Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 540 Red Barbarian Cannon

Smiling, Liu Er was taken aback and said, "Don't think that those vendors are all going to the market in order to save a few pennies. In fact, more and more vendors are going to the market, because Lao Tzu's soldiers collected money." The tax is to protect them, and after they pay the tax, they don’t have to pay any more fees, no matter which government office is allowed to collect it. Ordinary people are not stupid to spend a few pennies to buy a protective umbrella, and they can figure it out.”

Zhang Tongchang nodded silently.

At this time, Li Jing smiled and said: "Bie Shan, Liu Erleng's method is indeed simple and practical, but it is not popular. Only Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng can do this, because they There are soldiers in hand.

Although the two masters, Hong and Lu, also have soldiers in their hands, they still want to encircle and suppress the bandits. It is impossible to disperse the soldiers to various counties and counties for them to collect taxes. The tax collection in other provinces depends entirely on the tax officials. Of course, there is no tax collected by the two of them. many.

If other provinces want to reach the level of Liu Erleng and Chen Dahu, then we have to expand the team of tax officials, but adding thousands of tax officials in a province, and the salaries of these people is a huge expense. Can't afford to support so many tax collectors. "

"But there is a tax gap of more than 100 million taels between other provinces and the provinces of Mr. Liu and Mr. Chen. If you add a few thousand tax officials, you won't need 100 million taels, right?" Zhang Tongchang said.

Li Jing shook his head: "It's not as simple as you imagined. It's not difficult to recruit thousands of people. The difficulty is where can we find thousands of people who know how to calculate, and how can we guarantee their character? If we recruit a group of black sheep , then it is not a matter of increasing taxes, that will affect the credibility of the imperial court."

"Then it's always been like this?" Zhang Tongchang wondered.

Li Jing said with a smile: "Of course not. To solve this problem, we must first rectify the most grassroots officials, that is, to manage the servants of the grassroots yamen. Only these people abide by the law and protect the businesses that have paid taxes. , then the merchants will be willing to take the initiative to pay taxes, so that the tax officials do not need to collect taxes from door to door, but just wait in the yamen to collect the money.

But it's not enough now, even Er Leng and Du Hu have to send soldiers to collect taxes, let alone other places?I estimate that it will take a few years until the local officials and businessmen in Daming gradually change their minds before they can slowly get on the right track. "

Everyone heard the words and nodded silently.

"Marshal, Mr. Sun is here." The guard outside the work shed reported.

"Oh? Brother Boya is here? Please come in quickly." Li Jing got up and said hastily.

While speaking, Sun Chuanting strode into the work shed, met Li Jing, Sun Chuanting bowed and said: "Chuan Ting pays respects to the commander in chief."

"Brother Boya, you are so polite." Li Jing said, taking two steps forward to support Sun Chuanting's arms.

"Thank you, Marshal." Sun Chuanting said hurriedly.

Li Jing supported Sun Chuanting's arm, looked at Sun Chuanting carefully, and sighed softly: "Brother Boya, after half a year, you are much thinner and darker than before. I really thank you."

Sun Chuanting shook his head: "Chuanting is just for training and fighting. It is really hard for the commander to be involved in all kinds of things. The commander did not go to greet him when he came to Fujian Chuanting this time. I hope the commander will forgive me."

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "Brother Boya is doing business, more important than meeting me, what is the blame? Could it be that the training plan was canceled in order to meet me? Although I don't know naval warfare, I also know that there are too many things to prepare for going to sea. , if you are ready but suddenly cancel the plan, you will waste a lot of money, and then I will really blame you."

Sun Chuanting said with a smile: "The commander-in-chief said that he is a person who understands naval warfare."

Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile: "I can also help you with logistics, but I really don't understand war. Brother Boya, come, sit down and talk."

Sun Chuanting raised his eyes and looked around the work shed, and said with a wry smile: "Marshal, you are not going to visit incognito, and you are going to talk about this shipyard?"

Li Jing smiled and said: "What can I get out of private visits? That's not what I should do. What I have to do is to urge officials at all levels to do things with heart. It is our grassroots officials who should really go deep into the people. As long as the grassroots Officials can understand the sufferings of the people, so I still need to go to Weibo for private visits?
As for you saying that I am going to talk about this shipyard, you are right, but you are already the third person who asked me this question today. "

"Hey, Old Sun, the commander-in-chief is going to make this the largest warship base in Ming Dynasty." Liu Er laughed blankly.

"Ah? Really?" Sun Chuanting was overjoyed when he heard that.

Liu Er nodded with a blank smile, and then stretched out three fingers: "300 million, the commander allocated 300 million taels of silver to this shipyard. However, this shipyard is under my management, and you will have to ask me if you want a ship in the future."

"No problem, your request is nothing, isn't it just a few jars of wine? No matter how poor Chuanting is, he can still afford a few jars of wine." Sun Chuanting laughed.

Everyone laughed when they heard the words.

After laughing for a while, Sun Chuanting said to Li Jing: "Marshal, the conditions here are too simple, why don't we go to my ship and have a look?"

Li Jing looked at Sun Chuanting and said with a smile: "You let me board your ship, maybe you want something from me?"

Sun Chuanting laughed when he heard the words: "You can't hide anything from the commander-in-chief, but Chuanting not only wants to ask the commander-in-chief for something, but I found something interesting and I want the commander-in-chief to take a look at it. The commander-in-chief has to read it. Only then can I discuss it with the commander-in-chief."

Li Jing was surprised when he heard this: "What is it?"

Sun Chuanting stretched out his hand and said, "Let's talk while walking?"

Li Jingjing nodded and followed Sun Chuanting to the pier.

"It's like this. Five warships of the Hongyi Fleet surrendered a month ago. I went to their ships and found that there were more than ten naval guns on their ships that were very different from the artillery we used. I dismantled them. I installed a few of them on my flagship and tried them out. I found that the cannons are not as powerful as ours, but they are much more convenient to use than ours. If we can adopt this technology, then the power of our cannons will It will be greatly enhanced." Sun Chuanting walked sideways.

Li Jing was not surprised when he heard this: "What's a convenient way?"

Sun Chuanting said: "There is a sliding iron plate under Hongyi's cannon. When the cannon is fired, the cannon sits down. This iron plate can greatly reduce the force of the cannon sitting down."

Li Jing was surprised: "Huh? Reduce the recoil?"

Sun Chuanting nodded: "Hongyi's cannon can not only reduce recoil, but also adjust the muzzle left and right."

Li Jing waved his hand: "Come on, show me."

After saying that, he walked quickly, and all the officials followed closely.

After a while, everyone boarded Sun Chuanting's flagship, and when they reached the deck, Li Jing saw the difference in the artillery displayed on the deck at a glance.

The artillery of the Ming army was nearly twice as small as that of Hongyi, the barrel was nearly one-third shorter, and the caliber was more than doubled.

Li Jing didn't care about the superficial things. What Li Jing cared about was the auxiliary structure of the Hongyi Cannon. He walked quickly to the side of the Hongyi Cannon, and Li Jing observed carefully.

As Sun Chuanting said, there are three thick rectangular iron plates stacked together under the barrel of the Hongyi Cannon, and the top iron plate is tightly bound to the barrel with an iron hoop.

Li Jing looked at it for a while, stretched out his hand and pushed the muzzle of the cannon, but he didn't want to move at all. He waved to Liu Erlang, and Liu Erlen hurried over and pushed it together with Li Jing. Slowly turned to one side.

Li Jing waved his hand, signaling Liu Erlen not to push anymore.

When Liu Er was taken aback, Sun Chuanting said, "Marshal, do you want to see if you want to shoot?"

Li Jing looked at the pier and shook his head lightly: "There are so many people here, don't startle people by shooting rashly. Don't fire any more, I know what's going on."

Smiling, Li Jing said: "Actually, the Hongyi people used a stupid method. The upper one of the three iron plates is embedded horizontally in the middle iron plate, and the middle one is vertically embedded in the bottom one. It's on an iron board."

As he spoke, Li Jing put his hands together and made a gesture of rubbing up and down, and then made a gesture of rubbing left and right.

Seeing that everyone didn't understand, Li Jing squatted down, stretched out his hand to draw on the deck, and said, "The two iron plates that slide up and down have a vertical groove in the middle of the bottom plate, and the top plate can be inserted into one piece." The iron block in the groove, but the groove cannot be filled, and a gap must be left, so that when the artillery fires the shell, the barrel recoils, and the upper plate slides in the groove, so as to achieve the purpose of slowing down the recoil of the artillery .”

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "As for the two upper boards, the same is true, but this time they are horizontal and must be fan-shaped, so that when you push the muzzle, you can turn left and right."

"The commander is clever, I asked Hongyi's gunner, and the structure is indeed exactly the same as what the commander said." Sun Chuanting praised with a thumbs up.

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "Hongyi's ships are much stronger than ours, and their cannons are installed on the ship's side strings, so there is not much room for turning. There is actually no need to install such a device. It increases the weight of the artillery, and at the same time increases the cost of the artillery. By the way, Brother Boya, you just said that Hongyi's ships are equipped with more than ten such naval guns?"

Sun Chuanting nodded: "Yes, only a dozen or so doors have been installed."

Li Jing looked at the cannon for a while, then suddenly clapped his hands and said with a smile: "I know, this device designed by Hong Yi is intended to be installed on heavy artillery, and they are testing whether this device works well."

Sighing lightly, Li Jing continued: "These barbarians are actually very smart. It is true that the cannons of this device are not very useful if they are installed on the ship's sidestring, but it will be different if they are installed on the deck."

Gently stroking the barrel of the cannon, Li Jing said: "If this device works well, they can make a bigger cannon and install it on the deck."

"The Yi people want to build bigger artillery?" Sun Chuanting asked in surprise.

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(End of this chapter)