Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 830: One Emperor and One Courtier
A month after Yang Yuan returned to Lin'an, he spread the word that he was going to build a Wushan Academy on Qibao Mountain.

As soon as the news came out, it naturally became a major event among the scholars and spread throughout the city of Lin'an.

Qibao Mountain is one of the Wushan peaks in the south of Lin'an.

Wushan Mountain is composed of Emei Mountain, Shifo Mountain, Ruishi Mountain, Qibao Mountain, Jindi Mountain and Qingping Mountain, and the mountains are gently sloping.

Go out of the back door of Yang Yuan's palace and go up the mountain along the path, which will lead directly to Qibao.

Yang Yuan did not just raise funds to build the academy by himself, but also called on officials and gentry in Lin'an to donate money and jointly build it.

Prince of Jin Zhao Ju and Liu Shangqiu were the first to express their support.

Later, when Yang Yuan and Lu Xi went to the palace to pay their respects, they accidentally let the secret slip.

After the Empress Dowager Wu and Empress Dowager Xie learned about it, they also donated something.

Even Princess Jiaguo took out some of her private money upon hearing the news.

Now, this academy has a royal background.

Following closely were Yu Yunwen, Fan Chengda, Xiao Yiran, Lu Chengze and others.

Later, Wang Yuanwai, the richest man in Longshandu, Lu Ya, a sea merchant who became rich because of maritime trade in Houshi Street, Nanfengchi, a big silk merchant in Xiaoshan, and Madam Li from Longjing Tea Garden in Shishan responded and donated large sums of money.

Yang Yuan just raised his arms and shouted, and the job was done without spending much money.

This kind of thing is destined to be a good deed that will be recorded in history.

Moreover, those who come out of the academy will become pillars of the court in the future.

Whoever becomes a "school director" will undoubtedly have more connections in the future.

Therefore, the construction on Qibao Mountain has already started in full swing, and officials and gentry from near and far have actively requested donations.

"My Lord, Wushan Academy is built on the mountain behind us. The officials and gentry in Renmeifang have all expressed their intentions to build it, but our family is the only one that has not expressed its intention. You see..."

When Wang heard that the gentry from all sides were enthusiastic, he became a little restless.

Of course, this is also because the initiator was Yang Yuan, and she wanted more excuses to have more contact with Yang Yuan.

The two families are obviously so close, and that little enemy doesn't come here every day.

He only comes here once every ten days or half a month.

He had to share this share of the soup with Ren, so naturally he felt a little unsatisfied.

Li Renxiao was holding an octagonal bronze mirror and looking at himself in the mirror.

He has a high nose bridge, an aquiline nose that looks very majestic.

But now his nose was collapsed, and even with the careful treatment of an orthopedic expert like Ji Qing, his appearance was still disfigured.

This external injury is not the worst. In the past few days, Li Renxiao often felt a headache and dizziness as soon as he stepped onto the ground. He was irritable and his memory was a little poor.

I've just gotten better in the past two days.

Hearing Wang's words, Li Renxiao slapped his bronze mirror and said angrily, "Yang Yuan, that bastard, beat me up, but the Song government only fined him three months' salary.

This punishment is worse than no punishment at all. My face has been trampled under his feet, and I am still rushing to respond to his call. Dream on. "

Wang's pretty face suddenly darkened: "I am thinking this way, isn't it because our Anshun Marquisate can have a better life in the Song Dynasty?
Did you know that because Yang Yuan built five major palaces in Sichuan and recruited countless talents, he has been praised by scholars all over the world as the protector of Confucianism?

Nowadays, those who actively participate in the construction of the academy are either wealthy merchants or dignitaries of the court or famous scholars. "

The queens of nomadic peoples have always been like this. They have much greater power than the queens of the Central Plains dynasties and can even challenge the emperor.

Because their queens usually come from prominent clans and have strong backers.

Now Li Renxiao is under house arrest in Lin'an and is made Marquis of Anle.

The Tuoba clan was suppressed and guarded against by the imperial court, so the Wang clan was even less afraid of him.

In fact, because their entourage and family generals were all arranged by Ren Degong, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, Wang and Ren, had become "good sisters", they were even more confident in front of Li Renxiao.

Wang said: "Let's say you were beaten by the King of Yan. If you hadn't provoked him, how could it have come to this?

You are under someone else's roof but you don't know how to bow your head. Are you trying to kill our whole family?"

Wang raised her chin proudly and said, "If you don't want to donate, then my mother-in-law and I will donate in our own names."

Li Renxiao was furious and slammed the table and yelled, "I am still the head of the family. I will not allow you to use a single penny of the family's money."

Wang said disdainfully: "We can just use our own private money."

After saying this, Wang flicked her sleeves and walked away.

Li Renxiao waited until she left before smiling coldly.

He also needs this good reputation.

But when asked to take out the money, he really couldn't bear to do so.

He was granted the title of Marquis of Anle, with a fief of 700 households.

Every month, the salary is calculated based on the actual number of sealed households, at the rate of 25 cents per household.

In other words, he could actually receive 17.5 strings of cash in salary per month.

The average monthly income for a Lin'an family is between three and six strings of cash.

But Li Renxiao was once an emperor. Now he has no other official position. What can he do with just this title and a mere seventeen or eighteen strings of cash?
When he went from Xingqing Prefecture to Lin'an, he brought a lot of valuables with him.

But now that his income is not enough to cover his expenses, how can he not be thrifty?

"Hmph, wait until all your private money is gone, and you'll come to me for help. By then, this Ren family..."

What you can’t get is the best.

Thinking of Ren Muyan's charming and unparalleled face, Li Renxiao couldn't help but feel warm in his heart.

But soon, he burst into tears.

Once upon a time, he was still thinking about how to take back the military power of Daxia from Ren Dejing bit by bit.

But now, what else can he calculate?

Why, why as soon as I ascended the throne, I had Ren Dejing, this huge mountain that I couldn't move, pressing down on my head.

Now that I have lost my kingdom and my throne, and was beaten by that bastard Yang Yuan, should I still try to please him?
……

On Qibao Mountain, Yang Yuan stood there, looking at the mountain road that was constantly widening.

He was only wearing a grayish-blue robe, which looked particularly plain compared to his usual brocade robe and jade belt. A huge stone tablet with the names of all the people who donated money to build the Wushan Academy was engraved by craftsmen.

This monument will be erected first at the groundbreaking ceremony.

"Your Majesty, the guards from the Infantry Division are here."

Liu Dazhuang ran to Yang Yuan and reported loudly.

Yang Yuan turned around and looked into the distance.

A group of officers and soldiers were coming over from the mountains in a winding formation.

The Song Dynasty army had the right to engage in business, but if they wanted to directly mobilize soldiers, they could only undertake projects with official backgrounds.

For this academy, the person listed first on the donation stele was the Empress Dowager Wu. On the day of the foundation stone laying ceremony, the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager were also present.

Therefore, the specific construction personnel for the academy construction were naturally responsible for the Imperial Guard Infantry Division.

Looking at the officers and soldiers of the Infantry Division who were marching towards him, Yang Yuan smiled slightly.

The commander of the infantry of the Imperial Guards was Wu Ting.

But as far as Yang Yuan knew, the person in charge of the Tiger Mansion was Lou Wangchen, who was in charge of the affairs of the Imperial Guard and Infantry Division.

Lou Wangchen was the Eastern Palace Groom and a former official in the vassal state.

……

Inside the imperial palace, those sitting in the Qinzheng Hall at this time were all former officials of the Eastern Palace.

Zhao Qi was holding a small meeting, and naturally only his trusted confidants could attend such a meeting.

"Have you taken over all the firearms departments that Yang Yuan opened in Tongchuanfu Road?"

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. Shen Xuzhong has been ordered to go to Tongchuan Prefecture. The first thing he will do after taking office is to take over the Tongchuan Prefecture Firearms Department established by Yang Yuan.

All the firearms blueprints and manufacturing craftsmen have been taken over and are being moved to Lin'an Road."

Zhao Qi nodded happily after hearing this: "In the past, the muskets could only make a noise and see a fire, which could scare people who didn't know the truth.

I never thought that Yang Yuan could come up with such a powerful firearm, especially the heavy artillery!"

Zhao Qi said excitedly: "Han Jingbei has submitted a detailed memorial to me regarding firearms. He witnessed the power of those firearms with his own eyes in the army."

"Now that I have these blueprints and craftsmen, and I can gather the firearms craftsmen from Lin'an over there, I will definitely be able to develop even more powerful firearms.

The particularly powerful thing about this firearm is that a farmer who is used to using a hoe can become proficient in using it after practicing for a month or so.

By then, it will be easy for me to sweep across the world and dominate the universe. Hahahaha..."

……

At the same time, in Xuzhou, Mahu Man.

The Ma Hu barbarians were almost wiped out by Yang Yuan's crazy army.

Later, Yang Yuan opened up trade routes and forced the three barbarians to move down the mountain and live along the main roads.

The three barbarians in Xuzhou tasted the benefits of doing business and were quite happy with this arrangement.

The bamboo house village they abandoned in the mountains became a ruin after more than a year.

However, the locations of these villages deep in the mountains are obviously a reflection of the survival experience of the local indigenous people over thousands of years.

These locations are the most suitable for concentrated living due to nearby geographical conditions.

At this time, a large abandoned tribe in the mountains has been completely transformed.

The entire village was burned down, and then a new village was rebuilt on the site.

This village is not made of bamboo houses or bamboo fences, but of bricks and tiles fired from local soil.

There are tall walls and brick and stone houses, and after entering, there are even more checkpoints.

This is Yang Yuan’s new secret firearms research and development base.

Yang Yuan's firearms production relied on a large number of craftsmen.

From the very beginning, in order to maintain confidentiality, Yang Yuan set up layers of "firewalls".

Many old craftsmen in the firearms research and development base do not know that above them, there is a core research team, and the core figure of that team is called Xiao Qianyue.

In fact, even Xiao Qianyue is not the core of this firearms research and development base.

The core of this firearms research and development base has always been only one person, his name is Yang Yuan.

Yang Yuan did not know how to make firearms, but his brilliant ideas allowed these skilled craftsmen to skip decades or even hundreds of years of exploration and conduct targeted research directly.

After the completion of this firearms development base, several core craftsmen, each doing their own job, were conducting unremitting research according to Yang Yuan's "brilliant ideas".

Yang Yuan was the one who proposed the idea, and these craftsmen were the ones who, after hearing this brilliant idea, worked hard to realize it.

They got a lot of unheard-of ideas from Yang Yuan.

Such as multi-barreled firearms, revolver firearms, automatic firearms, matchlock guns, flintlock guns, fixed ammunition, conical bullets, rifling action, etc.

Many of the concepts proposed by Yang Yuan are things that the craftsmen of this era would never have dreamed of.

Of course, not all of these concepts can be realized now.

For example, conical bullets, which are common bullets today.

This thing is very easy to implement, you can make it if you think of it.

However, after the test firing, the craftsmen found that unless they could develop more powerful gunpowder, it would be better to continue using round projectiles given the optimal ratio of black powder.

Because although conical bullets have a longer range and stronger penetration, the power of current gunpowder makes the initial velocity of the bullet low, the range short, and the kinetic energy of the bullet insufficient.

In this case, it is obvious that the destructive power generated by the bullet during the physical rolling is greater.

This is also the reason why softer lead bullets are used instead of steel bullets.

Lead bullets are soft. Once they hit bones that are harder than them, they will explode inside the body. Lead is also poisonous...

Craftsmen are constantly researching, trying and erroring, and looking for the most powerful firearms that can be achieved under current technological conditions.

This place is unknown to the outside world. Ever since the three barbarians of Xuzhou migrated away, it has been deserted.

This place has become the old place that the three barbarians of Xuzhou are unwilling to risk returning to the mountain to visit.

(End of this chapter)