Chapter 384: Humiliation

There was silence in the main hall, except for Zhao Heng's heavy breathing.

"Immediately send an envoy to Xiliang. If his conditions are not excessive, just hand him back to the third prince. Otherwise, we will send troops to attack Xiliang and take back Qinzhou and Yongzhou together!" Zhao Heng shouted.

Although he was extremely angry, Zhao Mu was still his son and the prince of Dasong.

If he does nothing, the royal family's reputation will be lost.

After settling the matter, he glared at Dou Wei fiercely and left.

Dou Wei was still distracted, and after a while he slowly left the Jinluan Hall.

…

Xiliang, Wuwei.

Shanyu Mansion.

The Xiliang generals and staff made loud mocking noises when Zhao Mu knelt down.

Zhao Mu closed his eyes and trembled, wishing he could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.

Now, he is very embarrassed.

The armor on his body was stripped off, his hair was messy, and his robes were full of dust and holes.

Two Xiliang soldiers stood behind him, with half of their swords drawn out, threatening him to kneel down.

After being captured, he knew that he would definitely suffer humiliation from the Xiliang people.

He had wanted to die. After all, after being captured this time, even if he could go back, he would no longer be able to compete for the throne, and he would even be left out by Zhao Heng.

But he has been pampered since he was a child, so he does not have the courage to face death.

"Chanyu, Dasong is really exhausted. Ma Jin defected and has now become the King of Qin in our Xiliang. Now Prince Dasong has also been captured by our Xiliang. All this indicates that Xiliang will conquer the world." Li Xin cupped his hand, He glanced at the pale Zhao Mu.

Murong Hao nodded slightly. If it weren't for Jinzhou's defeat, Xiliang's vitality would be greatly damaged.

These two things in succession will definitely make Xiliang prosperous.

"Chanyu, we have captured the son of Prince Dasong. The dog emperor will definitely come to redeem him, and this time he will extort a large sum of money from Dasong." A general laughed.

Murong Hao looked at the speaker, who was Gu Le, one of the four leaders of Xiliang.

Murong Hao shook his head, "Isn't it too cheap for Dasong to ask for silver? At least I have to exchange it back to Jinzhou. Otherwise, I might as well keep Prince Dasong by my side and lead my horse."

"Hahaha, Shan Yu is still thoughtful. We in Xiliang are not short of money. What we are short of is people and land. Wouldn't it be better to leave this prince to humiliate him?" Another general said.

When Zhao Mu heard this, he broke out in cold sweat and quickly soaked his body.

He said anxiously: "Chanyu, silver is better. With silver, you can buy whatever you want. My father will redeem me for at least five million taels, not 120,000 taels of silver."

"You can buy whatever you want? Can you also buy artillery?" Murong Hao mocked.

A few days ago, Mulehongzhen ordered him to hand over all the copper in Xiliang to Beidi.

He has ordered them to be collected and sent. It can be seen that Beidi is currently building a large number of artillery.

In this way, Dasong, Beidi, Xiliang, and Xiliang alone have no artillery.

"It may not be impossible." Zhao Mu leaned down lower.

Murong Hao and the ministers and generals looked at each other.

Then huge jeers broke out again.

"Really? Then let us see what kind of price your father is willing to pay." Murong Hao said, "But before that, you should lead the horse for me!"

After saying that, he sneered.

…

Yancheng.

Zhao Xu had just arrived at the palace after returning from Pingcheng.

Tsui Hark hurried over and told him some shocking news.

"The third prince was captured and taken to Wuwei?"

"Yes, I got the news three days ago. I sent someone to Wuguan to verify and confirm that the news is true," Xu Ke said.

Chang Wei followed Zhao Xu to the palace to discuss the deployment of the four counties in the north.

Hearing this, he sneered and said: "This is called stealing the chicken but losing the rice. The third prince must have gone to Wuguan to achieve some military exploits so as to add some merit to himself, but he is obviously still too young."

Zhao Xu frowned. He had no friendship with the third prince.

Although the third prince did not bully him like the sixth prince and others.

But he knew that the third prince disdained him at that time, but did not really regard him as a brother.

So when he was caught, he felt nothing.

What depressed him was that this matter was obviously extremely beneficial to Xiliang.

Ma Jin sent two states to Xiliang, and Zhao Mu caused trouble again.

"Is this the legendary end of the dynasty?" Zhao Xu muttered.

Historically, there are always a lot of troubles at the end of a dynasty, either betrayal by generals or weird things happening internally.

"You knew this three days ago. It is estimated that the news has reached the imperial city by now. We will just wait and see what happens." Zhao Xu looked calm.

It wasn't his turn to worry about it yet.

Zhao Mu is the third prince of Dasong, Zhao Heng will make a choice, and he is Dou Wei's nephew, so the Dou family will not sit idly by.

Thinking of the pirate incident, he said to Xu Hark: "During this period, you send some people to Zhezhou to monitor the Liang family, mainly their maritime trade, and Wufeng Island. It's just that this one is more difficult to break into, but try to check it out." Bar."

Hearing this, Chang Wei said: "Your Highness, the annihilation of the pirates in Pingcheng this time depends entirely on the confession of one pirate. The pirate is currently in a prison in Pingcheng, so he may be able to use it. Moreover, he is still from Yanzhou."

Tsui Hark's eyes lit up when he heard this, "You can give it a try. If it works, he is just an informer. If not, he is a pirate. Just treat him as an escapee."

Zhao Xu nodded.

After saying this, Tsui Hark turned and left.

Zhao Xu talked to Chang Wei about setting up defenses again, and Chang Wei also went back.

At this time, he picked up the pen and started drawing on the drawing.

After a while, a short, thick, tray-like base, similar to a cannon, appeared on the paper.

This was originally what the Arms Department was supposed to develop in the next few days, but it was delayed by the pirate incident.

"Mortar!" Zhao Xu read out the blueprint after picking up the blueprint.

In the war in Jinzhou, smoothbore cannons had an obvious disadvantage, which was that they could not attack enemies hiding behind obstacles.

After all, smoothbore cannons shoot in a straight line.

But this caused a big problem for sieges.

So, he thought of mortars at that time.

In simple terms, mortars are primitive mortars and howitzers.

The shells fall in a parabola and can attack enemies hiding behind the city walls.

In the 16th century, this type of mortar was equipped in the armies of various countries.

Although the range is short, the power of mortars cannot be underestimated due to the use of shrapnel.

Now there are only smoothbore cannons in the royal army. In order to expand the types of artillery and gain an advantage in the war, he feels it is necessary to build this type of artillery.

At the same time, the most primitive shrapnel must also be developed.

The basic shrapnel shells were already available in the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with solid shells, this type of shells causes more surface damage and is also a deadly weapon.

Moreover, it is impossible to let soldiers throw lit lime firecrackers by hand.

The lightweight mortar is undoubtedly an excellent substitute for throwing. With it, in future battles, he will be able to easily strike enemies hiding behind buildings and reduce the casualties of his own soldiers.