Chapter 186 The lethality of the matchlock gun
"Ms. Fengsheng said that Wei Zhongxian said in front of His Majesty that the bank I set up was competing for profits with the people, which caused complaints from Nanjing's nobles and many civil and military officials."
Chen Cao was riding on a war horse. At this moment, Zhang Fengnian's team of servants, who had rushed to the capital because of the previous tense situation, were guarding him in disguise on his left side.
Xin Zhao's brows jumped: "The old gelding wants to frame the Marquis."
"Not really," Chen Cao shook his head: "I voted for his mistress, and now the two of them are competitors. Furthermore, my job is to make money for the emperor. The purpose of what he said is to let the emperor know that I If you have more money, the emperor will always think of me as the enemy who can blackmail you when he has no money."
"A woman with no power and power relies on her beauty to flatter the emperor." Chen Cao turned to look at Xin Zhao: "How much youth do you think she can dedicate?
Hakka is now thirty-six years old. Although the emperor is only twenty years old, there will always be a day when she will be disgusted. At that time, it will be the end of her. "
"No wonder she is willing to let Mr. Hou..."
"Huh?" Chen Cao stared at Xin Zhao, not letting him tell the nonsense behind him: "That's why she tried every means to get her people into the army, and then accepted my surrender. Anyway, she still wanted to save her life... ."
"Master Marquis, I heard from my brothers in Beijing that the Hakka family is so domineering in the inner palace that even the queen doesn't take it seriously."
When Zhao Xin mentioned this, Chen Cao was remembering that when he left Xiyuan, he bumped into the Queen Zhang Yan's sedan chair on the way. This great beauty from the late Ming Dynasty had a frosty look on her face. Even if she didn't look at Chen Cao, it still made Chen Cao jealous. I was so fascinated that I lost my soul.
"Well, the emperor would naturally not like it if he gave birth to a stillborn fetus. He is too young..."
Zhang Yan was only sixteen years old, so she was lucky to be born. Although it was normal to marry at the age of fifteen these days, countless people died due to dystocia, so not being happy with the emperor was naturally one of the reasons.
Of course, the important reason why the Hakka family was favored was because as the queen, Zhang Yan came from a scholarly family and could not please the emperor, so naturally she would not sleep with him.
"If she were older, wouldn't she be a peerless beauty?"
Chen Cao thought to himself.
"Master Marquis, we will reach Tianjin Port in another thirty miles."
Chen Cao thought about some bad things and was having sex alone. He couldn't hear what Zhao Xin said.
The construction of the acropolis of Sanwei in Tianjin was not large. The largest town in the surrounding area was Caojia Town, where in later generations Cao Huachun, the great eunuch of the Chongzhen Dynasty, and his brother Cao Huayu, the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Army.
Of course, Caojia Town now does not have the prestige it had at that time. Cao Huayu was just a small guerrilla general in Jizhou Town, and Cao Huachun was just a young eunuch in the Royal Horse Prison.
Caojia Town is the only way to go. There is a small slope on the left front, which is neither high nor low. If Chen Cao is conscious and not thinking randomly at this moment, when he sees this slope, he will think of the man who ambushed Mulhaqi in Liaodong. That dirt slope.
"Master Hou, be careful..."
Chen Cao was paying attention to Zhang Yan, but he could not hear Zhao Xin's shouts. When he came to his senses, he had been rushed directly from the horse to the ground by an inertial impact force.
Suddenly, a sharp pain came from the left side of his chest...
'Bang bang bang...bang bang bang...bang bang bang...'
'Bang bang bang...bang bang bang...bang bang bang...'
'Bang bang bang...bang bang bang...bang bang bang...'
"Protect the Marquis..."
Zhang Fengnian was very familiar with this. It was the sound of a musket being fired. He brought a team of 150 servants to Beijing this time, dressed as a team transporting silver carts. This was mainly due to Chen Cao's worries and preparations in advance.
Chen Cao, who had taken refuge in the Hakka family, turned the corner, so he did not take safety into consideration. After all, in Beizhili, he really could not imagine that his opponent would ambush him on the road from Tongzhou to Tianjin.
Moreover, the opponent is not using bows and arrows, but water guns.
After Chen Cao was shot and fell to the ground, Zhao Xin and a group of Jinyi guards stood in front of him. They had no shields. After one round of matchlock fire, at least a dozen people fell to the ground. If Zhang Fengnian hadn't led the servants to surround him heavily, Come up, Chen Cao will definitely be beaten into a sieve like Zhao Xin at this moment.
After a round of volleys, the gunfire stopped. Zhang Fengnian immediately judged that the opponent was not using a flintlock gun, but a matchlock gun from the guard army. So he shouted fiercely, pulled out the flintlock gun from the accompanying car, and fired Within a minute, they loaded the gun first. When the attacker appeared for the second time and was about to shoot, he was caught off guard by the servants.
"Catch them alive..."
After Chen Cao tried his best to finish speaking, he fainted from the pain of the lead bullet.
.
When Chen Cao woke up again, he was already on the warship. Instead of taking the canal, he floated directly down the sea and was ambushed in front of Tianjin Wei. He might encounter Shandong horse bandits on the canal.
"ah...."
Chen Cao couldn't help but woke up from the severe pain. The accompanying military doctor was desperately trying to remove the lead bullet between Chen Cao's shoulder blade and his heart.
Chen Cao was lucky. The lead bullet avoided his heart and got stuck in the middle of his shoulder blade. Although the gunshot wound was not fatal, the lead bullet was poisonous. Many people who died from gunshot wounds in this era were not actually dead at that time. It was death from wound infection.
Xin Zhao was right next to him. He was not injured and was angrily cursing the treating military doctor.
The military doctor on board the ship has no experience in treating gunshot wounds. Although he has studied in the academy, he will definitely not care about this when the opponent's main weapons are arrows.
"This is my first time dealing with a gunshot wound. However, I still need to remove the lead bullet first, and then apply gold sore medicine. Mr. Hou has signs of fever, indicating that the wound is infected. Mr. Zhao... I... Xiao... ..”
The military doctor was speechless and frightened. Zhao Xin was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.
Chen Cao heard clearly, so he asked Xin Zhao to help him up and sit upright, looking down at the bloody hole on his chest: "The resources on the ship are limited, let the lead bullets stay inside first, and then get them back to Nanjing. Tang Ruowang and the others know how to deal with it." .”
"Master Marquis, the military doctor said your wound is infected and lead bullets are fatal..."
Zhang Fengnian was also anxious. If something happened to Chen Cao, they would not have a good outcome.
Chen Cao didn't want to die either. If he died, the Nanjing family would suffer the worst fate: "Xin Zhao, bring a dagger."
Chen Cao took the dagger from Xin Zhao and first asked Xin Zhao to roast the dagger in the fire. After the dagger turned red, he asked Xin Zhao to rinse the dagger in wine until the temperature of the dagger dropped.
"Master Hou, what's the use of this?"
"In ancient times, Guan Yun often played chess to scrape bones and cure poison... Now I have Ling Lingqi... Oh no..." Chen Cao was already delirious from the pain. Besides, Guan Yu didn't have chess at that time: "Now I have Chen Cao. Use a dagger to open your chest to get lead bullets..."
"Open the chest?"
Xin Zhao and Zhang Fengnian said in unison, because opening a chest is not a trivial matter.
"Master Hou, you must not be careless. Let the military doctors deal with it first. Let's wait until Nanjing before opening the chest..." Zhang Fengnian was also confused, and immediately slapped his mouth: "You can't open the chest. If you open the chest, there will be no way to survive, Master Hou." ..."
"Get a clean cloth..."
Chen Cao took the clean white cloth from the military doctor's hand: "Zhao Xin, hold down my legs, Fengnian, hold down my left shoulder, military doctor, prepare the cloth for bandage."
After saying that, he stuffed the white cloth into his mouth.
Chen Cao was not a professional doctor, but he still knew how to deal with battlefield first aid, but he also knew that he was very lucky. If it had been replaced by a copper-wrapped bullet, he would have been unable to deal with it even if he knew how to deal with it.
The lead bullet was small, weighing seven cents, and was stuck between the flesh and bones. The military camp had tried to remove it with a knife before, but it was too deep, and he was worried about hurting Chen Cao.
At this moment, Chen Cao could see with the naked eye that the tail of the lead bullet was bright silver like silver in the blood hole. It was just wrapped in flesh, and it was only four to five centimeters.
"ah..."
Chen Cao's mouth was stuffed with cloth, and he was still shaking in pain when he performed the operation. If Zhao Xin and Zhang Fengnian had not asked Xin Zhao and Zhang Fengnian to hold him down in advance, he would have been unable to remove his hand from the pain at this moment.
"ah..."
Once he screamed, he could clearly see and feel that the tip of the knife had touched the lead bullet. The rotation of the lead bullet in the flesh made his face pale with pain and his head was covered with cold sweat.
Chen Cao turned it a dozen times in succession until he was numb from the pain, and finally picked the lead bullet out of the flesh bit by bit...
"Ah...uh..."
These were the only two sounds Chen Cao could make at the moment, but these two sounds were enough to prove how much pain he suffered.
"Take it out, Mr. Hou..."
the military doctor shouted excitedly.
Chen Cao pointed to the prepared gunpowder, and the military doctor sprinkled all the gunpowder directly on Chen Cao's bloody hole.
'Bah...'
Along with the dazzling white light and Chen Cao's loud groan, the previous noise in the cabin stopped.
Xin Zhao grabbed the military doctor and said with red eyes, "Do you want to harm Mr. Marquis?"
The military doctor was so scared that he trembled all over and quickly explained: "Master Zhao misunderstood. This is battlefield wound first aid taught by the Marquis at the academy. The Marquis said that when the wound is too large, in order to effectively stop the bleeding of the injured, fire and medicine can be used. At the wound, the burning temperature of the gunpowder after being ignited can effectively kill the poison in the wound, not only stopping bleeding, but also disinfecting."
"Old Zhao... put him down quickly, Master Hou's bleeding has stopped."
Zhang Fengnian drank to stop Zhao Xin because he saw that the bleeding shoulder of Chen Cao, who was unconscious, had stopped bleeding, and there was a black blood blister at the blood hole.
"Now how to do?"
The military camp heard Zhang Fengnian's inquiry and quickly replied: "Back to Mr. Zhang, now we can only apply gold sore medicine on the wound of the Marquis to bandage it. The Marquis has his own destiny and will definitely get better, but what we need to worry about is Whether Mr. Hou has a high fever that won't go away, we'd better return to Nanjing as soon as possible and let Mr. Tang and the professors from Taixi treat Mr. Hou, which will improve his condition."
"Old Zhang, let's go down the sea at a very fast speed. Look at Mr. Marquis, and I'll go to the bilge and ask those people to row faster."
"good..."
