In the north of Xinzheng County, on the bank of Xuanyuan Lake, Long Wenya Garden.
This is a newly built villa with six rooms of the Gao family the year before last. It can be seen from the word "Long Wen" that it was built in the name of Gao Jingshi, but in fact Gao Jingshi has not returned to his hometown at all in the past few years.
This courtyard was actually built by Gao's pragmatic mother Zhang.
King Xiang once said that if wealth does not return to its hometown, it is like walking at night in brocade clothes. But Gao Pragmatic is different from King Xiang. He has no feelings about the return of wealth and honor to his hometown. However, he could not resist his mother, thinking that it was just a villa anyway, and it would be useless to build one.
Just built it, there is no need to make my mother unhappy over this matter.
However, accidents always come suddenly. Gao Pragmatic originally thought that Xinzheng is a county town, and this villa is outside the county. Although it is in the suburbs, it should not cost much. Who knows that although the land price in Xinzheng is cheap, the cost of building this villa is quite high.
It was very expensive. It cost a total of 170,000 taels of silver to build. Gao Pragmatic was stunned when he received the bill.
Is there any mistake? In history, Zhang Juzheng built a house in his hometown when he was dominating the world. It is said that the house was more grand than the palace, and it only cost two to three hundred thousand taels. How the hell did he spend 170,000 yuan to build a separate courtyard? I
Is this the construction of individual hospitals or the renovation of Xinzheng County? Has the cheap mother been cheated?
He is the eldest son. From now on, Mrs. Zhang will be with him for food and clothing, so she will definitely not be greedy for his money. However, Mrs. Zhang comes from a wealthy family. If she does not understand the market and is cheated, this may still happen, so Gao Gao
Pragmatic has been keeping this matter in mind, and plans to take a closer look after coming back to see how it cost 170,000 taels to build a single courtyard.
But when he saw this courtyard with his own eyes, he was convinced - this garden only cost 170,000 yuan?
The Long Wen Ya Garden occupies a huge area of more than 3,300 acres, which is equivalent to a little more than two square kilometers in later generations. It is much larger than the Xuanyuan Lake Wetland Park in Xinzheng City.
To put it simply, this is just a "special courtyard", not much smaller than the Summer Palace built by Cixi later (the Summer Palace is about 4,400 acres). Of course, the Summer Palace is the capital city, the land is expensive, the labor is expensive, and there are a lot of corrupt officials to support.
Damn it, I don’t want the best materials but the most expensive materials. There is no comparison.
However, the Longwen Yayuan, which is nominally owned by Gao Jingshi, is no joke. It is more grand and rich than the Summer Palace. However, there are two things that Gao Jingshi can tell at a glance are stronger than the Summer Palace.
This Longwen Yayuan is called Bieyuan, and the name is very elegant, but it is actually more like a fortress - it is surrounded by water on three sides, and only the north is land. According to the introduction of my mother Zhang, the three sides surrounded by water have been repaired.
The thick cement high wall was built according to the fortress standards built by Jinghua Infrastructure under the name Gao Pingshi when it was connected to the border army project. The horizontal and vertical elements inside were all made of steel bars. The entire wall was sixteen feet thick, which was more than five meters wide in later generations!
The main wall on land is even more exaggerated, reaching a thickness of twenty feet, which is almost seven meters wide when rounded up. Horses can race on the city wall!
The height of the wall is not ambiguous at all, it is unified to four feet, which is almost more than 13 meters in later generations, and is about the same height as the current city wall of the capital. Although this is not against the rules, but... is it necessary?
In fact, the city wall of the capital city of the Ming Dynasty was not the highest or thickest, and the overall city defense was not the strongest. Needless to say, the city defense of Datong City, where Gao pragmatically visited, was stronger than that of Beijing. When I heard that the army was pressing on the border, the city defense was stronger than that of Beijing.
Everyone in the city is not worried about Datong's loss at all, and this is also the reason why.
Gao pragmatically looked at his own Long Wenya Garden, and he was really confused: shouldn't my courtyard be a place for study and retirement? What's the point of building it to be as defensive as the Xiongguan Pass in Bian Town? Does my mother think that I want to rebel?
, please repair my hometown more tightly in advance?
Faced with her son's confused look, Ms. Zhang smiled and said, "Don't look at Wei Niang like that. Wei Niang made the decision based on your words."
"My words?" Gao Pragmatic was confused: "What did I say?"
Mrs. Zhang raised her brows: "Didn't you say that in the next few years, there will be more and more natural disasters in the northern provinces, which may eventually lead to a large number of refugees and may even cause unrest? That's why I hurriedly hurried to get rid of these people.
The courtyard is built like a fortress. If that happens in the future, the Xinzheng Gao family can avoid a lot of losses by taking refuge in this other courtyard."
"This..." Gao Pingshi was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mother is really prepared for a rainy day."
"That's natural." Ms. Zhang said with some pride: "Why do you think my mother would give up her ancestral business in Gaolaozhuang and come here? I asked Gao Jue and others who were trained under Qi Shaobao, and they all felt that if they were built in Xinzheng
Baowu is the best place in this area. It is surrounded by water on three sides, so it is easy to defend but difficult to attack! There are no navy troops here at Shuangjie River. If there is a police force, as long as the north side is guarded, everything will be safe!"
Mrs. Zhang said with a smile: "Your mine protection team and factory protection team are really good. We have several factories and mines in Xinzheng and Yuzhou. If we gather all the mine protection teams and factory protection teams, there will be two
More than a thousand people are more than enough to defend this fort."
That is, I have more than 2,000 servants. If placed in a border town, it can almost serve as the core of an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people! Wouldn't it be impregnable if used to defend a fortress?
But mother, what's the use of just guarding a Wubao? What about my properties in Xinzheng and Yuzhou?
That is an industrial group jointly owned by coal and iron. Although it is a handicraft industry, it cannot sustain a large scale. If it were lost, it would be able to produce three thousand kilograms of refined steel and more than forty thousand kilograms of high-grade wrought iron a month. At present,
In this era, only my own three major factories in Kaiping can stabilize one end of it! You are seriously siding with the enemy!
Fortunately, several factories and mines in Henan are not responsible for the production of firearms. The products related to the military industry are mainly wrought iron sheets, which are generally used to make armor. At least they are not offensive. What if the three major factories in Kaiping lost their weapons?
Well, that’s where the fun is really big – the Longqing Type II musket and the Bingzi Type I Tiger Crouching Cannon are both produced there.
Different from the naming method of guns, the artillery series launched under the name of Gao Jingshi are named after the year of the heavenly stems and the earthly branches. For example, the "Bingzi-1 Tiger Crouching Cannon" was finalized and produced in the fourth year of Wanli. The fourth year of Wanli is the year of Bingzi.
This gun has not been modified yet, so it is called Bingzi Type 1. If it is modified in the future, it may be Bingzi Type 2, Bingzi Type 3 and so on.
This tiger squatting gun was designed and manufactured according to the requirements of Qi Jiguang, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen. It was combined with Qi Jiguang's test data in Jizhen, and then made some improvements. It also added a new gun mount creatively produced by Gao pragmatism.
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The Tiger Crouching Cannon is a small and medium-sized artillery piece, generally used in field battles with the army. It is a kind of cannon that Qi Jiguang likes very much.
The increase in power of the Bingzi Type 1 artillery is not obvious, but because the iron smelting technology of the three major factories in Kaiping is relatively reliable, the weight has dropped a bit, and the stability and durability have been significantly improved. In addition, the new
The artillery mount and bombardment accuracy have also been improved to a certain extent, which is more in line with Qi Jiguang's requirements. It has been purchased by Ji Town, and the first batch of purchase quantity is eighty.
However, it may not mean much to tell Zhang about these things, especially when several of her brothers are staying in their hometown in Xinzheng. If there is a refugee turmoil, Zhang will definitely choose to protect his family, factories, mines, etc. first...
It's never too late to recover.
However, after thinking about it pragmatically, Gao felt that Zhang's concern was reasonable. He had better make arrangements to deal with these possible accidents first, otherwise the monetary losses of factories and mines would be small, and the losses of skilled workers would be negligible.