The chopped firewood burns in the fireplace, and the fire is very prosperous, making the living room warm like spring.

Wu Haogu sat upright on the main seat of the upper head. In the living room, Brother Zhao Zhong, Wanyan Xiye, Wanyan Alihe and all divided the host and host to sit down.

The house used to entertain visitors to Jurchens was not in Jiehe Shangshi City, but in Aojia Castle, fifty or sixty miles south of the Shangshi City. It was Aojia Village, which originally belonged to Oliga. Not long ago, Oliga gave birth to Wu Haogu a son and named it Tiexin.

As early as when Oliga gave birth to Wu Haogu's first child, Wu Haogu asked someone to expand Aojiazhuang into Aojia Castle as a gift to Oliga. Wu Haogu himself also participated in the design of Aojia Castle and introduced the style of a Western castle. The castle and residence are integrated, covering an area of ​​not large, but only about ten acres. However, the height is not low. The square city wall alone is more than three meters high. The tower located at the four corners of the city wall is as high as six meters high. The house as the main body of the building is a Hui-shaped brick-wood building that is almost integrated with the city wall. The four exterior walls are one with the city wall, with a height of about six meters. The center of the Hui-shaped shape is a courtyard with no decoration, but stables and livestock railings are built.

The hall used to entertain guests is on the north-south side of the Hui-shaped building, and the main entrance of the building is also opened on this side, facing the only city gate of Aojiabao. In addition to the city gate, there are also suspension bridges and moats.

Such an extremely sturdy castle is of course used to defend against possible Jurchen invasions! According to Wu Haogu's idea, there should be hundreds of "Knights Castles" on both sides of the Jiehe River on the future banks around Jiehe Market. Each castle is small and sturdy, and can cope with long-term siege.

"How is this castle?" Wu Haogu asked Xiye and Alihe who were present with a smile. "How about the castle built by the Goryeo people in Helandian? If two people were asked to attack, would there be a way to defeat it?"

"Xuan Shuai was joking," Xi also smiled, "How can we have the ability to defeat your castle? Your fortress is much stronger than the fortress built by Goryeo Dog in Helandian. This is made of red bricks! Although it is small, it cannot stand it strong. The city walls and towers are so tall, and there is a moat around it. Unless Xuan Shuai's own engineers come out and use gunpowder to blow up the city wall, there is no way to fight."

Wanyan Xie was also wrong. In fact, this castle is difficult to explode with gunpowder. Wu Haogu himself is a master of digging pits with engineers. How could he not consider this issue when building the fortress? So the moat outside the fortress was dug very deeply. Between the moat and the city wall, a circle of deeper dark trenches were dug, and the upper layer was sealed with stone slabs and soil. There were also passages and inward-continent companies of the city, and people could be sent to guard during wartime.

Therefore, even Wu Haogu's engineers have no good recipe for such a castle. Unless the bronze artillery that is currently being secretly developed has entered the practical stage.

The bronze artillery project is the No. 2 R&D project of the Metallurgy College of Yuntai Academy (No. 1 is cold forged armor). There are two project teams respectively, and the reward for successful R&D is as high as 100,000 yuan.

Of course, this bonus of 100,000 yuan is not so easy to make. What Wu Haogu needs is not only a gunpowder weapon that can fire projectiles, but also a field artillery that combines lightness, durability, power and power. It also needs to be able to achieve standardized mass production, and key and accurate performance elements must be produced.

Therefore, both project teams set up test sites and artillery casting sites in the Wudao Islands far away from Jiehe Market, and repeatedly conducted trial production and tests of artillery.

The reason why Wu Haogu put forward such high requirements instead of casting some cannons that can fire projectiles was mainly because he was afraid that the casting artifact was leaked prematurely. The Liao Kingdom also had gunpowder weapons! Although they did not make granular black gunpowder and the formula might not be accurate, it was by no means "non" but "existence".

Therefore, as long as the Liao people get samples of cannons, it is not difficult to imitate them. If they cannot create light, durable, and powerful field artillery, but cannons that are inconvenient to movement and cannot be used for field battles and can only be used for siege, then Wu Haogu is not enhancing the power of the Song Dynasty, but is harming the Song Dynasty.

In fact, the difficulty of casting siege cannons is much lower than that of casting field cannons. Because siege cannons have relatively low requirements for lightness and rate of fire, the thickness of the body tube can also have more cooling time, and the safety factor to prevent the blasting will be greater.

Moreover, the siege cannons have relatively low requirements for accuracy, so they can accept poorly processed inner chambers.

In other words, the craft level of casting siege cannons is lower than that of casting truly useful field cannons.

In addition, there is a design similar to the tiger squat cannon, which was also hidden by Wuhao Guxue. This weapon is actually in the middle form between guns and cannons. Some people later said that it was the earliest mortar, but it was not a curved weapon, but a direct shot. When filling in fragmented scrap copper and iron, it can be shot for about dozens of steps, which is a bit like the shotguns of later generations.

This weapon is useful for combating cavalry impact or cavalry shooting, but the effect of bombarding infantry is definitely better. Therefore, it must be hidden and can only be used to equip the troops in wartime.

Since artillery weapons must prevent leakage, of course they cannot be provided to the Jurchens. Wu Haogu thought about it. Bronze cannons cannot be given, but black gunpowder can still be provided to the Jurchens. Anyway, they cannot analyze the formula and craftsmanship of the black gunpowder.

But this black gunpowder cannot be given to them for nothing...

"Is the Goryeo castle made of wood or rammed earth?" Wu Haogu thought for a while and then said, "Do I want some engineers to investigate?"

"That's great! With Xuan Shuai, you can pull out the knife that the Goryeo dog was inserted into the Jurchen land."

A Lihe laughed. He spoke very well in Chinese, with an authentic Central Plains accent and a straight and singular style. He obviously learned it from the doctors of Tianli Academy.

"Brother Ah Lihe," Zhao Zhong smiled, "Don't be busy applauding, our Xuan Shuai is willing to help, but there are still people on Xuan Shuai!"

Xi also said to Alihe, "Shishou Xuan is also a minister, and there are officials above him." He asked Wu Hao Ancient Road, "Shishou Xuan, do you have to nod the official so that you can send someone to Helan Dian?"

"The court does not need permission from the court to send people to Helandian," Wu Haogu said, "It is only necessary to get the court's approval to allocate black gunpowder."

In fact, the black gunpowder production factory is in Jiehe Market. There is no need for the court to nod, and Wu Haogu can control it himself.

"Will the court allow it?" Xi also asked.

"I'm afraid I won't nod for no reason?" Wu Haogu said, "The relationship between our dynasty and Goryeo is also good. There is no reason to offend Goryeo for the sake of the ministers of the Great Liao Dynasty, right?"

"This..." Xi also shook his head and said, "But we, Jurchens, are mortal enemies of the Khitans! As long as we take care of these Goryeo flies, the Jurchens will be able to unite against the Khitans. At that time, we will be allies."

"Ally?" Wu Haogu smiled, "Xiye, do you think the Jurchens can be on par with the Song Dynasty?"

Xi Ye and Alihe looked at each other.

A Lihe asked: "Shuai Xuan, do you mean... want us Jurchens to surrender to the Song Dynasty?"

This is a good idea! If Wanyan Aguda surrenders to Zhao Ji, he may give him a gift of hundreds of thousands of years, so that the Jurchens' Jin Kingdom can enjoy the treatment of the Western Xia.

"Just paying tribute is not enough!" Wu Haogu shook his head gently, "Even if you become ministers of the Song Dynasty, you can enjoy the treatment of the Western Xia earlier. Not only do you not have to pay taxes to the court, but you can also get annual gifts. Such good things can not be obtained by other countries. That is, the court wants to join forces with you to fight against the Khitan, so you will accept you Jurchens as vassal states."

"That's, that's..."

The two of them knew very well how awesome Wanyan Ganda nodded repeatedly. And they were quite happy. They could join forces with the Song Dynasty to fight the Khitan. After victory, they could still receive the gift from the Song Dynasty to the year. Is there any more beautiful things in the world?

As for pushing the Song Dynasty and taking over the Central Plains, the Jurchens today would not have such fantasies.

"I wonder what conditions there are in the Song Dynasty?" Wanyan Xie also asked.

Of course there are conditions!

The current Jurchen Tribe Alliance is like a startup with good development prospects, and it still requires a little venture capital. Wu Haogu is now planning to invest money in the Jurchen "company" that represents the super rich venture capital fund of the Song Dynasty.

If you invest money, of course you will have to take a stake.

Wu Haogu smiled and said, "There are two conditions left. One is that the Jurchens must believe in the laws of nature and follow Confucianism."

Wu Haogu also heard about the saying "The Liao Dynasty was abolished by Buddhism, and the Jin Dynasty was abolished by Confucianism." Therefore, he has always been very keen on spreading Confucianism to the Jurchens.

Of course, what he wanted to pass on to the Jurchens was not Wang Anshi's new learning of Jing Gong, nor was it the increasingly prominent Neo-Confucianism that has recently become increasingly prominent in the Song Dynasty. Instead, Confucianism with "Theory of Heavenly Rules" as its core. Although Neo-Confucianism also regards the principles of heaven, the difference between Neo-Confucianism and the later Confucian Tianli School is still very big. It is equivalent to the difference between the Buddhist Yogacara school (Faxiang School) and the Pure Land True School.

"Okay!" A Lihe laughed, "To be honest, I came to Jiehe with Xi this time to learn the Confucianism of Heaven and Soul. In the future, when we, the Jurchens, establish our country, we will take Confucianism of Heaven and Soul as the national religion."

Wu Haogu nodded with satisfaction. He actually knew that the theory of the law of heaven is gradually separated from the empirical faction, but no matter what, the core of the theory of heaven is still the thought of China.

"Second," Wu Haogu continued, "We want to open academies on the land of the Jurchens and build a commercial city. Moreover, both academies and commercial cities have the right to autonomy!"
Chapter completed!