Lu Ming

First of all, the emperor confirmed that Cao Zongbing had not only offended the Guan Ning army before, but this time he was at odds with the Donglin Party. This ending made the emperor feel extremely comfortable.

Chongzhen, who has been in power for many years, is no longer the stunned young man he was at the beginning. He is now very aware of the importance of balance.Cao Zongbing is naturally happy to see the success of Chongzhen in this way-Cao Aiqing, you'd better offend everyone in the world, don't be afraid, I will support you.

Secondly, in the long run, the emperor is also happy to see his ministers carve up the land of Yizhou.

Since ancient times, in the cognition of any powerful class, only land is the foundation that can be passed on and ensure the prosperity of the family from generation to generation.With land, not only can it bring long-term and stable income, careerists can also save soldiers and food, which will become a reliance in rebellion.

As for those businessmen and merchants, they are all superficial and cheap, and it is not worth spending too much time on it.

Originally, Zhongyong Boyuan's foundation in Yizhou was the same as that of the frontier chieftains. Let alone the emperor, there was nothing he could do about it.

However, since Cao Zhongchen took the initiative to divide the land, it is completely different.Although this move seemed a bit stupid to everyone, including the emperor, it fully demonstrated Cao Zhongchen's determination to integrate into the system wholeheartedly.Then, as the biggest beneficiary of the system, His Majesty the Emperor is naturally full of joy.

Cao Zongbing's land was divided up by the landlord class. In the eyes of the emperor, this was actually the best way to eliminate the hidden dangers between the monarch and his ministers: if the land was dispersed, he could not secretly save soldiers and food, so Cao Zhongchen naturally dedicated himself to serving the country. It is impossible to be a warlord anymore.

Outstanding military exploits, reckless and loyal, offended the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, and sold his land to kill himself as a warlord... Chongzhen suddenly found that, looking all over the court and the public, he could never find another courtier who was so sympathetic to him.

After appraising the loyal ministers and adjusting the emperors who knew each other, Cao Aiqing was summoned in the imperial garden.

In today's match between the emperor and his ministers in the Imperial Garden, the host is Chongzhen, the host and guest are Uncle Zhongyong, and the accompanying guests are the specially selected chief assistant Zhou Yanru and second assistant Wen Tiren, and Fang Zhenghua, the supervisor of ceremonies—these are not Dong. Lin Dang also has goodwill towards Cao Zongbing to some extent, and there will be no embarrassing scenes.

The Imperial Garden was called Gonghou Garden in the Ming Dynasty, and it was located in the northernmost part of the Forbidden City.There are pines, cypresses, bamboos and locust trees in the garden, beautiful trees are verdant, and there are also strange stone pavilions all over the garden. It was built for emperors, queens and concubines to rest and enjoy.

The location of the emperor's banquet today is Fubiting.

Fubi Pavilion was built in the 11th year of Wanli. It is a three-bay square pavilion with water and mountains.When Uncle Zhongyong was led out of the pavilion by the eunuch, he found that the two elders were already sitting in the pavilion talking and laughing happily.

Cao Zongbing went up to greet him, and after the three of them sat down and had a brief chat, a team headed by a eunuch turned out from among the vines on the rockery in the distance.Walking in the procession was the emperor himself.

"Excuse me, give me a seat." Seeing the three courtiers who came forward, the smiling young emperor raised his hand to avoid etiquette.After that, in front of a long table with melons, fruits, snacks and tea in the pavilion, the emperor sat down first, and the courtiers also sat down after confessing their crimes.

Judging from today's overall environment, Chongzhen still put his heart into it.Not only did the venue of the performance be set in a garden with a relaxed atmosphere, but the emperor himself wore a moon-white dragon robe with a relatively plain color.

At the beginning of the tea party, the monarchs and ministers first chatted around a pot of lychees in syrup on the table.

Due to the low transportation efficiency in the Ming Dynasty, although the Shangshanjian (the imperial dining room was only available in the Qing Dynasty) occasionally received seasonal fruits from the south of the Yangtze River, they would not give them to the emperor.It is even more impossible for fruits like lychees that are finished when they leave the cold chain.

After Zongbing Cao entered Beijing this time, he first offered a batch of canned food to the palace, and then privately guaranteed to his ally Fang Zhenghua that he would supply it for a long time in the future.

Then Fang Zhenghua promoted canned lychees and oranges in the palace under pressure and risks as before.

The effect must be excellent.

Whether it is Chongzhen's Zhenggong Empress Zhou, the favored Concubine Tian Gui, or Chongzhen's beautiful sister-in-law Empress Zhang, all of them are full of praise for Tangshui Lichee, and feel that they have become Yang Guifei.

So Fang Zhenghua showed his face in the harem in the past few days, not to mention, he was rewarded by nobles, and he was also praised by Chongzhen, which can be said to be unparalleled in the limelight.

After Chongzhen sat down today, he also made lychees the topic of conversation first, and said a few jokes like "I borrow flowers to present Buddha today" to adjust the atmosphere.

Seeing the emperor was happy, the three veteran guests hurriedly began to compliment each other skillfully, including Zhang Dongdong who used to be the manager of an advertising company, so he cooperated tacitly with Wen Laoxiu. .

After chatting for a while, everyone told jokes and tasted lychees. The emperor wiped his mouth with a silk scarf, and then said to Uncle Zhongyong with a smile on his face: "Aiqing's trip to Beijing is considered a good one." I am really happy that the merits and virtues are complete, but I don’t know what Aiqing’s plans are in the future?"

Cao Aiqing, who was sitting on the emperor's right hand, had already had a draft in her stomach. She didn't stumble after hearing the words, and immediately replied with a straight face, "My Majesty, I plan to return to Yizhou in a few days."

"Oh..." After the emperor heard the words, he gave a faint oh, and then said casually: "If you don't rush to leave, Aiqing can temporarily receive the seal of Ji Liao general soldier, and I will allocate another 200 million Liao salary every year Train troops with Qing. After Jizhen trains a strong army, Aiqing can be a military strategist and supervise Liaodong. Cao Chuan, are you willing to help me defeat the northern captives?"

When Chongzhen said this, he stared at Cao Zhongchen with shining eyes without blinking.

The next moment, Uncle Zhongyong stood up, thanked the emperor for his kindness with a serious face, and then said to the emperor with a bitter face: "I will tell you the truth, I have to go back at this time because I have to do something."

Speaking of this, Cao Zongbing spread his hands together: "Your Majesty, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice. The minister was able to defeat the Tartars before, and more than half of the credit has to fall on the Lianzhu musket."

"Now that I have no medicine, I am a toothless tiger. I have to go back to Yizhou to prepare guns."

When Chongzhen heard this, he turned his head and looked at the two cabinet ministers in disbelief: "There is such a thing?"

Chapter 478 Change the topic

The emperor's previous awards to Uncle Zhongyong seemed generous, but the series of dazzling titles were all false.Before the tea party in the Royal Garden, Cao Zongbing's official position was still the deputy commander-in-chief of Zhangchao and other divisions.

The emergence of this situation is not because of the emperor's suppression, but because the emperor needs detailed communication and overall consideration before he can decide on the next step of Cao Zongbing's specific work.

Today's tea party was specially used by the emperor to solve this matter. However, the moment the emperor said that sentence, the interests of the two parties began to differ.

For Chongzhen, transferring Cao Zongbing from the south to the Liaodong theater to preside over the anti-captive work was the operation that was in the best interest of the emperor.

Since the old slave uprising, Daming has never had a good general like Uncle Zhongyong.The current Zhongyong Bo is to the emperor, just like Qi Jiguang was to Jiajing back then.If Chongzhen didn't use this person to destroy the captives, who should he use?Ogre?

This is the fundamental reason why Chongzhen defended Cao Zongbing to death in the court before.

To be honest, as long as Cao Zongbing doesn't raise the flag of rebellion right now, let alone plowing the land with iron oxen, even if he massacres the nobles in the south of the Yangtze River, even if he goes to Yizhou to collect refugees wantonly, even if he goes to the harem and touched the widow's thigh, Chongzhen will also endure it abruptly - as long as Aiqing, you help me destroy the Tartars first, and I can bear it with a little green on my head!

Of course, as for after destroying the Tartars... Do you know what happened to Zhang Juzheng?Someone almost opened the coffin and flogged the corpse.

Chongzhen is now clearly aware of the priorities: any internal conflicts are not as serious as the Tartars who can pull him off the dragon seat and chop off his head at any time.

So he had to fool Cao Zongbing to go to Liaodong to destroy the captives.

But it's not that simple.

Before his debut, Qi Jiguang was the commander of the hereditary Dengzhou Guard... He is a family of civil servants, and he is a proper person in the system.

Because of this, Emperor Jiajing could arrange Qi Jiguang at will.He sent this person to the coast when fighting against the Japanese, and sent him to Santunying as the general officer of Jizhen when he was fighting against the Tatars. When Zhang Juzheng died and Qi Jiguang's background fell, the emperor easily kicked this person to Guangzhou.

During this process, Qi Jiguang, as a brick in the system, has no self-resistance ability, and can only obey orders.

However, Cao Zongbing is different.

Cao Zongbing is a pirate who was recruited from An. He has brothers under him, and Yizhou hangs behind his buttocks. Some people have money and food, and they are financially self-sufficient.

Although this warlord showed a satisfactory attitude of integrating into the system, it is impossible for the emperor to shout at Cao Zongbing like Qi Jiguang—what is a warlord?Warlords are the kind of people who can raise the flag of rebellion at any time if they cannot agree.

So the emperor can only discuss this matter with Cao Zongbing in a negotiating tone today.

As a result, the emperor was ruthlessly rejected.

……

Things have developed to this point, the interests of the time traveler and the emperor are different.

For the cross-travelers, what needs to be done in the north right now is to open a sub-base, absorb refugees, set up a commodity sales/leading party network, hoard supplies, train troops, and so on. A series of preparatory work.

As for the destruction of the Tartars, sorry, now is not the time.

The situation that is most in line with the interests at the moment is naturally that the Houjin Group and the Guanning Group will contain each other in the wilderness of Liaodong.On the side of the crossing crowd, it is only necessary to ensure that the Tatars do not rush into the hinterland of Ming Dynasty to plunder like in history.

In this way, the people in North China can be preserved, the social order can be barely maintained, the annual flow of refugees will not have too high a peak, and the refugee transport system across the public can keep up with the development.

The situation above is what the time travelers want most.

After persisting in this way for a few more years, the day will come when Uncle Zhongyong, whom Emperor Chongzhen misses so much, will lead his army to sweep the Tartars... Sorry, at that time, after someone wipes out the Tartars, it is very likely that they will also wipe out the Guanning Army , and then went south to attack the capital... This, Your Majesty, I am really sorry that I failed your expectations. In fact, I am an actor...

Therefore, from the moment of the tea party, the interests of the emperor and Cao Zongbing are not consistent.

Chongzhen was a little dumbfounded when he heard that Cao Zongbing attributed the reason for returning to the south to the lack of ammunition.

You must know that Chongzhen had made a lot of preparations before today's meeting.But Cao Zongbing's answer was not within the emperor's pre-planned play-to-play routine.So the emperor could only ask the two cabinet ministers a little surprised: "Is there such a thing?"

The two cabinet ministers were also a little confused at this time.Of course, Zhou Yanru was really stupid, while Actor Wen, who had a relationship with Cao Zongbing beforehand, was fake.

"Hehe, don't be in a hurry, your majesty, Rong Chen said slowly."

Cao Zongbing began to tell the emperor about the battle in detail.

Since the information obtained by the emperor in the memorial was very general, only the words "brave and good at fighting" and "sharp equipment", no one told the emperor the details of the battle and the super power of a certain rifle, so after Cao Zongbing finished popularizing science, Chongzhen only Suddenly realized: "So, this 'two-eight-step gun' should be the first one?"

"Of course!" Cao Zongbing said with a smile: "Your Majesty, this blunderbuss can penetrate the heavy armor of Tartars at a distance of [-] paces. This time, I don't even have a tiger crouching cannon. How can I return with such a victory? It all depends on this gun!"

"I want to test the guns!" Chongzhen's face was excited at this time - if this is the case, then he can "import" a batch of guns and equipment for his troops that he can rest assured of, why bother to fool someone surnamed Cao to pacify the captives?

"Minister obeys the decree!" Cao Zongbing hurriedly received the decree at this time, and then he asked for pen and ink on the spot, handwritten a note, and handed it to the eunuch to run to Zhongyongbo's mansion to bring someone.At the same time, Chongzhen ordered people to go to the Yumajian and told them to bring some firearms for the Beijing camp.

Emperor Chongzhen at the end of Ming Dynasty was no longer the canaries kept in the deep palace.Even the emperor, who was no longer ignorant, understood the importance of military equipment after experiencing this change of himself.

You must know that Chongzhen was sitting on the top of the city at the beginning, and he experienced rounds of firing of red cannons and battles under the city, so he was no stranger to the firearms of the Ming army.In addition, nonsense such as "one cannon can corrupt dozens of miles" can no longer fool the emperor.This man is well aware of the power of Ming army standard firearms.

Not long after, people came.

The man from Uncle Zhongyong's mansion was a palace guard in Ming costume and a gun.On the other side of the Yumajian, several eunuchs and soldiers came, as well as some weapons and armor.

Uncle Zhongyong is very familiar with this kind of scene now, so when he stood up and gesticulated, the shooting range was completed.

Starting from the front of the pavilion, across the fish pond, every 50 meters or so, there will be a table on which are fixed the Zhajia and Shanwenjia made by the Ming army.

Then the shooting demonstration began.

The ending is self-evident.

The few horse guard soldiers standing in the limelight, the bird guns, three-eyed guns and other weapons in their hands are not only slow to reload, but also the bullets fired from them can only "touch" the iron armor at a distance of 100 meters at most.Not to mention the inability to penetrate the target, the hit rate is also terribly low-this kind of rough musket can only be called a hit rate if it is fired in a row.

Next is the performance of Zhongyong Bo Qinwei.

I saw that this person was not in a hurry, and began to hit the target at a distance of 1 meters with a steady rate of fire of 4 shots per minute.Following the exciting gunshots, after twenty shots in a row, the soldiers didn't stop until the gun fog blocked their sight.

Two eunuchs ran over panting holding the target, knelt down in front of Chongzhen, and raised their armor: "My lord, I've counted the target, eighteen hits!"

Seeing the densely packed holes on this fine armor, through which the light from behind shines through, the young emperor stood up, stretched out slightly trembling fingers, and kept rubbing the burrs on the edge of the holes.

After a long time, Chongzhen sighed: "I don't think there is such a magic weapon in the world. It seems that it is the blessing of the ancestors. The sky is endless, I am so bright!"

Zhang Dongdong curled his lips secretly when he heard the words: This credit goes to the ancestors again?Can ancestors really bless you old?

Seeing that the emperor's attention was finally shifted to the musket, Cao Zongbing was also slightly relieved besides complaining: Without a reasonable explanation, it would be difficult for him to let Chongzhen let go of his return to Yizhou, which would affect the relationship between the monarch and his ministers. honeymoon relationship.

Next, Cao Zongbing did not hide his secrets. He not only disassembled and explained the structure of the rifle to everyone present, but also disassembled the paper shell in front of the emperor, and took out the key thing inside: the flash cap.

According to Cao Zongbing, this inconspicuous little piece of copper called a fire hat was the reason why he wanted to return to Yizhou.

Because fire hats are made by secret methods, Yizhou cannot produce them by itself, and can only buy them from sea merchants in Haidong Alaska.

Not only are flash hiders expensive, but they are also scarce.Because the country of Alaska is far away, the number of fire hats reaching Ming Dynasty is even less.The reason why he was able to exchange for 4000 heads when he came to the King of the North this time is that Cao Zongbing has actually used up his stock of flash caps for several years.

So Zongbing Cao had to go back this trip - he had to personally lead the fleet to a trading city in the Indian Ocean to buy flash caps.

After hearing Cao Zongbing's statement, the emperor was noncommittal.On the other hand, Zhou Shoufu asked several questions in succession: Is the gun useless without the cap?Can Daming imitate it?Also, how much is the flash cap and gun?

Cao Zongbing first quoted the price: the purchase price of the fire hat in the Indian Ocean is two taels of silver per piece, and it is three taels of silver when it is shipped to Yizhou, and at least four taels of silver per piece when it is transported to the capital.

Here is a friendly reminder from Uncle Zhongyong: If you want to train a qualified gunner, you can't train without a thousand shots.

As for guns, since craftsmen in Yizhou can produce them themselves, they are cheaper: 200 taels of silver each.

Finally, regarding the imitation, Cao Zongbing generously promised that he could leave 10 guns and 100 caps for the emperor to use for imitation.It would be even better if Ouchi's skilled craftsmen could imitate it, and he would not have to take risks in the Indian Ocean in the future.

Chongzhen nodded slowly when he heard this.

After Zhou Shoufu saw the emperor nodding, he lowered his face and said angrily: "Da Ming's bird gun is only 10 taels of silver, and the medicine is even cheaper. He has never heard of such expensive firecracker and medicine. Is it you?" Deliberately raising the price to blacken your heart?"

General Cao shook his head and smiled wryly when he heard the words: "Da Ming's blunderbusses are cheap, but the officers and soldiers of Ming Dynasty are also chased away by tartars like dogs. My old Cao's blunderbusses are expensive, and the ones we use are Alaskan barrels, so we can Kill 4000 Tartars."

Cao Zongbing finally asked: "Cheap goods are not good, and good goods are not cheap. Master Zhou, don't you even understand this simple truth?"

Zhou Yanru: "..."

Chapter 479 Negotiations Before Leaving

A good strategy seminar was finally turned into an arms exhibition by someone.

This is still a delaying tactic used by the public.

The [-]th style will not appear in the hands of the Ming army. Even if the emperor is willing to be taken advantage of and pay for money, he will eventually give up because the fire caps are out of stock.

What's more, the emperor may not have to spend so much money-according to Cao Zongbing's calculations, if he wants to form an elite musket battalion with only 500 people, in addition to buying guns and bullets, he also needs to conduct a lot of shooting training for the soldiers. This is a lot of money.

What's even more frightening is that the above are just preparatory work.When it really came to the battlefield, the soldiers must have been shooting like bullets, and Cao Zongbing almost went bankrupt this time.

To satisfy the interests of the emperor without posing a threat to the crossing people, the ultimate solution to this problem still depends on the flintlock gun.

It is the 17s and the continental powers are in the middle of the Thirty Years War.During this period of time, European weapon innovation was in a period of rapid development, matchlock guns had been gradually eliminated, and front-loading revolver flintlock guns were becoming the mainstream on the battlefield.

In fact, 20 years ago, the ultimate version of the percussive flintlock gun, which was finally perfected and improved by the Frenchman Mahan, has already come out.

However, due to the assassination of King Henry IV of France, the percussion flintlock gun was resisted by diehards-this is normal. Any new product will lead to opposition from conservatives. in this way.

Then it wasn't until the middle of the seventeenth century that the percussion gun was equipped with troops in large numbers.Historically, in the golden age of colonization from the [-]th to the [-]th century, the colonists used to rule the world were all descendants of this sharp gun.

In this situation, the crossing people can safely equip the secondary troops with flintlock guns.Anyway, Europe already has a prototype gun, and technical secrecy no longer exists.

The secondary troops here include not only Chongzhen, but also the colonial pioneer group that is being formed.In addition, some leading parties stationed in the enemy's rear also need this kind of gun... For example, Li Jichun, the second and fifth boy.

Therefore, the solution to this problem is already very clear: first fool the emperor, and then sell the flintlock gun to the emperor.

And after Chongzhen saw another seemingly better solution, his previous enthusiasm faded away.Yes, if you can produce this kind of firecrackers yourself, or take a step back and buy them yourself, and then form a direct army, it will be safer than begging the warlords to sell their lives anyway?