The emperor's previous reward for the loyal and brave uncle seemed generous, but the series of dazzling titles were all vain. As of the Imperial Garden Tea Party, Cao Zongbing's official was still the deputy chief soldier of Zhangchao and other places.

This situation is not due to the emperor's suppression, but the emperor's need to communicate in detail and consider it comprehensively before he can determine the specific work of Cao Zongbing's next step.

Today's tea party was specially used by the emperor to solve this matter, but from the moment the emperor said that sentence, the interests of both sides began to differ.

For Chongzhen, the transfer of Cao Zongbing from the south to the Liaodong Theater to preside over the anti-capture work was the operation that was most in the interests of the emperor.

Since the old slave uprising, Daming has never had such a good general as Zhongyongbo. The current loyal and brave uncle is to the emperor, just like the original Qi Jiguang was to Jiajing. If Chongzhen doesn't use this person to destroy the captives, then who should he use? Ogre?

This is the fundamental reason why Chongzhen died in the court to protect Cao's general soldiers before.

To tell the truth, as long as General Cao doesn't raise the anti-flag at the moment, let alone he uses iron oxen to plough the land, even if he slaughters the gentry in Jiangnan, even if he goes to Yizhou to collect homeless people, even if he goes to the harem and touches the widow's thigh, Chongzhen will endure it stubbornly - as long as Aiqing you help me destroy the Tartar first, I can endure a little green on my head!

Of course, as for after the destruction of the Tartars...... Find out what happened to Zhang Juzheng? I was almost whipped by someone.

Chongzhen is now prioritizing: no internal contradiction is as serious as the Tartar that could pull him off the dragon seat and cut off his head at any time.

Therefore, he had to fool General Cao to go to Liaodong to destroy the captives.

But it's not that simple.

Qi Jiguang was the hereditary commander of Dengzhou Wei before his debut...... They are civil servants and are properly within the system.

Because of this, Emperor Jiajing can arrange Qi Jiguang at will. When the anti-Japanese war sent this person to the coast, when fighting the Tatars, he sent this person to Santun Camp as the chief military officer of Jizhen, and when Zhang Juzheng died, Qi Jiguang fell backstage, then the emperor easily kicked this person to Guangzhou.

In this process, Qi Jiguang, as a brick in the system, has no ability to resist himself, only obeys orders.

However, Mr. Cao is different.

Cao Zongbing is a Haikou who recruited Anlai, there are brothers under him, Yizhou hangs behind his buttocks, some people have money and food, and they are financially self-sufficient, to put it bluntly, he is a warlord, and he is a warlord who is more obvious than the Guanning army.

Although this warlord has shown a satisfactory attitude of integrating into the system, it is impossible for the emperor to shout at Cao Zongbing like he did with Qi Jiguang - what is a warlord? A warlord is the kind of person who can't talk about it and can pull up the anti-flag at any time.

Therefore, the emperor can only discuss this matter with Cao Zongbing in a consultative tone today.

As a result, the emperor was still ruthlessly rejected.

...............................

Things have developed to this point, and the interests of the crossing people and the emperor are not the same.

For the traversers, what needs to be done in the north at the moment is to set up sub-bases, absorb displaced people, form merchant sales/lead the way party network, hoard materials, train troops, and so on.

As for the suppression of the Tartars, I'm sorry, it's not time yet.

At present, the most in line with the interests of the pattern is naturally that the Houjin Group and the Guanning Group contain each other in the wilderness of eastern Liaodong. On the side of the traversal, it is only necessary to ensure that the Tartars do not rush into the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty to plunder as they did in history.

In this way, the people of North China can be preserved, social order can be barely maintained, the annual flow of displaced people will not be too high, and the transportation system of displaced people will be able to keep up with the development.

The above situation is what the traversal people want the most.

After persisting like this for a few more years, it really came to the day when Emperor Chongzhen's loyal and brave uncle led the army to sweep through the Tartars...... I'm sorry, but when someone sweeps the Tartars away, it is likely that he will take advantage of the situation to sweep the Guanning army together, and then go south to break through the Beijing division...... This, Your Majesty, I'm really sorry to live up to your expectations, in fact, the minister is an actor......

Therefore, from the moment of the tea party, the interests of the emperor and Cao Zongbing were inconsistent.

And after hearing that General Cao attributed the reason for returning to the south to the lack of bullets, Chongzhen was a little dumbfounded.

You must know that before today's meeting, Chongzhen made a lot of preparations. But Cao Zongbing's answer was not within the emperor's pre-planned routine. So the emperor could only ask the two ministers in surprise: "Is there such a thing?" ”

The two ministers were also a little confused at this time. Of course, Zhou Yanru is really confused, and the actor Wen, who has colluded with Cao Zongbing in advance, is fake confused.

"Hehe, don't worry, Rong Chen said slowly."

General Cao began to tell the emperor in detail about the battle.

Because the information that the emperor got in the previous chapter was very general, only the words "brave and good at fighting" and "sharp equipment", and no one told the emperor the details of the battle and the super power of a certain rifle, so when Cao Zongbing finished popularizing science, Chongzhen suddenly realized: "In this way, this '28-step gun' should be the first credit?" ”

"Yes!" Cao Zongbing said with a smile: "Your Majesty, this gun can penetrate the heavy armor of the Tartar three hundred steps away. This time, the minister didn't even have a tiger squat cannon against the enemy, so why was he able to return with a big victory? It's all up to this gun! ”

"I'm going to test it!" Chongzhen's face was excited at this time - if this was the case, then he could have "imported" a batch of firearms and equipment for his own reassuring troops, why bother to fool the surnamed Cao to go to Pingyu?

"Obey the order!" Cao Zongbing hurriedly received the order at this time, and then he asked for pen and ink on the spot, handwritten a note, and handed it to the eunuch to run to Zhongyongbo's Mansion to bring people. At the same time, Chongzhen ordered someone to go to the Imperial Horse Prison and inform him to bring some firearms for the Beijing camp.

Emperor Chongzhen at the end of the Ming Dynasty was no longer the canaries that were raised in the deep palace before. Even after experiencing this change, the emperor, who no longer knew how to do it, understood the importance of armament.

You must know that Chongzhen was sitting at the head of the city, and the scene experienced rounds of red-clothed cannon firing and battles under the city, so he was no stranger to the firearms of the Ming army. In addition, nonsense like "a cannon erodes dozens of miles" can no longer fool the emperor now. This person is well aware of the power of the Ming army's standard firearms.

It didn't take long for people to come.

The Zhongyong Bofu came with a royal palace guard in Ming costume and a gun. On the side of the Imperial Horse Eunuch, there were several eunuchs and soldiers, as well as some weapons and armor.

This kind of scene was already familiar to Uncle Zhongyong, so when he stood up and pointed his fingers, the shooting range was built.

Starting from the front of the pavilion, across the fish pond, every 50 meters or so, there will be a table, on which the Ming army's standard armor and mountain armor are fixed.

Then the shooting demonstration began.

The ending speaks for itself.

Standing in the limelight, several Imperial Horse Prison soldiers, the bird guns, three-eyed guns and other weapons in their hands are not only slow to load, but also the bullets fired from them can only "touch" the iron armor at a distance of 100 meters at most. Not to mention the inability to penetrate the target, the hit rate is also frighteningly low - this crude smoothbore gun can only be talked about with a hit rate if it hits a platoon gun.

Next is the performance of the loyal and brave guards.

I saw that this person was not in a hurry, and began to hit the target at a distance of 300 meters with a steady rate of fire of 4 shots in 1 minute. With the sound of a gripping gunshot, twenty shots in a row did not stop until the fog of gunfire blocked the view.

The two eunuchs ran over panting with the target in their arms, knelt in front of Chongzhen, and raised their armor: "Emperor, the small one has counted, and the target is eighteen bullets!" ”

Seeing the dense holes in this fine armor that reflected the light behind him, the young emperor stood up, stretched out his slightly trembling fingers, and kept rubbing them on the burrs on the edge of the holes.

After a long time, Chongzhen sighed: "I don't want to have such an artifact in the world, it seems that it is blessed by the ancestors, and the sky will not stop my great Ming!" ”

Zhang Dongdong pouted secretly when he heard this: This credit goes to the ancestors again? Can your ancestors really bless you with your old age?

Seeing that the emperor's attention was finally shifted to the musket, in addition to complaining, Cao Zongbing was also slightly relieved: without a reasonable explanation, it would be difficult for him to let Chongzhen let go of his return to Yizhou, which would affect the honeymoon relationship between the monarch and the minister.

Next, General Cao did not hide his selfishness, he not only personally explained the structure of the rifle to everyone present, but then in front of the emperor, he dismantled the paper shell bullet and took out the key thing inside: the fire cap.

According to Cao Zongbing, this inconspicuous small copper piece called the fire hat is the reason why he wants to return to Yizhou.

Because of the secret method of making a fire hat, Yizhou cannot produce it itself, and can only buy it from the maritime merchants of Haidong Alaska.

Fire caps are not only expensive, but also scarce in production. Because Alaska is far away, there are even fewer fire hats that have reached the Ming Dynasty. Just this time when he came to the Northern Qinwang, the reason why he was able to exchange for 4,000 heads, Cao Zongbing had actually used up all his fire hat inventory in the past few years.

Therefore, Cao Zongbing had to go back this time - he wanted to personally lead the fleet to the trading cities of the Indian Ocean to buy fire hats.

After hearing Cao Zongbing's statement, the emperor was noncommittal. And Zhou Shoufu on the side asked several questions in a row: Without the fire cap, this gun is useless? Can Daming imitate it? Also, how much does this fire cap and gun cost?

Cao Zongbing first quoted the price: the purchase price of the fire hat in the Indian Ocean is two taels of silver/piece, and it is three taels of silver when it is transported to Yizhou, and when it is transported to the capital, it will be at least four taels of silver/piece.

Here is a friendly reminder from Uncle Zhongyong: If you want to train a qualified gunner, you can't train without a thousand rounds of medicine.

As for the guns, since the craftsmen in Yizhou can produce them themselves, they are cheaper: 200 taels of silver each.

In the end, regarding the imitation, Cao Zongbing generously agreed: he could leave 10 guns and 100 fire caps for the emperor to take for imitation. If Ouchi's skilled craftsmen could imitate it, it would be even better, and he would not have to go to the Indian Ocean to take risks in the future.

Hearing this, Chongzhen nodded slowly.

On the side, Zhou Shoufu saw the emperor nodding, then pulled down his face and said angrily: "Daming's bird gun is only 10 taels of silver, and the medicine is even cheaper, he has never heard of such an expensive fire gun and medicine, is it that you deliberately raise the price and have a black heart?" ”

Hearing this, Mr. Cao shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Daming's bird guns are cheap, but Daming's officers and soldiers are also chased away like dogs by Tartars." His old Cao's bird gun is expensive, and the usable Alaskan barrel can kill 4,000 Tartars. ”

Cao Zongbing finally asked: "Cheap is not good, good is not cheap." Lord Zhou, you don't even understand this simple truth, do you? ”

Zhou Yanru: "......"

Luming

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