On the eighth day of the fifth month, the third day after Zhao Zhi arrived in Jinling City changed!

The wind, rain, thunder and lightning were mixed together, completely transforming the imperial residence pavilion of the Southern Song Dynasty into a world.

At the foot of Zhongshan outside Jinling New City, outside a seemingly ordinary garden, there were carriages, mule carts, donkey carts, and carts in this straw raincoat and entourage crowded in the two welcoming pavilions outside the door to shelter from the rain. Looking at the greasy and entourage, you know that they were all servants of the noble family of Jinling, but now they were thrown into this storm and rain, and they didn't even treat them warmly. However, none of them dared to complain!

Because the owner of this house that looked ordinary at first glance was the other courtyard of the Kaifu Yitong Sansi, who was worshipped by the official Zhao Huan as his "ancestor", the scholar of Longtu Pavilion, Shangzhuguo, Pingzhang's military and national affairs, the left Privy Councilor, and the Duke of Shen Zhao Mingcheng!

Well, Zhao Mingcheng is so awesome that he and Li Qingzhao are inexplicably awesome. The couple really can't figure it out. Zhao Mingcheng doesn't understand military affairs, but he doesn't get a Jinshi. Why did he rise to this point?

Li Qingzhao also joked with her husband publicly, saying, "It must be because the officials saw that you had thick beards and majestic, so they were the ones who were in charge of the military."

Of course this is a joke. Although Zhao Huan is a bit stupid, he doesn't use people like this, right?

However, although Zhao Mingcheng was a military amateur, he and Li Qingzhao made great contributions to the military of the Southern Song Dynasty. Because the couple can study and study!

Both of them are top students and are masters of epigraphy. The couple co-authored a book called "The Record of Golden Stone" and passed down from generation to generation.

What does this epigraphy do? It literally studies metals and stones. However, it is not just about studying any metal, but mainly focuses on bronzes. Stones are stones, jades, and moments.

This science develops further, which is the study of strife. How much is it worth to pour out some antiques in gold and stone from the ground to study?

The upward development is archaeology.

If you follow the path of bronze ware and study it hard, it will be bronze casting technology!

When "gunpowder meets copper, it will be fierce" and "hot pot cannon technology" were introduced to the Southern Song Dynasty, the couple began to study the formula of bronze cast cannons and gunpowder.

In particular, Li Qingzhao, by looking up ancient books, learning casting techniques and repeated experiments from craftsmen, wrote a book called "The Secret Method of Hot Pot", which became the world's first professional book to study hot pot production. No, it is a professional book to study cannon casting!

Under the guidance of this book "The Secret Method of Hot Pot", the production of hot pot in the Privy Council Military Art Supervision Hot Pot Factory has increased rapidly year by year, which has helped to ensure the huge demand of the Southern Song Dynasty's army and navy.

In addition, Zhao Mingcheng and Li Qingzhao and his wife also spent a lot of effort on the gunpowder formula. And before Zhao Mingcheng died, they finally achieved a breakthrough in the "black gunpowder block" sample transported by the Navy from the Chameng front line, which gave them great inspiration. Finally, not long ago, a new gunpowder with a power that is no less powerful than that of Luoyang's granular gunpowder!

With this new type of gunpowder, coupled with the Southern Song Dynasty's overwhelming copper production and developed bronze casting industry, the Southern Song Dynasty almost tied the Northern Song Dynasty in terms of gunpowder weapons.

The advancement of gunpowder weapons greatly enhanced the strength of the Southern Song Navy!

It is no exaggeration to say that the Southern Song Dynasty now has a comprehensive military strength no less than the Northern Song Dynasty.

As long as the Southern Song navy and army were combined and divided by two, compared with the comprehensive strength of the Northern Song army and navy, it would definitely be strong and not weak.

In fact, the army of the Southern Song Dynasty was not weak, and it also had great development potential. If we really wanted to prepare for the war with all our might, it might even be reversed by Zhao Kai's Northern Song Dynasty!

This is not a casual statement, but a very well-founded one.

First of all, the population of the Southern Song Dynasty was greater than that of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Although the Southern Song Dynasty had a small territory, the Southern Song Dynasty had been stable and prosperous in the past nine and ten years, while the Northern Song Dynasty fought with people everywhere and engaged in land military service within it, resulting in sluggish production and population loss.

So now the population of the Southern Song Dynasty is at least 50% higher than that of the Northern Song Dynasty!

If the Southern Song Dynasty could reach the level of military mobilization in the Northern Song Dynasty, then this country should be able to pull out an army of 900,000!

Secondly, the copper production of the Southern Song Dynasty was the world's largest!

Due to the "premature birth" of granular gunpowder and tubular firearms, copper has jumped from a precious metal currency to one of the most important strategic materials of this era. Another one is of course potassium nitrate.

Therefore, the Southern Song Dynasty, which produced the largest copper production in the world and knew how to obtain saltpeter by piled manure, undoubtedly had amazing potential for war.

Now the Southern Song Dynasty has the most powerful navy in the world, an army with a small number of people but very elite, enough to serve as seeds, and has also learned about the secrets of black granular gunpowder, the largest population in the world, the richest economy and the largest copper.

After handing over such a satisfactory answer, Zhao Mingcheng could finally die satisfied and he fulfilled his promise to Zhao Huan: As long as I have a breath, General Tiance will not be allowed to become the Lord of Jinling!

Although Zhao Mingcheng's body was not good enough, he could still last for a while. It was not until two days ago that when he learned about Zhao Kai's conditions for inducing surrender from the King of Jinling who came to visit him, the attitude of the kings and the queen Zhu Lian, he vomited blood on the spot and could not stand it.

When he learned that Zhao Mingcheng's tone was about to be gone, Zhao Huan, the official, had no intention of dealing with the government, so he simply gave the ministers a leave early and asked them to go to Zhongshan Villa where Zhao Mingcheng was recuperating and sent him a trip.

Now Geng Nanzhong, Zhang Bangchang, Li Gang, He Su, Wu Min, Lu Haowen, Li Ruoxu, Xue Bi, Chen Ziqing and other court officials were all crowded in Zhao Mingcheng's house where Zhao Mingcheng was recuperating. Zhao Mingcheng's wife Li Qingzhao was guarding her husband's bed, with red eyes and a little haggard.

I don’t know if it’s a reflection, but Zhao Mingcheng has woken up. Looking at the group of court officials around him, he actually squeezed out a smile: “I died at the right time. In history, there must be a generation of famous officials who are not like the kings. The future is bleak, and I don’t know where to go. So today is not Mingcheng’s demise, but Mingcheng’s joy!”

Zhao Mingcheng is so happy to die! He died and celebrated with joy! He almost set off firecrackers to celebrate.

But what he said was the truth. He was gone now! No one knew that he was actually very cowardly, and no one knew that he was helpless in the face of the situation of about to collapse.

"Why did Duke Shen say this?" Li Gang's face was solemn, but he still did not lose his demeanor as a pillar of the country. "Don't Shen Duke Shen knows how strong our dynasty is? Although General Tiance's military strength is strong, it is based on the military's militarism and the depletion of the vitality of the northern land. The country seems to be strong, but its foundation has been loose. As long as we can work together and prepare for the war with all our might, we can defend the southeast half of the wall.

As long as we can defend it, General Tiance will find it difficult to continue the royal army's northern expedition and overcome the Central Plains. What difficulties will there be?"

"Haha" Zhao Mingcheng could only "Haha".

As for Li Gang, he has been optimistic all his life. Now he is at this age, can he still expect him to change?

"Duke Shen thought I was wrong?" Li Gang stroked his white beard and looked around to see that this question was not only for Zhao Mingcheng, but also for everyone present.

Zhao Mingcheng smiled bitterly and said, "If General Tiance wants to launch a southern expedition, it is possible to send 500,000 troops, while our dynasty only has 150,000 troops from the mainland, and there are also defenses from Jinghu to Huaidong. How empty are the troops?

Moreover, General Tiance's land division fought for a long time, with elite troops such as artillery, craftsman, baggage, infantry, and cavalry, and almost a place to take advantage of. On the other hand, our army, due to insufficient horses, it is difficult to transport the barrels and pots. The soldiers and generals are good at defending and shorter than attacking, and the number of people is too small, which is really ineffective!"

The biggest problem with the Southern Song Army was that there were few people!

It's really ironic!

The most populous country in the world is facing a crisis of defeat because of its small number of troops.

By the way, the Southern Song Dynasty in history was largely defeated due to the disadvantage of the number of troops.

In the Xiangyang siege that determined the life and death of the Southern Song Dynasty, don’t say how powerful the Huihui cannon is, or how incompetent the Lu family is. Just talk about the number of troops invested by both sides, the Southern Song Dynasty should lose!

The Southern Song Dynasty had a larger population than the Yuan Dynasty. During the conquest of the Central Plains and Sichuan, the Mongol Empire massacred a large number of people and killed nine out of ten families.

Moreover, the Southern Song Dynasty had convenient transportation of the Yangtze River and Han River, while the logistics of the Mongolian army could only be transported by land.

In addition, Xiangyang has been besieged for more than five years, and even if we start training a new army from scratch, it will be too late!

In history, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was said to be very trash, saw the Former Qin unify the north in the second year of Taiyuan, and began to form the Northern Prefecture Army. By the eighth year of Taiyuan, it only took six years to win the Battle of Feishui.

For the current Southern Song Dynasty, it is still time to really expand its military and prepare for war, because the current 150,000 mainland troops in the Southern Song Dynasty are quite elite and can serve as seed troops.

Li Ruoxu, deputy envoy of the Left Privy Council, took over Zhao Mingcheng's words, "The Northern Army will send up a maximum of 500,000 troops to fight south. If we want to defeat them, we need at least an equal number of land divisions. Now there are 150,000 land divisions in the court, and another 350,000 need to be expanded!"

Xue Bi, the left governor of the Privy Council, added: "General Tiance returned to Hebei last year, and this year he has Shandong again. It expands very quickly and takes time to consolidate. Therefore, most of the time will not be sent troops this year. It rains in spring and summer, and the sea is more southeastern winds, which is conducive to our navy going north. Therefore, no matter how fast General Tiance moves, he will have to wait until next autumn to move south. If he wants to launch a 500,000 army, it will take at least one year to stockpile food, grass and supplies. In other words, we still have two years to expand our army!"

Li Gang took a breath and said to himself: "It's true that you can fight against you. We might as well report to the emperor together and ask him to prepare for the war with all his might!"
Chapter completed!