When Han Sen walked towards the dock, he also happened to meet Zhu Wanchun.

Han Sen's attitude towards this wealthy businessman family was still quite cold, although he knew that he was his own person, he had no thoughts and plans to make friends.

In the past ten years, Han Sen didn't know how many families he had dealt with on the way from south to north.

Whether it is a gentry or a businessman, as long as there is a little status, who will look at these Caofu troops? Occasionally saying a few words, it is like teasing cats and dogs, but it is just a joke to relieve boredom.

Even if he gave a few silver coins when he got off the ship, it was like a charity, and he didn't care about it at all, he didn't really care about these transportation troops at all, Han Sen led the transportation army with the general flag, and in the eyes of these people, he was just a big guy leader-like role, and no one cared about his official status.

Although Zhu Wanchun is different in front of him, in Han Sen's opinion, Min Yuanqi also has the ability, as long as he dances the career in front of him, there is no Zhu family, there is also the Wang family and the Li family.

Of course, Zhu Wanchun and the Zhu family behind him are now very important to Yunti Pass, especially the war horses, Suzhou steel, refined iron, nitrate and other things that he bought on his behalf, which are very important to Min Yuanqi's foundation, so although Han Sen just hurriedly clenched his fists, his attitude was not warm, and even a little cold, but in general, there was no shortage of politeness and courtesy.

Zhu Wanchun doesn't mind, there are hundreds of faces, some people are warm and polite, some people are good at scenes, and some people don't like to socialize by nature, this is all indifferent, at the moment, he smiled and returned the salute to Han Sen, and asked where Min Yuanqi was, so he rushed all the way over.

"Brother Min, there is a great good thing, you may guess what it is?"

The two have been friends for a long time, and their friendship has been consolidated, and Zhu Wanchun and Min Yuanqi talk more casually than ordinary people.

changed others, the report was as simple and effective as possible, how could anyone ask Min Yuanqi to "guess"?

Min Yuanqi didn't care, Han Sen brought back more than a hundred heads, it was a good thing to be strong before the war, 10,000 handfuls of gold and silver and more than 1,000 stone grains, some cloth and ordnance were not worth mentioning, and now it was a big business.

What made him happy was that he got two serious ships that could sail far, and there was nowhere to buy them now, and Tianjin in Shandong was in a mess, and the original sea power and shipbuilding foundation were almost ruined by the rogue.

These two ships are inconspicuous to say, but they are the root cause of imitation on the side of Yunti Pass, and the other is that they can be put on a regular basis, so that they can be familiar with long-distance ships and sea battles at sea earlier, which is of great significance.

Another point is that whether it is the mouth of the Huai River or the mouth of the Guan River, it is not suitable to be a port, if you go north to eat the area of Haizhou, there are many ports in Haizhou, even Qinshan Island will be used.

This is of great significance, and it is also on the sea ship.

With these two points, Min Yuanqi is really not in a bad mood.

At the moment, he smiled and said to Zhu Wanchun: "Brother Zhu is so interested, most of them are because the Franc machine gun and the craftsman have arrived?" ”

"Brother Min's guess is not bad." Zhu Wanchun smiled and said, "Shicai has arrived at the dock, and now it's time to move ashore." ”

"It's strange that Brother Zhu is from the dock." Min Yuanqi's interest has also come up, he has seen a variety of firecrackers in these years, including self-generated guns, but artillery is considered a militaristic heavy weapon, if it weren't for the Zhu family spending the ambassador's cost, and Nanjing's armaments and honorable soldiers are rotten to the extreme, these Franc cannons will definitely not fall into his hands.

In addition to the Caojiang battalion soldiers in Nanjing, there are dozens of forbidden troops with hundreds of thousands, but when Duoduo entered the city, the 100,000 Beijing battalion soldiers on the account were nowhere to be seen, only those nobles and ministers knelt at the city gate with their handbooks, it was raining heavily, the red handbook was soaked in rain, and the ground in front of them was soaked in a large area of red, and people were like kneeling in the blood water. It's a hero's tear with blood.

"There are more than 20 craftsmen, and I know that Yuan Qi is the most important craftsman, so I did my best. Most of them can make Franc cannons, and most of them have never made firecrackers, but you should be able to learn them by looking at them. A few of them have also made armor, most of them are cotton armor and chain mail, and scale armor and piercing armor have not been made. ”

"These are small things." Min Yuanqi stepped forward, he didn't wear a black gauze hat, nor did he wear a regular official robe, but his body momentum was already extraordinary, just looking at the respectful attitude of the people around him, even if Min Yuanqi was wearing an ordinary gray round-necked arrow robe, these craftsmen also guessed Min Yuanqi's identity.

They were able to come here, of course, because Zhu Wanchun bought off the officials in charge, and in addition, he also promised these craftsmen a lot of benefits.

Originally, these craftsmen were still a little uneasy in their hearts, and their status in the eyes of the Ming officials was that of slaves, and if they stuttered food, they would not starve to death, even if they were in charge.

As for the wives and children, they are barely hanging on to their lives, and it is common for them to starve every day, their body shape is generally very lean, they have strength, and there are obvious muscle bulges on their shoulders, but in terms of their nutrition, it is conceivable what kind of price it takes to exercise this muscle.

These craftsmen pass the prime of life after thirty under normal circumstances, and when they reach about forty, they will survive for a long time, and generally speaking, they will definitely not live to be fifty years old, and they can live to fifty even if they are a rare longevity.

At the same time, as long as they did not encounter any serious diseases, even in the era of poor medical conditions, their average life expectancy was about 70.

Crossing the river from a metropolis like Nanjing to Jiangbei, the uneasiness in the hearts of these craftsmen is quite strong.

Fortunately, Jiangbei is also considered a peaceful boundary, they crossed the river and walked along the canal, and after arriving in Huai'an, they entered the Huaihe River waterway, and the scenery along the way gradually changed, but in general there was not much change, after all, it was only a few hundred miles apart.

Judging from the situation along the coast, the villages and towns are continuous, and the prefectures and counties are not as good as the south of the Yangtze River, but they are still prosperous, but after the clouds, they also heard people talking about the news that the guest soldiers are going to attack the Yunti Pass, and the craftsmen are panicked.

If you want to go back, Lu Fei and Sichuan have no money, they are all over with their families, more than 20 craftsmen and more than 100 people in their families, and they are almost penniless, and when they come over, because of the water journey of carrying the cannons, the return journey is not so convenient, hundreds of miles of penniless walk back, I am afraid that it will take several months to return to Nanjing, and it is thankful that half of the people do not die during the period.

You can't go if you go, but you are also scared to stay.

Fortunately, after approaching the Cloud Ladder Pass, what they saw was quite strange and even surprising.

Ant colonies are everywhere, and at least more than 10,000 people are working on the south bank of the river.

Several vertical and longitudinal trenches were dug at a speed visible to the naked eye, and a large number of people carried sharpened wooden stakes and erected them above them to the sound of a neat trump.

Large trenches with stumps intertwined like dogs' teeth.

You can see that there was originally a village over there, and the village roads are connected, and there are some trees and shrubs intertwined with farmland, but now when you look at the past, there are dug ditches and sharp piles everywhere as far as the eye can see.

Not to mention the march of the army, even if ordinary people want to make a detour from the southern ten miles of this realm, it is almost impossible.

In addition to digging trenches and erecting piles, there are also large groups of people who have erected huge wooden towers out of thick wood.

The wooden arrow tower was divided into several floors, and the top floor was surrounded by partitions, on which more than a dozen archers were arranged, and even the march of the army would be affected.

This kind of arrow tower is staggered, and it seems that there are at least a dozen or twenty of them, and with the trench stakes, they constitute a complete defense system.

The craftsmen who came from Nanjing still have vision, and the situation in front of them also has a great impact on them.

Nanjing city wall was built in the Hongwu period, it is said that it is tall enough to be strong enough, there are urn cities outside each city gate, there are perforations in the city wall, there are hidden soldier holes in the city wall, in addition there are more than a thousand doors of Buddha Lang machine on the city.

But in the face of such a huge defense system project that suddenly appeared in front of him, the lifeless Nanjing city wall gave people a sense of peace of mind, as if that was the case.

Defense is not a simple city system, what is the barricade wall, deep ditch, overhang, urn city, arrow tower, corresponding to these things is siege, storming, using ladders, rushing cars, piling up earth for the mountain to cover the city wall, or digging tunnels, or digging rivers to flood the whole city......

In the history of Chinese civilization, the siege and defense of cities are enough to write a number of thick books on war examples, many of which are brilliant records.

But whether offensive or defensive, morale is the most important thing, although it is illusory.

When Duoduo arrived in Nanjing, in addition to his own less than 20,000 people, he was also scattered, and the rest of the soldiers and horses were newly attached to the Ming army.

Duoduo dared to ride into the city lightly, swaggering, and had no scruples.

The defenders of the city were well-armed and had a strong city, but they surrendered directly, and even had no will to resist.

In fact, if Nanjing was to hold on, the Qing army and the newly attached Ming army would not be able to defeat it by force.

During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Nanjing was already a lonely city, and was attacked many times by the Hunan army, Hong Xiuquan was trapped in the deep palace in the city and did not ask about the garrison, but it was still defended for several years, and finally it was the fierce attack of the Hunan army regardless of the dead and wounded, and there were cannons to collapse the city wall, and the generals took the soldiers to the city to the death, which defeated the Taiping army's defending troops and captured Nanjing with force.

With Duoduo's troops and logistics at that time, he forcibly broke through the magnificent capital built by Zhu Yuanzhang, what are you kidding?

But in everyone's hearts, Nanjing is undefendable.

Shi Kefa's tossing of the four towns, and even the four towns inside and outside, is nothing more than a lack of heart.

It is necessary to create a solid defensive circle in the north of the Yangtze River and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, at least to meet the enemy outside the country.

This is a psychological hint, that is, as soon as the enemy appears under the city of Nanjing, just like when Li Zicheng appears under the city of Beijing, everyone understands that the calf is finished!

This feeling is not only shared by the big people, but even by the little people who can't eat the flies and dogs, they actually understand it in their hearts.

This thing is mysterious, but in fact, it is the people's morale and people's hearts.

The Ming Dynasty has been defeated since the Jiajing period, Jiajing has been tossing for decades, the wealth is exhausted and the people are poor, not Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng continue their lives, I am afraid that they have already shown the image of defeat.

It is precisely because of the appearance of Zhang Juzheng that it can be regarded as extending the life of Daming for decades.

Shenzong tossed again, and finally tossed out Houjin and Liukou, this thing is not accidental, but will inevitably appear.

The three major expeditions are considered to be the return of the Ming Empire, and after the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, everyone understands that the Ming Dynasty is finished.

Everyone was waiting for Da Ming to take his last breath.

This is also the reason why Li Zicheng and Duoduo went quite smoothly when they entered Beijing and Nanjing respectively, there was no gas, this big empire seemed to be still there, but in fact it was a critically ill patient with a breath, and people were waiting for it to breathe.

This is the people's morale, mysterious and not mysterious.

The morale of the people in front of him is sluggish, and even these lowliest craftsmen can feel it.

It's the trotting pace of people.

Well-organized worksite and fast project progress.

It's the loud sound of people's trumpets.

It's the soldiers who are lined up in a neat formation, armed with spears, knives, and firearms.

The entire Yunti Pass is shrouded in a high-spirited atmosphere, which people can't touch or see, but they can feel and perceive.

All this gives people the feeling that nothing can threaten here, even if there are no thousands of artillery pieces and dozens of miles of tall and strong walls, but no one can threaten and no one can do whatever they want in this land.