Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 186 The Uninvited Guest

Qian Longxi immediately saluted and said with some excitement: "Coming here to inspect the new warships of the Ming Dynasty is really eye-opening for me. I have to admit that I was too ignorant in the past, and I couldn't do some things well." I was too ignorant of current affairs, and now that I think about it, I feel extremely ashamed!"

Zhu Tianqi couldn't help but smile after hearing this, and waved his hand very generously, "Okay, Qian Aiqing, they say that he who doesn't know is not guilty, and I'm not that grudge-y, so you don't have to take the past things to heart. Got it!"

As he spoke, Zhu Tianqi took out his "small account book", turned to Qian Longxi's page, and made a few strokes on it...

Zhu Tianqi then looked at Sun Yuanhua, and while putting the "small ledger" back in his hand, he said: "Sun Aiqing, I have read your plan, and it is still very reasonable. As for the issues you mentioned later, I think that apart from the big steel cannon on the front deck that can be used a little bit, I’m afraid I can’t find anything more suitable for the cannons on the side.”

Sun Yuanhua was already at his wits' end anyway, so now that he heard that the emperor or the steel cannon on the front deck could be improved, he immediately became energetic and said, "Please enlighten me!"

Zhu Tianqi took out a piece of paper, drew a sketch on it with a pen, and said: "Generally speaking, the performance of our imitation of the Taixi warship is still insufficient, and the firepower it can carry is limited. If you want to increase the firepower To crush the Taixi people on the sea, we still need to develop and build bigger and stronger ships on this basis.

This giant steel cannon on the front deck is the only hope to gain an advantage in naval battles, so its firing direction must not be limited to the bow direction. It must have the function of steering so that it can hit wherever it wants! "

At this point, Zhu Tianqi put down his pen, picked up the sketch and showed it to Sun Yuanhua, who was still confused. "Although our steel cannon is very powerful, its shortcomings are also obvious. It is too bulky. Once Once it is placed, it is difficult to move it.

Therefore, we can make a rotatable disc base for it. The cannon still needs to be fixed on this base, but the base is alive. We only need to push the base to rotate to make the cannon turn in any direction! "

After looking at the sketch drawn by Zhu Tianqi and listening to Zhu Tianqi's explanation, Sun Yuanhua suddenly understood and couldn't help but clapped his hands and praised: "Wonderful! Wonderful! The emperor is indeed very intelligent, and I admire him very much!"

Even Qian Longxi on the side couldn't help but secretly lamented the emperor's intelligence and wisdom. He was surprised and admired. Although he didn't know much about the installation of artillery, the emperor's drawings were very clear and understandable at a glance, so he could still hear it. What's going on in general.

Then Zhu Tianqi asked Sun Yuanhua to arm three warships according to the agreed plan. As for Qian Longxi, Zhu Tianqi also arranged a new job for him and asked him to go back and prepare for the restoration of Liao Dynasty. The next step of the court was to March on a large scale and regain Liaodong!

Zhu Tianqi was not too worried about the insufficient firepower of the warships. After all, the main problem they were worried about now was that the firepower was not enough to crush the Taixi people, but it could be used to deal with other ships with ease.

Furthermore, even if the Westerners were able to build larger and more powerful warships, they would not be able to sail the fleet to Asia. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty could still rely on its numerical advantage to ensure hegemony in nearby waters.

Of course, the research and development and transformation of new warships cannot be stopped. The Ming Dynasty is indeed unable to build more powerful warships now, but it must be built in the future. Zhu Tianqi's pursuit of combat effectiveness is never to be evenly matched, but to be evenly matched. Be absolutely crushing!
Zhu Tianqi then issued an order to praise Li Banghua. On the grounds that Li Banghua had made great contributions to shipbuilding, he was appointed governor of coastal defense. In addition to the coastal defense work of Tianjin Wei that Li Banghua was responsible for when he was governor of coastal defense, the two prefectures of Denglai were also placed under the jurisdiction of Li Banghua. Li Banghua's men.

To put it simply, the governor of coastal defense was added to the governor of Thein Hlaing. The two positions were merged and called the governor of coastal defense.

Naturally, no one in the DPRK and China expressed any opposition to this. After all, Qian Longxi has now publicly expressed his support for this matter. Naturally, the civil servants and ministers in the DPRK and China have followed Qian Longxi's side.

With Li Banghua's promotion, all the navy and ships in Denglai Prefecture came under his command. Zhu Tianqi also invested a large sum of money in him again and asked him to further expand the shipyard. The original shipbuilding in Denglai Prefecture The factories were also renovated and expanded, and a large number of shipwrights were recruited to start building warships on a large scale.

Due to the limitations of wood raw materials, even though Li Banghua's shipyard now has the ability to build Galen ships and Karak ships, it is still unable to achieve large-scale mass production. Based on estimates of existing wood and shipbuilding efficiency, it is possible that all shipyards If we start working at full capacity, we can build at most five or six Galen ships and eight or nine Karak ships within a year.

Zhu Tianqi was very satisfied with this. He even told Li Banghua that he did not need to spend all his energy on building new warships. He should let those excellent shipwrights figure out how to improve Galen ships and Karak ships to develop and build more powerful ships. warship.

We must also ensure the production capacity of the small warships originally used by the Ming Army. After all, the Ming Navy still relies on ship-sea tactics to fight wars. Quantity is king. We must not use large warships before we can form an absolute advantage. The numerical advantage was also lost!
Of course, shipbuilding is one aspect, and naval training is also a very important task. After all, in wars, especially in ancient wars, the quality of soldiers is enough to determine the level of combat effectiveness of the army and the success or failure of the war. Therefore, we must pay attention to weapons Equipment and training should also be taken into consideration.

Li Banghua was good at training soldiers. When he was the governor of coastal defense, he managed the coastal defense camp in an orderly manner and every soldier was well-trained.

It's just that now that his business has grown bigger and he has purchased many more Western-style warships, Li Banghua has to start asking the Taixi people to help him train his troops. In addition to teaching the Ming navy to drive these Western-style warships, Li Banghua also has the Taixi people teach them The officers and men of the Ming Navy Navy learned some of the naval warfare tactics of the Westerners.

After Li Banghua saw the power and advantages of the Taixi warships, he had long put aside his prejudices against the Taixi people. Therefore, he now has a very good relationship with these Taixi people. He even often discussed naval battles with Captain Taixi. , conduct naval battle drills with each other, and learn from each other, and they have benefited a lot from this process.

At the end of September, an uninvited guest quietly came to the capital. After this person settled in the capital, he sent someone out to inquire about the current situation of the court, and then went to visit Xu Guangqi's house in person.

Originally, he brought a lot of gifts when he came to visit Xu Guangqi this time, but what surprised him was that when he gave the concierge at Xu Guangqi's residence the greeting cards and money, the concierge only accepted the greeting cards. , but refused to accept his money.

You know, when he came to the capital of the Ming Dynasty three years ago, there were still no corrupt officials and no officials were corrupt. Without money to open a road, it was difficult to move forward. Why did he suddenly change his gender now? Could it be that he gave him too little money? , do people look down upon you?

He was really stunned. The concierge had already put away his greeting card and saluted him: "Sir, please wait for a moment while Rong Xiao goes in to report!" Although he was a little confused about the situation, seeing the other party acting like this To be polite, he also hurriedly bowed to the concierge and said: "Thank you!"

Xu Guangqi was busy dealing with matters regarding the new imperial examination at this time. Now that the new imperial examination has been successfully held in the first year after the imperial examination reform, next year, the county examination and the prefectural examination will be carried out at the same time. Some preparation work is still To do.

Another thing that gives him a headache is the bottleneck in the education and training of professors from the provincial level. The amount of knowledge and difficulty involved in the provincial examination is really too high. So far, no one has been able to pass the examination. points, let alone reaching 80.00%, so the teaching work in various government schools across the country has not yet begun.

At this moment, the servant outside the door brought in the greeting card from the concierge, and said: "My lord, there is someone outside the mansion asking for an audience. He is a stranger. The concierge said that his accent does not sound like a local!"

Xu Guangqi was slightly startled and signaled his servant to hand over the greeting card. Although he was now the chief minister of the cabinet, many people came to visit and gave gifts, but because he was relatively honest, he never accepted gifts and never made friends with others. Party, so over time, very few people came to visit us, especially foreigners!
Therefore, Xu Guangqi was still a little surprised by the identity of this outsider. He took the invitation and opened it, only to see a name written on it that was very unfamiliar to him - Kim Sang-hyun!

Xu Guangqi couldn't help but frowned, because he really couldn't remember that he knew such a number one person, and he really couldn't remember that there was such an official in the Ming Dynasty. Unless he was a low-level official, he shouldn't have no impression of him at all. of.

However, when Xu Guangqi looked behind the name on the greeting card and saw Jin Sangxian's description of his identity, his expression suddenly changed.

No wonder he didn't expect that this person was not an official of the Ming Dynasty at all, but a minister from North Korea!
Thinking of North Korea and looking at the name again, Xu Guangqi immediately thought of something. This person seemed to have come to Daming as North Korea's Xie Enchen Envoy to pay homage. He must be an important official in the Joseon Dynasty to be able to take on this important task.

It stands to reason that in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, after Jiannu conquered North Korea, North Korea negotiated peace with Jiannu and formed a brotherly alliance, and then unilaterally announced the end of the vassal relationship with Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty also no longer recognized North Korea as a country because of North Korea's betrayal. His own vassal states no longer accept worship from North Korea.

So how did this Jin Sangxian come to the capital of the Ming Dynasty?If an envoy from a vassal country came to pay homage, why wouldn't he, the Minister of Rites, know about it?

Therefore, the only explanation is that this Jin Sangxian secretly came to Ming Dynasty from North Korea and came to the capital. As for his purpose of coming to the capital, Xu Guangqi could not guess.

Logically speaking, as far as the current relationship between the Ming Dynasty and North Korea is concerned, Xu Guangqi should not have met with Kim Sang-hyun, because North Korea, as a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, betrayed its faith and formed an alliance with the slaves, which was a complete act of betrayal. They were no longer qualified to send envoys. Ming Dynasty!

But Xu Guangqi believed that Kim Sang-hyun, as an important minister of North Korea, secretly came to the capital to visit him incognito. He must have something particularly important to say, and if he didn't see him, he would be afraid of missing something important.

Therefore, after much thought, Xu Guangqi asked his servant to bring Jin Shangxian in and arranged for him to meet him in the study.

Jin Shangxian really didn't expect that Xu Guangqi was actually willing to see him. He immediately followed the servants of the Xu Mansion into the mansion and went to Xu Guangqi's study to meet him.

After Jin Sangxian entered the room, he did not dare to raise his head and look directly at Xu Guangqi. Instead, he quickly saluted and bowed after entering the room: "Foreign Minister Jin Sangxian, pay your respects to Mr. Xu, the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty!"

Then he took out a folder from his sleeves, raised his hands high above his head, and said, "This is just some little thought from the foreign minister. I hope Mr. Xu can accept it!"

Xu Guangqi looked at Jin Shangxian, and then said coldly: "There is no need for gifts. You should first explain why you, a Korean, appeared in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. If you can't give me a reasonable Explain, I will have no choice but to send you to the Criminal Department!"

After hearing this, Jin Sangxian did not show the slightest fear, but immediately shouted: "The foreign minister concealed his name and smuggled here. It is really a helpless act. If this offends the power of the heaven, the foreign minister is willing to be punished. ! However, even so, the foreign ministers had to take the risk to come just to save North Korea from the danger of national annihilation!"

When Xu Guangqi heard this, he was really surprised, but he remained calm on the surface and asked: "The danger of destroying the country? Where does the danger come from? Is it you, the slave slave in the north of Korea, or the Japanese pirates in the south of Korea?"

Jin Shangxian replied immediately: "My lord, I am in danger in North Korea, and I am the slave of the north!"

"Jian Nu?!" When Xu Guangqi heard this, he immediately sneered and asked: "Didn't you North Korea and Jian Nu have already formed a brotherly alliance? How can a brother be willing to conquer his younger brother?
Furthermore, the Eight Banners Army that established slaves has been completely annihilated by our great tomorrow’s division, leaving only a few remnants of defeated troops, so there is nothing to worry about! "

Jin Shangxian was immediately speechless. He knew that if he came to the Ming Dynasty to ask for help this time, the Ming Dynasty would definitely blame him for the brotherly covenant he signed during the Dingmao Battle to force the court to negotiate a peace. He was really speechless about this matter.

Jin Sangxian was silent for a moment, and then he could only lean down and kowtow and plead: "It is really a helpless move for me, North Korea, to negotiate a peace and alliance with Jiannu. I hope that the Ming Dynasty can be considerate of the subject country, ignore the past grudges, and save the subject country from danger!"

Whether to forgive North Korea for its previous betrayal of Ming Dynasty is not something Xu Guangqi can decide, so whether to help North Korea is not something Xu Guangqi can decide.

But before that, Xu Guangqi still planned to listen to Kim Sang-heon to talk about what he just said about the crisis of national subjugation that North Korea faced due to the establishment of slaves.

(End of this chapter)