Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 224 The Meeting of Senior Relatives ([-])
On the seventh day of April in the fourth year of Longqing, Gao Wushi and Qi Jiguang met at the Ximen Tower in Kaiping.

People at the time heard that Qi Jiguang, who was devoted to the Confucian generals, followed his usual habit to visit the upstarts in the capital who came to Kaiping, and the high-level practical high-level servants nicknamed "Little Hanlin". He had nothing to say but a smile.Only Zhang Juzheng frowned and pondered for a moment after hearing the news, but he never regarded it as a major event.

However, people of later generations paid close attention to this meeting, and many scholars published various works one after another, making many speculations and inferences about this meeting.The mainstream view in the historian circle at that time was that Gao Qimihui must have talked about many fundamental reforms of the Ming army and many issues related to the development and updating of Ming army military equipment.

In fact, this guess is roughly correct. Although the two parties did not explain or explain this historic meeting between Gao Yushi and Qi Jiguang afterwards, they did reach some tacit agreements, which can barely be regarded as one. It's a secret appointment.

However, compared with the reform of the military system that really came into play many years later, Gao Qi Mihui still has some exchanges that are quite effective for the present or in the near future, especially for the development of some firearms. Thought guide.Qi Jiguang, on the other hand, approved most of the ideas with the acumen of a genius military strategist, but expressed some skepticism about the highly pragmatic statement that he would build factories to provide some of these weapons in the future—because of the military manufacturing of the Ming Dynasty, In particular, the manufacture of firearms is theoretically monopolized by the imperial court, and private involvement is not allowed.

But for this issue, Gao Wushi said that he would figure out a solution on his own. At most, he would need Qi Jiguang to lead the team in the future.The words have come to this point, Qi Jiguang can't say much, he can only express his agreement.

The weapons and equipment that Gao Yushi and Qi Jiguang talked about basically focused on firearms, and there was almost no mention of cold weapons or even armor.As for the exchange of firearms, it focuses on three major aspects.

The first thing the two talked about was not a gun, nor a cannon, but a bomb-type weapon.They also talked about three types of bomb weapons, namely mines, sea mines and grenades.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty at this time can be said to be far superior to Western countries in terms of the research and development and application level of bomb weapons.

For example, landmines in the true sense, which use a mechanical automatic ignition device, were invented by the Chinese in the Ming Dynasty.If we want to go back to the source, the earliest primitive landmines can even be traced back to the Song Dynasty, and until the current Longqing period, the types and development of landmines in the Ming Dynasty were much ahead of the West.

Gao Yushi had read some books on this issue in his spare time. He remembered that Wang Zhaochun's "History of Firearms in China" once introduced that landmines were invented by Zeng Mian, who was the governor of the three sides during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.Of course, there are some places. For example, Needham’s History of Chinese Science and Technology says that in the early Ming Dynasty, Jiao Yu’s "Fire Dragon Classic" in 1413 contained landmines with mechanical ignition devices. It is a fake, and it was made in the early Ming Dynasty.Therefore, the honor of the inventor of the landmine should still be returned to Zeng Mi.

"Landmines are firearms buried in the ground and exploded. They were created during the Jiajing period. According to the records of "Binglue usurping news": "Zeng Mi was on the side, and made landmines. The hole is Zhang Xu, and the medicine is in the middle. Cover it with stones, and more Cover it with sand, make it flat on the ground, and lie down on the ground, and you can menstruate. Tie it to the ground, and if you pass it, the fire will fall and the medicine will fall, and the stone will fall to kill people'”

After the landmine was invented by Zeng Mian, it was quickly improved by others, and many new varieties were extended.

"According to the records in "Zhou Hai Tu Bian. Jing Lue III", Shao Shoude of Danyang made a kind of landmine with pig iron, which contained more than one bucket of gunpowder, and used a sandalwood anvil to reach the bottom of the mine. Outside the shell. After the mines are made, choose the main road that the enemy must pass through, "Dig the ground into a pit, and bury the mines in the pit, use a small bamboo tube to draw the line of fire, and cover the earth as before." Lei Zhongan has an ignition device, When the enemy passed by, they stepped on it and exploded it, the thunder shook the ground, the artillery soared into the sky, and the fragments of the thunder shell flew out like locusts, killing people and horses."

In the Wanli period, the development of landmines in the Ming Dynasty reached a climax. "Volume 130 of "Wu Bei Zhi" recorded more than ten kinds", including stepping mines, pull mines, and some mines. There are trip mines.The use of landmines in the West should be quite late. In the true sense, landmines that fired automatically may be about 200 years later than the Ming Dynasty. It was not until the Russo-Japanese War that the Russian army used landmines.

In fact, Gao Yushi did not dare to come up with something too advanced in the picture album for Qi Jiguang. This secret meeting only briefly talked about some ignition devices, whether stepping, pulling, triggering or tripping. Both gave a simple manufacturing method - in fact, this thing is not difficult, as long as the idea is right, it is not difficult to do, and Qi Jiguang himself is a firearms expert, so Gao Pragmatic did not talk about it in detail, after all, they both spend a lot of time. Nervous, it is impossible to delay too long in Kaiping.

However, some landmines created by Ming Dynasty in history, such as the "explosion cannon" representing the stepping mine, the "shooting mine" representing the pulling mine, and the "invincible mine cannon" representing the triggering mine. Representatives of explosive landmines, such as "thousand bomb landmine guns", are highly pragmatic and have given manufacturing ideas.

The first sea mine in history was also invented by Ming people, but it was in the 18th year of Wanli, and it was called "Underwater Dragon King Cannon".Needless to say, Gao Shi was tireless in reading and copying books, and provided Qi Jiguang with the manufacturing idea of ​​this elementary mine product. However, Qi Jiguang said that this thing might not be very useful in the north, and suggested that Gao Pragmatic hand it over to Liu Xian——Qi Jiguang is a A sensitive person in the officialdom, obviously he already knew that Liu Xian had actually joined Gao Gong's faction.

However, Gao Wushi found that after Qi Jiguang mentioned Liu Xian, he was obviously hesitant to speak, and he couldn't help laughing: "This is a military weapon. Although the boy is not talented, he will not hide his secrets. I know Dudu Qi must be hoping I will give the manufacturing method of this underwater dragon king cannon to one more person——Yu Xujiang, the general soldier of Guangdong, right?"

Xujiang is Yu Dayou's alias.

Qi Jiguang saw that Gao Yushi's face was as usual, and he was not dissatisfied at all. He couldn't help feeling that although this son was young, he was not inferior to the former sages in terms of atmosphere. After all, he was transferred to Guizhou far away, and when he will return to Langshan is still undetermined, and Yu Zongrong is the commander-in-chief of Guangdong. It will definitely be like a tiger with wings added... If so, I will be blessed with great Ming."

Gao Wushi nodded with a smile, and said, "It's easy to handle. Dudu Qi can send the method of making mines in my album to Guangzhou in person."

　It is estimated that everyone will be more interested in the development of military industry, so I plan to write more, this time I will not divide it into two chapters, and I will start directly.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)