The military also began to abandon expensive iron armor and leather armor, gradually replacing them with cotton armor that was cheaper, lighter, and most importantly, had good protective performance. Although the cost of promoting cotton and cotton fabrics is indeed a bit high, it is finally promoted. In Huang Qiong's view, this price still has to be paid. It is always a new thing, from the time it is promoted to being accepted by the people. Many times, it is necessary to rely on government decrees to enforce implementation. Especially cotton, a business that is sure to make money without losing money.
As long as it can be promoted, the efficiency of cost recovery is still very high. As cotton cloth began to circulate on a large scale, the Fan family made a lot of money. Although the court exempted the land tax for growing cotton, it also made a lot of profits from the commercial taxes paid by the Fan family. Although in order to get back the craftsmanship of cotton armor, Huang Qiong also paid the price of three years of tax exemption for the internal circulation of Fan family cotton cloth. But the cotton fabrics introduced by the Fan family are much more comfortable to wear than linen clothes, and the price is not much more expensive than linen clothes. The most important thing is that they are more wear-resistant and resistant to fabrication.
In Japan and Korea, the market quickly opened up. After all, silk is too high-end and not everyone can afford it. As a relatively cheap and strong fabric, cotton is very popular. Although the commercial tax on the Fan family's cotton cloth was exempted, the imperial court's income also increased a lot in terms of customs duties. Nowadays, Huang Qiong is very handy in government affairs. Fu Yuanshan and the other two were also quite cooperative. But in other aspects, it may not be so satisfactory. The main reason is the research and development of firearms, which is progressing extremely slowly.
With Huang Qiong's vigorous promotion, artillery in the army has become standard equipment. Money makes it easier to do things. With Huang Qiong's investment at almost any cost, he gradually formed 5, 12, and 28-pound field cannons, as well as 36-pound, 50-pound, and 70-pound fortress cannons, distinguished by the weight of the shells fired. , coastal defense guns, and naval gun systems. In order to develop these cannons, in addition to the fixed investment from the Ministry of War, Huang Qiong also spent 600,000 yuan and 200,000 pieces of silk from his internal treasury every year. Financially, the cost is quite high.
It's just that the artillery manufacturing has improved a lot after integrating the captured craftsmen from the Guilin County Prince's Palace. After using the iron mold and lost wax casting technology left by the founding king of Guilin, both the process and the cost have been reduced a lot. In particular, the cannon-casting craftsmen of Guilin County Prince's Mansion have a complete set of techniques from smelting bronze raw materials to casting cannons. It surpassed the imperial court, and almost all relied on those crafts that were explored from scratch. It can be said that they are not that strong. The most important thing is that the cost is also greatly reduced.
But both the shooting performance and the amount of charge exceeded the cannons cast by the imperial court. Especially the heavy artillery, whose range is nearly 30% higher than that of the imperial artillery. Their cannons use the maximum charge and can fire ten shots in a row without any problem. If the cannon made by the imperial court can fire six rounds, it is God's blessing. Cao Rui said more than once that the cannons made by the puppet emperor were far superior to those made by the imperial court in terms of craftsmanship and power. When they fired at the rebels in Nanning Prefecture, the officers and soldiers suffered heavy losses more than once.
Fortunately, the rebel cannons are heavy cannons weighing several thousand kilograms, and are quite inconvenient to move. And there are not many in Nanning Prefecture. Moreover, the number of rebel cannons captured by the government troops in the previous Jiangnan West Road battlefield and Jingjiang Mansion far exceeded that of the rebels. Only in this way can the firepower of the rebels be finally suppressed. Therefore, after capturing Jingjiang Mansion, Cao Rui's focus was to order people to hunt down the cannon-casting craftsmen of Guilin County Prince's Mansion. Although some cannon-casting craftsmen were transferred to Liuqiu in advance, many remained in Jingjiang Mansion, which was the rear area of the rebels.
It is precisely this batch of almost complete cannon-casting techniques that have been inherited from the Guilin County Prince's Palace, and have been transformed after more than a hundred years of heavy investment, that have led to the great development of cannon-casting technology today. And form a complete system combining light and heavy artillery. Nowadays, in addition to the four major battalions, each commander is equipped with 36 5-pound cannons and 12 12-pound cannons. Each of the four major battalions is also equipped with an artillery commander and nine 28-pound heavy cannons. The Xijing Camp is also equipped with artillery of similar standards in accordance with the standards of the four major battalions.
At the same time, the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, in accordance with Huang Qiong's request, established Shenji camps in Jingzhao and Xijing. A total of four commands were set up, each command was equipped with 36 12-pound cannons, 12 28-pound cannons, and 8 36-pound cannons used as fortress guns. Various lightweight cannons cast during the original counter-insurgency period, as well as some 28-pound cannons, were all allocated to the border army. Especially Yanshan Mansion and Yunzhou, two important border towns, even allocated some 36-pound heavy artillery. All the original old cannons were shipped back to the capital.
Only after obtaining the craftsmen from the Guilin County Prince's Palace and the cannon-casting technology, and with the support of strong financial resources, the imperial court formed a complete artillery system. However, the research and development of artillery shells, of course mainly the research and development of explosive shells, has never been smooth. Shotguns and solid bullets are easy to handle, especially solid bullets, as long as the specifications are consistent. However, despite the continuous investment of a large amount of financial resources, the explosion has always been possible, but it has always either exploded in advance, or it has not exploded for a long time or it has been a dud.
Or it would explode, but it would only make people's faces black and have no lethality. Even after being captured in Jingjiang and joined by craftsmen who specialized in casting cannons and making pharmaceuticals from the Guilin County Prince's Palace, there was not much effect. Because the Guilin County Prince's Mansion only has solid bullets and shotguns. I haven't been able to create explosive bombs, and I haven't even thought about it. Craftsmen from the Guilin County Prince's Palace brought granular medicine manufacturing technology, which greatly improved the performance of the medicine. But it does nothing to solve the dilemma of explosive bombs.
In addition to the artillery shells, there was another headache that caused the Ministry of War and the Privy Council the most, and that was the horses that pulled these cannons. For the party horses and Khitan horses originally used in the army, apart from the 5-pound and 12-pound cannons, they can barely cope with towing on better roads. The rest are 28-pound cannons, which are too heavy for short ones. Once it's on a muddy road, it may not even be able to be towed even if it's doubled. Especially party horses, although they are fast, their load-bearing capacity is poor.
Of course, these so-called kilograms are just the weight of the shells when these cannons fire solid shells. This does not mean that the artillery has this weight. The lightest 5-pound cannon weighs more than 500 kilograms, and requires eight to twelve horses to drag it. This does not include the weight of the shells that need to be carried and the charges used to fire the cannon. All together, there are twenty horses to serve.
Not to mention other, heavier cannons, which required more horses. Not only was it more troublesome to use cattle, but most importantly, the court also did not have so many cattle. Especially now that cattle are used in rural areas and are mainly used for plowing the fields. Normally, killing a cow must be reported to the county magistrate for approval. It is even more impossible for the imperial court to use too many cattle to distribute to the army to drag cannons. As for camels, they are more suitable, but the number of camels in Daqi is also limited. And the camel's dragging ability is not that strong.
The work of using the captured Tianzhu horses and Jurchen horses to improve the Khitan horses and Dangxiang horses was not smooth. The horses bred are more suitable for use as war horses rather than for carrying heavy loads. Fortunately, a group of guys from the Longyou Qun Pastoral Supervisor were just idle and bored, looking for some fun for themselves. Or he made a mistake while busy in order to deliver a mission to the emperor. Using Jurchen horses and Longyou donkeys, they created a mule that was not disadvantaged by its strength. Although it has no reproductive ability, it has solved some difficulties by accident.
Even developing explosive bombs and finding horses suitable for towing artillery were difficult. Others, such as the research and development of muskets, are even more difficult. After investing huge sums of money for four to five years, not even a single qualified gun barrel was produced. After a lot of effort, not to mention the flint hair, even the match rope was not made. A lot of money and silk were spent, but only something called a gun was made. And that thing that can only be used by two people, in Huang Qiong's opinion, is just a cannon that has been shrunk to the extreme.
As for the rest, even forging a gun barrel is very difficult and consumes a lot of money. Even after his transformation, his annual income became stable and abundant, but he still could not afford the huge number of the entire army. Faced with many difficulties, Huang Qiong realized that there was not enough system in place, especially the research and development system and industrial system. If you want to build a pure firearms army, you really can't just invest money. In desperation, Huang Qiong finally gave up the idea of developing a flintlock musket within a short period of time.
Instead, research was continued but no deadline was given. At the same time, investment in various charges was increased. Huang Qiong attaches so much importance to the development of firearms because he has always had a thought in his heart. That is to capture Beiliao and the fertile black land belonging to Tokyo Road in Beiliao. He permanently abolished the Dingkou money and made it clear that no matter how much the population grew, no tax would ever be increased. There are no major wars in the world today. As long as there are no major famines, the population is bound to have a period of stable growth.
How to feed the rapidly growing population has become something that we should plan in advance. Going south is one option, and the further south you go, the warmer the weather, the more land can be harvested twice a year, and the yield per mu will be higher. But the problem is that diseases in the South, as well as complex ethnic groups, are also a serious problem. At this time, Beiliao Tokyo Road was sparsely populated. Although there are Bohai people and Jurchens, the only ones who have conflicts of interest with the Han people are the Bohai people, who are also mainly agricultural.
As long as it can occupy this fertile black land, Daqi can absorb the pressure brought by population growth, at least in a short period of time. But now that black land is under the rule of Bei Liao. Beiliao not only set up Tokyo Liaoyang Prefecture there, but also set up Tokyo Road. If you want to take it into your hands, you must conquer the Liao Dynasty through the Northern Expedition. Facing Bei Liao, which is good at cavalry, in addition to Da Qi's need to increase the strength and quantity of cavalry, there is another important point in Huang Qiong's opinion. That is to increase the number of firearms and use firearms to deal with cavalry.
The reason why Huang Qiong was so obsessed with the Northern Expedition was that in addition to wanting to incorporate that black land into the territory to alleviate the pressure of population growth in Daqi in the next century, there was also another hidden worry that needed to be resolved. That is the fierce tribal Jurchen hidden in the white mountains and black waters. In the battle of Yanshan Mansion, the Jurchens' fearlessness in death was vividly demonstrated. Even Yu Mingyuan, who had fought against countless powerful enemies, was full of praise for the Jurchens' fierce fighting prowess and their excellent quality horses, which far exceeded the Khitan horses.
Yu Mingyuan said this more than once in the battle report. Compared with the Khitan people, to deal with this group of Jurchens, not only the most elite soldiers of the four battalions are needed, but also a certain advantage must be formed in terms of strength comparison. After learning from the Jurchen prisoners of war and the Jurchens among the Khitan people that they had formed a certain alliance around the most powerful Wanyan tribe. Yu Mingyuan once lamented that if Beiliao continued to turn a blind eye to the Jurchens, this group of tough Jurchens would definitely become a serious problem for Beiliao within a hundred years.
