The army trekked through the icy steppe for nearly two months. From mid-October to the beginning of the lunar month, the army's grain and straw had been exhausted, and more than 200,000 people were exhausted.

At this time, there were bursts of cheers ahead, and countless people heard the movement and were all looking. In the hazy wind and snow, people finally saw the faint shadow of the city tower in the distance.

"Kaipingwei!" The shouting was interspersed with the name of a place.

As the army gradually approached the city, I saw that the officers and soldiers who stayed in the warehouse and the guards were greeted outside the city, beating gongs and drums, so lively! In the white wilderness, today is like a festival.

Kaipingwei has warehouses and hoards grain. Immediately the granaries were opened, and the soldiers of the battalions entered the city to receive food, and smoke rose from all over the city. The soldiers of the Ming army, who wanted to vomit after eating horse meat, finally got supplies.

Soldiers from near and far happily sang ballads, and laughter was everywhere.

As soon as the army arrived at Kaipingwei, it went south to the pass pass (Zhangjiakou), and there were two warehouses; In the future, the soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army in the territory of the Ming Dynasty will be able to get sufficient food from the state and county governments. The hard days have finally come to an end......

Regardless of the cold weather, Zhu Gaoxu wrapped a fur coat in the Tuanlong suit and walked up to the dilapidated North City Tower of Kaipingwei. He looked in the direction he had walked in the north, and for a moment, he had a mixed feeling in his heart.

But looking back at the smoke of the cooking in the city, he also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. In any case, the northern expedition was successfully completed.

At this time, the civil official Hou Hai walked up to the castle tower and sent a stack of chapters and dossiers, all of which had been sent to the north from Beijing in recent months.

After the officials of the department sent people to send these official documents to Kaipingwei, they did not chase the emperor's men; There is no post road official shop to the north of this place, and many official documents are placed here. It was only now that Zhu Gaoxu got the recital.

Zhu Gaoxu walked into the city tower, sat down on a chair, and looked at it casually, most of which were cabinet government files. There are also two letters in it, letters written by Guo Wei and the palace concubine.

After a while, Zhu Gaoxu found a piece of Qian Xun from the Imperial Palace. He flipped through it and looked at it roughly, and was immediately attracted to it, and immediately looked at it carefully...... The Imperial Guardian Department has produced a firearm with an effective range of 80 paces!

Qian Xun's recital recounts that after receiving an annual allocation of 200 million yuan (200,000 yuan), the Southern Administration built a dam and an iron factory on the bank of the Qinhuai River south of the Chaoyangmen University in Beijing. They gathered a large number of craftsmen and tried to make the long-barreled fire gun proposed by Zhu Gaoxu; This piece of music is a report on the results of the ironworks in making firecrackers.

Zhu Gaoxu has said many times in the past that in order to increase the power of the copper firecracker, it is necessary to lengthen the gun.

(Zhu Gaoxu's statement has his truth, because according to the acceleration principle he learned in junior high school: the velocity of the lead pellet to form the thrust of the gunpowder is not only related to the thrust of the gunpowder, but also proportional to the time of thrust acceleration.) The longer the acceleration time, the faster the initial velocity of the buckshot discharge; Therefore, it is necessary to lengthen the gun tube to increase the stress time of the lead shot. ）

Qian Xun and other officials don't seem to understand this principle, but they just act according to orders.

Judging from what is written in the cantata, the ironworks craftsmen have thought of many ways. First, countless craftsmen still used copper to cast the body and then riveted it, but it was not done; Later, the craftsmen of the Southern Department used wrought iron forging, drilling, and grinding, and repeated attempts, so as to make a longer firecracker.

The newly made firecracker of the ironworks can be struck eighty paces away

Wear a plank! This is already on par with the range of a bow and arrow, and the hand can hit so far that I couldn't imagine it before......

At this moment, Qi Tai also walked up to the city tower and said outside: "The ministers meet the saint." ”

Zhu Gaoxu stood up, walked up to Qi Tai, and handed Qian Xun's recital: "Qi Butang take a look at this recital." Qi Tai, the secretary of the military department, hurriedly bowed down and caught it with both hands, and said, "The minister's order." ”

After a while, Qi Tai's voice said: "Qian You's will, the new hand-held fire, the power is far greater than that of the Kaishan gun, which can be compared with the bow and arrow?" ”

Zhu Gaoxu suppressed his excitement and said, "That's the case, my money was not spent in vain. ”

Qi Tai hurriedly clenched his fists and said: "The Holy Lord's power is against the public, regardless of the opposition of Xia Butang and others in the household department, and he funded the right envoy of Qian to get this sharp weapon." The saint is wise, and the minister admires it! ”

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said, "This thing can change the way of war." From now on, I will not easily conquer the Tatars north. ”

Qi Tai was a little surprised when he heard this, but he quickly calmed down and said, "Hubu Shangshu Xia Butang and others, if they can hear the words of the Holy Lord, they will definitely be very happy." ”

Zhu Gaoxu laughed dryly. He then suppressed his smile and said in a deep voice: "Since I ascended the throne, I have carefully read the strategy left by the first emperor. The first emperor had long planned to march north, intending to attack by force to force the Mongol ancients to submit to the Ming court and pay tribute, and solve the northern border troubles once and for all.

After this northern expedition, I felt that the strategy of the first emperor was difficult to complete. The leaders of the Tatars and the Varsis believed in Allah and had no intention of surrendering; The royal tent of Benjari was destroyed, and there was no movement of peace or canonization. If our Ming Dynasty continues to fight like this, we may be able to weaken the Mongol tribes in this dynasty and make them lose the strength to invade the south, but we will not be able to fundamentally solve the problem. ”

Qi Tai nodded, deep in thought.

Zhu Gaoxu said again: "So I think that we have to redeploy the northern defense line. The imperial court should manage the Hetao and Liaodong, build guard cities and forts, and form a complete line of defense to ensure the long-term peace and stability of all parts of the north. ”

He patted the piece returned by Qi Tai and said, "With the new firecracker and the Han King cannon, I can build a fortress on the whole line of Hetao and Liaodong." Since hundreds of people can defend a fortress, perfecting the entire line of defense will surely become a reality. ”

Qi Tai looked puzzled and asked, "I don't know, what is a 'fortress'?" ”

Zhu Gaoxu gave a general description. He's not very proficient either, but he's been exposed to this kind of stuff before, so he can give a rough idea.

After all, it is a kind of polygonal low fortress, with gun and artillery fire as the core of the fortifications; Build fortifications without shooting dead ends, and then rely on powerful firearms to fight enemy attacks.

A long time ago, Zhu Gaoxu was thinking about this kind of thing. But in the past, firearms were not enough firepower, and the fortress was unrealistic; There is not enough firepower, and the defense of the low castle is not as good as the rammed earth walls of thousands of years.

Qi Tai didn't seem to understand. Zhu Gaoxu didn't care either, after all, this is a new thing, as long as this military department is still in the book, it is enough to understand it first.

Zhu Gaoxu made two meaningless movements, which felt difficult to explain. He had to sigh, looked at Qi Tai and said, "Some very difficult things, if you think about it with common sense, you can hardly find a good solution. But if you look at it from a whole new perspective, things get easier. ”

even

Thai: "......"

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Qi Tai and said, "Qi Butang will understand in the future." ”

His mood gradually improved. Even the snowflakes floating in the air made Zhu Gaoxu feel less cold in just a short period of time.

Zhu Gaoxu had put his previous feelings behind him, and called Qi Tai to walk down the city tower. Surrounded by his entourage, Zhu Gaoxu and Qi Tai rode all the way to the Chinese army.

The snow here is not heavy, but there is snow on the road. When they came to a street, they suddenly saw a ragged woman holding Chai He, dropping her things, and staggering towards Zhu Gaoxu.

The woman behaved strangely, and the guards around her were startled, and immediately reined in their horses and surrounded Zhu Gaoxu.

"Who's coming?" Chen Wu's voice scolded sharply.

The woman knelt in the snow and said in a hoarse voice: "The slave family does not want to return to their hometown, so I ask the Holy Lord to take ...... in."

Zhu Gaoxu looked down at the exposed Tuanlong costume in his fur coat, and suddenly felt that this beggar-like woman seemed to be quite knowledgeable.

At this time, several soldiers rushed out of the nearby door. A military general stepped forward to salute and plead guilty, and another sergeant went to seize the woman and dragged her away.

Zhu Gaoxu was in a good mood at this time, and he was more patient than usual. Without much thought, he came out of the crowd, pointed at the woman, and asked, "Who is she?" ”

The military general, who knelt on one knee on the side of the road, clasped his fists and said: "Shengshang, this person is the Han people who were rescued after General Ping broke through the tent of the Tatar king, and did some miscellaneous work of making fires and cooking in the baggage camp. ”

The woman's dirty face and eyes looked nervous, and she said, "The general in the army asked about the place of origin and wanted to return the slaves to their hometowns. The slave family was plundered and humiliated by the Tatars, and the husband's family would rather me die, and ...... in desperation."

Zhu Gaoxu's gaze swept over the faces of the generals and the woman, and he nodded slightly, probably understanding what was going on.

The woman said, "The slave family heard from the Tatars that the Holy Lord said that he was the father of all the people, and this time he led a large army against the Tatars, so as to stand up for the people......

When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he immediately waved his hand and said, "Take her back to the Chinese army." ”

Chen Wu immediately clenched his fists and said, "The minister obeys the order!" ”

The woman immediately kowtowed in the snow and thanked her.

The Chinese army has brocade guards and people who guard the northern office of the imperial department, and it is not difficult to find out the details of a woman. Zhu Gaoxu doesn't need to ask, someone is responsible for these things.

The woman was dressed in animal skins and rags, and her face was not very clear. In the afternoon, Zhu Gaoxu saw her washed again, and found that she looked quite good. She had a whiplash on her neck and seemed to have suffered a lot.

Zhu Gaoxu asked casually, only to know that her surname was Luo, a person from Datong Mansion and a petty official in her husband's family, who was taken captive by Tatar cavalry on her manor at the end of last year. Roche also said that in the tent of the Tatars, he saw a eunuch surnamed Huang.

So Zhu Gaoxu handed her over to Duan Xue Hate and let Duan Xue Hate take care of it......

The army repaired in Kaipingwei for two days, continued to march south, and it is estimated that it will be able to enter Juyong Pass by the end of this month. This year's New Year's Festival can only be spent in the Beiping Political Envoy Division.

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