Chongzhen twenty-three years of summer and April

Fang Yuan, Zhu Cunji, King of Qin, and Zhu Yihai, King of Lu, reached a tripartite alliance to disintegrate the Ming clan, and the goal of the northern forces has been achieved.

During the four-month peace talks, Xiao Yuan's body has gradually recovered and he continues to take over the independent accounting team. After a rebellion, she never had an awkward relationship with the princess again, and succeeded Fang He to the princess as a son. But Fang He's daily life still lives with Xiaoyuan.

The princess reciprocated by recognizing Fang He's identity as the regent and making Fang He begin to receive professional imperial training.

Fang He's teacher candidate, Mao Bijiang recommended a total of two candidates, both of whom are members of the Restoration Society, one is Huang Zongxi, and the other is Fang Yizhi. Huang Zongxi is a great Confucian in the south of the Yangtze River, and Fang Yizhi and Mao Bijiang are the four sons of the late Ming Dynasty.

Fang Yuan and the princess jointly analyzed the candidates for the two princes, Huang Zongxi advocated the importance of business and agriculture, opposed the selection of talents through a single channel of the imperial examination, and even had the ideological proposition of light monarchy democracy. The princess did not agree to such a thorn to be Fang He's teacher, so as not to teach Fang He badly.

But Fang Yuan has a different opinion, the cultivation of Fang and this heir must be this Huang Zongxi, although his temperament is not good, but the three core ideas advocated coincide with Fang Yuan, and they are always better than those rotten Confucians who only emphasize Confucianism.

At Fang Yuan's insistence, Huang Zongxi was appointed as Fang He's teacher.

As for Fang Yizhi, he is a progressive intellectual who advocates both Chinese and Western values, and is a student of Western priests such as John Tang, and has good attainments in astronomy, geography, and Western science, which is also in line with Fang Yuan's preferences. Fang Yuan also appointed Fang Yizhi to enter the palace as Fang He's speaker.

During this period, Chen Yuanyuan also gave birth to a son for Fang Yuan, named Fang Xin. Because Chen Yuanyuan was a native of Suzhou, Fang Yuan gave Fang Xin the title of knight, the king of Kunshan County, and the fief was 50,000 acres of land under the name of Suzhou Mansion and Kunshan County.

And Chen Yuanyuan gave birth to an heir, promoted to the palace concubine, and Xiaoyuan is the same identity, has his own courtyard, and also sends ten maids to serve.

Now Fang He is the heir of the princess and the candidate for the prince regent, and the princess's promise to Chen Yuanyuan can only be declared invalid. Fang Yuan's title to Fang Xin was the county king, which means that Fang Xin was just an ordinary county king and was not in the list of heirs.

Chen Yuanyuan knew that his status was low, and he had no ambitions for the position of the prince and no thoughts, so he could officially become the concubine of the regent palace and seek a title of county king for his son, 50,000 acres of land, which was far beyond her expectations.

Chen Yuanyuan happily accepted this title, and Chong Fangyuan and the princess thanked him again and again.

After the housekeeping of the palace was completed, Fang Yuan left Suzhou again and went to live in Fengyang. Because the official mainly presides over the affairs of the palace, Xiaoyuan has to be responsible for the affairs of the independent accounting group, and Chen Yuanyuan has to stay to take care of his newborn son Fang Xin.

Without a woman by his side, Fang Yuan wanted to have no distractions and devote all his thoughts to the Northern Expedition.

The biggest enemy of the Northern Expedition was undoubtedly Sun Chuanting in Shandong, as long as Sun Chuanting's headquarters could be defeated, the road to the capital would be smooth.

The most powerful troops in Sun Chuanting's department were two troops, one was a 70,000-strong new-style Ming army, and the other was a 20,000-strong train battalion.

The 70,000-style Ming army is dominated by infantry, and the only thing that can restrain the 70,000-style new-style Ming army is the most sophisticated Xuanjia iron cavalry.

But Sun Chuanting obviously noticed that the shortcomings of the Ming army were in the cavalry, so he created a train battalion dedicated to restraining cavalry. This kind of train battalion can form a circle formation in twos and threes to resist the charge of cavalry. The infantry, on the other hand, was in a circular formation, annihilating the cavalry outside the formation with artillery and firearms.

Therefore, when they really went to the battlefield, what the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry had to face was by no means a single new-style Ming army, but the coordinated operation of the new-style Ming army and the train battalion. If a single Xuanjia Iron Cavalry wants to forcibly break through the formation, it will inevitably suffer heavy losses. Historically, Sun Chuanting's department did not have this new-style Ming army, and the train battalion alone formed a huge pressure on the cavalry that broke into the army. In the bad weather of heavy rain for several days, it was able to break through the three formations of the invading army in a row, until the most elite elite cavalry of the invading army attacked, and this train battalion was defeated.

If Sun Chuanting had this 70,000-strong new-style Ming army coordinated with the train battalion at that time, it would have been Li Zicheng who would have been defeated. In other words, now let Li Zicheng go to Sun Chuanting, it can be said that he will definitely lose.

In order to break through Sun Chuanting's train battalion and the new-style Ming army, we must not pin our hopes for victory on the rain of the heavenly father. Moreover, Fang Yuan's Xuanjia army had long been accustomed to the way of musket combat, and if it really rained, I didn't know if it was the other party's original benefit or Sun Chuanting's benefit.

Therefore, to deal with Sun Chuanting, the existing military strength of the Xuanjia Army, even if it wins, it will be a disastrous victory. At that time, it will not be the Northern Expedition, but compete with Sun Chuanting's cranes and mussels, consume each other's main forces, and then be profited by the fishermen of the capital court.

Fang Yuan thought about it, but decided to research a secret weapon that could deal with Sun Chuanting's train battalion, and this time the Northern Expedition was more certain.

Fang Yuan pondered for three days, thinking of all the ways of hot weapon warfare, as well as the materials that could be purchased on Taobao.

Tanks, the king of land warfare, do not have diesel power, they can use the principle of electric vehicles, use electric drive, use photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, and store electricity. With the agricultural crawler engineering vehicle as the main body, the body is covered with iron armor, barbs and sharp blades. Two men were in charge of driving, and ten sergeants were arranged in the large carriage, three small guns were erected in the rear, left, and right, six sergeants were responsible for shelling, and four sergeants were dedicated to firing from the firing holes in all directions.

But Fang Yuan calculated the cost of this primitive tank, and wanted to purchase agricultural crawler engineering vehicles on Taobao, and then replace them with a full set of electric drive devices, plus the modified body full coverage of iron armor, and the front windshield was changed to three-layer tempered bulletproof glass.

The cost of manufacturing each tank is at least more than 100,000 taels of silver.

The cost is too high, so the number of such tanks will not be too much, and at the moment only four or five can be built at most. Fang Yuan was not too sure how much of a small number of tanks could play on the battlefield and whether they could affect the victory or defeat of a battle.

Moreover, the cost of the tank is secondary, the power of the electric drive is not strong, the forward speed of the tank, and the combat time will be limited, which will also greatly affect the role of the tank in the war.

Therefore, the tank is indeed the direction of the development of land warfare, but it is necessary to implement the localization of most parts in the Ming Dynasty in order to reduce costs and really install a large number of them.

Fang Yuan spent 100,000 taels of silver to buy the agricultural tracked engineering vehicle needed to make a primitive tank from Taobao according to the plan, and spent money to convert the shop into an electric drive system before shipping. Then I bought photovoltaic panels on Taobao, and the photovoltaic panels were fully covered on the top of the car body as an energy source. Then, there are the armor plates covered by the hull, and the alloy material deck is used.

Fang Yuan brought all the main materials of these primitive tanks to the arsenal in Changshu, and found Bi Maokang and Tang Ruowang, as well as a dozen craftsmen who were proficient in steel casting, to hold a closed-door meeting to study the manufacture of this tank.

Everyone closed the door and discussed for three days and three nights, revising and modifying according to Fang Yuan's design ideas, and finally changed to the engineering drawings of the first small original tank.

Then the arsenal was put into production according to this engineering drawing, and it took a whole month, continuous rework, and after the failure of the recast, it finally completed the first small original tank of the Ming Dynasty according to the ideas of Fang Yuan's design.

This small primitive tank can be equipped with three small guns in the compartment, stacked with a large amount of gunpowder, buckshot, food, and fifteen sergeants for a combat team.

After Fang Yuan's personal test, a full charge can drive for six hours, in other words, this kind of tank can only fight continuously for half a day, and then it has to go back to the barracks to recharge and rest.

On a real battlefield, a few tanks fighting for half a day are obviously not enough to affect the outcome of a battle. Moreover, the history of the First World War proves that this simple tank has high requirements for the battlefield terrain, and if professional training is not carried out, the ability to cope with unexpected situations on the battlefield is almost zero.

In order for this small primitive tank to develop combat capability, it must also undergo a long period of training, and it cannot be used on the battlefield for the time being.

Fang Yuan ordered a strict blockade of the news of the tank, but all craftsmen involved in the manufacture of tanks were not allowed to take half a step out of the Changshu Arsenal. He then ordered Bi Maokang and Tang Ruowang to continue to think about the local production of tracks, tires, and body ironclad, and strive to reduce the cost of a tank to less than 50,000 taels of silver.

The secret weapon that Fang Yuan thought of to really restrain the train battalion was actually the air strike force!