Emperor Chongzhen had actually known for a long time that he was coming to ask this question on Lu Xiangsheng's order, so he was not surprised at all and had already been prepared.
I heard him say to Zheng Zhilong: "I have learned that Jianlu wants to open a sea route because of the destruction of Shanxi merchants. If you destroy all Jianlu's navy, it will end Jianlu's hope of establishing a sea route. Instead, it will I don’t want to force Jianlu to try his best on land.”
At this point, he saw that Zheng Zhilong seemed to be a little confused, so he explained in detail: "For now, in all fairness, the Ming army on land is stronger than Jianlu when it comes to field battles. But on the sea , the Jianlu Navy cannot compare with the Ming Dynasty Navy at all. Therefore, in order to reduce losses, I hope that Jianlu’s national power will be consumed on the sea."
When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he couldn't help but suddenly realized: "Your Majesty means that on the basis of ensuring the reconstruction of Dongjiang Town, Jianlu will feel that the navy of our Ming Dynasty is not very strong. As long as they work hard, they may be able to defeat our Ming Dynasty." The Navy, just hang up Jianlu like this, so that Jianlu can spend their limited supplies on the Navy?"
Emperor Chongzhen smiled after hearing this and added to him: "Don't forget, if Jianlu has a ship, he can also trade with unscrupulous merchants of the Ming Dynasty. This is also a big factor in tempting Jianlu. In addition, I will also let Jianlu know that I The coastal defenses along the Ming Dynasty are loose, and if the Jianlu Navy is strong enough, it might be able to cross the sea and invade the customs."
Having said this, he concluded: "As long as I give Jianlu enough reasons, I believe Jianlu will attack their navy."
"So that's it, the general understands!" Upon hearing this, Zheng Zhilong nodded quickly, "This is called using one's own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses. By the time Jianlu understood that there was actually no hope at sea, they had already squandered a lot of money. Supplies, right?”
"Yes, the time wasted can also make our Ming army stronger." Emperor Chongzhen said with a smile, "My army is being rebuilt, and what is missing is time. When Jianlu wakes up, I believe in my army It’s already powerful enough!”
In fact, a key link in this plan is the presence of Wu Zhong.
Although at this time, Emperor Chongzhen had no way of knowing whether Wu Zhong had rebelled. But who knows, when Wu Zhong sets foot on land, he will undergo the seventy-two changes of Monkey King. Because of the existence of eavesdropping seeds, he will not be able to escape from his Wuzhishan.
As long as Wu Zhong is mastered, false information can be sent back to Liaodong to seduce Huang Taiji and influence his judgment, thereby allowing Jianlu to consume resources on the navy.
In addition, Emperor Chongzhen actually had another plan, but he did not tell Zheng Zhilong because there was no need.
He looked at the Jiangnan side. Who was resisting the verification of the quota of privileges and exemptions for officials and gentry? Their families had gold and silver but they still wanted to default on their taxes? If there really is such a person, let Wu Zhong pay a visit.
If such a person dares to fight against the imperial court for the sake of profit, he will definitely not be able to resist the temptation of Huang Taiji's promise. There is big business to be done and big profits to be made, so I don’t believe that people like this won’t take the bait.
As long as he boarded Wu Zhong's ship, he would become the second Shanxi merchant. Emperor Chongzhen would not mind killing pigs again.
In Wuying Hall, the monarch and his ministers talked happily. But suddenly, Zheng Zhilong's smile disappeared again, and he said with a trace of worry: "Your Majesty, although this plan is good, I will never think that there are still some details that are not right!"
"Oh, what details are wrong?" Emperor Chongzhen was a little surprised when he heard this, and immediately asked with a concerned look.
Zheng Zhilong was a little hesitant after hearing this, but he quickly replied: "Your Majesty, the general has a bad reputation at sea. Therefore, the general is worried about the people on the Jianlu side. Some people have heard of the general's reputation. If you know that the last general is leading the navy, you will definitely know that with the strength of Liaodong Jianlu, he cannot be my Ming Dynasty's opponent no matter what!"
Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but smile.
Zheng Zhilong was the pirate king of this period. It was he who unified all the pirates, brought them under his command, and destroyed them if they refused. In this way, he was able to earn more than 10 million in silver in one year just by relying on the command flag. It would be strange if Emperor Chongzhen did not consider this detail!
Seeing the emperor's smile, Zheng Zhilong thought that the emperor was a little disapproving and felt that he was bragging on his behalf, so he quickly explained: "Your Majesty, it is true. There are even Koreans in the fleet under the general. All Koreans, In Japan and other places, if their ships want to go south to do business, they must obtain the consent of the general. This... the general means that although Jianlu is in Liaodong, it is possible that he has heard of the reputation of the general. Even if The general guarantees that there is no possibility of leaks from the navy, but if the Dongjiang Army comes ashore to join the battle, the news will most likely be leaked, and it is the general who leads the navy."
"Zheng Qing misunderstood!" Emperor Chongzhen laughed after hearing this, "Of course I believe what you said, but it doesn't matter. If the Dongjiang Army joins the war, even if Jianlu knows about it by then, it won't matter."
At this point, he remembered something and smiled again and said to Zheng Zhilong: "Let's go with me to the third camp and let you see something."
The emperor's ideas are so wild and unconstrained. Just now he was talking about Jianlu, why in the blink of an eye is he taking himself to the third camp to see something? Zheng Zhilong was a little puzzled, but since the emperor had said it, he had no choice, so he immediately followed the imperial commander to the third camp.
He didn't take a close look at the three major camps under the Royal Horse Supervisor when he was in Jinan Mansion. Therefore, this time, when I walked into the military camp with my chariot, I naturally took a good look.
Needless to say, Zheng Zhilong could tell at a glance that the elites of the three major battalions, let alone the local army, were much better than the rogue army being trained under Governor Lu.
According to common sense, this is certain. After all, those bandits were surrounded, annihilated and captured by the three major battalions.
However, during the time that Zheng Zhilong stayed in Dengzhou, he saw with his own eyes that the bandit army had undergone great changes under the training of Governor Lu. Therefore, he initially thought that it should be similar to the three major camps.
But I didn’t expect that the results were still inferior. It is obvious that while the bandit officers and soldiers are improving in training, the three major battalions are not resting and are also making progress.
Zheng Zhilong observed silently as he walked, and he discovered several unusual things, at least not seen in Fujian.
These are the vehicles that the Panshi Battalion soldiers are training on. They come in various shapes and have artillery on them. Some are advancing rapidly, and some are quickly connecting the vehicles to make defensive postures. The mix of cavalry, chariots, and infantry was an eye-opener for Zheng Zhilong when he saw it for the first time.
At the training ground of the Hussars Battalion, which is rarely seen in Fujian, groups of cavalry are forming, charging, harassing, practicing riding and shooting, etc.
Finally, he followed the Holy Master to the training place of the Brave Guard Camp. Most of the people here were practicing long-range weapons. Groups of soldiers, even spearmen, were equipped with bows and arrows. He saw them inserting their spears on the ground, and they were In a short period of time, all the arrows in the quiver were shot out. There is no emphasis on accuracy, only speed.
Zheng Zhilong saw that it really felt like the sun was covered with arrows. Seeing the arrows in front of these soldiers being filled with dense arrows, he could feel that if the enemy wanted to rush into these spearmen, they would at least suffer heavy casualties.
However, from this point of view, Zheng Zhilong can also estimate that such training consumes a lot of materials every day. It seems that the emperor also spent a lot of money in order to train a strong army that can truly fight against Jianlu. of.
As he watched, he almost didn't realize that the emperor had stopped.
Following the emperor's gaze, he saw about ten teams of soldiers from the Yongwei Battalion, with ten people in each team, shooting "bang bang bang".
At first, Zheng Zhilong couldn't see clearly because of the smoke. But he always felt that something was wrong.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew away some of the smoke, and he suddenly realized that something was wrong, because these soldiers were not holding matchlock guns, but self-made fire guns!
Speaking of this self-made firecracker, Zheng Zhilong, as the pirate king of the Ming Dynasty, naturally had someone donate it to him.
He also played with it, but found it impractical and too expensive, so he didn't care.
But when Zheng Zhilong saw it now, he immediately felt that this self-generated fire gun was different from the ones he had played with before. These ten teams are always soldiers, taking turns to shoot, almost achieving uninterrupted shooting. You can imagine that if the power of this self-generated fire gun is as powerful as that of a sophisticated matchlock gun, how can the enemy on the opposite side rush over? The rain of arrows just now always stopped, but the shooting of this self-generated fire gun could not stop for a long time!
At this moment, he immediately thought that if these self-generated fire guns were also equipped on the warships, like this, wouldn't it be possible to cause a lot of damage to the enemy in a gang-hopping battle, and then carry out gang-hopping battles? , it will be much easier.
These soldiers being trained are all under the command of Lu Da, the commander-in-chief of the Yongwei Battalion. Emperor Chongzhen nodded at him.
Therefore, Lu Da immediately issued a military order, asking the soldiers who were shooting to stop training and stand in line. The targets in the distance were also brought over by special personnel.
Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said to Zheng Zhilong: "These are the self-generating muskets improved by Bi Qing of the Military War Bureau. I call them flintlock guns. The power has reached the requirements in the "New Book of Jixiao", and no match rope is needed, and the ignition rate is It’s about 80%. You can go and see the power of this flintlock gun yourself.”
Bi Maokang's improvements were mainly in the gun action. In fact, the most important part of a flintlock gun is the bolt.
The flintlock gun Zheng Zhilong saw was quite different from the one presented to him by others before. Needless to say, he was greatly surprised by the results of his viewing.
Although he was overjoyed, Emperor Chongzhen poured cold water on him and said: "The most difficult thing about this flintlock gun is the main spring on the bolt. It must be strong enough to ensure the possibility of sparks after firing. . I would rather this kind of flintlock gun be made slower, but also to ensure the success rate of firing and generating sparks. Therefore, the current output of these flintlock guns is still very low."
Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Because he knew that if the output was not high, it would definitely not be equipped for his navy.
Sure enough, he heard Emperor Chongzhen say to him: "However, I can allocate 300 self-made fire guns to Lu Qing, of which 100 will be used for training and the other 200 will be used for war. Wait for this in the future. After the production of flintlock muskets increases, I will equip both the army and navy."
Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed. Before he could speak, Emperor Chongzhen said again: "I just lack time. As long as we can delay Jianlu and give me more time, we can make more flintlock guns like this." With a few, the strength of our Ming army will be even stronger."
When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he finally understood that the emperor's purpose of bringing him here was not to give Governor Lu 300 flintlock guns, but to let him see with his own eyes that given more time, the Ming army's combat strength would increase. What an improvement.
After understanding this, Zheng Zhilong immediately said that he would definitely give Jianlu hope.
In fact, he really needs to deeply understand this. Only in this way can Zheng Zhilong grasp the sense of proportion when fighting the Jianlu Navy in the future.
Afterwards, Emperor Chongzhen asked someone to bring another thing, a ball framed in a rattan frame. Zheng Zhilong took a look and roughly figured out that this was also a gunpowder weapon. However, he didn't know what it was.
He heard Emperor Chongzhen introduce it to him: "This thing is recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu" by Song Qing, the Division of Kaiwu. It is very useful in defending the city in the north. I asked them to test it for you. . Please see if it can also be used for gang-hopping battles after the warship approaches?"
When Zheng Zhilong heard that there were good things for him, he immediately began to look forward to it. After seeing what happened to this enemy of ten thousand people, he was immediately overjoyed and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, this enemy of ten thousand people can indeed be used. Two After the ship approaches, let powerful men ignite these ten thousand enemies and throw them onto the opponent's ship. This will surely disrupt the opponent's ship and not only kill and injure the enemy, but also greatly reduce the enemy's morale."
"Oh, that's good!" Emperor Chongzhen said happily when he heard this, "Then you think about it again and whether it is necessary to improve this situation of ten thousand enemies according to the situation you think about. I will ask you to change the military strategy. I'll give you some trial orders later."
This is to lean against a big tree to enjoy the shade. If you were a pirate, you might do these things. Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed and quickly agreed.
So, when Zheng Zhilong returned to Dengzhou, he brought back 300 flintlock rifles, 500,000 enemies, and ten flintlock instructors, who were soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion.
By the time he returned to Dengzhou, it was already mid-February of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen. At this time, Emperor Chongzhen learned through eavesdropping seeds that Wu Zhong of Liaodong, with his men, left Jinzhou by boat and came to the Ming Dynasty.
In this regard, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but wonder in his heart, has this Wu Zhong betrayed him?
