In the twenty-eighth year of Chongzhen, that is, in the early spring of 1655, immigrants from the Ming Dynasty began to land in the Arabian Peninsula in a steady stream. Of course, most people landed in Suez.
Originally, although the Ming Dynasty occupied this place, the population was still mainly Middle Easterners. However, with the arrival of large numbers of immigrants, the proportions of the population began to reverse.
In Suez City, there are shipyards, cement plants, steam engine plants, machinery factories, train manufacturing bureaus and other factories, as well as government offices with various functions, such as the Army General Office, the Navy General Office, the Governor's Office, the Military War Bureau, The City Shipping Department, Jinyiwei, Dongchang, Metropolitan Procuratorate, etc. are all rising from the ground, and there are construction sites everywhere. From the lively appearance, it is impossible to tell that this place has just experienced a war and changed its owners.
In addition, the planned Suez Canal is also being excavated at the same time.
The topography of Suez is different. There are three shallow, water-filled depressions, namely Lake Manzara and Lake Timsah, and the Bitter Lake. The latter, although different in size, form a continuous body of water.
The area along the Mediterranean and Red Seas, also known as the Isthmus of Suez, is made up of marine sediments, coarse sand and gravel accumulated during earlier rains, alluvial soil from the Nile River (especially in the north), and wind-blown sand. There is no need for so-called mountain excavation, as there are very good excavation conditions innately.
Therefore, the rulers of this land have thought of digging a canal to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The earliest excavation history may be as far back as the 12th Dynasty of Egypt.
In order to conduct direct trade via land-based flat-bottomed boats, Pharaoh Senusert III ordered the digging of an "east-west" canal to connect the Red Sea and the Nile. Some evidence suggests that the canal continued to exist at least until the time of Ramses II in the 13th century BC, when it was abandoned.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus's "History", around 600 BC, Necho II started its re-excavation work, but did not complete it.
Later, the Suez Canal was regained by Ptolemy II around 250 BC. It was continuously improved, destroyed and rebuilt over the next thousand years until it was finally abandoned in the 8th century AD by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur.
Since then, the Suez Canal has been dug and opened intermittently, and it was opened for two long periods of time during the Roman period in 117 BC and under Umar ibn al-Khattab in 640 AD.
It can be seen that it was not difficult for the Ming Dynasty to dig this canal.
At the beginning, the excavation was done purely by manpower from prisoners of war captured from various places.
On the south side, that is, on the Suez side, there are mainly captives from the Arabian Peninsula, that is, the Oman Empire and other tribes; on the other side of the Mediterranean, there are prisoners from the Ottoman Empire. Under the custody of the Ming army, they were captured from the north and south at the same time. Excavation.
After the construction of the steam engine factory was completed and steam engine production began, an excavator powered by steam engines designed by Xing Guogong and already in use in China further accelerated the canal process.
In short, the entire Suez Canal area is full of vigorous and vigorous scenes.
………………
The Ming Dynasty's native Nanjing was holding an imperial meeting.
Du Yinxi, who has served as the chief minister of the Chongzhen Dynasty for the longest time so far, is happily reporting on the latest situation in the Middle East. Including details of the Battle of Baghdad, the excavation of the Suez Canal, etc.
After finishing speaking, Emperor Chongzhen said with a bit of regret: "It's such a pity that those breech-loading guns that Mr. Sir has worked so hard to invent can be fired by just pulling up the bolt and lying down!"
"..." When the ministers heard this, they couldn't help but be speechless. Isn't it good that we won the battle?
Zhang Mingwei, who was sitting below, heard this and immediately laughed and said: "Your Majesty, there are plenty of opportunities. Europeans will not surrender to our Ming Dynasty just like this."
Having said this, he paused and then said in a very confident tone: "Now that the Ottoman Empire has been defeated by our Ming Dynasty, I believe that a single European country will no longer dare to be an enemy of our Ming Dynasty. However, it can be inferred from many aspects that Europe People will not simply surrender, so I estimate that the Europeans will definitely unite and make many countries become enemies of the Ming Dynasty. When that happens, let them have a taste of breech-loading guns!"
"Okay, okay, okay!" When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he immediately clapped his hands and praised him. He liked the feeling of crushing the enemy and was very proud of it. It seems as if he wants to vent all the grievances he felt in his previous life in his next life.
After hearing this, Zuo Maodi, the censor of Zuodu, said with a little worry: "What if all the countries in Europe unite to become enemies of the Ming Dynasty? It is impossible for us to send enough troops to travel such a long distance. Will there be any dangers?" Problem?"
After hearing this, Du Yinxi also nodded and said: "Weichen has seen the new breech-loading gun. Compared with the previous front-loading musket, it is indeed much more powerful. However, if the Europeans fight with their last legs and charge desperately, especially It’s a cavalry charge, I’m afraid there will be heavy losses, right?”
It must be said that none of them got carried away, and their attitudes were relatively cautious.
The reason for this is also related to their impression of Xiyi.
For a long time, the Western Yi people came to the Ming Dynasty, including the Francois, also known as the Portuguese, the Hong Yi, the Dutch, etc. As long as they were red-haired and blue-eyed Western Yi people, their firearms were relatively powerful. Before the rise of Duke Xingguo, all firearms of the Ming Dynasty had to be purchased from Xiyi or copied.
Therefore, Xiyi has always been relatively powerful in their impression.
Although the Ottoman Empire was also powerful, it even overwhelmed European countries. However, people in the Ming Dynasty have little impression of the Ottomans. How powerful they are, I don't have the same intuitive impression as I do for Xi Yi.
Now, the worst possibility is that if all European countries unite, or even all European countries unite, they will definitely be very powerful.
The imperial army is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength. Just the difference between breech-loading guns and front-loading guns may not necessarily win! As Du Yinxi mentioned, the cavalry can make up for the gap in muskets to a certain extent.
Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but immediately turned his head to look at Zhang Mingwei, and asked with expectation: "What about the firearms that Sir mentioned can make nomads sing and dance?"
When Zhang Mingwei was in later generations, he collected a lot of electronic data because of writing, part of which was later generations of technology. Naturally, military technology must be available, and it is all stored on his mobile phone.
After his mobile phone was recharged, Zhang Mingwei was afraid that there might be problems such as damage. Therefore, Zhang Mingwei began to read all the information in the mobile phone as soon as he turned it on. With the side effects of time travel, he read through The ability to remember has already memorized all the information in the phone.
One of the contents is related to ordnance. Of course, Zhang Mingwei mentioned this matter to Emperor Chongzhen, and skipped the original historical steps, instead of using the hand-cranked Gatling gun, and directly fired the Maxim heavy machine gun.
This machine gun did not start to appear until the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The biggest reason was actually the problem of bullets, or gunpowder.
There is residue after the initial black powder is burned, and the barrel must be cleaned before it can be reloaded, which limits automatic loading and firing. The invention of smokeless gunpowder solved this problem.
In the original history, bullets also started to evolve from paper-cased bullets. It took a very long time to evolve (explore) to the bullets that are common in later generations.
But in this plane, Ming can skip these evolutionary steps and directly start the final version of ordinary metal bullets.
Before the Chongzhen Dynasty, even if they could make metal bullets, they probably wouldn't have the financial resources. However, today's Ming Dynasty does not worry about this money problem.
Under Zhang Mingwei's butterfly effect, Daming had accumulated sufficient technical and financial resources in all aspects, and the metal bullet was born under Zhang Mingwei's leadership.
In this way, there is a breech-loading gun. And with the breech-loading gun, the machine gun naturally became a logical choice. The Maxim heavy machine gun that Zhang Mingwei likes was actually invented in the black powder era. However, due to the problem of black powder, it was not powerful. It was not until the invention of smokeless gunpowder that it became the overlord on the battlefield.
Today, Zhang Mingwei is taking the lead in inventing the Maxim heavy machine gun. However, matters related to this mass murder weapon are still classified as top secret, and no one except the person involved knows about it.
Although it had not been invented at this time, Emperor Chongzhen had seen the heroic appearance of the Maxim heavy machine gun in the documentary. Therefore, when he heard that Du Yinxi was worried about the European cavalry, he immediately thought of the Maxim heavy machine gun.
At this time, Zhang Mingwei heard Emperor Chongzhen's question and immediately replied with a smile: "Your Majesty, the prototype has been hand-built. It is estimated that it can be assembled in the next two days. Once the test is passed, we can start considering mass production. !”
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he immediately laughed and said: "I am really relieved that sir is doing this. When will the prototype function be tested? I want to go and witness it myself!"
When Zhang Mingwei saw it, he immediately said with a smile: "Okay, it should be no problem. Those who want to see it, just watch it together, and call the generals of the navy and army in Nanjing to witness together, so that we can understand Get this weapon!"
