choke element

Chapter 1016: Not Enough (Part )

"Are you sure? You won't make a mistake, right?"

Wu Xian said loudly: "Your Majesty, in the 27th year of Dading, Shuhu Gaoqi was appointed as the judge of Hejian. At that time, I was under his command. Later, he fought fiercely with the Song army in Gongzhou, and defeated the Song general Li Xiaoyi in Qinzhou. In these two battles, the Song people took the initiative to provoke our army and fought in the field. So those big guys they used to defend the city were useless. The only thing that caused us a lot of trouble was this... I have heard the sound of their explosions many times before and after, and I felt familiar with it before. Now I can't be wrong when I put them together!"

At this time, an officer nearby also said: "Your Majesty, the size of the iron cannon is actually not reliable. The ones we cast ourselves are also large and small. But the small hole in the fuse is unique to the firearms produced in Lizhou Road."

“How come you see?”

"During the Kaixi period, Han Tuozhou, the prime minister of the Song Dynasty, provoked the Jin Dynasty to send troops. Wu Xi, who was stationed in Sichuan, responded with great fanfare. At that time, he summoned his craftsmen to urgently manufacture a batch of iron cannons for use in the siege of Sichuan. Because they were needed urgently, the craftsmen cut corners when manufacturing them, leaving only a small hole for the fuse. And because Wu Xi later surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, not many of these iron cannons were used, and most of them were preserved."

Guo Ning nodded slightly: "I'm going to eat, you guys take a look. If you are sure it is Song's stuff, pick it up... Don't say anything to anyone."

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. We can save it."

The soldiers agreed, and Xu Jin took a few quick steps and followed Guo Ning.

"Wu Xian is a man of few words, and he likes to brag. He claims that he was a subordinate of Shu Hu Gao Qi in the 27th year of Da Ding, but that was more than 30 years ago! It's not possible that he joined the army when he was wearing open-crotch pants? I will tell him to be more restrained and stop talking nonsense all day long!"

At this point, Xu Jin coughed a few times and said, "However, those iron cannons were most likely given by the Song people. Among the soldiers accompanying this time, there are fifteen who have experience fighting against the Song people in Longxi and Shukou. Among the fifteen, four have seen the iron cannons of the Song army, and they all said that Wu Xian's judgment was correct."

"The Song people secretly supported the Mongols with weapons and military equipment... Could it be that they have fallen out? This is no small matter!"

Guo Ning laughed at himself.

Since he led his troops to Shandong and served as the military governor of Dinghai Army, he has had close exchanges with the Southern Song Dynasty. First, it was an economic bond, and later it extended to the bond with many officials, businessmen and interest groups. This has nothing to do with the complicated feelings of the Central Plains Han people towards the Song Dynasty, but is completely a cold calculation of interests.

Under this calculation, the interest groups that really held power in Song State got tangible benefits, and used these benefits to constantly call the shots in the court of Song State and consolidate their power in Song State. No matter how much confrontation there was between the two countries in politics and military, Shi Miyuan and his followers would definitely limit the confrontation to a controllable range and would not allow the relationship between the two countries to deteriorate.

Guo Ning had no doubt about this, because his Great Zhou also relied on the profits brought by trade. The huge military expenditures of the Great Zhou every year, and even the money used to buy benefits from certain ethnic groups in border areas, all came from this.

Guo Ning simply couldn't think of anything that could replace this benefit, and he was sure that Shi Miyuan was facing the same situation. This out-and-out political animal not only had no other choice, but would continue to sell out the interests of the Song Dynasty for his own benefit.

But the problem is that the Song people actually came up with a new trick and provided weapons support to the Mongols?
Who was leading this operation? How much support did they give to the Mongols? The Song Dynasty and Mongolia did not border each other at all. How did these weapons get to the Mongols? Who taught the Mongols how to use them?

Is this support a result of some forces in Song acting on their own, or does it represent an adjustment in the direction of Song's major policies? If it is the former, could it be that Shi Miyuan has lost control of the government and has always been like this? If it is the latter... are the two countries of Zhou and Song falling out? If they fall out at this time, what will happen to the southern border of the Great Zhou?
The deeper Guo Ning went into the grassland, the more he felt that the origin of the iron cannon was the key. When the origin was revealed, he had to admit that the amount of information contained in a small iron cannon was too huge, which made him more and more hesitant for a while.

"Out of fifteen people, four agree. The proportion is still a bit low," said Guo Ning.

Xu Jin replied in a low voice: "So I summoned someone else who is in charge of military work."

"Who? Is that person's vision reliable?"

"He is a famous craftsman we hired from the Southern Song Dynasty two years ago with a large sum of money. He has a deep understanding of Song Dynasty's firearms, and he will definitely come to a conclusion after he arrives."

"When can we arrive?"

"He is now in the rear military fort. I sent someone to summon him overnight. I estimate that he will arrive tomorrow night."

"It's a little late."

Xu Jin was a little embarrassed: "It's already as fast as possible."

Guo Ning nodded, and then asked: "What's the news from Tianjin Prefecture?"

The reason why Guo Ning called people to collect the iron cannon fragments was because he had doubts about the Song State since a few days ago. The source of the doubts came from a piece of news sent by Yelu Chucai from Tianjin Prefecture.

The news said that at the end of the year, many merchants in Tianjin Prefecture would take inventory and settle accounts. According to convention, merchants would also decide on next year's investment based on the operating conditions of the previous year. All of this was, of course, under the supervision of Yelu Chucai and Li Yun, and Li Yun had already gone south to Lin'an, intending to use the head to make another fortune from the Song people.

But there was only one exception. There was a certain business that had a very close private relationship with Shi Miyuan. During this period, it privately contacted several partners and tried to transfer its own business.

The maritime trade has been making a lot of money in recent years. Why would they give up such a good business? This move immediately attracted the attention of Yelu Chucai. Outsiders did not know the relationship between this business and Shi Miyuan, but Yelu Chucai knew it. He immediately arranged a secret line to inquire about it indirectly, and at the same time sent a letter to report this strange matter to Guo Ning.

However, due to the army's continued operations, the results of the subsequent investigation did not arrive for several days.

Guo Ning suddenly asked, and Xu Jin had no choice but to ask him to be patient.

The two men didn't walk far before returning to the campfire, and Guo Ning asked someone to bring a large bowl of rice.

At this time, all the camps were having dinner, and the smell of smoke and rice drifted in the wind. After Guo Ning and his guards shared a large piece of dried meat, the other staple foods were no different from those of the soldiers, including noodles and corn rice. Guo Ning took some meat soup and mixed it with rice, and ate two large bowls in one go.

After he finished eating, he wiped his mouth and saw that the guards around him were all looking at him.

Guo Ning smiled and said, "What are you looking at? Haven't you seen that I'm hungry? Add more rice, another bowl!"

Since the army had gone out of the border, they had not been able to find the main force of the Mongolian army for a decisive battle, and the weather was getting worse and worse, so the soldiers were generally a little irritable. The guards also knew that Guo Ning had been restless these days. Previously, he had ordered to search for fragments of the iron cannon used by the Mongolian Tatars on various battlefields. The fragments were delivered the day before yesterday, and Guo Ning suddenly ordered to mobilize relevant personnel to rush to the camp and piece together the fragments as soon as possible. Everyone felt more and more that Guo Ning must be hiding something.

Seeing that he had a good appetite and no more doubts on his face, the guards were very happy. The soldiers were all very tired after marching for several days. Many of them wanted to rest, but when they saw that Guo Ning was in high spirits, they all grinned with joy. Several of them said in unison: "I want to eat more too! More food! More food!"

"Give me some cheese!" someone shouted to join in the fun, and was immediately cheered back by others, with several bones flying through the air and hitting him.

In addition to a lot of dried meat, the army also prepared various goat and milk products in the meals. But the Han people were generally not used to these things, especially the soldiers from the south in the army, who said that cheese was smelly. Some people were given a few pieces of cheese and threw them away. Even if they wanted to flatter the emperor at this time, it would be too much to give everyone more cheese.

Amidst the laughter, Guo Ning said to Xu Jin: "This situation is not right. I can't wait any longer."