The nobles in the capital were not very interested in the Grand Parade, because regardless of whether they were in the Parade or not, their official positions were basically fixed - they just circulated back and forth in the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army.
Once people lose their desire to improve, they will lose the motivation to make progress. This has been true since ancient times.
But the Ministry of War attaches great importance to the parade. In this era that can basically be regarded as peaceful, it is not easy for the Ministry of War to gain some credit.
Over in Jizhen, Dong Hu and others have been taught enough lessons by Qi Jiguang a long time ago, and now they rarely come to Jizhen.
Although Qi Jiguang has so far been unable to deal a devastating blow to his opponent due to his use of foot against cavalry and the imperial court's general strategy of "making the West Huai East", there is one issue that cannot be ignored.
The Mongols have long lost any ambitions such as "recapturing the Central Plains", and the purpose of going south is very simple, which is to plunder. In this case, if you can't grab something, there will always be losses. Of course, this kind of loss is also unpopular among the Mongols. The Mongolian leaders are not stupid, so of course they are unwilling to do more.
But Qi Jiguang is honest, which does not mean that Li Chengliang is also honest.
Qi Jiguang's style is that as long as you dare to come, I will fight back until you dare not come.
Li Chengliang's style is, you come as you please, and I will beat you after you come. Defending the territory is not the key, the key is that I want military merit.
So in this way, Qi Jiguang has almost nothing to do now - the other party is not coming, and the court has no intention of letting him fight. He is a well-behaved military commander, but he does not have the guts to "start provocations" like Gao Pragmatic . Not to mention that if you lose the fight, there will definitely be a long series of heads on the ground. Even if you win the fight as usual, you probably won't be able to save your head.
Qi Jiguang couldn't win the battle, so the Ministry of War could only look to Liaodong if it wanted to get some credit.
Corresponding to this is Li Chengliang of Liaodong. Li Chengliang is very good at causing trouble. When the Mongols went to Liaodong to rob, Li Chengliang could only block the opponent on time once out of five volleys and then force the opponent back.
However, for the remaining four times, he will definitely pursue them, go all the way deep into Mongolia, kill them all, and get at least two to three hundred Mongolian heads before he is willing to give up.
In the Ming Dynasty, military achievements were always judged based on head rank. What is the result of such a comparison?
Take a look at Qi Jiguang's performance: More than 3,000 Mongolian cavalry invaded. Qi Jiguang, the chief military officer of Jizhen, met the enemy and defeated the invading enemy. Fifty-three horses, two mules, and three hundred and sixty-nine utensils.
Let’s take another look at Li Chengliang’s performance: a certain Yi chieftain and others sent a few cavalry to invade the border, and more than a thousand soldiers invaded from Yongdian Fort. The commander-in-chief Li Chengliang and his troops pursued them and killed 750 of them. Surprisingly, one hundred and sixty people were captured, eight of their chiefs were annihilated, several of their strong nests were razed, and many horses and weapons were captured.
On the one hand, Qi Jiguang defeated the enemy's three thousand cavalry and did not let anyone enter the border. The people of the Ming Dynasty did not lose a single person and the people's wealth did not lose a penny. However, because they only got fifteen heads, the court calculated that the Ministry of War could only According to the rules, the emperor rewarded Qi Jiguang with thirty taels of silver. Then there is no more.
There were more than a thousand Mongolians on the other side. Li Chengliang had not responded long ago. When the others had grabbed enough, he suddenly came out and cut off more than 750 heads and went back to claim credit. When the court saw it, wow, what a great victory, reward! Li Chengliang and Ning Yuanbo!
However, when more than a thousand cavalry were causing harm to the place, could the people of the Ming Dynasty only die more than 700? The people of the Ming Dynasty have lost their heads. Who can they go to to complain?
It is natural for soldiers to kill enemy troops, but isn't the first priority to protect the people?
But the Ming Dynasty's military merit system tells you that this is not the case, because it is impossible to accurately calculate how many people were protected. If we do it this way, the generals below will definitely boast about it, which is not conducive to statistics, so we simply don't count it. .
In other words, no matter how many enemies you defeat or repel, as long as you don't capture the enemy's head, this military achievement will not count.
Therefore, Qi Jiguang's strategy of insisting on keeping the enemy out of the country, and facing all the cavalry, of course will not gain much military merit - even if someone is killed, most of the bodies can be retrieved by his comrades. .
The reason why Li Chengliang rarely led the infantry into battle was because the infantry was a burden to him, seriously slowing down his ability to behead and gain military merit.
But now, the Ministry of War can only rely on some military exploits in Liaodong to maintain its sense of existence. This is certainly not what the Ministry of War wants to see. So since there is a grand parade this year, we must do a good job and let the emperor see that our Ministry of War is not a warlord. The miscellaneous part of soy sauce.
On the eighth day of August, there was a grand parade in Beijing.
The weather was still a little hot, but the capital was already bustling with activity, and countless people poured out of Fuchengmen to watch this rare event from a distance.
The emperor's chariot passed through the crowd, escorted by the Han generals, causing waves of shouts of long live the mountains, and a crowd of black people kneeling beside the road.
However, Gao Pragmatic, who was dressed in military uniform and followed the emperor, curled his lips a bit - the "rules" of the people in the capital were worse than those of the chieftains of Guangxi. While shouting "long live the mountain", he actually stretched his neck to look at the emperor. I remember when Huang Zhiting was traveling in Siming Mansion, the local people were so respectful that they didn't even dare to raise their heads, as if they were chewing mud.
Some scholars in later generations said that the rule of the Ming Dynasty was harsh, and I don’t know who they were comparing it to. The rule of the Ming Dynasty was harsh. It was obvious that it could not compare with the Mongol Yuan in the past, and could not compare with the Qing Dynasty in the later period. How could it be harsh? Is it compared to the Sarai era?
Zhu Yijun did not look very "majestic", but looked around with a smile, and then excitedly said to Gao Jingjing: "Pragmatic, do you think that the people in the capital also like to see a grand parade."
That is, the Chinese people have this tradition. As long as there is excitement, no matter what happens, even if it is beheading, they are happy to see it.
Of course, you can think this way, but you can't say it. Gao Yingshi smiled and said: "What the emperor said is absolutely true. The Beijing camp is an important force to protect the imperial court and the sacred capital. The people of the capital are naturally overjoyed to see the excitement of the Beijing camp. They can see such a grand military parade today because of The Emperor’s Holy Judgment is over.”
Zhu Yijun smiled so hard that his eyes narrowed, and he looked very satisfied, but he still waved his hand and said: "I alone am not enough. There must be a reason for the Holy Inquisitor's death. In the final analysis, this matter is still your credit. If it hadn't been for Annan's great victory, how could I have avenged the vengeance of the ninth generation for my ancestors, and even accomplished such a grand feat?"
Gao Gongshi had been humble about this matter countless times, but Zhu Yijun always mentioned it. He had to be humble a few more times, and then changed the topic and said: "Your Majesty, the formation of the Beijing camp is ahead. Look at it. Don’t you feel like there’s something missing? Especially the Shenji Camp area.”
Zhu Yijun was startled when he heard this. He subconsciously squinted his eyes and looked at the camp of Shenji Camp. After looking for a long time, he couldn't see anything wrong. He suddenly asked unconfidently: "Is there something wrong? I... didn't seem to notice it. come out."
Gao pragmatically said: "The Shenji Battalion has guns and cannons, but there are no blades and swords. It looks a little less murderous."
"Oh!" Zhu Yijun suddenly realized, looked around and nodded: "That's true, but the Shenji camp has always been a firearms camp, so it makes sense that there is no blade and sword light. You can't give them another waist knife, right? I’m afraid that might get in the way.”
Gao pragmatically said: "It is not necessary to have a waist knife, but based on the experience gained in the Annan battle, I designed an improved version of the Longqing II musket, which can easily add a bayonet to the head of the gun. When approaching the enemy, once the enemy has rushed forward and has no time to reload, or our army has won a great victory and is running full speed to chase the enemy and cannot stop to reload, then we can put the bayonet on and transform from a long-range musketeer into a gunner. The melee bayonet soldiers make up for the lack of close combat capabilities of our army's firearms."
"Oh, that's it. I remembered it. You mentioned this idea a few years ago, but you said at the time that the iron was not hard enough. If a bayonet was added, the strength of the gun body and bayonet could not be guaranteed. ...Why, is this problem solved now?" Zhu Yijun asked with some joy.
Of course this problem has been solved, otherwise Gao Pragmatic wouldn't have said it. In his previous life, when he was a child, he had read a pamphlet about local steelmaking left behind by his grandfather during the *** era - this thing was everywhere in that era, and later it was either used to start fires for cooking, or it was simply left in the toilet. Used up.
But Gao Jingshi's grandfather was a rural teacher and had no habit of burning books, so he stayed here. Gao Jingshi didn't have much entertainment when he was a child. Some of the books and brochures at home, as long as they were interesting, were turned over by him. He had also read the pamphlet, but at that time there was no chance to practice it, so he just read it in detail and remembered it roughly.
Since Jinghua began to enter the steel industry, this booklet has been in use, and so far there are still some technologies that cannot be solved - this is really embarrassing, because it is not difficult for Gao Pragmatic to understand the theory, but it is difficult for hand cancer and certain Can't remember the details clearly.
It was not until Zhu Zaiyu was invited out of the mountain by him and the two of them cooperated by exchanging letters that the carburization problem was solved.
As we all know, the hardness of steel is mainly determined by the carbon content. Generally speaking, it can be expressed in the simplest sentence: the higher the carbon content, the greater the hardness, but the easier it is to break; the lower the carbon content , the smaller the hardness, the easier it is to stretch.
However, carburizing is a task that tests the level of technology and even the level of operation, because normally, carburization must be uniform - for example, if a bayonet is carburized unevenly during manufacturing, its strength will be Uneven. In the event of chopping, the part with low carbon content will have low hardness and will easily chip; and if a heavy blunt instrument is encountered during chopping, the part with too high carbon content may break.
Therefore, how to carburize evenly has been a key research project of Jinghua Steel for several years.
In fact, the ancients also knew the importance of carburizing, but they did not form a theory and relied on experience. Judging from the carbon-containing iron-making artifacts excavated by archaeologists, the conscious carburizing of iron artifacts in ancient China began around the Spring and Autumn Period, around the 7th to 6th centuries BC. The carbon content in the artifacts unearthed during that period was very high. Easy to detect.
In China, the ancients had three methods to obtain low-carbon steel and iron. One was to make iron from a block, the other was to anneal and decarburize the steel, and the third was to fry the steel. I will not go into details here.
The advancement of science and technology does not mean that you can immediately use a good idea to achieve magical results. The carburizing, nitriding, quenching and other technologies proposed by Gao Pragmatic will be long outdated junk technologies in later generations and belong to the period of "homemade steelmaking" s level. But at this time, there are so many great craftsmen in Jinghua who have been busy for seven or eight years and still haven't fully mastered it - it can be done, but the yield is less than 30%.
In the end, it was Zhu Zaiyu, a true scientific master, who took the initiative. After countless experiments, he summarized a detailed and complex process and set strict data for each procedure. This increased the yield rate to 70% to 80%. Around that, it’s barely worth putting into production.
It was at this time that Gao Pragmatic launched the facelift of the Longqing II.
In fact, this should not be regarded as a facelift, but a replacement. Because not only the bayonet material is new high carbon steel, but also the gun body material has been changed.
Therefore, Jinghua has internally called this updated musket the "Wanli One Type".
The reason why Gao Pragmatic has not yet decided whether to adopt this name is because it has not made much progress in the technology of the "musket" itself - it is still a smoothbore gun without rifling.
However, considering the necessity of making money, Gao Pragmatic was already prepared to agree to the following request and name it "Wanli One-Type Bayonet Model" - with the replacement of the new generation, the technology has improved, the materials have been updated, and the price will of course increase.
The reason why I found this opportunity to talk to Zhu Yijun was for this purpose.
After all, this thing can't just be used by Jinghua - no matter how powerful Jinghua is, it can only equip twenty or thirty thousand. Even if it forces Annan to change its equipment, it is impossible for Annan's soldiers to completely change their equipment due to high pragmatism, so at most Even in a market of 50,000 pieces, the profit from a single piece is very limited no matter how high it is.
Therefore, the market of the Ming Dynasty's military is the big market. If the Ming Dynasty's reforms can continue to advance steadily, the market can reach at least hundreds of thousands. If subsequent battle losses, replacements, etc. are included, it is not surprising that it will exceed one million.
After carefully introducing it to the emperor, Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "Since you said it so well, when the time comes, someone will send one of the new and old products to me to see. In addition, don't just give it to me, let the Ministry of War Let’s get involved with the Beijing Camp and the Border Army, as well as the Ordnance Bureau and the Military War Bureau, and take a look, lest someone jumps in and talks too much.”
Gao Pingshi was secretly happy, but he agreed calmly on his face.
Zhu Yijun added: "Also, the price has increased a bit. A gun costs twenty-four taels of silver, and a bayonet costs six taels. The front and back are thirty taels... I remember that the muskets of the Folangji people are not so expensive. , what is the name of that one in your Jinghua? Oh, cost control, yes, is there something wrong with cost control? "
He blinked, moved closer to Gao Jingjing, and whispered: "Pragmatic, tell me honestly, how much does this musket and bayonet cost?"
Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "The steel-making technology has just been successfully achieved, and the yield is only 70%. Count this into the cost. A gun and a bayonet cost about twenty-four to twenty-six taels, and they are sold to the court. If so, since Jinghua has to bear part of the shipping costs, it can probably earn five taels of silver."
Zhu Yijun was not angry after hearing this, but laughed: "That's about the same. I'm afraid you are like some people, crying and shouting that you haven't made any money... The profit of five taels of silver, well, it's not that small. , but it’s still acceptable.”
Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said nothing. Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and then asked: "When can the yield rate be improved? Can the price be reduced by then? For example, can we win 28 taels?"
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Thanks to book friends "Shen Yang", "Wang Sunji", "System Crash", "Book Friends 160603215216589", "@", "System Crash", "Sitting at the Door of the Tavern" for their monthly ticket support, thank you! This chapter is 4K3, it’s the holidays, I’m too lazy to write chapters...
