Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 340 Interruption
Li Qiang returned to the palace extremely proudly. This success allowed him to artificially create a truly invincible army.

If the previous five-turn generals could still rely on a large number of troops to fight against the enemy, now the five hundred and nine-turn generals of the artillery army are no match for ordinary people.

Not to mention mortals, even immortals have to stay away from this battle formation composed of five hundred nine-turn warriors. The battle formation composed of five hundred nine-turn warriors gathers the spirit of the military, and ordinary immortals who dare to attack them have to consider the consequences of backlash.

Li Qiang is already considering gathering all of Daqian's existing fifth- and sixth-turn warriors and training them all into ninth-turn warriors.

The Nine-Turn Warrior is a terrifying existence that possesses a ton of strength. If he uses martial arts to burst out, he can exert even stronger combat power.

The next day, he issued an order for all the fifth and sixth-rank generals from all over Daqian to come to the capital.

This matter cannot be rushed. It will take at least more than a month from the time the order is issued to the arrival of all the fifth and sixth level warriors.

"Master, the head of the Jiangnan Chen family has confessed!" Jin Dong came in and bowed to report.

Jin Dong handed a confession to Li Qiang, who took it and started reading it.

"The head of the Chen family is really tough. He actually held out in your hands for such a long time before confessing!" Li Qiang said lightly while looking at the confession.

"Master, it's my fault that I didn't do my job well!" Jin Dong knelt down quickly and said.

"Okay, get up!" Li Qiang waved her hand and said.

Jin Dong secretly breathed a sigh of relief and then stood up.

This time the person was arrested by the Ministry of Justice. I don’t know who the head of the Chen family found. The Ministry of Justice did not interrogate him immediately, but wanted to delay time.

After Jin Dong found out, he personally went to interrogate the head of the Chen family with professionals from his intelligence organization, which resulted in this confession.

"Find out the person entrusted by the head of the Chen family. I want to see who is protecting him!" Li Qiang said in a deep voice.

"Master, it was the Ministry of Justice that was contacted by Prince Yichang!" Jin Dong was well prepared and immediately said the name of the person entrusted by the head of the Chen family.

The Prince of Yichang was an idle prince who did not even have a fiefdom.

This kind of prince only has the title and no other real power.

However, these idle princes are all royal family members and have a close relationship with the emperor, so they can get the title of idle prince.

"Jin Dong, take your men to Prince Yichang's residence, break one of his legs, and convey my oral order, asking him to stay at home and recuperate!" When Li Qiang heard that it was Prince Yichang, he lost all interest and gave the order casually.

If it was the former Prince Beijing, or Prince Zhongshun, who were princes with fiefdoms, Li Qiang would be very willing to deal with them, because the benefits would be considerable.

But if the property of Prince Yichang, a prince with little wealth, was really confiscated, the feelings of the retired emperor and the empress dowager would have to be considered.

However, Li Qiang will not let Prince Yichang go. Since he dares to take action at this time, he must be prepared to be taught a lesson.

"Yes, master!" Jin Dong responded loudly.

He almost took the blame for Prince Yichang just now, and he hated Prince Yichang to death. Now that he knew he had a chance to take revenge on Prince Yichang, how could he not be excited?

In Prince Yichang's mansion, Prince Yichang was checking boxes of treasures in the treasury. These treasures were all sent by the Chen family from Jiangnan, asking him to help protect the head of the Chen family.

He didn't want to agree, but Chen gave him too much.

As an idle prince, although he is the grandson of the retired emperor, he only has a little money every year.

His Prince Yichang's Mansion looked prosperous on the surface, but in reality, apart from the gifts from the retired emperor, there was not much surplus wealth.

Among the gifts bestowed by the retired emperor, there were many precious things. However, if one were to exchange the gifts bestowed by the emperor for silver, if this were discovered, one would probably completely lose the favor of the retired emperor.

Even after the death of the retired emperor, if this kind of thing was dug up by someone, he would definitely be charged with deceiving the emperor.

So when Chen sent a large amount of money and property, Prince Yichang was lost. He wanted to delay the case of the head of the Chen family for a while as a way of repaying Chen's request.

As for helping the head of the Chen family to get rid of the crime, Prince Yichang had never thought about it.

Being in the royal family, he understands Li Qiang better.

Several elders of the royal family almost had their homes raided because they offended Li Qiang.

Therefore, Prince Yichang was thinking of cheating these properties. It is not appropriate to say that he cheated, because in his opinion, these properties were only enough for him to achieve this level.

"Prince, the Ministry of Justice said that the inner palace has taken over the trial of the head of the Chen family!" The housekeeper came in and reported.

"Can't delay it any longer? Forget it. Can Chen still take the property back from me?" Prince Yichang was stunned at first, then shook his head and said.

The butler glanced at the boxes of treasures in the treasury and thought that the reputation of Prince Yichang's Mansion was ruined.

But after getting so much wealth, let it be bad.

"Something big has happened!" a young eunuch ran in and said.

"Is this also a place where you can come in?" the butler asked angrily.

Apart from Prince Yichang, only the steward can enter the treasury.

The young eunuch was so frightened that he knelt on the ground, not daring to make a sound for a moment.

"What big thing happened?" Prince Yichang asked in a deep voice, thinking of what the young eunuch had just said.

"Outside, Chief Eunuch Jin Dong and his men are already outside the mansion gate, wanting to see the Prince!" the little eunuch replied timidly.

"Why didn't you tell me such a big thing earlier!" Prince Yichang kicked the young eunuch to the ground and said.

He ran outside quickly, tidying up his clothes as he ran.

Who is Jin Dong? He is the eunuch beside the Daqian Emperor Li Qiang. He is the chief eunuch of the palace and a powerful eunuch.

Although the emperor is still alive, he has long stopped interfering in foreign affairs. Emperor Li Qiang is the king of Daqian. How dare Prince Yichang treat Jin Dong lightly as someone close to him?

The most crucial thing is that Jin Dong is usually by Li Qiang's side, and he came to Prince Yichang's Mansion absolutely on Li Qiang's orders.

Thinking of this, the sweat I had just sweated from running turned into cold sweat.

Cold sweat was oozing from the roots of his hair and every hair on the surface of his body, and in just a moment he was soaked like a drowned rat.

"Prince Yichang greets Chief Eunuch Jin!" When Prince Yichang saw the young eunuch at the gate of the mansion, he took a deep breath, stepped forward and saluted.

"Follow the emperor's orders! Catch him and beat him!" Jin Dong said in a sharp voice.

Several soldiers from the Beijing camp behind him obeyed the order and stepped forward to pin Prince Yichang down.

Then a soldier from the Beijing camp picked up a wooden stick and smashed it hard at the calf of Prince Yichang. This soldier was a fierce general, and when he hit it, he heard the sound of bones breaking, and the calf of Prince Yichang was suddenly at a strange angle.

Prince Yichang let out a shrill scream, but neither the guards nor the servants in Prince Yichang's mansion dared to make any move and could only watch from afar.

"My master asked me to tell you something. Stay at home honestly!" Jin Dong lowered his body and whispered in the ear of Prince Yichang.

He turned around and took two steps, then stopped again when he thought of something.

"The gift sent by Chen will be delivered to the palace today!" He added, and without staying any longer, he left with his people.

"Go and get the doctor!" The housekeeper rushed to Prince Yichang and shouted.

Prince Yichang's face was a little distorted. He had never suffered such a great suffering since he was a child.

“First, have someone deliver all the gifts from the Chen family in the treasury to the palace, and also... send the pair of jade ruyi in the bedroom over as well, and say that they are an apology from Prince Yichang’s Mansion!” Prince Yichang was extremely sober at this time, he didn’t care about his own injuries, he gritted his teeth and endured the pain as he gave the order.

What happened in Prince Yichang's Mansion spread quickly because it happened right in front of the gate.

When several elders of the royal family heard the news, according to their previous temperament, they would definitely help Prince Yichang and go to the retired emperor to ask for an explanation.

But after what happened last time, several elders of the clan became particularly honest and pretended to know nothing in the mansion.

In addition, there were rumors that Prince Yichang had his leg broken because he interfered with Emperor Li Qiang's purchase of land.

This news was released intentionally by the palace in order to make those who wanted to intervene in the purchase of land have some reservations.

Li Qiang sent an imperial envoy to Jiangnan to participate in the trial of the Chen family in Jiangnan. He was accompanied by a thousand soldiers from the Beijing camp and professional house-raiding experts.

If the Chen family in Jiangnan had the courage to find someone to impeach Li Qiang, they should have considered the consequences of doing so.

Originally, Li Qiang did not want to use the charges obtained from the intelligence to deal with these large landowners, because these wealthy families all had some dirty deeds hidden underneath.

If they were all arrested, the world would be in chaos.

But the Jiangnan Chen family’s active provocation is not within this scope.

With the ready-made charges, Jiangnan Chen could be brought to justice quickly and all his property confiscated.

Among them, what Li Qiang valued most was the land. This time he could get all of it without paying any money.

Another thing is that the ship that the imperial envoy traveled on was a new type of steam-powered ship.

Its speed is several times that of ordinary ships, and it can maintain a stable speed regardless of weather conditions.

This shortened the travel time from the capital to Jiangnan to ten days. This ship was built for testing purposes and was also a civilian steamship, so its speed was still somewhat reserved.

But even so, this steamship is currently the fastest ship in Daqian, without a doubt.

Due to the insufficient carrying capacity of the steamship, only 300 soldiers from the Imperial Camp accompanied the imperial envoy, while the remaining 700 soldiers from the Imperial Camp traveled by land on fast horses.

Outside the main hall of Daming Palace, Li Qiang checked the musket in his hand.

Beside him, standing with his head bowed, was Master Zhao, a sixth-rank master craftsman from the newly established Firearms Department of Daqian.

The musket in Li Qiang's hand was made by Master Zhao and his team.

It's not that Daqian didn't have the skills to make muskets. It was just rarely used in the Daqian army for many reasons, the most important of which was that muskets were too easy to explode. Not to mention injuring others, they would hurt themselves first.

Therefore, no soldier was willing to use the musket. In addition, the musket's slow reloading speed and strict weather requirements when facing cavalry meant that it could not be reused in the army.

Although Li Qiang worked hard to develop artillery, he also attached great importance to muskets.

He selected some of the most capable craftsmen who originally made muskets and established a firearms department to research new muskets.

Thanks to the investment from Datong Bank, the Firearms Department was able to use more expensive steel to make gun barrels. In addition, with the advanced development of Daqian artillery, gunpowder technology had made great progress, making the research of the Firearms Department much easier.

"Your Majesty, this is a long musket. The ammunition is wrapped in waterproof oil paper. You can load the ammunition by pulling the bolt." Master Zhao introduced respectfully.

Li Qiang made a lot of suggestions about the musket. The long musket in his hand was very different from the rifle he had imagined.

But there is no other way. The best way to supply ammunition is naturally to use copper shells. The problem is that copper is too precious to Daqian and cannot be used in large quantities in the production of ammunition.

So there is the current solution, which is to use waterproof oil paper to wrap the gunpowder and the bullet into a cylindrical shape.

The mechanical structure of the long musket has many similarities with later rifles. When fired, the bolt will push backward, opening the chamber to expel the remaining debris inside.

Li Qiang took a bullet wrapped in waterproof oil paper, pulled the bolt and loaded the bullet.

"Master, let me do the test!" Jin Dong took the initiative to say from the side.

He had heard about the explosion of muskets. Besides, this was a new type of musket that had not yet been equipped to the army. It would be bad if Li Qiang was injured.

"You think you are stronger than me just because you have become a third-level warrior!" Li Qiang said unhappily.

Jin Dong touched his head and moved aside.

His talent was not good, and he reached his limit after the third level of practicing the general's body-building technique.

This made Jin Dong very unwilling. You know, Xia Shouzhong was at the fourth level back then. Although it was unknown what level Dai Quan was at, it would not be lower than the fourth level.

In fact, Jin Dong still has potential. He is still in the process of development. His physical condition was quite weak before. Once he has fully mastered his current strength, he may be able to continue practicing.

Li Qiang picked up the musket and aimed at the target a hundred meters away.

With a 'bang', a flame spurted out from the long musket, and a bullet flew out from the flame and hit the left side of the target.

Li Qiang did not use the 'Mental Warfare [Advanced]'; this was entirely the result of aiming and firing the long musket.

Of course, he was extremely strong, and the reaction force from the firing of the long musket had no effect on him, which was why he achieved such results.

Like other soldiers, if you want to hit the target, you need to practice continuously to achieve it.

Li Qiang had never thought that this long musket could achieve accurate shooting. That was not very realistic, and Daqian's craftsmanship level was not yet capable of achieving such precision.

He was already thinking that perhaps he should design a machine tool. A machine tool with multiple functions might greatly improve mechanical manufacturing.

With the machine tools, the accuracy of firearms can be continuously improved, truly reaching his ideal level.

He pulled the bolt again and saw that the chamber was empty, so he could directly load new bullets and fire.

(End of this chapter)