Ping An Biography

() After the Battle of Changde, those involved in this need to explain to the emperor, and now Zhu Zhanji is still in Yangzhou.

All the official documents sent from Yangzhou were annotated with the word "walking in", which also caused some inconvenience to the daily affairs of the government.However, Concubine Sun Gui, who was with Xuande, seemed to like it very much. Not only the landscape and gardens are beautiful, but also the climate is more humid than that of the capital. Concubine Sun Guifei thinks it is good for her skin; There are countless women in the court, so be more at ease. Although the emperor of the capital also favors her the most, after all, those competitors are really right under his nose.

There are two places where Zhu Zhanji usually handles affairs, both of which are in a garden called "Xu Lin Xiaozhu" by the Beicheng River.This garden was built by a salt merchant surnamed Xu in Jiangsu and Zhejiang during the Hongxi period. When he learned that the emperor's royal family had come to Yangzhou, he volunteered to contribute his own garden as Zhu Zhanji's palace.Zhu Zhanji accepted his kindness, and thus saved a sum of expenses; the main expenditure of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty when they came to Jiangsu and Zhejiang was military expenditures, which cannot be compared with the tens of millions of taels spent by the emperors of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties on their southern tours... This kind of It was unimaginable in the Ming court.

A larger pavilion is where Zhu Zhanji discusses military and government affairs with the ministers. There are many officials from the six ministries on duty; there are only a few lakeside pavilions in the back where only eunuchs and eunuchs walk around, and Zhu Zhanji meets some people in private here.

For example, people from Jinyiwei and Dongchang, not all the matters he handles can be made public in the court.

Now the person Zhu Zhanji met in the waterside pavilion was Lu Qianshi from Jinyiwei South Town Fusi. Lu Qianshi had just come from Huguang, and he was rushing to meet the saint before he was exhausted from the dust.

People in Jinyiwei don't always speak ill of civil servants, they are more pragmatic in many cases.Lu Qianshi’s remarks this time supported Yu Qian. He said that he did not know whether the withdrawal was right, but it was really difficult to win in the battle at that time, and he provided some evidence... These real evidences are also the main points of Lu Qianshi in this mission. as.

In any case, Jin Yiwei's people have a bad reputation in Shilin, and they will not deliberately speak for civil servants, so Lu Qian's words should still be credible.

At this time, the servant carried a long wooden box into the waterside pavilion, and the prince, the supervisor of ceremonies, personally ordered the eunuchs to open the box, and saw two brand new muskets inside.Lu Qianshi bowed and said: "After Weichen arrived in Huguang, he contacted the list given by the Beisi, and at the same time rearranged the manpower, and persuaded Zhang Ning's rebels to surrender several false officials and craftsmen who were responsible for making weapons for him. After that, they called Some people ordered the officials to imitate the firearms used by the rebels. This kind of firearm is called arquebus, which is the main weapon of the rebels. It is not difficult to manufacture as a whole, only the barrel is time-consuming. It needs to be continuously forged with iron first. Jing iron sheet, after being forged and wrapped into a tube, it needs to be drilled and polished with a steel drill, and it takes a month to drill into a gun barrel, and if you are not careful, it may cause problems such as bombing, and it will be scrapped and unusable.”

Seeing that the emperor was listening, Lu Qian continued: "This kind of big arquebus gun can shoot more than 100 steps, and the effective range is about [-] steps and can wear iron armor. The so-called magic soldiers who can penetrate Yang with a hundred steps may be untrue, but the bandit army took three Duan strike tactics, the whole line of infantry is deployed together, which poses a great threat to our infantry. On the battlefield, there is no trace of lead bullets, and iron armor cannot stop them. Those who are hit are horrific. Therefore, several times when the infantry fought against the officers and soldiers, they almost collapsed at the first touch."

"There is also this kind of gunpowder, please take a look at the emperor. It is made by adding water to each material, using a wooden pound, drying it and smashing it, and using a bamboo sieve to get rice grains. Observe it with a small minister, and the rice grains will not be separated due to vibration. layer, it can also prevent the wind from blowing away, and it is also effective in preventing tides." Lu Qianshi also presented his own results, "The bandit army also used the cannon on the picture, or called it the mother-in-law cannon, but the humble minister I remember that Eunuch Zheng mentioned the cannons on the Fulang robot ship a few years ago, which seems to be similar... I boldly guessed whether the remnants of Jianwen were active at sea and colluded with the Frang robot. These firearms learned in the hands of the barbarians?"

Zhu Zhanji immediately ordered: "Send people and things to Nanzhen Fusi for trial production. If they are available, they will be mass-produced by the Ministry of War."

Lu Qianshi said again: "According to the descendant's account, there are other 'gun rules' when the bandits use guns. It's a pity that they don't understand it. I tried my best to find out other things."

Ask the emperor to nod and express his approval.Lu Qianshi was very happy, and he knelt down and bid farewell knowingly.

Wang Gou'er hurriedly ordered: "Come here, take all the things down and put them away."

Zhu Zhanji sat quietly, his fingers lightly placed on Yu Qian's memorial.Lu Qian's discussion made him somewhat considerate of Yu Qian, but he was not satisfied with the people in Huguang: Although there are many reasons, it is really ill-considered to flee without fighting and abandon the prefecture; One was defeated by an inferior bandit army outside the city, so what does it have to do with firearms?I am afraid that Wuyang Hou Xuelu himself also has problems in combat.

Zhu Zhanji is not a hesitant person, even if it seems complicated, he can deal with it repeatedly.At this time, he quickly sorted out a few key points from many considerations: it would be unfavorable to change people in the middle of the battle;

So Zhu Zhanji quickly made a decision, which was very simple: don't ask and don't care.

Neither blame nor urge.The battle of Changde Mansion is only one part of the whole situation in Huguang. The real battle is still to come, and Yu Qian and Xue Lu should be given some opportunities.

And Zhu Zhanji's most anxious thing is to hope that Zhang Fu will cross the river and capture Nanjing as soon as possible to solve the source of the disaster.But he still didn't push Zhang Fu too much.

……

Lu Qian didn't take advantage of things all the time. Not long after he returned to Yangzhou, someone was caught in Chenzhou.

The real identity of this person is the Chief Banner Officer of Jinyiwei, named Wang Zhong, who originally belonged to Beizhen Fusi, but after Lu Qian arrived in Wuchang, he was temporarily ordered by him.The person who caught him was not Zhang Ning's newly formed "Guard Bureau", but one of Yao Ji's apologists.At that time, there was a soldier of the Jinyiwei who was an undercover agent in the evil cult, and he had been in it for several years. After the soldier was arrested, he confessed to Wang Zhong after a lot of torture; Lived in Wang Zhong.Unexpectedly, Wang Zhong was willing to confess immediately after he was arrested, which was much easier to deal with than a small military entourage, so he didn't suffer much.

A group of elite soldiers secretly escorted Wang Zhong to Changde Mansion.

After Zhang Ning found out, he immediately went to see this person in person, because he immediately understood the important role of this person, at least he could try to find out from him how much the court officials knew about the details of the Suzaku Army.

In a heavily guarded small courtyard next to the government office, Zhang Ning walked into a wing room, only to see that the guard in brocade clothes was actually not very good looking.When the generals in the room saw Zhang Ning coming in, they yelled at Wang Zhong: "Kneel down and kowtow!"

Zhang Ning hurriedly stopped the general, and said kindly: "No need to be like this, Wang Zongqi belongs to Jinyiwei, and he knows best what methods to use to torture prisoners. Maybe we can save those unpleasant links. Wang Zongqi Qi thinks what I said is right?"

Wang Zhong's face twitched slightly, and he said: "The villain must know everything and never dare to hide a word."

"Fresh man." Zhang Ning beckoned, "Bring Wang Zongqi a cup of tea to moisten his throat, and don't treat him too badly in the future."

"Thank you sir."

Zhang Ning said: "Tell me what you know first, and see if it matches what we know. I'll ask you again after you finish talking."

Wang Zhong was silent for a while, while Zhang Ning waited patiently.Wang Zhong finally opened his mouth and said: "There are four people who have defected to Jinyiwei in the Weapons Bureau of your army, including Fan Si, the foreman Yan Shi, and the craftsman Li Dajiang. This matter was handled by a school lieutenant below, and I did not come forward. The school lieutenant has already gone to Wuchang, and the villain is telling the truth, but there are some other people I contacted directly, and the villain is willing to confess."

Seeing that Zhang Ning didn't mean to ask questions, he thought for a while and said: "The person above is Lu Shangshu, the governor of Nanzhen. He won't come to the enemy's territory in person, so he doesn't hide his identity; there are more than one person under him. I am one, but I don’t know who else is there. Only Lu Chen knows about it. There are three orders from above. Entering the noble army to find out about the military situation... The villain has already recruited these things in Chenzhou, and he really only knows these things, and he has nothing to hide."

"The source of the art of firearms?" Zhang Ning asked back.

Wang Zhongdao: "That's exactly the case. This is something that Lu Qian wanted to find out very much. The weapons used by your army in the battle are not from the Ming Dynasty, and they are also very different from the 'magic guns' captured by Jiaozhi. Therefore, The higher-ups need to find out where it came from."

Zhang Ning asked again: "Fan Si, the rebel, is he imitating firearms?"

Wang Zhong said with a bitter face: "The villain dare not speak nonsense, I really don't know about this matter, let's just get him up."

There was a little smile on the corner of Zhang Ning's mouth, thinking that the Jinyiwei people might never understand this matter.Even if you tell them the truth directly, that technology comes from the knowledge of later generations, who will believe it?

At this moment, Wang Zhong suddenly remembered something, and suddenly said: "There is another news, we have found out that there is a man named Song Hu next to your lord. This man's real name is Zhao Erhu, a person from Xuzhou, and he was originally a member of Zheng Gonggong. A young general who has made great achievements, but somehow changed his name and surname to serve under the command of an adult."

When Wang Zhong reminded him, Zhang Ning thought of a reasonable explanation for the origin of the art of firearms: it was obtained from Westerners through Zheng He's navy.

The development of Western weapons in the first half of the fifteenth century should start to catch up with and lead the East in Zhang Ning's guess. As for how far it has developed, it is not clear. After the Ming Dynasty, no Westerners have been seen.However, since then Europe has gradually begun the era of great voyages, sailing battleships need to be equipped with firearms, perhaps starting to approach the firearms used by the Suzaku Army in terms of artillery.