Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 183 Marching into Mobei
When the men heard the sound and were about to run out to take a look, they saw that the door of the house was suddenly knocked open from the outside, and several Tatar soldiers covered in blood stumbled in, still shouting: "Flee, Khan!" Run away!"

Then, before Lin Danhan could react from his shock, dozens of Ming soldiers carrying muskets rushed in. These Ming soldiers were obviously well-trained soldiers. After rushing in, they fired cleanly and eliminated the people inside the mansion. of guards.

Lin Danhan saw the guards fell to the ground after being shot, and then he suddenly came to his senses. The guards around him also reacted immediately, drew their scimitars and rushed towards these Ming troops. After all, in their view, the Ming troops Since they have already fired the fire cannons, it will take a long time to prepare to fire the fire cannons again. This time is enough to chop them into pieces!

However, in the face of these murderous Tatar guards holding scimitars, the dozen or so Ming soldiers did not panic at all, but took out the fixed gunpowder and fixed bullets from their pockets very skillfully, and began to load them. .

Before Lin Dan's personal guards even rushed out of the room, the Ming army's firecrackers rang out, and the personal guards fell to the ground. They were all hit in vital parts and killed with one blow!
Lin Danhan was so shocked when he saw this that he didn't even dare to move. His face was earth-colored and he was shaking like chaff.

The Ming soldiers didn't even glance at the killed guards. They walked into the house methodically holding the firecrackers and reloading the firecrackers.

Lin Danhan was targeted by the Ming army's gunfire, and he had already realized that he could not escape. Now, it was impossible not to accept his fate. A strong despair instantly enveloped him, and he suddenly faced As gray as ashes, he smiled bitterly and fell to the ground slumped.

Several Ming soldiers rushed forward immediately and tied Wuhuada up. The battle in Guihua City officially came to an end.

In this battle, Lin Dan Khan lost more than half of his 20 Tatar army. Most of them were annihilated or fled while being pursued by the Ming army before they retreated into Guihua City.

In the battle of Guihua City, because the Ming army quickly entered the city, captured Lin Dan alive, and the Tatar army surrendered, there were not many casualties among the Tatar soldiers.

Subsequently, the news of the victory was spread back to the capital, and there was a sudden joy inside and outside the court. The people in the capital also decorated the capital and set off firecrackers to celebrate the victory.

Since the Tumubao Incident, the Ming Dynasty has repeatedly been at a disadvantage in battles with foreigners, especially the threats from the north, which have always been like a sharp knife hanging over the heads of the Ming people. Now that the Ming Dynasty has defeated the Tatars, all the people of the Ming Dynasty have been They all felt proud and proud.

But there are two sides to the matter. This time the Ming army easily defeated the Tatars, and the emperor's prestige was further consolidated and enhanced. Then the reform of the imperial examinations, which was still controversial before, may no longer have room for maneuver.

Sure enough, after Zhu Tianqi finished arranging the rewards for Mangui and the soldiers, the first thing he did was to order the implementation of the imperial examination reform nationwide. In order to repair the county school and prepare for the opening of classes, it can be said that everything has been prepared for a long time.

However, even though county schools across the country were ready to open their doors for classes, after the announcement of the imperial examination reform spread to all provinces, prefectures and counties, very few students came to the county schools to register for classes.

This is because the changes in the imperial examination reform are earth-shaking. Not only has it overturned the dominant position of the Classics and History Collection, the Four Books and the Five Classics, but it also requires everyone to learn those unexplained "Western Studies" courses. The Western Studies here naturally refer to "Physics" and " Advanced new subjects such as Chemistry, Biology and Geography.

Therefore, for a while, there were naturally very few people who could accept the reform of the imperial examination. The opposition among the scholars was very strong, and there were even many people who secretly scolded the imperial court for its chaos. They all said that the new imperial examination did not respect the books of sages and sages, but worshiped foreign things. Flirting and the like.

However, despite the criticism, there are actually not many real "defenders". These opponents are mainly divided into three types.

One is that they have studied the books of sages and sages for many years and practiced stereotyped essays for many years, and now they suddenly don’t take the exam, so they are naturally unhappy;
The second type is those aristocratic families. Parents and children have always relied on family connections and channels to become officials. Now that the imperial examination is reformed, it is not certain whether the previous path will be smooth, and they are naturally unwilling to change;

The third type is the overwhelming majority. Their opposition stems from the fear of the unknown. They have always read books from sages and have never been exposed to these new subjects. Now they are asked to learn these things, and they are not confident. They feel These are much more difficult than doing eight-legged essays. I’m afraid I’ll never pass the exam in this lifetime!
However, among today's scholars, there are almost no people who really study for the sake of reading. I am afraid that it is impossible to talk about how firm their belief in the book of sages is.

Most people still go to school in order to participate in the imperial examinations or become officials. The so-called "after learning literature and martial arts, the goods will be with the emperor's family" is the consensus of scholars throughout history. So since they want to "become with the emperor's family", that is naturally what they want. You have to have whatever talent you need before others can pay for it.

Therefore, even at the beginning, scholars could hardly accept the reform of the imperial examination, but the matter has become a foregone conclusion, and they are powerless to change, and there are only two roads left in front of them.

Either resist to the end and refuse to participate in the new imperial examination. If everyone does not participate, the court will naturally have to change it back.

Either you have to accept the reform, study these new subjects obediently according to the requirements of the court, and take the scientific examination according to the new imperial examination system.

In this way, the result of the matter is obvious. Everyone is studying to become an official. There are a few people who insist on being "defenders" and even give up the imperial examination.

What's more, now that there is no tuition fee and free books are given to students in county schools, it is much more economical and convenient than studying before. Even many people whose families used to be poor and wanted to study but couldn't afford it can also do so. I took my child to the county school to inquire, and naturally he was admitted successfully.

The emperor has made it clear that all students who come to register for school must be treated equally. How dare these county schools disobey the instructions.

Therefore, with the passage of time, the number of students in county schools across the country has gradually increased. Compared with previous years, the number of people taking the scientific examination this year should be only a lot more.

Regarding Lin Dan's treatment, Zhu Tianqi did not show mercy and executed him directly. He also sent people to inform the Mobei tribes about the matter, telling them that the reason why the Ming Dynasty executed Lin Dan Khan was because Lin Dan was disrespectful to the Ming Dynasty and attacked them first, so that they There is no need to panic, as long as they surrender to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty will naturally protect them.

As for Lin Dan Khan's subordinates, they were all taken over by the Ming Dynasty. Manchuria sent troops to station in Guihua City to renovate and expand Guihua City. At the same time, they built fortresses and strongholds in the surrounding areas, occupied the area around Territory, and waited for opportunities to advance eastward. Recover the Chahar area.

The tribes in Mobei were shocked when they heard the news that Lin Dan Khan's tribe was defeated by the Ming army and that Lin Dan Khan himself was beheaded by the Ming Emperor. Although they had had friction with the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had never done anything so absolutely. , tend to accept surrender and be appeased.

How could it be like this? The Great Khan of the Mobei Tribe was really dragged to be beheaded and punished, and all the territory was taken away. Wasn't the Ming Dynasty never interested in the land of Mobei?
However, those were the thoughts of Ming people in the past. Now that Zhu Tianqi is in charge of Ming Dynasty, he does not mind that his territory is huge. According to his plan, he will go to the Arctic Ocean and occupy the entire Siberia!The battle between the Ming army and Lin Dan Khan can be said to have demonstrated the combat effectiveness of the Ming army in front of the Mobei tribes. The shock and deterrence of this battle to the Mobei tribes was far greater than the previous annihilation of Jiannu. World War I.

After all, they had only witnessed the previous battles and only heard about them. Therefore, many people had similar thoughts to Lin Dan about the previous battle in which the Ming army annihilated the Jiannu. They believed that it was probably due to the Ming army's lucky victory or the mistakes in the Jiannu battle.

But now the Ming army has proven with actual actions that whether it defeats Jiannu or deals with Lin Dan, it relies on hard power!
Therefore, no one dared to have the slightest objection to the Ming army's occupation of Tumote. Instead, they sent envoys to congratulate them and gave them gifts.

Zhu Tianqi was very satisfied with the actions of the tribes in Mobei, and gave them many rewards one by one, and asked their envoys to take them back.

As for marching eastward to capture Chahar, Zhu Tianqi planned to put it aside first.

The land of Mobei is vast and sparsely populated. To fight the Tatars in Mobei, it is suitable to use a small but elite cavalry force, but not suitable for advancing with an army of [-] or even hundreds of thousands, because the Tatars are few and whereabouts. Maybe, if we can't find traces of the Tatars and catch up with the Tatar army, it will be meaningless to send more troops.

Moreover, the more troops sent out, the more food and wages would be lost, and the court could not afford it.

In the past, the imperial court needed to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops for its northern expedition. This was because the Tatar troops had strong combat effectiveness and the Ming army needed sufficient troops to deal with it.

But now Zhu Tianqi has enough advanced firearms to crush the Tatars in terms of combat effectiveness, and is enough to defeat many with less. He only needs to send the same number of troops as the Tatars, or even less than the Tatars.

To this end, Zhu Tianqi planned to first train a troop of 6 or [-] mounted gunmen, and then use this troop of mounted gunmen as the main force to begin the eastward expedition to Chahar.

In addition to the time required for training, it is also necessary to step up the manufacture of artillery and firecrackers to meet the equipment needs of the Ming army as soon as possible.

Today's northwest military industrial base has expanded to several times its previous size, and its production capacity has also increased several times. It can produce hundreds of large artillery pieces, nearly a thousand small artillery pieces, thousands of muskets, and gunpowder every month. And cannonballs and bullets are even more numerous.

Nowadays, there is no need to worry about the existence of the northwest military industrial base being discovered by slave-building spies. The base's confidentiality level is no longer as high as before. The existence and approximate location of the base are almost public, but this area is still closed to strangers. of.

Zhu Tianqi had previously recalled Sun Yuanhua and asked him to become Minister of the Ministry of Industry and join the cabinet to participate in politics. In other words, the Northwest Military Industrial Base has officially ended the research and development of more advanced firearms and equipment, and is now only responsible for the existing Firearms production work.

This is not because Zhu Tianqi does not pay attention to the research and development of weapons and equipment, or is satisfied with the status quo, but because the technology of these new artillery and flintlocks produced by the Northwest Military Industrial Base has reached a level that Sun Yuanhua and those Taixi people cannot break through.

You must know that whether it is steel smelting technology or the manufacturing technology of new artillery and flintlock guns, it is all the technical information provided to them by Zhu Tianqi. Therefore, they have skipped many technological development processes, and there is a large area of ​​technological development. Gaps and gaps.

Take smelting as an example. They haven't figured out the blast furnace technology used to smelt iron and steel, as well as the theory and principle of desulfurization and dephosphorization technology, so it is even more impossible to develop more advanced smelting technology.

For example, a person who just memorizes the formulas but does not know how the formulas are obtained or how they are derived can naturally only use the existing formulas to perform calculations to solve the problems corresponding to the existing formulas, but cannot use the existing formulas to solve the problems. On the basis of the formula, a deeper derivation is carried out, and even corresponding to the existing problems, other solutions cannot be figured out.

Therefore, if we want to truly advance science and technology and continue independent research and development, the first prerequisite is to fill these knowledge gaps and technical gaps.

Furthermore, the Ming Dynasty's military technology is already the most advanced in the world, and there is enough time for the development of theoretical science and the cultivation of talents.

As the northwest military industrial base gradually transformed into a military factory focusing on production, these Thai and Western craftsmen also returned to the capital in batches. Zhu Tianqi personally appointed them officials and gave them the same treatment as Ming officials.

However, in order to prevent the officials in the DPRK from having objections to these Taixi people and conflict with them, these officials were mainly assigned to the Ministry of Industry, where they still worked under Sun Yuanhua, and they were mainly in the technical production department and did not need to go out much. Deal with people.

Some people who knew shipbuilding technology were naturally sent to Li Banghua to assist Li Banghua in shipbuilding. Of course, there were also a group of people who remained in the northwest military industrial base and continued to be responsible for related work.

In the blink of an eye, August came, and it was the time when the imperial court opened its examinations to obtain scholars. Because the new imperial examination was changed to an annual event, and examinations at all levels were held at the same time, the examination was unanimously scheduled to be held in August.

This year's imperial examination is particularly different in that this year is the first imperial examination after the reform of the imperial examination, and it is only two or three months away from the reform of the imperial examination. How many people can have the knowledge of the new imperial examination in such a short period of time? Confidence and the courage to come and register for this county examination?

The answer is, a lot!

The content of the new imperial examination indeed seems to have a lot of new things that everyone has never seen before, but the county examination only involves two subjects: "Chinese Studies" and "Mathematics", and it is still in the elementary school part, so the difficulty is still relatively low. of.

Needless to say, the scholars of the Ming Dynasty had a good foundation in "Chinese Studies". They had not read books in vain for so many years. In fact, they also had a very good foundation in mathematics. After all, "numerology" is also among the six arts. Originally, It is also one of the skills that scholars must master, but they could not learn it so deeply before.

(End of this chapter)