On the seventh day of April in the fourth year of Longqing, Gao pragmatically met with Qi Jiguang at the West Gate Tower of Kaiping.
When people heard about it, they just thought it was Qi Jiguang who was bent on getting closer to the Confucian generals. According to his usual custom, he paid a visit to the new wealthy man in the capital who came to Kaiping and was nicknamed the "Little Hanlin". He had nothing to say except a faint smile. Only Zhang Juzheng frowned and thought for a moment after learning the news, but he never took it as a big deal.
However, later generations paid great attention to this meeting. Many scholars published various works and made many speculations and inferences about this meeting. The mainstream view in the historians at that time was that the Gao Qi secret meeting must have discussed many issues including the subsequent fundamental reforms of the Ming army and the development and update of the Ming army's military equipment.
In fact, this guess is roughly correct. In this historic meeting between Gao Pragmatic and Qi Jiguang, although the two parties did not explain or clarify it afterwards, some tacit agreements were indeed reached, which was barely considered an agreement. Let’s make a secret appointment.
However, compared with the reform of the military system that will only take effect many years later, Gao Qi's secret meeting also has some exchanges that are quite useful for the current or recent period, especially regarding the development of some firearms. Thought guidance. Qi Jiguang, with the acumen of a genius military strategist, recognized most of the ideas, but expressed some doubts about his pragmatism that he would build factories to provide some of these weapons in the future - because of the Ming Dynasty's military manufacturing, In particular, the manufacture of firearms was theoretically monopolized by the imperial court and was not allowed to be involved by private individuals.
But regarding this issue, Gao Pragmatic said that he would find a solution on his own. At most, Qi Jiguang would need to lead the Shangshu in the future to express support for this issue. Qi Jiguang did not need to worry about the specific arrangements. At this point, Qi Jiguang couldn't say much and could only express his agreement.
The weapons and equipment Gao Pragmatic talked about with Qi Jiguang were basically focused on firearms, and there was almost no mention of cold weapons or even armor. As for the exchange of firearms, it focuses on three major aspects.
The first thing the two talked about was not guns or cannons, but bomb-type weapons. They also talked about three categories of bomb weapons, namely landmines, sea mines and grenades.
In fact, at this time, the Ming Dynasty could be said to far surpass Western countries in terms of research and development and application level of bomb weapons.
For example, the real landmine using a mechanical automatic firing device was invented by the Chinese in the Ming Dynasty. If we want to trace the origins, the earliest primitive landmines can even be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Until the Longqing period, the types and development of Ming mines were much ahead of the West.
Gao Pragmatic had read some books on this issue in his spare time. He remembered that the "History of Chinese Firearms" written by Wang Zhaochun once introduced that landmines were invented by Zeng Xian, who served as the governor of the three sides during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, there are some places. For example, Joseph Needham's History of Chinese Science and Technology says that in the early Ming Dynasty, Jiao Yu's "Fire Dragon Book" in 1413 contained mines with mechanical ignition devices. But in fact, "The Fire Dragon Book" should be one of the Ming Dynasties after Jiajing. It's a forgery, made in the early Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the honor of the inventor of landmines should still be returned to Zeng Xian.
"Landmines are explosive firearms buried in the ground. They were created during the Jiajing period. According to the "Bing Luo Wen" record: "I once milled on the side and made mines. The hole was about 10 feet long, and the medicine was put in it. It was covered with stones, and more Cover it with sand, make it flat on the ground, and lay it down on the ground, so that you can have menstruation. Tie it to the ground, and if you pass it by kicking the machine, the fire will fall, the powder will fly, and the stones will fly down and kill people.'"
After the mine was invented by Zeng Mian, it was quickly improved by others and extended to many new varieties.
"According to "Cao Hai Tu Bian Jing Lue 3", Shao Shoude of Danyang made a kind of mine with pig iron, filled with more than a bucket of gunpowder, and used a sandalwood anvil to anvil to the bottom of the mine. The inside of the anvil was hollow, and a fire wire was installed to pass out. Outside the shell. After the landmine is made, choose the main road that the enemy must pass through, and dig a pit in the ground for dozens of times. The mine is buried in the pit, and a small bamboo tube is used to lead out the fire line. The earth is covered as before. There is an ignition device in the mine. When the enemy troops passed by, they would trample them to pieces. Thunders shook the ground, artillery shot into the sky, and thunder shell fragments flew out like locusts, killing men and horses one after another."
In the Wanli period, the development of landmines in the Ming Dynasty reached a climax. "Volume 130 of "Wu Bei Zhi" records more than ten kinds of mines." Among them, there are step-type landmines, pull-type landmines, and some hair-type landmines. Mines, and trip mines. The use of landmines in the West should be quite late. In the true sense, automatically fired landmines may be about two hundred years later than the Ming Dynasty. There are no records of the Russian army using landmines until the Russo-Japanese War.
In fact, Gao Pragmatic did not dare to come up with anything too advanced in the picture album for Qi Jiguang. This secret meeting only briefly discussed some fire-generating devices, whether it is stepping hair, pulling hair, dotting hair or tripping hair, Gao Pragmatic Both gave simple manufacturing methods - in fact, this thing is not difficult, as long as the idea is right, it is not difficult to do, and Qi Jiguang himself is a firearms expert, so Gao Pragmatic did not go into details. After all, they both have a lot of time. I'm nervous and can't stay in Kaiping for too long.
However, some of the landmines originally created by the Ming Dynasty in history, such as the step-fire mine represents the "explosive cannon", the pull-fire mine represents the "ground-to-sky mine", the point-fire mine represents the "invincible mine cannon", and the trip mine represents Gao pragmatically gave manufacturing ideas for the "Ten Thousand-Bullet Mine Cannon", which is a representative of explosive landmines.
The first naval mine in history was also invented by the Ming Dynasty, but it was in the 18th year of Wanli, and it was named "Underwater Dragon King Cannon". Needless to say, Gao Shi was tireless in reading and copying books, and also provided Qi Jiguang with the manufacturing ideas for this elementary mine product. However, Qi Jiguang said that this thing might not be of much use in the north, and suggested that Gao Pragmatically hand it over to Liu Xian - Qi Jiguang was an expert in the field. A very sensitive person in the officialdom, he obviously already knew that Liu Xian had actually joined Gao Gong's faction.
However, Gao Pragmatic found that Qi Jiguang was obviously hesitant to speak after mentioning Liu Xian. He couldn't help laughing and said: "This is a weapon for the military and the country. Although the boy is not talented, he will not hide his secrets. I know that Governor Qi must hope I will give the manufacturing method of this underwater Dragon King Cannon to one more person - Guangdong Commander-in-Chief Yu Xujiang, right?"
Xujiang is the nickname of Yu Dayou.
Qi Jiguang saw that Gao Pragmatic's expression was as usual and he was not dissatisfied at all. He couldn't help feeling that although this man was young, he was not inferior to the previous sages in terms of atmosphere, so he was not too polite. He nodded and admitted: "Although Mr. Liu is also in the Southern Army, at this moment After all, it is not clear whether he will return to Langshan after being transferred to Guizhou. And General Yu is the commander-in-chief of Guangdong. He has been fighting against Japanese pirates, and he has a navy that is good at fighting. If he has this, It will surely become more powerful than a tiger... This will be the blessing of our Ming Dynasty."
Gao pragmatic smiled and nodded, and said: "It's easy to handle. Governor Qi can send a reliable person to Guangzhou personally with the method of making mines in my album."
