The Soul of the Han Dynasty in the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 499
So far, there are only more than 400 people from more than [-] households who are willing to be gathered and driven to Tianjin Wei to go to sea by boat, of which less than [-] people in Dingkou.

There are not only so many refugees that can be encountered along the way, there should be more than ten times.

However, when the crowds of refugees heard the sound of horseshoes from a distance, they ran around like frightened rabbits. In order not to aggravate the fear of these poor people, the "Red Banner Army" did not pursue them at all.

It is no wonder that these ordinary people ran away in a hurry when they saw the Ming army as if they saw bandits, because some Ming soldiers were actually three points worse than the bandits. They not only robbed gold and silver treasures, clothes, food, raped women, but also deliberately slaughtered The common people kill the good and take the merit.

The rogues only need food and money, basically they don't deliberately kill the vagrants who don't resist, but coerce them to become thieves.

In the eyes of the officers and soldiers, not only food, money, and women are the harvest, but also the heads of refugees. This is not an uncommon phenomenon. Many generals have very bad subordinates.

Therefore, when the refugees saw the officers and soldiers and heard the sound of horseshoes, they were like frightened birds.

Later, some refugees who had slow legs or were too hungry to run chose to resign themselves to their fate and did not run.

The tragic incident of being beheaded by the Ming army did not happen. Those sturdy cavalrymen of the Ming army seemed to be performing their mission, and they did not leave the official road to chase and kill anyone at all.

The common people saw this different team, and they could feel that the "Red Banner Army" seemed to have no malicious intentions. They became more courageous and stopped running around, and chose to camp not far from the army.

The refugees also had the experience of wandering. The local bandits who were close to the army were basically less willing to take the initiative to approach, and they were relatively safer.

When camping at night, Liu Zaiqi led the propaganda team out of the camp to build a big shed and cooked delicious porridge.

It is true that the recovery of all things in spring is full of hope, but it is extremely difficult for the poorest people, and the lack of success also refers to spring!
The fragrance of porridge drifted with the spring breeze, making the hungry refugees feel even more hungry and thirsty.

Finally, a boy in his early thirties named Luo Mingshi swallowed his saliva while watching the five-year-old girl in his arms, and seeing the anticipation in the eyes of a family of eleven, he decided to exchange a piece of ancestral jade pendant for a full meal. .

Regardless of his wife's tugging at his clothes and his refusal to take the risk of provoking the army, he resolutely walked in the direction where the fragrance of porridge came.

The sky had already darkened, white polished rice was tumbling in a dozen porridge pots with a diameter of more than three feet, and dozens of horse lanterns illuminated the place as bright as day.

The horse lantern is a new thing that was mass-produced and equipped with troops last year. As the name suggests, it can be hung on the horse for lighting when riding a horse at night.

This hand-held, weather-proof lamp fueled by fire oil is not complicated to manufacture. There is a fully enclosed non-drip brass oil pan at the lower end, and two tin-plated iron covers with layered gaps at the upper end to facilitate air in and out. , with a glass cover in the middle.

With this kind of killer lighting, organizing night marches in the future will save you the trouble of constantly changing torches, and you can also free one hand holding the torch, because the lantern can be hung, and the brass oil pan is filled with kerosene You can order five hours.

A large amount of brass was able to produce horse lanterns, fierce oil lamps and clocks, of course, thanks to the import of a large number of copper ingots from the Japanese country. The refining technology of the Japanese country was a century behind that of the Ming Dynasty. The copper ingots were impure and contained a lot of impurities, and even contained silver. and gold.

The Japanese copper ingots were transported to the refinery in Qingniwa, which can fully meet the quality requirements after being refined again at high temperature.

Last spring, more than a dozen Western clocks of different sizes were recovered from the two captured East India Company warships, the Udwater and the Venlo.

Huang Han also used the relationship between Fang Zhenghua and Wang Chengen to poach from the Bingzhan Bureau and the Banking Bureau of the 24th Yamen of the Ming Dynasty, headed by Chen Keda, Li Guihe, and Gui Youguang, who specially made miracles for the royal family. A skilled craftsman with obscene skills, a master craftsman.

In the year of Tianqi, because the emperor liked to make handicrafts and new gadgets, Wei Zhongxian found many skilled craftsmen to serve the royal family.

Coupled with the deteriorating national power of the Ming Dynasty, and Chongzhen being more diligent and thrifty, it is no wonder that his name is Zhu Youjian, and he is really a more self-disciplined emperor.Therefore, the incomparable skill of craftsmen in manual work is no longer valued.

Huang Han tracked down Chen Keda, Li Guihe, Gui Youguang and other ten outstanding master craftsmen through Qiwei's unannounced visits, and asked Fang Zhenghua and Wang Chengen to help them get them without any effort.

The ten master craftsmen who left the capital and crossed the sea to Jinzhou Peninsula were inexplicably sad and indignant. They had superb craftsmanship, and even if their lives were not as good as the days of Tianqi, they were still passable.

However, master craftsmen are also craftsmen, and it is not up to the court to appoint them wherever they are assigned.

Seeing these ashen-faced craftsmen, Huang Han did not explain too much, and arranged for Peng Jiawang to take the lead in being the person in charge of imitating Western clocks, and dispatched 30 new school graduates and ten master craftsmen headed by Pan Gui, Qin Jiaji, etc. Teachers form a team.

Huang Han took the time to give three lectures to the 41-person watch research and development team, explaining his understanding and knowledge of watches and the principles of watch operation.

The ten master craftsmen had already learned about the treatment of the craftsmen of the "Red Banner Army" system through Peng Jiawang, the person in charge, and after seeing the things that General Ping Liao was going to let them make, they all became energetic.

Soon the desk clock independently developed by Daming became a product. Since the mainspring is carefully made of high-quality spring steel, and the main internal components are all high-quality brass, the quality of the desk clock is half a street lower than that of Western goods.

During this time, the team is conducting technical public relations, and I believe that pocket watches should be born in the near future.

Ten master craftsmen lived in a small building with a yard and were respected. Their monthly salary plus technological innovation rewards was no less than five taels of silver. Learn to strive to become a soldier of the "Red Banner Army".

The aroma of porridge outside the camp of the "Red Banner Army" is tempting. The dozens of lanterns used to illuminate it look like stars in the night sky from a distance. wonderland.

When he approached the porridge place, Len Keke didn't go up to ask for a deal. He was worried that the Ming army, who was not disciplined, would not only rob the only valuables left in his house, but also cut off his head and count it as a bandit's military exploits. .

(End of this chapter)