The total population of Houjin is only over two million.
In addition, the land in Liaodong is barren and cold, not suitable for farming, with very little fiscal revenue and average national strength.
However, Hou Jin's army was extremely powerful, and the Eight Banners cavalry came and went like the wind, which posed a high threat to the Ming Dynasty.
Although the Ming Dynasty had a vast territory and a large population, the party and government in the country were incessant, natural disasters occurred frequently, civil unrest occurred, and tax revenue continued to decline, resulting in slow domestic economic development and an empty national treasury.
Although Zhu Youxiao levied industrial and commercial taxes and formed an army of more than 400,000 on the Liaodong border, these 400,000 troops were all distributed along the long border.
With its city walls and firearms, it has sufficient defense, but lacks mobility. When faced with the invasion of the Eight Banners cavalry, it can usually only fight passively.
Although they have achieved some victories over the years, they have been unable to seriously defeat Hou Jin's main force.
Every autumn and winter, Houjin would plunder at the border of the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that the Ming Dynasty suffered for a long time!
Now listening to Jiang Fan's words of "Ping Liao in March", Zhu Youxiao just thought it was a fantasy.
But Zhu Youxiao was not in a hurry to deny Jiang Fan. He felt that Jiang Fan was not a flatterer, but a man of real ability. Since he dared to speak wildly, he might have countermeasures.
So I decided to let Jiang Fan explain his plan in detail before making a decision.
After thinking for a moment, Zhu Youxiao asked: "Jiang Aiqing, please tell me, what is blitzkrieg? How to implement the beheading plan?"
During the last discussion with the Donglin Party, Jiang Fan proposed a beheading plan, which was nothing more than capturing the thief first.
Zhu Youxiao also knew that as long as Huang Taiji and Dorgon could be killed, the Hou Jin Dynasty would be leaderless and the country would be in chaos. It would indeed be possible for the Ming Dynasty to win in one battle and severely damage the Hou Jin Dynasty.
But as the leader of Houjin, it was not easy to kill Huang Taiji and Dorgon among thousands of troops.
If Huang Taiji and Dorgon were so easy to kill, they wouldn't have become a serious problem for the Ming Dynasty.
As for blitzkrieg, it is a new term for Zhu Youxiao.
Jiang Fan briefly explained: "Blitzkrieg, also known as blitzkrieg, mainly takes advantage of the speed of light cavalry to defeat the enemy with a surprise attack."
"The core elements of blitzkrieg are: speed, surprise, and concentration."
"It pays attention to overall coordination in strategy, strong overall situation, exquisite and unique tactics, flexibility and change, and strikes the enemy with lightning speed at a speed that exceeds the opponent's reaction."
Zhu Youxiao didn't know what he was doing, but he still felt a little unreliable: "It sounds good, but Jiannu was born as a slave. They fought all year round and were brave and fierce. Their strength was cavalry. They were good at riding and shooting. They came and went as fast as they could.
The wind often plunders our towns."
"But my Ming Dynasty is good at attacking and defending cities, and the cavalry is far inferior to that of Jiannu. How can we gain an advantage in speed?"
Hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Jiang Fan smiled and said: "It wasn't possible before, but it's different now."
"Oh, tell me."
Zhu Youxiao became interested.
Jiang Fan said: "A few days ago, I ordered the Ministry of Industry to rush to build a batch of Zhuge Shen crossbows. This crossbow is light and easy to carry, and can fire multiple rounds. Its range can reach up to 500 steps, and it can penetrate iron armor within 300 steps.
, even on a war horse, the hit rate is extremely high."
"It only takes three thousand people equipped with Zhuge Divine Crossbows to form light cavalry. With a little training, a highly mobile field force can be formed."
"At that time, with the advantage of long-range attacks and the mobility of the cavalry, we can take the absolute initiative, and then cooperate with guerrilla warfare to implement the strategy of enemy advancing and we retreat, enemy stationed and harassed, enemy tired and attacked, and enemy retreated and pursued.
, you will be able to go anywhere and be invincible."
"It's not even fair to establish the Eight Banners as slaves."
When Zhu Youxiao heard this, he was fascinated and at the same time a little unbelievable.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan people were brutal and destroyed many cultural treasures after occupying the Central Plains, including the manufacturing materials for bows and crossbows.
After the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, it paid more attention to firearms and conducted less research on crossbows, resulting in a continued decline in crossbow technology.
Ordinary crossbow arrows that can shoot a hundred steps are considered top quality.
Only the Fran cannon can achieve a range of 500 steps, which is far beyond the range of ordinary firearms.
Zhu Youxiao even suspected that Jiang Fan was deceiving him?
Gu Yan
But if the Zhuge Divine Crossbow is really as powerful as Jiang Fan said, it will definitely be a weapon for the country.
Within range, truth is everywhere!
"I didn't expect Jiang Aiqing to have such miraculous craftsmanship. Where is the Zhuge Divine Crossbow you mentioned? Please let me take a look."
As the saying goes, what the ears hear is false and what the eyes see is true.
Without seeing the real thing with his own eyes, Zhu Youxiao was still a little worried.
Jiang Fan said: "The first batch of crossbows have been completed and are now stored in the armory. They need the emperor's permission before they can be sent to the palace!"
"Okay, I will give you the order immediately."
Zhu Youxiao nodded, and a eunuch took the order and walked out of the hall quickly.
It would take some time for the Zhuge Divine Crossbow to be delivered to the palace. Zhu Youxiao took a sip of tea and asked, "How will Jiang Aiqing plan to kill the two thieves chiefs Dorgon and Huang Taiji?"
Jiang Fan replied calmly: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. This matter needs to be kept secret. The fewer people know about it, the higher the success rate."
"As long as the emperor allows me to go to Liaodong, I will give you three thousand brocade guards to form a cavalry and shooting field force."
"In addition, Sun Chuanting is activated and ordered to take command. He will lead the Liaodong frontier army and Guan Ning cavalry to cooperate with Wei Chen's actions. After three months, I will be able to present the heads of Huang Taiji and Dorgon."
"Um!"
Zhu Youxiao groaned, the Liaodong border army was the barrier of Ming Dynasty and half of Ming Dynasty. Unless he was a truly trustworthy person, Zhu Youxiao would not hand over his military power easily.
As for Sun Chuanting, Zhu Youxiao had some impressions. He was a Jinshi at the age of twenty-seven. He was a tall man, eight feet long, could shoot left and right, and had unparalleled martial arts.
He once wrote poems such as "Wunni is not a stratagem to seal off the border. Whoever wields a sword sings out of the fortress", expressing his ambition to make contributions.
In March of the fifth year of Tianqi, Sun Chuanting was praised by Wang Yuncheng, the censor of Guangdong Province in Nanjing, for his role in preventing Xu Hongru's rebellion.
In the same year, he entered the court to report on his duties, and was appointed as the head of the Ceremony Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. He was soon promoted to the rank of doctor in the Jixun Department. However, because he was dissatisfied with the eunuch dictatorship, he took leave and returned to his hometown. He was idle for nearly two years.
Zhu Youxiao was a little surprised. He did not expect Jiang Fan to strongly recommend Sun Chuanting as the coach of Liaodong.
Is there any relationship between the two?
But that's not important either.
At present, there are indeed not many people available in the imperial court, so promotion of officials is inevitable.
Sun Chuanting had a good impression on Zhu Youxiao, at least much better than Yuan Chonghuan. However, the position of Liaodong coach was of great importance and he had to think carefully about it.
The two chatted for a while, and the eunuch who left before brought someone to offer the Zhuge Divine Crossbow.
Zhu Youxiao tested it himself and shot an arrow at the palace wall a hundred meters away.
Just listen to the sound of "swish", and the crossbow arrows shoot out!
This arrow was so powerful that the arrow penetrated the wall and was directly nailed to the wall.
"It has such strong penetrating power, even a bird cannon is nowhere near as good as it."
As Zhu Youxiao spoke, he pulled the trigger one after another, the machine rotated, and the crossbow arrows were nailed to the wall one after another. They were very powerful, and the furthest distance between the crossbow arrows was no more than thirty centimeters.
This is because Zhu Youxiao is an amateur. If he were replaced by a soldier who was good at riding and shooting, the error would be greatly reduced.
"Okay, with this sharp weapon, why should I, the Ming Dynasty, be afraid of establishing slaves?"
After personally testing the power of the Zhuge Divine Crossbow, Zhu Youxiao was overjoyed. The Zhuge Divine Crossbow was more convenient and faster than the fire blunderbuss, and had greater range and power.
Moreover, although the internal structure of the Zhuge Divine Crossbow is complex, the manufacturing process is relatively simple.
The development prospects of firearms are actually far higher than those of the Zhuge Shen Crossbow, but in this era, they are not as cost-effective as the Zhuge Shen Crossbow.