The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

Qinghe Shipyard.

Zuo Yidao was about to cry when he saw the Marquis of Zhongshan again.

Although there were no problems with the Qinghe Shipyard during his guarding, the targets and calculations he suffered were countless.

Although he could block most of the external pressure as a thousand-household of the Imperial Guard and the Jinyiwei, the problem was that Zuo Yidao did not like such a life.

He yearned for a pure and simple life, either guarding the palace or fighting with the Marquis of Zhongshan. On the contrary, he was annoyed by the conspiracy and tricks of these gentry in this ghost place.

So when he saw the Marquis of Zhongshan for the first time, the thousand-household of Zuo immediately grabbed Tang Hao's arm and said with tears in his eyes: "Marquis, don't let me continue to guard this time, even if you leave Tang Mu!"

Tang Mu was immediately anxious when he heard this and glared at Zuo Yidao.

However, Tang Hao wanted warships, not flagships like treasure ships. He wanted a mixed fleet of mobile marine forces that was specifically designed to deal with wars, powerful enough to destroy any enemy at sea!

As he was speaking, Zuo Yidao asked someone to bring a Rumi gun.

Ten days passed, and Tang Hao finally waited for the person to come.

Zuo Yidao chose to use silver to open the way. If anyone did not cooperate, he would continue to throw money until the other party was satisfied.

The lightning gun had the advantages of both Western guns and Portuguese guns, and the thunder gun had the advantages of bird guns and three-eyed guns.

The change from paying grain to paying silver to paying grain resulted in the abandonment of the nine frontiers' military farming, merchants no longer went there, and all the commercial farming stopped. The soldiers and civilians in the nine frontiers lost everything in an instant!

To put it bluntly, Emperor Hongzhi's salt law reform was to damage the interests of the soldiers and civilians in the nine frontiers in order to fill the increasingly empty treasury!

As for the life and death of the soldiers and civilians in the Nine Borders, did Zhu Youtang care about it, did the cabinet chief Xu Pu care about it, did the Minister of Revenue Ye Qi care about it?

No one cares!

Qiu Yue gritted his teeth and then lowered his head silently.

On the one hand, he was waiting for the general Qiu Yue who came from the Nine Borders, and on the other hand, he was waiting for the Jinyiwei to pass back the news.

"My Lord, if this thing goes to the Nine Borders, it can save the lives of many soldiers and civilians!"

Hearing this, Qiu Yue's heart was shocked.

However, history has proved the advancement of firearms. If firearms are used, there will be many advantages. First of all, the lethality is far stronger than bows and arrows. For example, the three-eyed gun can spray a large area and can also break armor, which is far beyond the comparison of bows and arrows. For example, the range of firearms is also longer than bows and arrows, such as the Rumi gun in Tang Hao's hand at this moment.

"Are there any problems with the Qinghe Shipyard? How is the fleet being formed?"

The entire Rumi gun is made up of a gun barrel, a gun bed, a curved buttstock, a dragon head and trigger, a fire gate, a machine rail, a front port, a rear door, and a sighting device called a rear sight and a star sight.

Tang Hao took in Qiu Yue's expression, and he could understand it, because this was what the gentry did on purpose, using these crudely made weapons to reduce the possibility of the soldiers of the Nine Frontiers making achievements.

If this can be mass-produced and popularized in the Nine Frontier Military Towns, then what will the soldiers be afraid of?

The reason why the Tartars were able to suppress and ravage the Ming army is because they are naturally strong and unparalleled in riding and shooting. Even now, the Mongolian cavalry is not comparable to the Ming cavalry.

Facts have proved that the decision made by Zhang Mao and others is undoubtedly wise. Today, Tang Hao, the Marquis of Zhongshan, has long become the leader of the military generals and nobles group. He is not only a hot new noble in the court, but also has the war soldiers of the Beijing Army. The military group, which was gradually declining, has gradually stabilized the situation under the secret support of this Marquis of Zhongshan.

Whether it is the three-eyed gun or the Rumi gun, Zuo Yidao has personally experienced their power, so at this moment he is looking forward to the flintlock rifle mentioned by Tang Hao.

"As for the fleet, according to the previous instructions of the Marquis, the craftsmen are mainly building large sea ships and warships. There are now a total of ten Fu ships, twenty 400-ton warships, twenty 400-ton patrol ships, and several Mengchong, Douchuan, Haigu, Zou Ge, and Yingchuan in the shipyard."

"Can it be mass-produced, Marquis? This is simply a weapon to kill the Tartars!"

Facts have proved that money can make the devil push the mill, and it can also make people obedient.

"Do you understand? This is a cavalry weapon!" Tang Hao said with a chuckle.

Tang Hao said in a deep voice: "I think you also know those crudely made firearms. The quality is not good at all. There is a risk of exploding at any time, not to mention killing the enemy."

"Why are there so many?"

"The craftsmen successfully built the Rumi gun according to the drawings left by the marquis. I tried it myself and the effect was surprisingly good. It can be called..."

Looking at the armored scarecrow that was almost broken into pieces, Qiu Yue was so shocked that his scalp was numb and he was stunned in disbelief.

But no matter what, these fire guns are still at the level of matchlock guns, and are still in the most primitive ignition and firing stage!

If you want to really change the dilemma of the troublesome operation of firearms, you must tinker with the second stage of flintlock guns!

Tang Hao patted Zuo Yidao on the shoulder and was very pleased with this.

Qiu Yue thought it was a good thing at first, but when he saw it was a fire gun, he was a little uninterested.

At that time, Tang Hao drove Qi Yanming and others to slaughter a large number of gentry and also massacred the Kong family in Qufu. At that time, these gentry and gentry did not want to continue to plot against Qinghe Shipyard. They hoped that Tang Hao would put down the rebellion as soon as possible and then roll back to Qinghe Shipyard.

He was good at the Nine Frontier Military Town, so he saw the value of this three-eyed gun at a glance.

The Ming cavalry, who were familiar with the three-eyed gun, had a low hit rate when firing it immediately. In order to improve the hit rate, they sometimes used shotguns with "two or three lead bullets per gun". The infantrymen on horseback will usually dismount and form a formation to fire three-eyed muskets. If there is no time to dismount, they will take turns to form a long battalion according to the team line and fight and move forward, making progress without retreating.

"damn it!"

"How dare these bastards?"

No matter how good the three-eyed gun is, it still has many disadvantages, such as the range is too short, the quality is generally high and there is a risk of the barrel exploding, etc.

Is this the charm of silver?

"Okay, good job!"

What's the use of this thing?

Apart from being more noisy to scare away the Tatar cavalry, what else can it do?

However, if all the Ming cavalry can be equipped with these three-eyed muskets, when the cavalry of the two sides collide, they can fire a salvo, which can completely disrupt the formation of the Tatar cavalry. Then, even if the gunpowder is not refilled, the weight of these three-eyed muskets alone will be enough. It's enough to be used as an iron hammer and waved directly into the Tatar formation!

This is such a big deal!

Where did Zhongshan Hou find so much fine steel?

Tang Hao waved and asked Zuo Yidao to demonstrate the terrifying lethality of the three-eyed gun.

Zuo Yidao explained with a smile: "The reason why the progress is so fast is because... the money was given too much!"

According to Zuo Yidao, the warships in the Qingjiang Shipyard at this moment are enough to equip a miniature version of Zheng He's navy!

"What? You can't handle even this little thing?"

"But don't rush to be happy yet."

"By the way, Lord Marquis, in addition to the fleet, there is also good news about firearms."

Can Qiu Yue really achieve such an achievement in his life?

So much so that by the end of the Ming Dynasty, soldiers would rather go into battle with swords than use fire against the enemy, for fear that instead of being killed by the enemy, they would be injured and killed by the fire in their own hands.

After hearing these heart-wrenching words, Qiu Yue was so angry that his face was livid!

Therefore, the flintlock gun is the way to go. This is a leap forward in firearms!

Therefore, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, almost all towns in Liaodong used three-eyed guns as their standard equipment. Both cavalry and infantry were generally equipped with three-eyed guns.

Tang Hao handed the Rumi gun to Zuo Yidao and told him: "Let the firearms workshop work overnight to produce 10,000 three-eyed guns and 10,000 Lumi guns."

A flintlock gun is a musket that is ignited by striking flint. Compared with a matchlock gun, it has many advantages, including a faster rate of fire, smaller caliber, shorter gun body, lighter weight, smaller recoil, and longer range. Wait further.

"Look carefully and study hard. These muskets are all made of fine steel, so there is no risk of exploding the barrel!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked, even Tang Hao was a little speechless.

While Tang Hao was sizing up Qiu Yue, the latter also raised his eyes to secretly observe the Zhongshan Marquis.

To be honest, Qiu Yue was very unconvinced with Tang Hao at first, thinking that he had taken away his chance to rise.

"Fight the battle in front of you first!"

"Is there something wrong?"

Qiu Yue smiled bitterly and nodded heavily.

"The general understands."

"There is no general problem. There were officials who wanted to usurp the power of the Qinghe Shipyard, such as those from the Ministry of Revenue, but I forcibly blocked them. Then didn't the Marquis drive those rebels to massacre a large number of gentry? These guys were not Dare."

For example, the last time he put down the rebellion of Anhua King Zhu Zhixiu, Qiu Yue performed extremely brilliantly. It was Tang Hao, the Marquis of Zhongshan, who decided the situation in the court and won Qiu Yue a hereditary earl, which officially became the Ming Wuxun Group. a member of.

When used alone, the three-eyed blunderbuss fires continuously; when used in conjunction with a shotgun, sometimes in order to make up for the weak firepower of the shotgun, it fires three bullets at a time. Sometimes, in order to increase the killing effect at close range, two or three lead shots are used in each blunderbuss tube. Son, the lethality is huge.

He has already drawn all the drawings of the Lumi Gun, the Lightning Gun, the Thunder Gun, etc., and then handed them over to the craftsmen as bounty tasks, clearly marking the price and waiting for a craftsman to complete them!

The Rumi gun is the most advanced standard fire gun in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. It was improved from the matchlock gun that was imitated by the firearms developer Zhao Shizhen in the 26th year of Wanli in the tribute of the Turkish Rumi Kingdom (Roma Sultanate). It is better than the Niaotong (matchlock) Guns) and three-eyed blunderbuss are both advanced, mainly due to their long range and high power.

He grew up in the Jiubian Army Town, so he fought with the Tatars all year round. He naturally understood firearms, the standard military weapons.

Tang Hao looked at this tiger general in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. He was about forty years old, eight feet tall, as strong as a mountain, with a Chinese character face, thick beard that covered half of his face, and a slightly wide nose. Coupled with the slightly drooped corners of the mouth, there is an aura of calmness and authority.

Therefore, no matter what, Qiu Yue is still grateful to Tang Hao.

When business was mentioned, Zuo Yidao also restrained his laughter.

"So they would rather watch the Ming Dynasty's army huddled within the Great Wall, watch the Ming Dynasty's military equipment continue to weaken, and watch someone enrich their own pockets and use these crudely made things to harm the soldiers of the Nine Borders..."

Zheng He's navy was a large-scale voyage fleet composed of treasure ships as the main body and supplementary ships. It consisted of more than 200 ocean-going ships of different purposes and different ship types, and more than 20,000 soldiers. It was large-scale and had many personnel. , well organized.

After all, the general that the British Duke Zhang Mao and others had been optimistic about before was Qiu Yue. Just when the generals Xungui Group was preparing to use one or two to push Qiu Yue to the throne, Tang Hao unexpectedly came out. Not only was he the founder of the country, The famous general Tang He and his descendants also played a role in rescuing the enemy in the Nanyuan Tiger Case.

After a brief moment of shock, Qiu Yue burst into ecstasy and asked excitedly.

That’s because I really didn’t dare, or I was panicking.

Because fire guns have such a bad reputation in Jiubian, no normal person would choose to use fire guns.

Are they all made of stainless steel?

Qiu Yue took a breath when he heard this.

The Marquis of Zhongshan has never paid so much attention to anything, but this flintlock gun is an exception.

The title goes one step further!

That is a hereditary marquis!

Especially during night battles, the fire and smell of burning matchlocks can easily expose the soldiers' targets. Flintlock guns do not have this worry.

After careful observation, Tang Hao confirmed that it was what he wanted, and he was quite happy for a while.

Therefore, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Tang Hao can inherit the pending title of the old Tang family by virtue of this rescue effort. Therefore, the Military Generals Group decisively abandoned Qiu Yue and instead devoted all their efforts to support Tang Hao and help him win the title. Hereditary Marquis of Zhongshan.

Tang Hao stepped forward and took Qiu Yue's hand enthusiastically, then laughed and said, "Let's go, I will take you to see something good."

Because of this, Jiubian soldiers are generally resistant to firearms. They would rather fight the Tatars with real swords and guns than use these garbage firearms.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?"

Hearing this, Tang Hao didn't know what to say.

It was obvious that this was a general who was forged from the Nine Borders Army Town in the true sense.

It is precisely because of understanding that we despise it.

"Don't worry, Lord Marquis. I am personally in charge of all matters in the shipyard. There will be no problems."

Tang Hao looked at Qiu Yue and said: "Those civil servants and gentry will not be happy to see the Ming army become stronger. Otherwise, the generals and nobles will rise again, and the civil servants and gentry will not be able to continue to control the government."

However, this is not good news for Qiu Yue!

Fortunately, the Marquis of Zhongshan had no intention of suppressing Qiu Yue, but instead offered his support again and again.

"Whether it is the raw materials for building ships or the wages of craftsmen, as long as the money is enough, there will be no problems. If there is a problem, it means that the money is not enough, just add more money."

And there was a damn risk of exploding the barrel. The Tatars hadn't even been hit yet, but the firearm exploded first, wounding and killing me. Who could I ask to explain this?

Before he left, he left several million taels of silver to the Qinghe Shipyard, which came from the wealth accumulated by Xungui, a military general of the Ming Dynasty.

"From now on, you will be responsible for training this Navy Divine Machine Battalion. If you perform well, you may be able to advance to the title of nobility!"

Zuo Yidao had received the notice in advance and sent his elite troops to Tsushima Island to collect the information that Ma Yong and Deng Boyan deliberately left on Tsushima Island.

Tang Hao patted his shoulder.

To put it bluntly, the eyes of this Jiubian general looked at the Marquis of Zhongshan with an expression of fanaticism.

"Mass production does have some mass production, but the problem is the materials."

"Since the late emperor changed the Salt Law and changed the payment of grain to the payment of silver, you should understand that no one in the Manchu Dynasty cares about the soldiers and civilians of the Nine Borders!"

Needless to say, Tang Hao dragged Qiu Yue to the shooting range, naturally to test the gun.

"Get up quickly, no need to talk about these nonsense!"

"That's why I personally reformed the Laiwu Iron Works and established a firearms workshop dedicated to making firearms from the finest steel. This is the problem."

"Now is not the time!" Tang Hao shook his head with a deep look, "Before that, we must ensure that the person who controls the court is no longer the civil servants and gentry, but the Emperor!"

"Aren't the lives of Jiubian's officers and soldiers and civilians not life?"

Next, Tang Hao led 10,000 soldiers to temporarily stay at the Qinghe Shipyard to form a fleet and prepare to go to sea.

"The last general, Qiu Yue, meets the Marquis of Zhongshan!"

"In addition, tell the craftsmen in the firearms workshop that the most important thing is the flintlock gun. If anyone can solve the problem of the flintlock gun, I will give him ten thousand taels of silver and be promoted to the head of the firearms workshop!"

Among the blunderbuss, the Rumi blunderbuss is the farthest and most poisonous.

In fact, due to quality reasons, firearms can easily explode and injure soldiers, so many soldiers are unwilling to use them, and the development of Daming firearms has been seriously hindered.

hiss……

This time Zhongshan Marquis sent troops to conquer the Japanese country, and he also brought Qiu Yue with him. It was obvious that he wanted to share the credit, and Qiu Yue was even more grateful.

"Master Hou, what kind of firearm is this?"

As soon as these words came out, Zuo Yidao also realized the importance of the flintlock gun.

The Rumi gun has a range of up to a hundred steps, about 150 meters, and is equipped with a fire door device, so it can be used in windy environments. This is a function that neither the matchlock gun nor the three-eye system has. The disadvantage is that it is relatively bulky.

Tang Hao laughed loudly when he heard this, and then looked at Zuoyida with a face full of jest.

Qiu Yue walked into the handsome tent wearing iron armor and bowed to Tang Hao in a neither humble nor overbearing manner.

With so much money being spent at all costs, progress naturally accelerated.

In fact, just as Qiu Yue thought, the three-eyed gun had become an indispensable battlefield weapon for Jiubian soldiers by the end of the Ming Dynasty.

This Zheng He treasure ship is as tall as a building. The largest one is 44 feet long and 18 feet wide. The largest ship in the fleet is the treasure ship, which is the flagship of the maritime task force led by Zheng He.

"Only if His Majesty the Emperor supports us, the soldiers and civilians of the Nine Frontiers will have a good life!"

In later generations, Tang Hao was a military enthusiast and specialized in studying the "Wu Bei Zhi" of the Ming Dynasty, so he was relatively familiar with these Ming Dynasty firearms.

The Rumi gun weighs about seven or eight pounds and is about six or seven feet long. The firing mechanism is in the bed. It will fall off with a pinch, and the fire will be re-ignited. There is a steel knife at the end of the bed. If the enemy approaches, it can be used as a saber. The weight is slightly larger than an ordinary fire gun.

Because it spans the sea and is in the territory of Japan, the transmission of intelligence is not as convenient as imagined. They can only resort to this last resort to barely keep in touch with the Ming Dynasty.

Tang Hao sneered when he heard this.

Tang Hao took the new weapon and observed it carefully.

"After we destroy Japan, we have plenty of iron ore to produce firearms!"

"Japan is not a barren land. We have a lot of mineral resources. The court and the gentry want gold and silver mines, so the iron mines should belong to us!"