Due to the huge external pressure, Zhong Xiang was really not corrupted, and all he thought about all day long was how to raise military rations.
The final construction scale of the imperial palace in Changsha was more than half smaller than the design.
It was not a sign of caring for the people, but the wood used to build the palace was used by Zhong Xiang to build warships.
Last year, Li Bao equipped his warships with a large number of firearms, and Prime Minister Zhong's navy suffered heavy losses. He must restore the strength of his navy as soon as possible, otherwise he would not dare to show his face in Dongting Lake.
"Your Majesty, the gunpowder is ready to explode."
"Really? Take me to see it quickly!"
Zhong Xiang left the palace excitedly and came to the firearms experimental base outside the city.
When Ju Ming was in Xiangyang, Prime Minister Zhong suffered from firearms. In the Dongting Lake Water Battle last year, the Puppet Chu Navy was severely beaten by firearms.
After learning from the painful experience, Prime Minister Zhong kept sending people to inquire about the news.
After destroying dozens of craftsmen, I finally found out that there are ordnance fields in Kuizhou and Yiling. But those two places are too closed. If the craftsmen want to sneak in, one will die if they go to one, and both will die if they go to two places.
.
Last winter, Daye built a new ordnance field.
Although I still didn't get anything this time, I finally got more precise information. Muskets and artillery were fired by gunpowder. Moreover, the tube of the gun was hollow, with one end open and the other closed.
Zhong Xiang immediately began to develop firearms and soon discovered that traditional gunpowder could not explode.
Of course, he had no concept of explosions, but the firearms of the Ming army were as loud as thunder, and the firearms he made could only spit fire.
Well, this is how Zhong Xiang's firearms are made: beat an iron sheet into a barrel, cold-weld one end to seal it, and install a wooden handle. Drill holes and plug in the lead, and fill the barrel with gunpowder and projectiles from the muzzle.
After the fuse ignites the gunpowder, it does not explode smoothly, but burns violently, spits out flames, and ejects the projectile a small distance from the barrel.
"Long live your Majesty!"
The craftsmen all knelt down.
Zhong Xiang seemed a little impatient: "Get up quickly, where is the gunpowder that can explode?"
A craftsman picked up a pottery bowl, which was full of gunpowder.
Zhong Xiang said: "How is it made?"
The craftsman explained: "After mixing the amount of charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur, each time I mix it, I put it into the bamboo tube and light it. I have mixed it more than a hundred times. Not only can it explode, but it can also burst the bamboo tube."
"Try it quickly!" Zhong Xiang said happily.
The craftsmen stuffed the gunpowder into a finger-thick bamboo tube, sealed it, and drilled a small hole in it for the lead wire.
They probably look like firecrackers.
"Bang!"
There was only a crisp sound and green smoke was rising from the ground.
When the smoke cleared, the bamboo pipe had been blown to pieces.
Prime Minister Zhong was overjoyed: "Everyone will be rewarded!"
Immediately, he brought a "fire gun" for experiment. This thing didn't even have a medicine tank. The gunpowder was shaken into the gun through the muzzle, and the inner wall of the barrel was sprinkled everywhere, and then the bullets were pushed in with bamboo branches.
The craftsmen put the barrel of the gun on the wooden fork, one person held the long wooden handle, another person lit the fuse, and two others stood there holding their shields.
The person who lit the fire quickly retreated behind the shield.
"boom!"
This time the sound was louder.
When the smoke cleared, Prime Minister Zhong quickly stepped forward to take a look.
Not only did the projectile fly nowhere, the entire barrel was blown apart, and even some barrel fragments were embedded in the shield.
The test failed, but Prime Minister Zhong smiled instead of being angry, and said repeatedly: "Okay, okay, okay, you did a great job. The tube of this gun will be hammered with wrought iron from now on, so it will be strong and not brittle!"
"Your Majesty is wise!" the craftsmen shouted.
Prime Minister Zhong asked someone to carry out the reward money and said: "When the fire blunderbuss is made, I will have a big reward!"
Amid the cheers of the craftsmen, Zhong Xiang rode back to the city and mobilized more soldiers to guard the firearms experimental base.
A speedboat came from the south and did not stop when it reached Watergate. Instead, it showed its waist card from afar: "Expediting the military situation, open the Watergate quickly!"
The water gate was quickly pulled up, and the messenger drove the speedboat all the way to the palace.
Not long after, Prime Minister Zhong received the military information. After reading it, he was trembling with anger.
Cao Cheng rebelled!
Cao Cheng may be Han Chinese, or he may be a Chinese Yao. Anyway, he lived in the border zone between Han and barbarians, located on the border of Guangxi, Guangdong and Hunan.
The Yao, Dong, and Miao people here were already forced to rebel by the Song Dynasty before Ju Ming raised his troops. It was the officers and soldiers of Jinghu and Guangxi who jointly fought back, but they did not annihilate them, but retreated back to the mountainous area.
After Zhong Xiang raised his troops, they continued to cause trouble and contained the Song Dynasty's military strength, making great contributions to Zhong Xiang's expansion.
Last year, Prime Minister Zhong took advantage of Li Gong's retreat to Guizhou and immediately sent troops from the southern front into Guangxi.
Cao Cheng was granted the title of Duke and led his troops to station in Hezhou.
Now, Cao Cheng has killed the altar owner (Zhizhou) and the envoys (supervisor of the army) in Hezhou, and destroyed the Dharma altars in Hezhou everywhere.
He changed his banner and joined the Ming Dynasty!
Zhong Xiang held the urgent military report and sat slumped on the dragon chair.
He didn't understand why Cao Cheng wanted to rebel. He treated Cao Cheng well. He had already consecrated him as the founding father. Did he have to be crowned king to make him return?
Cao Cheng rebelled, and it is estimated that the barbarians in Daozhou, Quanzhou, and Guiyangjian will also rebel one after another.
Zhong Xiang asked his younger brother Zhong Yi to stay in Changsha, and he immediately went south with his troops.
When we arrived at Hengyang, we met the missionary Huang Cheng who was sailing north by boat.
"Master, Daozhou is gone!" Huang Cheng knelt down with a thud.
Zhong Xiang was surprised and asked: "Why didn't Daozhou move so fast?"
Huang Cheng said: "Not only are the Yao and Dong people in Daozhou rebellious, but also the Han people are rebelling..."
Zhong Xiang was so angry that he grabbed the man's clothes and shouted angrily: "I ask you, why are all the tribes rebelling?"
Huang Cheng said in frustration: "Master, I have been to the court many times. The owners of the altars in the south are all opportunists. They used to be landowners and gentry, pretending to believe in our religion, and even pretending to donate their family property. In fact, all of them are
They are all ambitious. They used the master's reputation to expropriate money in the city and countryside, forcing the people to have no choice but to go..."
Zhong Xiang slowly let go of his hand and pulled Huang Cheng up.
When he confronted Ju Ming on the Yangtze River, all the elite troops were transferred to the Yangtze River line, making it difficult to continue to expand southward.
It happened that the officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty there could not bear it anymore. Rich businessmen, gentry, local gangsters, monks and Taoists... all converted to Manichaeism and conquered the prefectures and counties to join Prime Minister Zhong. Some people even gave up all the property accumulated by their ancestors in order to show their loyalty.
All of them dedicated their property to teaching.
Faced with such a situation, what else can Xiang Zhong do?
I can only accept it, is it possible to use a knife?
In order to control the newly acquired territory, he also sent many close disciples there. However, they were soon corrupted by speculators. On the surface, they were extremely respectful, but in fact, they were both obedient and secretive.
As a result, Zhong Xiang's territory became polarized.
In the area around Dongting Lake, Prime Minister Zhong is very popular among the people, the civil and military officials are relatively honest, and there are even many who maintain their original aspirations.
And several states far to the south are already in a state of chaos!
Prime Minister Zhong also knew that there was a problem, so he sent his direct disciple Huang Cheng as a missionary to inspect the south.
Huang Cheng was not corrupted and reported the situation truthfully.
But at this time, the Prime Minister was surrounded by Hubei, Jiangxi, and Guangxi. He did not dare to be cruel to the southern states, otherwise it would inevitably trigger a large-scale rebellion.
"Why would Cao Cheng rebel?" Zhong Xiang asked.
Huang Cheng explained: "The people in the village where the Cao family lived were also violently expropriated this time. The reason was that the master ordered the pass to be strengthened, and the local altar masters took the opportunity to prey on the people. There may also be other reasons. Cao Chengjun's envoy (supervisor of the army) was
The uncle of the crown prince’s concubine heard that he got along very badly with Cao Cheng. There were... rumors that he had asked Cao Cheng for a bribe but failed, so he threatened to sue Cao Cheng for treason..."
"Asshole!"
Zhong Xiang was so angry that he cursed loudly.
It was precisely because the southern states were gradually losing control that Prime Minister Zhong sent emissaries to various armies, that is, he placed close followers as supervisors of the armies.
The supervisor next to Cao Cheng was a direct disciple who had followed Zhong Xiang in teaching for many years, and even married his niece to Zhong Xiang's son as a concubine.
Such a trusted person actually forced the frontline general to rebel!
Zhong Xiang waited for a while before ordering the march to be accelerated. He tried to rely on his prestige to recruit the rebellious troops.
But he only continued to advance for a few dozen miles when he received another urgent military message.
Both the Dong and Miao people in Jiushituandong, Wugang, rebelled. And the Han people in Wugang actually joined the uprising.
In just half a month, Suining, Chengbu, Lingang, Wuyang and other fortresses were all lost, and the rebel army had already marched towards the Wugang military city.
Prime Minister Zhong was paralyzed by the news and could only speed up the march with his troops.
When they arrived in Qiyang County, they received another urgent military report: Li Gong, a famous general who had recently surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, sent troops from Guilin to besiege Xing'an County. The defenders across the state were waiting to go to rescue, but the Su family of the Sinicized Dong ethnic group in Xixi Cave rebelled again. The army across the state
We can only conquer the Su family first, and Xing'an County has become an isolated city.
The Su family was not easy to eradicate. When the Song Dynasty was still there, they often went down to the mountains to rob Han people, and even robbed government ships.
A series of urgent military situations emerged, and Prime Minister Zhong no longer knew how to deal with them.
This is just the beginning.
Only half a day later, another news came from Guiyang Prison. Due to the rebellion of the Yao people there, the puppet Chu officers and soldiers went to conquer. With the lack of troops in the hinterland, the Han miners took the opportunity to rebel.
There are four large silver mines in Guiyangjian, as well as many small silver mines, with a total of twenty to thirty thousand silver refiners and miners!
Now Prime Minister Zhong can only pray that the Ming troops in Hubei and Jiangxi will not send troops. When he puts down the rebellion in the south, there will be room for change.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, a messenger is coming from the north!"
As soon as Zhong Xiang heard these words, he felt bad in his heart.
He forced himself to calm down and opened the military information document, glanced at it and then put it down, muttering: "It's over, the situation is over."
Under the protection of the Ming Navy, the Hubei Ming Army sent tens of thousands of troops southward.
At the same time, the Ming army in Jiangxi also crossed the mountains and was attacking Liling and Chaling.
If Zhong Xiang takes this pro-army army going south, if they don't return quickly, they may be cut off by the Jiangxi Ming army.
Zhong Xiang looked up at the sky, his body was swaying, and he already felt that everything was lost.
He was not afraid of the rebellion of those ethnic minorities, and he expected to be besieged by the Ming army. But the Han people in the southern states also rebelled together, which was like stabbing Prime Minister Zhong in the heart.