In the north of Xinzheng County, on the shore of Xuanyuan Lake, is Long Wenya Garden.
This is a newly built villa with six rooms of the Gao family the year before last. It can be seen from the word "Long Wen" that it was built in the name of Gao Jingshi, but in fact Gao Jingshi has not returned to his hometown at all in the past few years. This villa was actually built by Gao's pragmatic mother, Mrs. Zhang.
King Xiang once said that if wealth does not return to its hometown, it will be like walking in brocade at night. But Gao Pragmatic was different from King Xiang. He had no feelings about the return of wealth to his hometown, but he couldn't resist his mother. He thought that it was just a villa anyway, so he built it as soon as it was built. There was no need to make his mother unhappy over this matter.
However, accidents always come suddenly. Gao Pragmatic originally thought that Xinzheng is only a county town, and this villa is outside the county town. Although it is in the suburbs, it should not cost much. Who knew that although the land price in Xinzheng was cheap, the construction of this courtyard was very expensive. It cost a full 170,000 taels of silver to build, which shocked Gao Pragmatic who received the bill.
Are you mistaken? In history, Zhang Juzheng built a house in his hometown when he was dominating the world. It is said that the house was more magnificent than the palace, and it only cost two to three hundred thousand taels. It actually cost 170,000 to build a separate courtyard. What the hell? After repairing individual hospitals, Xinzheng County was renovated. Has the cheap mother been cheated?
He is the eldest son, and Mrs. Zhang will live and clothe herself with him from now on, so she will definitely not be greedy for his money. However, Mrs. Zhang comes from a wealthy family. If she does not understand the market and is cheated, this may still happen, so Gao Gao Pragmatic has been keeping this in mind, and plans to take a closer look after coming back to see how it cost 170,000 taels to build a single courtyard.
But when he saw this villa with his own eyes, he was convinced that this garden only cost 170,000 yuan.
This Longwenya Garden occupies a huge area of more than 3,300 acres, which is equivalent to a little more than two square kilometers in later generations. It is much larger than the Xuanyuan Lake Wetland Park in Xinzheng City in later generations.
To put it simply, this mere "other courtyard" is not much smaller than the Summer Palace built by Cixi later. Of course, the Summer Palace is on the other side of the capital, so land and labor are expensive, and it also has to support a bunch of corrupt officials and all kinds of materials. Don't seek the best but seek the most expensive. There is no comparison.
However, the Longwen Yayuan, which is nominally owned by Gao Jingshi, is no joke. It is rich and majestic and naturally incomparable with the Summer Palace. However, there are two points. Gao Jingshi can tell at a glance that it is better than the Summer Palace.
This Longwen Yayuan is called Bieyuan, and the name is very elegant, but it is actually more like a castle. It is surrounded by water on three sides, and only the north is land. According to the introduction of his mother, Mrs. Zhang, thick high cement walls were built on three sides of Huanshui. They were built according to the fortress standard built by Jinghua Infrastructure under the name of Gao pragmatically when it was connected with the border army project. The horizontal and vertical walls inside were all made of steel bars, and the entire wall was ten meters thick. Six feet, which is more than five meters wide in later generations
The main wall on the 6th floor is even more exaggerated, reaching a thickness of twenty feet, which is almost seven meters wide when rounded up. Horses can race on the wall.
The height of the wall is not ambiguous at all, it is uniformly four feet, which is almost more than 13 meters in later generations, which is about the same height as the current city wall of the capital. Although this is not illegal, it is necessary
In fact, the city wall of the capital city of the Ming Dynasty was not the highest and thickest, and the overall city defense was not the strongest. Needless to say, the city defense of Datong City, which Gao Pragmatically visited, was stronger than that of Beijing. When I told you that the army was pressing down on the border, everyone in Datong City was not worried about Datong's losses at all. This is also the reason why.
Gao pragmatically looked at his own Longwen Yayuan, and he was really a little confused. Shouldn't my other courtyard be a place for retirement? What's the point of building it to be as defensive as the Xiongguan Pass in Bian Town? Could it be that my mother thinks I'm going to rebel, give it to me in advance Repair your home more carefully
Faced with her son's confused look, Ms. Zhang smiled and said, "Don't look at Wei Niang like that. Wei Niang made the decision based on your words."
"What I said?" Gao Pragmatic was confused. "What did I say?"
Mrs. Zhang raised her eyebrows, "Didn't you say that in the next few years, there will be more and more natural disasters in the northern provinces, which may eventually lead to a large number of refugees, and may even cause chaos? That's why I hurriedly built this courtyard." Just like a fort, if such a day comes, Xinzheng Gao family can always avoid a lot of losses by taking refuge in this other courtyard."
"This..." Gao Pragmatic was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mother, you are really prepared for a rainy day."
"That's natural." Ms. Zhang said proudly, "Why do you think your mother would give up her ancestral business in Gao Laozhuang and come here? I asked Gao Jue and others who were trained under Qi Shaobao, and they all felt that if they were in Jianbaowu in Xinzheng , this area is the best, surrounded by water on three sides, easy to defend and difficult to attack. There are no navy here. If there is a police force, as long as the north side is guarded, everything will be safe."
Mrs. Zhang smiled and said, "Your methods of mine protection team and factory protection team are really good. We have several factories and mines in Xinzheng and Yuzhou. If we gather all the mine protection team and factory protection team, we will have two thousand people." With many people, it is more than enough to defend this fort."
That is, I have more than 2,000 tenants here. If placed in a border town, it can be used as the core of an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people to defend a fort. Isn’t it impregnable?
But mother, what's the use of just guarding a Wubao? What about my properties in Xinzheng and Yuzhou?
Although the coal-iron joint industrial group is a handicraft industry, it cannot sustain a large scale. If it were lost, it would be able to produce three thousand kilograms of refined steel and more than forty thousand kilograms of fine wrought iron a month. In this era , only my own three major factories in Kaiping can stabilize one end of it. You are seriously sponsoring the enemy.
Fortunately, several factories and mines in Henan are not responsible for the production of firearms. The products related to the military industry are mainly wrought iron sheets, which are generally used to make armor. They are not offensive at all. What if the three major factories in Kaiping were lost, then the real fun would be that the Dalongqing II musket and the Bingzi I Tiger Crouching Cannon were both produced there.
Different from the naming method of guns, the artillery series launched under the name of Gao Jingshi are named after the zodiac signs. For example, the "Bingzi-1 Tiger Crouching Cannon" was finalized and produced in the fourth year of Wanli. The fourth year of Wanli is the year of Bingzi, and this cannon has not yet been modified, so it is called Bingzi Type 1. If it is modified in the future, it may be Bingzi Type 2, Bingzi Type 3 and so on.
This tiger squatting gun was designed and manufactured according to the requirements of Qi Jiguang, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen. It was combined with Qi Jiguang's test data in Jizhen, and then made some improvements. It also added a new gun mount creatively produced by Gao pragmatism. .
The Tiger Crouching Cannon is a small and medium-sized artillery piece, generally used in field battles with the army. It is a kind of cannon that Qi Jiguang likes very much.
The increase in power of the Bingzi Type 1 artillery is not obvious, but because the iron smelting technology of the three major factories in Kaiping is relatively reliable, the weight has dropped a bit, and the stability and durability have been significantly improved. In addition, the new The artillery mounts and bombardment accuracy have also been improved to a certain extent, which is more in line with Qi Jiguang's requirements. They have been purchased by Ji Town, and the first batch of purchased guns is eighty.
However, I'm afraid it doesn't mean much to tell Zhang these things, especially when several of her brothers are staying in their hometown in Xinzheng. If there is a refugee turmoil, Zhang will definitely choose to protect his family first, and then deal with factories and mines. It’s never too late to recover.
However, Gao pragmatically thought about it and felt that Zhang's concern was reasonable. He had better make arrangements to deal with these possible accidents first, otherwise the loss of money in factories and mines would not be the loss of skilled workers. rise.
