Chapter 152: Making Clairvoyance

Hearing Zhang Zhimu mention the emperor's affairs, Chen Yufeng said with a smile: "We have done the emperor a great favor several times in a row. , starting from Kaifeng, to destroying the Mongol cavalry; cleared the bad merchants in Zhangjiakou and got millions of taels of silver for the emperor; This time, he helped him repel the Manchus. Without our help, they wouldn't know how to end up this time. Therefore, the emperor will not take the death of a few officials and soldiers seriously. I guess the emperor is thinking about us in the Forbidden City now. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "What Uncle Chen said is that I estimate that most of the Qing army will flee back this time, and those Ming troops will not desperately chase after them." ”

Chen Yufeng said with some puzzlement: "I still think that it would be good for us to destroy some more Qing troops at that time." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "At that time, it was possible to fight. But first, I don't want to die anymore, our elite soldiers have been trained, and they will all be seeds in the future; Second, I was thinking about what was left of them; Third, the most important thing is that our intention to contain the Qing army has been achieved, and if the Qing army is left to contain the emperor, the emperor will not take care of us. Now our situation is very delicate, our principle is to support the Ming Dynasty not to let him fall, they are here to support, we have a chance to develop. Otherwise, we will say that the north will not be able to hold it by our strength. That was the defense line that the Ming Dynasty spent millions of taels of silver every year and used the power of the whole country to maintain. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "What you said is that we must accelerate development, otherwise as soon as this situation is broken, we will be passive." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Yes, the position we are in is also very interesting. The grain produced here in Shanxi cannot support too many people, and grain, salt, etc. need to be transported. So if we are not strong enough, we must not turn against the court, and if that happens, they will not beat us, and we will be trapped to death. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "I'm most worried about the Shaanxi side, Li Zicheng is playing very hard over there, and it is estimated that there is enough choking." Now our Jin King of Shanxi is also a mediocre talent, but I don't know what happened to the Taiyuan General Army. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Although I have never seen the Taiyuan General Army, I am not optimistic about the situation of Shanxi's defense. I don't think it would be better for us to give Ningde, the garrison of Tongguan, some muskets, bows and crossbows, to strengthen his strength, which is equivalent to letting them guard the door for us. I think Ningde is a rare qualified general in the Ming Dynasty. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "I'm also optimistic about Ning's garrison, so let's add some weight to him." When we have an idea, it's also a living chess. ”

"I will give him 200 muskets first, 200 rounds of ammunition for each musket, 500 bullets, 200 bow mines, and 200 crossbow mines. Among them, half of the bullets are shotguns and half of the solid bullets, and half of the fire oil mines and explosive mines in the bow and crossbow mines. In this way, the power of Tongguan can be greatly strengthened. Zhang Zhimu said.

Chen Yufeng said: "It's better like this, if you don't have time, Ouyang He and I will go to Tongguan and visit Ningde." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "This is the best, you and Mr. Ouyang can also take a look at Tongguan together." The most important thing is to tell Ningde that if the war is tight, we are their backup. When you go this time, don't forget to bring 500 sheep with you, so that the soldiers of Tongguan will know that we support them. Let them impress us a little. ”

Chen Yufeng said with a smile: "I think you treat Tongguan as a kiln." ”

Zhang Zhimu also smiled and said: "If I want to gain a foothold in Shanxi and not be trapped to death, I must clear the customs." This winter, I got the steam engine on board. At the beginning of spring next year, we will strive for sea trials, and then our warships will be able to gallop at will. After the success of the steam engine, we will build a shipyard at Lingshui Pier, where we can build steel-hulled ships, and then no one will dare to mess with us. ”

Chen Yufeng asked: "Just that steam engine, can it really get the ship away?" The steel-hulled ship has not yet sunk under the water. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "The steam engine can drive a propeller, use the propeller to push the water, and the boat is gone. After speaking, Zhang Zhimu asked Yang Yulin to take a large bowl and a small bowl, then poured some water into the big bowl, and sat the small bowl on the water. The small bowl floated up. Zhang Zhimu pointed to the small bowl and said, "This is the steel-hulled ship." ”

Chen Yufeng is also a smart person, and he understood it at once, and said: "The ship will not sink if it is empty in the steel shell." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "This is buoyancy, and the magnitude of this buoyancy is equal to the weight of the water it distributes. ”

Chen Yufeng nodded and said, "If you use steel hulls to build ships, you won't be afraid of a few shots on the ship." When they encountered the wooden boats, they were smashed in one fell swoop. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "At that time, larger and more accurate artillery can be installed on the steel ship. This is the fortress of activity, so that on the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, no matter who occupies both sides of the river, whoever provokes us, we will bomb them flat. ”

Chen Yufeng's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said: "At that time, we will not be afraid of anyone blocking us, and we will go wherever we want." I said Zhimu, you can let go of other things and let others do it. You'll get this done, it's a big deal. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Okay, I know the importance of this matter. When our steamships are built, the wooden ships we transport from south to north can be towed by steamboats, so that our fleet will be fast and stable, regardless of the direction of the wind. ”

Zhang Zhimu and Chen Yufeng had another in-depth discussion on the major issues of the future development of the kiln. Emperor Chongzhen in the Forbidden City over there is also discussing national affairs with his ministers.

This time, Emperor Chongzhen was very happy and a little dissatisfied with the fact that he could repel the Qing army's entry into the customs. Happily, this time the Qing army was finally beaten away with a lot of face, and the white flag and the red flag were extinguished, and the commander of the Qing army, Abatai, and his four sons were all killed, which was an unprecedented victory since the Ming army and the Qing army fought; Unhappily, the Qing army had been defeated and fled by Zhang Zhimu, the prince and others, but the Ming troops who came from all over the country to support just didn't come forward and sent the Qing army out of the Great Wall.

This time, Emperor Chongzhen beheaded two general soldiers in a row, including one Zhongshu Provincial General Soldier. The general soldier of Zhongshu Province put the responsibility for not daring to fight the Qing army to Zhang Zhimu's caravan, and he reported to the imperial court that Zhang Zhimu had rebelled and killed hundreds of officers and soldiers, so he was delayed in sending troops to suppress him.

Chongzhen said that when he saw the report of the recital, he was angry. Even the ministers who have always promoted the general soldier of Zhongshu Province were so angry that they gritted their teeth, and they said in their hearts, "This general soldier is a fucking pig brain, and he messes around without knowing what the situation is." You should let us know before you play, we know this, and we will definitely help you to suppress this performance, and you won't die without knowing how to die. It seems that this guy is clever by himself, and he thinks that he can find an excuse for his cowardice by reporting the news of the anti-thief to the imperial court. Emperor Chongzhen said softly: "When you are in battle, take this person quickly, send him to the Criminal Department for detention first, and confiscate the door." When all the other offenders are brought to the battle, they will be punished together. ”

These people who can discuss with Emperor Chongzhen are his close ministers, and some people say: "This Zhang Zhimu, if he kills the officials and soldiers, it is also a rebellion." ”

Emperor Chongzhen snorted with his nose and said, "Even if there is a real conflict, I can imagine that it was caused by these people who want to rob other people's things." Don't you know what kind of people they are? When encountering the Qing army hiding far away, it was obviously a group of defeated criminals who fled in the wilderness, but they did not dare to step forward, and they would be like wolves and tigers when they encountered the people. That Zhang Zhimu was holding the bronze medal in his hand, and they didn't let it go, did they blame Zhang Zhimu for being unkind to them. It was this Zhang Zhimu who beat the Qing army away, these generals had heavy troops, but they didn't do anything, and they were embarrassed to play. I want to ask, that Zhang Zhimu really rebelled, as a general soldier, why didn't he chase and suppress, but he came here to make excuses for himself, I didn't expect that a general soldier of my dignified Ming Dynasty would be so ridiculous and ridiculous. ”

But there are also uninteresting ministers who say: "Your Majesty, we can't watch this Zhang Zhimu become big." ”

Chongzhen became even more angry when he heard this, he knew that these people were not capable of dealing with the Qing army, Zhang Zhimu showed his face and they were jealous, and said: "Without this Zhang Zhimu, Li Zicheng would have hit Beijing City a long time ago; Without Zhang Zhimu, the Mongol cavalry to the north did not know when to be harmed; Without this, Zhang Zhimu is still rampant in my Ming Dynasty. Without this Zhang Zhimu, you important ministers of the court, which one of you has the means to do something for me. You are all important ministers of the court, why are you so small-bellied, you don't do things yourself, and you are jealous and uncomfortable when you see others doing things. ”

Chongzhen was really angry, and his words were almost like scolding. These ministers couldn't hold their heads up when Chongzhen said this time.

Chongzhen felt that it was not enough, and said: "This Zhang Zhimu has only a few thousand people in total, not to mention those princes and ministers in my court, let's just say that there are not thousands of people in those rich and big families." Is that called big? Zhang Zhimu's musket looks like a long time ago, so let's make it according to it. But after all this time, where are our muskets? You know that you are jealous. Why don't you want to think about how people break the enemy. Thousands of them went to touch the Qing army, and I was worried at first, but you look at how they did it. To be honest, without Zhang Zhimu's help, we wouldn't have been able to pay our New Year's salary this year. ”

None of these ministers dared to say anything more. They also heard it, this Zhang Zhimu suddenly appeared on the battlefield, the emperor knew it, and at this time, some people said that Zhang Zhimu was not good, and it was really a bad thing.

There was a guy who didn't shoot to death and said: "According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Zhimu's mercenary is guilty of a felony with a firearm." ”

Chongzhen didn't expect that there would be such a fool among these so-called important ministers.

Chongzhen is very calm now, and said: "Can you still remember, counting this time, the Qing army broke the wall and entered the customs several times. ”

The ministers below didn't know what the emperor meant, so they didn't speak.

Chongzhen also wanted them to answer this question, and he continued: "I remember clearly, five times in total, and I have always wanted to change this situation.

The first time was in the second year of this dynasty: Huang Taiji entered the customs from Xifengkou. They successively attacked Zunhua, Yongping, Luanzhou, Qian'an, and other border cities such as Kemalanyu, Hanerzhuang, Panjiakou, and Hongshankou. And we are the Shanhaiguan general soldier Zhao Shujiao was beheaded by Azige, and the governor Wang Yuanya hanged himself, that is, this time we killed Yuan Chonghuan, the general soldier Man Gui died in battle, and the general soldiers Heiyunlong and Ma Dengyun were captured and surrendered

The second time was in the seventh year of this dynasty: the Huang Taiji soldiers were divided into four routes, with Datong and Xuanhua as the main direction of attack, and broke through the pass respectively. This time, they did not attack the city, but only plundered in the villages and forts, and penetrated deep into the central part of Shanxi and the northern part of Hebei. As a result, the local defenders along the way either abandoned the city and fled, or closed the city gates, allowing the enemy army to plunder the population and transport goods. Later, the Jin soldiers were like entering a no-man's land, shuttling back and forth between our state capital Taibao. Our greatest force loss was the death of more than 1,000 people of the Ming army, Chang Ruzhong and the left guard.

The third time was in the ninth year of the present dynasty: commanded by Azig, he rushed to northern Hebei in three ways, entered Dushikou, and eight days later, defeated the Ming army seven times in Yanqing County, Beijing, and captured 13,230 people and animals. The Qing army entered Juyong Pass through Yanqing to take Changping, the general soldier of the defending city Chao Pichang surrendered, Deling was burned by the Qing army, and the army approached Beijing Xizhimen. After the Qing army plundered around the capital, they entered Dingxing, Xiafangshan, fought Zhuozhou, attacked Gu'an, Kewen'an, broke Baodi, killed Zhao Guoding of Zhixian County, trapped Shunyi, and committed suicide in Shangguanxun of Zhixian County. The Qing army went to Huairou, occupied the west of the river, and stationed troops in Miyun and Pinggu, and within a month, 'ravaged all over the country', the former Guanglu Temple Shaoqing Lu Shan Jiyi and Zhizhou Xue Yi'e died in battle. The Qing army conquered 12 cities, won 56 battles, and won 179,800 men and animals. On August 20, the Qing army retreated. On September 1, the Qing army carried 180,000 people and a large number of materials and their plundered calmly out of the cold mouth, 'Ju Yan decorated the ride, played music and returned triumphantly', and it took four days for all the Qing army units to get out of the pass.

The fourth time is the eleventh year of this dynasty: commanded by Dolgon, the soldiers are divided into two roads, respectively from the wall Ziling and Qingshan Pass to destroy the border wall and enter, the Miyun governor Wu Aheng was killed in a hurry, the two armies moved to An, passed Fengrun, met in Tongzhou, along the Taihang Mountain and the canal, divided the army into eight roads, and attacked westward. The six towns and cities that passed along the way were all plundered. The Qing army penetrated deep into the southern part of Hebei, connected Guangping, Shunde, Daming and other places, and then turned to Shandong, bypassed Dezhou, and rendezvoused under the city of Jinan, and within one day, broke through the city of Jinan. Jinan was plundered, and then 16 other towns in Shandong were attacked. After that, Dolgon led his army to Tianjinwei, crossed the canal and returned to Liaodong. This time, the Qing army defeated 57 formations of our Ming army, conquered Jinan Mansion, 3 prefectures, 55 counties, and 2 passes, killed two governors and more than 100 generals above the garrison, and captured Zhu Youshu, the king of Germany, Zhu Ciying, the king of the county, Zhu Cisheng, the general of Fengguo, and Feng Zhuqing, the eunuch of the supervising army, etc., and obtained 462,300 taels of people and animals, 4,039 taels of gold, and 977,460 taels of silver. Inspector Lu Xiang was martyred. ”

Emperor Chongzhen breathed a sigh of relief, without any pause, and told the Qing army about the entry of the Qing army into the customs several times. How could the ministers not know about these things? They all lowered their heads when Chongzhen said.

Looking at them like this, Chongzhen continued; "These few times have made my Ming Dynasty lose face and lose its vitality. I thought that this time I would repeat the mistakes of the past, and that my subjects would be hurt again. But it was this Zhang Zhimu who reversed the situation. I think after the Qing army leaves, you will definitely have a good night's sleep yesterday. ”

Only then did the ministers nod their heads and say; "yes, I only dared to sleep well yesterday."

Chongzhen then said: "Yes, I slept well yesterday, and today I will come to break it so that you can sleep well and feel like people." You are all heroes of my Ming Dynasty, but there is no shortage of loyal ministers in our dynasty, sinners like Zhang Zhimu, and sinners who can solve problems for the court. ”

At this moment, the ministers all knew that this Zhang Zhimu could not be provoked. This person who killed hundreds of officers and soldiers in a row will be fine after killing. This is unique in the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Chongzhen understands very well that this is the general soldier of Zhongshu Province who saw that Zhang Zhimu had seized too much and wanted to rob it, but he didn't expect to run into hard stubble.

Judging from the battle report from Hejian News, they took over Zhang Zhimu and handed over twenty or thirty stone of grain and countless tent vehicles at once. But there is no softness, and this Zhang Zhimu must have gained a lot.

When the prince left Zhang Zhimu and began to chase the fleeing Qing army, it was smooth at first. The prince sent letters to the general garrison everywhere, and all the places also replied that they would send troops immediately. But when they were about to catch up with Jixian County, the reinforcements had not yet arrived, and the angry prince stomped his feet and scolded. But there is no way, he knows that the 20,000 people he organized can fight a good fight, and if he fights hard, he will be scattered all of a sudden. There was no choice but to adopt the method of tail chasing, small fights, and clean up the rear team of the Qing army a little bit with more to less.

However, not long after this prince left Zhang Zhimu to lead the team to chase him out, he felt a little bit of this Zhang Zhimu's mistake, these Qing soldiers all fled lightly, then their things were all lost, Zhang Zhimu must have gone to something.

Later, with the cooperation of the troops they left to guard Jixian County, these Qing troops retreated from the original road Huangyakou.

After the prince returned to the capital and reported the whole thing, of course he overemphasized the role of the 20,000 people he had brought with him. Therefore, Chongzhen came to a conclusion that Zhang Zhimu still relied on sneak attacks and other clever tricks to win, without the 20,000 horses brought by the prince, he could not fight a big battle, just like the pursuit of such a battle he did not dare to fight, he was afraid of the dead. The other man was a merchant and was very greedy for money. So such people, who do not have great ambitions, can be exploited but not worried.

In fact, he can't help it now, without Zhang Zhimu's help, Chongzhen's heart is no longer steady.

When he began to polish the lens, Zhang Zhimu said to the three of them: "Let's go to make glass blanks today, which is the basic material for grinding lenses, and there is nothing to talk about without glass." So how do we choose the size of the glass? A handful of cases is that the thickness of the glass is one-sixth of the caliber. Each lens should use two pieces of glass, one flat as the main mirror and the other as the template tool. Now we need to make a lens with a diameter of 10 cm, we need to make a glass with a thickness of 1.7 cm and a diameter of 10 cm, which is the size of the objective glass, and the size of the eyepiece is 2 cm, so the thickness of the glass should be 0.4 cm. In order to make it easier for the glass of the eyepiece to stay 0.5 cm for a long time, or a little thicker, it is fine. ”

The three people who are a little older are in their thirties, named Sun Liang, and the other two are in their twenties, one is called Liu San and the other is called Zhao Feng. Zhang Zhimu asked Sun Liang to be the head of the three of them.

Sun Liang said: "Do we have to make glass molds ourselves? ”

Zhang Zhimu liked them very much, and said: "There is nothing ready-made, everything has to be done by ourselves." ”

"Then let's go back and make a few molds, and then we'll go make glass." Sun Liang said.

Zhang Zhimu said: "Okay, come to me when you're done." ”

The three of them left, and Yang Yulin went into the back room to pour water for Zhang Zhimu. Zhang Zhimu was thirsty, so he took the water and drank it.

Yang Yulin didn't go out after pouring water this time, cleaned up the things on the table for Zhang Zhimu, and pretended to ask Zhang Zhimu inadvertently while cleaning up Yang Yulin: "Mr. Zhang, did they tell you about that?" ”

Zhang Zhimu asked puzzledly: "What's the matter?" ”

Yang Yulin didn't look back at Zhang Zhimu, and hurriedly said, "It's nothing, I'm just asking if there's something wrong." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "It's strange, if you want to ask something, just say it." What are you talking about. ”

Yang Yulin hurriedly said that it was okay and went out.

When Yang Yulin came out, Zhang Zhimu was startled. thought to himself: "Could it be that what Huang Yukun said about letting me marry Yang Yulin is true?" Are they already ventilated? Otherwise, with Yang Yulin's character, she wouldn't be like this. ”

However, Zhang Zhimu really doesn't have the heart to marry again, and now he feels that it is not enough to separate a few bodies, although he likes Yang Yulin very much, he is not a person who is not tempted to see beautiful women. As soon as a woman like Yang Yulin came to him, he had a heart-warming feeling.

At this time, he suddenly remembered that Liu also asked him to see the repertoire they were rehearsing. It happened that he was okay now, so he left the office and came to Lu Chengxiang's office first, and asked Lu Chengxiang to take out all the leather goods brought to the people from the south. Zhang Zhimu told Lu Chengxiang: "Immediately ask Huang Yukun to arrange for people from the south to make a decent leather suit for each person." ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "I've been thinking about this, but I forgot about it when I was busy. I'll arrange it right away. ”

Zhang Zhimu picked out the leather clothes made of lambskin that he bought for Xiao Hongyu and several actresses, and asked people to help him carry them and came to the rehearsal hall of the troupe. The newly built rehearsal hall is very spacious and very warm, and the head of the Liu class is leading everyone to rehearse, and when he saw Zhang Zhimu coming, he asked everyone to stop. These people who stopped immediately gathered around Zhang Zhimu, who hadn't seen everyone for a long time.

Zhang Zhimu said: "I'm killing Hukou to buy a few pieces for everyone." I bought it for everyone at my estimated size, so let's try it and see if it's suitable. Zhang Zhimu gave the clothes he bought to Xiao Hongyu and them. The actors were a little dissatisfied, and said, "It's better to be a woman, someone hurts." ”

Zhang Zhimu also smiled and said, "I also bought men's clothes, and Huang Yukun and they will come over in the next few days and tailor them for you." Otherwise, everyone may not fit in so many sizes. With leather clothes, you southerners can have a little better winter. ”

At this time, Xiao Hongyu came over wearing the newly bought lambskin clothes and said, "Mr. Zhang, what you said is not entirely right. In fact, the winter in our kiln is much better than in the south, there is heating, the room is too comfortable, and the winter in our south is cold, and there is nowhere to hide. It's just that when I go outside, I used to wear that kind of bulky and heavy sheepskin clothes, which is too ugly. Now it's okay, you see. ”

Saying that, Xiaohong took a turn in this lambskin jacket covered with a joke. This dress was really bought by Zhang Zhimu according to Xiao Hongyu's figure by imagination, not only with a leather jacket but also with a leather skirt. This set is worn on Xiaohong's body, and it fits very well and is also very beautiful.

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By the way, I recommend "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty", similar to this article, it is also a "technology flow" through the novel, but it takes place in the Southern Song Dynasty, Yashan, Anti-Yuan, Restoration, and European World Wars