choke element

Chapter 998: Trends (Part )

"Of course I think so. Not only do I think so, but Zhao Jue and others in the north have also sent secret letters to report the strangeness of the matter."

Guo Ning turned around and sat down, continuing, "I have been thinking about this all night. What I thought about really made me happy and worried at the same time."

"Oh? Then Your Majesty, please listen to me and see if my joys and sorrows are consistent with Your Majesty's."

"Mr. Jin, please speak." Guo Ning took a large porcelain bowl and poured a bowl of tea for Yelu Chucai.

Yelu Chucai was a descendant of the Khitan royal family, and his family was also a high-ranking family in the Jin Dynasty. Now he was the prime minister of the dynasty, and he was not immune to the daily enjoyment of life, which was quite standard. Guo Ning's style of drinking large bowls of coarse tea was even worse than that of the doorman in Yelu Chucai's house.

But he didn't care at all. He picked up the porcelain bowl and drank several gulps.

"Our army's deployment in the northern border uses fortresses as locks and roads as chains, and brave generals and strong soldiers boldly attack and sweep. This is very different from the Jurchens' system of layered defenses and layers of paper. If the Mongolian army moves south, once it is blocked by the continuous passes from Hengdai to Youyan, they will fall into the dragnet formed by more than 220 strong forts."

He put the bowl on the table and said:
"Even if the Mongolian army gathers together, it will be difficult to remove the continuous iron chain. If they disperse to seek food, firstly, there will be no villages and herds to plunder, and secondly, many of our garrisons control water sources and grasslands. Therefore, this fortress area is undoubtedly a dead end for the Mongolian army! And the longer they hesitate, the more they lose the advantage of cavalry mobility, the more they face the problem of logistical supply... and the more dangerous it is."

Guo Ning nodded: "If this situation continues, it will be just as the Art of War says, the front and the back will not be coordinated, the majority and the minority will not rely on each other, the noble and the humble will not help each other, the upper and the lower will not support each other, the soldiers will be separated and not gathered, and the troops will be united but not coordinated. In this way, the actions of the Mongols are actually right in our grasp, which is great joy."

"But this happy event is probably not true. We all know that the Mongols' war strategies are like natural gifts, and they are best at maneuvering, attacking the strong and destroying the weak... Why would they abandon their strengths and linger in this deadly place?"

Yelu Chucai said in a deep voice:
"Without a doubt, it was because of the sudden appearance of gunpowder weapons, or iron cannons, or thunder bombs. With this, they successively captured the refugee villages in the mountains, blocking our eyes and ears to a certain extent. With this, they captured Linhuang Prefecture, an important stronghold we carefully built. Maybe they are even able to overthrow our garrisons one by one, swallow up our soldiers and civilians in the border areas and the wealth accumulated over the years! This is a big trouble that is enough to shake the comparison of military strength between the two sides, and it is naturally worrying. What's more..."

Yelu Chucai paused for a moment. Guo Ning leaned back. His sight passed over the eaves of the pavilion and into the sky. The autumn north wind was carrying clouds and rolling across the sky. It also occasionally rolled up the fallen leaves on the top of the pavilion and swirled southward.

Guo Ning said slowly: "The fighting spirit of the soldiers is commendable. The interests of the army and the government are also tied to the safety of the northern border. It is reasonable for us to give the Mongols a head-on blow. With the elite of our army, our advance preparations and the strategy of reducing troops in the northern border to lure the enemy, we should of course give the Mongols a head-on blow. But if the Mongols have the advantage of firearms... the battle will not be fought in the same way as before."

Although victory or defeat is determined by people, the role of weapons cannot be ignored. Guo Ning knows the importance of firearms better than anyone else, so he is more wary of the Mongols suddenly mastering a large number of firearms than anyone else.

He was the commander and soul of the entire army. Even if he had doubts in his heart, he could not easily express them. Once they were expressed, it would definitely shake the morale of the army. It can even be said that if the commander was shaken, the grassroots soldiers might collapse. Therefore, he never mentioned this doubt from beginning to end, and only when he was facing Yelu Chucai, he could not help but reveal it a little.

He withdrew his gaze from the height and saw Yelu Chucai opposite him shaking his head slightly.

"Don't you think so, Jin Qing?"

"I understand your Majesty's worries. But is this worry real?"

"You mean..."

Yelu Chucai took out a scroll from his sleeve and spread it on the table: "Your Majesty, please read this. The production of gunpowder weapons is inseparable from four things: charcoal, saltpeter, sulfur, and iron. The sources and consumption of these four things are recorded here."

Guo Ning stretched his neck to watch Yelu Chucai point and explain:
"The consumption of charcoal is included in the daily needs. Not counting the charcoal taken from Zhongdu and Tianjin Prefecture, the charcoal transported from Shandong, Hedong and other places every year for the factories is nearly 400,000."

"Salt is produced in Zezhou, Fenzhou, Daming and other places. The original method of extracting salt was to boil spring water and then scrape it. Since last year, it has been changed to kneading and mixing five egg whites for every ten pounds of salt, then boiling and filtering. For this purpose, more than 40 chicken farms have been built in Zezhou alone. However, due to the high incidence of chicken plague, the supply of egg whites is unstable, and we often have to make do with water glue, radish, soap beans and the like."

"As for sulfur, it is very rare in the region and is produced in abundance in Japan. Most of the saltpeter produced in Japan is imported into the Southern Dynasty. In early April this year, the Southern Dynasty recruited merchants to buy 500,000 catties of sulfur from Japan, with 100,000 catties as a package, and hired officials to supervise and transport it back to Mingzhou. This business deal greatly affected our normal rhythm of purchasing sulfur, and directly led to the suspension of work in the two main factories in Laizhou and Tianjin."

At this point, Yelu Chucai chuckled twice and continued calmly: "Fortunately, after Yin Chang took control of the political situation in Goryeo, we contacted Tofukuji Temple and Tenryuji Temple in Japan through the local jungle. Both of them are powerful monk forces that have opened up maritime trade under the banner of seeking Buddhist teachings. It is expected that they can slightly make up for the losses in the first half of the year. However, the monks of the two families are all gluttons, so they asked for five of our ships. And iron..."

Guo Ning really couldn't keep up with the specific production details of charcoal, saltpeter, sulfur, etc. Only a god-like person like Yelu Chucai, who was busy with all kinds of affairs and could do everything himself, could sort it out calmly. But iron was the lifeblood of the military and the country, and the court had special personnel watching it day and night, and there were documents submitted every few days.

Then he said:

"Let alone iron. The output of iron from a vertical furnace is uncertain, and there is always the risk of the furnace collapsing. Every time the molten iron injures experienced craftsmen, it takes a long time to replenish them, and the compensation later is also troublesome. Not to mention that every time the iron mine is opened, the local evil spirits want to intervene. If we want to properly promote it, we will not be able to do so without chopping off dozens of heads..."

Yelu Chucai held up the document and said, "In order to stabilize the production of gunpowder weapons, we need the attention of your majesty, the attention of the court officials and the generals in the army, the coordination of the two ministries of industry and commerce, including the nine departments of water conservancy, military equipment, salt and iron, construction, commercial law, and craftsmanship, the resource output of more than 20 military states, more than 60 local government offices, and more than 800 supporting business houses and workshops. Does Mongolia have these?"

Guo Ning slapped his forehead and stood up proudly:
"It's impossible for Mongolia to have it! At least, in the less than half a year since the main Mongolian army returned to the grassland, they couldn't possibly have put together such a complete system! The Mongols didn't have the resources, manpower, and system to manufacture gunpowder weapons, but they used iron cannons so extensively... There must be something fishy going on!"

"Perhaps the Mongols used special means to obtain a batch of iron cannons from somewhere, and then used them to show their strength, demonstrating their ability to swallow up many of the garrison strongholds in the northern border in one go?"

"I will immediately ask Xu Jin to investigate where the iron cannons in the Mongolian army came from."

Guo Ning paused, and then said, "Let's put aside the joy and sorrow brought by gunpowder weapons and continue thinking. The Mongols are so deliberately showing off their strength and threatening the survival of the many garrisons and civilians in the northern border. It is clear that they want to force our army to march north with a strong main force. Why do they do this? Where is their confidence?"