Lord of Ming Dynasty

The matchmaking factory is responsible for purchasing materials, manufacturing matches, and the inspection workshop conducts random inspections. The qualified ones are packaged and sent to the assembly plant in stages.

Finally, the assembly plant will assemble a matchlock gun.

Francis participated in the whole process. Within half a month, under the coordination of Zhou Porridge, Xianju's arquebus gun factory was completed and production started. In this month, during the process of establishment and improvement, it produced 55 qualified matchlock guns were produced, the standard reached the best standard of Portuguese matchlock guns, and the weight of Portuguese matchlock guns was increased by three catties, the barrel was lengthened by three inches, and the power was increased to 60 meters to 35 meters. The power to penetrate three layers of iron armor, the rate of fire has been increased by one-third because of the fixed ammunition, the fastest and best musketeers can fire one shot within [-] to [-] breaths, and two shots in one and a half minutes level.

There are also the best 70 matchlock guns, which can fire one shot within 90 breaths, two shots in more than one and a half minutes, wear three layers of armor at a distance of 120 meters, and can still penetrate one layer at a range of 130 meters. Iron armor plus a layer of cotton armor, and it is still powerful within [-] meters. At least it can kill soldiers with a layer of cotton armor. It can kill unarmored soldiers at a distance of [-] meters, and the chance of successfully hitting the enemy has increased by [-]%.

That is to say, in the face of the general Ming army, without wearing armor, you can shoot at a distance of 130 meters. You don't have to wait until the enemy enters the 100-meter range, and you don't have to wait until the enemy enters the 30-meter range. the enemy.

More than half a month later, Francis and Zhou Porridge established a factory in Fucheng, Taizhou at the same time. In the middle of the second month, the factory in Jinhuafu was also completed. The three factories, at the worst, can provide 230 yuan a month. Qualified matchlock guns, the three factories are fully operational, and can provide [-] qualified matchlock guns, [-] medium matchlock guns, and [-] top-grade matchlock guns a month.

In just one and a half months, the matchlock gun factory, which was still under construction and trial production, provided Zhang Qiang with [-] qualified matchlock guns, [-] medium matchlock guns, and [-] high-quality matchlock guns.

With the improvement of technology, Zhang Qiang's troops will all be equipped with first-class matchlock guns.

Half of his 500 professional musketeers have been equipped with qualified matchlock guns, 1000 have been equipped with medium matchlock guns, and the remaining [-] have been equipped with the Portuguese matchlock guns that existed before. The standard matchlock gun.

As for the matchlock guns repaired before, there were [-] matchlock guns, plus the matchlock guns captured after retreating, a total of [-] matchlock guns. Zhang Qiang equipped his subordinates with [-] matchlock guns for each leader, and established a The troops of a thousand households with matchlock guns.

These people are mainly Xuanyuan Longfei, who is stationed in Wenzhou Mansion, Xiao Fei, who is stationed in Quanzhou Mansion, Tang Dianfeng, who is stationed in Jianning Mansion; The Shaowu court and Li Chengdong and other Qing soldiers, Milin, and Jinhua Mansion's chief soldier, each of these three men have [-] blunderbuss soldiers, plus Zhang Qiang's [-] blunderbuss soldiers. Jinhua Mansion, the frontier facing the Qing soldiers, is also Zhang Qiang's current administrative center has five thousand firearms at once.

At He Jin's place, even though He Jin didn't need it, Zhang Qiang still handed over a thousand firecrackers to Hu Kui, and asked him to lead a thousand firecrackers, a thousand cavalry and He Jin to protect the state capital.

Duge Taizhou County, the capital of Taizhou, is close to the sea, where there are elite troops of one thousand firecrackers and one thousand cavalry.

Finally, a thousand gunners were placed in Xianju, led by Zhou Porridge.

After the last calculation, Zhang Qiang suddenly found that there were 1 firecrackers in his team.

There is another person who has been forgotten, General Zhao Siyang, who is stationed in Tiantai County and Sanmen County in front of Xianju and Taizhou Prefecture, guarding against Ningbo Prefecture, Shaoxing Prefecture, and Hangzhou Prefecture. It can be said that he has a heavy responsibility.

Both counties have artillery, as well as the former firecrackers general banner force, plus some cold weapon troops dispatched in succession, he guards the two counties by himself, and has 8000 soldiers, and Zhang Qiang finally allocates a battalion to him , a 500-man musketeer unit, from among the most elite professional musketeers retrained and reorganized by himself, the musketeer unit equipped with the former Portuguese muskets was given to him.

Such an arrangement made Zhang Qiang's territory airtight, and his troops were strong and strong, so that even the Qing soldiers would not dare to attack at once.

The Qing soldiers did not dare to fight over because they were on land, and the two sides were mainly fighting on land. Currently in the southeast direction, the strength of the Jinhua Rebel Army is definitely stronger than that of the Qing Army, coupled with the huge physique of the Yongli court , as well as the harassment of the uprising rebel troops organized by the Ming gentry who caused a lot of trouble because of the "hair-shaving order". Concentrate forces to deal with Zhang Qiang's Jinhua Rebel Army.

At sea, Zheng Cai has no such scruples. Just like the Qing court in the later generations, who was stunned by the Eight-Power Allied Forces, they trembled in fright when they heard foreigners. In fact, if they really want to suppress one of the Western countries, the Western countries There are not so many resources and troops consumed by the Qing court, but the Qing court is afraid.

Seeing that the Qing court was so cowardly, the Japanese saw an opportunity. They were small and weak, but they could concentrate on dealing with the Qing court. It was still possible to stab the Qing court in the waist, so they took the risk and completely ignored it. Daming had a history of beating them to pieces in North Korea.

At this time, although the Jinhua Rebel Army's land force, Zheng Cai's sailors, even if they gather 5 to [-] people, can't beat the army of a thousand Jinhua Rebel Army. , regardless of the head and the tail, it is still possible to do it.

This was also Zhang Qiang's negligence. When he received Zheng Cai's investigation into the mainland, he failed to take timely measures to control Zheng Cai. He never thought that Zheng Cai would do this.

Chapter 135 The End of Zheng Cai [-]

Admiral Zhang Ying of the Navy of Taizhou Prefecture, Xuanyuan Longfei, Chief of Wenzhou Prefecture, Zhou Porridge, Prefect of Taizhou Prefecture, Du Ge, Chief of Taizhou Prefecture, and Zhu Dayou, Zhang Qiang's housekeeper, stood in the lobby, listening to Zhang Qiang's roar with trepidation.

"Five manors of the squires in Taizhou Prefecture were breached by pirates, the entire estate was slaughtered, and women and children were taken away,"

"In the whole territory of Taizhou and Wenzhou, 41 villages were attacked, the population was looted, and the villages were burned. No one dared to go near the sea within fifteen or six miles of the coast of the two prefectures."

"The population of Quanzhou Prefecture and Fuzhou Prefecture was robbed of 3000 people, 43 villages were slaughtered, and [-] villages were forced to move to the interior,"

"3 people in Xinghua Prefecture and Funing Prefecture were killed and plundered, and the coastal ships were robbed,"

"How do you do things?"

"Why are there so many troops, but they can't stop a group of pirates. Check it out, send scouts, spies, and work carefully. No matter what method you use, check the situation out for me."

Zhang Qiang was furious, scolding, roaring, and turning around in the lobby.

Zhang Ying glanced at the others, sighed, and took a step up, "Your Excellency, it's the humble officer who failed to do his job effectively, which caused the pirates on the coast to attack the territory of the rebel army on land. The humble officer asks the Lord to release the humble officer."

"Is it useful to send you down?" Zhang Qiang pointed at him and roared.

Zhang Ying bowed his head, if Zhang Qiang didn't allow them to kneel down again, his knees would soften, and he would kneel down.

Zhu Dayou stepped forward, "My lord, in all likelihood, it was Zheng Cai who did it. It is also possible that other pirates saw Zheng Cai's success and took advantage of the fire to rob. According to the information that the villain has, it is Zheng Cai who harassed the coasts of Taizhou and Wenzhou. Cai did it, Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Tai and others did it to harass the coast of Fujian, and of course there are some small pirate groups, but these information are just rumors, and no witnesses or examples have been captured yet.”

Glancing at Xuanyuan Longfei and Du Ge, Zhu Dayou said: "But according to some information we have, it is possible that people in our army, coastal people and gentry are providing information to the pirates, otherwise, our army will run over , The pirates can always escape in time and avoid our pursuit, which is very suspicious, and there are enemy spies within us."

Zhang Qiang squinted his eyes, walked around these people, and carefully examined the expressions on everyone's faces. It wasn't that he didn't believe these people, but that he needed to see surprises on these people's faces, and hoped that someone could Jump out and solve these things for him.

He can't lead them to conquer the world alone.

But it is very disappointing that none of these people has such courage and ability.

Xuanyuan Longfei and Du Ge were very dissatisfied when Zhu Dayou glanced at them and said the above words, as if someone in the Jinhua Rebel Army they controlled was colluding with pirates.

Just as he was about to refute, he saw Zhang Qiang's chilling eyes, he swallowed the words in his stomach, and stood there daring to speak.

Zhang Qiang turned his back, looked at the wall behind the lobby, and said coldly: "No matter who it is, we have been attacked at sea, and the ones who can pose a threat to us are Zheng Cai and Zheng Hongkui. We don't need to identify anyone, and we don't have to Afraid of making a mistake, let’s get rid of their nest together, I want Zheng Cai’s head, we can no longer let the threat at sea become a thorn in our back.”

Zhou Congee asked in a low voice: "My lord, what should I do?"

"Mobilize the army and destroy them."

Zhou Congee asked puzzledly: "But, Governor, they are on the island, we can't get close to them, and according to intelligence, many gentry or coastal fishermen may be the eyes and ears of pirates, we can't get close to them at all."

"Multiple scouts sneak into the coast to monitor the enemy. They always relax. Let's attack the pirates on the coast first."

"You all go down, Zhang Ying stay." Zhang Qiang said.

After everyone else went out, Zhang Qiang asked Zhang Ying to sit down, and asked, "Admiral Zhang, do you have any confidants who can break into the interior of Xiamen Island where Zheng Cai is located?"

Zhang Ying thought for a while, "My lord, most of our navy is composed of fishermen, former pirates or sea merchants, but there are quite a few people who have stayed in Zheng's pirates. I can send these people back and enter Inside the enemy, gather intelligence for your lord."

"Okay, you must be loyal to your confidants. Those who are unreliable can only make the enemy laugh at our incompetence, and send reliable people to sneak into the enemy's interior, deliver news for us, and create some false news to confuse the enemy." Zhang Qiang leaned in front of Zhang Ying and whispered. Said.

"Yes, my lord, you don't have to worry about this. The pirates and the court navy, or between the pirates, everyone knows that there must be enemy spies inside." Zhang Ying said very easily.

"No, Master Zhang, I mean those who can work, or who can be loyal to us, spy. Don't swing around, I need to let him expire the enemy until our army lands on the enemy's island and wipes out the enemy." Before the enemy, let the enemy not find our actions."

"There is no problem, my lord. I will be personally responsible and send my confidantes to find out all the information about the enemy's activities." Zhang Ying said resolutely.

Sending Zhang Ying away, Zhang Qiang began to dispatch troops. The troops by the sea were unreliable, because many of those troops were spies infiltrated by the enemy, or the family members or relatives of these soldiers themselves were pirates. Can inquire about news from many aspects.

The troops trained by Zhang Qiang himself did not have so many spies, and they were more loyal.

Within a few days, Zhang Qiang's [-] gunners and [-] cavalry troops were transferred from Jinhua Mansion to the mountains along the coast of Taizhou County to hide.

Xuanyuan Longfei and Du Ge received orders to strictly control their soldiers and not to leave the camp without reason.

For a while, the Jinhua Rebel Army on the coast seemed to have disappeared, and they all shrank back. No one cared about the life and death of the merchants or common people along the coast. This made the pirates of Zheng Caiyi ecstatic. Few merchant ships passed by, and all the fishing villages in the fifteen or six miles along the coast were harmed. Those who were not harmed were all their relatives or the fishing villages of their own hometown.

There is no chance of attacking them. Now the Jinhua Rebels no longer patrol and arrest them, leaving a lot of gaps, making them feel that they can go deep into the inland and rob the inland gentry and common people.