The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 163 What is the problem with Ming Dynasty?

The main elite of the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers were also musketeers, using front-loading matchlocks.

At this time, the main firearms forces around the world were using muzzle-loading guns. Although Europeans had begun to equip flintlock guns on a small scale, their level was only average. The quality of flint produced in China was not good, and matchlocks were still used until the Qing Dynasty. mainstream.

The real advantage of the suifa gun is that it has a spring device on it. After the invention of the percussion cap, it can be easily transformed into a percussion cap gun by replacing the flint with a hammer, but that will not be a concern until at least a hundred years later. things.

In addition, the firearms of the Ming Dynasty were considered to be first-rate when compared across the world.

When Zhongye in the Ming Dynasty had not yet had large-scale foreign exchanges, the original level of fire cannons might not be comparable to that of muskets, but now it has long since caught up.

The Ming Dynasty began to imitate the shotguns introduced by the Portuguese forty years ago. Various muskets, flanges, and thunder cannons also followed the world trend, and even had their own small inventions.

In the actual battlefield: At this time, the Tanegashima artillery produced by Japan was also world-class and certified by European missionaries. However, if you have touched it on the Korean battlefield, you will know that it will not cause any trouble in front of the Ming Dynasty's army.

Quantity alone is enough to overwhelm them. Take the Coast Guard in front of Wang Wenlong as an example. The ratio of firearms to cold weapons has reached one to three.

The firearms manufacturing capabilities of the Ming Dynasty are not comparable to other countries at this time. Just look at the number of firearms production officially reported by the Ming Dynasty every year during the Wanli Korean War.

It's always like: "a thousand furlong machines" and "five thousand shotguns". This productivity level is simply scary when compared with other countries. Even if the quality of the weapons officially produced by the Ming Dynasty is poor, after all, there are so many kilograms of iron there, right?

The Ming army had such firepower. The small group of Japanese elites equipped with muskets on the Korean battlefield would naturally only be beaten and run around when they encountered the Ming army carrying guns and artillery.

In the final analysis, the problem of Ming Dynasty is not the lack of firepower in the army.

After a busy day, the big drill at Haitan Water Village finally came to a successful conclusion at noon the next day after a coastal defense mortar hit the target.

As the representative of the feudal lord, Wang Wenlong inspected the training troops with Shen Yourong. Then Shen Yourong waved his hand and said, "Rewards!"

The white money was brought out.

Xu Xueju was rewarded based on the amount of two silver coins per person for [-] people, and Shen Yourong was also rewarded based on the amount of two coins per person.

The only small flaw is that Shen Yourong only has [-] men under his command, and Shen Yourong has lost more than [-] taels.

Wang Wenlong commented on this: "General Shen is really selfless!"

It is indeed selfless, and the deduction amount is already very restrained.

Gu Yanwu's evaluation of the Ming Dynasty's military system after the fall of the Ming Dynasty was really good: Separating the household registration of farmers and military households was already a huge institutional flaw, and the Ming Dynasty also separated military households and soldiers, which was an even more bizarre system. .

According to the situation in the Ming Dynasty at this time: the guardsmen occupied a large number of acres of land, and all the strong laborers were gone. They relied on the old, weak, sick and disabled to cultivate the fields. The use value of the fields must have been greatly lost. These military fields were essentially owned by the country. Public property, but unable to raise a combat-effective army.

At the same time, the war depends on the battalions recruited by the generals. How much the battalions are paid and how much merit they perform on the battlefield are all in the mouth of the superiors. Naturally, they listen to the words of the superiors. The result is that the generals turn the battalions into their own soldiers.

——The Ming Dynasty invested a lot of land to raise the guardsmen who could not fight, and spent another money to raise camp soldiers, but they adopted personal soldiers for a group of generals. Just say how unjustly the money was spent, right? The military system of the Ming Dynasty was so weird that after the Manchus entered the customs, they actually thought that their Eight Banners system would have institutional advantages, which is funny to say.

After releasing the reward money, Shen Yourong entertained Wang Wenlong and others to eat and drink in the water village.

Shen Yourong had already read the letters between Jin Xuezeng and Xu Xueju yesterday, and was quite curious about what Wang Wenlong said about the situation of the Dutch.

His place is the first barrier for Fujian to face overseas threats. Although he is preparing for the final seizure of the Japanese pirates' lair in the Fujian Sea at this time, he does not have the energy to worry about the Dutch yet, but he is still eager to understand the Dutch. Human reality.

Wang Wenlong described the situation again.

Shen Yourong was also greatly surprised by the Dutch East India Company model.

After thinking for a long time, he asked Wang Wenlong: "Does Jianyang think the Ming Dynasty should also follow the example of European countries in colonizing overseas?"

Wang Wenlong's thoughts in the past few days have been all about this matter, especially after seeing the strength of Haitan Water Village.

Without using the evaluation standards of modern armies in later generations to judge the army at this time, objectively speaking, no matter how many loopholes the Ming Dynasty's military system had, the more than a thousand armies in Haitan Water Village can definitely be regarded as the ones that cannot be underestimated on the sea at this time. With its strength, it was impossible to sail ships to fight European colonists, but it was almost possible to defend the sea frontier.

With such military and economic strength, the Ming Dynasty in the previous life did not participate in the Age of Discovery. So what can he change in this time and space?
  Wang Wenlong was dissatisfied when he entered Baoshan and returned empty-handed!
  Faced with Shen Yourong's inquiry, Wang Wenlong thought and answered:

"The overseas land is vast. The area of ​​land discovered in America alone is equivalent to that of the entire Ming Dynasty, and the distance between the north and the south is almost as different as the Jiangnan Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty. There must be abundant sunshine and rain. If it can be cultivated well, it will probably become a Fertile farmland, the appearance of the natives on it is more like me, the Ming Dynasty people, why not occupy such a great land?"

Shen Yourong frowned and said, "It's good to have a vast place, but the investment required to occupy it must be extremely huge."

As a senior military attache of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Yourong also had a foresight. Naturally, he knew how many benefits it would bring if the Ming Dynasty could occupy a vast territory?

But he understood better that colonization and expansion required investment. You can understand this just by looking at how much manpower and material resources the Ming Dynasty spent on running the southwest and northeast.

There is no shortage of land around the Ming Dynasty. If you want to open up territory and expand the territory, just bring troops to fight there, but after fighting there, you will have to invest endlessly. Turning a place into a mature land does not happen overnight, and sometimes you will lose money. .

Otherwise, how could Jiaozhi give up?
  Even if the number of natives in the Americas as Wang Wenlong mentioned is few, the investment required to develop them will certainly not be low.

With the Ming Dynasty's current finances, even a military attaché like Shen Yourong didn't think it was possible to afford this undertaking.

Wang Wenlong continued to think after hearing this, and then slowly said: "Let the imperial court be responsible for overseas development, most of the time it is beyond its capabilities. Only by relying on private power, like the Dutch for commercial expansion, can overseas colonization be possible."

"Yes, business expansion! Why didn't I think about it before?"

Shen Yourong heard the sudden change in Wang Wenlong's tone and looked at Wang Wenlong in surprise. He saw Wang Wenlong's eyes glaring towards the sea ahead, as if he had discovered something shiny.

He finally figured it out!

(End of this chapter)