The Great Bandit in Kangxi Year

Chapter 163
Prince An Yue Le, who was in Hubei, couldn't stop laughing at this time. These rebellious officials and thieves really have no ambitions. Before they have withdrawn from Hubei, the Wu thieves and the black tiger thieves fought in full swing, okay.

However, the development of the current situation has deviated from his assumptions, especially the Black Tiger Army. Not only did the Black Tiger Army have more than [-] soldiers in Anqing, and their shouts of killing spread for dozens of miles, but Wu Sangui, who was fighting in Jiangxi, ran away with his head in his arms. The expansion rate is too fast.

The Black Tiger Army is indeed the confidant of the Qing Dynasty!
Thinking of this, Yue Le couldn't laugh anymore. In fact, he had doubted the strength of the 20 Black Tiger Army stationed in Anqing Mansion, but he knew that as long as the Qing army forced Anqing, the Black Tiger Army would definitely withdraw from Jiangxi. The Qing army was about to deal with an army of more than 30 black tigers, and the one laughing at that time must be that old thief Wu Sangui.The key is that he has lingering fears about the lethality of the Black Tiger Army.

Moreover, he was also aware of what the Qing army was doing in southern Anhui, but he did not stop it. After all, it had nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty to give up that piece of land and how many people starved to death.

Moreover, according to reports from spies, it was this measure that held back the Black Tiger Army. The Black Tiger Army transported a large amount of food from Jiangsu and other places to help the people. This move must have consumed the overall strength of the Black Tiger Army.

Yue Le sneered, it depends on how much food you have. The reason why he has not quit Hubei is because of this. The Qing generals took away all the materials, but left more than 500 million people with no food left. At that time, their lives would be devastated, and the plague would be rampant. No matter which bandit army entered Hubei, the bandit army would die.

Yue Le's heart beat faster, and he comforted himself: "Anyway, these are Han people. As long as the Qing Dynasty can defeat all the bandits, what can the Han people hate? After the Manchu Eight Banners entered the customs, they killed countless Han people. It is also a slave with peace of mind. For the long-term peace and stability of the Qing Dynasty, as long as it can solve the strategy of the Black Tiger Army and Wu Sangui, it is a good strategy.

So Yue Le is waiting, he will not act rashly and ruin a favorable opportunity. At this time, the Qing army in Hubei has already transported a large amount of cloth, food and other materials to Henan, and Henan, Shandong and other places are also building a large number of fortresses, and the Forbidden City is also Mass manufacture of firearms.

But the people in Hubei are still in the dark, hehe, let’s fight, it’s best to fight for both sides, and the Qing Dynasty won’t have to withdraw from Hubei by then.

..................... ..
Jiang Tao, who was in Jiangning City, was also laughing heartily at this time. It turned out that the treasure was indeed in the palace of Jiangning City, and in the underground secret passage of Zangshu Pavilion.

This secret passage is very secret, under the bookshelf.

The secret passage is full of large wooden boxes that are about to decay, and there are more than 300 boxes. When the boxes are opened, the dazzling brilliance dazzles the eyes, and the top of the secret passage is also inlaid with goose egg-sized night pearls. It was as if they had suddenly entered the treasure cave of the Dragon Palace, and they were all dumbfounded in shock, not knowing where they were.

At this moment, Jiang Tao was the first to wake up, coughed lightly, and said seriously: "Now there is finally money to beat the Tartars, what do you think?"

Only then did the guards wake up, all of them were ashamed and ashamed. Jiang Tao let out a long sigh, and led Wang Fuzhi out of the secret passage, and said with a smile, "Everyone, bring out the gold, silver and jewels as soon as possible, and everyone present will reward you."

He also summoned hundreds of elites to guard them closely.

People died for money, and birds died for food. Jiang Tao had to be careful, and it took several hours to count them out. He got a total of 800 million taels of silver, 50 taels of gold, and [-] boxes of other priceless jewels and jade.

Jiang Tao initially estimated that this batch of treasures was worth at least 5000 million taels, but so many jewels and jades could not be sold at once.

He was also a little dizzy at this time. With enough money, he could do a lot of things.

Looking around, he saw a large number of books neatly placed around him. He suddenly woke up. Technology determines productivity. With huge productivity, he is not afraid of having no money. He randomly picked up a book, but it was Song Yingxing's "Starting Work". Heavenly Objects", and Wang Fuzhi was also immersed in the sea of ​​books at this time.

Only then did Jiang Tao feel that he had made a mistake. After spending an afternoon, he found dozens of valuable works, including:

Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" (1578),

Zhu Zaiyu's "New Theory of Legal Studies" (1584);

Pan Jixun's "Overview of River Defense" (1590);

Cheng Dawei's "Algorithmic System" (1592);

Tu Bengan's "Mizhonghai Cuoshu" (1596);

Xu Guangqi's "Nongzheng Quanshu" (1633);

Song Yingxing's "Heavenly Creation" (1637);

Xu Xiake's "Xu Xiake's Travel Notes" (1640);

Wu Youxing's "On the Plague" (1642).

Among them are the books that the scholar-bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty introduced Western learning systematically based on their understanding of Western learning, including "Chongzhen Calendar", "Little Knowledge of Physics", "Shu Du Yan", "Exploring Ming Li", "Huan You Quan", "Preface to Taixi Water Law", "Measurement Method", "Kunyu Gezhi", "Xuanyun Tu", "Geometry", "Geometry Usage", "Taixi Suanyao", "Western Confucianism, Ermuzi", " Theory of the Far Mirror”, “Illustration of the Far West’s Strange Artifacts”, “Education Discussion”, “Sun Moon and Star Dial Style”, “Hunkai Tongxian Illustration”, "Jing Tian Gai"...etc.

Jiang Tao was ecstatic for a while, and hurriedly ordered the military academy in the base to be moved into the old palace in Nanjing City, and the scale of the military academy was expanded. At the same time, it recruited teachers who are proficient in Western learning. The school will accept more than ten thousand bright young people. Talent training is urgent. The fastest worry is death, all parties need talents, and even many officials are disabled soldiers of the Black Tiger Army. Fortunately, the soldiers of the Black Tiger Army are also literate, and they are very familiar with the policies of the Black Tiger Army.

But military participation in politics is always bad.

After being reminded by Wang Fuzhi, Jiang Tao was shocked when he learned that He Yizhi who had defected to him was a master of Western studies. It turned out that Fang Yizhi's grandfather Fang Dazhen and father Fang Kongzhang both studied Western astronomy. He himself had studied under the Italian missionary Xiong Sanba. His work "Chongzhen Lishuyue" is an important astronomical work in the late Ming Dynasty.Fang Yizhi has close friendships with many missionaries such as Tang Ruowang and Bi Fangji, and his "Little Knowledge of Physics" is particularly outstanding.Fang Zhongtong, the son of Fang Yizhi, studied under the Polish Munige, and his mathematics monograph "Shu Du Yan" systematically introduced the theory and application of logarithms.

Jiang Tao scratched his head, secretly blaming himself for forgetting this famous historical figure, he changed the name of the military academy to Huaxing Academy, and incorporated Dai Zi's scientific research center into it, of which Jiang Zhong was the dean, Fang Yizhi, Dai Zi and Jiang Hu are the vice presidents, and the college is divided into several branches, including military, agricultural administration, commerce, western studies, engineering, scientific research, etc., which are divided into three levels: junior students, intermediate scholars and senior scholars.

Junior students graduate successfully after five years of study, and the outstanding ones will continue to study for three years. After graduation, they will become intermediate scholars. Senior scholars specialize in invention and scientific research.

Jiang Tao knows that this is just the beginning, and the education work in the territory has not yet started, so it can only take Huaxing College as the axis, and then slowly spread to the surroundings. Now the Black Tiger Army needs a large number of talents, maybe it will not take five years. Most people will be driven to the shelves.

He wanted the common people to learn literature and martial arts consciously, so he ordered the prefectures and counties to establish a school in each county, and students must practice martial arts and literature. Moreover, Huaxing College recruits more than 16 people every year, and the students are all from [-] to [-] years old. Teenagers will be admitted on a merit-based basis, and those with special talents can also go to the college to recommend themselves, regardless of age or gender.

After this order was issued, the people responded greatly. I heard that all the children are studying in the palace. Doesn’t that mean that they are stained with royal style? The common people all pay attention to this matter. Fortunately, life is easier now, and they don’t care about the children. school expenses...

However, this is all a later story. Jiang Tao ordered to publish practical books for students to read, and sent troops to collect books from the people to further expand the library. Fortunately, Nanjing was occupied before the Manchu Qing Daxing revolution. Otherwise, there would not be so many books left in Zangshu Pavilion.

At this time, Dai Cang and his son came together, and Dai Zi said with some shame: "General, the flower bomb has been developed, but it has not met the requirements of the General."

Jiang Tao was pleasantly surprised when he heard that, because the Black Tiger Army lacked artillery and suffered heavy losses in battles with the Qing Army, the need for artillery can be said to be urgent, so he quickly asked, "What is the specific situation?"

Dai Cang sighed and said: "The subordinates are incompetent, they can only create flowering bombs that cannot control the explosion time. According to the records in "Wu Bei Zhi", the subordinates have made improvements, and it is easy to create flowering bombs, but The flowering bomb was extremely unstable and mostly exploded on the way."

Jiang Tao was startled, and asked eagerly, "What's going on?"

"One end of the fuze of the flower bomb is exposed outside the body, and the other end is in contact with the explosive in the shell. When the shell is inserted into the gun bore, the position of the fuze faces forward. Since the diameter of the inner bore of the gun is slightly larger than the diameter of the shell, when firing, First put the gunpowder and lead wire into the medicine chamber, and then put the flower bomb from the front chamber. When the gunpowder explodes at the fire door, part of the flame penetrates from the gap between the shell and the barrel to the front of the shell, directly igniting the fuse of the flower bomb exposed outside. At this time, the shell will fly out. When the fuze burns to the position of the explosive in the shell, it will ignite the gunpowder in the shell, and the shell will explode. However, the length of the fuze is dead, and the shooting distance is not fixed. It is very likely to detonate halfway The projectile may take a long time to explode after landing."

"It is also possible that the bombs fired were duds, all caused by the fuse breaking or other reasons."

"Besides, the cost of the bomb is extremely high, and the surface of each shell must be carefully polished, otherwise, if it gets stuck in the barrel, it will explode." Dai Zi finished speaking, and looked at Jiang Tao .

Jiang Tao has no way to solve this problem. In fact, now that the Black Tiger Army has extinguishing guns and so on, there is not much demand for explosive ammunition. However, he still encouraged the two of them: "Okay, it is rare to have improvements, and we can continue to develop , don’t give up, I wonder how the cannon is cast?”

But he sighed in his heart: "It seems that the fuze technology is still not good enough, and I am a bit aggressive. At this time, similar explosive bombs have appeared in the West, but they have not been popularized. It is not because the Westerners are stupid, but because the technology is immature. , I have to use it as a technical reserve first, and talk about it later.”

"The general is really well-informed. The composite metal gun barrel made of copper as the core and iron as the body is extremely durable. The soft copper has high toughness, and the hard iron has high strength. The advantages of the two materials are perfectly combined. Therefore, it can withstand high chamber pressure. With the same caliber, the wall of the copper-iron composite tube can be doubled, and the charge can be doubled. On this basis, the subordinates have built [-] cannons weighing more than [-] jin, and the power is equivalent to three A thousand catties of red cannons, and sixty cannons of more than [-] catties, all equipped with cannon carriages, each of which has been tested, and the artillery battalion all claim to be good. , can make a hundred cannons in one month." Dai Zi changed his previous arrogance at this time, and said in admiration.

After Jiang Tao inquired carefully, he realized that these two types of artillery are equivalent to the 32-pound and 24-pound heavy cannons in the West. , How come more than 100 cannons are built in January? Too few.”

Dai Zi smiled wryly, and said helplessly: "General, the wax model casting method is used now. The wax model is disposable, and it doesn't take much time to cast it. Once the copper water is poured in, the whole model will be completely useless. It needs to be molded again, so precision moldmaking will take a lot of time, occupying most of the time in the cannon-making process. Now I am trying the iron mold casting method, and with the strength of Lu'an Ordnance Institute, it will not take long to succeed."

Jiang Tao was finally relieved, and said loudly: "You two, feel free to do it. Let me remind you that our Black Tiger Army needs at least 12 artillery pieces. It doesn't need to be too big. 16-pound and 16-pound artillery are enough. However, the navy needs at least thousands of guns above [-] pounds, or even tens of thousands of them. You should also pay attention to the construction of warships. This is the principle of steam engines. You can let people think about it. If you can figure it out, the whole world Earth-shaking changes will take place! As for the eighty cannons, they will be handed over to the artillery battalion."

"Come on, order the Artillery Battalion to take eighty artillery pieces to Anqing Mansion immediately."

Dai Cang and his son were stunned for a moment, looking at the paper Jiang Tao handed over, they could only see the horrible handwriting on it, but the more they looked at it, the more horrified they were.

Jiang Tao secretly laughed in his heart, coughed lightly, and said seriously: "You two can go back, this general should also go to the front line."

Only then did Dai Cang wake up. Dai Cang patted his head and said with a chuckle: "Wait a minute, general, there are still a few firearms waiting for the general to decide. The navy of the Qing army has repeatedly invaded Jiangning City, but our navy has still Before they could master it, the subordinate father and son imitated the Hunjianglong water mine and the trigger mine, as long as the Qing army navy hit the Hunjianglong water mine, the mine would explode immediately, General, do you need to mass-produce it?"

Jiang Tao looked at Dai Cang in disbelief, was inexplicably surprised, nodded again and again, and said loudly: "Produce quickly, deploy mines in Jiangning, Jiujiang, etc., but don't hurt your own people. Oh, by the way, what's the matter with the trigger mines?"

"It's an iron shell landmine that is fired by a steel wheel and detonated. As long as people or animals step on it, the mine will detonate. In fact, my father and son did not have much credit, mainly "Binglu", "Shenqipu", "Armed Forces" "Records", "Xifa Shenji", "Fire Attack Zhiyao", "Fire Dragon Classic", "Cuhaitu Compilation", "Illustration of Military Weapons", "Fire Dragon Artifact Formation" and other detailed records of the firearms equipped by the Ming army. My father and son just imitated the recipes, charts, and the formation and tactics of the firearms troops, and if the general hadn’t captured Jiangning, I wouldn’t have been able to collect so many precious books.” Dai Cang said very modestly, but on the surface The smile blossomed.

But Dai Zi was still staring at the blueprint of the steam engine and frowning in thought. Jiang Tao looked at the room full of books and couldn't speak anymore. It's a pity for Daming. With so many sharp weapons, he still lost to the Tartars. It seems to be human. The problem is that the ideological work of the army cannot be relaxed.

(End of this chapter)