Chapter 259
Cheng Shijie guessed that Catherine was obsessed with Ning Haijun's era-defining naval guns, and he didn't know that she had bad intentions, but he didn't expect that Catherine would come up with this trick.
Replacing artillery with war horses, it can be said that the role of war horses is very huge. For Ning Haijun, it is very important. The first is the mobility of the troops. As Ning Haijun gradually eliminates cold weapons and transforms to hot weapons, it faces more and more problems. The more urgent it is.
In the Cold Weapon Age, supplies were very small, with military rations accounting for the bulk. In addition to various consumable arrows, tents for the soldiers to camp, and one-third of the spare weapons, it was enough.
But the problem is that hot weapons need to carry the same baggage as cold weapons, including various shells, artillery, bullets, and grenades, which requires a large amount of baggage transportation. For example, military illiterates in later generations basically know that a regiment only has one or two thousand men, but a division with three regiments has more than 10,000 people. No matter how you calculate, you can't find such a large number of people.
In fact, in division-level strategic units, the variables that have increased the most are artillery and artillery, baggage transportation, communications support, battlefield medical care, and logistics.
The same is true for the current Ning Navy. A three-inch gun weighs 400 kilograms. For the infantry army, it is not a big problem and is barely acceptable. However, the four-inch gun weighs one and a half tons. For transportation in the cold weapon era, ,too difficult.
Some people may say that that can increase the number of war horses, but the problem is that war horses themselves require a lot of fodder. Under normal circumstances, they need to eat thirty kilograms of fodder. With one more war horse, the logistics consumption of the army will increase by ten people. Although the Sharma can pull and transport, he also eats a lot.
But the problem is that if there are a large number of war horses, more soldiers will be needed to take care of the war horses. This will also increase the difficulty of troop transfer.
But British Sharma doesn't have this problem. At the same time, when farmers are plowing, a Shire horse can plow twenty or thirty acres of land a day. Only an adult can plow twenty or thirty acres of land. With a Shire horse, one person can plow several acres of land. Hundreds of acres or thousands of acres are no problem.
"Don't even think about it, I won't sell it!"
Seeing Cheng Shijie's troubled face, Catherine was very happy. In fact, she started investigating Daming even after being rejected by Cheng Shijie for the first time.
This is the basic operation of businessmen to do what they like, and Catherine is very aware of this truth. After her investigation, she found that although the Ming Dynasty had a vast territory and abundant resources, it lacked good horses, especially excellent horse breeds.
There are several distinctive horse breeds in the Ming Dynasty, such as Mongolian horses, Hequ horses, Kazakh horses, Yunnan (Dian horses), Sanhe horses, Ili horses, etc. But compared with the horses in Europe and Africa, these horses are not excellent breeds.
"Ten horses for one cannon!"
"Don't even think about it!"
Cheng Shijie refused without hesitation.
"It's not too late to listen to what I have to say before you refuse. I mean, ten of each kind of horse. There are twelve kinds of horses here, including Scottish Warmblood Horses, Shire Horses, British Thoroughbred Horses, and Dutch Warmblood Horses. , Trachner, Holsteiner, Hanoverian, Holstein, Oldenburg, Belgian Warmblood, Serra French, Arabian, ten of each type, five males and five Mother, there are a total of one hundred and twenty horses, how about one cannon?"
Cheng Shijie was secretly surprised by Catherine's generosity. You must know that except for horses like Shire horses, which are not good at fighting, the other eleven kinds of horses are top-notch racehorses.
For example, the British Thoroughbred is the fastest horse in the world. For nearly a thousand years, no other breed has surpassed it in speed. More importantly, this breed is genetically stable and has wide adaptability. It is recognized as the best riding horse breed in the world.
The Arabian horse is the oldest horse breed on earth and is considered the origin of all horse breeds worldwide. This kind of horse has outstanding endurance and is the first choice for long-distance training and endurance training. It is also the main basic bloodline of purebred horses. This kind of horse can be stronger than China's Xianbei horse to a certain extent.
Xianbei horses have good endurance and fast charging speed, and can be equipped with heavy cavalry. They were the first war horses of heavy cavalry during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It is a pity that the bloodline of this kind of war horse was mixed up during the Song Dynasty.
At the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, Ma Zheng was attached great importance to. On the basic framework, there were Qunmu Division, Taipu Temple and Driving Department. The Department of Herds and Animal Husbandry is the main agency in charge of horses in the country. It is responsible for raising, breeding and treating horses. Its chief is served by an important minister of the Privy Council. Every year, he goes to inspect the raising and breeding of horses.
During the Song Dynasty, in order to prevent officials from forming small groups and forming cliques for personal gain, the Song Dynasty transferred officials very frequently, and supervisory officials were no exception. They had to be changed every two to three years, and they could not stay in the same position for a long time. Naturally, they are unable to make any achievements, and they are often transferred as soon as they become familiar with the business. In the long run, officials have insufficient ability to adapt to their posts, and the horses they raise are naturally of poor quality.
After horse herding rights were decentralized to the people, the people were already living in poverty, and horses were generally raised as domestic animals. Just feed the horses to eat grass and manage them extensively, as if horses were originally used for fighting. They cannot work like cattle, and they cannot crossbreed to produce superior breeds like cattle. As everyone knows, during this reproduction process, the number of excellent hybrid varieties will gradually decrease. Sure enough, by the Song Dynasty, our country's horse breeds were completely ruined.
Dutch Warmblood Horses, Trachner Horses, and Holsteiner Horses are suitable for short-distance charges and have the advantage of being fast. However, Cheng Shijie does not need such horses very much, but Hanoverian Warmblood Horses are thoroughly German horses. In later generations, It can be seen in obstacle course and equestrian teams in various countries around the world. Hanoverian Warmblood horses are specially used in equestrian competitions such as jumping, show jumping, three-day cross-country races and carriage racing.
In fact, this is one of the best war horses. Holstein horses, Oldenburg horses, Belgian warmblood horses, and Serra French horses are all good at jumping over various obstacles and are the best war horses. choose.
If he had these good horse improvement genes, Cheng Shijie could breed war horses with the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the reason why the Ming Dynasty did not have excellent war horses was mainly because of environmental needs.
European countries do not have large populations, nor do they have many armies. Take the ancient Roman Empire as an example. Each of their Roman legions was about 5,500, but even in the most powerful era of the Roman Empire, there were a total of thirty-nine Roman legions. The legions were stationed in more than 5.5 million square kilometers of land in the Roman Empire. The total strength was less than 200,000, including about 12,000 cavalry. At its lowest period, there were only 21 Roman legions, with a total strength of just over 100,000.
Many netizens like to hypothesize what would happen if the Roman Empire and the Han Empire faced off. If they really faced off, it would be a joke because the two sides are different in size. Because during the Han Dynasty, the number of regular troops remained between 600,000 and 800,000, and the gap between the two sides was three to four times.
During the Han Wu Empire, it was true that the Han Dynasty had the ability to organize an expedition to Dawan, but the Roman Empire did not have the strength to conduct an expedition thousands of miles away. There is no comparison at all. With the strength of the three families of Cao, Liu and Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, any one of them could sweep across the Roman Empire.
If war horses are compared to tanks, China chooses to compare characters. Even during the Han Dynasty, it obtained the famous sweat-blooded horses in Central Asia and the West Pole Horse. But the problem is that such war horses are too delicate and difficult to feed. , prone to illness and death, but various war horses in China, whether they are Mongolian horses, Hequ horses, Yunnan horses, Ili horses, and Sanhe horses, have similar living habits, and they also have a strong advantage in not being overly dependent on the environment. , easy to raise, hardworking and hardworking.
Therefore, during the Tang Dynasty, the Tang army had more than 700,000 war horses, and could organize tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of cavalry at any time to conduct expeditions in all directions. Although the Ming Dynasty said that the number of cavalry was small, this was only in relative terms. There were still hundreds of thousands of cavalry in the Ming Dynasty. The cavalry was just scattered.
If gathered together, the number of cavalry is really no less than that of Jiannu, but although the quantity is there, the quality is really not as good as that of Jiannu's cavalry.
Generally speaking, the Ming Dynasty is no longer what it used to be. The previous dynasties only chose quantity to make up for the lack of quality. If the dynasty was unified, government orders could be issued traditionally and the whole country could be concentrated. The Ming cavalry could also suppress the Mongols.
"Fifteen of each type, a total of one hundred and eighty, exchange for one artillery piece!"
"Don't change!"
Catherine gritted her teeth and said, "Do you know how much I need to spend on these fifteen horses?"
"Does it have anything to do with me?"
"I need to spend three hundred thousand gold ducats!"
"It's just over two hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver!"
"Don't you think it's too much to sell a cannon for more than 280,000 taels of silver?"
"There are cheap artillery. You can buy them from the Portuguese. Their large-caliber naval guns cost 2,500 taels of silver, while small-caliber guns only cost a few hundred taels. Two hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver is enough for you to buy hundreds of artillery pieces. !”
"Is this comparable?"
"Haha, you know there is no comparison!"
Catherine began to increase the price little by little, from fifteen horses, sixteen horses, seventeen horses, eighteen horses, all the way to twenty horses, and then nothing happened.
In fact, she only brought over thirty war horses of each type this time. However, due to various problems during transportation by sea, the most of his war horses now are Arabian horses, and there are twenty-seven horses. There are only twenty horses, and the smallest ones are Serra France horses.
Cheng Shijie saw that Catherine really couldn't add it, so he smiled and said: "I remember I told you many times that I will not sell this cannon. Why are you still thinking about it?"
"But you didn't say you would never sell it. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, I will never let it go."
"You really hit the wall and didn't look back!"
"How many more horses do you have?"
"Two hundred and sixty-three in total!"
"Give me all these horses!"
"You agreed to sell the cannon?"
"How is it possible? You can't threaten me with more than two hundred horses. I can find the Dutch, Portuguese, or even the Spaniards to exchange for these horses. You know, there are still more than 4,000 Spaniards with me. In their hands, their Philip IV can’t just watch these people die, right?”
Catherine was really speechless.
In fact, what Cheng Shijie said is right. These war horses cannot threaten Cheng Shijie. As long as Cheng Shijie pays enough money, the vampires of the Dutch East India Company will definitely try their best to transport these war horses and give them to Cheng Shijie. .
"You fool me!"
Cheng Shijie looked at Catherine and said seriously: "I'm not playing tricks on you, but I'm really helping you!"
"Help me? Is this how you help me?"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "How did you implement the solution to the problem I gave you last time in Venice?"
When Catherine heard this, her expression softened, and she smiled: "According to His Excellency the Duke's solution, we conducted a pilot. First, we established a mercenary army!"
The Republic of Venice City-State established the Legion of San Marco and recruited about 6,000 mercenary soldiers from the Holy Roman Empire. If one person in a family of these Holy Roman Empire members served in the Legion of San Marco, then the members of this family would need five years of service. There is a waiting period before you can become an official citizen of the Venetian city-state.
But if two members of the family served in the Legion of San Marco, the five-year waiting period could be shortened to three years, which was a great attraction for the Holy Romans.
The "service" here is of course different from the so-called service of the Venetians. A true Venetian needs to serve for five years, but a Holy Roman needs eight years.
Although the Holy Romans are waiting in Venice, these quasi-citizens during the waiting period do not have the right to choose or be elected, but they can enjoy various public resources provided by the government of the Republic of Venice, including children's schooling, medical care, and living in the city-state of Venice. and the right to work within the colony, or to do business, invest, or reside.
Voltaire said that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
This is because the Holy Roman Empire had a system called electors, also known as the seven electors. They were the princes of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation who had the right to elect the German emperor. All the nobles in the German territory met to elect a new king. There were mainly 7 people, 3 ecclesiastical feudal lords and 4 secular feudal lords. They are: Archbishop of Cologne, Archbishop of Mainz, Archbishop of Trier, Duke of Saxony, Elector of the Palatinate (or Count of the Rhine Palace), Margrave of Brandenburg, and King of Bohemia (Czech Republic).
This is actually a bit like the Heroes of the Seven Kingdoms during the Qin and Qiu period. The Emperor of Zhou was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Because of the internal and external troubles between the Holy Roman Empire, the burden was extremely heavy and the common people could not bear it. People like them originally had no chance, but With the opening of the Venetian City-State Republic, a large number of people who could not survive in the Holy Roman Empire went to the Venetian City-State Republic to try their luck.
The original plan to recruit 6,000 San Marco legions actually attracted more than 20,000 applicants, which suddenly added a large number of high-quality soldiers to the Venetian City-State Republic.
"Isn't this great!"
"We urgently need His Excellency the Duke's artillery now!"
"Catherine, I have to criticize you, you need to open up the situation!"
"What?"
"Don't think that one cannon can change the fate of the Venetian City-State Republic. You won't..."
Before Cheng Shijie could finish speaking, Catherine hurriedly explained: "Your Excellency, I know that it will bother you to keep pestering you like this, but I really have no choice. You know, Venice is just a small town with a population of about 100,000. However, the city-state’s plan to attract the population has just begun to be implemented, and I cannot bring in too many people. If the Venetians become a minority group, new problems will break out!”
"You can adopt the method of intermarriage!"
Cheng Shijie said: "Learn from the Ming Dynasty, everyone has ten concubines!"
"This is not possible, we have canon rules!"
"Venice is getting weaker and weaker. If this situation does not change, our city-state will disappear from the world!"
Catherine suddenly held Cheng Shijie's hand and almost begged: "Sell us some cannons, okay? We really need it!"
Seeing that she was worried about her country, Cheng Shijie couldn't help but feel a little soft. However, he could not change his principles. The development of primitive artillery and modern artillery was just a layer of window paper. It would be much easier to just pierce this layer of window paper. .
Cheng Shijie said in confusion: "I said you Italians just have something wrong with your brains. You are already a big place, and you have created a lot of city-states and republics that are hostile to each other! What's the use of a city-state no matter how powerful it is? Facing a country that is bent on seizing control. Devouring your country, you have no power to fight back. You can't expect every country that goes against you to be the Byzantine garbage that only breathes more than a dead person? If it were me, I would just ignore the colonies outside. , first concentrate on unifying the whole of Italy, integrating the power of the entire Italian peninsula, and then compete with neighboring countries!"
Catherine smiled bitterly: "Unifying Italy? Is it that easy? After the demise of the great Roman Empire, the whole of Italy fell apart and became a hunting ground for European heroes! Emperor Justinian tried to rejoin these fragments into a complete territory, Tula True Emperors, Hadrian and other good emperors did not give up this dream, but they all failed! Our ancestors tried to unite all the city-state republics into a federal body to face external threats together, but when the danger passed After that, the alliance fell apart immediately!"
"Federation? A country that has been divided for so long is playing federation. Do you think it will last too long? If you want to unify a country, there is no other way but to use steel and blood! Only through this kind of interaction full of blood and wisdom can we unite the country. The broken pieces of the territory are put back together again!"
Catherine's expression became even more bitter: "Where do we have this strength? It's okay at sea, but on land, our army is vulnerable. Let alone unifying Italy, we can't even pass the city-state of Milan. Milan's heavy infantry has always been ours. The nightmare of the Marine Corps! And every time there is a slight sign of unification in Italy, it will immediately attract the intervention of the entire Europe. Unifying Italy is not easy!"
"You are considered someone who is familiar with Ming culture. Have you ever heard of the idiom of distant friendship and close attack? With lightning speed, you will swallow up the closest and weakest city-state to your Venice, then digest it, integrate their power, and then Pick a weak one and swallow up all the weak city-states. Whether on land or at sea, you will have enough strength to compete with those powerful countries... We played this trick more than two thousand years ago. It’s amazing!”
"After all, we are a republic of merchants. Businessmen are serious. Fighting is not what we are best at..."
"Fighting is not something you are good at, but this is something we are good at. You have also seen our Ning Navy fighting. What do you think of our Ning Navy's combat effectiveness?"
"It's very powerful. If it were in Europe, His Excellency the Duke's army could sweep all the armies!"
"Let's do this. You pay to send the newly recruited San Marco Legion to Liaodong. I will send people to train you. You have also seen the heavy armor of our Ning Navy. It is very strong and can ignore arrows. , you can also ignore the swords and stabs and send your St. Marka Army to the Ming Dynasty. I will let my best army train them and let them train into an invincible iron-blooded army. As long as this well-trained army arrives Venice, you Venice can wipe out the decline!”
Catherine reacted immediately: "Your Excellency, don't try to change the subject! Let's talk about the cannon!"
"You are really smart!"
"Thank you for the compliment!"
"As for the cannon, I absolutely can't sell it to you. This matter is non-negotiable. Don't ask for that kind of cannon to be exchanged for war horses. Even if you move the whole of Venice, I won't agree."
Catherine was disappointed.
Cheng Shijie drank all the tea in the cup and said, "Follow me."
Although Cheng Shijie is unwilling to sell the breech-loading rifled cannon, there is a lot of black technology in it. Unless the Ming Dynasty's first industrial revolution, with technological leadership, it is really possible to sell this kind of artillery.
Of course, Cheng Shijie is very willing to sell Venetian equipment, for example, heavy infantry equipment, as well as other equipment.
Catherine followed Cheng Shijie all the way to Jinzhou Beigang District. Jinzhou Beigang, like Lushun South Port, is a military port. Ordinary merchant ships are prohibited from approaching, let alone docking.
The same is true for Beigang District. Beigang District is located at the junction of Gaizhou and Jinzhou. There is no human habitation for twenty miles around. It is not suitable as a seaport. Once a storm comes, these big ships will be in trouble.
What Cheng Shijie wants to sell to Catherine now is actually Fire Dragon Izuku. It is an amphibious rocket in ancient my country and the ancestor of the two-stage rocket.
Under the dragon's head and on both sides of the dragon's tail, a half-pound gunpowder barrel is installed on each side. The four rocket fuses are gathered together and connected to the rocket fuses in the belly of the dragon. During water battles, when facing the enemy ship, stay three or four feet away from the water. Here, ignite the four gunpowder barrels installed on the dragon's body. This is the first-stage rocket. It can propel the fire dragon to fly two or three miles. When the first-stage rocket is burned, it will automatically ignite the rocket in the dragon's belly. This is The second stage of rockets, at this time, fired several rockets from the dragon's mouth, reaching the target directly, causing the enemy ships to burn down.
Of course, in this historical version, after seeing this kind of rocket, Cheng Shijie put forward suggestions for improvement. First, he changed the four rockets into explosive parts and used nitrocellulose as the explosive gunpowder.
Although the charge is only 679 grams, it is roughly equivalent to the power of eighteen wooden handle grenades. If eighteen grenades were thrown on a wooden ship, what kind of damage would it cause?
At least a hundred-ton warship can be killed in an instant, and a three-hundred-four-ton immortal can be severely damaged, which is quite powerful.
"Meet the Marshal!"
Cheng Shijie waved his hand and said, "Is Fire Dragon II ready?"
"Ready!"
"Then let's get started!"
"yes!"
Following Cheng Shijie's order, the technical staff in Beigang District began to get busy. Cheng Shijie and Catherine also climbed up to a watchtower to observe the sea.
About one mile away from the port terminal, this is an experimental ship. At the same location two or three miles away, there is a 400-material gun ship with a displacement of 125 tons.
"call out!"
As a cloud of thick smoke rose, a fire dragon about one and a half meters long roared out and hit the 400-material gunboat 800 meters away, exploding into a bright red fireball.
However, at this moment, the second fire dragon also roared out, followed by the third and fourth fire dragons. The four-unit fire dragon came out of the water. In terms of rate of fire, the advantage was too obvious, even for breech-mounted rifled artillery. Still can't compare with Fire Dragon Izuku's rate of fire.
As the four-unit fire dragon shot out of the water, it hit four 400-material gunboats. The four 400-material gunboats were blown up and pieces of wood flew everywhere. One of them even ignited a fire after hitting it, burning thickly. Smoke billowed and flames shot up seven or eight meters high.
From Catherine's perspective, she could tell at a glance that if a small sail warship took such a shot, it would definitely lose its combat effectiveness. If the fire spread to the warehouse where the ammunition was stored, the unlucky warship would probably be blown to pieces on the spot!
Catherine hugged Cheng Shijie's arm excitedly: "This is exactly what I want! Ten cannon salvos of the same caliber can't produce such an effect! Your Excellency, how on earth did you do it?"
"It doesn't really matter how we do it. What matters is whether this is what you want!"
"Yes, this is exactly what I want. I want a hundred or two hundred of these artillery pieces! As for how much it costs, it's up to you!"
Catherine actually thought it was a naval gun, but in fact, it was not a naval gun, but a two-stage rocket powered by black powder.
"Do you really want to ask me the price?"
"As long as you can provide us with two hundred such cannons and corresponding shells within two years, you can ask for whatever price you want!"
Cheng Shijie was calm on the surface, but he was smiling in his heart. The current Fire Dragon Izuku has been developed to its maximum potential. Unless a pulse rocket engine can be produced, it is unlikely to increase the range. Ning Haijun uses this This weapon is a bit useless, but of course it is still necessary to equip the fire dragon with water.
In close combat, you can defend yourself.
Cheng Shijie said: "I want horses, eight thousand stallions of twelve kinds, half of which are male horses and half of which are mares. They will be delivered within two years!"
"no problem!"
"I want your chart!"
"this……"
(End of chapter)
