Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 182: Report to Qianyang Palace

To the west of Shenjing City, Hongxiang Inn.

Jia Cong was also surprised to see that the eunuchs from the palace actually found the inn.

The eunuch conveyed the oral order of Emperor Jia Zhao, saying that the Ministry of War was now planning to build a five-army firearms battalion. Because Jia Cong was the first to invent the three-stage attack method and was familiar with the use of firearms, he was ordered to enter the palace after the morning court tomorrow to consult and make reports.

Besides him, those who entered the palace to make responses included Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding and Minister of War Gu Yankui.

Jia Cong gained personal experience from the Three-Part Strike Method, which is that the wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated.

People of this era lacked knowledge of firearms and lacked new perspectives. However, when they came into contact with things that attracted them, they could burst out with amazing wisdom and energy.

Before his arrival, firearms were not taken seriously or used systematically.

But once Jia Cong proposed the three-stage attack method, King Ning was able to follow it and train a highly lethal firearms team in a very short period of time, and successfully encircled and suppressed more than fifty powerful Japanese ronin.

After learning about the three-stage attack method, Emperor Jiazhao was able to keenly foresee the huge potential of the rational use of firearms, and immediately ordered the establishment of a five-army firearms battalion, which required extremely strong foresight and courage.

What Jia Cong didn't know at this time was that Marquis Zhongjing had further refined and refined his three-stage attack method based on his three-stage attack method, combining it with military training techniques, thus further improving its practicability.

The 100-man firearms team trained according to the law was much more powerful than the musket team hastily trained by Prince Ning.

He will not be the only one who will go to the palace to make a speech tomorrow.

Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding is a well-known veteran general in the army, and the Minister of War Gu Yankui is said to have guarded the border for many years for the country. These are not ordinary people.

Jia Cong would never think that just because he has more fresh insights from later generations, he can be superior to others and can be careless in the slightest.

If this is the case, it would be truly short-sighted and shallow.

In later life, he hosted an exhibition of ancient weapons and artifacts, as well as researched and edited related popular science materials, some of which could be put to good use.

So I spent half the night writing an outline of the strategy for setting up a camp with firearms.

It includes the organization of officers and soldiers in the firearms battalion, military regulations for camp establishment, individual equipment standards, the amount of ammunition carried, firearms training assessment, the coordination of archery and musket formations to kill the enemy, etc.

In addition, some ideas were mentioned, such as establishing a firearms department, promoting the study of things, networking with talented people from the Western countries, and training firearms craftsmen.

I did my best to detail each item, and wrote until midnight, when I finally stopped. In fact, there were some things I didn't dare to write because they were too shocking.

As soon as it was dawn, Wu'er took Jinghui into his room. Because they were staying in an inn, it was not convenient for a maid to keep watch for him at night.

The two saw that the candle in the room had long burned out, and on the table lay a piece of freshly written rice paper with densely packed words and even some drawings on it. Wu'er knew that he must have stayed up half the night before resting.

Wu'er woke Jia Cong up because he was going to the palace to meet the emperor today. She helped him find suitable clothes and went out to get hot water for washing.

When she came back, she saw Jia Cong sitting there, and Jinghui was combing his hair. Her eyes were bright and gentle, her expression was focused, and her movements were gentle yet unusually skillful.

In the gradually brightening morning light outside the window, the two of them had an indescribable harmony and tacit understanding, as if they had been doing this for years.

Wu'er put down the hot water and looked at the scene in front of him in a daze.

Back then, they relied on each other in the East Courtyard, and this scene must have happened every morning. Now, the old memories are still fresh in her mind, but Zhishao can no longer remember the past.

……

This was Jia Cong's second time entering the palace. As usual, he waited in the rest room for two hours. It was not until two quarters past nine that a eunuch from the palace took him to the Qianyang Palace to meet the emperor.

After he was brought into the Qianyang Palace, he waited for a while before he saw Emperor Jiazhao, who had just finished his court, enter the palace with two ministers. One of them was an old minister with white hair and beard, wearing a black gauze, a jade belt, and a second-rank scarlet official robe with a peacock embroidered on the chest. He must be the Minister of War, Gu Yankui.

The other person was a middle-aged man, also wearing a second-grade scarlet official robe, with a military and resolute look on his face. I think he was Shi Ding, the Marquis of Zhongjing in the historian family.

Because the Fifth Army Firearms Battalion was still under construction and the matter involved military secrets and was not suitable for discussion in the court, all matters were reported to the emperor after the court was adjourned.

The Minister of War Gu Yankui first reported the progress of the construction of the Firearms Battalion in detail to Emperor Jiazhao.

According to the initial planning of the emperor and his ministers, the initial establishment of the Five Armies Firearms Battalion was 3,000 people. This was also the maximum number of troops that could be established, taking into account the insufficient existing firearms resources and the lack of firearms officers and soldiers.

Only with such a large number of troops can we exert the expected basic scale combat power in actual combat, and then expand accordingly after it is on track.

Currently, the selection of soldiers and initial firearms training are progressing smoothly. However, based on the existing stocks in the arsenal and purchases from foreign countries, only a few thousand Rumi guns have been collected, which is far from the actual demand.

The Ottoman Empire, which mainly produced the Rumi gun, had many restrictions on the export of muskets and was unable to purchase them in large quantities.

Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding was in charge of selecting sergeants for combat training in the firearms battalion. He also encountered many problems in the use of firearms. For example, the Rumi gun was prone to various malfunctions after frequent firing, and could even explode and injure people.

However, in the capital, craftsmen who could repair firearms were extremely rare. Many faulty firearms had accumulated in the camp, and the number of muskets that could be used for combat training was seriously insufficient.

Emperor Jiazhao had been involved in government affairs for a long time and knew that when something new happened, there would inevitably be all kinds of problems. Moreover, Gu Yankui and Shi Ding were both diligent in their work and there was nothing wrong with them.

He saw Jia Cong standing quietly aside. After being in Nanjing for half a year, his face looked less boyish and more calm and capable. Thinking of what he had done in Nanjing, Emperor Jia Zhao's expression softened slightly.

"Chengshilang, you are familiar with firearms, do you have any suggestions?"

Jia Cong briefly recalled the reports of Gu Yankui and Shi Ding, and said: "Your Majesty, the art of firearms is just beginning to gain popularity. Although it is only just beginning in the Great Zhou Dynasty, it has long been regarded as a way to strengthen a country in the Western Yi countries.

Western countries like the Ottoman Empire, which value their technology, would not sell firearms in large quantities in order to avoid being used as a weapon by the enemy.

Your Majesty is planning to build a firearms camp, and the number of firearms required is huge. It would be difficult to achieve the goal by relying solely on purchasing from the Western barbarians.

As far as I know, the Western Barbarians are now increasingly preaching in the Great Zhou, and there are also many famous Western Barbarians traveling around the world. Your Majesty can promise a large sum of money to find talented people who are proficient in the art of firearms and the method of studying things among them.

And select capable and shrewd people from among the blacksmiths and pyrotechnicians in the territory of the Great Zhou to serve as a reserve of firearms craftsmen, and let the hired talented people from the Western Yi teach them how to build and repair firearms.

In this way, within a few years, our Great Zhou will be able to have its own firearms casting industry. With a lot of accumulation and a little development, we will surely become a powerful country in firearms in a few decades... "

Jia Cong's remarks were insightful and logical. He not only analyzed the reasons why it was impossible to purchase large quantities of firearms from the Western Barbarians, but also proposed a solution.

Among them, there are the ideas of seeking out talented people from the Western barbarians, reserving firearms craftsmen, establishing a firearms industry, and creating a firearms power. Although there are only a few words, their vision is broad and their thinking is meticulous, and they have already touched upon the key techniques of governing a country and strengthening the army.

Gu Yankui and Shi Ding, who were standing by, listened to Jia Cong talking fluently and without any hesitation, and the surprise in their eyes became more and more intense.

Everyone knows that this young man from the Rongguo Mansion is naturally intelligent and has amazing poetry and literature. Not only did he perform the imperial mission brilliantly during his visit to Nanjing this time, he also became famous in Jiangnan with his two new poems.

But all this can be explained by extraordinary talent. Although rare, there are still many such people in history books. They are strange but not weird.

Even if he proposed the three-stage attack method, it can be understood that he was born intelligent and could come up with ideas that others did not have.

Many things in this world can be accomplished by relying on natural intelligence, but a person's vision and insight cannot be achieved by intelligence alone; it also requires extremely rich experience and encounters.

But I only heard that he had been studying at home, and the only time he went out was this official trip to Nanjing in response to the emperor's order.

If this is the case, where did this extraordinary knowledge of firearms and the strategic insight that is extremely disproportionate to his age come from?

(End of this chapter)