Magical Water Margin: They all call me brother

Page 40

However, this fire lance, made by replacing bamboo with iron and glue with welding, caused direct explosive damage, highlighting the vast chasm between firearms and cold weapons. Its muzzle energy alone was more than twice that of the crossbow.

[Fire Lance]: Reduces hit rate by 50%, deals 1-50 points of armor penetration damage, and inflicts fear effect.

This thing is terrifying. Although the hit rate is random and the damage fluctuates greatly, it doesn't matter. You don't need to be too precise on the battlefield. Your target is a large square formation of hundreds or thousands of people. Hitting anyone is worthwhile!

"Make them to this specification! Make two hundred first! Turn the two hundred crossbowmen into two hundred musketeers! Keep the bows and arrows the same, the musketeers are too slow, I need archers to maintain the fire coverage."

Liu Hong rubbed his hands together, extremely excited.

"Do we really have to do it this way? This thing is indeed very powerful, but it's too troublesome."

The blacksmiths remained worried, unsure whether the thing was reliable.

"Chief, I admit that this thing is powerful but lacks accuracy, which can be compensated for on the battlefield. However, its rate of fire is too slow!"

"You see, the Divine Arm Crossbow only requires three steps: bending over to draw the bow, loading the bolt, and aiming to fire. An ordinary person can fire a shot in twelve seconds, and a skilled crossbowman can fire one in six seconds."

"But this fire lance technique has a total of five steps!"

The first step is to clean the ignition hole and gunpowder pool to prevent gunpowder residue left from the last firing from clogging the gaps.

Step two: Unscrew the small bottle containing gunpowder and carefully estimate how much gunpowder to pour into the barrel. The amount depends entirely on experience and luck. Too little will result in low damage and short range. Too much will cause the barrel to explode, killing both the gun and the shooter.

Step 3: Load the bullet through the muzzle.

Step 4: Use a bamboo stick to tamp down the bullet and gunpowder inside the barrel.

Step 5: Use a lit match to probe into the gun magazine and ignite it for firing.

This whole process takes at least a minute, and in that time, the crossbow could have fired five shots!

"Don't rush, many steps in this process can be optimized."

After directly introducing the matchlock gun technology of the 15th century in the 12th century, Liu Hong once again demonstrated the paper-wrapped bullet technology of the 17th century.

In fact, it was quite simple to reproduce these technologies from more than 500 years later in the 12th century; it's just that people at the time didn't think of it. Advancing in technology was an extremely troublesome and arduous task because there were thousands of ways to improve firearms, and people had to try each one one by one.

In real history, people spent five or six hundred years exploring and improving the use of firearms in battle after battle, trying every possible path, including many wrong and unethical ones, before finally finding the fastest and most practical way.

Standing on the shoulders of giants, Liu Hong knew which path was right, saving five or six hundred years by bringing future technologies to the present.

First, gunpowder cannot be stored in one bottle. Pouring gunpowder by feel each time is not only a waste of time, but also carries the risk of pouring too much and causing danger, or pouring too little and resulting in insufficient power.

Liu Hong took out oiled paper, cut it into small pieces, and had the craftsman use a small scale to carefully weigh out the corresponding weight. The pieces were then wrapped together with the iron ammunition in the oiled paper and sealed tightly.

In this way, a tightly wrapped piece of oiled paper contained gunpowder on top and a cast iron bullet underneath, which became the paper-wrapped bullet invented in the 17th century, the prototype of modern ammunition.

When firing, simply stuff the paper-packaged bullet into the chamber, compress it, and it's ready to use. If you don't point the muzzle downwards or shake it around, you don't need to compress it. This simplifies the five firing steps of the fire lance into three steps, just like the crossbow, and also allows for precise gunpowder control, maintaining a stable output and significantly reducing danger.

The craftsman took the paper-wrapped bullet and tried it again. This time, the attack time was reduced from one minute to half a minute, which was half the speed!

"Forge two hundred fire lances immediately. Just tell me what you need, and I'll arrange for someone to procure it as soon as possible!"

Seeing that the research on the fire lance was beginning to bear fruit, Liu Hong breathed a sigh of relief. The gunpowder factory in Liangshanbo was now in its initial stages of construction.

Chapter 85: The Raging Rat Tide Returns to Daming Prefecture (Bonus Chapter)

At this moment, Liangshan was thriving. Gunpowder workshops were built, fire lances were mass-produced, trade routes were established, and nearby villages all followed Liu Hong's lead. Liangshan soldiers could even openly buy gunpowder, ironware, and other supplies in the streets of Yuncheng.

Liu Hong was so arrogant that he even sent Wang Lun to hold a job fair for migrant workers in Yuncheng.

In other dynasties, farmers were forced to flee their land by local wealthy landowners, leaving them with no choice but to die or revolt. However, Song dynasty farmers had an additional way to survive: they could choose to go to the city to work.

So Liu Hong, with a price 1.5 times higher than that in Yuncheng, arrogantly recruited a large number of skilled workers who could do carpentry, ceramics, medicine, iron smelting, and cooking to come to Liangshan in the middle of the main street of Yuncheng.

Anyway, as long as you have a skill and do it well, you can come work in Liangshan! The wages will definitely be fair! Liangshan is newly established, and we are short of all kinds of skilled workers!

These workers have been driven to the brink. Think about it carefully, what's the difference between working in Yuncheng County and working in Liangshan? There isn't! Anyway, the magistrate of Yuncheng County can't wipe out Liangshan at all. The Great Sage Equaling Heaven is rampaging around the fields, and his henchmen are being recruited directly in the county town without any pretense. I am very safe and secure there.

Since Liangshan offers more money, I'll go to Liangshan.

In a short time, the Liangshan forces swelled from the initial one hundred people to the present twelve hundred people, a twelve-fold increase, with a battalion of five hundred soldiers, three hundred workers donated by Chai Jin, and a full four hundred craftsmen from all walks of life.

Moreover, there are tens of thousands of people outside Liangshan Marsh who are actually under Liangshan's control.

At this moment, Zhu Tong and Lei Heng had given up on maintaining order in the village. There was nothing they could do. The militia of Huang An had been decimated by the local militia. Now, half of these militia were afraid of Liangshan like tigers, and the other half had taken the land from Liangshan and sided with Liu Hong. The local militia organization was completely unreliable.

His own few hundred soldiers also fought Liu Hong in a real battle, but ultimately lost and escaped by chance. The battle was extremely dangerous.

Zhu Tong, unwilling to risk his life in such a matter, could only let the Liangshan soldiers continue to plunder and redistribute land in half of the county town—making do, what else could he do but risk his life? How could he survive in the Song Dynasty system if he risked his life?

Moreover, Liu Hong did manage these villages quite well, which actually reduced the workload of the two officers. Liu Hong also wisely offered bribes to the two constables and Song Jiang, making it easier for him to carry out his work in Yuncheng County.

Yuncheng has a total population of 40,000, with 4,000 residing in the county seat, accounting for one-tenth of the total population.

Of the remaining 36,000 rural residents, 20,000 who lived near the marshland had already been placed under the rule of Liangshan. Local wealthy landowners were killed one-third of their wealth, while two-thirds went to Liangshan.

At this moment, Liu Hong also promulgated a second rule: In the autumn, everyone shall hand over two-tenths of their grain, one-tenth to the government and one-tenth to Liangshan. That damned Green Sprouts Law is no longer required!

This tax is already very lenient. In the past, free people had to pay 30% of their grain tax, 10% to the imperial court, and 20% to wealthy landowners.

Serfs had to pay 60% of their grain tax, with 10% going to the imperial court and 50% to the wealthy landowners. The remaining grain was barely enough to survive. If they encountered any strange or unexpected taxes, they had no choice but to sell their children or flee to distant lands.

Now, Liu Hong has liberated all the serfs, distributed land to everyone, and reduced taxes to 20%, which is acceptable to everyone: 10% is a tribute to the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, who saved us from the clutches of the wealthy officials.

Another 10% is protection money paid to the imperial court. We pray that the imperial court will stop attacking Liangshan. We finally have a good life.

Thus, Liangshan's development began to get on track and was thriving. Suo Chao took on the role of instructor for a battalion of 500 soldiers, using the Song army's management methods to train the soldiers. The 200 crossbowmen with giant shields gradually became 200 musket wielders. They could simply hold their shields up in front of them and raise their muskets to fire.

As the counterfeit industry gradually developed, new problems arose one after another: insufficient raw materials and manpower. After all, Yuncheng was a small county town with truly limited resources.

Putting everything else aside, just building a stronghold like Liangshanbo was far too difficult. The timber available in Yuncheng alone was insufficient, and there wasn't enough stock of bullets and gunpowder for the fire lances. Gunpowder, iron ore, and everything else were in short supply.

If you want to buy these things, you have to go to the major cities of the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Kaifeng (Tokyo), Luoyang (Xijing), Damingfu (Beijing), and Songcheng (Nanjing). Only those four capital cities have a large market.

After a careful inspection, Liu Hong discovered that Liang Zhongshu had also calmed down. The previous raid on Song Wan's den had killed more than fifty people and recovered ten or twenty thousand taels of birthday tribute. At least his men had given their superiors an explanation, and Liang Zhongshu had a way to back down, so she stopped the wasteful and arduous revenge.

In that case, the plan to rebuild Guifanlou can be put on the agenda.

After careful consideration, Liu Hong assigned four women—Pan Jinlian, Li Cunxiao, Lü Fang, and Guo Sheng—to guard the Liangshan stronghold and supervise the workers in building the base.

The vanguard leader, Suo Chao, led Du Qian, Song Wan, and fifty Liangshan guards and fifty musketeers to Daming Prefecture. Their mission was to rebuild the Ghost Fanlou underground, thus re-establishing the underground threat to Daming Prefecture. At the same time, they sought to open up trade routes in Daming Prefecture so that Liangshan could freely purchase goods in Beijing.

Meanwhile, he and Wu Song led another fifty Liangshan guards and fifty musketeers straight to the heart of the Northern Song Dynasty: Kaifeng, the capital. Their goal was to build a unique underground tower belonging to Liangshan in the city beneath Kaifeng, so that they could purchase supplies from Kaifeng and launch an underground threat against the political, military, economic, and cultural center of the Northern Song Dynasty!

The author says:

Author's Note: Third update! Requesting monthly tickets and urging for more updates in the new month! 12 more tickets needed for an extra update!!!

Chapter 86: The Underground Threat Is Approaching Tokyo (Bonus Chapter for 1800 Monthly Tickets!)

The bow of the boat cut through the golden waves, and Liu Hong's small boat with its green canopy was drifting westward along the Ji River. The summer morning mist had not yet dissipated, and the tips of the weeping willows on both banks were already tinged with a layer of brilliant golden light. Suddenly, a thunderous clamor could be faintly heard from ahead, and the rainbow bridge's roof ornaments quietly appeared in the mist.

Liu Hong and Wu Song exchanged a glance, then poled forward. The fog suddenly parted, revealing the majestic outline of Kaifeng. The city walls, over ten meters high, were still faintly visible behind the thin veil, while the markets outside the city unfolded like a brocade adorned with golden beads!

The masts of the canal boats were as dense as a forest of thorns, and the white sails were as numerous as flocks of sheep. Bare-chested boatmen shouted their work songs and competed for the road with donkey carts on the bridge. Beside the inn with its green flags waving, the smoke from the cooking fires turned into white dragons and soared into the sky, carrying the aroma of steamed buns, and shattered the morning bell of the Buddhist temple.

"Please make way!"

The sailors on the cargo ship behind him came in, their voices groaning with exhaustion. Liu Hong steered his boat to give way and caught a glimpse of baskets of lychees from southern Fujian and silk boxes from Suzhou piled up in the cabin.

Wu Song looked around curiously. In front of the warehouse on the shore, a Arab merchant wearing a blue veil was inspecting Jun kiln porcelain. His waist was adorned with a pair of shimmering beads, which dazzled in the sunlight.

Suddenly, camel bells jingled, and more than ten white camels carrying bulging leather bags turned the corner. The Uyghurs on their backs had fiery red beards, startling the gray pigeons pecking at food in front of the teahouse.

In a riverside restaurant, a young man wearing a gold-embroidered crown pushed open the carved window, and a half-cup of spilled tea drew a shimmering arc in the air. Downstairs, the banner of a fortune-telling stall was whipped up by the wind, revealing the two ink characters for "divination." The storyteller's hoarse voice was shouting out lines from the operas "Yang Liulang's Silver Spear Defeates the Liao General" and "The Charming Luo Cheng Locks Up Five Dragons Alone," but half a line was interrupted by the rattle of a peddler.

"This is only the outskirts of Kaifeng, not even inside the city, yet it is already so prosperous. I wonder what the city of Kaifeng must be like."

Liu Hong said with emotion.

"Don't even think about it, we can't get in. Brother, your bounty is already 100,000 strings of cash, and mine is 50,000 strings of cash. This is the heart of the Song Dynasty, and it's full of Imperial Guards. The moment we enter through the gate, we'll be captured. No matter how strong we are, we can't possibly fight hundreds or thousands of Imperial Guards at the same time."

Wu Song shook his head.

"Zhu Gui mentioned where the entrance to Gui Fan Lou in Kaifeng is. Let's find it quickly. If we're lucky, we might be able to sneak into Kaifeng from Gui Fan Lou."

When the two men's bamboo poles finally reached the stone wharf, the deck was already covered with fine willow catkins. The majestic city walls remained hidden in the bustling sounds of the city. But the colorful silks fluttering between the vermilion railings, the flutes and pipes overflowing from the tiled houses and brothels, and the golden dust raised by the grain ships unloading their cargo made this unseen megacity resemble a gilded furnace burning with ambergris, cooking all the world's precious treasures in the boiling morning light.

Liu Hong glanced at the square-shaped metropolis, then turned around and arrived at the confluence of the Ji River and the Bian River. He quickly drove into the Bian River and, following Zhu Gui's instructions, turned left and right among the reeds. Soon he saw the entrance to an underground river.

The moment Liu Hong plunged into the underground cave with the torch in hand, hundreds of years crashed down upon him. In the instant the firelight illuminated the scene, the entire Tang Dynasty city of Kaifeng, sealed by the silt of the Yellow River, burst into view! The bluestone slabs of Zhuque Avenue seemed to hang upside down from the top of the cave, along the rock wall, like a decaying crescent moon embedded in the stone. The twelve-mile-long imperial road, paved during the Kaiyuan era, now resembled the ribs of a giant python, encircling the entire underground city, gleaming with a cold, bluish-gray light in the darkness.

Over the centuries, countless buildings have been eroded by the river's mud and sand, growing along the imperial road, either growing on the ground, rising horizontally from the vertical rock walls, or even hanging upside down from the top of caves. The roof tiles have all fallen off, leaving only the decayed beams and skeletons, giving people a sense of spatial disarray.

The streets of the Tang Dynasty, flowing with dark, sandy currents, are scattered like stars. The already decayed and dilapidated Tang Dynasty buildings stand side by side, with hundreds and thousands of huge stone pillars standing on the streets and piercing into the houses, supporting the endless rocky sky overhead, dark and gloomy like the underworld, silent and terrifying like the deepest hell.

Liu Hong remembered this knowledge: the Yellow River is an above-ground river, which is extremely easy to change course. Up until the time of Emperor Huizong of Song, Kaifeng had experienced countless floods, large and small, and had been completely submerged and destroyed at least three times. The last city to be completely destroyed was Kaifeng during the Tang Dynasty.

After the Tang Dynasty city of Kaifeng was completely submerged by the Yellow River's silt, the Song people rebuilt the Song Dynasty city of Kaifeng on the site and excavated an underground drainage system, thus unearthing the Tang Dynasty city of Kaifeng and turning it into the underground ghost tower of the Song Dynasty's capital, Bianjing (Kaifeng).

The group stepped forward in awe, the broken half of the dragon-head ornament still bearing the glaze of the Tianbao era. Looking up, they saw a rammed earth city wall four meters high, its surface resembling a cross-section of tree rings vertically sliced ​​by a deity. The top layer contained fragments of celadon porcelain from Jingdezhen during the current dynasty, interspersed with red sandstone steps from the Liang dynasty of the Five Dynasties period, while the bottom layer bore the clear and fresh marks of bricks and tiles from the third year of the Huichang era of the Tang dynasty.

The intricate underground watercourses surge and flow between the building's mezzanine levels, sometimes rushing into the mansions along the banks, carrying out a large number of antiques from a hundred years ago. At the same time, the underground river carries away the daily garbage of Kaifeng City, along with bronze mirrors and rusty knives from the Zhenguan era, which collide with the rock walls, producing a soft, clear sound.

What is most chilling is the temporal fold in the southeast corner: the foundation stone pillars of an unknown building in Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, pierce the residence of the Xuanwu Military Governor of the Tang Dynasty like a dense rain of arrows. The footsteps of a million people in Bianjing are stepping over the bones of the Tang Dynasty, slowly ramming the prosperity of the Song Dynasty into a layer of already rotten, dead flesh and blood.

As the torch swept across the west side, Liu Hong's breath suddenly caught in his throat: a majestic Buddhist pagoda, like a giant bronze arrow shot down by a god, pierced diagonally down from the rocky dome! Through the cracks in the rock strata pierced by the pagoda's spire, a few rays of sunlight from the ground leaked through, and countless plant roots, like giant brown pythons, had actually carved through the rock wall, intertwining and coiling around the pagoda.

Upon careful observation, Liu Hong discovered that the entire pagoda was tilted at a 35-degree angle, and the gilded bronze bells hanging from the eaves of each level were as large as cartwheels and were still trembling incessantly. From the gaps in the Tang bricks at the bottom level, there were crystals of Buddha's bones that looked like salt frost, while the twelve layers of dense eaves were covered with gray pottery tiles from the Five Dynasties period. The lotus patterns on the tiles were fused with the ice-crack glaze of the official kiln of the current dynasty to form a strange totem.

The spire of the pagoda is hidden within the rock face and dome, and one might even be able to descend to the ground via a staircase. The flickering firelight and graceful figures within the pagoda further suggest that this ancient structure has long been transformed into a ghost tower.

Liu Hong and Wu Song exchanged a glance and decided to explore the area. The boat followed the murky river, advancing along the ruins of Tang City until it reached the foot of the pagoda. They were immediately intercepted by several strongmen, who were also very nervous looking at the hundred or so people behind the two.

"Why are you two unfamiliar heroes? What are your names? What brings you here?"

"This is my sister, the Pilgrim Wu Song. I am Liu Hong, the Great Sage of Chaos, here to purchase goods in your esteemed land."

Liu Hong had already made a name for himself, and he arrogantly announced his name directly.

"Could it be the Great Sage Evil Spirit, Brother Xianzhong, who forcibly seized the birthday gifts and defeated the Vanguard?!"

The robbers were taken aback. Liu Hong's reputation had recently soared in the underworld, having committed two major crimes that left everyone speechless. These robbers from Tokyo and Kaifeng were quite particular; they even used Liu Hong's courtesy name as a sign of respect.

"Please come in quickly! Please come in quickly! I will inform my master right away! This pagoda is a vegetable garden under the jurisdiction of the Xiangguo Temple in the capital. My brothers and I are helping the monks of the Xiangguo Temple with some shady things."

The author says:

Author's Note: Bonus chapter for reaching 1850 monthly votes! Please also give me more votes to urge me to update!

Volume Two: The Rise of Liangshan

Chapter 87: Lu Zhisheng Uproots Baozhu Temple

The two slowly climbed up the Tang Dynasty Buddhist pagoda that had sunk into the ground. The furnishings inside had been mostly removed, and the wooden stairs had rotted and aged after being soaked in the underground river for hundreds of years, creaking underfoot. The entire pagoda was filled with the smell of rotting wood.

After climbing to the seventh floor, the entire pagoda suddenly trembled like a dying beast. The wooden axles, eight hundred years old, emitted a shrill scream, and the entire pagoda swayed and sank a foot! A large amount of dust fell from the top of the pagoda like a torrential rain! The group of people climbing the stairs also lost their footing and half-squatted on the stairs, and the sunlight shining down from above completely disappeared.

“Brother, please don’t be offended. This Tang Dynasty Kaifeng city, which was submerged by the Yellow River, is only the first underground level. The second underground level is the Kaifeng County of the Han Dynasty, and the third underground level is the Daliang City built by the King of Wei during the Warring States period, which was submerged by the Qin general Wang Ben.”

"That's what a robber said, as if it were commonplace."

"It's estimated that the Han Dynasty Kaifeng County on the second basement level was dug by bandits who created a cavitation zone, causing the Tang Dynasty Kaifeng city buildings on the first basement level to sink. This kind of thing is quite normal."

Liu Hong nodded. When he climbed to the top floor, he discovered something quite embarrassing. Originally, the top floor of the tower was still above the ground of Kaifeng City during the Song Dynasty. People could freely enter and exit through the windows on the top floor and then walk down the pagoda to Guifan Tower.

But now, because the pagoda has just sunk a few feet, the windows are covered in mud, and they can't get out.

"Master! Master! The tower is sinking again! Pull it up!"

"Master! Pull up the pagoda! Let the guests come up first! We disciples will go down to repair the foundation later!"

Helpless, the henchmen roared and desperately pounded on the earthen wall. Liu Hong and Wu Song were dumbfounded.

What do you mean? Someone can pull this ten-story pagoda out of the ground? Are you kidding me?!

"Huh? Why has this thing sunk again? Don't worry, don't worry, I'll pull it out right away!"

Suddenly, a bold female voice came from the ground. The moment Lu Zhisheng's fingertips pierced the spire, the entire pagoda suddenly resounded with the cracking sound of dislocated bones! Beneath her robe, her magnificent breasts surged left and right, and scarlet prayer beads fluttered up and down between her towering snow-capped peaks. Under the strange strength of this flowery nun, the eighteen-story pagoda emitted a dying, trembling sound!

"rise!!!"

The Sanskrit chants that rolled from Lu Zhisheng's throat shattered the Tang bricks, his rock-solid legs instantly crushed the earth, and his pair of incomparably beautiful arms pulled the eighteen-story pagoda two meters out of the ground! For every inch the pagoda rose, the earth's veins spewed out three feet of turbid water, and the soil collapsed three-tenths of an inch downward, leaving everyone inside the pagoda stunned—was this a human being?

At that moment, sunlight streamed back through the windows at the top of the pagoda, casting a warm glow inside. Liu Hong, Wu Song, and their many bandits and brothers quickly jumped out of the windows and landed on the ground in Bianjing (Kaifeng) during the Song Dynasty.

Seeing that everyone had come out, Lu Zhisheng slowly let go and put the tower back, revealing a rusty spire amidst the vegetable garden.