"I'm so cold! I'm so cold!"
"Sister Xu, please warm your hands quickly!"
While Mu Chun from Yunnan was still thinking of ways to deal with Luchuan Daoganmeng with a population of two million, Zhu Di from Peiping quickly walked into the palace in front of Prince Yan's palace with a face red from the cold.
In the front bedroom, Mrs. Xu was operating a loom. When she saw Zhu Di coming with a roar, she was not surprised. She just turned around and waited for Zhu Di to come over, using her own hands to help Zhu Di. Rub hands together.
Touching Zhu Di's rough hand, although she was used to it, she still felt sorry for everything Zhu Di suffered during this northern patrol.
She was selected into the palace by Queen Ma at the age of twelve, and met the fourteen-year-old Zhu Di.
I remember that Zhu Di was still a fair-looking prince at that time, who often stayed by his side.
Because he likes to call himself 'I', I think he is quite interesting.
Later, he was lectured by the masters of the main hall every day and would come to him from time to time. As time went by, he became accustomed to being with him.
Therefore, when Queen Ma granted her a marriage later, she was happy for a while when she learned that the person who wanted to marry her was the man who liked to call himself me.
So many years have passed in the blink of an eye. Although he has become the feudal king of Bibian, his attitude toward himself has not changed. He is still the same as before.
"Sister Xu...Sister Xu?"
Zhu Di looked at the dazed Xu and sat next to Xu, sticking close to her.
"Huh?" Mrs. Xu came back to her senses, spread Zhu Di's hand, and found a lot of new scars on it, so she touched it distressedly: "I must have suffered a lot after going out of the country this time."
"Bitterness? Not really!" Zhu Di grinned. He was not the kind of person who liked to tell his wife about his grievances abroad. He just picked some interesting stories and said: "These injuries I got with Huozhen and the others when they were catching rabbits in King Qi City. Yes, don’t look at me injured, but I caught a lot of rabbits.”
"Even those rabbits were eaten by those fools like Huozhen, otherwise I would definitely bring back one or two for you to keep and play with."
"I don't like rabbits." Mrs. Xu warmed Zhu Di's hand, and at the same time said to a maid standing not far away: "Go and bring Gaoxu's letter and good news before winter."
"Gao Xu has a letter?" Zhu Di was stunned. He remembered that he had not arranged for anyone to take the letter to the government, and what happened to the good news?
"You don't know yet." Mrs. Xu laughed and said as if to show off:
"This time you three brothers, uncle and nephew went out to the fortress. Although your gains there were hundreds, Gao Xu and his seventeenth brother gained more."
"How many?" Zhu Di hadn't come back to his senses yet and saw Mrs. Xu taking the good news and letter from the hand of the maid. He then turned his head and read the contents with Mrs. Xu.
"Killed so many?!"
Just after reading the good news, Zhu Di raised his voice with a trembling beard.
Mrs. Xu was still showing off, and took out Zhu Gaoxu's autographed letter and handed it to Zhu Di, explaining at the same time: "Gaoxu seized thousands of cattle, horses and tens of thousands of cattle and sheep this time, and killed 20,000 enemies with his seventeenth brother. You have a look……"
"Killed more than 10,000 enemies?" Zhu Di took the letter in confusion, but he only briefly glanced at the content, and something strange appeared on his face.
As a man who has been fighting on the battlefield in northern Saibei for more than ten years, Zhu Di is very clear about the ratio of killing enemies to capturing cattle and horses.
Take his current northern tour as an example. He killed more than 400 Hu soldiers, but captured more than 1,400 cattle, horses and sheep.
However, when he read the good news and the letter from his second son, he really wanted to grab Zhu Gaoxu's collar and ask: "Is this how you fooled your father?"
He killed nearly 20,000 enemies and finally captured an equal number of cattle, sheep and horses. This is not the way to fool people. Even if Zhu Quan's victory report said that Haragu asked his tribe to drive the herds first, Zhu Quan never It was impossible to intercept the herds of some tribes when traveling from south to north, but Zhu Gaoxu was unable to intercept herds when traveling from north to south?
Zhu Di's feeling after reading the victory report and writing home was the same as Zhu Yuanzhang's feeling when he saw it, that is, "You can't fool me (grandpa) like this even if you want to fool me."
Of course, even though he knew that Zhu Gaoxu was deceiving people, the Bohai Sea was too far away from the Central Plains, and it was too difficult to verify the situation.
Moreover, Zhu Quan also said that Zhu Gaoxu had not captured many herds, which was a disguised form of perjury for him, and it was difficult for Lao Zhu to pursue him.
But for Zhu Di, as soon as he saw this good news, he immediately thought of the fact that half of his herd was cut off by his father, so after he realized it, he specifically asked about Xu: "This good news reached Nanjing From now on, my father didn’t let Gao Xu and Seventeenth Brother share half of the herds equally with other military households in the capital?”
"It seems that the seventeenth brother was assigned some horses and horses to the capital of Liaodong, but Gao Xu was not." Xu recalled, and Zhu Di was very heartbroken after hearing this.
Why did my reckless second son become so smart after a trip to Nanjing?
It turns out that it is so easy to fool the south. If I had known that I would have fooled myself, my own herd...
When Zhu Di thought about the herds that had been separated from him, Zhu Di felt so painful that he couldn't breathe.
But before he could recover, Mrs. Xu continued: "By the way, there are a lot of wars going on in the south. I have asked people to collect the "Di Bao" and wait for you to come back to read it."
As she spoke, she motioned to the maid to bring over a thick newspaper, and placed a whole pile beside it for Zhu Di to read slowly.
Zhu Di was next to Mrs. Xu, picked up the newspaper and started reading it.
Starting from the rebellion of Huguang Dongman and Guzhouman, the King of Chu and King of Xiang went on an expedition to quell the rebellion, then to the rebellions in Guangxi, Sichuan and other places, and finally he set his sights on Yunnan, where the war was currently taking place.
Seeing the news that Dao Ganmeng rebelled and Muchun led troops to go on an expedition, Zhu Di frowned slightly, seeming to feel a bit troubled: "This Dao Ganmeng may be in trouble for a long time."
"I think so too." Xu nodded and said why she thought so: "If the war was not tense, Yungong would not give up this opportunity to go to the battlefield and command tens of thousands of troops."
"This time he chose to stay in Kunming to coordinate the food and fodder. It seems that the war ahead is too heavy. Only by letting Mu Chun control the three armies and use his skills to his fullest can it be possible to pacify it as soon as possible."
"Well..." Zhu Di nodded and closed the newspaper. He roughly calculated the progress of the southwest war, and then said: "It took Ning Zheng and Mu Ying two years to lead the troops to put down the rebellion. Although the southwest soldiers are now more powerful than they were then. I want more, but this time I am attacking the enemy's defenders, so I'm afraid it won't be that easy to win."
Although Zhu Di had never been to Yunnan, he restrained Fu Youde in his early years and trained troops with him to go out to the frontier. Naturally, he heard about the situation in Yunnan from Fu Youde.
The five-foot road in Yunnan makes it very difficult to transport food there. Therefore, if he has to move step by step, Muchun will definitely be dragged around Cuansongguan for a long time.
Even if they broke into Cuansong Pass and captured Nandian, this was only the outskirts of Luchuan, and it was still more than three hundred miles away from Deyun Jiemu, the capital of the country.
The deeper the Ming army goes, the less food and grass can be supplied to the rear and the greater the burden.
Zhu Di knew something about the situation in Yunnan Dusi. With the number of local farms, it would be very difficult to supply 30,000 troops to go deep into Yunjiemu.
Even if you want to transport grain from Sichuan, the grain and grass from Sichuan can only be transported to Kunming smoothly at most. The remaining thousands of miles of road are narrow and rugged five-foot roads.
It is not a good idea to fight a protracted war with Luchuan without building roads.
"You can write to Yungong and ask him to widen the five-foot road from Kunming to Jinji first, so as to ensure the smooth flow of food and grass."
Zhu Di came up with ideas for the Xu family. After hearing this, the Xu family also asked someone to write a letter to Xu Huizu. After the letter was sent, he glanced at the heavy snow outside the palace and couldn't help but think about it: "Such a heavy snow, I don't know what Jilin is like." How's the situation?"
"Second brother must be well fed and well fed, you don't have to worry." Zhu Di thought of Zhu Gaoxu's hidden herd of cattle, horses and sheep, and spoke with a bit of sourness, causing Mrs. Xu to turn around and look at him complainingly.
But Xu made the mistake of blaming Zhu Di this time, because Zhu Gaoxu was indeed eating well at the moment...
"Hiss...it would be better if there were chili peppers."
"What are chili peppers?"
In the Ordnance Bureau of Blackwater City, Zhu Gaoxu set up a copper pot in the meeting hall of his study.
On the table, several plates of freshly slaughtered mutton were placed aside, while Zhu Gaoxu, Meng Zhang and Wang Yuan were sitting at the table, using chopsticks to eat the mutton in a copper pot.
Although there is no chili oil dish, the sesame sauce dipping dish is sufficient.
Zhu Gaoxu asked Yang Bin to buy these sesame seeds from the south for him last year, so that he could eat mutton deliciously in winter.
Although he wanted to eat something spicy, Jilin City did not have such conditions at the moment, and sesame seeds were easy to store, so he was able to eat a bite of mutton covered in sesame sauce in this cold winter month.
Despite this, he still wanted something spicy, so he talked about chili peppers at the dinner table.
Meng Zhang asked Zhu Gaoxu what peppers were, and Zhu Gaoxu also explained: "The place we live in is a sphere similar to an egg. The peppers can be obtained from the sea to the east or west, halfway around the world to a piece of wild land. .”
Zhu Gaoxu was always thinking about bringing new crops from the Americas to enrich the Ming Dynasty's products.
If it weren't for the stormy waves in the Bering Sea, which would often cause shipwrecks and casualties even in later generations, he would have wanted to send some people to the Americas via the Bering Strait.
But it’s okay if you can’t go through the Bering Strait. You can still solve the problem by going through the North Pacific Gyre.
The only problem with taking this route is that a port base must be established in Japan.
Specifically, it is to start from Ningbo, choose a port in the east of Japan to make corrections and replenish fresh water and food, and then sail eastward to the Kuroshio Current, strive for smooth winds and smooth water, and then control the latitude between 35 and 42 degrees, which is suitable for At present, there is no problem with Ming Dynasty's navigation technology.
As long as everything goes well, the expedition fleet can sail in the North Pacific Warm Current.
If the wind is favorable, fifty nautical miles per day is no problem, and it will take about forty days to reach the east coast of North America.
As for coming back, we can take the Central Pacific Ocean Current, which is the route of Spain's Grand Triangle trade.
However, this route must be taken in winter and spring, so as to avoid those terrible typhoons in the Pacific.
If everything goes smoothly, I'll be able to run back in about fifty days.
If you want to go to Australia, you only need to sail southward in the process. The only thing you need to pay attention to is to avoid the Great Barrier Reef in eastern Australia.
Once these general problems are solved, the remaining problems are basically minor issues. For example, the sails of long-distance ships should be larger and the speed should be as fast as possible. At least there should be a large number of jibs, especially if soft sails can be used. It's better, but the Chinese don't seem to be comfortable using soft sails.
In addition, it is best for ships to use a pointed bottom and a keel-type structure.
In short, in one sentence, it is to increase the speed and strengthen the structure.
The last remaining thing is to prevent scurvy. When leaving Japan, it is best to bring some kimchi, and then bring some soybeans and mung beans on the boat to sprout bean sprouts for everyone to eat.
These things contain enough vitamin C, which can prevent and treat scurvy. They were also the unique life-saving secret skills of Ming sailors during Zheng He's voyages to the West.
Of course, in addition to these, there are some health issues that must be paid attention to, but they are not a troublesome matter.
Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu was still a little glad that he was studying geology and that he was not lazy when taking electives. Otherwise, how could he know these things.
But if you think about it carefully, it would be better if you studied engineering...
"Oh, I shouldn't have regretted that. I should have learned more about agriculture and military industry when I was fishing."
With a sigh, Zhu Gaoxu seemed to feel that the hot-boiled mutton on his hands no longer tasted good.
It's just that such sighs often disappear within a few breaths. In the main hall of the study, only the sound of three people eating mutton is left.
"How's the deal with the arquebus?"
After almost eating, Zhu Gaoxu wiped his mouth with rough paper and asked Wang Yuan, whose mouth was full of oil after eating.
Wang Yuan put down his chopsticks when he heard this and answered honestly: "After handing over the matchlocks and gun stocks to Heishui City for production, the production of matchlock guns has also increased. Now there are 12,200 in stock, and there is still one barrel in stock." Sixteen hundred guns, seventy gun barrels can be drilled out in Blackwater City every day."
"Seventy..." Zhu Gaoxu leaned on the chair, looking arrogant and powerful.
He calculated a little and found that the gun barrels that Meng Zhang had worked hard for more than two years in the iron smelting field had basically been exhausted in the past two months. With the speed at which Heishui City drilled gun barrels, even the gun barrels in the armory could not hold up. how long.
But he didn't need so many matchlocks. Fifteen thousand were enough for him.
In the final analysis, matchlocks and cannons cannot help the Bohai Navy completely become a pure hot weapon force. It is certain to match a certain number of pikemen and cavalry.
The ratio of matchlock guns to the entire army is enough.
Fifteen thousand matchlocks, plus a 30,000 Bohai navy consisting of 10,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, were enough to defeat the Liaodong Dusi, who had a maximum of 40,000 soldiers.
As long as he captures Liaodong Dusi, he can fully utilize the human resources of Liaodong Dusi's more than 100,000 military households to build ships, forge cannons, and forge guns.
The matchlock guns are definitely enough for now, the only thing missing is the artillery to attack the important city in Liaodong.
"We can stop after the number of arquebuses reaches 15,000, and then go all out to forge the cannons."
Zhu Gaoxu gave the answer and asked Wang Yuan: "What happened to the field artillery and siege artillery?"
Field artillery and siege artillery, these are the two standard artillery set by Zhu Gaoxu.
The standard for field artillery is that it is accompanied by a gun carriage and a base of twelve shells and gunpowder, weighing one thousand kilograms or less, and having a range of more than one and a half miles.
As for the standard of siege artillery, it is similar to that of field artillery, except that the weight is required to be more than 1,000 kilograms and the range is more than two miles.
In addition to these, Zhu Gaoxu also set different standards for shore defense guns and naval guns.
For these standards, Wang Yuan, a former clockmaker and now an officer of hundreds of households in the Ordnance Bureau, already knows them well.
But facing the standards set by Zhu Gaoxu, Wang Yuan still replied with a solemn expression: "There are still some problems with the field gun. We used the latest module, and the forged field gun can only reduce the weight to 620 kilograms. To a certain extent.”
"As for the technical parameters of the field gun, it has a caliber of three inches, a barrel length of four feet eight inches, a caliber sixteen times, and a maximum range of about one mile and two hundred and forty steps."
"Including the weight of the gun carriage of 150 kilograms and the weight of ammunition of 50 kilograms, it can basically be controlled within 840 kilograms, with a deviation of about ten kilograms."
"In fact, if cannons can be cast from copper, the weight of field cannons and artillery carriages can be controlled within 700 kilograms."
"If it only needs to be controlled within one thousand kilograms, then using the copper forged cannon, the range should be maintained at about two miles. It will be more effective when used on a siege cannon."
For cannon forging, copper is undoubtedly the best material, and Zhu Gaoxu naturally knows this.
But for Bohai, it is simply unrealistic to use copper to cast cannons. Not to mention that Zhu Gaoxu knows nothing about the burial places of copper mines in Northeast China. The difficulty of mining copper mines and the manpower required are enough to stump him.
He would rather allocate an extra draft horse to pull the heavy siege cannon instead of using copper to cast the cannon.
Moreover, as long as Liaodong is conquered, he can build a powerful navy and use it to cover the army's march south, without having to worry about sieges along the way.
As long as the Huaihe River is crossed, there are few cities south of the Yellow River that can be called strong cities.
The city wall demolished by the Mongols took even Lao Zhu thirty years to recover. For Zhu Gaoxu, the land of Lianghuai was just an enemy with his armor removed.
"I'll use the forged iron cannon for now. The weight of 840 kilograms is enough for my needs."
Zhu Gaoxu took a glass of warm water, took a sip, and told Wang Yuan: "In the following days, you only need to forge two hundred field cannons, and then one hundred siege cannons weighing two thousand kilograms will be enough."
"..." Hearing that Zhu Gaoxu was about to forge a siege cannon, Wang Yuan was still very nervous even though he was mentally prepared.
Although he doesn't understand military affairs, he knows the power of artillery.
The power of field artillery is enough to defeat the Wuliangha and Wudiha savage Jurchens.
As for the siege cannon, this thing is heavy and is best used for siege. If there is no need for siege, there is no need to forge it at all.
Thinking of this, Wang Yuan couldn't help but worry about his life.
But before he could think about it, Zhu Gaoxu comforted him and said, "You don't have to think too much. I'm doing a good job as my county king outside the pass, and I won't think about doing anything detrimental to the court."
"I just use these cannons just in case. You should have heard the story of Fengbo Pavilion."
"In my humble position, I just cast cannons and only obey His Highness's military orders." Wang Yuan quickly replied. He was worried about his own life and worried about Zhu Gaoxu's rebellion, but he could only hide his thoughts and it was absolutely impossible to say them out.
He, who was in charge of casting cannons, and Zhu Gaoxu were a grasshopper on the same rope. It was impossible for him to expose Zhu Gaoxu.
At the moment, he just hopes that Zhu Gaoxu is just building cannons for defense, not rebellion, as he said.
"Your Highness, now that you've eaten, I'll go and make cannons."
Wang Yuan didn't want to stay in the study for a long time, but Zhu Gaoxu raised his hand to stop him and asked, "What about the flintlock gun?"
"There are still many problems that have not been solved, and the cost is very high, almost three times that of a matchlock gun." Wang Yuan looked embarrassed, and Zhu Gaoxu also comforted him: "Don't worry too much, take your time."
Although the difference between the flintlock gun and the matchlock gun is not very big, in the end there are still some small skills.
If they want to make a handicraft for Zhu Gaoxu to play with, then Wang Yuan and the others can naturally make a fine flintlock gun.
But what Zhu Gaoxu wants now is not a fine flintlock gun, but thousands of fine flintlock guns.
Wang Yuan and the others still have to work hard to overcome the difficulty of this.
"Yes, I resign from my humble position."
Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu had nothing else to explain, Wang Yuan also bowed in return and left the study.
When Zhu Gaoxu saw him leaving, although his face showed no expression, he felt relieved in his heart.
With the matchlocks and field artillery taken care of, he doesn't have much to worry about. The only things that can bother him are money, food and soldiers.
Faced with these two questions, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Meng Zhang: "It is already the twelfth lunar month, can those Jurchens in the mountains still endure it?"
"I can't bear it anymore!" Meng Zhang laughed and talked about this month's results: "Since we stopped trading with each other, many tribes have been unable to feed such a large population. Since the winter moon, the sentinels of Blackwater City have been Every few days, you can meet Jurchens who come to receive care."
"Currently, there are more than 3,600 households in Blackwater City, and the reserve force has recruited 3,672 people."
Meng Zhang waited for Zhu Gaoxu's praise, but Zhu Gaoxu said solemnly: "It's still too slow."
"Is it slow?" Meng Zhang was dumbfounded. In his opinion, the speed was no longer slow.
In fact, Zhu Gaoxu also knew that this speed was not slow, but compared to his ambition, this number of troops was still too few.
There are only hundreds of thousands of Jurchens outside the customs. Although it sounds like a lot, they live in a vast land of more than two million square kilometers outside the customs.
With such a population density, it is very difficult to convey news to every tribe, let alone recruit them.
The reason why the Qing army at the end of the Ming Dynasty was able to recruit so many Jurchens was mainly because the Ming Dynasty had recruited all the Jurchens in the mountains and established guard stations through mutual trade in the past two hundred years.
For Nurhaci, he only needs to follow the location of the customs guard station established by the Ming Dynasty to capture, and he will definitely encounter the Jurchens.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Jurchen population in the Northeast was completely depopulated, largely because the Qing army captured the wild Jurchens.
For example, the city of Yaksa was originally a large city of the Sauron people and was home to more than 20,000 Sauron people.
As a result, Huang Taiji gave an order, and the 8,000 Sauron army was defeated miserably. More than 20,000 people were captured and went south, and the city of Yaksa was burned to the ground.
Many years later, when the Tsarist Russian expedition arrived, they simply used the abandoned materials of the old Yaksa city to build a new Yaksa city.
The Qing army had predecessors who planted trees, so it was very easy to hunt down the Jurchens, but Zhu Gaoxu was the one who planted the trees.
Such an identity meant that it would be very difficult for him to do this, so he did not pursue making more matchlock guns because he was not sure whether he could pull out an army of 30,000 people.
"After next spring, you send people south to find Fudaha and ask him to bring the savage Jurchens from the East China Sea to Blackwater City."
Zhu Gaoxu thought of Fudaha, the guy who eats from both ends.
After hearing this, Meng Zhang nodded to show that he understood, then stood up and asked the two soldiers at the door to clean up the mess on the table, while he led the people back to Blackwater City.
After he left, Zhu Gaoxu also returned to his desk and continued his book-writing journey.
But while he was writing books, his acquaintances in the south were not idle either...
(End of chapter)
