Datang: Let you supervise the country and become an emperor through the ages

Chapter 338 The Opponent Who Responded First

It is true that when Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang were refining alchemy, they accidentally discovered a substance that could cause an explosion, so they named it gunpowder. However, with their ability, they are still unable to extract stable gunpowder.

Unexpectedly, tonight, when they were having a family dinner with Sun Simiao, they suddenly heard the sound of explosions coming from the direction of the East Palace. They quickly realized that it was the movement of gunpowder explosions, and there were continuous explosions.

So out of curiosity, they went all the way to the East Palace, just in time for Li Fu to demonstrate firecrackers to Li Shimin and others. They were shocked and couldn't help rushing up to ask.

You must know that they have been researching gunpowder for several years, and they have not been able to stably extract the gunpowder in the pill furnace. As a result, they now find that someone has already extracted gunpowder and applied it in their lives. How can they not be shocked? ?
Changsun Wuji came to Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang and said with a smile: "The two adults are talking about firecrackers. That is the latest masterpiece of the prince, but I don't know what gunpowder you are talking about. Is it the same as this firecracker?"

"Firecrackers?" Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang's eyes instantly locked on Li Fu, and in a flash, they surrounded Li Fu.

"His Royal Highness, what are your firecrackers made of? Can you tell the old man?"

"Of course." Li Fu smiled and said, "Just as you two thought, it was made of gunpowder."

The eye sockets of Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang enlarged for a while, but Li Fu did not expect that the firecrackers made of gunpowder were really used!
"His Royal Highness, could it be that you have been able to extract stable gunpowder and use it to make this firecracker?"

"How did you do it? Can you tell the old man, the old man is willing to pay a lot of money to buy the formula!"

Hearing this, the corners of Li Fu's mouth curled up slightly, and he turned towards Shen Lian who was sorting out the firecrackers, "Don't ask Gu about it, it was refined by that guy, and the firecrackers were also made by him, and now he works in Gu's firearms workshop. You go find him!"

Firearms Workshop?Everyone was dumbfounded, but Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng immediately abandoned Li Fu and went straight to Shen Lian.

Shen Lian was taken aback suddenly, not knowing what happened, he ran away immediately, and the East Palace became more lively.

After finally laughing and laughing, Li Shimin and a group of princes left the East Palace. Li Jing and Li Ji made a special trip to ask Li Shimin to see him. Li Shimin knew what they wanted to ask, so he let them get on the imperial car with him.

"Your Majesty, does your Majesty know what the Firearms Workshop His Royal Highness just mentioned is for?"

Li Shimin couldn't help laughing, "The firearms workshop is naturally a place for making firearms. Now the prince's firearms workshop is making bird guns and fire guns. Both of them are firearms!"

"May I ask Your Majesty, what are the bird guns and fire guns?" Li Jing and Li Ji's eyes lit up, and they hurriedly continued to ask.

Li Shimin had such a good opportunity to pretend to be coercive, how could he let it go, so he pretended to be high-spirited and said with a smile: "It's just an ordinary firearm. The new weapons that the prince researched are all made of steel!"

"In terms of power, it is about the same as a crossbow, but it has a longer range than a crossbow, and it can easily kill people after hitting a human body, and it can penetrate heavy armor!"

"Hiss..." Hearing Li Shimin's introduction, both Li Jing and Li Ji gasped involuntarily.

At first they heard that they were similar to bows and crossbows, and suddenly lost interest, but when Li Shimin said at the end, that firecrackers and bird blunderbusses can penetrate heavy armor, their eyes suddenly lit up.

But it was still unclear, so Li Shimin explained to Li Jing and Li Jizai the power of the firearm he felt from Li Fu.

After Li Shimin finished speaking, Li Jing and Li Ji gasped again.

"So that's it, it turns out that this is the so-called firearm, it's really powerful!"

"I was just thinking about how to use those firecrackers on the battlefield, but I didn't expect that they were just pure playthings!"

"His Royal Highness, Prince Ganqing, has already thought about it a long time ago. He has already created firearms that are more stable than firecrackers. If these weapons are used on the battlefield, they will be like thunderbolts!"

Li Shimin nodded and said with a smile: "This matter is top secret. The prince's firearms workshop is still in the stage of secret development. The two princes will wait and see. Once there is the latest news, I will let you know. At that time, you will also need to cooperate with the prince to test firearms." !"

"I will obey the order!" Upon hearing Li Shimin's words, Li Jing and Li Ji immediately agreed.

After that, the entire first month, the imperial court rested, Chang'an City and even the entire Tang Dynasty were shrouded in joy.

In the past two years in the Tang Dynasty, the people had enough food and clothing, and they were all grateful to Li Shimin. For this reason, the national security has improved a lot!

Li Fu's side was a bit unhappy, Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang entangled Shen Lian, Shen Lian begged Li Fu's side, Li Fu was also entangled, and finally had to stuff them into the firearms workshop.

The reform of the military system of the Ministry of War was also put on the agenda. The first phase of the five-year compulsory military system recruited soldiers and began to be tried out in six places including Guanzhong and Longyou. The first recruitment recruited [-] soldiers.

These [-] soldiers were all equipped with the best weapons in the arsenal, which directly reduced the armament of the Tang arsenal by half.

Afterwards, with the cooperation of Honglu Temple, the Ministry of War sold the other half of the armaments to small tribes such as Nanzhao and Dangxiang, as well as Tiele in the North.

In this way, the problem of rusted ordnance was solved in less than three months. With these ordnance, Datang actually obtained Nanzhao's specialty, Champa Rice, which is grown twice a season.

In addition, there are countless gold and silver jewels, and tribes such as Tiele even paid the price of tens of thousands of cattle and sheep and thousands of good horses for this!

The Ministry of War was extremely brilliant in this incident, and Hou Junji, Minister of the Ministry of War, was finally proud, smiling every day with an old face like a chrysanthemum, which never faded.

But the happiest person is Li Shimin. This time, he exchanged the rusted weapons for Champa Rice, which can increase the grain output of the Tang Dynasty, as well as so many cattle, sheep, horses, gold, silver and jewelry, and even the population. Li Shimin's decision was praised.

With these gains, coupled with the restructuring of the Ministry of War, as long as the conscripts are well trained, they can become an army within half a year.

With such a new force, the Ministry of War has no problem at all in maintaining it, and at the same time, it can continue to deepen the trial, so as to further promote it to the whole country. In the process, the Ministry of War has not encountered any resistance at all.

Of course, this is also the credit of Li Shimin and Shang Shutai. With these big bosses in charge, even if some civil and military officials have reservations about this, under the strong suppression of Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling, they can only calm down.

And this arms trade has indeed brought great changes to the current situation, and some people's sensitive nerves have been touched by it.

But surprisingly, Tubo was not the first to react.

(End of this chapter)