"A soldier who subjugates the enemy without fighting is a good person..." Zheng Yanbei praised. "The forces of the north, Zheng, and the south are at odds with each other. The longer the war goes on, the more money and food are needed to support it. Coupled with the Zheng family's arrogance and extravagance, the rulers
How can the people have a chance to breathe? He treats the people with cruelty, but I treat them with mercy and kindness. As time goes by, if people's hearts turn to them, they will surely be able to withdraw their troops without bloodshed."
"This is exactly the truth." Zhu Yongxing nodded, admiring Zheng Yanbei's thinking, which coincided with his own, and said with a smile: "When the people's resentment boils and people's hearts turn to me, we will take the land like picking out the objects in a bag, so why rush
What about for a while?"
"Haha, Your Highness is far-sighted and far-sighted, which is beyond the reach of lower officials. I've been taught a lesson. I've been taught a lesson." Siwei complimented and changed the topic.
In fact, Siwei knew about the Zheng family in Annan gathering troops to go south, and he wanted to take this opportunity to expand the territory of the Mengshan Ke clan. But Zhu Yongxing had already made it clear, so he gave up this idea for the time being.
After all, Mengzhu will become a princess next year. For the sake of his daughter's status and favor, he cannot make Zhu Yongxing unhappy.
Singing and dancing are indispensable. Mengzhu has not felt so relaxed for a long time. She danced happily with her sisters, like a happy butterfly. Zhu Yongxing smiled and clapped, remembering that when he first met Mengzhu, she was also so happy.
He even bit himself.
"Your Highness." Zheng Yanbei leaned forward and said: "Xiaguan has sent people to inform all the tea merchants to gather the goods and go south along the Red River to the sea. In addition, Xiaguan is recruiting people to prepare.
We will go to Tuanxian first to set up a business store. The specific regulations and measures have been prepared. After the banquet, I will submit them to His Highness for review."
In the middle of the 16th century, the Zheng family of Annan specially established Uuxian (today's Xing'an, Haixing Province, Vietnam) in the southeast of Jiaozhou City as a commercial port for merchants to gather and trade with each other. In 1637 (the tenth year of Chongzhen), the Zheng Lord Zheng Jie allowed the Dutch to establish Uuxian
Commercial houses, Japanese and Siamese also entered Tuanxian in large numbers, and there were about 2,000 merchants from various countries. In addition to the navigation rights on the Red River, the peace treaty also included conditions for the establishment of commercial houses.
According to historical records, "Gyeonggi is the first place, followed by Tuoxian", which shows that Tuoxian's foreign trade has been quite prosperous. Moreover, many Guangdong and Fujian merchants are engaged in intermediary business there, dealing in traditional Chinese medicine, cloth, spices, honey, silk and silk fabrics, etc.
Business. Because this is the only source of raw and cooked silk in China, the Dutch and the British established business houses here to engage in silk trade. At that time, Chinese merchants basically manipulated the commercial trade of Uuxian until
It ended in the 1830s until the decline of Kuan Xian.
Zhu Yongxing nodded and praised a few words.
Trade is necessary, not only to sell tea from Yunnan Province overseas, but also to strive to open up tea and horse trading routes with Mongolia and Tibet after the counterattack in Yunnan Province. Although Yunnan Province is in turmoil, most of the Pu'er tea production areas are outside Sanjiang, and are subject to
The impact is relatively small. If further incentive policies are introduced, output should be guaranteed.
But all of this must have a premise, that is, the counterattack in September and October, which took the Yuanjiang uprising as an opportunity, can be successful. Zhu Yongxing let out a long breath, it is really difficult every step, don't let up!
Zhu Yongxing didn't like wine at all, and Zheng Yanbei said that he would present the business charter after the banquet, so he drank less and only drank as much as he wanted.
After the banquet was over, Zhu Yongxing summoned Zheng Yanbei alone, while Mengzhu took Long'er and went to play with the sisters in the clan.
"Explore the road first and master the methods and skills of trading with the Westerners as soon as possible." Zhu Yongxing knew that Zheng Yanbei had never dealt with the Westerners directly and did not have such talents under his command, so he acted very cautiously, "Start with a small amount, and then gradually increase the amount."
The main purpose is to accumulate experience and cultivate talents. After all, doing business on Annan's territory is not a long-term solution, and the risks cannot be ignored."
"In addition, in addition to business, we need to inquire more about information. We need information about Beizheng, Nanruan, Champa, and Zhenla. We also need to inquire as much as possible about Xiyi." Zhu Yongxing pondered for a moment and continued to add: "Domestic
There are also many businessmen in coastal areas, such as Fujian and Guangdong, and you can get a lot of information from them. If there is an opportunity to go to sea, you need to ask a few people, whose names are..."
Zheng Yanbei wrote them down one by one, and then asked: "Your Highness, do you want to buy some goods with the income from trade? This way, it will be easier to make profits without losing money at both ends."
Zhu Yongxing thought for a moment and said: "Saltpeter and sulfur are currently mainly used for military purposes. As for the others, if you have any suggestions, you can submit them to me."
"Let me go back and think about it." Zheng Yanbei nodded in agreement, with obvious hesitation in his expression. After a pause, he said cautiously: "I am brave enough to ask Your Highness to take the position of concubine for the sake of the great cause of Xingwang Tuba.
, to prevent the public from getting angry."
Zhu Yongxing lowered his eyelids and was silent for a moment before sighing helplessly: "I know, next year I will only make Ah Zhu my concubine and not talk about anything positive or negative."
"Your Highness is wise and decisive, and is not disturbed by personal affairs. It is a blessing to the country." Zheng Yanbei bowed and bowed, then resigned.
The Zheng family is afraid that their big tree will fall, but they still have to bow to the secular and traditional! Zhu Yongxing huddled in his chair, feeling helpless and pathetic. Ever since Guo Zhiqi wrote a letter to remonstrate, he has carried out
After deep thinking, he conducted a comprehensive review of what he had done. The Zhu Ming Dynasty was the world of the Han family. This was an encouragement and propaganda to the people, but it was an insurmountable obstacle for himself.
Not to mention that it is difficult for civil and military officials to accept a foreign woman as a concubine, even the Han people in the world will not agree. It is obviously not convincing in this era to say that all ethnic groups are members of China and should treat each other equally.
of.
"You didn't let me down, and I don't let you down either." Zhu Yongxing murmured in a low voice. Although it seemed like a comfort to himself and others, he still decided to make up for Mengzhu emotionally and in other ways.
………………
After only staying in Shenyuan for one day, Zhu Yongxing led his people on the road again. Two days later, the group arrived at Shaba.
Shaba is very close to Laojie and the river mouth of Yunnan Province, but it does not have the complexity of people like Laojie, nor does it have the troubles of the chieftains at the mouth of the river. After selection and relocation, almost all the people living in Shaba are Ming army dependents and original
The Han people in Yunnan Province established a military industrial base here to prevent spying and keep secrets to the greatest extent.
Moreover, Shaba is located in the valley of Huanglian Mountain, with high terrain, cool climate, surrounded by mountains and picturesque scenery. There are Silver Waterfall, Tengqiao, Yunshan, Fengdong, Tianmen, Shuigongdong and other scenic spots in the mountain. In later generations,
, it is a famous inland summer resort, as famous as Dabai and Sandao Mountain.
Of course, Saba at this time was far from developed and was full of natural and traditional cultural ecology. Deep in the valley was the destination of Zhu Yongxing's trip - the military factory.
As a time traveler, Zhu Yongxing always hopes to make breakthroughs in weapons and equipment so that the war can proceed according to his own vision as much as possible. To put it bluntly, it is opportunistic.
Of course, time and technology are the biggest obstacles, which forces Zhu Yongxing to start with the weapons that are easiest to make and most likely to be equipped with troops and play a role. He focuses on supervising the progress of two projects, one is the bronze mortar and the other is the pull gun.
Explosive mines and grenades.
Iron cannons and steel cannons are certainly the direction of development, but smelting steel that meets the requirements for hardness and toughness cannot be achieved overnight. Fried steel method? Blast furnace steelmaking? Top-blown converter? Forget it, these are not very easy.
Reliable ideas should be put on the shelf for now, as there is not much free time to engage in them.
Bronze is different. The smelting and casting technology is quite mature. Whether it is the thickness of the gun body or the caliber size, it can be manufactured according to certain specifications. Moreover, because the casting is relatively simple, it can also be mass-produced.
For example, the M1852 mortar designed by Zhu Yongxing is an imitation of the American Civil War. It looks like a stone mortar for pounding rice. The caliber is half a foot, which is about 155 millimeters, but the length of the barrel is only two feet. From the principle
Strictly speaking, it is an improved version of the Sky Cannon. However, because of the thick barrel, it can withstand the explosive force of a larger amount of charges without breaking.
If you don't count the base made of thick pine boards at the bottom, the weight of this bronze mortar, named "Tianwei Cannon", is only about 80 kilograms. Because of its extremely simple structure and light weight, it can be regarded as a
This weapon is easy to deploy and move, and the manufacturing cost is quite low. However, the Tianwei Cannon has relatively high requirements on the gunner's shooting skills, which is a small disadvantage!
The Tianwei Cannon can fire at any angle between 20 degrees and 70 degrees, but it is most suitable for shooting at large angles. It is precisely because of its special ballistic characteristics that it cannot fire solid projectiles like field guns.
, but can only fire ammunition used to cause damage, such as grenades or incendiary bombs. It can be loaded with spherical shell shells, relying on a black powder propellant weighing up to five kilograms. When the shooting angle is 45 degrees, it can
Launch cannonballs up to a kilometer away.
Just after the Annan War ended, the artillery captain Qian Bangchen left Anpei with some key artillerymen. These days they have been studying and testing this new artillery in Shaba. Now, they are able to operate it more skillfully and show it to the public.
Zhu Yongxing looks at it.
The gunners inspected the artillery meticulously. First, they used a metal needle to check whether the fire door at the end of the barrel was clear. Then they adjusted the barrel of the artillery in place and fixed the barrel with wooden wedges. Then, they used linen cloth
The packaged propellant powder is loaded into the barrel, and a push rod made of a long handle is installed on a round wooden block to slightly compact the powder package.
After these tasks were completed, the gunner inspected the appearance of the fuze. After confirming that there was no damage, he carefully inserted the fuze into the shell. This wooden delay fuze is actually a piece of wood cut into a conical shape.
After drilling through the middle, the hole was filled with slow-burning gunpowder. The structure can be said to be extremely crude.
Then, the two gunners hooked the fuse-installed cannonball into the pit near the fuze chamber with a "hook" similar to a tong, and slowly loaded the cannonball into the barrel. The reason for this is that
This extremely crude primitive time-delay fuze relies on the high-temperature gunpowder gas generated by the burning propellant when the artillery is fired to ignite the slow-burning gunpowder loaded in the fuze. In order to prevent the high-pressure gunpowder gas from blowing directly along the hole in the middle of the fuze
The charge ignites when it enters the projectile body and causes the barrel to explode. Therefore, when loading the shell, it must be ensured that the fuze points in the direction of the muzzle.
After all the loading work was completed, the gunners inspected the cannon again, then pierced the linen cloth used to wrap the gunpowder with a long awl through the fire door, and then inserted a match rope into the fire door.
The match rope was lit, with sparks popping out, and it was submerged into the fire door. With a roar, the smoke filled the air, and the shells came out of the barrel and flew into the distance. Because it was daytime, the fuse sprayed out sparks.
It's almost invisible, but you can see the white smoke coming from the tail.
The shell fell on the ground, and a cloud of smoke and dust could be seen from a distance, and then——
It is understandable that in order to avoid the accident of the shell exploding in the air, gunners usually install fuzes with a long explosion delay, and some delay lengths are even as long as one minute.
Zhu Yongxing squinted his eyes, observed the error of the bullet's impact point, and measured the distance decently. One thousand meters, just a lot more, more than three times more than the sky-blasting cannon. This is much safer.
With the protection of the earthen ramparts, even if the Qing artillery fire on the top of the city was fired at, there would be no loss.
"Yongcai, come here, come here." Zhu Yongxing felt quite satisfied, so he stretched out his hand and called Qian Bangchen.
Qian Bangchen was looking longingly into the distance, waiting for the loud noise. When other gunners reminded him, he ran a few steps and came to Zhu Yongxing.
"Your Highness, this, the delay is a bit long, that -" Qian Bangchen wanted to explain a little shyly, but Zhu Yongxing had already interrupted him with a smile and waved his hand.
"Safety comes first." Zhu Yongxing said with a smile: "After all, it's just a demonstration. I only look at the shooting error and distance. What about these two points -"
Boom, a loud noise suddenly erupted, and large clouds of smoke, shrapnel, gravel, and dust rose in the distance.
Zhu Yongxing was stunned for a moment, then turned to look, smiled and nodded, and then said: "I am quite satisfied with these two points. Well, the power is not bad. You must continue to work hard and strive for excellence in fucking and shooting.
We also need to cultivate more excellent artillery for our Ming army."
"Your Highness, don't worry. Your humble position and subordinates will definitely live up to Your Highness's expectations." Qian Bangchen felt a stone fall in his heart, and his face became relaxed.
"There seems to be room for improvement in the air tightness of this shell." Zhu Yongxing added thoughtfully: "Is it possible to make some special linen covers, leaving only the place where the shell is loaded with the fuse? Well, you can give it a try."
"Is it the same as the bullets of the musket?" Qian Bangchen asked tentatively. After receiving a positive answer, he immediately nodded and said: "I will test it now, and the results will be reported to His Highness soon."
Zhu Yongxing comforted several gunners who participated in the performance, and then turned around and left the testing site accompanied by Cai Ming, the minister of the Ministry of Industry.
"After the Tianwei cannon is finalized and manufactured, it can cast six cannons per day, plus one day of polishing and repair, which means the output of three cannons per day." Cai Ming reported to Zhu Yongxing as he walked, "Cannonballs are a little more troublesome, but ten can be made in one day.
About one piece. The foundry is also responsible for mine shells and grenade shells. This is already the maximum production capacity."
Although he tried his best to recruit craftsmen and recruit apprentices, there still seemed to be insufficient manpower. It would take two or three months to achieve a breakthrough in production, that is, after those apprentices matured. Zhu Yongxing knew that Cai Ming could make the Ministry of Military Industry reach this level.
In addition to his own strong support, his efforts were also indispensable. Therefore, he praised Cai Ming repeatedly, eliminating Cai Ming's uneasiness.
"First we will cast fifteen Tianwei cannons, and then we will go all out to produce all kinds of ammunition, as well as mines and grenades."
Zhu Yongxing calculated the time and felt that it was still too late. As a heavy siege artillery, the Tianwei Artillery only needed to be able to meet the counterattack operations in a month. Besides, there was also the Tianwei Artillery as a supplement, and the power of the artillery was not weak.
.Give part of it to Nasong of Yuanjiang, and add mines and grenades to delay the Qing army and hold on to Yuanjiang, which will make you more confident.
"Nine Tianwei cannons have been produced, and they will meet His Highness's requirements in two days." Cai Ming knew Zhu Yongxing well. He frowned and grimaced when he heard what Concubine Wu Consort Liu said, so he spoke in an easy-to-understand manner.
Understand, this has actually gradually become a secret in the officialdom, "The manufacturing process of landmines and grenades has also been smoothed. Your Highness is wise and intelligent, and the method taught is fast and good."
Zhu Yongxing smiled slightly. Some division of labor procedures similar to assembly line production can certainly improve efficiency. For example, in the production of hand grenades, the wood workshop is responsible for producing wooden handles and soaking them with wax to prevent moisture, the casting workshop is responsible for producing bullet casings, and there is also a fuze workshop and an assembly workshop. Such a set
After collaboration, it would be a shame if the production speed is not fast!
As for the hollow spherical cannonball, casting is not as difficult as many people think. Make a spherical core, set the core support to make the core suspended, and then close the box for casting. After cooling, dig out the molding sand from the reserved process hole.
Or pour it out, and then use molten iron welding to seal the excess holes, thus creating a hollow iron ball.
"We can't just pursue speed, we must also pay attention to safety and quality." Zhu Yongxing warned uneasily: "Especially for pharmaceutical workshops and assembly workshops, the roofs must be made of lightweight beams and dispersed. They can be moved as they are made. Do not
Accumulated too much, pay attention to fire prevention..."
Although there were some clichés, Cai Ming still listened respectfully and kept them all in mind.
"In a few more months, we will probably occupy a larger area and have more materials and supplies." Zhu Yongxing finished nagging like an old woman, stopped, turned his eyes to the distance, and his tone became deeper, "At that time
, skilled craftsmen should also be trained, so that they can create more and better weapons, so that our Ming army soldiers can shed less blood on the battlefield and achieve more and greater victories."
Cai Ming fell silent, not daring to interrupt Zhu Yongxing's longing. For a long time, when Zhu Yongxing turned around, he asked in a low voice: "Your Highness, are you going to lead the army to go on an expedition again? A body of a thousand gold cannot sit down in the hall. There are many
Military generals are available, and it is not appropriate for Your Highness to get involved in battle." (To be continued.)