Chapter 197
Hou Fangyu can be regarded as one of the cheaters. After all, he is young and energetic. After being manipulated by Wen Tiren, an old fox, Hou Fangyu was easily included.
When Hou Xun was demoted and imprisoned, he was not nervous or panicked. In fact, it was normal for officials in the Ming Dynasty to be imprisoned. Not only would they not be embarrassed, but they would also make a mark on their resume.
What's more, Hou Xun is also a frequent visitor to Jinyiwei's prison. As early as Tianqi II, Hou Xun, his father Hou Zhipu, and his younger brother Hou Ke were both rescued by Shulun because of the "Moving Palace Case" and the "Hongwan Pill Case". Wang Ji, the Minister of Punishment, was hated by the traitors in the court at that time. Later, the father and three sons were dismissed from office, and Hou Xun went to prison for the first time in the fourth year of Tianqi.
The main reason is that they are the Donglin Party and the vanguard of the anti-Eunuch Party, so they have a good reputation. Of course, there is no right or wrong in the officialdom, and there is no question of right and wrong. It is not because Hou Xun is a good person because he opposes the Eunuch Party. There is actually nothing in the officialdom. Good people.
If he is really a good person, how did Hou Bancheng get his reputation? Needless to say, the Hou family's ancestral home in Beiyuan in Guide Prefecture can be said to have been accumulated by the ancestors. However, Hou Fangyu's South Garden, also known as Zhuangmei Garden, was built in the first year of Chongzhen after Hou Xun's resurrection. Built by Guide Mansion.
If Huang Taiji were allowed to see Hou Fangyu's Zhuangmei Garden, Huang Taiji would want to die. His Shenyang Palace was simply a pigsty. This is not something the author wrote blindly. In fact, if later generations had not rebuilt the Shenyang Forbidden City, this palace would not even be comparable to the landlord's compound.
Of course, this is not because Huang Taiji and Nurhachi are frugal and frugal, but because the weather in the Northeast is too cold. It is not that they cannot build tall and majestic palaces, but because it is easy to build such a palace, but the problem is that it is too cold to live in them.
The palace built by Huang Taiji and Nurhachi was based on heating and practical considerations, so they built the palace short and narrow. Of course, another reason is that the Eight Banners political system has very few people who can participate, that is, the Eight Banners The leader plus eight small banner leaders. If it is an enlarged meeting, there will be sixteen banner leaders plus forty Jia La'erzhen, and the total number of people is less than one hundred.
But the Ming Dynasty was different. The Ming Dynasty's court meetings were usually held in Fengtian Hall, Huagai Hall, and Jinshen Hall. The author does not know the specific personnel who participated in the court meeting in the Ming Dynasty. Generally speaking, officials of seventh grade and above in the capital will participate. However, on August 12, the fifteenth year of Hongzhi (1502), the number of absentees reached 1160, and the highest official position It is Chen Xuan, the Marquis of Taining. Even unofficial historians say that when the morning bell rings, more than ten thousand crows fly up, and people jokingly call it "Crow Dynasty".
The system of establishing slaves was simple and naturally did not require so many spacious palaces. However, the Ming Dynasty was different. There were too many officials. Of course, compared with later generations, it was a child's play. In later generations, the officials of a county were almost equivalent to all the officials in the capital of the Ming Dynasty.
Just like spring has begun to bloom in Dengzhou, and flowers are blooming in Guide Prefecture, but it is still very cold in southern Liaoning, so you need to wear thick cotton clothes.
Hou Xun built the plum garden for his son, and the main contributors were actually the Guide Guards of Guide Prefecture. Guide Guards could mobilize tens of thousands of Guard Guard soldiers as free labor, and the city of Guide Prefecture was in the middle of a lake. It can be said that every inch of land in the island city is very expensive, but the Hou family has built such a huge mansion.
Originally, the people of Guide Mansion were angry and dared not speak out against the Hou family, but now it's better. Hou Fangyu showed off his wealth by showing off his own father.
As soon as Cheng Shijie arrived in Dengzhou, Gao Qiqian followed suit. Of course, this time Gao Qiqian was not showing off his wealth to Cheng Shijie, but complaining.
The good job was snatched away by Wang Zhixin, who got the good job of going south to Guide Mansion to raid Hou Xun's house.
He comforted Gao Qiqian with good words, but of course Cheng Shijie fanned the flames in front of Gao Qiqian: "Eunuch Gao, can you bear this? Taking someone's money is like killing your parents. This is absolutely intolerable. Let's do this. I'll give you a try. Treasure Sword, go and destroy the king’s heart!”
"Gah?"
Gao Qiqian didn't understand what Cheng Shijie meant.
Cheng Shijie made a gesture of wiping his neck, and Gao Qiqian finally understood.
"General Cheng is joking, how could..."
"Of course I'm joking!"
Cheng Shijie said calmly: "Eunuch Gao, given the relationship between us, if you robbed the Hou family, why would you also have Cheng's share?"
"Who says it's not the case? This bastard Wang Zhixin must be eating so much that his mouth is full of oil!"
Cheng Shijie smiled: "Eunuch Gao can just find a young eunuch and make the king's heart break, that's it!"
As he spoke, Cheng Shijie waved his hand, and a soldier came over holding a small box.
Gao Qiqian asked in confusion: "This is..."
"Eunuch Gao, given our relationship, can I not help you? As the saying goes, sharpening the knife will not waste time chopping wood. If you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen the tool. If you want to kill someone, how can you do it without someone who can take advantage of it? !”
Cheng Shijie reached out and opened the small box, revealing a pistol. This is a revolver, and of course it is not the same as a revolver in the later sense. It is a flint gun that uses nitrocellulose as a propellant.
Historically, in 1718, eighty-five years later, British lawyer James Puckle invented the Puckle Gun, which was loaded with nine rounds.
This was actually an opportunity that Cheng Shijie had in later life. He saw a shooting case in the beautiful country. After the Chinese victim "Sister Hua" killed the gangster with five shots, he came up with an idea. For a long time in the future, Cheng Shijie will not have the power to purge the lowly slaves in Liaodong. The people who farm in Liaodong will always be attacked by slaves and bandits.
Although Cheng Shijie copied a large number of soft-gang repeating crossbows from Jinyiwei's Zhuge Liannu, this kind of Zhuge Liannu has a crossbow made of soft wood. Trigger, when the user pulls the trigger, the crossbow is pulled open, and at the same time the crossbow arrow falls into the arrow trough. After firing an arrow, the user repeats this action again until all arrows are shot.
Although the Zhuge Crossbow can fire continuously, the crossbow is weak and has a range of only twenty steps. It is a weapon used by the people to prevent theft and is rarely used by the army. Jinyiwei can use it because their targets are people without armor, so it still has a certain effect. But the problem is that this Zhuge Liannu is too heavy, weighing about five kilograms and seven taels, and the winding force is about sixty kilograms.
If they are old, weak, women and children, there is no way to use it like Sister Hua. Of course, Ning Haijun's muskets are powerful enough at this stage, but the problem is that if such muskets flow into the private sector, they will easily be sold, and eventually fall to In the hands of Jiannu.
In this case, Ning Haijun's Gun Bureau manufactured a revolver based on the principles provided by Cheng Shijie. This revolver fired non-metal bullets. Since mercury fulminate had not been invented, it could only adopt such a manufacturing process. With the advanced technology, the bullets produced are wrapped in paper, and the warhead part is also a lead head. It is packed in nine bullets, has a range of up to thirty steps, and has super strong penetrating power.
If within a dozen steps, even the white-armored soldiers of Jiannu can shoot a hole with one shot, which is quite powerful. Of course, since this kind of revolver has no rifling, the bullet will not be accurate at long distances. Of course, paper-cased bullets have problems that are difficult to solve. They don't burn sufficiently and ash will form in the barrel, but there will be no problem if they are cleaned.
Cheng Shijie's real purpose in inventing this more powerful and easy-to-carry revolver has two aspects. First, it is to prevent slave creation. The threat of Jiannu is still huge. Now Ning Haijun is not afraid of the decisive battle of Jiannu, but is afraid of Jiannu's guerrilla tactics.
Guerrilla tactics are very troublesome for the defensive side. Just when Cheng Shijie was leaving for the capital in December last year, a vicious case occurred in southern Liaoning.
This vicious case was led by a Niulu Ezhen named Maketu. In the Battle of Bali Bay, Maketu's Niulu Ezhen was defeated by the Ning Navy. Maketu himself was also severely wounded. Later, Jiannu retreated. Several of Maketu's coated slaves fled with Maketu, and were later separated from the army of slave builders.
This Maketu was very lucky and escaped Ning Haijun's pursuit. At that time, there was a blizzard, which covered up the traces of Maketu and others. Later, Maketu hid in the mountainous area of Maokui Mountain for nearly a month. Minions are good at hunting and have strong survival abilities in the wild.
But the problem is that after the wound healed, Maketu did not dare to run to Shenyang. He knew that deserters like him would not escape being punished even if they ran back to Shenyang. Therefore, he decided to seize the king and become the grass-headed king himself. He actually found dozens of surviving Jiannu troops.
The experience of these defeated troops was similar to that of Maketu. They all had homes and could not return. Especially after the great victory in Liaoyang, Ning Haijun also relaxed his vigilance. After all, it was approaching the end of the year. Most of them had worked hard for a year, so they should enjoy the fruits of their labor. That's it. , Maketu and other sixty-seven people stayed in bed during the day and went out at night, exploring all the way to southern Liaoning.
In the Daling Mountains of Fuzhou, they hid themselves. While the soldiers and civilians of southern Liaoning were busy celebrating the New Year, sixty-seven of them broke into Dahe Town in Fuzhou, an immigrant settlement newly established in southern Liaoning. This town had less than 200 people. Since Fuzhou already belonged to the internal area of southern Liaoning at this time, the defense was not rigorous. Moreover, the time for establishing the town was short, and the town fort was not established or built.
At this time, the town was only one person tall, and the weather was cold, so there was no further construction. This gave Maketu and others the opportunity. So on New Year's Eve, the sixty-seven slaves broke up and, under the leadership of Maketu, , stormed into this town, and massacred all 207 people in Dahe Town, even the children.
Afterwards, they buried the bodies and prepared to grab some votes after the New Year. It was a pity that after the New Year, there was a tradition of visiting relatives. Although there were not many people in Dahe Town, they all fled together from the same hometown and clan. Yes, it will only disrupt the dispersed arrangements and avoid the formation of stubborn clan forces.
If Maketu is bold and careful, he can deceive these people who are visiting relatives. After all, immigration resettlement is disrupted at any time, and dispersed resettlement is normal. But the problem is that in order to avoid discovery, Maketu decided to take a preemptive strike and prepare to visit relatives when these people come to visit them. The people were put into the town and killed.
Mark calculated everything, but he failed to realize that this commoner who came to visit his relatives was actually Xu Dazhu, a soldier of the Ning Navy and a veteran with rich combat experience. Xu Dazhu was an ordinary soldier in the Guards Division of the Ning Navy. During the Battle of Bali Bay, he was shot three arrows in the chest by Jiannu. However, the problem was not serious. The most serious injury was his arm, which was shot by a white-armored soldier. Broken.
Ning Haijun's wounded soldiers were allowed to go home to spend the New Year with their families. Xu Dazhu was promoted to Chief Hundred because of his bravery in combat. In the eyes of Xu Dazhu's father, Xu Xiancheng, this was a matter of honoring his ancestors.
As the saying goes, wealth never returns to its hometown, just like walking at night in brocade. Now that his son has been promoted to CEO, he naturally has to show off in front of relatives. Accompanied by Xu Dazhu, his sixteen-year-old brother Xu Erzhu, and his third brother Xu Sanzhu, Xu Xiancheng went to Dahe Town. , that is, Xu Dazhu’s uncle’s house is visiting relatives.
Xu Dazhu fell asleep while sitting in the carriage. Before arriving at the town, he was having a nightmare and shouted: "Kill Jiannu!"
Maktu thought he had been discovered and ordered an attack.
But when Xu Dazhu noticed that Jiannu was rushing towards them, he realized something was wrong. He immediately took out the fireworks used by Ning Haijun soldiers for emergency communication. Although this firework did not save the lives of Xu Dazhu's family, it successfully issued a warning.
Ning Haijun dispatched more than a thousand soldiers from the Fuzhou Garrison Bureau. Finally, with the cooperation of Ning Haijun, it took a month and a half to capture Maketu's group of 67 slaves.
But the problem is that this tragedy gave Cheng Shijie a wake-up call. War will promote people's rapid growth and flexibility. If the Jiannu adopts the method of breaking up into parts and harasses southern Liaoning from time to time, the spring plowing work in southern Liaoning will be greatly affected.
It can be said that there is no way to prevent it. Under this urgent need, Cheng Shijie can only adjust the inspection work in southern Liaoning and the search work in mountainous areas and forests.
You wouldn't know if you didn't check it, but you would be really shocked if you check it. During this period of time, Ning Haijun spent a lot of manpower and material resources through a dragnet search, and really found a lot of Jiannu defeated troops. Lin Lin Zongzong combined, A total of more than 600 people.
Faced with the harsh security environment in southern Liaoning, Cheng Shijie could only strengthen the people's armed forces. Although the power of the firecrackers was acceptable, the problem was that the firecrackers were inconvenient to carry and difficult to load. The Ninghai Navy Gun Bureau did not completely solve the rifling problem. It is unrealistic and wasteful to equip civilians with firearms on a large scale.
Secondly, Cheng Shijie is preparing to implement the Castle Law and the Non-Retreat Act in southern Liaoning. The so-called Castle Law means that if a person breaks into the master's house without being invited by the master, whether by mistake or premeditated, as long as the master thinks that he has been When there is a physical threat, you can shoot and kill the opponent immediately.
In this way, whether you are a drunkard, a pervert, or a gangster, you need to be careful, because there are too many scum in southern Liaoning now, posing an extremely serious threat to ordinary people.
In addition, the non-compromising bill is also to cultivate the martial spirit of the people in southern Liaoning. When encountering threats to their own safety, do not be intimidated and directly fight back.
To implement this bill, it is actually to provide insurance for ordinary people. The people of the Ming Dynasty were bullied miserably by officials and gentry. Generally speaking, the people did not dare to resist. Cheng Shijie does not have enough talents now, and it does not mean that if officials from poor backgrounds are promoted, they will do practical things for the people.
In fact, the integrity of officials is similar to that of prostitutes. It is more difficult to prevent them from bullying the people than to get prostitutes to be good. Although officials can be restrained from the system, the problem is that this also requires the people to have a spirit of resistance.
If Cheng Shijie thought about the tax laws he was enforcing in southern Liaoning, if some officials from the tax bureau still wanted to forcefully collect taxes from the people like they did in the Ming Dynasty, they would have to go to people's homes.
However, Cheng Shijie would ask that the common people, no one, including government servants, tax collectors, and officials, have no right to search the homes of ordinary people without a search warrant. However, if they break in by force, they can fight back in self-defense.
Cheng Shijie will enact laws and strictly control the issuance of search warrants, so it is impossible to bring a few henchmen to the towns and cities to show their dominance.
The basis of a battle is firearms, flexible and lightweight firearms.
In fact, the revolver is not complicated. The manufacturing process is extremely simple. A barrel is nothing more than six inches long. It is cast by direct cold casting. After heat treatment, it is ready. A row of molds can cast sixty guns at a time. Roots, after cutting, can be formed, three hundred and sixty.
Even the most core component, the left rotating wheel, is also cast.
Cheng Shijie took the left revolver, loaded the paper bullets into it, pointed at the target not far away, and pulled the trigger.
"Bang bang bang bang..."
As the gunfire rang out like a burst of beans, this round of rapid fire shot past, and nine bullets knocked the target upside down.
Only then did Gao Qiqian realize the difference in this gun: "This..."
"Eunuch Gao, how are you? This gun is good, isn't it? As long as you hold this gun, and when you see Wang Zhixin, aim at him with a rapid fire. I can guarantee that Wang Zhixin will be useless even if he knows the Sunflower Book!"
Gao Qiqian then took the pistol. Of course, he would never use it against Wang Zhixin, but for self-defense.
"This gift is too heavy, I can never accept it!"
"No matter how precious it is, how important is the friendship between you and me? Take it! If you don't want it, I'll throw it away!"
Gao Qiqian thanked him again and again before accepting it.
Both sides said goodbye reluctantly.
Cheng Shijie then decided to set off. Since Hou Xun did not dare to rebel, it would be useless even if he wanted to, because although gentry like Hou Xun were influential in the local area, the problem was that they were too bad and the common people would not Follow them to rebel. Besides, with Hou Xun's thousands of untrained servants, if it happens, Cheng Shijie won't mind and will kill them casually.
In fact, just as Cheng Shijie expected, until Wang Zhixin ransacked Hou Xun's home, the Hou family had nothing to lose. The exact amount of money confiscated was not something Cheng Shijie knew. After all, Wang Zhixin didn't just rob Hou Xun's house. The money will not be given to Cheng Shijie.
On March 24th, the sixth year of Chongzhen, Cheng Shijie boarded the ship and set off for Liaonan. There were still many things waiting for him to do in Liaonan.
Zhu Weiti took a boat ride for the first time and was very curious when he saw everything on the boat.
This is the second batch of large ships produced by Lushun Shipyard. It is made of 2,500 materials. If converted into displacement, it is equivalent to 812 tons. However, there is only one ship in this batch.
Moreover, it was a transitional warship from the Lushun Shipyard. Since it was not safe to launch a large ship with 3,000 materials at once, it was launched with 2,500 materials, which was a difference of 500 materials.
But the problem is, missing these 500 materials is very embarrassing. If it were the same as the original Four King Kongs, equipped with twenty-four three-inch smoothbore cannons, the displacement of five hundred materials would be a waste, but it would not be able to accommodate thirty-six cannons. As for the newer artillery, it has not yet been produced.
After several months of navigation training, the Four King Kongs have also undergone supplementary optimization. After actual testing, this 2,000-material warship can serve as a light frigate of the Ning Navy and perform maritime patrol tasks.
And it can enter the inland river, which is much stronger than the 400-material battleship. The shipyard plans to build a 3,000-material main battleship, and needs to enter into exploratory experiments.
The previous four King Kongs served as Cheng Shijie's escort warships.
Cheng Shijie looked at Zhu Weiti and said with a smile, "Do you like it?"
"like!"
Although Zhu Weiti is a landlubber, he does not get seasick. In fact, many people who are not accustomed to water do not get seasick.
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "If you like, you can give this ship a name!"
"naming?"
Zhu Weiti asked in confusion: "Why do you want me to choose a name?"
Cheng Shijie smiled lightly and said, "Because I gave this ship to you."
"Give it to me?"
Zhu Weiti was a little confused: "Why did you give it to me?"
Cheng Shijie sighed and said: "When we arrive in Liaonan, everything is complicated and I don't have time to accompany you. If you want to go back to the capital, then take this ship and you can come back at any time!"
Zhu Weiti understood that this was Cheng Shijie's compensation for her.
On their wedding night, Zhu Weiti thought Cheng Shijie was just drunk, but on the second night, he did not go back because he had an excuse to be at the Haiguogong Mansion in Daxing County.
Later, he basically stopped meeting with Zhu Weiti on the excuse that he was tired and had things to do. Later, Cheng Shijie spoke openly and honestly with Zhu Weiti.
Tell her that he has a wife named Xiang Hui. Now that he doesn't know Xiang Hui, he can't betray Xiang. I hope she can understand.
Zhu Weiti understands Cheng Shijie because she knows that her marriage to Cheng Shijie has a strong political connection, that is, Li Kangfei has vaccinated her in advance, and if she cannot let Cheng Shijie accept her, her life will be very sad.
Zhu Weiti is very confident that she will never become Chongzhen's spy, nor will she become Emperor Chongzhen's puppet to try to influence or control Cheng Shijie.
She is very confident that Cheng Shijie will accept her one day.
When Zhu Weiti heard that Cheng Shijie gave her this ship, she didn't think too much and just smiled and said: "Let's call it Le'an!"
Le'an is Zhu Weiti's title. It was given to her by Emperor Chongzhen, but she didn't like what Chongzhen gave her. After thinking about it, she changed her mind and said, "Then call her the title of Eighth Princess!"
"The Eighth Princess!"
What Cheng Shijie gave Zhu Weiti was just a ship, but it was not a warship in the true sense because the ship was not equipped with artillery and there were no soldiers.
The ships and sailors are all workers at the Lushun Shipyard, and are temporarily controlled by Cheng Shijie's personal soldiers.
Cheng Shijie said: "Let your people come over and get familiar with this ship first. From now on, this ship will need your people to control it!"
Zhu Weiti shook her head: "Let your husband's people come!"
She is more willing to trust Cheng Shijie's people than those given to her by Emperor Chongzhen.
(End of chapter)
