The sun rises from the east, and Suzhou City seems to have reached spring overnight.

Above the plaque at the gate of the royal palace, several spring swallows built a nest with spring mud, and the fat little sparrow stood beside him and looked at him curiously; the two royal palace guards looked up and kept paying attention to the little sparrow, for fear that the prince's concubine's favorite pet would be accidentally lost.

It was still early, and the girls in the back house got up one after another, and the maids came and went between the corridors.

In Song Yufu's boudoir, a portrait of a man was hung on the wall, two bookshelves were filled with books, and a vermilion wine gourd was placed on the desk. The rouge and water powder I used to send in Chang'an were neatly placed on the dressing table.

The curtain of the embroidered bed hangs down, and in the red bedding, Song Yufu's face is slightly red. She holds Xu Buling's arms and is still sleeping soundly. In just a few days, the slightly green cheeks have not shown any changes. The only difference is less shy and a little more clingy.

Xu Buling had already woken up when he was lying flat on the pillow. He was afraid of waking Yufu, so he did not get up. He looked at his sleeping new wife with a little bored look.

Song Yufu got up very early and always got up before dawn to study. She couldn't stand it. However, after getting married, this habit obviously had to be changed. She was already weak and was abducted by her bad husband in a way, posing in strange postures. She was so tired that she didn't want to move, so she could get up until dawn.

After the wedding night last time, I overslept in the morning, and then Manzhi secretly ran over and lay on the edge of the bed to ask, "Fubao, did it hurt last night? Mr. Xu, how did you do to me? Let me tell me~..." Song Yufu was almost embarrassed at that time, and hesitated and didn't know what to describe it. Fortunately, Xu Buling came and scared Manzhi away, and then escaped.

twitter

The sound of birds singing outside the window came, Song Yufu's eyelashes moved and gradually woke up? She opened her eyes.

Seeing the face of the man who was so close to him? Song Yufu's eyes became a little confused, her face gradually turned red, and her hand holding her arms loosened a little:

"Honey? Wake up..."

Xu Buling curled the corners of his mouth: "If you want to sleep, just sleep a little longer? Anyway, the royal palace is fine."

"No? The whole tree will come again later..."

Before Song Yufu finished speaking, a jog sounded from outside the room? There was also a 'gaga' call. Zhu Manzhi's voice came:

"Mr. Xu? I caught a fat goose? I wanted to roast it and eat it. Xiao Ning insisted on stewing it. Please pay attention~..."

Song Yufu was a little confused when she heard the big goose's sorrow and anger. She was anxious in her eyes, and she got up from the bedding, without even wearing any clothes. She ran to the window quickly and pushed open the window:

"No, no? Don't bake the prince white..."

Outside the window, Zhu Manzhi smiled and held the wings of the big white goose. He saw Song Yufu in a blink of an eye. He wanted to make a few jokes, but he didn't expect to see... the two white buns...

"Ah~ Fubao, why are you naked? Are you ashamed or not..."

Song Yufu lowered her head and glanced at her eyes, finally came to her senses, screamed in surprise, quickly closed the window, and ran back to the embroidery bed.

Xu Buling had already gotten up, and saw Song Yufu's panic look, and raised her hand and patted her on her buttocks:

"All married people, there are no men in the back house, why are you panic?"

Song Yufu was born in a scholarly family and had only been married for a few days. How could she be able to let go? She hugged her chest and prevented Xu Buling from looking around. She got into the bedding again, revealing only a small face:

"My husband, please pull the branches away, and there are also Prince Bai and Ah Huang, so you are not allowed to stew it."

"How could it be? If you sleep for a while, don't rush to get up. Anyway, they all know that you can't get up..."

"Oh~ Husband..."

"hehe……"

Xu Buling chuckled slightly, possessed Song Yufu and kissed her on the forehead, tucked the bedding, turned around and walked out of the room.

Zhu Manzhi stood at the door, holding a big white goose in her arms, her face was flushed, and her back was facing the door. When she heard Xu Buling come out, she muttered:

"Mr. Xu, what are you doing? You don't wear clothes in broad daylight..."

Xu Buling walked up to him and rushed over to send 800 miles. The big white goose that was almost blown by the wind was rescued, threw it into the garden, and then took the branches' hands out:

"Manzhi, you usually get up after being sun-dried, why don't you sleep in today? Are you jealous and deliberately coming to grab your lover?"

Zhu Manzhi was discovered with little thoughts, so he naturally refused to admit it and blinked his big eyes:

"Where is it? I'll just come and take a look... By the way, Sister Xiang'er is looking for you just now. It seems that there is something to show you..."

Xu Buling shook his head and chuckled, and no longer teased Xiao Manzhi, and said:

"Where is Xiang'er?"

"Outside the Chuhuamen... By the way, there is a large hot spring in the city, which is so comfortable. Have you been to Mr. Xu?"

"I know, I'll go with you later."

"I'll tell you who's going with you..."

"Brothers, isn't it normal to take a bath together..."

"No, no..."

...

While talking and laughing, Xu Buling came to the house outside the palace after cleaning up.

Xiao Xiang'er was wearing a black black dress, dressed exactly like Xiao Qi, standing outside the Hanhua Gate. Lao Xiao and two aides in the royal family were talking to each other.

Xu Buling walked out of the hanging flower door with the branches and smiled and said, "Baby, why did you get up so early?"

Xiao Xiang'er turned around and looked like a Gujing Wubo, and said calmly:

"I'm going to go out and don't be seen."

Old Xiao walked up to the front with a crutch and said, "Little Prince, didn't you leave a few rolls of drawings before you went to Jiangnan? From August last year to now, the military weapon supervisor has been thinking about it. The prince's concubine recently analyzed the situation and estimated that the court would soon send an order to transfer the Xiliang army into the pass. She didn't know what the new objects were in the battle formation. Taking advantage of the good weather today, the little prince went to inspect and see if it could be used."

Xu Buling was slightly happy when he heard this. Last time he returned to Suzhou, he drew a few drawings of artillery, explained the general principles, handed them over to Xiang'er for perfection, and then sent them to the military weapon supervisor for research and development. Although he didn't know much, he should have achieved some results in half a year.

"Go and go and take a look."

Xu Buling did not hesitate and took Lao Xiao and others out of the royal palace and took a carriage to the military weapon prison outside the city.

There are 200,000 mercenaries in Xiliang, including armor, food, and weapons, all of them are self-sufficient. There must be an arsenal for creating armor and bows and crossbows.

This world is dominated by heavy cavalry and crossbowmen, but there are also prototypes of firearms, such as the "Pi Li cannon" used as a launcher, the "hard turbulent oil" used to defend the city, etc., which are not very powerful and are even rarer. In front of the Baniu Bed Crossbow with a range of three miles, it is basically useless.

Although it is a bit backward in technology, it does not mean that the craftsmen in this world are much more dumb than modern craftsmen. This can be seen from the underground palace and sword metallurgy technology under Bodhi Island. Just the "Shuilong Yin" on Xu Buling's hand may not be able to be made in modern times. It's just that there was no concept of a firearm before.

The group came to the military weapon workshop outside the city. Hundreds of craftsmen ran back and forth, siege vehicles and other equipment piled up like mountains, and the smoke was rolling in several blast furnaces, and the sound of iron knocking almost overwhelmed the noise of the people.

Lao Xiao took Xu Buling back and forth through the military weapon prison and came to a small workshop opened in the rear.

There were only a dozen craftsmen in the workshop, and huge mud molds were placed in the yard, which were being dried. The foreman was a child of the Mo family, named Tian Qisheng, who was originally a visitor to the royal palace. He was arranged to entrust here to entrust with important tasks. At this time, he was sitting on the powder barrel and instigating noodles.

Xu Buling was shocked when he saw this scene, and hurriedly protected Xiang'er and Manzhi behind him, frowned and said:

"Why are gunpowder piled on the wall? Are you afraid of lifting the workshop?"

When Tian Qisheng saw the little prince coming, he quickly put down the noodles, got up and laughed:

"Don't worry about the prince, it's all empty. The armory ban on smoking and fire is an iron rule. I still know this humble position."

Zhu Manzhi glanced around the workshop and saw a pile of large iron pipes piled in the corner. His eyes lit up:

"Mr. Xu, are you building firecrackers?"

"almost."

After Xu Buling was sure there was no danger, he felt relieved and followed Tian Qisheng to the warehouse behind the yard. After the door was opened, he looked up and saw a thick and long covered red cloth.

Tian Qisheng walked closer, raised his hand and lifted the red cloth to reveal the cannon painted ink black with precious paint. In order not to affect the strength of the cannon barrel, he only drew a black tiger on it, which was written by King Su Xu You. It was lifelike and the word "priced" was written all over his body.

Tian Qisheng was a little proud: "Little Prince, this thing is a humble job, but I have been working hard for half a year. I spent 30,000 kilograms of copper and iron alone. Although the price is a bit too high, I have figured it out at least."

Xiao Xiang'er only drew rough drawings, knew the principle, but not the actual effect. When she heard this, she frowned slightly:

"Xu Buling, 30,000 kilograms of copper and iron can cast two hundred sets of heavy armor. Are you sure this thing is comparable to the heavy cavalry with two hundred armored cavalry equipment?"

Old Xiao also frowned slightly: "Xiliang lacks copper and iron. The 'Tiger Cavalry' with 20,000 armored horses has been saved for 60 years. Many of them were seized from Daqi before Jiazi. I'm afraid it hurts a little..."

It is not surprising that the two of them have this statement. Among the battle formations of all dynasties, the strongest combat power was heavy cavalry with both men and horses, and one horse was a steel fortress. Each battle often only requires a few thousand armored cavalry, supplemented by light cavalry, which can be unstoppable. When encountering tens of thousands of enemy troops, they can be defeated. Good steel does not need to be on the blade. If you spend 30,000 kilograms of copper and iron, you will not be as effective as two hundred cavalry.

Xu Buling walked to the front of the fire, raised his hand and touched the body of the Iron Heart Copper Cannon, and nodded with satisfaction:

"The craftsmanship is burned with silver, and research and development must produce a lot of waste. When the technology is mature, the cost will naturally drop."

Tian Qisheng nodded slightly: "The little prince is right. Practice makes perfect. When a few apprentices become proficient, they will not consume so much copper and iron."

Xu Buling looked around the cannon carefully, then lay down at the muzzle, looked at the rifle pulled out from inside, and nodded slightly:

"Have you tried it? How effective?"

Tian Qisheng raised his hand and pointed at the shooting range where the bed crossbow was debugging: "I tried it, the sound was quite loud, but it was not easy to aim. This thing is 600 kilograms and can shoot one and a half miles. No matter what the people in the middle are, they will be divided, but they will not be accurate if they open one mile away. It is okay to use it to break the city gate, but it is afraid it will not be able to hit the city wall."

"Just build a bigger one. It's enough to make three thousand kilograms, and the range must be at least more than the bed crossbow... How many can I build in one month now?"

"It's okay to make two in a month. When a few apprentices learn and add some staff, you should be able to get faster."

Xu Buling frowned when he heard this:

"Two cannons? What's the use of this? It can only be heard when you go to the battlefield, and it can't reverse the situation. At least one thousand cannons will be needed, twenty people will be responsible for one, and a 20 thousand artillery soldiers will be brought out, and one wave will be pushed to Siberia..."???

Tian Qisheng and Xiao Xianger rolled their eyes when they heard these inexplicable words.

Although Xiao Xianger could not cast artillery, there were quite a few large copper and iron objects cast by the ancestors of the Xiao family. To put it bluntly, the cannon was just an iron lump, and the casting process was similar. She stepped forward and said:

"Xu Buling, do you think you know that 'more is good, big is beautiful'? Not to mention copper and iron raw materials and craftsmen, it takes a lot of time just to open the mold. The mud mold is dry for at least half a month, and it depends on the weather. Unless the workshop is expanded, it will not be much cast in a month. You also asked the shipyard in Lanzhou to repair a few warships. No matter how big the money is, it is not like this..."

Xu Buling raised his hand and chuckled, "I just set a goal, but I don't want to build an artillery workshop in the upper reaches of the Wei River. After that, it can be transported directly into the pass by a boat. If you go to the Yellow River, the Yangtze River can be transported directly to Qingzhou and Jiangnan. I will tell my father about these things, and Mr. Tian just needs to build cannons."

Xiao Xianger himself is a craftsman, and she is not unaware of the output of copper and iron. Seeing Xu Buling preparing to build a large-scale construction to burn the wealth accumulated by two generations of King Su, she was still a little hesitant:

"Xu Buling, is this thing really so important?"

Xu Buling thought about it for a while, and felt that it was useless to say more. It was better to see that it was better, so he asked Tian Qisheng to pull out the cannon to try it.

After a while, four craftsmen pushed the cannons out of the workshop and went to the shooting range on the side of the military weapon surveillance. The gunpowder was placed separately on the cart to prevent a little spark from exploding directly.

After the cannon stopped, the craftsman, under the command of Tian Qishengde, nailed the iron rod on the cannon into the ground to fix the cannon. There was a sight on the cannon. After several months of experiments, distance, elevation angle, loading amount, etc., Tian Qisheng weighed the gunpowder, loaded it from the muzzle with a wooden stick, and then installed a solid iron ball and the torch he brought.

Zhu Manzhi followed behind him. Seeing the appearance of a firecracker, he immediately felt energetic and said:

"Mr. Xu, I'll do it and I'll do it..."

It was still in the experimental stage, so Xu Buling dared not let Xiao Manzhi take the risk and pulled Manzhi and Xiang'er to a distance to stand.

In order to show his skills in front of the little prince, Tian Qisheng took the torch and lit the lead at the tail end of the cannon...
Chapter completed!