Siberia, on the right bank of the Lena River, the ice city of Yakutsk.

In this castle built on permafrost, the Governor of Yakutsk, Dmitry Andreevich Franzbekov, was looking at a couple of "British-made" flintlock pistols!

These "British pistols" were captured by Yakutsk's number one capable man, Khabarov, from the Chinese troops in the area of the Jingchili River!

Speaking of which, Khabarov is a great guy, he was originally a poor peasant in the area of the Great Ustyug, and he was a little better than the serfs, and in the Rakshasa country, where the aristocracy was in power, such a background definitely belonged to the bottom of the dick.

It is not possible to starve to death, and the people of the Rakshasa country are few and wide, so they will not starve to death. But it was also extremely difficult to develop, but Khabarov still found a way - to explore the East! From 1625 onwards, he stopped farming, leaving his homeland to join expeditions, all the way east in search of valuable furs.

He explored all the way from the Yenisei River valley to the Lena River valley, but he didn't hunt much fur and instead started his old business around Yakutsk - starting a farm to farm!

Later, the famous explorer in history, whose surname was used to name a large Russian city and a Russian frontier, actually made his fortune by farming!

It is definitely not easy to farm in the tundra of Siberia, but this illiterate peasant explorer actually succeeded, and he used the stupid method of digging up the frozen soil to succeed in farming in Yakutsk, and he also made a fortune.

However, his property also brought disaster to him, and he was ruined by the previous military governor of Yakutsk, Pyotr Golovin, and he was thrown into prison, and the farm and salt works that he had built with great difficulty were confiscated.

But this catastrophe did not break Khabarov, who was left with nothing after being released from prison, quickly climbed to the new governor of Yakutsk, Franz Bekov, and with his support, began to look for a shortcut to the Amur River.

It was because of this expedition that Dolgon sent Aobai to Heilongjiang. And Ao Bai, the first warrior of Manchuria, was also careless and became a defeated general under the peasant explorer Khabarov of the Rakshasa country. Not only did they lose more than 100 Manchurian warriors and a comparable number of Daur warriors, but they also lost dozens of "British-made" pistols.

Khabarov had a Daur guide (the Yakuts conquered by the Rakshasas), through whom Khabarov interrogated several Daurs (who were Bardazi's attendants) who were captured by him and found out the origin of the flintlock pistols he had captured...... It's a great stuff made in London, England!

Flintlock pistols have been rotten in the developed countries of Western Europe, and even infantry has begun to be equipped, but in the Rakshasa country it is still strange to hear - the advanced Rakshasa people do not have good things, how can the backward Chinese have them? If you don't figure it out, how dare Khabarov continue to invade?

After figuring out that it was the British who made the mistake, Khabarov immediately returned to Yakutsk with the evidence.

The governor of Yakutsk, Franz Bekov, was a literate German - there were too many illiterate among the Rakshasa nobles in those years, so it was difficult for the Tsar of the Rakshasa to find enough literate native nobles to serve as officials, so he had to bring in German talents, so there were many Germans serving in the government and army of the Rakshasa country.

But now Franzbekov found that he didn't know the words - he didn't know any of the square words engraved on the pistols!

And it's certainly not English!

"Yerofe Pavlovich," Franzbekov said to Khabarov, who was in his forties, with a long beard, red skin, and a piercing gaze, "do you think the text on this pistol is in English?" ”

Khabarov was stunned, "Isn't it?" ”

No, he doesn't know either!

"Of course not!" Franz Bekov couldn't help but laugh, "This is the square word of the Oriental...... If I'm not mistaken, this should be a Chinese character. ”

"Chinese characters? What is written? ”

"I don't know!" Franzbekov shook his head, "I don't know either...... However, there should be scholars in Irkutsk who know Chinese characters. ”

He paused, "Let's not talk about these guns, how about the combat effectiveness of those Chinese troops?" ”

"No...... Not at all an opponent of the Cossacks! Khabarov laughed, "Their cavalry will not charge, and these British pistols are of little use in their hands, they have not hit anything." And in order to use pistols, they did not carry long guns, so they could not afford to change hands in a later charge. In this encounter, we killed and captured more than 200 people, paying only 10 casualties.

I think that if we can send more than 6,000 troops, we should be able to conquer the entire Amur Valley, and maybe even to the warmer south! ”

"6,000 people?" Franzbekov smiled bitterly, "No one can send so many people for the war to conquer the Amur Valley, except for His Majesty the Tsar...... However, we do not know much about the situation in China, and Your Majesty is afraid that he will not approve an operation of this scale!

Therefore, let's prepare for a protracted war with the Chinese! ”

......

"Emperor, the Beiyang Trade Envoy reported that this month they seized a batch of flintlock guns made in the London Mansion of England, with a total of 100 pieces, all of which were exported to the Qing Kingdom!"

"Your Majesty, this England country is just a small country, and it is really hateful that it dares to interfere in the conquest of my Chinese state!"

"Your Majesty, the minister proposes to expel all English merchants and prohibit the merchant ships of England from entering the territory of the North and South Sea Trade Missions......"

Nanjing, Forbidden City.

Zhu Cihong was presiding over the first collegial meeting of the two governments in February of the third year of Hongxing, and before the start of this collegiate meeting, the Beiyang Trade Envoy in Lushun reported another incident of intercepting foreign guns from England - the evidence of England's support for the Qing Dynasty is really increasing!

From flintlock pistols to hydrohammer-made plate armor, there are also 3-pounder and 6-pounder bronze guns!

These weapons were all made in London, England...... The evidence is ironclad!

But the problem is, these words are all in Chinese! And it is not carved casually, but a calligraphy font that is cast or forged, and there are all kinds of fonts, and there are even seals...... Could this thing have been made in England?

This clearly shows that it is a high-quality imitation of British goods! Most of them are still products of the iron factory in Nanming!

This is really no one, the weapons produced by the Ming Dynasty were sold to the Qing Kingdom as British goods!

Who is responsible for this lack of morality?

Zhu Cihong turned his gaze to Zheng Zhilong, the head of the household department, and among the Ming officials in the room, he knew Western writing.

"Emperor Zheng, do you think those firecrackers were produced in England?"

"This ......," Zheng Zhilong said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, the current control of firearms in my dynasty is very loose, and it is normal for firearms to flow into the Qing Kingdom regardless of the export of firearms...... But these mansions in London, England, I am afraid that someone planted the blame! ”

This is probably the inevitable result of the barbaric development of firearms production...... It's been three years since Hongxing! Since the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Cihong has been working hard to promote the development of firearms manufacturing.

The production capacity of Shanghai, Nanjing, Anping and Foshan is constantly expanding! In addition, two types of machinery, hydraulic forging hammer and hydraulic drilling machine, which can greatly improve production efficiency, have been introduced.

Therefore, the production of firecrackers has been increasing, and now it can not only meet the needs of the Ming army, but also export a small amount - in fact, Foshan's firecrackers have been exported in the late Ming Dynasty!

The Portuguese even hired a blacksmith from Foshan to cast iron cannons for them (at that time only Britain and China could produce cast iron cannons), but they gave up because the yield rate was too low.

"Your Majesty," Qian Qianyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, immediately became anxious as soon as he heard that there were Daming firearms flowing into the Qing Kingdom, "We must strictly control the production of firearms, so as not to kill Chinese soldiers with Chinese weapons!" ”