There was a reason why Guo Ziyi looked so young. This fellow had a very good mentality. No matter how big of a problem he encountered, no matter how big of a grievance he faced, he could face it calmly. Even if Mount Tai was pressing down on him, his expression wouldn't change. He was a person with a very good mentality.
Of course, Guo Ziyi was also a sly old man, but he was a smooth kind of sly and not a treacherous kind of sly. Although he was as sly as a loach, he would never be perfunctory with others. He would do everything he needed to do well and definitely wouldn't disappoint others. Whether it was leading troops to war or being an official in the imperial court, he could do them all very well. He wouldn't easily offend people, even if that person was a great threat to the imperial court of the Tang dynasty. He would also accept any grievances he suffered. History had proven this point. And the benefit of this was that he could happily die of old age, unlike other ministers and generals who were either demoted or died an unnatural death.
Looking at the smiling Guo Ziyi walking towards him, Li An had a nagging feeling that Guo Ziyi was up to no good again. Otherwise, he wouldn't be smiling so greedily, causing goosebumps to rise all over Li An's body.
"Hehe, Assistant Minister Li, long time no see! Old Guo has missed you. "
Guo Ziyi said again. His attitude was unusually sweet. Those who didn't know would think that they were gay.
"When did General Guo return to the capital? Have you seen His Majesty?"
Ang Lee asked.
"I just arrived in the capital yesterday and saw His Majesty. I even saw the telegraph in the main hall. His Majesty is currently sending a message to the palace servants of Pure Flowers Palace, telling them to send the green vegetables growing next to the hot springs to the palace. That thing is really amazing! Pure Flowers Palace is so far away, but they were able to send the message directly. It's really amazing. "
Guo Ziyi's eyes were shining as he spoke. It was clear that this fellow had yet to recover from his excitement. His excited expression was filled with desire. He was here to rob.
"His Majesty personally told me that if we can also set up one in our country, then we can contact the imperial court at any time. How great would that be?! It's convenient and fast. It saves a lot of time compared to taking a carriage back. "
Guo Ziyi continued with an excited expression.
Ang Lee nodded proudly and didn't say anything.
Guo Ziyi paused for a moment, then continued, "Assistant Minister Li, such a good transmitter, give one to Shuofang! We are monitoring the northern plains and need to keep in touch with the imperial court. "
Knowing that Guo Ziyi would have such a request, Ang Lee shook his head helplessly and said, "General Guo, this is an important project of the imperial court. How can I make the decision? Right now, only two have been given to His Majesty. If there are any more, they will have to listen to His Majesty's arrangements. Shuofang is too far away, and the wires will need to be very long. It would be more appropriate to give it to Shuofang after the wireless telegraph is developed."
Guo Ziyi frowned and said, "Why is it the same as what His Majesty said? Did you guys discuss this beforehand? Such a good machine, yet you can't give it to us right away. Alas! Forget it. Since Assistant Minister Li can't make the decision, let's not talk about it for now. This time, I came here to discuss something with Assistant Minister Li. I hope Assistant Minister Li won't laugh at me. "
Guo Ziyi was a little embarrassed as he said this.
Ang Lee suddenly felt a little strange. He frowned and asked, "Old Guo, if you have something to say, just say it. Why are you embarrassed?"
Guo Ziyi took out a piece of paper from his bosom and placed it in front of Li An. Li An was immediately taken aback.
The drawing was neatly drawn and looked like a poker. However, this was the reaction of ordinary people when they saw the drawing, but Ang Lee could see something different from the poker. This was the most primitive picture of a gun, and Guo Ziyi showed it to him. Could it be that other people also had the idea of inventing guns?
Ang Lee was the only outsider in the Tang dynasty. Could it be that other people had been here? Or was it Old Guo in front of him who drew this drawing? How could this old man be so capable?
Seeing Ang Lee looking at him in confusion, Guo Ziyi smiled embarrassedly and said, "I told Assistant Minister Li not to laugh at me. I drew this drawing randomly, and it won't be good enough for Assistant Minister Li. But I still want to show it to Assistant Minister Li. I've thought about it for a long time, and I don't know if it can be realized."
Obviously, Guo Ziyi came up with this idea, but because he didn't have the ability to develop it, he didn't know whether the gun could be as powerful as he expected. If it couldn't, it would be meaningless. But if it could, it would be perfect. Of course, he couldn't do it by himself, and Ang Lee was the leader of the R&D Center. Naturally, he had to ask Ang Lee for his opinion.
Li An naturally understood Guo Ziyi's drawing of the primitive gun at a glance. Old Guo's idea was completely derived from the cannon, which meant that he had shrunk the cannon and removed its frame and wheel to make it look like a Shao Huo Kun. This idea was quite conventional and not very creative. However, in this era of the Tang Empire, it was already very good to have such an idea. Li An had to give Old Guo a thumbs up.
"General Guo, you have a good idea! Why did you suddenly think of this? "
Ang Lee asked curiously.
Guo Ziyi said, "The cannon can shoot very far and is very powerful. But the biggest problem is that it's not very convenient to move, especially for cavalry troops. If they carry the cannon, their speed will be greatly limited. So I thought of making the cannon smaller, so small that it can be used by soldiers. But I don't know how powerful it will be after it's made small. Will it be more powerful than the Lurking Yuan Crossbow? If it's more powerful than the Lurking Yuan Crossbow, then it can be used. If it's too weak, then it can't be used."
As I said this, I looked at Ang Lee expectantly.
Li An knew the power of firearms better than anyone else and had secretly made a few of them. However, the firearms drawn by Guo Ziyi were the most primitive firearms. If they were made according to Guo Ziyi's ideas, they would not be very powerful. Moreover, it would be very troublesome to use them. Whether or not they could defeat cold weapons would be a problem. After all, the earliest firearms were called muskets. Their power and reliability were far inferior to the firearms of later generations. In fact, it was not strange for troops with muskets to be unable to defeat sabers and spears.
In addition, shotguns had a high technical requirement. If the soldiers didn't train hard enough, they would be nervous and panicked in battle. It also required a high level of tactics. For example, the most basic tactic was the three-section strike. If they couldn't invent the three-section strike tactic, the power of the shotgun wouldn't be able to be fully displayed. When they encountered the enemy cavalry, it was very likely that they would be defeated and suffer heavy losses.
Although Ang Lee agreed with Old Guo's idea, the old man obviously hadn't thought about the use and tactics in the future. He couldn't be blamed for this. At this moment, the weapons hadn't been designed yet, and their power and reliability weren't clear. He couldn't think about the problems of future tactics. Moreover, the strength of the Tang Empire was far above that of other countries. No matter how advanced their tactics were, it seemed that there was no reason for them to lose.
Ang Lee looked at Guo Ziyi, who had an expectant look on his face. He didn't know what to say. The more advanced rifles had been secretly made, so it was naturally not a problem to make the less advanced matchlock muskets. However, Ang Lee considered the hidden and dangerous nature of firearms. He was worried that after they were popularized on a large scale, assassinations would become easier. At that time, a gunman hiding hundreds of meters away could kill the most important person in the Tang Empire with a single shot. Wouldn't that be a heavy loss?
But since Old Guo had already made a request, Ang Lee had to answer his question. He couldn't just pretend that he didn't hear it! At the very least, he had to give him an explanation.
Besides, Ang Lee was about to lose the confidence to stop the emergence of firearms. At this moment, if Guo Ziyi could come up with the idea of inventing firearms, how could other people not think of it? How long could weapons like firearms be hidden? This was a problem.
"Old Guo! In addition to artillery, the Tang Empire also has armored artillery vehicles. These things run faster than horses. Is it necessary to invent them? "
Ang Lee said.
"Assistant Minister Li hasn't led troops for many years and has forgotten the sufferings of soldiers. Naturally, the more weapons, the more practical they are, the better. Although armored artillery vehicles are very powerful, they are limited in number. It costs a lot of military funds to dispatch them once. Usually, cavalry is the most used to patrol and chase after Horse Gangs. Each cavalry is equipped with long spears and crossbows. But if there are more powerful weapons, they can deter Horse Gangs more and the casualties of soldiers will be much less."
Guo Ziyi spoke out his true thoughts. The reason why he was so eager to invent such a weapon was to deter the Horse Gangs that often appeared in the north. To deal with these highly mobile and small threats, it was impossible to use cannons, and it was too wasteful to use iron armored carriages. It was like using anti-aircraft guns to kill mosquitoes. Moreover, there were many Horse Gangs and their activities were irregular. Basically, they would rush over and rob when they saw an opportunity. After robbing the treasures, they would run away. It was indeed inappropriate to use the expensive iron armored carriages to deal with these Horse Gangs, and they did not have the financial resources to prepare a sufficient number of carriages. Moreover, under some special conditions, horses could move smoothly, but the iron armored carriages could not move at all. Thus, the heavy responsibility of hunting down the Horse Gangs fell on the Tang cavalry.
The well-equipped elite frontier cavalry of the Tang Empire was naturally not afraid of the Horse Gangs from the north. But because their weapons did not have a big gap, when the Tang Empire cavalry fought against the Horse Gangs, it was easy for the cavalry of the Tang Empire to be injured by the Horse Gangs when they were cornered. It was very common for soldiers to die in battle. Even if they encountered fierce and numerous Horse Gangs, dozens or hundreds of soldiers would die in battle, which caused a great loss to the army of the Tang Empire and caused many families of the Tang Empire to lose their backbone.
As a general of the frontier army, Guo Ziyi was naturally very sad when he saw his soldiers often die in battle. Any qualified general would love his soldiers as his children and treat them as his own sons. He would try his best to reduce the casualties of his soldiers. However, the measures that a general could take were generally limited. After all, generals were also paid by the imperial court. Most of the time, they only had the right to make suggestions but not the right to make decisions.
Guo Ziyi was more excellent than ordinary generals. He not only strictly trained his soldiers to master more combat skills, thus reducing the probability of death in battle, but also thought of inventing more advanced weapons. When his own technology and ability were not enough, he could still shamelessly come to Ang Lee and ask Ang Lee to help him think of a way.
Ang Lee was also a man who loved his soldiers like his children. Naturally, he also hoped to help Guo Ziyi. In this way, the fighting power of the border army of the Tang Dynasty would be stronger, and they would be able to deal a greater blow to the potential enemies. However, firearms were, after all, very dangerous weapons. If a small number of soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were killed by the Horse Gang because they were alone, then these terrible weapons would fall into the hands of the Horse Gang. Once a Horse Gang sneaked into the capital of the Tang Dynasty with firearms and looked for an opportunity to kill the senior officials of the Tang Dynasty, the success rate would be very high. Moreover, once hit, the damage caused would be very fatal. The guards of the Tang Dynasty might be able to defend against the attack of bows and arrows, but they had no more effective defense measures against weapons with a longer range. As a result, the senior officials of the Tang Dynasty no longer dared to show up in public. Even when the Lantern Festival came, the Emperor did not dare to stand on the Flower Calyx Tower and celebrate with the ordinary people because there was a risk of being shot in the head.
Of course, this reason was Ang Lee's own concern. If he considered it according to the development of the era, the development of firearms was not wrong. He could not not invent more powerful weapons just because he was worried. This would lead to the gradual decline of the country's strength. For example, the Plaited Dynasty of the Hua Xia in the future was like this. Others were busy inventing more powerful firearms and artillery, but the Plaited Dynasty did not invent these powerful weapons because they were worried that someone would rebel. They pursued the strategy of seclusion. The final result was that they were beaten when they fell behind, and the entire huge empire was bullied by foreign enemies.
Therefore, according to this idea, it seemed that it was more correct to invent and use firearms in a timely manner. However, this situation happened at the stage when all the countries in the future were working hard to develop weapons. Therefore, an empire would fall behind greatly if it did not develop and thus be invaded. However, in the era of the Tang Dynasty, only the Tang Dynasty had gunpowder. The surrounding countries did not even have the most basic gunpowder, so how could they invent such a powerful weapon as firearms? Moreover, even if they were given a lot of time, they could not invent such a highly reliable rifle. Only Ang Lee was capable of doing this.
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