Acting for the gods

Chapter 136 Sun Chuanting

The total population of Houjin is only about 200 million.

In addition, the land of Liaodong is barren and cold, not suitable for farming, with very little fiscal revenue and average national strength.

But Houjin's army is extremely powerful, and the Eight Banners cavalry come and go like the wind, which is extremely threatening to Ming Dynasty.

Although the Ming Dynasty has a vast territory and a large population, the party and government in the court are endless, natural disasters occur frequently, civil upheavals occur frequently, and tax revenue continues to decline, so that the domestic economy develops slowly and the treasury is empty.

Although Zhu Youxiao levied industrial and commercial taxes and allowed more than 40 troops to be formed on the Liaodong border, these 40 troops were all distributed along the long border.

Relying on the city walls and firearms, the defense is sufficient, but the mobility is insufficient. Facing the invasion of the Eight Banners cavalry, they usually can only passively fight.

Although some victories have been achieved in these years, they have not been able to severely damage Houjin's main force.

Every autumn and winter, Houjin would plunder at the border of Daming. It can be said that the empress Jin of Ming Dynasty has been suffering for a long time!
Now listening to Jiang Fan's words of "Ping Liao in March", Zhu Youxiao only feels that it is a fantasy.

But Zhu Youxiao was not in a hurry to deny Jiang Fan. He felt that Jiang Fan was not a flatterer, but a person with real skills. Since he dared to speak wild words, there might be countermeasures.

So I planned to let Jiang Fan talk about his plan in detail before making a decision.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Youxiao asked: "Jiang Aiqing, tell me, what is a blitzkrieg? How to implement the beheading plan?"

When discussing the other party's Donglin Party last time, Jiang Fan proposed a beheading plan, which was nothing more than capturing the thief and the king first.

Zhu Youxiao also knew that as long as Huang Taiji and Dorgon could be killed, Houjin would be without a leader, and there would be chaos. At that time, Daming might indeed win a battle and severely damage Houjin.

But as the leader of Houjin, it is easier said than done to kill Huang Taiji and Dorgon among thousands of troops?
If Huang Taiji and Dorgon were so easy to kill, they wouldn't be a serious problem for Daming.

As for blitzkrieg, it was a new term for Zhu Youxiao.

Jiang Fan briefly explained: "Blitzkrieg, also known as blitzkrieg, is mainly to take advantage of the quickness of light cavalry to defeat the enemy with a surprise attack."

"The core elements of blitzkrieg are: speed, surprise, concentration."

"Pay attention to the overall coordination of the strategy, the overall situation is strong, the tactics are exquisite and unique, flexible and changeable, and carry out lightning strikes on the enemy at a speed beyond the opponent's reaction."

Zhu Youxiao didn't know what was going on, but he still felt a little unreliable: "It sounds good, but Jiannu was born as a slave. They fought all the year round and fought fiercely. Their strength is cavalry. They are good at riding and shooting, and they come and go as fast as they can. The wind has often plundered our towns."

"And my Ming Dynasty is good at attacking and defending cities. The cavalry is far inferior to Jiannu. How can I gain an advantage in speed?"

Hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Jiang Fan smiled and said, "It wasn't possible before, but it's different now."

"Oh, let's hear it."

Zhu Youxiao became interested.

Jiang Fan said: "A few days ago, I ordered the Ministry of Industry to quickly build a batch of Godly Zhuge Crossbows. These crossbows are light and easy to carry, can shoot multiple bursts, and have a range of up to [-] steps. They can wear iron armor within [-] steps. , Even on a war horse, the hit rate is extremely high."

"It only needs 3000 people equipped with the Godly Zhuge Crossbow to form light cavalry, and with a little training, an extremely mobile field force can be formed."

"At that time, by virtue of the advantages of long-range attack and the mobility of cavalry, we will be able to occupy the absolute initiative, and then cooperate with guerrilla warfare to implement the strategy of the enemy advancing and retreating, the enemy stationed and we harassing, the enemy tired and attacked, and the enemy retreated and pursued." , it will be invincible and invincible.”

"It's not enough to build slaves and Eight Banners."

Zhu Youxiao was fascinated when he heard the words, but at the same time he couldn't believe it.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan people were brutal. After occupying the Central Plains, they destroyed many cultural treasures, including the materials for making bows and crossbows.

After the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, it paid more attention to firearms and less research on crossbows, which led to a continuous decline in the technology of crossbows.

Ordinary crossbow arrows that can shoot a hundred steps are top grade.

The range of [-] paces can only be achieved by the Franc machine gun, which is far behind ordinary firearms.

Zhu Youxiao even suspected that Jiang Fan was fooling himself?
But if the Godly Zhuge Crossbow really has the power that Jiang Fan said, it will definitely be a powerful weapon for the country.

Within range, the truth is everywhere!

"Unexpectedly, Jiang Aiqing has such uncanny workmanship. Where is the Godly Zhuge Crossbow you mentioned? Let me take a look."

As the saying goes, hearing is believing, seeing is believing.

Without seeing the real thing with his own eyes, Zhu Youxiao was still a little worried.

Jiang Fan said: "The first batch of bows and crossbows have been finished and are now stored in the armory. The emperor's permission is required before they can be sent to the palace!"

"Okay, I will send the order immediately."

Zhu Youxiao nodded, and an eunuch took the order and walked out of the hall quickly.

It will take some time for the Godly Zhuge Crossbow to be delivered to the palace. Zhu Youxiao took a sip of tea and asked, "Then how does Jiang Aiqing plan to kill Dorgon and Huang Taiji, the two thieve chieftains?"

Jiang Fan replied calmly: "Forgive me, the emperor, this matter needs to be kept secret, the less people know, the higher the success rate."

"As long as the emperor allows the minister to go to Liaodong, he will form a cavalry and shooting field force with three thousand royal guards."

"In addition, activate Sun Chuanting, order him to take command, and lead the Liaodong Frontier Army and Guanning Iron Cavalry to cooperate with the humble officials. After three months, the heads of Huang Taiji and Dorgon will be offered by the officials themselves."

"Ok!"

Zhu Youxiao murmured, the Liaodong Frontier Army is Daming's barrier, and it is also half of Daming's country. Unless it is a truly trustworthy person, Zhu Youxiao will not hand over military power easily.

As for Sun Chuanting, Zhu Youxiao had some impressions. He was a 27-year-old Jinshi.

He once wrote poems such as "Wan Ni is not a plan to seal off the gate, whoever sings with a sword can sing out the lyrics", expressing his ambition to make contributions.

In March of the fifth year of Tianqi, Sun Chuanting was commended by Wang Yuncheng, the censor of Guangdong Province in Nanjing, for his meritorious service in the rebellion of Xu Hongru.

In the same year, he entered the court to report on his duties, and was appointed as the head of the Seal Inspection Department of the Ministry of Officials. Soon he was promoted to the doctor of the Ji Xun Department. However, because he was dissatisfied with the eunuch's dictatorship, he asked for leave and returned to his hometown. He was unemployed for nearly two years.

Zhu Youxiao was a little surprised. He didn't expect Jiang Fan to strongly recommend Sun Chuanting as the coach of Liaodong.

Is there any relationship between the two?
But that doesn't matter either.

At present, there are not many available people in the imperial court, and it is inevitable to promote officials.

Sun Chuanting had a good impression of Zhu Youxiao, at least much better than Yuan Chonghuan, but the position of Liaodong coach was of great importance, and he had to think carefully about it.

The two chatted for a while, and the eunuch who had left earlier brought someone to offer the Godly Zhuge Crossbow.

Zhu Youxiao tested it himself, and shot an arrow at the palace wall a hundred meters away.

Just listening to the sound of "嗖", the crossbow arrows shot out!

This arrow was so powerful that the arrow sank into the wall and was directly nailed to the wall.

"The penetrating power is so strong, even the bird gun is far behind."

As Zhu Youxiao said, he pulled the trigger one after another, and the trigger rotated. A crossbow bolt was nailed to the wall with great strength, and the distance between the crossbow bolts was no more than [-] centimeters.

This is because Zhu Youxiao is an amateur. If you change to a soldier who is good at riding and shooting, the error will be greatly reduced.

"Okay, with this sharp weapon, why should I be afraid of becoming a slave!"

After personally testing the power of the Godly Zhuge Crossbow, Zhu Youxiao was overjoyed. The Godly Zhuge Crossbow is more convenient and quicker than the firecracker, and its range and power are stronger.

Moreover, although the internal structure of the Godly Zhuge Crossbow is complicated, the manufacturing process is relatively simpler.

The development prospect of firearms is actually far higher than that of the Godly Zhuge Crossbow, but in this era, it is not as good as the Godly Zhuge Crossbow in terms of cost performance.

(End of this chapter)