others to hide further away and observe. At the shooting range a hundred steps away, a group of pigs and sheep were fixed in cages.

The soldiers had semi-buried the mortar's bracket, filled it with propellant, covered it with a wooden board, and then filled it with explosives.

Xu Fan gave the order again: "Launch!"

"Puff puff!"

"Boom, boom, boom!" This thunder was ten times more powerful than artillery. Of course, it was also closer. It was only more than 100 steps away from Han Xin and the others. The danger caused by the explosion made them feel like the ground was shaking.

After the launch, Han Xin ran to the place where the explosion occurred and found that all the pigs and sheep there were bleeding to death.

Han Xin said excitedly: "Your Majesty, this is the weapon we need for the Northern Expedition."

(End of this chapter)