Seeing Zhao Huan's hesitation, Hebule gritted his teeth and said, "Mongolia is willing to give the Song Dynasty 10,000 cattle and 100,000 sheep every year!"
The ministers were in an uproar when they heard this. The Mongols did this with full sincerity.
Zhao Huan wanted to bargain, but when he saw Yu Bu Tong nodded gently, he said, "Alright, the Song Dynasty and Mongolia are allies. I will reluctantly agree to set up various trading posts in Lanzhou, Bao'an Army, Zhenrong Army, Bao'an Prefecture, Suide Prefecture, and along the Linhuang line. Both sides will maintain fair trade."
Daranta was so delighted that he even knelt down to express his gratitude, following the etiquette of the Song Dynasty.
The diplomatic battle finally ended in a complete success in a way that satisfied both sides, and Zhao Huan hosted a banquet for Dalandai.
During this period, Darantay actually danced happily at the banquet.
Mongolians are known for their free and easy nature, expressing their thoughts directly. Dalandai danced and sang praises of Zhao Huan, saying things like, "You are like the white clouds on the horizon, like an eagle on the mountaintop."
Three days later, Darantai was invited to participate in the Imperial Guard drill organized by Zhao Huan.
In fact, Zhao Huan’s purpose was very simple, which was to show the combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty to Dalandai.
The parade ground outside the city of Bianjing.
"General Darantai, this is my powerful crossbow army." Zhao Huan said, pointing to the neat rows of divine arm crossbows.
A flag bearer on the lookout tower gave the order, and thousands of Royal Guards with crossbows took aim at targets in the distance.
"Swish, swish, swish!..." Crossbow arrows rained down like rain, and the entire sky was dyed with black dots.
The arrow nest two hundred meters away immediately became a hedgehog, and Darantai was secretly shocked.
"Ho! Ho! Ho! . . . . "
The shouts shook the sky, but what was even more terrifying than the shouts was that the earth was shaking as rows of heavy infantry and armored troops marched neatly across the parade ground.
The infantry soldiers were covered in iron armor, holding spears, and marching in unison. Seeing this, Dalandai broke out in a cold sweat. He was afraid that these heavy armors would be difficult to penetrate with swords and spears.
Zhao Huan smiled slightly and said, "General Dalantai, how does it compare to your Mongolian cavalry?"
Darandai answered truthfully: "On flat ground, we are no match for these armored soldiers. But the Mongols are all cavalry. If they were on horseback, your Song Dynasty armored troops might not be able to stop the Mongol cavalry."
He was right, the Mongolian cavalry was as fierce as wolves and tigers. They could crush infantry on flat ground, but in terms of mobility, the Mongolian cavalry was unrivaled in the world.
Zhao Huan smiled slightly and said, "These things were used to defend the city. We have special weapons to deal with cavalry."
With a roar, Jiang Fan, the military equipment supervisor, brought two cannon-like objects with his men.
The cannon body is made of copper and is tied with red silk to show its value.
This was Zhao Huan's masterpiece. Although he did not understand the principle of the earth cannon, the Song Dynasty already had gunpowder and had already created powerful weapons such as the caltrop cannon and the thunder bomb.
The homemade cannon was only slightly improved. Before setting out to fight against the Jin Dynasty, Zhao Huan drew a homemade cannon paper himself and asked the Military Equipment Supervisor to experiment with it.
Unexpectedly, everyone in the Arsenal was a talented person. After experiencing thirty-seven barrel explosions and countless failures, they actually managed to produce two cannons.
The barrel was thin at the top and thick at the bottom. The shells were modified from thunder bombs, complete with gunpowder fuses.
The gunner first loaded the gunpowder and then tamped it. The loader fed the iron projectile, which had been modified from a thunder bomb, into the barrel and then lit the fuse.
"Zizizi..." The fuse sparked.
With a bang, the cannonball flew out of the barrel. Due to the limited power of gunpowder, everyone saw the cannonball whistling out of the barrel with their own eyes.
With a loud "boom", a mound of earth nearly a thousand meters away was blown up into the sky.
Darantai's face changed drastically. Not only him, but the entire parade ground guards were frightened by this terrifying power.
They had never seen such a magical weapon before. Even though the Mongols were brave, Darantay was frightened to the point of stammering and being unable to speak.
Using modern weapons to fight against cold weapons, especially for the first time, everyone would think it was a god descending to earth.
Zhao Huan smiled and patted his shoulder. "This cannon is called the Red Cannon. I have eight hundred more. This is a top secret of our Song Dynasty, so I won't show them all to General Dalantai."
In fact, throughout the entire Song Dynasty, there were only these two homemade cannons. The main reason was that the barrels were difficult to make, and Song technology simply couldn't mass-produce them. The barrels were all cast in copper, and there was no technology to make them in iron.
But Kelantai didn't know that. He thought the Song Dynasty really had hundreds of such artifacts. With such artifacts, if the Song and Mongolia went to war, the other side would be crushed.
After Dalandai returned to Mongolia in shock and told Hebula what he had seen and heard, Hebula became even more frightened and dared not to spy on the Song Dynasty anymore.
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