Chapter 155 Chase

"As Hanqing said, the great defeat of Shahe is also blamed on the head of Zhu?" Just when Zhu Bashiyi, Lu Luzeng, Huang Laowai and others were thinking about how to lead the disaster to the west and buy time for "farming" for the Huaian army. In the capital, there were several pairs of sharp eyes staring at them tightly.

"It's better to call me Xiao Si. It's safe to listen to the word "Hanqing" and I went out to call it for others, so I can't lose my face!" Tuotuo's playmate since childhood, Li Hanqing, the butler of the right prime minister's office, bowed down, and was frightened.

"This is another trick!" Tuotuo glanced at him and shook his head gently, "Since he was young, who has ever treated you as a slave?"

This is a truth. For Li Hanqing, the playmate and book boy, the men, women, young and old in Tuotuo's mansion are very respectful. What is rare is that Li Hanqing never becomes arrogant because of favor and always willingly regards himself as a slave, as if only in this way can he feel comfortable.

This time, he knelt down again and choked up and responded, "My lord never treats Li Si as a slave, but Li Si cannot forget his roots. So, please don't call him the word Han Qing again. Otherwise, Li Si will never have the shame to stay in the mansion again!"

"Well, it's up to you!" Seeing that he said so sincerely, Tuotuo had to satisfy his wish. "Anyway, the name is just a title. At home, you are my book boy, and outside, you are the number one housekeeper in my house. Even if you go out to work occasionally, no matter how long it takes, this position will always be kept for you!"

"If Li Si doesn't repay him with such a dear, he will be no longer a human being!" Li Si kowtowed again, got up from the ground, responding with red eyes.

"You have done well enough!" Tuotuo smiled and nodded slightly. "The court sent so many spies to report back were all powerful bandits, and the bandits were supported by local people, wandering around and other nonsense. Only you can tell the cause and effect so clearly. Biyesen Timur wrote me and said it clearly!"

"The master of Yesen is a mystery to the authorities!" Li Si thought for a while, and did not dare to take credit, so he took the initiative to explain for Yesen Timur, who had defeated the battle.

"What a conspirator is crazy about the authorities? He is not a material for war, but he is showing off his power. I advised him, but he felt that my brother is delaying his future!" Tuotuo smiled again and curled his lips disdainfully.

My younger brother Yesen Timur was a good civil servant and a censor, but he was definitely not a good commander. However, if he did not hand over the military power to him, his right position as the prime minister would never be stable. So at the time, he had no choice but to take advantage of the two evils. Unexpectedly, Timur did not even defend Bianliang, lost all his 300,000 troops, and fled back to the north of the Yellow River with only a few thousand confidants.

Now, those short-sighted guys in the court are not able to find their own handle. They are using power to ruin the country, nepotism, and respectful to the traitors. All the crimes are deducted. His Majesty Tuhuan Timur has been bullied by powerful officials since childhood. He is most afraid of reappearing the nightmare of that year. Before this defeat, he wanted to reduce the power of the prime minister. After this defeat, he was even more legitimate.

"It was the Red Trouble who was sharp with the firearm, and he caught him off guard if he hit him!" As a loyal slave, Li Si would never say a bad word to his master. After thinking for a while, he once again led the conversation to Huai'an army.

"I believe you say this. But how can I use this reason to convince the emperor?" Tuotuo looked at him and sighed helplessly. "The Huai'an thief only dispatched 3,000 people. Liu Futong had 150,000, Sesame Li 50,000, and Zhao Jun used 30,000. Who is the main force and who is the helper is almost clear at a glance. I went to tell the emperor that Liu Futong's 150,000 army is not afraid, and Zhu Bashiyi's 3,000 soldiers are the culprit. The emperor turned over the table with me on the spot?"

"But that's the truth!" Li Si pointed to the secret report he wrote and insisted hard, "At that time, Liu Futong and Yesen's master confronted each other across the Shahe River for a month and a half, and in fact, both sides had become tired soldiers. Although the red scarf thief from Huai'an was only 3,000, they brought forty cannons. When the brothers were sleeping soundly in the middle of the night, the forty sects came over together. How could they not blow up the camp? If you want to blame, you can only blame Gong Buban, an old corpse, who actually suggested that the master of Yesen's master set the camp on the bank of the river!"

"Gong Buban is dead, and the person is dead, and he is over. Yesen is still alive. The emperor has been reluctant to punish him, just waiting for me to confess his guilt!" Tuotuo had heard similar words several times tonight. He looked at Li Si again and emphasized impatiently.

"Although the person is dead, he cannot bear the blame!" Li Si was stunned for a moment, and his voice quickly lowered. "The red scarf's cannon can be at least 350 steps away. And his camp is only 150 steps away from the river beach. The red scarf's cannon was pulled by a boat in the middle of the night and quietly landed on the dock. The brothers patrolling the nightclub could not find it! If the emperor doesn't believe it, he can take the emperor to the Ordnance Bureau to inspect the cannon. Even the bronze cannon we imitated, equipped with the black gunpowder we sent to buy back with a large amount of money, could be at three or four hundred steps away!"

This is a good idea. As the saying goes, seeing is better than seeing. If His Majesty Tuohuan Timur sees the power of the new cannon with his own eyes, he will understand which direction should be the focus of the next step of the imperial court in using troops. If he understands the power of the cannon, he will know that Yesian Timur's defeat is actually understandable, and his anger will also relieve his thoughts.

Thinking of this, Tuotuo breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at Li Si's eyes and asked in a low voice, "How much gunpowder has you bought back from a large amount of money? Can the Ordnance Bureau be copied here?"

"I have made it clear to the craftsmen who make gunpowder. If the formula can be produced within half a month, each person will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver. If the same gunpowder cannot be produced within half a month, it will take a delay of cutting a head a day until everyone is killed!" Li Si's expression immediately began to chill, and the sound of a poisonous snake spitting a letter was made in his mouth.

"Yeah!" Tuobao's eyebrows jumped slightly, and then he realized that Li Si was doing something reasonable. The craftsmen in the Military Weapon Bureau were the leaders in the country. There was no reason why Xuzhou craftsmen could make gunpowder, but they couldn't make it. What they didn't make was their loyalty to their employers. I believe that under the steel knife, they could force them to do their best.

"The undercover agents in the Red Turban Army have already found out. The people who are responsible for preparing gunpowder are all those who are around the main generals, not those skilled craftsmen, so the formula is definitely not too complicated. It is nothing more than the changes in the ingredients of the main ingredients, sulfur, nitrate, and carbon, plus a little auxiliary materials. And the craftsmen have also verified by rinsing. In the gunpowder of the Red Turban, there are probably no auxiliary materials such as turmeric oil, croton, and arsenic. It is very likely that there are three kinds of sulfur, nitrate, and toner!"

"If it is true as you say, our artillery can be pushed to the battlefield within two months!" Tuotuo was very excited when he heard it. His fists clenched tightly and swung them in the air.

"Maybe it won't take two months!" Li Si thought for a while and responded confidently, "The craftsmen of the Military Arts Bureau used steel saws to dig out the cannon that they bought back from a large amount of money and imitated it as it was. Although the ones made were a little heavier than the original one, they could easily explode. But the subordinates asked them to carve their names on the cannons, and they ignite the first cannons themselves. I believe they would not take the initiative to die!"

"This method is good! This method is good!" Tuotuo touched the back of Li Si's head and praised him, "It's a pity that you are a little cold, otherwise it would be more than enough to be a military weapon prison."

Li Si was half a head taller than him. In order to make him feel more comfortable, he deliberately bent his knees and responded with a smile, "It's true that the fourth-rank official of the Prime Minister's house. The military weapon supervisor is only the fourth-rank official. To be honest, Li Si really doesn't care. Li Si would rather follow the master forever and be the gatekeeper of the Prime Minister's house!"

He always serves as the gatekeeper of the prime minister's house, which means that Tuotuo will always be the prime minister. This flattery is extraordinary. When the right prime minister of Dayuan, Tuotuo was really amused to laugh, "You boy, this mouth can make the dead live. Okay, I will do my best to be the prime minister for the rest of my life, let you be the fourth-rank book boy for the rest of your life. We have two masters and servants, and there will be a beginning and an end in this life."

"Thank you for your kindness!" Li Si knelt down again and acted to bow.

Tuotuo pulled it up and shook his head with a smile, "Don't bow, don't bow, I have been with you since childhood, and you are not the only two heads. By the way, you just said that our cannon is heavy and easy to explode, how big is the difference between our cannon and the Red Thief's cannon? To be honest, don't always comfort me with nice sounds!"

"This is hard to say!" Li Si thought about it and frowned. "Sir, you may not know that the four-jin cannons are all the same in the hands of different people. Some Red Troubles said that if they shoot more than ten cannons, they will explode. Some say that they will explode even if they shoot twenty or thirty cannons in a row. Some say that they have never exploded. In addition, the four-jin cannons of Huai'an thieves are also made more and more so. Not only is it easier to explode the cannons, but the weight of the cannons is also constantly reducing!"

"Continuously lightening? How did they do it?" Tuotuo's eyebrows, which had just stretched, immediately frowned into a lump.

The power of the cannon is indeed amazing, but the cost of each cannon is indeed terrifyingly high. It is basically made of bronze containing about 90% of copper. A cannon that fires four kilograms of projectiles requires more than 600 kilograms of bronze. If these copper materials are used to cast copper coins, even the most standard copper, six lead, and four kilograms of lead, can be cast more than 200 jin. In addition, the fire consumption, the cost of a bronze cannon is as high as more than 300 jin, which is definitely a big pit for burning money.

However, the Red Turban Army can continuously reduce the weight of the artillery while strengthening the life of the artillery. This means that every time they build a cannon, they can spend four or five jin less than the Dayuan side. If this continues for a long time, just the consumption can also exhaust the Dayuan court!

"I don't know how they did it. I guess it's practice that makes perfect! According to the news sent by the spies, they provided 120 cannons to Liu Futong's family last month!"
Chapter completed!