In addition to gold, there are also a lot of other treasures.
Among them, there were 50,000 pieces of Shu brocade, 80,000 pieces of Hangzhou silk, and 10,000 pieces of Songjiang velvet. In addition, Persian carpets, tea, pepper, ginseng and other goods could not be counted in a short time.
Ding Kuichu sighed in his heart, most of his life has been in vain.
People like the Duke of Guizhou really live like human beings.
After sighing with emotion, Ding Kuichu said to the forty-eight leaders: "You have all read the account books, and you already know the specific amount of goods. Let's do this. The governor and the leaders will each take 250 boxes of fine soft materials and 160,000 silver coins.
Two, all the remaining belongings should be handed over to the court, is that okay?"
All forty-eight leaders agreed.
Ding Kuichu said: "Then let's start dividing the gold and silver."
"Thank you so much, sir." The leader of the Forty-Eight Division was overjoyed when he heard this.
At present, forty-eight wolf soldiers began to divide the gold and silver under the leadership of Ding Kuichu. Ding Kuichu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was really courageous, and he dared to divide such a huge wealth privately.
…
At this time, the Ming army camp was pacifying Weidong.
Chongzhen and Zhu Cijiong were gathering together with Wang Chengen, Gao Qiqian, Hu Guozhu, Wu Biantan and a dozen Yiding, eating a mouthful of soybean paste and a bite of wrinkled rice.
Until now, Chongzhen still maintains a simple style.
Because Chongzhen understood a truth deeply, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. If you are used to eating delicacies from the mountains and seas, your appetite has been developed, and you want to eat the same rice as the soldiers at the bottom, it will be difficult.
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Before the Jiannu were exterminated, Chongzhen planned to maintain a hard and simple style.
To be honest, eating rice with hard salt, steamed cakes and black bean sauce is really hard to swallow.
Just imagine, just a bowl of rice soaked in water and a little soybean paste, without any fishy taste. How would you eat it?
But no matter how unpalatable it is, you still have to eat it. This standard of food was a luxury for the soldiers of the previous Ming army, and most of the time they had to go hungry.
While Chongzhen was eating, Xu Yingwei walked into the tent excitedly.
"Your Majesty," Xu Yingwei said excitedly, "The rebels have divided their forces!"
"Have the rebels divided their forces?" Chongzhen immediately dropped the boiled rice in the phoenix-winged helmet into his mouth, then buckled the phoenix-winged helmet on his head, stood up and walked out.
Zhu Cijiong, Hu Guozhu and others also hurriedly ate up all the rice in the phoenix-winged helmet or bowl, then placed the phoenix-winged helmet or bowl on their heads, and followed Chongzhen outside the tent.
Xu Yingwei led Chongzhen to a lonely peak on the right side of the camp.
This solitary peak rising from the ground is a hundred feet high. It is almost a natural watchtower. Xu Yingwei set up a lookout post on the top of this solitary peak.
It was the lookout post here that discovered the unusual movements of the Shadingzhou rebels.
When he reached the top of the lonely peak, Chongzhen opened the three-section telescope directly. With the help of the three-section telescope, he could see very clearly. He saw groups of soldiers marching out of the west gate of Pingyi City. After leaving the west gate
It was divided into two groups, one headed towards Guangxi Prefecture in the south, and the other headed north.
"Your Majesty." Xu Yingwei raised his hand and said, "The rebels heading south must have returned to rescue Mengzi. If nothing unexpected happens, the Guangxi wolf soldiers led by Ding Butang must have killed Mengzi."
"Then what are the rebels going north doing?" Zhu Cijiong asked.
"It's hard to say." Xu Yingwei shook his head and said, "Maybe he wants to go back to Kunming, or maybe he wants to go around from Zhanyi Prefecture in the north to Pu'an Prefecture, waiting for an opportunity to cut off our army's food transportation channel."
"However, one thing is certain."
Chongzhen said: "That means the rebels in Shadingzhou are indeed in trouble."
"Yes." Xu Yingwei said, "otherwise we wouldn't have divided our troops at this time."
"Then there is no need to hide anymore." Chongzhen said with a smile, "Pull out the artillery camp, crush the Pingyi Guards with thunderous force, and defeat Sha Dingzhou's main force."
"Accept the decree." Xu Yingwei was overjoyed when he heard this.
He has been looking forward to this day for a long time.
…
At this time, Sha Dingzhou was sitting in the carriage drinking wine.
Because the latest news has come from Kunming and Lin'an respectively. Not only has Kunming been lost, Mengzi Prefecture has also been occupied by Guangxi wolf soldiers, and the old village of Jigelong has also been lost.
Sha Dingzhou was heartbroken when he thought of the billions of wealth he had stored in the old village of Jigelong.
More than eight million taels of silver, 12,500 bundles of fine silk, and countless Sichuan brocade, Hangzhou silk, Songjiang velvet and other goods all belonged to others.
Recalling the ecstasy when I first received these treasures from the Duke of Guizhou, it really felt like a dream.
When you wake up from the dream, there will be nothing left. The billions of wealth still belong to others, and he is still the poor Mengzi and Amizhou chieftain. Why?
Sha Dingzhou slammed the wine bottle on the table, so unwilling to do so!
The sound of footsteps sounded, and the general Li Rifang broke in angrily and reported: "General Office, something bad has happened. The army's Hongyi cannon has arrived!"
"What did you say? Hongyi Cannon?"
When Sha Dingzhou heard this, the hairs all over his body stood up immediately.
At this time, Tang Jingbin, Tie Zhihu and others also came in.
Even Wan Shi followed him into the cabin in shock.
This old pious woman was also very lucky, and she actually allowed her to escape safely to Pingyi City.
"Husband," Wan asked as soon as he came in, "I heard that the old village of Jigelong has also been abandoned?"
But Sha Dingzhou didn't even look at Wanshi. He had never felt that Wanshi's face was as disgusting as at this moment. He thought to himself that he was so deluded that he actually married this old and ugly woman.
After standing up, Sha Dingzhou walked out with a dark face, ignoring Wan from the beginning to the end.
Arriving at the east gate tower as quickly as possible, Sha Dingzhou just took one look and his heart sank.
Because Li Rifang was not talking nonsense, the Ming army really pushed out the Hongyi cannon from the camp, not just one, but now there are five cannons that have been pushed out of the camp, and there are more behind them.
With so many Hongyi cannons, can Pingyi City still be defended?
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Sha Dingzhou looked away from the Hongyi cannon and fell on the tower at his feet.
The acropolis of Pingyiwei was built between two mountains. It only had two east and west gates, but no south gate and north gate. The only official road from central Guizhou to eastern Yunnan ran through Pingyi City.
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Therefore, if the Ming army wants to enter eastern Yunnan, it must break through the Pingyi Guards.
The wall of Pingyiwei was originally three feet high and two feet wide at the base.
After several rounds of reinforcement, the height of the city wall has reached four feet.
However, the thickness of the city wall is still only two feet and two feet, and it is not covered with bricks.
When the Pingyiwei acropolis was first built during the Hongwu period, it was actually covered with bricks.
However, after more than two hundred years of wind and rain erosion, the cladding bricks gradually cracked and collapsed.
Even the rammed earth of the city wall has eroded a lot. It is said that it was three feet thick at first.
It would be difficult for a city wall of this thickness to withstand several rounds of shelling from Hongyi artillery.
"Hurry!" Sha Dingzhou immediately shouted, "Hurry and thicken the city wall, thicken the city wall!"
Tie Zhihu, Li Rifang and other generals also realized the danger and quickly led the soldiers to thicken the city wall.
However, it was too late to think of thickening the city wall at this time. The Ming army had already pushed out the Hongyi cannon, so what was the point of thickening the city wall?
…
The Ming army launched a total of 20 Hongyi cannons.
These 20 Hongyi cannons are not the previous Hongyi cannons produced by the War Bureau or the Ordnance Supervision, but the latest model of standard field Hongyi cannons produced by the Daming Arsenal.
At present, the Ming Dynasty Arsenal only produces one model of Hongyi cannon.
This type of Hongyi cannon weighed 1,600 kilograms including the body and the cannon carriage. The barrel was one foot, the caliber was 4 inches, and the magnification was 25 times the caliber. This was not considered advanced at the time, but it was by no means lagging behind.
Portuguese instructor Qu Shawei has also arrived, and is now nervously measuring parameters with the artillery battalion soldiers.
The artillery battalion soldiers were already extremely skilled at measuring parameters. Each of the soldiers led a group of New Army artillerymen and pushed the cannon to the predetermined position as quickly as possible.
Then the distance is measured, and then the pitch angle is calculated based on the distance.
After calculating the pitch angle, adjust the shooting angle through the winch.
After adjusting the shooting angle, report: "The first door is good, the second door is good..."
"Load the shells!" Qu Shawei gave another order, and the artillery battalion soldier took out a paper shell wrapped in thick linen paper from the ammunition box. That's right, the Ming army's artillery shells have also achieved paper shells.
Shell customization.
The outer diameter of the paper shell bullet is slightly less than three inches, and it contains a fixed amount of 6 kilograms of gunpowder.
The artillery battalion soldiers directly stuffed the paper-shell shells into the muzzle, then used the gun rod (equivalent to a purge bar) to poke the paper-shell shells to the bottom of the gun chamber, and then loaded the 16-pound iron bullets into it, and used the cannon rod to push the paper-shell shells into the gun barrel.
Press the bottom of the rod.
After the loading of each gun is completed, report the completion to artillery instructor Qu Shawei again.
Qu Shawei ordered the cannon to be fired, and twenty artillery battalion soldiers inserted red-hot iron drills into the cannon doors at the same time.
Immediately there was a continuous loud noise of "Bah, Bah, Bah, Bah", and along with the huge sound of gunfire, 20 Hongyi cannons and the heavy artillery carriage retreated at the same time. Cannons without braking devices were troublesome.
The twenty Qinwang scholars were busy resetting the artillery carriage and measuring the parameters again.
Qu Shawei raised his telescope and observed the impact point of the shells. The first round of shelling had a good effect.
The 20 shells basically landed at the point he chose, and the largest error rate was less than five steps.
At a distance of 500 steps, this error rate is okay, not great, but not bad either.
The impact point chosen by Qu Shawei was in the middle of the city wall twenty steps to the right of the city gate. The outer surface of this wall had been dented quite a bit due to wind and rain erosion, making it a weak point.
The 20 shells just now basically hit the pit.
A large amount of rammed earth was seen falling in the smoke and dust.
After a while, the smoke and dust dispersed, and Qu Shawei could clearly see with the help of a telescope that there were more than a dozen pot-lid-sized craters in the depressions in the outer wall. The effect was good.
"The first one is good, the second one is better..."
The artillery battalion soldiers quickly completed the measurement of shooting parameters.
"Load the artillery shells." Following Qu Shawei's order, the artillery battalion soldiers began to load the artillery shells again.
It's just that the second reloading is much more troublesome than the first. You have to use a brush with a hook to hook out the shredded paper and gunpowder residue in the barrel, and then use a brush soaked in water to clean the barrel and extinguish the remaining gunpowder.
Mars, then wrap the gun barrel with a dry cloth and wipe the barrel dry before reloading the paper shell.
Qu Shawei estimated the time and found that the first shot only took more than a minute.
But the second shot took a full three minutes, twice as long.
"Fire!" Following Qu Shawei's order, the artillery battalion began the second round of firing.
Qu Shawei raised the telescope and once again aimed his vision at the impact point in front of him.
When the smoke and dust dispersed, Qu Shawei could clearly see that the craters in the wall recesses had been connected into pieces, and there were even tiny cracks like spider webs. This was a good sign.
Chongzhen suddenly appeared at the artillery camp with Zhu Cijiong, Wang Chengen and others.
"Qu Shawei." Chongzhen asked, "What was the result of the shelling? Is there no problem?"
"Oh, Your Majesty, the great, unprecedented, wise, mighty and omnipotent emperor, why did you come to the artillery camp? This is not the place where you should be." Qu Sha said, stroking her chest slightly, "You should go to the back."
"Talk like a human being." Chongzhen shook his head and asked angrily, "How long will it take for the city wall to collapse?"
Qu Shawei then said with a proud face: "It will take at most two hours to destroy the city wall."
"Two hours?" Chongzhen was a little surprised. He originally thought it would take three to five days.
"Yes, two hours is enough." Qu Shawei said, "Pingyiwei's city wall has seriously aged, the bricks have fallen off, and the rammed earth has also been severely weathered. If nothing happens, it will collapse in two hours."
"That's great." Chongzhen turned to Xu Yingwei, who was accompanying him.
"Youzhen, you should also be prepared in case Sha Dingzhou jumps over the wall in a hurry."
"Your Majesty, don't worry." Xu Yingwei said, "If the rebels don't come out, that's it. If they dare to come out, they will never come back!"
…
Sha Dingzhou had already retreated under the city wall.
The Ming army had already pushed the Hongyi cannon to within a distance of five hundred steps. It was really stupid to expose themselves on the tower at this time.
Even if you were hiding under the city wall, you could still hear the huge crash.
You can also clearly feel that the east wall of Pingyiwei is shaking slightly.
"Headquarters, something bad has happened!" Tie Zhihu poked his head out from the parapet and shouted, "The Ming army's Hongyi artillery is blasting a point twenty steps away on the right side of the city gate. The outer wall there
There was originally a dent on the surface, but now the dent has become larger and deeper, and there are also a lot of cracks. It looks like it won't last long."
"How long can it last? How long?" Sha Dingzhou said with a dark face.
"How do I know this?" Tie Zhihu scratched his head and said, "It will only take a day or two at most."
"Can you only last a day or two?" Sha Dingzhou's face completely fell, he was in trouble.
"Husband, let's hurry back to Ami Prefecture." Wan Shi also came over at some point, and said anxiously, "Although Ami Prefecture is not as dangerous as Mengzi Prefecture, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there are more
As long as my people return to Ami State, we can persist for a longer time."