Eight days later, Li Xiao's entire army returned to Chifeng City, Shandong. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

After returning to the city, Li Xiao, who was in a good mood, ordered that the meritorious soldiers of the whole army be rewarded separately, and all the soldiers who went out to fight were given a three-day holiday after receiving the reward, so that they could go to reunite with their families to show their gratitude.

After Li Xiao's order was issued, the soldiers who went out were all happy.

Next, Li Xiao wrote a manuscript to the Imperial Military Department, in which he wrote in detail how he defeated the Qing army, defended Haiyang Island, and how he led the army to the east to aid Korea, broke the Qing army's land and water army, rescued the Korean royal family, and forced the Qing chieftain Taiji to sign an armistice agreement.

Now Li Xiao is the governor of Zuodu, and his official rank has reached the top of the rank, so he no longer has to share the credit with others as before. Therefore, in his letter, Li Xiao unceremoniously expressed his merits for himself and described his decision-making and combat experience in rich and colorful colors.

In the letter, Li Xiao showed his loyalty and patriotism, but after generously expressing his feelings of serving the country, he still added a little hope of his own at the end of the letter.

That is, he hoped that in order to better organize the shipyard and operate the sailors, he hoped that the imperial court would hand over the capital of Dengzhou to himself for management, so as to become an important military base of the Ming Dynasty like Denglai in the past. Then, in the future, whether it is attacking the Qing Dynasty in the north or aiding Korea in the east, it will be very convenient and fast.

Dengzhou City has a special structure, and this coastal city, which is divided into two places, the land city and the water city, is really an excellent place for the development of water divisions. The choice of Dengzhou City as the base of the sailor and the new construction site of the shipyard was carefully considered.

Although after the cruel and bloody Kong Youde rebellion, the current Dengzhou City is still a dilapidated and barren country with a small population, but there are still remnants of various military facilities inside, and it is not too difficult to rebuild. In particular, the Dengzhou Water City, which is very suitable for stationing naval divisions, is basically well preserved because of the hasty retreat of the rebels.

In this way, the outer water city can be stationed with sailors, and the land city can be built with large shipyards and ship repair yards, with the tall city guards of Dengzhou City, and the outside sailors to protect them, Li Xiao's shipyard should be able to develop steadily and rapidly in Dengzhou City, and there will be no danger of being completely destroyed by the Qing army's surprise attack as on the ocean island.

Li Xiao thinks that his request is not too much, after all, he has made such a great contribution and obtained Dengzhou City, which is also for the purpose of forming a water division, and the court is reasonable, so it will not refuse.

Moreover, in order to show his sincere attitude, Li Xiao said in the letter that all the expenses for the renovation and construction of Dengzhou City were prepared by himself, and he did not want the imperial court to pay even a penny of silver. Moreover, he can also pay all the taxes of Dengzhou City to the imperial court every year, so as to show the imperial court that he is by no means willing to take advantage of it in vain.

After writing the letter, Li Xiao sent Li Haoran, the captain of his own army, to personally lead a group of light cavalry to Beijing to report the victory.

Next, Li Xiao began to focus on planning the development of Jeju Island.

He immediately arranged for Xu Xiuqing, the governor of Chifeng City, and others to send his subordinates to Shandong, Henan, Beizhili and other places, asking them to recruit at least 80,000 displaced people within half a month as the main force to colonize Jeju Island in advance.

Li Xiao believed that after the refugees arrived on Jeju Island, the barren land they had cultivated could be planted immediately, even if they could not plant spring wheat.

Then Li Xiao transferred Wu Liang, the governor of Tielong City, to serve as the head of the Jeju Island Colonization Regiment, and was fully responsible for the establishment of the administrative organization of Jeju Island and the governance of various local work.

After all, Jeju Island is too important to Li Xiao and cannot afford to be lost, so Li Xiao feels that Wu Liang, who has been loyal to him since he was in Liaodong and works conscientiously and responsibly, should be the most suitable candidate.

As for the administrative planning of Jeju Island, Li Xiao decided to adopt a management model of lean troops and streamlined administration, that is, only one Jeju city was set up to govern the whole island in the entire Jeju Chok, and the original Dajing County and Jeeui County established by the DPRK were abolished, and various administrative departments such as the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Industry, the Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, and the Department of Security were set up in Jeju City.

At the same time, the whole island is divided into 10 townships, each of which has a civil affairs branch for management.

Then, Li Xiao appointed Jin Tongwu, who had outstanding performance in the defense of Ocean Island, as the general of the Jeju Island Guard, and his military rank was also promoted to the commander-in-chief, who was fully responsible for the security and defense of Jeju Island.

Subsequently, Li Xiao asked Jin Tongwu to select about 500 soldiers from the Chifeng battalion as the backbone force, and then 1,000 auxiliaries to form a total of 1,500 Jeju garrisons, take a boat to Haiyang Island, and return from a sentry army left on Jeju Island by the Chifeng battalion.

Jin Tongwu, who was reused, was very pleased, and after he swore loudly to Li Xiao that he would defend Jeju Island impregnably, he took the selected soldiers and set off for Jeju Island first.

A few days after Jin Tongwu's departure, Wu Liang took thousands of construction craftsmen and a large number of construction materials with him to Jeju Island after selecting all kinds of administrative and civil officials. When the administrative organization was about to be formed, according to Li Xiao's plan, he immediately began to expand a new Jeju City.

Looking at the fleet heading to Jeju Island and heading east, Li Xiao looked happy and full of emotion.

If Jeju Island is successfully developed, Li Xiao will have five main cities, namely Chibong Fortress, Tielong Fortress, Geumtang Fortress, Changhwa Fortress, and Jeju Fortress. These main cities, like organic parts, together form Li Xiaojun's huge body.

In these cities, a number of Li Xiaojun's pillar industries have been built, such as steel, woolen wool, raw silk, silk, cigarettes, salt, mining, etc., which produce huge commodities and wealth for Li Xiao every day.

Moreover, if Li Xiao's land in Taiwan and the entire island of Jeju are developed, Li Xiaohui will have a total of more than 3.4 million mu of cultivated land, more than 500,000 mu of mulberry fields, and more than 18,000 mu of salt fields, and the food supply will be extremely abundant, which will be enough to support Li Xiao's next military expansion plan.

However, the current Li Xiao has no plans to expand the army for the time being.

After all, many of the above plans are still in the implementation stage, and the development of Jeju Island has just begun. In places like Taiwan, there are also Tainan and Taipei occupied by the Dutch and Spaniards respectively, and even the reunification of the whole island has not yet been completed.

I still need time to complete my own difficult plans.

After arranging the task of developing Jeju Island, Li Xiao handed over Chen Zilong, who he trusted and relied on the most, to recruit a unique talent.

That is, to recruit Hua Yuncheng, a member of the military department who was squeezed back to his hometown by Shoufu Wen Tiren at the end of last year, to his own subordinates.

Last summer, when Li Xiao led the army to be stationed in Yongdingmen Wengcheng of the Tunjing Division, Hua Yuncheng, a member of the military department, arranged and took care of Li Xiaojun's fine arrangement, so Li Xiao had a good impression of him, so the current Li Xiao, out of the intention of cherishing talents, was willing to send Chen Zilong to send a special one, but invited Hua Yuncheng to his own account.

Li Xiao has always had an idea, that is, to recruit some famous people who were idle at home at this time in the late Ming Dynasty to his hands, so that these outstanding talents who can leave a reputation in history, especially those famous literati and celebrities, will not be buried, but can serve themselves and play a greater role.

No matter what era it is, elite talents are precious and scarce things, and if these characters can only grow old in the mountains and wilderness in silence, it is really a great waste.

Of course, most of these famous people are high-ranking people, and Li Xiao may not be able to extend the invitation, but everything is subject to the destiny of heaven, with this sincere invitation, Li Xiao can at least let himself not regret it.

Like Hua Yuncheng, a former member of the military department, in fact, compared with those people in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, his reputation and talent may not be particularly famous, but Li Xiao's enthusiasm is to save a thousand dollars to buy horse bones.

If even a not-so-famous Hua Yuncheng, this Li Dudu, can enthusiastically invite him, then Li Xiao believes that those pretentious celebrities will also be quietly moved.

Moreover, Li Xiao also told Chen Zilong that if there are other well-known leisure people in the Jiangnan area, they can be recruited together, and Li Xiao will definitely treat these celebrities who come to take refuge.

Chen Zilong went away as promised, with a happy face.

Hua Yuncheng's home is in Suzhou, but it is very close to Chen Zilong's hometown Songjiang Mansion.

After arranging for Chen Zilong to recruit talents, only three days later, Zhao Jie, the chief of firearms, who came from the Iron Dragon City, brought Li Xiao a piece of news that made him the most happy and excited.

That is, after trial and error, the large-caliber heavy dragon hammer made of good steel, using internal mold water cooling technology, and multi-layer nesting technology has finally been customized and formed.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, the bullet weights of European artillery were generally 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, and 42 pounds. In order to allow craftsmen and gunners to better grasp the size, Li Xiao converted shells over 8 pounds into the Ming City system, that is, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 32 jin and other specifications, making them more in line with the habits of the Chinese.

The development of this dragon hammer, which combines the advantages of both the Rodman and Krupp guns of the 19th century, is a step-by-step process.

Zhao Jie and a group of Portuguese craftsmen, after repeated trials, first at the end of last year, produced a small dragon cannon that can hit 6 catties and 8 catties of solid shells, and then, at the beginning of February this year, made a medium-sized dragon cannon that can hit 12 catties and 18 catties of iron bullets, and now in late May, what Li Xiao is most eager for, can be used to attack Jiancheng, can hit 24 catties and 32 catties of heavy dragon cannons, and finally succeeded!

When Li Xiao stood in front of the towering black hole cannon like the open mouth of a giant beast, weighing 2,500 catties and firing 32 catties of heavy dragon strike cannon, his smile was as bright as the sun in the sky.

He saw that this cannon, with its appearance as a multi-layered nested shape with thick back and thin at the front, as if it was made of large and small bamboo joints, showed a silver bright color unique to refined steel, but it was not particularly smooth.

In fact, it's not that Zhao Jie can't polish the gun body smooth, but such a shape can increase the surface area of the gun barrel, which is more conducive to heat dissipation.

The inside of the barrel was drilled and bored cleanly, extremely smooth and smooth, straight inside and out, and inside the barrel, according to Li Xiao's instructions that day, a layer of vegetable oil was carefully smeared to maintain the barrel and prevent rust. In addition, a sealed cannon cover is added to the muzzle to prevent the entry of sand and water vapor in normal times or during transportation.

Compared with Li Xiao's carefulness and love for artillery, the artillery of the Ming army and the artillery of the Qing army at that time did not have such a concept of maintaining weapons at all.

Although they usually knot it with red satin and cover the gun body with a gun coat to show respect, they rarely clean and maintain the barrel, and there are no measures such as sealing the muzzle, so their guns are easily eroded by moisture and rust, which affects their range and accuracy, and leads to a significant reduction in the life of the gun.

In addition to leading the trend of the times in design, the dragon cannon also completely inherits all the advantages of the current Hongyi cannon.

This kind of cannon and Hongyi cannon are increased, the barrel is long, and the tube wall is like a bamboo-like ring, which is gradually thickened from the muzzle to the tail of the gun, which conforms to the principle of high to low chamber pressure when gunpowder is burned. On both sides of the center of gravity of the gun body, there are cylindrical ears, which can be used as an axis to adjust the angle of fire, change the range according to the amount of gunpowder, and also have a front sight and a light gate, according to the parabola to calculate the trajectory, so as to greatly improve the shooting accuracy.

Compared with the old-fashioned Hongyi cannon, the dragon hammer cannon made of stainless steel and the new method of casting has an advantage that the Hongyi cannon will never have, that is, it is too light in weight and too much saving.

According to the estimation of Zhao Jie and others, this dragon cannon that can shoot 32 catties of heavy iron bullets is estimated to reach nearly 7,000 catties if it is made according to Sun Yuanhua's copper tire iron core processing method! (Of course, the probability of being able to do it is also extremely low.) ）

It can be seen that when the same cannonball is fired, the weight of the dragon cannon is reduced by as much as 60% compared to the Hongyi cannon!

Zhao Jie and others, while improving the artillery, also fixed the amount of ammunition used in the artillery.

In a large iron box next to it, bags of gunpowder stored in the iron box were neatly placed, and these gunpowders had been weighed quantitatively in advance according to the specifications of the guns used, thus greatly facilitating the gunner's actual use on the battlefield.

The gunpowder of the artillery was the inspiration that Zhao Jie and others got from the gunpowder of Lu Mi. This kind of fixed gunpowder, which is measured in advance, wrapped in oiled paper, and stored separately, does not have a particularly advanced technology in itself, but this small improvement makes the gunner easier and more secure when operating. This method of fixing artillery ammunition can completely eliminate the terrible situation of excessive charge leading to explosion. After all, if in a tense combat environment, the gunner has to personally measure the amount of gunpowder before pouring it, the gunner who is under great pressure is very prone to make mistakes in the process of operation.

Moreover, even if there is no war, even when training gunners in peacetime, it is a big trouble to let these gunners, who are basically illiterate, understand the gunpowder ratio of different types of artillery, and it will only increase the gunners' fear of learning.

In addition to improving the gunpowder of the custom-installed artillery, Zhao Jie also cooperated with the craftsmen of the carriage and horse shop to produce a four-wheeled artillery cart suitable for artillery handling and pulling.

Although the body of this four-wheeled gun carriage is also made of heavy solid wood, the whole body is covered with iron sheet to increase the wear resistance of the gun, and all the wheels and bearing axles are made of medium carbon steel composed of standard parts, so that they can be replaced in time when they are worn.

With this kind of artillery car, there are generally only 400 to 500 pounds of light dragon guns, which can be pulled by a single horse, and there are medium-sized dragon guns weighing 1,000 to 1,600 pounds, which can be pulled by two horses, and the heaviest 2,000 to 2,500 pounds of heavy dragon guns can be pulled by four horses at the same time.

After Zhao Jie's introduction to the performance of the artillery, he said to Li Xiao diligently that after their actual test, an ordinary dragon strike cannon, after testing, when it reached more than 3,000 rounds, the gun chamber began to crack and be eliminated and replaced.

3000 rounds!

What a staggering number!

You must know that the iron cannons in Europe are generally only able to shoot 600 rounds before they are eliminated and scrapped. And now the Ming and Qing dynasties, the artillery made can only fire less than 300 rounds. (Note: In the 20th year of Kangxi's reign, the Qing Dynasty conducted a large-scale test of the Shenwei Invincible General Cannon supervised by Nan Huairen, using 240 guns to fire 21,600 rounds of live ammunition in three months.) It is recorded in the "Kangxi Record" that several cannons are still intact after firing 300~400 rounds. In other words, the life of artillery in the Ming and Qing dynasties generally did not exceed 300 rounds. ）

Li Xiao secretly thought in his heart that if such a dragon cannon is made, then it can go through at least dozens of wars and will not be eliminated. Such a sturdy and durable artillery can better support Li Xiao's long-distance expedition spanning thousands of miles in the future.

After listening to Zhao Jie's introduction, next, Li Xiao naturally wanted to test the shooting performance of the artillery himself.

"Pull to the cliff outside the city and test the cannon for the official."

Li Xiao ordered the props with a happy face.

"Obey orders!" (To be continued.) )