"Congratulations, Your Majesty!" All the generals were in awe, but they all said in unison.
Li Shimin couldn't help but feel extremely excited. From now on, the Tang dynasty would have a weapon that was comparable to the power of the gods.
"You may rise!" Li Shimin glanced at the officials and said proudly.
The founding heroes of the previous dynasties all had extremely miserable endings. However, there were exceptions. The Tang dynasty was one of them. Except for a few who courted death and rebelled, Li Shimin didn't kill anyone indiscriminately.
On one hand, it was because of the open atmosphere of the Tang dynasty. On the other hand, it was because of Li Shimin's broad mind, wisdom, and extraordinary means. He was confident that he could control these arrogant soldiers, and in fact, he did.
However, it wasn't that he didn't consider the drawbacks of these founding heroes. When the gunpowder was released, Li Shimin's heart suddenly became heroic. With this divine weapon in hand, who in the world could compete with him?
While the generals were still in fear, only Li Jing's shocked face had a trace of relief. For a long time, in the imperial court, there had been endless reports of conspiring against Li Jing's rebellion. Although he thought he was innocent and usually acted cautiously, his great prestige in the army was undeniably a threat to the imperial power. With the imperial family in control of such a divine weapon, his position naturally became a little safer.
"Meton, although the power of this gunpowder is infinite, it is still far from what you said!" Li Shimin said calmly.
The generals suddenly felt a chill in their hearts and couldn't help but look at Meton in horror. This kind of power was still far from what he said. How powerful would the real power be?
Meton couldn't help but look at Li Shimin with appreciation. This Li Shimin was ninety-nine percent pretentious, and the remaining one percent was because he was afraid that he would become arrogant.
"Your Majesty, don't worry. This is just an appetizer. The real meal is yet to come," Meton said cooperatively.
Li Shimin laughed and said, "Then I will wait and see today."
The group of generals also laughed along, looking forward to it.
However, behind Li Shimin, Hou Junji was quite unhappy. He was the Minister of War and should be in charge of everything in the military. However, he didn't receive any news that the Firearms Supervisor had such a powerful weapon in advance. It was only today that he learned about it like everyone else.
In his view, this was not only because Meton didn't take him seriously, but more importantly, because Li Shimin didn't trust him. This made him lose his balance, but of course, he suppressed all this deep in his heart.
"This is just a single gunpowder bomb. I wonder if you can look forward to the grand occasion of ten bombs being fired at once?" Moton said in a clear voice. At the same time, he waved his hand and 10 gunpowder bombs flew out. This time, the gunpowder bombs landed on the city walls with the same accuracy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ten gunpowder bombs exploded almost instantly. Flames soared into the sky from nearly a hundred paces away. Even though everyone was several hundred paces away, they could still feel the destructive energy and the hot air rushing at them.
Li Jing gasped. He finally understood why none of the beef, lamb, or pork the Firearms Supervisor had given to the Right Guard was complete. If beef, lamb, and pork were like this, then what about human lives?
"Just what kind of killing weapon has the Mohist family developed?" Many of the generals looked at Meton with fear on their young faces.
Zhangsun Shunde and Qixin Heli's faces were even paler. They had always believed in the supremacy of cavalry and were usually superior to others. However, if the infantry had such a killing weapon, the cavalry would be like paper in front of it. Moreover, such a loud noise would be a great deterrent to the warhorses. They could only be slaughtered.
The two glanced at each other and couldn't help but feel sad. Perhaps cavalry would still have the advantage in the future, but they would definitely not be as invincible as before.
Li Shimin watched the smoke disperse and impatiently said, "We want to go to the wall and see for ourselves."
The generals couldn't help but be tempted. Who wouldn't want to see the power of such a powerful weapon?
After a quick check of the front row, the rest of the soldiers urged their horses forward. Under Moton's lead, they ascended the new city walls.
Halfway through, they could already see the brand-new bricks on the city walls. They were all black, and they were still giving off traces of heat.
When everyone reached the top of the wall and saw the mess, they couldn't help but be deeply shocked.
On the wall, a large number of dummies had been blasted apart. The broken pieces of wood still had traces of sparks. Some of the bricks were deeply embedded with broken pieces of metal.
Clang!
Cheng Yaojin suddenly exerted force with the steel knife in his hand, and only then was he able to pry out a deformed piece of metal embedded in the wall. He could not help but click his tongue. "If this kind of force were to hit a person, even a heavily armored soldier would die without a doubt."
Everyone looked at the new holes in the bricks and nodded in agreement.
Li Shimin took a deep breath and said, "How many of these gunpowder bullets can the Firearms Supervisor make?"
Meton said without thinking, "Each bullet weighs fifty catties. The Firearms Supervisor can only make a hundred bullets in ten days."
Li Jing frowned. There were only a hundred pellets in ten days. The output was too little. He asked, "Can the Firearms Supervisor speed up and make more before the Western Expedition?"
Li Jing naturally didn't want to let go of such a powerful weapon. Moreover, not only did the gunpowder bullets have great killing power, their loud noise was also a great deterrent to warhorses. If used as a secret weapon, it would definitely be effective.
Morton smiled bitterly. "General, you may not know this, but the cost of making these gunpowder bombs is astonishing. Each bomb costs ten taels of silver, and we are limited by the production of the key materials. This is already the limit of production."
In this era, the mining of charcoal and sulfur was relatively mature. Only saltpeter's production was low. Moreover, saltpeter's use was the largest. In the spring, it was already in short supply. When summer came, the palace would need a large amount of saltpeter.
"Ten taels of silver each!"
Li Shimin immediately felt his heart ache. Wasn't this the eleven pills that Moton had just thrown out? He had spent over a hundred taels of silver in one go. It was truly a case of a child selling off his father's land without feeling any heartache.
Gunpowder weapons were different. Steel weapons could be reused. Meton had just demonstrated, and in the blink of an eye, a hundred taels of silver had disappeared.
Everyone looked deeply at Meton. Mo Jiazi was worthy of being Mo Jiazi. He was still a spendthrift who squandered money like it was dirt. If he threw out tens of thousands of gunpowder bullets in a single battle, wouldn't tens of thousands of taels of silver be gone?
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