Chapter 13 Preparation for the Cavalry Experiment with rifles

When Yan Boju was delivering horses to people in Guangzhou, he saw that they had several Arabian horses, which were very tall and handsome. Yan Boju liked it very much when he saw it, and told people that he wanted to buy other people's horses. But as soon as they opened their mouths, they were 2,000 taels of silver each, but in fact, they didn't want to sell it, thinking that they would scare Yan Boju away all of a sudden. But Yan Boju really liked these horses too much, and he also knew that Zhang Zhimu had always wanted him to improve the horses, so he went back to tell Zhang Zhimu about it. Zhang Zhimu asked: "Didn't you see if it was a gelding?" ”

Yan Boju was dissatisfied and said, "You still need to ask about this, what am I doing?" ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Then buy it." If you look at where there are such horses, buy more, if there are too few and get an inbreeding, the horse breed will degenerate. Also, after a while, the price will rise, so you have to be prepared, even if it goes up a little bit, you can buy it. ”

Sure enough, as Zhang Zhimu said, when Yan Boju went back, people saw that Yan Boju really came to buy a horse, and the price really increased. Each horse grew 1,000 taels, but Yan Boju didn't bargain, and the five horses cost 15,000 taels of silver for two males and three mothers, and Yan Boju bought the horses back.

After asking around, I bought four more of these Arabian horses in Guangzhou. For such horses, Yan Boju has three stallions and six mares in his hands.

After being transported back to Yaogang, Yan Boju basically raised his own horses, and no one wanted to follow him to raise these horses. Because Yan Boju is either suspicious, his hands are heavy when he brushes the horse, or the feeding material is not good. In the end, he had to feed it himself.

At this time, Sister-in-law Xu interjected and said, "There is one more thing I want to talk about." Now more and more people are coming to the kiln, and we are sending people to guard outside and not let them in, but there are already many starving people outside, do we want to think of a way? ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "Now our people who build roads and houses will come back one after another, and we can't arrange their work yet, let alone if they come again." If we make a start, our kiln will soon be filled with victims. ”

Zhang Zhimu has always been very conflicted about the affairs of the victims, if you don't save it, you can't bear it, it's really like Lu Chengxiang said, it is likely that the consequences will not be easy to clean up. However, Zhang Zhimu's heart suddenly lit up and said: "I see that there are slopes all around Xishan Baozi, and they are not very steep. Why don't we build a few reclamation sites there, and build the gentle slopes around there into terraces, and then we can pump water to irrigate the land, and we may open up 10,000 acres of fertile land. In this way, the victims of the disaster have been arranged and our future food problem has been solved. It is also necessary to organize a fishing team there to solve the problem of our kiln people eating fish. ”

Ouyang He said: "Mr. Zhang's opinion is very good, the victims of the past disaster should also be well organized, semi-militarized, their families can be arranged in the kiln, and in the future, when the conditions are good, they will be arranged together." These people are also reserve soldiers, and they also have to undergo military training when they are fine. ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "Then build a road that turns there, and then see some simple houses there." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "There are too many mosquitoes by the water, so we have to get a mosquito net for everyone." The logistics will be left to Mr. Lu. Uncle Chen asked Liu Yun to send some people to help organize it first. Don't look at these villagers who are unkempt one by one, when they come to their senses, maybe there are any talents. When you organize people, pay attention to find out what skills you have, and arrange a position if you are educated. In the matter of clearing the wasteland, Mr. Lu Bingyi wanted to organize people to make a plan there first. Otherwise, you will do a lot of useless work. ”

Lu Bingyi said: "Okay, this is my arrangement. I'm going to talk about the problem, and there's one more. Even if our personnel increase, we will not be able to drink tap water from that well. Do you want to find a way? And if all those houses are occupied, we won't have enough biogas. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "I have been paying attention to this matter for a long time. We can set up a water intake in the upper reaches of the Xiaoling River, build a water treatment plant, and then pump out the water to the water plant, after many times of precipitation to see the quality of the water, if not, you can add a little drift, after drying, through the pipeline to the kiln gang, pumped to our post on the reservoir. Mr. Lu Bingyi and Li Yunhe are responsible for this waterworks and will start building it soon, and strive to build it before the weather is cold. If the biogas is not enough, we can use gas, and the gas of the coke oven over there is still enough for us, but the gas valve should be different from the biogas. ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "There are too few docks in Lingshui Wharf to make barges, I think we should build another one, such a dock is easy to build, our barges will be built more, this guy has a large transportation volume and saves money." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "This matter will be done according to Mr. Lu's opinion." I also think that if we have a steamboat, we need a lot of barges. When will the transformation of our remaining warships be completed? ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "It's almost there." ”

Li Yunhe said: "It can be completed by the end of this month. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Don't let me scatter these people and horses who renovate the ship. I'm going to organize them to build steel-hulled ships. I also gave Mr. Lu a suggestion, there will be more of us in the future, and it will be very inconvenient if we all gather in one place to take a bath. It's better to build a few more bathhouses. Each factory can set up its own bathhouse, because they can arrange a bathing time for workers according to the production situation. ”

Lu Bingyi said: "Mr. Zhang's opinion is good, so I will discuss this matter with Li Yunhe." ”

Seeing that everyone had nothing to say, Zhang Zhimu felt that it was time to break the meeting, and there were more important things to study after the meeting.

Zhang Zhimu said: "During this period of time, everyone's efforts have been very effective. I thank you all, and we're going to have to work harder, maybe by this time next year, we'll be a little bit easier. Until then. At that time, we can also take our families to the south to have a good stroll, don't live a lifetime, never go far from home, and live a lot of injustice. We Mr. Lu Bingyi can also go home to see, over the years, Mr. Lu has devoted his mind to our kiln, and I would like to thank you on behalf of the kiln. ”

Lu Bingyi said: "Mr. Zhang, what are you talking about?" I'm also a kiln guy now. When I arrived at Yaogang, I realized that I had been looking for such a place in my dreams. When everything is stable next year, I will go home, and I will bring all the family here, so that they can also see what the kiln is like. ”

The atmosphere is very relaxed, and I feel that a better future awaits everyone.

When the meeting was adjourned, everyone left. However, Chen Yufeng, Ouyang He, Yan Boju, Lu Chengxiang and Zhang Zhimu stayed to continue the meeting.

Ouyang He held the reply letter from Li Yan in his hand and said, "Anyway, Li Yan is still in touch. This guy also strongly persuaded me to defect to Li Zicheng, haha! ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "It's good to get in touch, and it's not surprising that he advises you." He is still Li Zicheng's celebrity, we can come step by step. As for that method, it depends on the timing. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Don't worry about Li Yan for now, let's talk about it now." Our kiln workers have basically begun to engage in military training. It's just that the workers who are building roads outside and doing works are not well organized, and they haven't been carried out yet. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "I suggest that our personnel be divided into reserve forces, ordinary militia, and ordinary people. The reserve is a person who can participate in the war at any time, the ordinary militia is the personnel who participate in the guard in case of emergency, and then the personnel who are responsible for sending ammunition and logistics if the war starts. This allows us to prioritize our training. ”

Ouyang He said: "Mr. Zhang's opinion is good, and we will organize training according to this principle." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "The most important thing is that once we fight, there will be a large number of Ming troops in the army, and we will organize infantry from them, but we must now train all our soldiers into officers, so that they all know how to lead troops." ”

Ouyang He said: "Many of our soldiers have been trained, and the main officers have come out to participate in the training. It's okay for our soldiers to be junior officers, they are veterans who have fought and seen blood. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "The most important thing for us is to form a professional army, which does not need to have many people, but it must be elite soldiers. When I come back this time, I will personally design military uniforms for them, and the military uniforms will have regular summer uniforms and winter regular uniforms, as well as training uniforms. Let our servicemen be a respectable person. When I left, I had already asked Lu Qi to weave some twill and canvas, which were specially made for military uniforms. ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "It's no problem, even if we don't earn money now, it's no problem for us to raise tens of thousands of people for a few years." Besides, we have a few things now, and it's hard not to make money. For example, we will not talk about steel, and we will not talk about those copper and lead mines. Let's just say our glass and mirrors, which are a lot of income, and the locks, the zippers, the steel-reed carriages, the sheepskins we tann, the horse lanterns, the muskets, the machine-woven cotton, the silk, the matches, all of which are incredible. So you don't have to worry about silver. I'm still worried about the grain, the grain is about to be transported back from Huai'an, and we can't eat all the grain ourselves, but if we consider the whole of Shanxi, it will be far from enough. In addition, we also have to take into account that the grain at the northern border of the imperial court is not available, and we cannot ignore it. ”

Chen Yufeng admired Lu Chengxiang's thoughtfulness from the bottom of his heart, and said, "Mr. Lu is thinking about it." I think that Mr. Lu just mentioned at the meeting that the matter of building a barge dock should be stepped up, and if it doesn't work, we will build a few more. If there are enough barges, our capacity will increase significantly. In this way, not only can we bring in what we produce for silver, but we can also bring in grain. If we can ensure that our flat-bottomed steamboats don't stop every day, we can bring in grain from Shanxi. We still have the money to buy food. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Also, in the future, the raw materials that we need to transport in industrial production are also very dependent on the transportation capacity. I still want to build steel-hulled ships as soon as possible, so that ships can be equipped with larger artillery, and we must have absolute control of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. ”

Chen Yufeng asked: "I don't know how Li Yunhe's rifle was developed?" ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "It is estimated that it should be about the same. Li Yunhe couldn't talk about this at the meeting, and I told him to keep it absolutely confidential. I'll ask him in a moment. If they develop a rifle, I will arrange for them to immediately develop heavy machine guns and new artillery. I've seen it on the ships a few times, and if we had heavy machine guns on board, we might not have to open fire on wooden ships to sink them. Because the current wars on ships are all within 300 meters. Our heavy machine guns can shoot at a thousand meters. Heavy machine gun bullets can quickly destroy everything on a wooden ship. ”

Chen Yufeng, Ouyang He and the others actually didn't know what the heavy machine gun was, but they didn't ask, they just knew that it was a very powerful weapon that Zhang Zhimu was going to make.

Yan Boju said: "Zhimu, I have been back for a while, I have compared, our Mongolian horses are indeed inferior to these Arab horses in terms of strength, but Mongolian horses have stamina and delicious food, don't pick and choose, easy to feed." Next year, if we can match Mongolian horses and Arabian stallions, we may be able to raise good horses with good endurance, strength and roughage. It's a pity that I can't go to the Western Regions now, if only I could get a bloody BMW from them. If you put together the benefits of several good horses, you will be a good horse. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "You still guarantee to give birth to some thoroughbreds, and it is not good if there are too few thoroughbreds." Every horse needs to have a good thoroughbred herd. For we need not just a few good horses, but a large number of good horses, to serve as mounts for our cavalry. ”

When Chen Yufeng heard about the cavalry, he said: "Liu Yun and the others now have more than 6,000 people, although they all have horses, but the real cavalry is only more than 3,000 people. I always wanted to use them as a base and form a cavalry of about 10,000. Recently we have recruited more than 1,000 young recruits who can ride horses, but to train them to become cavalry is not a day's work. Therefore, we still have to hurry up the plan to expand the cavalry by 10,000 cavalry. The cavalry can no longer occupy the quota of Liu Yun's infantry, and their infantry is also the seed of future expansion. ”

Ouyang He said: "I think the young and strong cavalry of Niutou Mountain, Taiyue Mountain, and Lishan should be concentrated, so that some men and horses can also be concentrated." If it doesn't work, transfer the cavalry from Yulin over there first, and train together. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Don't move the people and horses in Yulin, that's a step ahead." It will be of great use when the time comes. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "The people from Yulin who came to train will also arrive recently, and Yan Xing can also come with them." Yan Xing came to discuss with him, to see how many qualified cavalry he could have, no matter what, he should find as many personnel as possible this month, if not, pick some young and strong ones among the refugees, and train them from scratch. Luckily, we eat well and work a little harder during training, so I think I'll be able to keep up with it in a few months. If not, practice on the battlefield. ”

Ouyang He said: "I don't think I need to worry too much, what kind of soldiers are we now, the new arrivals will be brought out from their area soon, and what kind of master there is, what kind of apprentice." Those veterans are our treasures. The main thing is that those veterans agree with our ideas, most of them can write, and they can do ideological work. I think it's all official's material. ”

This point said by Ouyang He has been unanimously agreed by everyone.

Ouyang He also said: "In the future, we will take over Shanxi, and our managers must also prepare. At the very least, a few state capitals are going to send our people to take care of it. Those of us literati who know wood should also pick and choose to see who is suitable for being an official, and we must train in advance. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "I have thought about this, we will first implement all the cities as officers, and then slowly send people to take over. We don't have enough personnel, so we can open the exam to recruit officers. Since then, democratic elections have been slowly implemented. But democratic elections will not take place until we have stabilized and our own laws have been enacted. Because of this, the difficulties we face are not only within Shanxi, but also in the Ming Dynasty. For such behavior, the imperial court will regard it as hateful as Li Zicheng. ”

Chen Yufeng still looked at the front of him, and said: "Don't worry, Zhimu, your rifle must be made quickly, after we see such a weapon, we can formulate corresponding tactics and preparations." Besides, it takes time for us to form mass production. It's almost September, and time waits for no one. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Don't worry, Uncle Chen, this is what I am most concerned about when I come back." With this rifle, I can tell you that it will not be difficult for us to hit Beijing all at once. ”

A few people laughed again, and now everyone felt much more relaxed.

When Zhang Zhimu returned to the office, Yang Yulin pointed to the room and said, "Li Yunhe has been waiting for you for a long time. ”

At this time, Xiao Hongyu, who was talking to Yang Yulin here, said: "Mr. Zhang, I went to Beijing to suffer this time, and I see that you have lost a little weight." Sister Yulin told me everything. ”

Zhang Zhimu was stunned, and Yang Yulin said, "Nonsense, what did I say to you?" ”

Xiao Hongyu laughed and said, "Hehe! It's okay, why are you so excited? In fact, you still need to say that our President Zhang is in Beijing, but the imperial court sent Lord Qincha to Yaogang with a team of officers and soldiers, and you said that nothing happened, then isn't it strange? ”

Zhang Zhimu Xin said: "What a smart little red jade! It's a pity that you are a woman, and it is a pity that you were born in this era. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "That's me and the emperor have something to do, what is the Qin mission in our kiln?" ”

Xiao Hongyu said: "The Qin mission is nothing to us, but if you are not at home, it will be something if they come, right?" ”

Zhang Zhimu knew that Xiaohong's eloquence was not ordinary, and if he continued, he was also a little weak-hearted, and said, "Come on, don't think nonsense." After speaking, Zhang Zhimu entered the inner room.

Xiaohong still said reluctantly: "Don't go, I won't ask you for a gift this time." Hehe! A string of laughter behind Zhang Zhimu was separated from the outside by the closed door.

Li Yunhe, who had been waiting for a long time, was lying on the sofa, and when he saw Zhang Zhimu coming in, he got up and said, "You still dare to quarrel with Xiao Hongyu, she is a famous iron mouth." ”

Zhang Zhimu and Li Yunhe were also very casual together, saying: "I don't know her in general, I want to talk about bickering....."

"Come on, Xiaohong has taken a fancy to you, otherwise you may not be able to talk about her." Li Yunhe interrupted Zhang Zhimu's words.

Zhang Zhimu glared angrily and said, "I said, don't talk nonsense about this." Yang Yulin, I finally got it right. ”

"I'm not talking nonsense, I'm afraid you don't know about the kiln people, right?" Li Yunhe said.

Zhang Zhimu waved his hand, interrupted the topic and said, "Come on, don't get into nonsense." Tell me about your rifled gun?"

Li Yunhe said: "Then don't talk about it here, let's go to the scene!" ”

On the way, Li Yunhe said: "After the gun control was made, I used to always be unable to grasp the scale of heat rise and cold contraction, and when the extruded gun barrel was cold, it was either a little bigger or a little smaller. Now, when we heat the barrel, we control the same temperature and finally make a qualified barrel. Let me tell you, our guns are called sticks. The muskets of the past were like burning sticks compared to the guns of today. ”

Li Yunhe talked about the current guns, dancing with his hands. Zhang Zhimu knew that the rifle was almost there.

Li Yunhe continued: "One of the problems with our guns is that when they are fired in bursts, it doesn't matter how they shoot in the laboratory. But sometimes it gets stuck in the wild, and this thing delays us for a long time. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Don't look at it, I probably know that your gun's anti-dust device is not done well, and it won't sound when you go into the sand." ”

"Oops! How do you know if you don't see it? Li Yunhe asked.

Zhang Zhimu said: "It's not easy, it's easy to use in the laboratory, but it's not easy to use outside, isn't it just that there is more dust outside than the laboratory?" But you did a good job of secrecy, and even Uncle Chen didn't know how your guns went. ”

When I came to Li Yunhe's gun factory, I entered a door with two guards outside the door, and then entered a factory building and came to the gun assembly room. Several technicians are fiddling with a couple of rifles. Zhang Zhimu was very happy when he saw the shape of the rifle, which looked a bit like the Type 03 rifle in his previous life.

When the technicians saw Zhang Zhimu and Li Yunhe coming, they all stopped what they were doing and came over to say hello. Li Yunhe asked: "How is it, is it all installed?" ”

One technician said, "It's all done, it's time to test the gun." ”

Li Yunhe said: "Wipe the gun clean, let's try the gun." ”

Zhang Zhimu followed Li Yunhe and a few people, rode in a glass carriage, and ran to a row of houses behind the cave to stop, this house is the place to test the gun. Because it is not possible to test the gun in the kiln, the sound affects others, and it is not confidential. This is a place where Li Yunhe asked him to build a new test gun. When they entered the house, everyone wore earmuffs, and Li Yunhe also brought the earmuffs to Zhang Zhimu. A technician grabbed the bullet and picked up the gun and shot it directly "bang". Zhang Zhimu thought that he would fix the gun and pull it with a rope to give it a try. It seems that their guns have long passed this hurdle. Looking at the scarf of a target fifty meters away, Zhang Zhimu knew that the number of shots carried out here could not be calculated.

After shooting, the technician took off the earmuffs and said to Li Yunhe: "I guess it should be okay this time, I think the shooting is smoother." ”

Zhang Zhimu and Li Yunhe both took off their earmuffs and listened to him talk about his experience of shooting.

The other two also loaded the bullets, and stepped forward to shoot "bang", a ** thirty bullets, they were more than a dozen single shots, and then two point shots, and another long burst of shots, the bullets were finished.

Then he took off the earmuffs, nodded at Li Yunhe and Zhang Zhimu and did not speak, meaning to agree with the opinion of the person in front of him.

Li Yunhe took a gun, got a **, and hit a ** in the same way. Then he went on another ** and said to Zhang Zhimu: "Mr. Zhang, let's go through the gun." Those of us who don't come to shoot for 10 days will get sick. ”

The technicians who came with him all laughed, and Zhang Zhimu also smiled and took the gun and said, "So you are going to infect me with the disease." ”

Everyone laughed even more.

Zhang Zhimu picked up the gun, feeling that it was better to aim than a semi-automatic rifle, aiming at a target and waiting until three o'clock in a line, Zhang Zhimu held his breath and pulled the trigger, feeling that the trigger was also lighter than the semi-automatic, and the recoil impact force of the ** shoulder was much smaller than that of the semi-automatic. Because of the earmuffs, it was impossible to compare the size of the gunshots, but Zhang Zhimu knew that the sound must be much quieter. In particular, the stability of the grab is better. Then Zhang Zhimu also finished the bullet according to the methods of other people. Although it was the first time to shoot this kind of gun, I basically learned from the people in front of me to finish the bullets at a similar pace.

Zhang Zhimu took off the earmuffs after playing. Li Yunhe asked, "How do you feel?" ”

Zhang Zhimu gave a thumbs up and said, "First-class good." ”

Li Yunhe said: "Okay, go to the interview outside, this is the real test." ”

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Calculus formulas, tables of chemical elements; Conquer Japan in the east and attack Mayi in the south; Penicillin, syringe. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".