Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Due to the huge external pressure, Zhong Xiang really didn't corrupt much. He only thought about how to raise military rations all day long.

The final construction scale of the imperial palace in Changsha was more than half smaller than the design.

It was not a sign of caring for the people, but the wood used to build the palace was used by Zhong Xiang to build warships.

Last year, Li Bao equipped his warships with a large number of firearms, and Prime Minister Zhong's navy suffered heavy losses. He must restore the strength of the naval force as soon as possible, otherwise he will not dare to show his face in Dongting Lake.

"Your Majesty, the gunpowder is ready to explode."

"Really? Take me to see it quickly!"

Zhong Xiang left the palace excitedly and came to the firearms experimental base outside the city.

When Ju Ming was in Xiangyang, Prime Minister Zhong suffered from firearms. In last year's Dongting Lake water battle, the Puppet Chu navy was severely beaten with firearms.

After learning from the painful experience, Zhong Xiang kept sending people to inquire about the news.

After destroying dozens of fine works, I finally found out that there were ordnance fields in Kuizhou and Yiling. But those two places are too closed. If the craftsmen want to sneak in, one will die if they go to one, and both will die if they go to both.

Last winter, Daye built a new ordnance field.

Although I still didn't get anything this time, I finally got more precise information. Muskets and artillery were fired by gunpowder. Moreover, the tube of the gun is hollow, with one end open and the other closed.

Zhong Xiang immediately began to develop firearms and soon discovered that traditional gunpowder could not explode.

Of course he had no concept of explosions, but the Ming army's firearms were thunderous, and the firearms he made could only spit fire.

Well, this is how Zhong Xiang’s firearms are made: beat an iron sheet into a barrel, cold-weld one end to seal it, and install a wooden handle. The fuse is inserted into the hole, and gunpowder and projectiles are filled from the muzzle.

After the fuse ignites the gunpowder, it does not explode smoothly, but burns violently, spits out flames, and ejects the projectile a small distance from the barrel.

"Long live your Majesty!"

The craftsmen all knelt down.

Zhong Xiang seemed a little impatient: "Get up quickly, where is the gunpowder that can explode?"

A craftsman held up a pottery bowl filled with gunpowder.

Zhong Xiang asked: "How is it made?"

The craftsman explained: "The amount of charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur is mixed. Each time it is mixed, it is stuffed into the bamboo tube and ignited. I have mixed it more than a hundred times. Not only can it explode, but it can also burst the bamboo tube."

"Try it quickly!" Zhong Xiang said happily.

The craftsmen stuffed the gunpowder into a finger-thick bamboo tube, sealed it, and drilled a small hole in it for the lead wire.

It probably looks like firecrackers.

"Bang!"

There was only a crisp sound and green smoke was rising from the ground.

When the smoke cleared, the bamboo pipe had been blown to pieces.

Prime Minister Zhong was overjoyed: "Everyone will be rewarded!"

Immediately, he brought the "musket" for experiment. This thing didn't even have a medicine pool. Shake the gunpowder from the muzzle of the gun, scatter it all over the inner wall of the barrel, and then use bamboo branches to force the projectiles in.

The craftsmen put the barrel of the gun on the wooden fork, one person held the long wooden handle, another person lit the fuse, and two others stood there holding their shields.

The person who lit the fire quickly retreated behind the shield.

"boom!"

This time the sound was louder.

When the smoke cleared, Prime Minister Zhong quickly stepped forward to check.

Not only did the projectile fly nowhere, the entire barrel was blown apart, and even some barrel fragments were embedded in the shield.

The test failed, but Prime Minister Zhong smiled instead of being angry, and said repeatedly: "Okay, okay, okay, you did a great job. The tube of this gun will be hammered with wrought iron from now on, so it will be strong and not brittle!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" the craftsmen shouted.

Prime Minister Zhong asked someone to carry out the reward money and said, "When the fire blunderbuss is made, I will give you a big reward!"

Amid the cheers of the craftsmen, Zhong Xiang rode back to the city and mobilized more soldiers to guard the firearms experimental base.

A speedboat came from the south and did not stop when it reached Watergate. Instead, it showed its waist card from afar: "Expediting the military situation, open the Watergate quickly!"

The water gate was quickly pulled up, and the messenger drove the speedboat all the way to the palace.

Not long after, Zhong Xiang received the military information. After reading it, he was trembling with anger.

Cao Cheng rebelled!

Cao Cheng may be Han Chinese, or he may be a Hanized Yao. Anyway, I live in the border zone between Han and barbarians, on the border of Guangxi, Guangdong and Hunan.

The Yao, Dong, and Miao people here were already forced to rebel by the Song Dynasty before Ju Ming even raised an army. It was the officers and soldiers of Jinghu and Guangxi who jointly fought back, but they did not annihilate them, but retreated back to the mountainous area.

After Zhong Xiang raised his troops, they continued to cause trouble and contained the Song Dynasty's military forces, making great contributions to Zhong Xiang's expansion.

Last year, Prime Minister Zhong took advantage of Li Gong's retreat to Guizhou and immediately sent the southern troops into Guangxi.

Cao Cheng was granted the title of Duke and led his troops to station in Hezhou.

Today, Cao Cheng kills the altar owner (Zhizhou) and the envoy (supervisor of the army) in Hezhou, and destroys the Dharma altars in Hezhou everywhere.

He changed his banner and joined the Ming Dynasty!

Zhong Xiang held the urgent military intelligence report and sat slumped on the dragon chair.

He didn't understand why Cao Cheng wanted to rebel. He treated Cao Cheng well. He has already been canonized as the founding father of the country. Does he have to be made a king to make him return to his heart?

Cao Cheng rebelled, and it is estimated that the barbarians in Daozhou, Quanzhou, and Guiyangjian will also rebel one after another.

Zhong Xiang asked his younger brother Zhong Yi to stay in Changsha, and he immediately went south with his troops.

When he arrived at Hengyang, he met the missionary Huang Cheng who was sailing north by boat.

"Master, Daozhou is gone!" Huang Cheng knelt down with a thud.

Zhong Xiang asked in shock: "Why didn't Daozhou move so fast?"

Huang Cheng said: "Not only did the Yao and Dong people rebel in Daozhou, but the Han people also rebelled..."

Zhong Xiang was so angry that he grabbed the man's clothes and shouted angrily: "I ask you, why are all the tribes rebelling?"

Huang Cheng said in frustration: "Master, I have been to the court many times. The owners of the altars in the south are all opportunists. They used to be landowners and gentry, pretending to believe in our religion, and even pretending to donate their family property. In fact, all of them are They are all ambitious. They used the master's reputation to expropriate money in the city and countryside, forcing the people to have no choice but to go..."

Zhong Xiang slowly let go of his hand and pulled Huang Cheng up.

When he confronted Ju Ming on the Yangtze River, all the elite troops were transferred to the front line of the Yangtze River, making it difficult to continue to expand southward.

It happened that the officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty there could not bear it any longer. Rich businessmen, gentry, ruffians, monks... all converted to Manichaeism and captured the prefectures and counties to join Prime Minister Zhong. Some people even donated all the property saved by their ancestors to the church to show their loyalty.

Faced with such a situation, what else can Xiang Zhong do?

I can only accept it. Is it possible to use a knife?

In order to control the newly acquired territory, he also sent many close disciples there. But he was soon corrupted by speculators. On the surface, he was extremely respectful, but in fact, he was both obedient and obedient.

As a result, Zhong Xiang's territory became polarized.

In the area around Dongting Lake, Prime Minister Zhong is very popular among the people. Civil and military officials are relatively clean, and there are even many who maintain their original aspirations.

And several states far to the south are already in a state of chaos!

Prime Minister Zhong also knew that there was a problem, so he sent his direct disciple Huang Cheng as a missionary to inspect the south.

Huang Cheng was not corrupted and reported the situation truthfully.

But at this time, the Prime Minister was surrounded by Hubei, Jiangxi, and Guangxi. He did not dare to be cruel to the southern states, otherwise it would inevitably trigger a large-scale rebellion.

"Why would Cao Cheng rebel?" Zhong Xiang asked.

Huang Cheng explained: "The people in the village where the Cao family lived were also violently expropriated this time. The reason was that the master ordered the pass to be strengthened, and the local altar masters took the opportunity to prey on the people. There may also be other reasons. Cao Chengjun's envoy (supervisor of the army) was The uncle of the crown prince’s concubine heard that he got along extremely badly with Cao Cheng. There are... rumors that he once asked Cao Cheng for a bribe but failed, so he threatened to sue Cao Cheng for treason..."

"Asshole!"

Zhong Xiang was so angry that he cursed.

It was precisely because the southern states were gradually losing control that Prime Minister Zhong sent emissaries to various armies, that is, he placed close associates as supervisors of the armies.

The supervisor next to Cao Cheng was a direct disciple who had followed Zhong Xiang in teaching for many years. He also married his niece to Zhong Xiang's son as a concubine.

Such a trusted person actually forced the frontline general to rebel!

Zhong Xiang waited for a while before ordering the march to be accelerated. He tried to rely on his prestige to recruit the rebellious troops.

But he only continued for a few dozen miles when he received another urgent military message.

The Dong and Miao people in Jiushituandong, Wugang, rebelled. And the Han people in Wugang actually joined the uprising.

In just half a month, Suining, Chengbu, Lingang, Wuyang and other fortresses were all lost, and the rebel army had already marched towards the Wugang military city.

Prime Minister Zhong was numbed by the news and could only speed up the march with his troops.

When they arrived in Qiyang County, they received another urgent military report: Li Gong, a famous general who had recently surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, sent troops from Guilin to besiege Xing'an County. The defenders across the state were waiting to go to the rescue, but the Su family of the Hanized Dong ethnic group in Xixidong rebelled again. The entire state's army could only attack the Su family first, and Xing'an County had become an isolated city.

The Su family was not easy to eradicate. When the Song Dynasty was still there, they often went down to the mountains to rob Han people, and even robbed government ships.

There was a series of urgent military situations, and Zhong Xiang no longer knew how to deal with them.

This is just the beginning.

Only half a day later, another news came from Guiyang Prison. Due to the rebellion of the Yao people over there, the puppet Chu officers and soldiers went to conquer. With the lack of troops in the hinterland, the Han miners took the opportunity to rebel.

There are four large silver mines in Guiyangjian, as well as many small silver mines. The total number of silver refiners and miners is 20,000 to 30,000!

Now, Prime Minister Zhong can only pray that the Ming troops in Hubei and Jiangxi will not send troops. When he puts down the rebellion in the south, there will be room for change.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, a messenger is coming from the north!"

As soon as Zhong Xiang heard this, he felt bad.

He forced himself to calm down and opened the military information document, glanced at it and then put it down, muttering: "It's over, the situation is over."

Under the protection of the Ming Navy, the Hubei Ming Army sent tens of thousands of troops southward.

At the same time, the Ming army in Jiangxi also crossed the mountains and was attacking Liling and Chaling.

If Zhong Xiang takes this pro-army army going south, if they don't go back quickly, they may be cut off by the Jiangxi Ming army.

Zhong Xiang looked up at the sky, his body was swaying, and he already felt hopeless.

He was not afraid of the rebellion of those ethnic minorities, and he expected to be besieged by the Ming army. But the Han people in the southern states actually followed suit and rebelled, which was like stabbing Prime Minister Zhong in the heart.