"I've met Mr. Yuan Ge and Mr. Sun Ge!"
"Commander Li is being polite, what are you doing?"
Li Ruolian looked around and whispered: "This is one of Zheng Zhilong's men, who just came back from Fusang. I will take him to see His Majesty. You two elders must be prepared!"
Yuan Keli and Sun Chengzong were immediately shocked. What they were doing in Fusang was to inquire about Fusang's military situation. They were both participants in this matter.
"Commander Li will go and do his work first. The two of us are here waiting for your Majesty's summons!"
Li Ruolian nodded and led the people around him towards Qianqing Palace.
After receiving Wang Chengen's report, Li Ruolian entered Dongnuan Pavilion: "Your Majesty, the person who went to Fusang to inquire about the military situation is back!"
"pass!"
"My lord, send word to the cabinet ministers and the Minister of War to come see me!"
"My slave obeys the order!"
After a while, a young man entered Dongnuan Pavilion and immediately knelt down when he saw Chongzhou: "Commander Zheng Zhilong, the Five Tigers of the Nanhai Navy Fleet, Captain Zheng Zhiqi, is here to see Your Majesty!"
"Zheng Aiqing, please excuse yourself and get up and speak!"
"My companion, give me some tea!"
Seeing Wang Chengen bring tea, Zheng Zhiqi, who had just stood up, glanced at the tea and snacks on the table, and swallowed subconsciously.
This scene was naturally seen by Chongzhen, who was looking at him. Looking at Zheng Zhiqi, who had a tired look on his face and some chapped lips, he was filled with emotion: "My companion, take Zheng Aiqing to the side hall and get him some food. for drink."
"Your Majesty, this..."
"It's okay. I've been waiting for four months. If you're not in a hurry, go ahead!"
"I thank you, Your Majesty!"
Zheng Zhiqi saluted Chongzhen, his eyes full of emotion, and then followed Wang Chengen and slowly exited Dongnuan Pavilion.
When he appeared in Dongnuan Pavilion again, Yuan Keli and Sun Chengzong, whom he had seen before in front of the Meridian Gate, had also arrived, as well as Li Biao, Li Guopu, and Hou Liu, the Minister of War, who were handling official business.
"Zheng Aiqing, tell me about the situation!"
"Your Majesty, I was originally a member of the Zheng Zhilong tribe. As he often led merchant ships between Fusang and Fujian, I was very familiar with Fusang and was proficient in the Fusang language.
I also got acquainted with many local officials in Fuso, so this investigation task fell on me.
I set off on May 26th, arrived at Fusang on the third day of June, and returned on August 19th.
This time, I brought several ships with items that were in urgent need in Fuso, including porcelain, tea, raw silk, etc., and used these to open a way to spy on a lot of information. Please take a look at it! "
After roughly talking about his experience, Zheng Zhiqi took out a thick envelope from his arms and presented it.
Chongzhen looked at the information in the envelope and said, "Keep talking!"
"Your Majesty, the Tokugawa family is now in power in Fuso. The current general Tokugawa Iemitsu is the third generation and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu who founded the Edo shogunate.
The Tokugawa family controls nearly 30% of Fuso's land and important cities, and the remaining 70% of the land is distributed among more than 200 feudal lords.
Fusang seems to be stable on the surface, and the ministers are close to each other on the surface, but in fact they are suspicious of each other, and are extremely unstable internally, mainly in three aspects:
First, there was some discord between Emperor Gomizuo and the Tokugawa family. The Tokugawa family used Emperor Gomizuo as a puppet, but Emperor Gomizuo did not want to be a puppet. The two parties were at odds.
In June of this year, the Tokugawa family executed more than 70 people from the emperor's faction. Emperor Gomizuo was furious and directly announced his abdication. This move angered the forces supporting the emperor and began to secretly confront the Tokugawa family.
The current emperor is Emperor Meisho, the granddaughter of Tokugawa Hidetada. Since then, the power of the Tokugawa shogunate has reached its maximum;
Secondly, the Tokugawa family is also unstable. Tokugawa Iemitsu is Tokugawa Ieyasu's designated heir, and his younger brother Tokugawa Tadanagi is loved by his father and has coveted the position of general for a long time. constant competition;
Third, although the Tokugawa family controls the absolute power within Fuso, other forces are also at odds with each other, lacking a large amount of supplies, and causing constant friction. "
Speaking of this, Zheng Zhiqi glanced at the emperor, Yuan Keli and others, and after noticing that the three people's brows were frowning, he stopped knowingly.
After a while, Chongzhen glanced at Yuan Keli and said softly: "Tell me about Fusang's army and equipment."
"Your Majesty, I would like to talk about the issue of Fuso's equipment first."
After Zheng Zhiqi responded, he continued: "The specific origin of Fusang's firearms is unclear, but according to Fusang's records...in the 22nd year of Jiajing,
In the eighth year of Wanli, Spain and Portugal transported a large amount of firearms and gunpowder to Fuso. Fuso called the fire guns made iron cannons, which were actually the Vulcan guns we use.
The main tactics are musketeers holding muskets on the outside, archers in the middle, and infantry and cavalry behind.
In addition to the iron cannon, Fuso also modified it and created a firearm called the 'hug-type barrel'. The smaller caliber is about an inch...30 mm, and the thicker one is 80 mm.
The trigger is used as the firing device. It is light in weight and can be operated by a single person. When in use, it is carried on the shoulder and the trigger is pulled to activate.
Moreover, this kind of 'hugging barrel' can not only hold lead stone, but also special arrows.
However, due to the backward manufacturing process and high cost, this kind of thing does not have a large amount of equipment. It is only used to siege cities and be installed on warships.
The effective range is 120 meters and can penetrate wooden shields. There is not much danger unless it directly hits the head or other fatal parts beyond 200 meters.
As the caliber increased, they mounted this large barrel on a wooden wheel cart, which greatly increased mobility. It was very useful in field battles and sieges. The effective range was about 230 meters, but the accuracy was extremely poor. . "
I go……
Chongzhen looked a little strange. According to Zheng Zhiqi's description, the hug-style barrel resembled the rocket launchers and shotguns of later generations.
If Ming Dynasty soldiers had one of these, their combat power would definitely be the best in the world. Anyone who was not convinced would be rewarded with a hundred thousand rounds.
"Your Majesty, I spent a lot of money to get a defective big barrel and blueprints from the Spaniard who stayed in Fuso to work as a technical master for Fuso."
"Where?"
"At Jinyiwei Yamen!"
Chongzhen's eyes lit up and he said to Li Ruolian: "Li Aiqing, arrange for someone to bring it over. By the way, arrange for someone to go to the Firearms Research Institute to invite Xu Guangqi, Bi Maokang, and Sun Yuanhua to come over."
After Li Ruolian responded, he immediately left Dongnuan Pavilion. Chongzhen looked at Zheng Zhiqi: "Zheng Aiqing, please continue talking about the Fusang Army."
"Your Majesty, the Edo shogunate is very different from the previous two generations of shogunate. The Edo shogunate has a heavy army. The central military force is divided into two types: Hatamoto and Oikawa. Hatamoto and his family are cavalry, while Oikawa are infantry.
According to the results of the survey, the number of Hatamotos was only about 5,000, but they had samurai as retainers, bringing the total to 80,000, and the number of imperial retainers was about 20,000.
In other words, the Tokugawa shogunate itself controlled an army of 100,000 people, and the other two hundred feudal lords controlled almost 250,000 troops. "
Chongzhen frowned and said softly: "Does that mean Fusang has an army of 350,000?"
