After the bestowal of titles upon Liu Eryang was read out, Li Shimin turned to Fang Er.
“I heard you have a workshop outside your manor?”
“Yes, those in the manor are skilled craftsmen. Ordinary laborers are in the workshop outside. Large-scale production is done at the workshop,” Fang Er replied truthfully.
“It’s late today, bring me to see it tomorrow.” Li Shimin had never been so interested in craftsmen as he was now, truly shocked by the steel rod that couldn’t be inserted.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The next morning, a group of people rode their bicycles towards the workshop.
In the cold weather, if it weren’t for the wooden handlebars, their hands would have stuck to them. They didn’t know where Li Shimin and the others got their excitement from, enjoying riding bicycles so much.
But since the great leader had spoken, Fang Er had no choice but to accompany them.
Upon leaving the manor and arriving at the workshop, Fang Er immediately decided that when they returned, whoever wanted to ride could ride, but he himself would not!
This pretense of being cool had almost frozen him into a fool!
“Ha~~ha achoo!”
The first to sneeze was Li Shimin. He was the most smug, riding at the front, pedaling the two wheels as if he wanted to fly.
“Hiss~!” Chai Shao threw his bicycle towards the workshop entrance and immediately unbuttoned his clothes, tucking his hands inside. The warmth at that moment made him tremble involuntarily.
The others weren’t much better off, their faces frozen red like monkey’s bottoms.
Work had already begun in the workshop, and the first stop for everyone was the firearms workshop.
After all, Li Shimin was thinking about his hundreds of cannons.
“Where are my cannons?” This was his first sentence upon entering the firearms workshop.
He called for the foreman, Zhou Zhi, and had him lead everyone to the main warehouse of the firearms workshop.
The main warehouse, as the name suggested, was the largest warehouse in the firearms workshop, covering three mu of land, nearly two thousand square meters.
As the warehouse door was opened, Li Shimin’s eyes lit up with a red glow, like a starving dog seeing feces.
Inside the warehouse, at a glance, it was all neatly arranged cannons!
Hundreds of cannons were placed facing the same direction, their black barrels pointed at the group standing at the warehouse entrance. Such a sight would make any man’s adrenaline surge!
“Hahahaha, good! Good! Good!”
Li Shimin excitedly rubbed his hands together, the force of which caused the rough skin on his palms to peel off!
He only stopped when his hands ached, then grabbed Fang Er’s arm: “How many are here in total?”
“Your Majesty is asking, how many cannons are here in total?” Fang Er wasn’t too sure, so he looked at Zhou Zhi and asked.
“Your… Your Majesty??”
Zhou Zhi suddenly reacted and quickly bowed.
“Ah! Your servant greets Your Majesty!”
“Replying to Your Majesty, there are exactly seven hundred, not one more, not one less!”
“Your Majesty! I want a hundred!”
Cheng Yaojin stroked the thick and long cannon barrel, his expression as if he wanted to lift it and carry it away.
“Your Majesty! I want a hundred too!”
Yu Chi Jingde was so envious that he was about to drool. With these things, who would dare to argue? He could just blast them into ashes with a single cannonball!
“Drag out a few, I want to test the cannons!”
Li Shimin put one hand on his hip and pointed at the cannons in the warehouse, speaking with great pride as if he were commanding the nation.
“Your servant will arrange it!”
After Fang Er finished speaking, he began to give instructions.
Tractors from Shen Fei’s side drove over, pulling the cannons behind them.
With vehicles available, these fellows were unwilling to miss the chance. Each of them got into one and drove towards the outside of the workshop.
The craftsmen followed behind with a cart of cannonballs.
Exiting the workshop, Li Shimin looked around the surrounding environment, then pointed to a mountain about two to three hundred meters high to the east, saying: “Let’s test them over there!”
Everyone quickly followed.
Upon arriving at the location, the craftsmen arranged the cannons in a line.
Crates of bright yellow explosive shells were placed next to the cannons, and the craftsmen stood by to load the cannons.
“Your Majesty, for the first shot, I’ll do it.”
Cheng Yaojin put the cigar in his mouth, rolled up his sleeves, revealing his hairy arms, and swaggered over to the cannon, coiling the pull rope around his hands a few times.
He spat out the smoke from his mouth and shouted to a nearby craftsman: “Load!”
“Yes!”
The craftsman skillfully attached the fuse to the cannon, then opened the breech, inserted the shell, and locked the breech. After finishing, he quickly retreated to the side.
Seeing Li Shimin nod slightly at him, Cheng Yaojin shouted: “Go!”
As soon as the words fell, he yanked the pull rope.
The end of the pull rope was connected to the firing mechanism, and the firing pin struck the primer of the shell.
*Boom~*
The cannon’s barrel, along with the carriage, trembled violently. The shell, trailing flames, flew out of the barrel, tracing a beautiful arc through the air towards the small mountain.
*Boom!*
The shell landed on the mountainside, instantly kicking up a storm of snow!
“Hahahaha, come, my esteemed ministers, let’s fire cannons together!”
Seeing Cheng Yaojin’s test shot go smoothly, Li Shimin couldn’t wait any longer and waved to the crowd.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Everyone went to a cannon. After the craftsmen finished loading the shells, Li Shimin held the pull rope.
“I’ll give the signal, and we’ll fire together!”
“Three, two, one, pull!”
As the words fell, everyone simultaneously yanked the ropes in their hands.
*Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom~~~*
A series of cannon sounds erupted simultaneously, and then they saw bursts of fire erupting on the mountainside opposite, with puffs of smoke rising from the impact points.
Suddenly, just as the cannon fire ended, a rustling sound came from the distant mountains.
Fang Er squinted and was instantly horrified!
“Quick! Retreat! It’s an avalanche!”
Hearing this, everyone quickly looked up at the mountaintop. They saw the snow cover on the summit rapidly sliding down, kicking up a sky full of snow mist. The sound was like ten thousand horses galloping. Wherever the avalanche passed, all the trees were broken.
“Get in the cars! Get in the cars!”
“Quickly attach the cannons back to the cars!”
“Quick, quick, quick!”
After attaching the cannons to the back of the tractors, Fang Er glanced back. The sound of the avalanche had grown even louder!
“Let’s go!”
Clutch, gear shifting, and a series of actions were completed instantly. The accelerator was floored, and the convoy quickly left their original positions, speeding back the way they came.
After they had driven far away, everyone stopped in unison and turned to look at the mountain where the avalanche had occurred.
Behind them, the sky was filled with snow mist. Through the snow, they could vaguely see that where they had fired their cannons, there were now countless giant trees and broken logs.