Dagukou Pier.
A large number of boxes and cattail bags containing munitions were unloaded from a large bird ship that had just arrived carrying the "Smooth Sailing" flag of the Tianjin Customs Road. Hundreds of strong workers pushed wheelbarrows to carry these boxes and cattail bags back and forth. Dagukou Wharf The last one was in full swing.
Several "Jin Shi Ye" (Tianjin Master) and "Yang Shi Ye" (foreign servants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) of the Tianjin Customs Road were sweating profusely checking these weapons, equipment and military supplies. What was transported from Jiangnan this time was not only arms, but also a large number of Huaixi Red Scarf clothes and flags - these clothes, armor and flags are confidential materials and must be transported immediately to the warehouse of Zhongjian Fort and hidden , which could not be replaced by the new army that Yang Sanye had worked so hard to manage until they went to the battlefield.
As for the flintlocks, lances, and artillery, they must be immediately transported to the new regiment training camp next to Zhongjian Fort and distributed to a new regiment training army that has been training there for almost a year. You must seize the time to familiarize yourself with the equipment. Otherwise, if you don't know how to use it on the battlefield, you won't be able to exert the combat effectiveness of this new army.
Speaking of the strength of this new army, it is quite strong!
First of all, the tactics of this new army are very advanced, using the most advanced "two-gunner coordination tactics."
This is the latest tactic of the Guangdong New Army, and even the Huaixi Red Army has not yet used it!
The so-called double-pike tactic is, of course, not a big soldier firing two guns, but a mixture of fusiliers and pikemen in a ratio of one to one.
This tactic is actually the transition from the phalanx tactics of the matchlock era to the queuing and shooting tactics of the flintlock era. The pike cannot be completely abandoned. During the battle, pikemen also need to form a sparse array (phalanx or horizontal array) to support the battle line. , and at the same time use flintlock volleys to output firepower.
Secondly, Yang Qilong also followed Li Zhongshan's method of running schools and running the army, recalling a dozen of the Tianjin Weiluo sect's disciples who had joined the Jingwu Sect in Beijing from Li Zhongshan's army, and then let them serve as instructors, and opened a new branch in Zhongjian Fort. A Beiyang Arms Academy.
Later, Yang Qilong used his connections to recruit a hundred apprentices from the Military Academy. They were basically the children of the Yang family of Tianjin Wei, the children of the Zhili family who had an old relationship with the Yang family, and those who were literate in Luo Jiao Taoism along the canal. Young disciples. These apprentices will participate in one year of training at the Arms Academy, and upon graduation, they will join their teachers as key officers of the new army.
In addition to these officer apprentices from the Northern Zhili clan and the Luo Jiao Taoist sect, Yang Qilong also recruited a group of "military foreign slaves" from the Ministry of Internal Affairs headed by Luo Dongni to his sect, making them responsible for the training of new recruits, and also made them Act as an officer in the new army.
Third, the recruits of this new army all come from rural areas of Zhili. Although Yang Qilong himself came from a mixed market and Luo Jiao Taoist sect, he did not accept recruits from the market and Luo Jiao Taoist sects. All he recruited were rural soldiers with very simple thoughts. They are all honest people who uphold the simple idea of working hard for whomever they take money from, eat for whomever they eat, and wear whose clothes they wear!
This honest man is still very powerful when he attacks!
And the last great thing is that Yang Qilong has already thought of a particularly resounding name for this new army - Beiyang New Army!
The reason why he has this famous name is because Yang Qilong, who leads this new army, is the Minister of Commerce of Beiyang! Moreover, all the military expenses for this new army were raised by the Yamen of the Minister of Commerce and Industry of Beiyang.
Whoever you get money from, you can use his name!
In a corner of the dock, the big boss of the Beiyang New Army, the Minister of Commerce of the Qing Dynasty, the Minister of Tuanlian, and the Tianjin Customs Road Master Yang Qilong were walking around casually with the two leaders of the Beiyang New Army, Chen Yi and Zhu Shangxian. Look, from time to time he opens a box or cattail bag, takes out the Foshan-made flintlock gun and plays with it a few times, nodding with satisfaction and smiling at the two people around him: "Foshan-made is really good! This is better in workmanship than the shotgun made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But it’s too powerful. Is this the kind of musket you use in the Huaixi Army and the Guangdong Army? Are there any better guns?”
Chen Yi and Zhu Shangxian were both young men who joined the Jingwu Sect together with their senior sister Yang Xiaohuan. They are now young men. They have been in the army of the Li family and their sons over the years. They also studied at the Guangdong Martial Arts School and also lectured in Nanjing. Wu Tang served as an instructor and his experience was very exciting. So they have all grown into very good officers! Just the straight military posture makes people feel elite.
"Lord, there are better muskets over there in Foshan, called in-line rifled guns."
The person who answered this question was Chen Yi. He was two years older than Zhu Shangxian and looked very talented, so he relied on Yang Qilong even more. After returning from Nanjing, he was immediately promoted by Yang Qilong to the position of General Staff Officer of the Beiyang New Army and Director of the Beiyang Arms Academy. .
Yang Qilong also rewarded him with a girl from the Yang family. She is not a biological sister, but a cousin. However, her mother is also a woman in the circle of Nzi's house (she is considered a candidate. If it is not finished in the Ming Dynasty, it will probably be filled in), so it is also inherited. Got a good figure!
So Chen Dajun is now also a member of the Yang family!
"Is it the kind of musket with grooves in the barrel?" Yang Qilong asked.
"Yes, that's it." Zhu Shangxian, who came back from Nanjing with Chen Yi, smiled and took over the topic, "My lord, have you seen it?"
This Zhu Shangxian is not as decent-looking as Chen Yi, he is just an amiable little fat man. His ancestors were also Jin Yiwei in Beijing. After the Ming Dynasty, they went to live in Tianjin, where he was born. Because his father knew Yang Qilong's father, he had been gangstering with Yang Qilong since he was a child. Later, he became a master of Li Zhongshan, and now he has prospered. He also married a daughter of the Yang family and became Yang Qilong's "sect", so he also gained Yang Qilong's trust.
"Well," Yang Qilong nodded and frowned, "General Li also gave me some. He also told me in the letter that these grooved guns are very expensive and must be used by sharpshooters, specially used to carry out dirty tricks. "
His words ended abruptly here.
Yang Qilong knows the black hand thing best. His family is also an ancestral Jin Yiwei!
But this matter is not the same as the Beiyang New Army.
Zhu Shangxian nodded and said: "Lord, in fact, it is not too difficult to make this flintlock gun and rifled flintlock gun. But it is not easy to mass-produce it. The reason why Foshan can mass-produce it is because the iron and copper industry there is extremely It is prosperous, and at least hundreds of thousands of craftsmen are looking for food in the Iron and Copper Industry.
If we want to compete with Nanming for a long time, we must have our own iron industry town, otherwise we will not be able to supply so many guns and cannons when we really fight a big war. "
He had been in charge of equipment in the Guangdong New Army, so he knew all about the production of flintlock muskets and bronze cannons. These two weapons were actually not difficult to make, it just required sufficient materials, sufficient workmanship, and skilled hands.
As for the materials, labor and skilled hands, firstly, you must be willing to spend money, and the purchase unit price cannot be too low, otherwise you will not be able to do a loss-making business. The second is to cultivate the metallurgical industry.
Foshan's advantage is that it has the largest metallurgical industry cluster in the world. This cannot be compared to the Qing Dynasty or the Zhou Dynasty. If Yang Qilong wants to be "as loyal as Yang Jian", then he must develop an industry as soon as possible.
After all, making muskets and cannons is a manual job these days. If you want to have more guns and cannons, you must have enough craftsmen to do the work.
Yang Qilong nodded and said: "We will figure out a solution for this matter later. Now it is better to send out all these flintlock guns quickly and seize the time to let the brothers master the secrets of the flintlock guns. I will give you fifteen days. In fifteen days it will be On the day of payment, I want to see what the brothers are capable of!"
"Lord, just watch it!"
"Lord, don't worry, you can't go wrong by leaving it to us!"
At Dagukou, outside Zhongjian Fort, on the campus, the three armies gathered together again on this day, fierce as a forest.
There were almost 10,000 new Beiyang troops, all without hats, revealing short hair that was still growing and could not be thinned into a bun. They were wearing neat blue uniforms with the word "brave" on their chests, and they stood silently and solemnly. Eight battalions square formation and forty-eight teams horizontal formation formed a perfect lineup.
Viewed horizontally and vertically, they are all a line.
The five officers of each team stood at the front of the row with swords on their shoulders, and they remained motionless despite the sea breeze blowing on them from Dagukou.
This kind of killing, this kind of queue, if they were dressed like the Huaixi Red Scarf Army, they would probably scare Emperor Kangxi directly.
And these "direct" officers of the Beiyang New Army, who were related to Yang Qilong and had long been integrated into one, were all in high spirits when they were in the queue!
At first glance, you can tell that they are all masters who fight for themselves!
When more than 10,000 people stood in silence, Yang Qilong, accompanied by several soldiers carrying plates of small silver cakes, had already begun the monthly payment ceremony.
What he distributed to the soldiers were silver cakes of one or two weight each. They were not 100% pure silver and were less than 90% fine. The rest were mixed with copper and other miscellaneous impurities. They were beaten by hand. Each piece was beaten by hand. Weighing about one tael, it has the words "One Liang Silver" on the front and "Produced by Guangdong Customs" on the back.
This kind of silver cake was created by Foshan Town in accordance with the requirements of Guangdong Customs Bank (Zhongshan Hall). The purpose is to provide Guangdong Customs and Guangdong Customs Bank with a standardized and legalized currency - although silver has the status of hard currency , but it is not a standardized currency. It is not even accurate to calculate the silver content of one tael of silver, let alone other things.
Therefore, silver is very troublesome to use as the settlement currency for occasional large-value transactions of banks. How about not issuing pieces of silver for testing? Only masters can tell the quality based on experience.
The disadvantages of this are huge. Among other things, it is difficult to issue just a "silver coin standard" bank note (early paper currency). Auxiliary coins between one tael of silver and one penny, such as "one tael of silver" small silver coins, are even more difficult to issue.
So after Li Zhongshan captured Guangfu, he began to slowly develop standard silver coins, silver coin standards and silver coin certificates.
The Guangdong Customs, Tianjin Customs, Fujian Customs, Ning Customs, and Jiang Customs, no matter who the master is, now all accept the concept of "one tael of silver coins" - their "one tael of silver" refers to The only one is one tael of silver coin supervised by Guangdong Customs!
At the same time, the "four major halls", namely Zhongshan Hall, Ruiyintang, Ruixin Hall and Nanyang Hall, also regarded the one-tael silver coins supervised by Guangdong Customs as their "silver one-tael". Banks and commercial banks that have close financial dealings with these large banks have gradually accepted the concept that "one tael of silver coins" is equivalent to "one tael of silver."
In addition, the Ming government also encouraged subordinates to use one tael of silver coins to pay taxes, and gradually began to use one tael of silver coins or corresponding silver certificates and bills to pay salaries to officials and soldiers.
Ruiyintang, controlled by Yang Qilong, also had a large number of one-tael silver coins, and the Tianjin Customs Road under his control also followed suit and supervised the production of many identical one-tael silver coins "produced by Tianjin Customs Road."
Therefore, when he paid money to the Ministry of Internal Affairs controlled by Fuquan and paid salaries to the people below him, he also used this kind of hand-beaten one-tael silver coins.
Today, Yang Qilong will use one or two silver coins to pay the 10,000 officers and soldiers of the Beiyang New Army himself! Counting them one by one is really laborious, but it is necessary.
At this time, Yang Qilong walked up to a soldier who was carrying a flintlock gun, with a smile on his face and eyes shining with joy. The soldier straightened his body and stretched out a strong, calloused hand - he looked like a farmer doing farm work.
Yang Qilong nodded with satisfaction, picked up two pieces of silver cake from the plate on the side and stuffed them into his hands. At the same time, a soldier following Yang Qilong asked loudly: "Whose food do you eat? Whose clothes do you wear?"
"Eat Mr. Yang's food! Wear Mr. Yang's clothes!" the soldier replied loudly.
These are Yang Qilong and Yang Sanye’s soldiers!
Yang Qilong then took a step or two and reached another soldier with a flintlock gun on his shoulder. He picked up two more silver cakes and handed them over!
"Eat Mr. Yang's food! Wear Mr. Yang's clothes!"
The heartfelt cry sounded again.
And just as the shouts of "Eat Mr. Yang's food! Wear Mr. Yang's clothes!" were heard again and again, outside the university grounds, there was standing a short man with handsome features and bright clothes. A beautiful boy with an elegant expression.
Yang Qilong's soldiers had already discovered this beautiful young man, and several horses rode forward to surround him. One person asked: "Who are you? Why are you peeping outside the military base?"
The young man smiled and said, "I, Cao Yin, am an old friend of Brother Yang. I came here to visit you today. I also want to send a fortune to Brother Yang! You go and report it!"
"Cao Yin?" Some of Yang Qilong's soldiers have heard of this name, "Are you Cao Yin from Nianganzhu? Aren't you following Kangxi Hunjun?"
The young man who came was none other than Kangxi's confidant Cao Yin. He smiled and said: "Go and report it quickly. Brother Yang San and I are good friends. He will be very happy to hear that I am here!"
"My lord, don't worry! Wang Datou has no time to look north now. You can deal with the emperor with all your strength!"
"Your Majesty, although he could not send troops northward, he still gave Yang Sanye three thousand flintlock guns and many Huaixi red scarf uniforms and flags, and asked Yang Sanye's Zhili regiment to pretend to be the Ming army. This method is comparable to that of the Ming army. It’s really better to invite the Ming army, so that it’s easier to invite gods than to send them away!”
At the same time, it was Doctor Le and Duo Long who were patting their chests to assure Fu Quan in the Regent's Palace.
The two of them arrived at Dagukou, Tianjin, together with the batch of arms and supplies, and arrived in Beijing ten days ago. But at that time, Fu Quan met the princes of the Monan Grassland at the Shangdu ruins on the Bashang grassland. At the Shangdu ruins, he announced to the princes on the grassland in fluent Mongolian that the Qing Dynasty would soon rebuild the Shangdu city. !
In the future, the Qing Dynasty will also implement a north-south system, with Beijing as the capital in the south and the capital in the north. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty will constantly travel between Shangdu and Beijing, spending half the year in Beijing and half the year in Shangdu!
After promising to rebuild Xanadu, Fuquan also received a promise from a group of Mongolian princes. As long as Kangxi was willing to abdicate and become the Supreme Khan, they were willing to convene the Kuritai Conference and elect Fuquan as the Great Khan of the Great Mongolia!
This is both a great Khan and an emperor, and it sounds very promising once I hear it!
However, it is not easy to turn Kangxi into the Supreme Emperor. After all, Kangxi has stronger troops, and it is very likely that he will receive assistance from Wu Sangui - according to insider reports, Wu Sangui will actually send reinforcements!
It’s not easy!
Duolong seemed to see what Fuquan was thinking, and he quickly smiled and said: "My lord, you actually have a weapon that can defeat the emperor!"
"What sharp weapon?" Fuquan asked.
"Silver!" Duolong gritted his teeth and said as if he had made a lot of determination, "Your Majesty, money is so touching! You have Ruixin Tang, Tianjin Customs Road, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in your hands. If Your Majesty, you can trust me, I will You can pretend to surrender to the Emperor and help the prince deliver messages to the people on the emperor's side. I believe that there must be many people who want to leave the emperor and seek refuge with you, the prince!"
Fuquan, who was frowning, raised his eyebrows and looked at Duolong: "Can I trust you?"
"Okay!" Duolong knelt down to Fuquan with a plop, "Your Majesty, this slave is doing meritorious deeds for his crime! I know that I have committed a serious crime, and if I don't perform extraordinary merits, it will be difficult to be forgiven. Your Majesty, I sincerely ask you to give me a chance to redeem myself. !”
Fuquan nodded and asked, "Will the emperor believe you?"
"Yes!" Duolong said, "Echu has been beheaded and my servants have not brought reinforcements from the south of the Yangtze River for you."
Fuquan nodded lightly: "That's right! Although Wang Datou gave Yang San a lot of good things, he didn't send any troops after all."
"He can't send troops either. And the emperor must know it!" Duolong said, "So he will definitely march as soon as possible! The war is about to break out!"
How could Kangxi not know that Geng Jingzhong rebelled and proclaimed himself emperor, and that the Qing Dynasty (Jie Shu of Jiangxi), the Zhou Dynasty, and Dajing formed an alliance?
Therefore, it makes sense that Li Zhongshan had no reinforcements to send, and Kangxi could have guessed it.
As soon as Wu Sangui's reinforcements arrived, Kangxi would definitely launch an attack as soon as possible in order to achieve a quick victory.
Because Kangxi couldn't afford to delay it. He didn't have the financial resources to delay it!
Thinking of this, Fuquan finally made up his mind: "Okay, Duolong, do your best, and when you defeat the emperor, I will make you the governor of Zhili!"
Duolong's coke was broken now, so he quickly kowtowed and said, "Slave Duolong, I thank God for his kindness!"
(End of chapter)
