Chapter 162 Supporting Emperor Chongzhen Preparing to go north

Just after the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the year of the kiln gang people has not yet ended, and Li Gonggong took people to the kiln gang. He didn't go to Zhang Zhimu first, and came directly to the command center. Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He had already begun to study the fact that they were about to go north at the beginning of spring. Seeing that Gonggong Li was coming, Chen Yufeng asked: "I said Gonggong Li, you are not in the capital for the New Year, what are you doing here?" ”

"Oops! How can I have a good life for the New Year. Gonggong Li sighed and said, "The emperor is in a hurry, let me send a letter to Zhang Dongjia." Hurry up and ask Zhang Dongjia to take the order! ”

Ouyang He had no choice but to call Zhang Zhimu, and after Zhang Zhimu came over to receive the order, he took a letter from Gonggong Li, and opened it to see that it was a secret letter written by Emperor Chongzhen himself.

Zhang Zhimu asked people to arrange Gonggong Li and them to rest in the guest room first. Please come to Li Zhi and translate the letter.

It seems that Emperor Chongzhen is really in a hurry. He said that it was not because he was untrustworthy to let the officials in Shanxi return to various places last year, but because it was the idea of those civil officials, and he could not ignore the opinions of the ministers, and asked Zhang Dongjia not to mind. Next year, Zhang Dongjia will send people out of the customs to defend against the enemy, and he has already issued an order to kill Hukou, Datong, and Zhangjiakou, so that they can cooperate with you to enter and exit the checkpoint at any time, and there must be no embarrassment. However, please don't relax your vigilance against thieves, he is a big trouble for the imperial court. Of course, it is also said that Zhang Dongjia is now the mainstay of the Ming Dynasty, and hopes that Zhang Dongjia will send troops to suppress thieves if he has the conditions to eliminate permanent troubles. As for some people saying that the Yaogang people had destroyed the border defense by building the railway through the outer three passes, I thought that Zhang Dongjia was more useful in Shanxi than 30 passes, and there was also a saying that Zhang Dongjia was suspected of plotting against Hukou to buy land at the border passes, and I thought that this was Zhang Dongjia's preparation for the battle out of the customs. Zhang Dongjia has done enough for the imperial court, and the rumors and rumors of the imperial court are borne by you, so you can boldly let go and do things, and don't pay attention to them. I believe that Zhang Dongjia can make the people of Yaogang live a good life and treat the people of Shanxi well. Now the imperial court's Taichang treasury is empty, and the military salaries and grain of the border soldiers have not been paid so far, and I am very worried. Please ask Zhang Dongjia to lend a helping hand if the situation permits. The threat from the north is the threat of extinction, and I feel that it is too important to take lightly. Please ask Zhang Dongjia to help as appropriate.

After Ouyang He finished reading Emperor Chongzhen's letter, Zhang Zhimu and Chen Yufeng were silent. There is really no way for an emperor to write a letter like this.

Chen Yufeng, who drank a little water, said: "Zhimu, the Qing soldiers still have to rely on Emperor Chongzhen to support them, we can't ignore it, with the support of the emperor, what we do is justified, these forces, can really be better with us, and the emperor." ”

Zhang Zhimu nodded and said: "With the imperial court here, the Manchu Qing Dynasty still dare not go all out to enter the customs." I think in this way, the pressure we should put on the emperor has already worked, and I still have to help the emperor. We will give the emperor another 500,000 taels of silver and 5 million yuan of kiln coins. 2,000 muskets and 200,000 musket bullets. Ignited ** 20,000 pieces. The weapon was given to Wu Sangui in Shanhaiguan. With these weapons, Wu Sangui can also withstand it for a while. What do you think? ”

"I think it's okay, this is also to tell the emperor, as long as we don't make small moves, we can give him silver." Ouyang He said: "But let's not be confused by the emperor's Son of Heaven's technique, we still do what we think." ”

"In addition to these, you should also give the emperor some silver for himself. These are all directly into the Taichang Treasury, and the emperor himself has to work hard with some silver. Chen Yufeng said.

"By the way, we still try our best to have a good relationship with Emperor Chongzhen. I think I will give the emperor a million yuan of kiln coins, give it to the emperor in a box, and then write a secret letter to tell him that it is for his own use. Zhang Zhimu said.

After the three of them discussed, they invited Lu Chengxiang over and told him about it, Lu Chengxiang didn't say anything else, and asked, "When will you use it?" ”

"Will you do it early tomorrow morning?" Zhang Zhimu asked.

"No problem, I'll wait early tomorrow morning." Lu Chengxiang said.

Ouyang He was happy and asked, "Mr. Lu is so happy today?" ”

"Hey! What should be spent will be spent. What should be saved will be saved. I've got something to go back to!" Lu Chengxiang finished speaking and left.

Ouyang He wrote a letter to Emperor Chongzhen in the tone of Zhang Zhimu and asked Li Zhi to translate it into a cipher. Then he sent someone to invite Gonggong Li over.

As soon as Gonggong Li came in, Zhang Zhimu said: "I originally wanted to invite Gonggong Li to spend the New Year in Yaogang, but the emperor's affairs cannot be delayed, so please go back to Beijing immediately and escort back the silver that the emperor needs." ”

When Gonggong Li heard Zhang Zhimu's words, his mouth opened in shock, and he asked, "Give the emperor the silver?" ”

"Yes! You've got to work hard. I will give each of your people ten taels of silver tomorrow, and it will not be easy for you to close the road due to the heavy snow for the New Year. Zhang Zhimu said, "You will come tomorrow morning!" ”

"I thank Zhang Dongjia for the emperor."

"It's not your turn to thank you for this! Come here early tomorrow morning. Zhang Zhimu said.

The next day, Gonggong Li came over with someone, and they didn't expect Zhang Zhimu to take out so much silver at once. He thought to himself, the emperor's secret letter was too powerful, he didn't know what it was, and people gave him so much money at once. Let's be careful to send the money back to Beijing! This time, the emperor won't scold himself.

In the end, Zhang Dongjia handed him a wooden box with his own hands, told him that he must not open it, and handed him a coded letter. Zhang Zhimu told Gonggong Li that these must be handed over to the emperor by hand.

Gonggong Li nodded and said, "Don't worry about Zhang Dongjia, I haven't been ambiguous about anything." ”

Zhang Zhimu also believes in this.

Seeing Gonggong Li leave, Chen Yufeng said: "The emperor can hold up for a while again!" ”

"Half a year!" Ouyang He said.

Within fifteen, the kiln people had already begun to get busy.

The first thing was that the command center sent someone with a radio transmitter to Li Mao and sent them over. Two radio transmitters were sent to Li Mao, Wuluo Island, Hongze Lake, Huai'an, and Xuzhou. Because they are far away from Shanxi, there is a problem with a transmitter and it will not delay things when there is an emergency. Of course, the transmitter travels by land. They went north to the Yellow River, east to Wuzhi, then crossed the Yellow River to Kaifeng, and then passed through Xuzhou to Huai'an and Yangzhou.

Zhang Zhimu knew that it would be great if he could keep in touch with Li Mao and them in real time, they were alone, without the protection of the army, and they were now under the complete control of the imperial court. If one day the imperial court and the kiln gang people completely fell out, their fate would be in danger. It would be much more convenient to keep in touch with a telegram, and troops could be mobilized for defense at any time.

Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He had already done their best to deal with the fact that Kaichun was about to set out for the expedition.

That's when the railroad comes into play. Despite the heavy snowfall, the railroad was easily cleared and passable. Now the grain and other materials prepared for the customs are transported by rail to Niutou Mountain and the place where it branches to the north. Lu Chengxiang and the others set up a temporary camp there to store materials. In the future, it will save a lot of distance from there to kill Hukou.

Now on the railway, the train can run more than 40 kilometers per hour, and it takes more than three hours to reach from Yaogang to Niutoushan. Because the driver is familiar with the road conditions, he also dares to drive the speed of the train boldly. It's a little faster on the way back, because it's a bit more downhill on the way back.

After the fifteenth year, the workers who repaired the railway in the kiln began to be dispatched. The sheds on both sides of the railway from Yaogang to Niutoushan were demolished and transported by train to the temporary freight yard on the other side of Niutoushan, and then transported by horse-drawn carriage to the allocated section.

Soon the sound of the rock cannon sounded on the construction site. This time, a lot of ** was distributed to the construction site, and if there is a place that is not easy to open, you can lay a good blast hole and blow it up with **. In this way, the construction speed is much faster. Otherwise, it takes a lot of effort for workers to use a pickaxe to cut a small mountain beam, and it will be much more accommodating with **. Just blow up the loose soil and gravel and transport it away.

Regarding the industrial production of Yaogang, Zhang Zhimu gathered Lu Bingyi, Li Yunhe, and Lu Qi together and studied them carefully. Zhang Zhimu's suggestion is to set up several professional branches and make each branch professional, so that it is easy to make your own products more refined. For example, a special standard parts factory has been set up to produce various standard parts. Set up a special bearing factory, instrument factory and other subdivided branches.

Li Yunhe also said: "In the past, the conditions were not available, so we had to make do with those few machines and equipment. Now that there are conditions, they have separated their respective duties, and it is convenient to manage. ”

"I also agree to do this, their own product is single, and they can seriously study it. We also encourage people to improve and innovate their own products. All industries should pay more attention to cultivating talents. Lu Bingyi said.

Lu Qi also thinks that Zhang Zhimu is right, he said: "We not only have a special production plant for these small parts, but also our special production equipment. For example, the textile and knitting equipment we engage in are too special. They should be separated, and they should be called knitting machinery branches. Such a knitting machinery factory can report to the head office according to its own production plan, and the demand for standard parts and steel motors required for production. According to this line of thinking, our entire production will gradually become planned. ”

Lu Bingyi said happily: "I also think that our production has always been very disorderly, and we have always wanted to have a solution. This is an idea, and in the future, our plan will start from the needs of the upper level and implement it little by little. Such a rough plan is there. ”

"Yes, but for now this is still a goal, our industrial production system is not perfect, and it will take a process to fully achieve the full plan. However, we can now separate the branches that can be independent. Zhang Zhimu knows that only professional production efficiency can be improved.

After discussing this matter, Lu Qi reported on the preparations for the kiln cement plant.

Lu Qi is still very satisfied with his team, "The design of our production equipment is basically completed, of course, there will be a lot of things that need to be improved this time." We also left a lot of room for improvement in the design process. The infrastructure construction of our cement plant began last year. The narrow-gauge lane on the side of the lime mine has been built, and the blasted limestone can be transported directly to the crushing plant by narrow-gauge car for crushing. The coal dump is ready to erect a conveyor belt to send the coal directly to the coal shredder for crushing. Other infrastructure can be continued. After the railway is opened, my large steel equipment will be transported in, otherwise it will be too difficult to transport those things due to the existing road conditions. ”

Lu Bingyi said: "Duan Jingzhong, they are focusing on your railway and highway and are conducting a raid. A shunting yard we built in the east of Yaogang is under construction. This is for our locomotive. As soon as the railroad is opened, this shunting yard must also be put into use. ”

Zhang Zhimu put forward another suggestion for everyone, "This year, we will also strive to smelt the metal chromium and nickel metal." ”

"Can you tell me about the use of chromium and nickel?" Li Yunhe was interested in what Zhang Zhimu said.

"Metallic chromium is extremely hard, and if we can coat the barrel of our guns and the breech of our guns with a thin layer of metallic chromium, then the life will be greatly increased. And although our rigid iron is very hard, he has a problem that it is easy to rust. But if we add chromium and nickel, we can produce stainless steel that doesn't rust. And the reason why electric heating is not popular now is that we have been using tungsten alloy as heating resistance wires, which is not only valuable, but also not strong enough. However, if we use metal chromium and metal nickel alloy as resistance wires, then our electric heating will soon become popular. Zhang Zhimu said.

"There's a question, where are we going to find these two ores, and how do we smelt them?" Lu Bingyi asked.

"To be honest, I don't know how to smelt. As for how to find ores containing these elements, I think we have time to invite our prospecting team and Master Qingfengzi together, and we will study how to do this. In my opinion, our prospecting team is responsible for taking the samples back, and Master Qingfengzi is responsible for identifying the elements we are looking for. ”

After listening to Zhang Zhimu's introduction, Lu Bingyi, Li Yunhe, and Lu Qi were all very interested. Lu Bingyi said: "If there is steel that does not rust, then the things made can be worth silver." ”

Li Yunhe said: "In the future, if our barrels can be chrome-plated, we don't necessarily have to use such good steel." The life of the barrel is extended, which is equivalent to more production and robbery. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "You still don't know, if nickel is added to the steel in the future, the tensile strength will increase a lot." In the future, if we want to build a suspension bridge, we can use wire ropes made of nickel steel. ”

"Tell me what a suspension bridge is?" Li Yunhe is in spirit again.

Zhang Zhimu also knew that he had said too much, and hurriedly said: "I'll tell you when we get the nickel out." ”

The first telegram sent back by Li Mao made Zhang Zhimu very happy.

First of all, he expressed his great pleasure at having such a wireless telegraphy. At the same time, he told his family that he had already gone to Jiujiang and Wuchang again, and that Zuo Liangyu and Zhang Xianzhong were very welcome to the Yaogang people to open a branch with them, and they both agreed to establish a ticket number there. However, Zhang Xianzhong did not allow the use of kiln gang coins there, and Zuo Liangyu did not object.

Now several tugboats and barges to Zhenjiang have opened an irregular route from Changsha to Zhenjiang Yangtze River passenger and cargo transportation. There are many Changsha businessmen who have not been out for a long time, and they have boldly come out on our passenger boat. There are also many people who say that after the river is opened in the north, they will go to Yaogang to have a look.

At the same time, Li Mao asked to prepare some more radio stations, and he was going to equip the branches in Changsha, Jiujiang, Wuchang, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou with radio stations. However, Li Mao stressed that the matter of wireless telegraphy must be kept secret, and the longer the time it is kept secret, the better. In order to cover up the wireless telegraphy, the local branches continued to keep carrier pigeons, so that the outside world thought that we still used carrier pigeons for communication.

As for the attack on Wuluo Island, it is still unclear whether it was an isolated incident or a premeditated incident. Because the captured soldiers were on orders to carry out their missions, interrogation did not yield much useful information.

The telegraph for Fan Chengkun and his ships was also equipped with two radio stations on each ship, one of which was in telegraph voice duplex mode. Although the Fenhe River has not yet been civilized, Fan Chengkun and Mu Yi installed the radio on the ship early. For them, being able to communicate with the ships by radio is a good thing that they could never dream of. In the past, it was too difficult to communicate with the sound of flags and drums, and the distance of communication was too close. Now I don't have to worry about distance at all. However, Mu Yi said to Fan Chengkun: "Commander, I feel a little confused now, how we will fight in the future will have to be carefully studied, how to make good use of our technological advantages is really a problem." ”

Fan Chengkun also said: "Lao Mu and I are the same. Mr. Zhang told me about this radio station before, and I thought it was very far away. I didn't expect it to be like a dream, we used it so quickly. ”

Shi Tao said: "With wireless telegraphy, we can accept the timing of the kiln at any time, and we will not affect our positioning accuracy because of the inaccurate clock." ”

Fan Chengkun and the others were equipped with a radio, and Liu Yun and his army were also informing all divisions and regiments to send people to learn how to use radio. What Ouyang He demanded was that each regiment should be equipped with a radio station. Yangchang has several kinds of radio stations this time, small people can walk on their backs, and high-power ones can also be carried by horses. Of course, Li Yunhe also prepared a lot of radio communication vehicles and command vehicles this time. According to Liu Yun's suggestion, a lot of four-wheeled carriages with roof platforms were built. Heavy machine guns can be mounted on the roof platform, and there are flaps on either side of the heavy machine gunner to prevent arrows. Because the grass is too high on the grassland, such a roof platform can raise the muzzle of the heavy machine gun on the grass, and the firing range is open on the grassland, which is most convenient for cavalry shooting.

Zhang Zhimu is still very satisfied with the efficiency of the kiln people, and after the New Year, all the people are very busy. Zhang Zhimu felt that he should find time to work on semiconductors.

In fact, there is still a lot of room for development of electron tubes, but in the previous life, electron tubes have been basically replaced by semiconductor devices. Although some high-power transmitters still use electronic tubes, electronic tubes have long been a sunset industry. Yaogang should not take the road of semiconductors after completing the road of the tube, but should take a shortcut directly. However, semiconductors have high requirements for material storage technology, so it is not as easy as an electron tube to achieve immediate results. But this hurdle must be passed.

When I remembered that when I was studying semiconductors in school, I didn't expect that I would be able to use those carriers for hole conduction. However, many things have not been used since graduation, and they have almost forgotten about it. You need to write out the textbook while pondering and recalling. Zhang Zhimu thought that with his own theoretical guidance, the kiln people should have a direction and should take a lot of detours.

Only a breakthrough in semiconductor technology is it possible to talk about real information technology, and this matter first needs to be attended by Master Qingfengzi. It is necessary for Master Qingfengzi to send a few capable disciples to participate, and it is also necessary for a few people who are engaged in electronics to participate together. Zhang Zhimu suddenly thought of the few people who were drawn out to engage in digital technology, and there would not be much progress in digital technology for the time being, so he asked them and Qingfengzi's disciples to form a semiconductor technology research laboratory. Wait for a breakthrough in semiconductor technology, and then engage in digital technology. Anyway, I won't go to build a computer the size of a building.

Zhang Zhimu hadn't figured out how to tell Qingfengzi about these things that needed Qingfengzi's participation, but Qingfengzi called Zhang Zhimu first to ask him to go to Yaogang Academy.

Zhang Zhimu didn't know what Qingfengzi had discovered.

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The Song army occupied Hokkaido, and Yuankou landed on the island of Kyushu. Opening up the Japanese battlefield. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".