Chapter 640: Grim

"Is Your Highness perhaps speaking of the mortar?"

Before Zhao Xu could open his mouth, Wang Ying suddenly interjected.

He then continued, "Actually, I have had this thought for some time. Now that Yellow Gunpowder has appeared, we should indeed recast the mortar. I believe that in the future, the mortar will be the main force on the battlefield, while the current smoothbore cannon is better suited for warships."

Zhao Xu looked at Wang Ying, somewhat surprised, just as he had been when facing Chen Shou in Jinghai County.

If Chen Shou's thinking about the steamship was merely a coincidence, then Wang Ying's forward-looking understanding of weapons seemed to be an inevitability.

Although Wang Ying and Chen Shou were both regional officials, they would go to the Technology Academy to attend lectures whenever they had free time.

The atmosphere of the Technology Academy would certainly cause a change in their way of thinking.

Now, like the students at the Technology Academy, they were actively thinking and exploring deeper mysteries in their respective fields.

This was also the fact that the sparks of Yanzhou's technology were constantly growing stronger.

"You are right," Zhao Xu said.

Before the howitzer technology matured, it was the main force on the battlefield.

But afterwards, the howitzer replaced the smoothbore cannon.

In the contemporary First and Second World Wars, smoothbore cannons only existed on tanks and warships; the battlefield was basically all howitzers bombarding each other.

Smoothbore cannons were only suitable for direct fire, but the battlefield was full of obstacles.

Howitzers, which could fire in a curved trajectory to avoid obstacles, could kill more soldiers.

However, even so, for the Wang Hu Qing Army, now was not the time to completely abandon smoothbore cannons and fully equip them with field howitzers.

But it was necessary to increase the proportion of old cannons—that is, howitzers—among the field artillery.

It was even more necessary to improve them rather than treat them as a type of auxiliary weapon.

After all, with Yellow Gunpowder, the greatest increase in power was in the explosive shell.

Gun barrels and cannon barrels needed to consider the amount of gunpowder to prevent bursting, but explosive shells did not.

"Then have you thought about how to improve the mortar?" Zhao Xu asked, not immediately telling Wang Ying his own plan.

After pondering for a while, Wang Ying said, "First, of course, we must equip the mortar with a set of wheels; second, we should reduce its weight like a field artillery piece to facilitate the mortar's flexible maneuverability on the battlefield; finally, we should increase the mortar's range. In this way, flexibility, range, and power will all be achieved."

Zhao Xu nodded slowly, expressing his agreement with Wang Ying's words.

Undoubtedly, Wang Ying had gained a lot of experience from modifying the smoothbore field artillery, and now he was applying it to the mortar.

However, it had to be said that his direction was correct.

But in the past, this kind of improvement to the mortar was impossible to achieve.

Because the power of Black Gunpowder was limited, increasing the range meant loading more Black Gunpowder, and reducing the weight meant making the cannon barrel narrower and thinner.

These were contradictory.

If one did this, the power of the mortar would decrease.

And now, Yellow Gunpowder and converter steelmaking had solved these two difficult problems.

Higher-quality steel could make the mortar's barrel thinner and narrower, and Yellow Gunpowder could make the cannonball's power greater.

Thus, a perfect mortar was born, and it could even be officially renamed a howitzer.

"Just follow this path," Zhao Xu patted Wang Ying on the shoulder.

However, like the fully-formed rifled musket, the new type of mortar, or rather, howitzer, still needed to wait some time before it could be issued to the Prince's Personal Army.

For him at the moment, the most important thing was still to replace the gunpowder for the cannons and muskets in the army.

After all, the current situation was very grim; one could see from the arrogant attitude of the Qi envoy that this alliance had caused Qi to become quite inflated.

Moreover, the Northern Di and Dongying were both those who feared the world would not be in chaos.

They would certainly incite Qi, Southern Liang, and the Xie Family to take risky military actions against Yanzhou.

Therefore, he could not yet count on the new-style rifled muskets and howitzers; he was only putting these two weapons on the manufacturing schedule.

And Yellow Gunpowder was the key for the next period of time.

Previously, he had let Qu Sheng stockpile a large amount of glycerin, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid; now, he only needed to synthesize nitroglycerin and then use diatomaceous earth to absorb it.

Immediately, a steady stream of Yellow Gunpowder would be produced.

This Yellow Gunpowder would allow Yanzhou's military power to achieve a leap in improvement.

An effective range of 350 meters and a maximum range of nearly 600 meters were sufficient.

Furthermore, other weapons would also benefit.

Thinking of this, he felt much more at ease.

Lu City.

Imperial Palace.

While Zhao Xu was testing the Yellow Gunpowder, the Qi envoy returned in a disheveled state.

This morning, it was time for the early morning court session.

Han Zheng summoned Han Yang into the Imperial Palace and ordered him to report on his mission to Yancheng.

"Your Majesty, that Yan Wang is arrogant and ignorant. Not only did he not agree to Your Majesty's request, but he also heaped humiliation upon our Qi. He is truly unreasonable," Han Yang shouted angrily in front of the ministers.

Hearing this, Han Zheng frowned and said to Han Yang, "Did you tell Yan Wang that the Northern Di and Dongying were also joining the alliance?"

"Replying to Your Majesty, I did, but Yan Wang just laughed loudly and told me to get back to Qi, and he also said... he also said..."

At this point, he dared not continue.

"Said what!" Han Zheng's expression became stern.

"He said he wanted to personally capture the Emperor alive to dance for his amusement."

"Audacious madman."

"Ignorant child!"

"I have never seen such a rebellious person."

"..."

Once Han Yang finished speaking, the assembled officials in the hall were furious, pointing toward Yanzhou and cursing one after another.

Han Zheng pulled a long face and sneered, saying: "I would like to see whether he captures me alive, or I capture him alive with my own hands!"

He slapped the Dragon Throne, stood up, and shouted: "From this day forward, feed the horses and sharpen the weapons, reorganize the military equipment, and await the second alliance meeting to prepare for the march on Yanzhou!"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the assembled officials replied, bowing.

Han Zheng snorted coldly again, flicked his sleeves, and left the main hall.

Returning to the study, he ordered someone to invite Sato Masahisa and repeated Han Yang's words to him.

Sato Masahisa had also agreed with sending an envoy to Yancheng this time.

They believed that after the alliance meeting, their strength had already greatly surpassed that of Yan Wang.

Therefore, they attempted to intimidate Yan Wang, ordering Yan Wang to hand over the firearm craftsmanship and submit to Qi as a vassal.

If Yan Wang could not withstand the pressure and obediently handed over the firearm craftsmanship and went to Qi to receive his investiture.

They would then seize the opportunity to kill Yan Wang and destroy Yanzhou in one fell swoop.

But they had not expected to receive such a response from this trip.

"Since that is the case, then there is only war; Your Majesty should also abandon any other thoughts," Sato Masahisa's eyes narrowed.

The plan of their Dongying had always been the same: to incite civil war within the Great Song, using Song People to fight Song People, so that both sides would suffer.

Yan Wang not complying was even more to his liking.

To embolden Han Zheng, he continued: "The range of our Dongying Flintlock is 130 meters, only 20 meters less than Yan Wang's Flintlock; with this distance, Yan Wang's troops cannot occupy an absolute advantage on the battlefield."

"Plus, with our numerous soldiers and capable generals, we will surely be able to slaughter Yan Wang's troops until not a single piece of armor remains; next, we only need to step up the forging of Flintlocks and train the soldiers."

As his words fell, a eunuch hurried over and said: "Your Majesty, an envoy from Southern Liang requests an audience."