According to Zhu Yingzhen, he probably felt that only those who directly bordered the Ming Dynasty and had a bad relationship could not sell artillery. For countries like Japan, which were separated by the sea, it would not matter if they sold some artillery.
Doesn't it really matter? Last year, at least more than 40 new No. 2 heavy artillery pieces (Wanli 14th year model) were sold to Japan alone, and this was only the part that "leaked" from Beiyang. It's hard to say whether there are any in Nanyang.
According to Gao's pragmatic understanding, some people from Fujian and even Guangdong also go to Japan to do business. Last year, non-Jinghua private merchant ships in Nanyang ports purchased 62 No. 2 heavy guns, and some claimed to add them to their own ships. , and most of them said they wanted to replace them with new ones (they used to carry cannons).
The various private ports in Jinghua only check the number of guns and the specifications (caliber) of the guns when the ships leave the port. It is impossible to check the age of the guns. Therefore, although Jinghua has data on the total number of guns carried by these civilian ships, they do not It is not known whether the artillery is new or old.
Last year, the actual number of artillery installed on private merchant ships in Nanyang was twenty-seven. So where did the remaining thirty-five go? Have they all been updated? I don’t know because Jinghua can’t check.
Besides, having said that again, even if they installed new cannons, where would the old cannons that had been eliminated go? No one can care about this, because it can be said that they encountered pirates or the artillery had a serious malfunction after going to sea, so they temporarily replaced it.
How do you manage this thing? He said that after it was damaged and found that it could not be repaired, he threw it into the sea. Can you still force him to pick it up and inspect it? It is impossible for Jinghua to be so lenient, and when the court faced this new situation, it did not introduce any system to prevent it - in this era, the imperial power did not extend to the county, let alone to the sea.
From this point of view, Gao Pragmatic estimates that last year alone, the number of new No. 2 cannons that Japan might have obtained might have reached sixty or seventy. The No. 2 gun is the basic heavy gun for ships, and it is also the largest specification sold by Jinghua. As for the ship's No. 1 heavy artillery, only Jinghua owns that one. The navy of the Ming Dynasty is like a younger brother in front of Jinghua's two ocean fleets. Now the court is short of money and the target is still on land. It is impossible to buy this kind of gold-swallowing beast.
But the No. 3 cannon used on ships is different. The load capacity of this thing is much larger than the No. 2 cannon. In fact, the No. 3 cannon is the one with the highest equipment rate on the Ming Dynasty merchant ships (because the No. 3 cannon can basically defend against sporadic pirates that have been raided by Jinghua many times. ).
What is the loading capacity of No. 3 gun? Even Jinghua doesn’t have an exact number! It is roughly estimated that the number of No. 3 guns on the private merchant ships anchored in the private ports of Jinghua alone is no less than 2,000.
Why? Because this is not after the dreadnought era, there is no concept of "all-heavy artillery", and it is impossible to design it like this. Therefore, there are more than a dozen marine artillery installed at a time - this is still at the level of civilian ships. Jinghua owns the largest number of armed transport ships. The gun load is twenty-eight guns per ship, including twenty No. 3 guns and eight No. 2 guns.
What does it mean to have no less than two thousand No. 3 guns? This means that one or two hundred doors may need to be replaced every year just for iterative updates. Who knows whether these two hundred No. 3 guns have really been replaced?
This is like the warranty period for private cars of future generations. It is not necessarily recommended that you maintain it after 5,000 kilometers. You really have to maintain it at 5,000 kilometers. What's wrong with me after 6,000 kilometers? What's wrong with 7,000 kilometers? As long as it doesn't exceed too much, it's basically no problem, and the same goes for artillery.
Nowadays, Japanese pirates from Japan and pirates from Southeast Asia have been severely damaged by Jinghua's raids. If these civilian ships were more honest, they would follow Jinghua's merchant fleet every time, and no pirates would dare to commit suicide. Then, the usage rate of the artillery on his ship is definitely not high, so as long as it is properly maintained, iterative updates are not urgent.
But judging from Jinghua's artillery sales, they seem to be quite eager, which is a problem. Gao Pragmatic didn't pay much attention to it at first, but now thinking about it, he couldn't help but seriously suspect that these civilian ships were also involved in selling cannons privately - not necessarily directly selling new cannons, they might also have installed new cannons themselves but sold the old cannons.
Judging from the fact that the premium rate for buying cannons in Japan is so high, they might be able to make a profit by selling second-hand cannons to Japan and going back to Jinghua to buy new cannons!
grass?
I am the only honest person who co-authored this book and is losing money?
Well, it's not a loss. After all, the ex-factory price of Jinghua is already twice or even two and a half times the cost. It can only be said that the profit is not enough.
But is it really okay to sell artillery to Japan? Damn it, it must be related, it’s a big deal!
There is not much difference between naval guns and land guns these days. If the naval gun is moved from the ship and then given a whole trailer, it becomes a land gun.
What Zhu Yingzhen really means is that Ming Dynasty and Japan are separated by the sea, and there will be no war between the two sides, so selling cannons does not matter. But how did he know that the two sides would have to fight in a few years at most?
What's even more bizarre is that these two people also came to encourage him to take them to rob Iwami Ginzan on behalf of the nobles!
Good guys, so when you sold cannons before, you were just trying to let others use your cannons to hit yourself?
"Arms dealers who dare not sell weapons to enemy countries are not good arms dealers", "capitalists can sell the ropes to hang themselves for profit"... Capitalism is really awesome! How long did it take for these bastards to turn from serf owners to capitalists, and their consciousness is so "high"?
However, Gao Wuchen has no time to criticize them now, and in fact, although their current approach is tantamount to siding with the enemy, it is not so bad from another perspective.
From an overall perspective, what Gaowu Shi needs most now is to cultivate a class. Only when this class is born and gradually becomes stronger can the giant ship of the Ming Dynasty be pushed by them to change its course bit by bit. The route is the most important thing, far more than the specific details.
What's more, the trouble caused by this detail is not only still controllable in the eyes of Gao Pragmatism, but is even beneficial to some extent. For example, although Japan's military power will be strengthened for this reason, the Ming Dynasty's enemies cannot always be opponents with backward equipment such as Mongolia and Jurchen.
In the future, when Tsarist Russia expands eastward, people will also have hot weapons. The bandits coming from Europe will turn into hungry wolves in minutes. Therefore, Ming Dynasty cannot only use hot weapons to bully opponents with cold weapons. It also needs to have the experience to fight with cold weapons. Experience in fighting opponents with the same equipment level.
The Japanese's firepower (muskets) is pretty good, and now they have artillery, but fortunately the root of this artillery is in the hands of Gao Pangpang. As long as Gao Pragmatic notices this, he can quietly adjust to keep the number of Japanese artillery within a controllable range. It is not easy to find such a good training partner.
The flower viewing party was held on time, and there was an additional civil servant among the large number of noble military officials in the Xishan Villa. However, everyone seemed to think it was normal and had no intention of treating Gao Pragmatism as an outsider.
No wonder, looking at it from side to side, this flower viewing party seems to be a gathering of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance. How can a pragmatic leader become an outsider? The one who really felt like an outsider was Li Rusong.
Li Rusong always felt that something was wrong with the attitude of these nobles towards him. They all seemed friendly, but in fact, even the smiles on their faces were slightly distant. They were polite but turned away thousands of miles away.
Only then did Li Rusong realize that in the eyes of these nobles, even if he was "Uncle Ning Yuan", he was still an outsider and a nouveau riche, not worthy of their attention at all.
Also, there are two dukes, one duke's eldest grandson (Xu Xigao, the eldest grandson of Dingguo, whose father died young), and more than a dozen marquises and young marquises, all of whom have a more noble status than him, even the uncles. He is also more noble than his newly minted uncle.
As for their positions, none of these senior officials have been rotated among the five palaces for many years. The Fifth Army Governor's Palace is no different from their own backyard. They are all "military veterans" - of course, whether they can fight or not is another matter. Anyway, the "qualifications" are here.
Even Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong, the two princes who can only ride a horse, are very old in terms of "military age". Both of them are "veterans" who have been serving in the Jinyi Guards for thousands of households at the age of seven or eight. Li Rusong "Joining the army" is more than ten years old, so there is no comparison.
Li Rusong's only advantage is probably the dispatch - please note here, the commander-in-chief has never been a position, it has always been a dispatch. Li Rusong's real position is "the left commander of the right army governor's office", and this left governor just got it after finishing the northwest campaign. Before that, he had always been the governor of the Dudu Mansion, also known as the governor. In other words, he has always been a subordinate of the top nobles here.
Gao Puzhi listened to Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong, two "old leaders" who didn't know how to lead troops, talking to Li Rusong as if they were lecturing their juniors, and felt that this world was really ridiculous.
Given you two an army of 50,000, Li Rusong might be able to annihilate them all in one battle with his 5,000 soldiers. But now, Li Rusong is here to listen to your nonsense: "When you go to Liaodong, you should do this, this, and this." It's so magical...
Fortunately, the two princes only dared to act pretentious with Li Rusong, a "nouveau riche". They still remembered that the real speaker was Gao Alliance Leader. After chatting for a while, they changed the topic, glanced at Gao Pragmatic, and said: " The two of us have little knowledge, so that's all I have to say. Da Si Nong is a famous commander in the world, so I'd better ask Da Si Nong to fill in the gaps and explain it in detail, so as not to spoil the important affairs of the court. "
It’s rare. You also know that your knowledge is shallow?
Li Rusong listened for a long time while holding back his anger, and the corner of his mouth could not help but twitch. After hearing these words, he turned over like a serf, and hurriedly raised his fist towards Gao Pragmatic: "Please give me some advice from the Ministry of Envoy."
Li Rusong had fought under Gao Jingshi and achieved great success both times. According to the custom at this time, he usually had to add the word "en" when addressing Gao Jingshi. Gao Jingshi is the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the unified honorific title at this level is Butang. Theoretically speaking, Li Rusong can call him "Enbu" or "Entang".
However, the title Entang is not only used at the level of Butang, but also at many levels above the magistrate. Therefore, Li Rusong still used Enbu - Bu. This is more like a professional title. At the very least, he must be a minister. Enjoy it.
But Gao Jingshi knew that Li Rusong was playing a trick here, because Li Rusong actually knew that Gao Jingshi and Li Chengliang were peers. If he wanted to deliberately curry favor with Gao Jingshi, he could even call himself a junior.
Of course, these days are quite strange. There are not many ordinary generals who are worthy of being called lackeys in front of high pragmatism, and there are distinctions between levels.
For example, if the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief write letters or even give gifts to Gao Pragmatic, the more reserved ones can call themselves "the junior so-and-so under the sect", and the less reserved ones can call themselves "the junior so-and-so under the sect"; below the deputy commander-in-chief and above the garrison, When writing a letter or giving a gift to Gao Pragmatic, you can only write "So-and-so, the lackey of Mu En Wansheng's sect,"; if the defense is lower than the guard and the general is above, not only must you write "So-and-so, the lackey of Mu En Wansheng's sect, so-and-so", you must also add a sentence at the end of the text. "Thousands of people kowtow and kneel to present (Kneel to present, kneel to offer)", "Kowtow in fear, tens of thousands of people kowtow and kneel to present (Kneel to present, kneel to offer)".
As for the following... what are you thinking about? Forget about writing letters, you are not even qualified to give gifts to the family members, okay? You are calling yourself a fool with a completely different identity.
However, despite the rules, Li Rusong's temper is now famous all over the world. In addition, he has "Uncle Ning Yuan to attack", so he simply skips the self-titled here and just calls him "Enbu".
Gao Jingshi was replaced by some arrogant civil servant, and his expression may have changed by now. However, Gao Jingshi did not come here to show off, he came to make friends with Li Rusong, and he was already mentally prepared for Li Rusong's performance, so naturally he would not take it into account. Compare.
"I'm going to Liaodong from Yangcheng. What's the picture?" Gao pragmatic asked first, and then he seemed to have just noticed that Li Rusong was still standing and listening to the training. This was the problem of Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong. They didn't let Li Rusong sit down. .
So Gao pragmatic didn't wait for Li Rusong to reply, and immediately said: "Hey, why is Yangcheng still standing? Come, please sit down, please sit down." He then turned to blame Zhang Yuangong: "Young Master, the servants in your other courtyard are too lazy. It’s too much, you don’t even know how to serve tea?”
The status of the British Dukes in the Ming Dynasty has been mentioned in the previous article. Liu Jin and Wei Zhongxian, even when they were the most powerful, were respectful and respectful to the British Dukes at that time, and there was nothing they could do. As for now, apart from the emperor, he is probably the only person in the capital who dares to talk to the British prince like this.
Zhang Yuangong, who was very arrogant in front of Li Rusong, seemed to be a completely different person in front of Gao Pragmatic. He slapped his forehead regardless of his appearance: "Oh, my fault, my fault. I just told them not to disturb them casually, but these idiots just I’m so scared that I don’t even dare to serve tea, it’s really a joke to Da Sinong.”
As he said this, the dignified British prince stood up decisively and asked for tea himself. Li Rusong next to him saw her, and his expression became even more ugly.
The British public disciplined him as if they were juniors, but he did not dare to do what they did to Xu Shouqian and Wang Xueshu, because they were top military ministers and the rules were there, so he had nothing to say. However, the dignified and pragmatic British prince is as unceremonious as criticizing his subordinates. The British prince is too busy admitting that he is wrong. This is simply... a slap in the face in a different way.
But after all, Li Rusong just had a bad temper and was not very stupid. When he thought about it, he immediately realized that something was wrong: Gao Pragmatic's move was actually promoting him.
But... why? The relationship between the Li family and Gao Jingshi was not very good. Although it was mainly caused by his father, Li Chengliang, had Gao Jingshi ever been so polite to the Li family? After all, the political stances of both parties are completely opposite.
Could it be that Gao Pragmatic has something for me to do?
However, Li Rusong was wrong. Gao Pragmatic made no request from the beginning to the end. After Li Rusong said that he would strengthen training and preparations and he would definitely perform well in the Chahar battle in the future, Gao Pragmatic just praised him with joy on his face.
Not only that, Li Rusong even found that no matter what he said about being pragmatic, he always praised him, almost praising him to the sky. It seemed that he was the only famous general in the world, and Huo Weiyuanxun and Wu Mu felt ashamed.
Li Rusong still likes to be praised, especially when the person who praises him is recognized as "the best literary handsome man in the world", which makes him feel even more elated. In addition, he also clearly found that as Gao Pragmatic praised him more and more, the faces of Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong gradually became ugly, which simply gave him the pleasure of successful revenge. If it weren't for the fact that the positions of the two sides were indeed different, he would even wish to introduce Gao Pragmatism as his lifelong confidant.
When it was time for the flower viewing party, Gao Pingshi even asked Li Rusong to sit next to him in front of all the nobles, and chatted with him about the battlefield in a very affectionate manner.
Li Rusong's face was glowing red. He originally planned to just show off and take a few sips, but he didn't stop drinking until his head was steaming. The relationship with Gao Pragmatic was really getting closer quickly. By the time the flower viewing party was over, he had already Decision: Regardless of his spiritual and practical knowledge, at least Gao Situ can definitely make friends!
Before leaving, Li Rusong patted his chest and promised that as long as he was in Liaodong, the Liaodong Army would "never cause trouble to Da Sinong." Gao Pragmatic agreed with a smile.
But as soon as Li Rusong left, Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong snorted with dark faces, and Zhang Yuangong couldn't help but said: "Rixin, you came to Li Rusong just to flatter him like this, and you didn't plan to say anything serious?"
Zhu Yingzhen also said with a sullen face: "Yes, Rixin, what kind of medicine are you selling in this gourd? Are all of you, Brother Jiu and others, setting the stage for him to break the "Ning Yuanbo Yingxi" today?"
Gao Pingshi smiled and said comfortingly: "I'm borrowing the face of my two brothers. You won't be angry, right?"
The muscles on Zhang Yuangong's face twitched, he vomited a breath and said: "To be honest, this is you. If it had been anyone else, I would have asked someone to take a stick out."
Zhu Yingzhen still insisted on asking his question and asked again: "Why on earth? I look at you and you don't have anything to ask of this big-tailed wolf?"
Gao pragmatic smiled and said calmly: "It's really no big deal, but the Liaodong Army is still useful now. I don't want to see him die at an inappropriate time."
"Death?" Zhu Yingzhen said inexplicably: "This kid has a bad temper, but at least he has earned the title of Lord Ningyuan. How can he die if he doesn't rebel?"
Zhang Yuangong touched his chin thoughtfully and said hesitantly: "A civil servant wants to... uh, want to touch him?"
Gao Pragmatic stopped talking. Instead, he diverted their thoughts with just one sentence: "Let's discuss what we said before? Have you two drunk too much?"
The two princes trembled in haste, as if they had been given a shot in the arm. They suddenly became energetic and said in unison: "No, no, I just had a baby!"
Then he pulled Gao Pragmatic from left to right, like a filial son and grandson supporting the old man: "Come, come, Rixin, let's talk in detail..."
Gao Pangshi followed their lead, and Shi Shiran went to the study room with them. Before leaving, he subconsciously glanced back at Li Rusong's cavalry and thought to himself: With my attitude, no one would dare to kill Li Rusong, right? Hey, Li Rusong, a bastard like this, may never realize that I saved his life. That's all, I didn't ask him to repay me anyway...
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