The Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 41: Return to camp quickly

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It was indeed what Bi Maokang deserved. The flintlock was originally invented by him, but he had to travel ahead of time.

"With the guidance of His Royal Highness King Xin, the Daming Shenji Camp will be a bit stronger, making the nomadic tribes in the north frightened."

Liu Yifei is the head of the Firearms Bureau and a generalist in firearms. Of course, he knows Daming's firearms well. He was surprised to hear Zhu Youjian say that the flintlock can increase the firing interval to 20 seconds. On the battlefield, sometimes one second can determine the outcome of a war.

"But it is still difficult for the Shenji Camp to become a camp independently!" Zhu Youjian knew the status quo of Daming. The gunmen of the Shenji Camp faced a densely built slave cavalry with long intervals between firing bullets. In front of the cavalry, they did not protect themselves at all. Ability.

"Couldn't the flintlocks work?" Bi Maokang is very confident in the flintlocks, but after all he is a civil official, who only studies guns, has never been to the battlefield, and doesn't know the situation of the slave cavalry at all. Over ten thousand people are unbeatable".

"It doesn't necessarily work." Zhu Youjian knew that when the matchlock was truly independent and formed into an army, it was the appearance of a gun that could fire in a row. However, a continuous-fire gun has a fast bullet speed. It is easy to explode with a soft iron as the bullet, and copper must be used as the bullet. But the output of Daming red copper is very low, and almost all is used for currency circulation. It is impossible to have a large amount of red copper to make cartridge cases. Moreover, even if there is red copper, it is impossible to make a gun that can fire continuously. Suddenly, Zhu Youjian's inspiration came out, a cannonball. The volume of the shell is large, and iron can be used as the shell, as long as it is increased to a sufficient thickness. Daming’s current artillery shells are all solid shells, which mainly rely on impact to destroy targets, and their ability to strike personnel is very limited. Once the shells are loaded with gunpowder and attack the opponent through the explosion, the power will inevitably be greatly increased. If more guns are fired, it can even blow up the city wall.

"I'm going to visit the artisans who make shells. Director Liu arranged several artisans who made grenades to go with me." Without further ado, Zhu Youzhen hurriedly ate lunch without taking a break, so he bid farewell to Bi Maokang and the others. Liu Yifei was not surprised either, he seemed to have adapted to Zhu Youjian's jumping thinking. In the production unit that made the shells, what Zhu Youjian saw was solid shells. Without gunpowder, the shells would certainly not explode.

"Director Liu, how powerful is the gunpowder if you put gunpowder on it?" Zhu Youjian looked at Liu Yifei, who was unknown, with a relaxed smile on his face. He was thinking, if the bomb was successfully developed, he would face Jiannu's cavalry. , Daming soldiers can compete with them in the wild.

"Put gunpowder? With such a big shell loaded with gunpowder, I am afraid that an entire barracks can be destroyed." Liu Yifei was a little surprised, but he found that Zhu Youjian had never let go. Since Zhu Youjian began to pay attention to the Firearms Bureau, but in just two months, grenades have been developed, rockets and balloons have been developed, and flintlock guns have been researched. If you really want to put gunpowder into the cannonball, Daming's artillery technology will also be a leap.

"Destroying a barracks may not work, but the power must be much greater than solid bullets." Zhu Youjian knew that the current technology could not produce large-caliber artillery, and the power of gunpowder was not enough to reach the power of later artillery.

"But, Your Highness, how can a cannonball explode when it is flying in the air?" Liu Yifei also thought about loading the cannonball with gunpowder, but after the cannonball flew out of the barrel, there was no way to control it, so he had to give up.

"Does Director Liu know the explosion principle of landmines?" In fact, just install a firing pin in the warhead according to the explosion principle of landmines.

okay. When the shell hits the ground, the front tip must fall first, and the firing pin hits the ground to detonate the shell.

It just so happened that the craftsmen who made landmines and shells arrived, and Zhu Youjian asked them to join them and listen to his own explanation. With the advancement of technology, firearms are becoming more and more complex. Many technologies cannot be completed by one person, and multiple people must cooperate. Zhu Youjian only talked about the principle. As for how to make and install the firing pin, it is the work of these craftsmen. No one can complete all the techniques, and Zhu Youjian is no exception.

"Director Liu, if the bloom bomb can be successfully developed, will the Firearms Bureau have enough gunpowder?" Zhu Youjian suddenly remembered a key question. If there is not enough gunpowder to fill the shells, the bloom bomb will still be a castle in the air.

"Yes, this can guarantee that the Firearms Bureau stores millions of catties of gunpowder, and there are also a lot of them in various health offices. Moreover, the production technology of gunpowder is no longer a secret in Daming, and the materials are sufficient." Liu Yifei felt that he could finally do it. Helping, he kept talking, let Zhu Youjian feel relieved.

"That's good, Director Lao Liu prepared enough gunpowder." With Liu Yifei's assurance, Zhu Youjian was relieved. After leaving the Firearms Bureau, Zhu Youjian felt rare and relaxed. Perhaps it was the firearms of the Firearms Bureau that gave him confidence in the elimination of Jian slaves. Although all aspects of matters were complicated, he still handled them in an orderly manner. Li Hongjun and Liu Yushuan were mainly responsible for the training of Fenwu Camp. He only visited occasionally to correct the irregular movements of the soldiers and improve the training methods and content. With the unprecedented high-standard food, and the competition in the camp, the training of the soldiers is in full swing. Zhu Youjian plans that he will have money in the future and pay these poor military households some salaries; the construction of the military academy has Wang Mujiu. Responsible, speed up the progress as much as possible while ensuring the safety and health of the construction workers; Kong Zhen is in charge of the cement plant, which is Zhu Youjian’s private enterprise, and the appointed Kong Zhen is of course a believer in the palace. Under the supervision of Kong Zhen, the cement factory is working overtime to produce and the excess cement is in stock. Once the survey team of the Ministry of Industry has completed the exploration, the production of cement may not be able to keep up with the needs of road construction. Zhu Youjian intends to expand the scale, but suffers from nothing. Funds, it seems that the expansion can only be done after the cement payment paid by the Ministry of Industry is in place. Now he can only desperately stock cement; the supervisor of the brick kiln factory is also a believer in the palace, Qian Hu, can know a few words and write his own. first name. The red bricks have entered the production stage, but the bricks need time to air-dry and have not yet entered the kiln. However, the temperature is still very high now, and the air-drying speed should be fast.

Zhu Youjian had eaten dinner and was about to practice Xujima. Xu Yingyuan pushed open the door abruptly, almost hitting Zhu Youjian's arms: "His Royal Highness, Fenwuying sends someone to pass the letter, and ordered your majesty. Return to camp quickly."

"Did something happen to Fenwuying?" Zhu Youjian was puzzled. For the first time, he didn't practice the virtual power. Asked the Chuanbingbing, he couldn't tell why, so Zhu Youjian had to go back to the camp with Chuanlingbing.

Back at the camp, I saw many Fenwu camp soldiers gathered together, not knowing what they were discussing.

"Master Commander, what happened?" Zhu Youjian saw Qin Yongnian with a black face. He had seen him a few days ago. He seems to have not been so dark yet. I don't know why the Sun of Beijing Master is so powerful.

"There is a group of Japanese pirates who landed from Dengzhou. The king of Shandong's army, Huai'an, has been defeated repeatedly. The Japanese pirates have gone all the way to the west and have reached Shouguang, only three hundred miles away from Jinan. "Qin Yongnian's face is heavy and he doesn't know what he thinks, but his expressive ability is good, and he has basically made things clear in a few words.

"Why did the emperor transfer the Fenwu camp to Shandong? Doesn't the capital have more than 300,000 troops?" The Fenwu camp trained by Zhu Youjian did not last too long. He was not sure whether he could defeat the Japanese pirates with super combat effectiveness.

Qin Yongnian took a look at Zhu Youjian and found that Zhu Youjian really didn’t understand. Then he said quietly: "Wei Zhongxian. I heard that Wei Zhongxian was playing in front of the emperor, saying that the fighting power of Fenwuying has been greatly increased since the emperor was taken down. Now it is the most powerful army in the capital. When the emperor is happy, he decrees that Fenwuying will go to Shandong to destroy the Japanese."

"It turned out to be Wei Eunuch." Zhu Youzhen originally suspected that the last assassination was related to Wei Zhongxian, and now it is more certain that it is Wei Zhongxian, but Zhu Youzhen does not understand why Wei Zhongxian is against him, as if he has never offended him.

Wei Zhongxian and Zhu Youjian did not have much hatred. He was only jealous of Zhu Youjian for sharing the emperor's trust. He wanted to use the hands of Japanese pirates to destroy Zhu Youjian, and at least he had to reduce Zhu Youjian's prestige in front of the emperor. If Zhu Youxiao never trust Zhu Youjian from now on, then Wei Zhongxian would not bother to deal with this pesky Zhu Xiaowu.

"How many Japanese pirates are there?" Since the emperor has made an order, he must first deal with the pirates. In Zhu Youjian's impression, there was no Japanese invasion at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and his usual preparations were entirely to deal with the establishment of slaves in the Northeast. He did not consider the Japanese pirates at all. Could his own crossing change history? After that, there may be more unknown things in my life.

"About two thousand." Qin Yongnian said lightly.

"Two thousand? Don't Shandong have hundreds of thousands of troops? Why can't even two thousand Japanese pirates be wiped out?" Zhu Youjian couldn't help it. The combat effectiveness of the Ming army was really weak, especially in the Tianqi and Chongzhen years, when the Ming Dynasty was more than two million. The guardsmen are purely furnishings, not as good as furnishings. These guards can't fight, but consume a lot of national money and food. Not only do they have to pay taxes on the military fields, the court also pays them military expenses.

Of course, the soldiers have no combat effectiveness, and they cannot be completely blamed, mainly for institutional reasons.

In the reign of Emperor Taizu, the government began to implement the military system. Soldiers everywhere were given a certain amount of arable land for self-cultivation. As military expenses, they usually farmed while training soldiers, or they were farmed by their families.

Once a soldier is registered in the military, his descendants are all registered in the military and must not leave. This is what Taizu boasted that without a penny from the country, he could raise a large number of troops for the country.

But the demise of each dynasty was almost due to the issue of land annexation, and most of the people had no land to cultivate. The Ming Dynasty is no exception. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, the problem of land annexation has become very prominent. The soldiers in the guards in various places have almost no fields to grow, and the court does not have enough money to distribute them. These soldiers have become the most impoverished in the Ming Dynasty. group.

If it were not for the restrictions of the Ming ancestor system, more than half of the males in these military households would be unable to please their wives, and the military households would gradually become extinct. The current situation is not much better. These military households are basically reduced to long-term workers and short-term workers. What they think of is not training and fighting, but survival.