Han’s Son is Not a Slave

Chapter 1168: Survive, See You All!

On the fourth day of the first lunar month, Cheng Hanbin, the ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau, personally led the team to transport four cannons that were secretly developed by the Ordnance Bureau from Zhenjiang to Baimao. www.uuk.la These cannons will be attached to the artillery regiments of the new three armies.

Zhou Shixiang tested the power of these flowering cannonballs by the river. It is no exaggeration to say that compared with the iron and lead bullets fired by traditional artillery, the large-area coverage after the explosion of the new cannonballs is definitely a weapon against cavalry.

To a certain extent, the flowering artillery shells are exactly the same as the “unconscionable” used by the Taiping Army before, and they are indistinguishable in terms of killing range. The biggest difference between the two is that the unconscionable use distance is only about 150 meters, while the flowering cannonball can hit about a kilometer. The longest range tested by the Ordnance Bureau is four miles, but the effect is not as good as one kilometer, and the shells are easy to deviate from the target.

The distance of about a kilometer is far enough compared to the fire gun. The application of flowering bombs will fill the gap of the Taiping army’s weak long-range attack. On the battlefield, artillery shells will be harvested first, and unconscionable cannons will be harvested again. Finally, the remaining fish that slip through the net will face the turns of fire guns. It is conceivable that under such a high-intensity firearm attack, it is impossible for the Qing army or any army to break through the defense line of the Taiping Army.

When this tactic matures, the cold weapons currently equipped in the army will be phased out, so that the Taiping Army will truly be transformed into a pure firearms army.

However, Zhou Shixiang called this kind of shells “flowering”, which means blooming everywhere, but people in the Ordnance Bureau called them ‘sub-munitions”.

In order to obtain the detailed data of the sub-bombs from the battlefield so that the Ordnance Bureau can make improvements, Cheng Hanbin organized 15 business elites from the Ordnance Bureau to go north with the army.

Zhou Shixiang handed over the team to Li Kuangming, and clearly told the other party that his commander could die, but the elites of the Ordnance Bureau could not die, even if they were injured.

The Qi family’s military attaches great importance to firearms, originally the most in the Ming army. As a descendant of the Qi family army, Li Kuangming naturally admired firearms very much, and also knew the significance of these craftsmen who developed firearms.

Zhou Shixiang corrected Li Kuangming’s concept and told him that these people were not craftsmen, but R&D experts, outstanding talents in the field of Daming firearms. Their significance is by no means under the jinshi, and it can even be said that the ten champions are not as important to the Taiping army as they are.

Zhou Shixiang was so serious about his affairs, which naturally shocked Li Kuangming and ordered his military guards to protect them.

In addition to the sub-munitions, Cheng Hanbin also brought 10,000 pieces of unconscionable, 170,000 catties of medicines, more than 14,000 rounds of various types of shells, and 1,400 pieces of charge packs specially used for blasting. These accounted for about 60% of the Ordnance Bureau’s output this year. Although there is still a certain distance from Zhou Shixiang’s requirements, they can barely support the needs of the army. In addition to these ordnance, Cheng Hanbin also brought a fire gun that made Zhou Shixiang look impressive.

This gun, like the flowering cannonball, was called the “mother gun” by the Ordnance Bureau. However, Zhou Shixiang prefers to call this fire gun a machine gun, or the prototype of a machine gun.

Different from the machine guns that have been touched and shot by hand, the style of this shotgun developed by the Ordnance Bureau is relatively simple, and the fire method is still match rope, and the bullets are also iron and lead shots, but it can fire 17 consecutive shots. This means that if a soldier distributes a hundred shotguns on the battlefield, the actual power is equivalent to 1700 shotguns. And there is no need to organize a queue to shoot in turn, and in a short period of time, the attacking party can be swept away by the wind-like barrage.

Zhou Shixiang was simply overjoyed, and asked Cheng Hanbin how he came up with the idea of developing such a fire gun. Cheng Hanbin said that this kind of fire gun was not designed by him, but was made by a man named Li Dabiao.

After listening to Cheng Hanbin’s introduction to Li Dabiao, Zhou Shixiang couldn’t help sighing, Daming is really full of talents, and there is never a shortage of talents.

Li Dabiao is in his fifties this year, from Jinzhou, Liaodong. His father was a cavalry soldier under the command of Zu Dashou. Later, when Zu Dashou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, his father became a soldier of the Eight Banners of the Qing and Han Dynasties. After Li Dabiao became an adult, his son inherited his father’s business, and he also served as a soldier in the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty. He attacked Sichuan with Hauge, and then fought Guangxi with Kong Youde. After being defeated by Li Dingguo’s army, Li Dabiao became a straggler, and later went to Jiangxi and became a bandit . As a result, when the Taiping army attacked Ganzhou, the bandit village where he was located was uprooted by the Taiping army, and Li Dabiao was captured by the Taiping army like others and became an auxiliary soldier.

When he was in Guangxi, Li Dingguo’s Ming army injured his hand with a gun, and because he was old, he couldn’t do heavy work, so Li Dabiao became the start of the Taiping army, and was specially responsible for burning fires and burying stoves. Because of his old age, he has traveled south and north, and has a lot of knowledge, so although he is a clerk, Li Dabiao is very good in the army. From time to time, officers come to ask him about the Qing army.

Later, Li Dabiao’s battalion, the Taiping Army, was ordered to protect the Ordnance Bureau that moved from Guangdong to Zhenjiang. Li Dabiao was no stranger to the making of firearms because he had contact with the Ming army firearms craftsmen captured by the Qing army in his early years. After getting in touch with people from the Ordnance Bureau and giving some opinions, Cheng Hanbin, who was looking for firearms talents, was transferred to the Ordnance Bureau as a post.

In the past two years, the main work of the Ordnance Bureau has been to prepare gunpowder and saltpeter, and to make flintlocks. After a long time, I saw that the Taiping Army attaches great importance to firearms and rewards people who develop new types of firearms. Many original craftsmen have been promoted to officials. , This made Li Dabiao very enthusiastic and felt that he could also come up with something to serve.

Li Dabiao’s “invention” came from the three-eyed gun that was commonly used by the Ming army. After a year of failure, Li Dabiao finally came up with this gun that can fire 17 consecutive shots. After seeing the sample, Cheng Hanbin knew that it was definitely a good thing.

Zhou Shixiang asked Cheng Hanbin to find Li Dabiao, praised Li Dabiao in front of a crowd of civil and military officials, and awarded him the title of Thousand Households, ordering him to specially develop and improve the son-and-mother gun. And put forward some improvement suggestions, such as changing the match rope to flint, increasing the projectile capacity, shortening the gun body, improving the shooting distance and accuracy, and so on.

Zhou Shi promised on a blind date that as long as Li Dabiao can improve the son and mother guns in place and mass-produce them, then his official rank will be raised again, and even Feng Bo Baihou is not impossible. This made Li Dabiao excited beyond words.

After Li Dabiao withdrew, Cheng Hanbin reported the situation of the internal purge of the Ordnance Bureau. It has been found that three people were suspected of leaking secrets, and they have been taken away by the Ministry of Military Intelligence.

Cheng Hanbin pleaded guilty to Zhou Shixiang. Zhou Shixiang shook his head and told him that it was not terrible to leak the secret, but the terrible thing was that he didn’t know how to leak it. In the future, with the introduction of more and more weapons from the Ordnance Bureau, leaks will become the norm. After all, not many people in the world can withstand the lure of huge benefits. If you want to prevent this from happening, the first thing is to improve the status of ordnance R&D personnel, even if they have a sense of honor, but also make them worry about food and clothing. The second is to strengthen internal prevention, and find that we can crack down together and must not tolerate it.

After talking about this matter, Zhou Shixiang ordered someone to fetch a map, pointed to a few places and told Cheng Hanbin that there were large iron and copper mines there. He would organize people from the Ordnance Bureau to survey and map, and then formulate a detailed development plan and report it to the Ministry of Industry. .

“Don’t worry, Commander, I’ll organize someone to do it when I go back.”

Cheng Hanbin looked away from the map. The last place he saw seemed to be the Taiping House in Anhui. For some reason, the commander marked the three words “Ma’anshan” there.

“I have already greeted you at the Ministry of Industry and will fully cooperate with you. After the plan is formulated, the imperial court will fully carry out industrial development. Well, by the way, do you have any thoughts on the steam engine I told you about last time? ”

“According to the vision of the commander, the subordinates found someone to build two steam-powered textile machines, but one was unsuccessful, and the other was made, but it broke down after running less than half a column of incense. Yes.” Cheng Hanbin said honestly.

Zhou Shixiang waved his hand: “It doesn’t matter, if it’s broken, do it again, and it will always be successful. Everything is difficult at the beginning. Don’t be afraid of spending money. If you don’t have enough money, you can open an order to the treasury department to pick it up. Let me trust you~www.readwn.com~ If you can make a steam engine, this commander will award you a title in person!”

“Master, subordinate…”

Like Li Dabiao before, Cheng Hanbin’s excitement is beyond words. In the Ming Dynasty, there was never a “craftsman” who was awarded the title.

Just when Cheng Hanbin secretly vowed to get the steam engine that the commander said, more than a dozen students were saying goodbye to each other at the gate of Jiangnan Army University in Zhenjiang.

“Brother Luo, Brother Chen, my life is not as good as yours, and I can’t participate in the Northern Expedition. Please kill more Tartars for me!” Luo Lun, Chen Shiqi and other companions who participated in the Northern Expedition.

Luo Lun said with a smile: “Brother Lin, the Southwest is now under the command of King Jin. I heard that the third war zone is responsible for the important task of conquering the northwest of Shaanxi and Gansu. There will be many battles in the future. Why should you be so downcast.”

“Yeah, the Manchurians are just struggling to the death, and a war can be decided. At that time, there will be no war in the north, but your third theater will not worry about fighting, and you will have more opportunities to make achievements than us.”

Chen Shiqi is not comforting Cheng Lin, but it is true. The third theater is the theater responsible for the northwest region, and the northwest region has been a land of frequent military affairs since the past dynasties. Cheng Lin went to the third theater, how could there be no battle to fight.

“That’s true!”

Cheng Lin bowed to his companions who had been with him for several months and said, “Everyone, let’s say goodbye to this. If we can survive in the future, we will meet in Beijing! You are dear!”

“Okay, see you in Beijing!” Chen Shiqi clasped his fists and said loudly.

“treasure!”

In the sound of “respect”, more than a dozen students from the Army University will go their separate ways. In the future, they will appear on the battlefields of Daming.

Thank you for the wild vision of cabbage for a reward of 0 yuan; thank you for Tianmo Liaoying for a reward of 10 yuan;