Steel Dynasty - Chapter 837

[Chapter 836 The Dilemma of Accuracy]

“Your Majesty, Cao Zhengyang has confessed everything.”

Entering the imperial study, Li San handed a confession to Xiao Ming.

They have been interrogating Cao Zhengyang for a month since he was arrested. At the beginning, Cao Zhengyang was very tough and refused to admit that he was deliberately sabotaged by the Cao family. Even though Li San used some criminal methods, Cao Zhengyang still refused to say.

In the end, Li San had to put Cao Zhengyang into a solitary room and wake him up whenever Cao Zhengyang was about to fall asleep. After three days of persistence, Cao Zhengyang, who couldn’t stand the mental torture, finally vomited everything out. .

“It was indeed Cao Kun’s order.” Xiao Ming looked at the confession and said. Cao Zhengyang made it clear that it was Cao Kun who had someone deliver the news to him.

In addition, Cao Zhengyang also handed over some important information about Chu State.

“The Merchant Council was established a month ago. Now Cao Kun is the speaker. Cao Zhengyang’s brother Cao Zhengtong is the long history of the Wei Palace. According to Cao Zhengyang, the Merchant Council is planning to obtain military power. If they succeed, the King of Chu will become “Puppet.” Li San was also a little shocked by this news. In his opinion, it was shocking for a businessman to seek political affairs, and now he was trying to get involved in the army.

Xiao Ming was also a little surprised, “The King of Chu must be crazy. Once he gets military power, the Cao family will have the final say over Chu.”

“Chu knows the West better than we do, and the Cao family has talked about the West to the King of Chu more than once. As a monarch, between life and death, he may trust the Cao family more, “Li San said cautiously.

Xiao Ming sighed. The problem now lies in this place. No matter how he expresses his good intentions, the King of Chu has always refused to believe him. He now firmly believes that even if he surrenders, Xiao Ming will eventually kill him. It can only be said that the Chu State is too shrewd. .

He said: “You are right. Now the King of Chu does not believe me no matter what, so he will not surrender to me at all.”

Li San laughed when he heard the words, and he said: “Your Majesty, this may not be a good thing. King Chu, we We still have some scruples about taking action. If the Cao family controls the merchant council and then gains military power, then the emperor will not have to worry about the King of Chu. Regardless of whether the King of Chu rebels or not, we have sufficient reasons to go south. If the emperor wants to surrender quickly, The Chu Kingdom has shown its original shape, and perhaps the emperor can send secret guards to assassinate the King of Chu. “

Xiao Ming also thought of this. Now the Crown Prince of Chu, Li Chuyuan, is in Qingzhou. Once the King of Chu dies, Li Chuyuan must go back to succeed him. This is. The rules of Dayu.

The King of Chu may be willing to share his power with others in order to survive, but Li Chuyuan will not agree. After all, he is the next King of Chu.

“I think so too. Since the King of Chu has made it difficult for me to live in peace, why should I let the King of Chu live in peace? As long as the King of Chu is dead, I can let Li Chuyuan go back to fight with the Cao family. I don’t think Li Chuyuan will ask me for help at that time. Send troops to rescue him, what do you think?”

Xiao Ming made up his mind. As the saying goes, soldiers are important matters of the country, the place of life and death, and the way of survival. War should not be willful at any time. In the contemporary United States, in the Vietnam War, North Korea Failure speaks volumes.

Advanced weapons may not necessarily lead to victory in the war, or even victory may come at a heavy price.

And this is not what Xiao Ming wants to see, so even if the Chongqing Kingdom is equipped with advanced firearms, he still plans every war before proceeding, trying every means to reduce losses, or simply defeat the enemy without fighting.

“Your Majesty is wise. In this way, it will buy time for the deployment of troops, reduce casualties, and at the same time make the division famous.” Li San said.

Xiao Ming continued to read the news revealed by Cao Zhengyang. In addition to the parliament and the army, the Cao family and France were also collaborating and purchasing a lot of Western firearms.

At the same time, other businessmen who supported King Chu also spared no effort to help King Chu and tried to get rid of his rule.

“It seems that I want to have a serious talk with Li Chuyuan, and I will fan him and light a fire.” Xiao Ming said with a smile.

After a pause, he said: “Are you confident in assassinating the King of Chu?”

Li San laughed twice and said: “Your Majesty, it is said that Song Changping is developing a musket that loads ammunition from the butt of the gun. This musket can be used in any way.” The posture shooting, accuracy and rate of fire are better than the Zhenglu musket. If the emperor can give Xiaguan such a musket, it won’t be a big problem. “

He was not surprised that Li San knew this secret, because Song Changping, Lin Wentao and others were there. It was normal for Li San to obtain some information during the surveillance of the secret guards.

Even if there is any movement on Song Changping’s side, Li San will know about it, even earlier than he knows about it.

As soon as he finished speaking, a young eunuch came to the door and whispered a few words to Qian Dafu. Qian Dafu smiled and said: “Your Majesty, this is really about Cao Cao. When Cao Cao arrived, Song Changping asked for an audience outside the palace.”

Xiao Ming looked sideways. Looking at Li San, he said, “It seems you already know.”

Li San smiled and scratched his head.

After waiting for a while, Song Changping arrived outside the imperial study room. He saw Song Changping holding a musket in his hand. He was surprised and said: “Song Changping, is this a breech-loading gun?”

Song Changping nodded and said: ” Exactly, Xiaguan has already tested it in the school grounds. This musket can be fired directly with paper-cased bullets. However, because of the complexity of the locking structure, it may be difficult to modify the levy musket in large quantities. After all, it is just a spare part of the locking mechanism. Sixty-three, and the shapes of many parts are different. In order to produce such parts, more precise machine tools are needed.”

Xiao Ming understood. Song Changping was not here to claim credit this time, but to complain. In fact. Things like the locking structure require high machining precision. This precision requires a high-precision lathe to achieve, otherwise mass production will not be possible at all.

It was thought that the difference in size of the parts simply made it impossible to assemble.

As if to explain the breech-loading gun in his hand, he said: “This gun was polished by the lower official himself and took a month to assemble. Even so, the combination of some parts does not fit very well, but overall, It’s barely usable.”

Xiao Ming took the breech-loading gun. The locking structure of this gun was provided to Song Changping. Generally speaking, this gun is somewhat similar to the Sharps breech-loading gun. The locking structure also uses a drop-type locking mechanism. Mechanism, the thickened trigger guard acts as a pull rod to drive a lifting locking block to move up and down to open and close the gun chamber.

The most difficult part is one of the hinge structures. There are many parts in this structure, which Song Changping said is also difficult to process.

“Originally, I had to prepare to find you after finishing the currency matter.” Xiao Ming said: “This gun is only used as a sniper rifle in the army for the time being. Since it is difficult, we will artificially manufacture a small amount of equipment for the army. I asked Lin Wentao to think about this precision About the lathe.”

(End of chapter)